ON ST. LANDRY BISHOP OF METZ,
ABBOT OF SOIGNIES AND HAUTMONT IN HAINAUT.
AROUND THE YEAR 700.
PrefaceLandry, Bishop of Metz, Abbot of Soignies and Hautmont (St.)
BHL Number: 8673
BY G. H.
We have hitherto celebrated in this work of ours two Sisters who flourished in our Belgium, of noble birth and eminent sanctity of life, both founders of most religious convents. Of these the one, Aldegundis, remained a virgin, and has her veneration chiefly on January 30, The son of Sts. Waldetrudis and Vincentius, St. Landry when we treated of her at length. The other is St. Waldetrudis, who in her marriage had this prerogative of grace, that she obtained a most holy husband, and that she glories, together with herself and her husband, in the children whom she bore by him being numbered among the Saints; indeed, that after these children were born, both of them embraced the monastic life, and each for themselves founded monasteries. St. Waldetrudis is venerated on April 9, but her husband St. Vincent Madelgarius on July 14. Of the children, St. Landry is held to be the firstborn, and his sacred memory is celebrated on this April 17, inscribed in the ancient Breviaries concerning whom an ancient Breviary written on parchment, whose use was once in the noble Collegiate Church of St. Waldetrudis at Mons, has this in the prefixed Kalendar: "15th day before the Kalends of May, of St. Landry Confessor and Bishop"; and afterwards this oration is prescribed: "O God, who gladdens us with the annual solemnity of Blessed Landry thy Confessor, grant, we beseech thee, that he may be a pious intercessor for us, who was a devout preacher of thy name." The same oration is still recited there in the ecclesiastical office, which is under a double rite, with the proper lessons of the second Nocturn taken from the Life. In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints this encomium is read of him: and the Martyrologies "The birth of St. Landry the Bishop and Confessor, of the stock of the Carolingians; for he was the son of Blessed Vincent, Count of Hainaut, and of St. Waldetrudis his wife." Molanus in his Additions to Usuard has this: "At Soignies, the birth of St. Landry the Bishop and Confessor." The same, in his Little Index of the Saints of Belgium and afterwards in the Natales Sanctorum of the same Belgium, offers an illustrious encomium, from the lessons of the church of the Canons and Lords of the town of Soignies in Hainaut, Relics at Soignies between Brussels and Mons, the metropolis of Hainaut, where his sacred body is preserved in a silver chest, as Miraeus observes in his Belgian Fasti. The same is referred to by Canisius in the Germanic Martyrology, Saussay in the Gallican, Willot and others in the Belgian Fasti, Ghinius in the Natales Sanctorum of the Canons, Wion, Menardus, Dorganius, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Martyrologies. The manuscript Brussels Martyrology of St. Gudila names the same on March 18. But the translation of the bodies of Sts. Landry the Bishop and of Dentelin the boy, his brothers, Translation indicated October 4 and the sons of St. Waldetrudis, the Brussels Carthusians have inscribed in their additions to Grevenus not yet printed. Others treat of St. Dentelin on July 14, when the feast of his father St. Vincent is celebrated.
[2] The Life of St. Landry, hitherto unpublished, we give from four manuscript codices, namely that of the Church of Soignies, which the Canons used to recite at Matins divided into nine lessons; Life published from manuscripts and those of the monasteries of Rouge-Cloître near Brussels, Bethlehem near Leuven, and Corsendonk near Turnhout, which are of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. In these Acts, at number 6, is cited the Life of St. Vincent Madelgarius, as being reckoned to have been written long before, from which we soon give what pertains to St. Landry. Some compendium of this Life is had in the proper Offices of the particular Saints of the Collegiate Church of the city of Mons, divided into three lessons to be recited at the second Nocturn. Heribert Rosweyde inserted into the Belgian Legend of the Lives of the Saints almost the whole series of the Acts, translated from the aforenoted manuscripts.
