ON ST. HADWIG THE VIRGIN, MISTRESS OF THE CONVENT OF MEER OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER.
ABOUT THE YEAR 1200.
CommentaryHadwig the Virgin, mistress of the convent of Meer, of the Premonstratensian Order (B.)
BY GODEFRID DE LICHT
We celebrate in this work very many families, from which both the parents and their children are ascribed to the Saints. To bring forth some of these, most noble in the female sex, St. Paula is most well-known among the Romans with her holy daughters Eustochium and Blesilla. Among the English there arose from royal progeny St. Ermenilda the Queen and her daughter Werburga: Very many Saintly mothers with their daughters also St. Hereswith and her five holy daughters, Setrida, Sexburga, Etheldreda, Ethelburga and Witburga. In Belgium similarly flourished St. Amalberga and her three holy daughters, Gudila, Pharaildis and Reinildis: likewise St. Rictrudis and her three daughters, namely Eusebia, Clotsendis and Adalsendis; indeed also St. Waldetrudis with her two daughters, SS. Adeltrudis and Madelberta. By the example of these and others lived in the Premonstratensian Order B. Hildegundis the Countess, foundress of the convent of Meer in the jurisdiction of Cologne, and her daughter B. Hadwig, after her mother Mistress of the same monastery. Her Acts we have brought forward on February 6, then promising that on this day April 14 we would give the Acts of B. Hadwig: so also B. Hildegundis with St. Hadwig, concerning whom we confess that we could obtain few things which we did not give there. Some were suggested by R. D. Godefrid de Licht, Premonstratensian Canon in the most celebrated convent of St. Michael of Antwerp, now Pastor in Duren near Antwerp, and a diligent investigator of Ecclesiastical antiquity, especially what pertains to this white Order, and they are as follows.
[2] The name Hadwig is celebrated in the Norbertine Life, and in the Norbertine or Premonstratensian Order itself, on account of the mother of the holy Father Norbert, who was called by this name. The birthday of B. Hadwig the Virgin is held on this day by the book of memorials of the church of Meer and others. Concerning the same in the Natales of the Saints of the Premonstratensian Order the Most Ample Lord John Chrysostom vander Sterre, Abbot of the church of St. Michael in Antwerp, and Vicar general of the same order in the provinces of Brabant and Frisia, inscribed in the Natales of the Premonstratensian Order holds thus: "On the 18th day before the Kalends of May. In the Meer Convent of B. Hadwig the Virgin, of the Premonstratensian Order: who, the daughter of B. Hildegundis Countess and foundress of Meer, after her mother presided as the first Mistress over this Convent with the opinion of sanctity." Concerning the same both from the MS. Hagiologium of the aforesaid Lord vander Sterre and from fragments of R. D. Peter Rostius, Canon of Steinfeld, transmitted to the same Chrysostom, I have excerpted and gathered the following.
[3] Blessed Hildegundis Countess of Meer, from her husband Lothar Count of Are, a most excellent man, had a brother Provost of Cappenberg, besides her son Hermann (who professed the Premonstratensian Order in Cappenberg, and was Provost of the same monastery) also received a daughter, whom, by the name of her maternal grandmother, that is of her own mother, she named Hadwig. For the mother of B. Hildegundis was called Hadwig, and was (as some call her) Countess of Cleves: who being enriched with three daughters, with her younger daughter Gertrude, retired to the Dunwald convent of the Premonstratensian Order, to serve God. Hildegundis the other of the daughters, following her mother's example, grandmother and aunt nuns, as another Paula with Eustochium, she too with her daughter Hadwig embraced the same white institute of the Premonstratensian Order, in the Meer convent founded by her as has been said on February 6, and she herself presided as the first Prioress over the same convent. After her mother indeed her daughter Hadwig ruled the same Convent, as Rostius hands down, and she is the first to receive the name of Mistress. Peter Merssaeus Cratepolius, in the catalogue of Bishops of Cologne, in Arnold the 41st Archbishop, says these things: she presides over the monastery of Meer, "I find the foundation of the Convent of Meer was made in the year of the Lord 1166, under Frederick I, Roman Emperor, and Arnold Archbishop of Cologne, by the noble Countess of Meer and Are, by name Hildegundis, who had a daughter named Hadwig: who in the newly erected little college was made the first Mistress of the Virgins of the church of Meer." Thus he.