[3] There remains to be resolved, or at least indicated, the controversy concerning the episcopate of St. Landry: which Charles le Cointe, alone so far as we can know, plainly denies, in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 677, where, having treated of the death of St. Vincent at number 13, he subjoins this: "In the administration of the monastery Landry succeeded, The episcopate is wrongly denied the son of the same Vincent, born of Waldetrudis his legitimate wife. He is called Bishop of Meaux by Vincentius, Bishop of Metz by Molanus. Neither of those episcopates did he hold; he was made Abbot from a monk. The Metz infula was with Clodulph, the Meaux infula with Wandelbert." So there. But let us see what was handed down to the contrary by the ancients.
[4] [The episcopate of Metz is attributed to him in his own Acts and in those of his father St. Vincent] The rest say that, having left the episcopate, he was placed over the monasteries; but what that episcopate was is not equally clear. And first, in the four copies of the Life of St. Landry indicated above, he is said to have been raised by the Lord "to the Chair of the Metz Pontificate." But we said above that much older than these Acts are the Acts of his father St. Vincent: of which we have some things, which Heribert Rosweyde once described from a very ancient manuscript of Lord Preudhom, Canon of Cambrai, as he himself noted. with this encomium In these, concerning his son St. Landry, all this is narrated: "And so, not many days later, the venerable Waldetrudis conceived and bore a son, and called his name Landry, and when he had grown up, she delivered him to learned clerics to be instructed in letters: who instructed him carefully in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and when he was instructed sent him back to his father. But he, throwing himself at his father's knees, humbly asked, according to the dispensation of God, that he would deign to cut off the hair of his head, and gladly wished to become a cleric. His father marveled greatly at this, and, somewhat saddened, said: 'He was,' he said, 'my firstborn, and therefore I wished to join him in marriage. But if the Lord deigns to take him into his own service, let his will rather than ours be done.' And calling his friends and kinsmen, he told them the son's petition. But they said: 'If the Lord had not inspired these things in the boy, he would by no means ask such things: do therefore promptly the will of God, and do not resist him in any way, lest heavenly wrath consume you and your house.' Therefore blessed Madelgarius said: 'According to your admonition I shall take care to obey his edicts,' and he added: 'Whatever the boy, with God inspiring, suggests to us, it is necessary to fulfill.' Then Blessed Madelgarius and his wife, calling venerable priests who worshipped God, blessing God in all things, made the boy a cleric. For this boy was of outstanding holiness, and like an old man seeking nothing adverse, he kept himself even from youthful jests; he devoted himself to reading, delighting assiduously in fastings, and abstaining much from food; and afterwards he flourished with many virtues, and ruled the Church of Metz in the episcopate for many days in peace." So there, with which we have similar things in other Acts of the same St. Vincent, which we have from a manuscript codex of the Church of Soignies, and other Acts of St. Vincent and in another illustrious codex of ours, where among other things is read this of St. Landry: "Of whose virtues and signs also the power, by which he was afterwards glorified at the right hand of God, though everywhere clearly conspicuous, yet especially in the Church of Metz:
Whose episcopate long with most illustrious age, After the bound of flesh, he migrated into the hall of heaven."
[5] So there. That in illness St. Vincent entrusted his monks to his son, whom he had called to himself, is read in both Acts. The same, copied from the later Acts, was sent to us by the Reverend Lord Philip Froymont and Francis Selpin, monks of Hautmont, as it was read in the codex of their monastery, written once by their monks in the year 1167, whence we give these few things: "Then having summoned his venerable offspring Landry, a man of no mean glory, 'Supernal clemency,' he said, 'provides you as Ruler of his own, most beloved son, called back by his dying father and has chosen you as fitting leader of this holy warfare. Let your hand therefore be strengthened: for the Lord shall be your confidence, and in this care of the divine flock may your work manfully sweat. In the innocence of your heart you shall feed him, and in the understanding of your hands you shall lead him forth. And when you shall have given obedient consent to our admonitions, and have fulfilled the turns of the highest Shepherd with effective diligence, you shall merit praise and glory from the Lord, and shall be exalted to the end in the blessedness of the kingdom.' With these and other things fully instructed, the holy man was taken up into the watches of the Lord, and in him was perceived a document of justice and a future exemplar of virtue. In which business how much he shone with perspicacious work, the experience of his outstanding labor proves, in which he exercised himself in the Pontifical Chair and adorned the times of his priesthood." So there. In the manuscript it was "in which he afterwards exercised himself"; but we have expunged the word "afterwards," having left the episcopate of Metz because in the Life of St. Landry it is read thus: "When Blessed Vincent was troubled with illness, he commands the most blessed Landry to be called to him, who, as we mentioned above, was governing the Metz Pontificate with great efforts of Lord's service," and then: "After whose death, the gracious Landry did not resume the relinquished episcopate... He ruled therefore both Abbeys built by his father, namely Soignies and Hautmont." He rules the abbeys of Soignies and Hautmont Concerning this we treated on January 16 at the Life of St. Marcellus the Pope, whose body is preserved there.
[6] In the Brussels Martyrology of the church of St. Gudila, which
we have written on parchment, this is read on the 15th day before the Kalends of April: He is held to be Bishop of Metz in the Martyrologies "At Metz, of St. Landry, Bishop of Metz and Confessor, who was the son of Sts. Vincent and Waldetrudis, and the kinsman of Blessed Gudila, our Patroness." In the French Martyrology published at Liège in the year 1624 he is also called Bishop of Metz; as also by Ghinius, Wion, Menardus, Bucelinus, and Ferrarius; likewise by Molanus in the Little Index of the Saints of Belgium published in the year 1583. This Molanus afterwards in the Natales Sanctorum of Belgium, published in the year 1590, raised the doubt that he is not numbered among the Bishops of Metz, and suspects that perhaps he was only a Coadjutor Bishop for the conversion of the unfaithful, as many other bishops in those times. But why does he not suspect that the catalogues of the Bishops of Metz were very imperfect? Rather, what is more probable, why is his name not inscribed in the Metz diptychs? because he left his episcopate, his name did not remain among the Bishops usually noted in the diptychs, that the memory of the departed might be recalled in the sacrifice of the Mass? As even in the ninth century of Christ we gather this to have been done in the church of Le Mans, from the Life of St. Aldric the Bishop, to be published on January 7 from manuscripts in the supplement.
[7] What time then shall we assign to the episcopate of St. Landry? Charles le Cointe asserts that the Metz infula was with Chlodulph. Time of his See Paul Warnefrid, a Deacon of Friuli in Italy, wrote some Chronicle of the Bishops of the Church of Metz, dedicated to Bishop Angilram, who died on December 25, in the year 791, as is clear from the Chronicle of Moissac. This man has only this concerning Chlodulph and his successors: "Chlodulph, the natural son of Blessed Father Arnulph, after Chlodulph likewise the brother of Anchises (from whom the royal seed was propagated), ascended the episcopal summit as the thirty-second, on account of his father's sanctity; of whom fame brought nothing more to us, except that he sprang from such a root. When he was dying, to govern the faithful people, Abbo was taken as the thirty-third; after whom Aptatus, then Felix, stood forth as faithful Shepherds of the Lord's flock. After this, Sigebald, born of noble lineage," etc. These are the things which fame brought to Paul the Deacon. There is extant a Chronicle of the Bishops of Metz inserted in volume 6 of the Acherian Spicilegium; in which, if the Roman Pontiffs and Emperors added afterwards are considered, Chlodulph would have to be moved to the 8th century: but, these follies omitted, let us examine more certain times. Sigebert at the year 640 has this: "St. Arnulph, from Mayor of the Palace Bishop of Metz, and from Bishop a solitary, sleeps in Christ. Chlodulph his son, afterwards Bishop of Metz, imitates the sanctity of his father." How long afterwards Chlodulph lived is not established. To him, around the year 650 or the following, St. Trudo, sent to Metz by St. Remaclus the Bishop of Maastricht, bequeathed very many goods to the Church of St. Stephen, as we said on February 1 at the Life of St. Sigebert the King, §10. St. Chlodulph afterwards lived with Gisloald of Verdun, Ebroin of Toul, and Numerian of Trier, under King Childeric: whose reign we have shown elsewhere is to begin in the year 659. The manuscript Acts of St. Chlodulph, but collected slenderly from fame, to be illustrated on June 8, say that he served the Almighty God for many periods of years: which, begun from the afore-indicated year 640, and drawn to the times of Childeric, will make 19 years; but if eight or ten more years be added to these, there will still be sufficient time in which St. Landry could have been Bishop until the death of St. Vincent Madelgarius; which Charles le Cointe assigns to the 3rd year of King Theuderic, which would be for us the year of Christ 677. But St. Vincent seems to have survived much longer, which will be examined in its place. It could be objected that forty years are attributed to Chlodulph by Charles le Cointe. So he was of course persuaded by the Catalogue which is appended to the Chronicle of Paul Warnefrid. But it is answered first, even if Chlodulph sat for forty years from around 650 to 690, still there will remain seven years in which Landry could have presided, since Cointe himself refers the beginning of St. Abbo to the year 697. Abbo is venerated on April 15. It is answered secondly that only the appendix of another man is cited, less accurate than Warnefrid himself, who also omitted Pappolus, the predecessor of St. Arnulph; so that it is no wonder if St. Landry was omitted, because, having left the episcopate, he departed to Soignies.