[4] But, as vander Sterre rightly observes, in the Hagiologium treating of B. Hildegundis on February 6, if Cratepolius wishes only to signify that Hadwig, put in charge of the Convent after her Mother, first bore the name of Mistress; that is well indeed: but if he wishes to say, that the mother did not preside over the convent before her daughter, nor at least held the office of Prioress, he does not speak sufficiently conformably to the truth; and in this part more credence should be given to the industry of D. Peter Rostius, who sometime acted as Chaplain in the Meer Convent, and studiously surveyed its archives; than to Cratepolius, who in very many things proceeds rather lightly. For that B. Hildegundis took the habit and Premonstratensian Order, after her mother. and presided over her Virgins, is most clearly patent from the bull of Alexander III, which begins "Alexander Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved in Christ daughters Hildegundis Prioress of the church of St. Mary of Meer, and her Sisters both present and future, professing the canonical life. Since to weaker members &c." See this bull at length cited after the life of B. Hildegundis February 6. Likewise the ancient seal of the monastery and ancient paintings exhibit her in the Premonstratensian habit: and in the book of memorials of Steinfeld, is added to the name of the foundress of the church of Meer the title of "our Sister." Wrongly however the Chronicles of Cleves MSS, and Werner Teschenmakerius cited in the prefatory commentary of the life of B. Hildegundis numbers 3 and 4 call her Abbess: since it is established that the Meer monastery never had Abbesses.
[5] Therefore after B. Hildegundis, about to receive the reward of good works, and presided with examples of holy life: had exchanged this mortal life for an immortal one; to the most pious mother not a degenerate daughter Hadwig succeeded in the government: who after she had shone forth by the examples of holy life to the Sisters entrusted to her, followed her mother to the heavenly fatherland. But how many years she presided, and in what year she died, is not clear: because very many monuments of the Meer monastery perished from the injuries of wars. But that Hadwig was held as Blessed, Rostius testifies: whence, as he himself says, "Our ancestors reverently wrapped her bones and preserved them nearest the main altar." Honored with the title of Blessed, The same Blessed are named by John le Paige in the Bibliotheca Praemonstratensis, John Chrysostom vander Sterre, Peter de Wagenaere Prior of Furnes, Ludolph van Craywinkel Canon of Tongerlo and Pastor in Oelegem in volume 1 of the Legend of the Saints of the Premonstratensian Order, and others: likewise D. Giles Gelenius, a man preeminently versed in the affairs of his own country.
[6] About Hadwig, the maternal grandmother of our Hadwig, who died in the Dunwald convent, The grandmother of Hadwig lived in the Dunwald convent. in the obituaries is noted as the day of her death the 11th day before the Kalends of March, the day after St. Pantaleon. About the Dunwald convent Cratepolius writes these things: "In the year of the Lord 1117 (vander Sterre notes that here is an error in the number and it should be read either 1127 or 1129) the monastery of noble Virgins of the Premonstratensian Order had its beginning, which from a cut wood called Dunwalt, on the other side of the Rhine, takes its name. For there were at that time the best ages, thus also the best men: who distributed a portion of their patrimony for divine uses, that with their temporal goods they might gain eternal ones. And so with a small convent built, immediately when they had learned pure innocence, the liberality of Princes came in. Wherefore Lord Frederick the Archbishop, and Arnold the Count of Monte, and Lord Conrad Provost of St. Peter of Cologne, helped and promoted this fraternity not a little. But in the year of the Lord 1490 by order of the Duke of Monte, this College was reformed and closed by R. D. Reiner Abbot of Steinfeld, whereas before it was free." The foundation of the same monastery Mauritius du Pre, in the brief Annals of the Premonstratensian Order, refers to the year 1130.