[8] Called Bishop of Meaux by Colvener The episcopate of Metz, rather than of Meaux (of which we shall now treat), is also favored by this, that the said Bishopric of Metz, together with that of Cambrai and Hainaut subject to it, was in the same kingdom of Austrasia; while the lordship of Meaux was under the kingdom of Neustria. Meanwhile George Colvener published the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, composed by Baldric of Noyon and Tournai, and printed from three codices diligently collated together, in the year 1615, in which, book 2, chapter 46, it is said, "In the village of Sungejas, by others Sonegias, Blessed Vincent is buried with his son Landry, Bishop of Meaux": so it is read in two codices; in the other is added, "or Metz": with Demochares wrongly cited and for the confirmation of that reading he takes up the Catalogue of the Bishops of Meaux in the tablets of Demochares, where the 24th Bishop is written Landry or Lendicus; whom Colvener says flourished in the episcopate around the year 650, and that the age agrees. But Charles le Cointe objects that Walbert, the 19th Bishop, held the episcopate, at least at the time when St. Landry would have had to be substituted. But when Walbert died, his brother St. Faro was substituted for him, with the consent of Chlothar II King of the Franks, and he survived to the times of Chlothar III, in whose 7th year, the year of Christ 662, he subscribed to the Privilege of Liberty which Bertefrid, Bishop of Amiens, had granted to the monastery of Corbie. Bertefrid died on October 28, around the year 672 or the following, Childeric reigning after Chlothar. And these are the times in which St. Landry would have been Bishop of Meaux. Meanwhile under Bishop St. Faro, St. Hildevert had been established, and substituted for him in the episcopate, and then succeeded Hellingus, Pathasius, Ebrigisilus, to whom, enumerated by Demochares, at last is added Landry or Lendicus, much younger than this our St. Landry. Therefore the whole confirmation of Colvener falls, if only one says, as has been done, that the city of Meaux was placed through a scribal error instead of the city of Metz. It is a wonder meanwhile that the opinion of Colvener was snatched up without any examination, by Claudius Robertus and the Sanmarthans in the Bishops of Meaux, by Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti, by Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and others, which we already insinuated in the Notes on the Life of St. Gudila.
[9] Time of his death How long St. Landry afterwards lived, we do not find indicated. Perhaps while he lived, the See of Metz remained vacant of another bishop, and thus Abbo is established by Meurisse, in the History of the Bishops of Metz, made Bishop in the year 703. Nor does Chlodulph seem to have lived so long: for thus he would have completed 100 years of life, and have ruled his episcopate over fifty years. For the rest, we refer the reader to our Dissertation on the Three Dagoberts, and the excuse of errors to which we have added a fourth book, in which we show the errors of various writers, while they placed the Bishops who flourished in the said seventh century even to whole centuries astray, and wrongly transferred the aforementioned Chlodulph from the See of Metz to the Archiepiscopate of Trier. Why, finally, if the name of Dagobert II was buried in oblivion for a thousand years, might not some name of some bishop who flourished under him have been abolished?
LIFE From IV manuscript codices.
Landry, Bishop of Metz, Abbot of Soignies and Hautmont (St.)
BHL Number: 4718
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
[1] Since it is established that Blessed Madelgarius, by surname Vincent, among the children of Sts. Vincent and Waldetrudis flourished in such a joyful flower of double nobility that without doubt the thing, known from the beginning of his deeds, ought to be kept in the store of unfailing memory, there is no doubt that the searcher of his life ought to find with how many stars of sons and daughters, illustrious, he sparkles: inscribed among the Saints who all, when they are recognized as inscribed in the number of the Saints to be adored, without ambiguity Blessed Landry, from whose chief memory it is fitting to rejoice, is judged to be preferred among the rest as by a certain privilege of greater honor, because first of all he took the beginning of birth from the womb of his blessed mother, St. Landry the firstborn namely the kind Waldetrudis; and that he afterwards attained the summit of great dignity, the no small fame of his conduct in the world has taught. First therefore we shall briefly explain his life and consequently we shall succinctly and briefly continue the virtuous deeds of his holy sisters.
[2] Instructed in letters The most holy Landry, now become a boy of that age which renders boys to be educated, whatever ministry they are to be destined to, is entrusted by his father and mother to Clerical Teachers; not however with their intention that he should become a Cleric, he asks to join the Clerics but, as befits the noble, that after the learning of letters he might pass more wisely to the secular militia to be conducted. But the boy of good disposition, whose works of goodness cannot be fully recounted, when in the very discipline to which he adhered he took such documents, as by experience he recognized that to bear the services of the Lord God is the highest liberty, desired rather to pursue to the honor of the Clericate the document which he had taken in the schools, than to give it over to oblivion by turning himself to military abundance. And when, with this desire without doubt inspired by the Lord, he touched his father with humble petition, that with the hair of his head cut off, according to the Clerical institution, he might enjoy the Canonical community.
[3] Therefore the father, hearing this petition of his son not pleasing to him, decreed to give him such a response: "Desist from this childish proposal of your mind, son, with his father St. Vincent opposing him and rather hear me, who know better than you how to provide for you. Glory in the hope of succeeding me by hereditary law, and turn the counsel of your consent to nuptial bonds. I am not ignorant that Clerics, the holier the order they are of, the greater confidence of acquiring the heavenly kingdom they have; but also many laymen of good virtues, it is certain by faith, have attained and will attain to the supernal kingdom. I rejoice that you wish to serve the Lord, but I do not wish you to degenerate, nor be deprived of this office, he persists constant in his purpose which until now you have seen to be in me your father." But he, being inspired with no fragile but firm aspiration, in no way allowed his will to be turned aside from the attempts of his first petition. It is worth considering by how great an experience of stability this boy surpassed other boys, to whom now by some sudden willfulness of mind something pleasing to be performed comes to mind, and at once in a moment that same thing, become cheap, begins to displease. But he, with a certain manly constancy, what he had once thought of doing concerning the service of God, neither forbidden by his father nor grown unaccustomed by childish weariness, had not denied.
[4] Then the father, understanding in his son the sign of divine inspiration,
after the counsel of trusted friends has been brought in did not dare, being a God-fearing man, to delay further the urgency of his petition, from bringing it to the effect of obtaining it. And calling together his most dear friends, sure for giving so faithful a counsel, he opened to them through all things how urgently the son was asking, and how unwillingly he himself assented. But they, discerning with certain foreboding of mind that this would not be without the nod of the Lord's election, did not hesitate to give salutary counsel: "Although the intention of this young adolescent displeases you, the power of God is to be considered, from which without doubt he is kindled with such a vow. This is truly to be feared, which no power can withstand as a rebel. It did not weary the Lord to give you a son, nor let it displease you to present the same, if he demands him back, to his service." At these exhortations, fashioned without guile from his f parents, the father answered that he would obey in all things, like Abraham, who set aside the love of his only son to the fear of the Lord; he obtains the consent of his father and preferred to please the Lord than, in preserving the life of his son, to use his own desire. For he ordered to be called priests of most approved morals, devoted to religion, that in the tonsure of the justly-asking offspring they might administer with their hands, and that there might be mingled the sacraments of blessing of the priests justly imposing. O childish age and wanton pleasure of flesh, honorably overcome by the internal powers of mind! To this ministry, he is tonsured a Cleric to which many unwilling are compelled on account of the frequent beating of flogging masters, this boy, of his own accord, even while his father is preparing to resist, strives to hasten.
[5] He grows in doctrine and virtue Blessed Landry therefore, having obtained the long-desired outcome, if before he obtained the confidence that he would be a Cleric, he had devoted himself to sacred reading, now a hundredfold more began to exercise the accustomed study. The flower of corporeal beauty insinuated in him the nobility of his noble parents, and the frequent exercise of good works did not hide the more excellent nobility of his mind. Thus fortified on both sides, he brought the beginning of precious morals to such ends, that together with the increases of age he grew in good acts. What more? Thus gradually he hastened to ascend the path of virtues, that on the Chair g of the Metz Pontificate the Lord deigned to raise him up. And when, through the honor of the episcopate, He becomes Bishop of Metz which by merit came to him, a greater abundance of earthly riches sprouted, he did not swallow it up by shamefully hoarding it, but through the distribution of alms to the Lord, devoted to almsgiving, fasting from whose gift it came, by rendering it. He chastised his body with the hunger of fastings, he exercised his eyes through the watches of prayers, he sharpened his taste with the harshness of rare and hard food, he bent his hearing to the admonition of the sacred scriptures, he applied his nostrils to the fragrance of the Lord's odor; to the mortification of his senses and what would be worthy to be offered to the Lord, he touched; and, to speak briefly, through the offices of the five senses he ministered to the Lord.
[6] By St. Vincent his father Afterwards indeed Blessed Madelgarius, by the surname Vincent, the most refined father of the aforesaid prelate Landry, when now he was growing toward old age, and discerned a suitable penitential time for any past faults, after this man had built the monastery of Hautmont on a village of his own property, which is called Altusmons, built a monastery with monastic offices, in which, himself having been made a monk, putting aside the secular warfare, he began to serve God. How he marked out the same monastery with an Angel h guiding him, he does not fail to know who, recalling his written deeds, reads them. He also founded another church in his estate which is called Sonegias (Soignies), where, and the church of Soignies as the aforesaid Life relates, he himself, buried, very often shows the power of miracles. When Landry had fallen into grievous illness, he is called Now at last, when Blessed Vincent was about to enter the way of all flesh, in the aforesaid monastery of Soignies, he was troubled with illness and orders the most blessed Landry to be called to him, who, as we mentioned above, was governing the Pontificate of Metz with great efforts of the Lord's service. Saint Landry, he is present with his dying father revisiting his most beloved father, had his mind struck with a double passion—namely joy at the presence of mutual conversation, sadness at the perilous sight of the growing illness. And when it seemed good to him by whom all things are seen, that Blessed Vincent, taken from things earthly, should be joined to the heavenly citizens, he dies, as they say, to the present age, and is carried to recall the birthdays of the soul into the future.
[7] He remains at Soignies After whose death the kindly Landry did not resume the episcopate he had laid aside, but because of an indissoluble love of his father he clung to the place called Soignies; he is in charge of both monasteries that the flock, educated before by a morigerous Shepherd, should not afterwards degenerate, deprived of an hereditary successor. He therefore ruled both Abbeys, as we said above, built by his father, until at the last, the course of the present life happily completed, clinging to his father in life and to his father in death, on the 15th day before the Kalends of May he rendered up his spirit: he dies April 15 / 17 he is buried in that monastery which we aforenamed Soignies. How from the knowledge of those living nearby the signs of his virtues sprouted, our reports will disclose, according to the narrative of truthful witnesses, to those who take notice.
[8] There is a village in the parts of Taxandria called i Fellepa, formerly given to Blessed Vincent by a hereditary distribution of alms; Robbers of the goods of the monastery of Soignies to which, at an established time in each year, the Brethren from the monastery of Soignies are wont to set out, and having received the established due of the census, they return to divide equal portions with the Brethren remaining at the service of God. On a certain year it happened by a grievous chance that the Advocate of that village by force seized the grain for his own uses, and at the same time the Clerics, going there, took with them the body of Bishop Landry for the sake of vengeance: who so checked the invaders of the paternal inheritance, with the body of St. Landry having been brought, they are punished that those whose belly—whether of soldiers or of horses—had devoured the plundered grain, either through madness vomited it forth shamefully, or acknowledged that they had unjustly taken it upon themselves by the infliction of some vengeance upon them as an insult: and so it came about that what the strong armed man, namely the unjust Advocate, had disturbed by carrying off, a stronger armed man, Blessed Landry coming upon the scene, overcame, who was mighty by no other power than that of God.
[9] This also I think should not be passed over, that one day, for the sake of the advocacy, the body of the kind Landry was to be transferred to the aforesaid village; His bier leaps from the shoulders of the unworthy as it was being carried out of the church, a certain man at the threshold, by name Willebert, met the bearers; one of whom he urged to take up the burden. But the bier leaped from the shoulders of the one thus approaching, and without the aid of a supporter hung in the air. But he, stupefied by the power which was wrought, fell prostrate on the ground, until at last he rose up, with hymns and praises chanted by the brothers. These things, as I think, were done for this reason, because he did not first weigh the merit of his conscience in the balance, to consider himself worthy to take up the members of so holy a Prelate.
[10] He makes a previously immovable stone light Since it befits the mind of a willing hearer to be disaccustomed by no weariness, if the virtue of God's faithful ones, frequently repeated, is recounted, let there not be generated tedium in you, hearers, if I still pile up further things, since there are many outstanding miracles of the man of God. This our blessed Patron, when once, as he often was wont, was being carried to the aforementioned village of Fellepa, where by him they should be carried, if they should meet the occasion of any danger; it happened that the inhabitants of that place were laboring at a certain place, from which they were trying to dig up a stone of marvelous size to make an altar for God; but their strength was not adequate to lift so great a weight. At whose workshops, sweated over with various arts, when the Clerics arrived, wearied from the journey, wishing to give their wearied limbs to rest, they laid the sacred body upon that very stone. Where, for some space of the day warming their bodies with rest, together with the workers they ask Blessed Landry with prayers, entreating that, because of his presence, those laboring might make better progress. When the Clerics rose and set out more cheerfully on their journey to arrive where they were heading, the diggers more joyfully gird themselves to the work, which they trust they can bring to effect much better than before. Relying on his help, they brought so precious an end to their labor, that the stone, which many bullocks groaning with full necks could scarcely drag, fewer men with moderate effort uprooted. There is no need to ask whether then the praise of the holy Prelate flourished among them more than usual, by whose benefit it came that the long-attempted work was now brought to effect. k
[11] As time passed, his feast day was forgotten Hitherto (wherever we turn our speech about the frequently-named Pontiff) all the things which the pen has indicated concerning him have been held in just order: but now a certain stumbling block occurs, which the highest Judge, who does not suffer those who hope in him to be held cheap, restored to better. We know that nothing earthly is stable, but old things are always changed by some novelty. Now the convent of the Congregation of Soignies, when first it was placed by Blessed Vincent, is reported to have followed monastic life: this place, first cultivated by monks, afterwards canonically instituted, then renewed by nuns, is known to have been so transformed, that when the furniture of the church, namely the books and other implements, was withdrawn in such manner, for many years the Kalend of the feast of St. Landry was covered with the rust of oblivion. They did not know, who would willingly celebrate it, on what day they might find its indication. Wherefore, with the course of many years passing, while other feasts were duly celebrated, no feast rang out for Blessed Landry: but although he was of such great merit, he was as it were withheld from the office of the others. Therefore it was unfitting that the demonic will, what it wished to turn aside and impede with all the effort it could, should altogether turn it aside; and that the grace of the Lord, what it pleased to restore, should not restore it. It is revealed to some Now at last, after many times, through the silences of a certain night, dreams were seen by the sacristan of the monastery in these words: "In negligence are my Relics placed by you all, since it is known that today is the day of my passing; which, like the others, without the memory of my name, you have set down to pass." But he, either negligent, or asking for a truce, not presuming to publish the first apparition, gave no indication of the truth on what day the man of God departed from this life. Another priest also of the same monastery saw a dream; in which he said that Blessed Landry had blamed him with many complaints about the same negligence of the feast. Then the Brothers became most solicitous to inquire, until, with the Kalends, and Nones, and Ides revolved, on the 15th day before the Kalends of May they find the passing of the just man.