ON SAINT HILDEGUND THE VIRGIN, OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER, AT SCHÖNAU IN GERMANY.
IN THE YEAR 1188.
PrefaceHildegund the Virgin of the Cistercian Order, at Schönau in Germany (St.)
BY D. P.
[1] The name Schönau, taken from the beauty or pleasantness of its situation (for aw or auge denotes a meadow or pasturing region; Schoon, beautiful), is found given to many monasteries in Germany: and first to the Abbey of men of the Order of Saint Benedict in the Hercynian Forest, Schönau, several monasteries in the borders of the diocese of Trier, under the jurisdiction of the Counts of Nassau, which is also wont to be called the monastery of Saint Florinus. From this monastery another of Nuns, also of the Benedictine Order, is separated only by the street between them: in which lived Elizabeth of Schönau, honored with many heavenly revelations, who died June 18 in the year 1164. Two others are of the Cistercian Order, one of noble Virgins situated in Franconia; the other, of which we here treat, in the diocese of Worms, in the dominion of the Palatine of the Rhine, distant about two leagues from Heidelberg, one near Heidelberg in which Saint Hildegund lived acknowledged as its founder Buggo, Bishop of Worms, about the year 1144; whose once most splendid structure Calvinist fury overthrew, and left only the immense stones of the church, undermined, with some places serving French and Walloon weavers, who, from love of heresy, had taken refuge there. In this place under a male habit lived Saint Hildegund, pretending to be a man and called Joseph, who ended her life on April 20 in the year 1188.
[2] Caesarius gave an epitome of her Life Angelus Manrique in tome 3 of his Cistercian Annals, year 1186, chapter 7, number 1, about to treat of Saint Hildegund, thus begins: "An admirable virago, distinguished for holiness and miracles, but even more distinguished by the very events, in which nothing is not singular, nothing is not rare; and, though some things are by no means to be imitated, nothing is not admirable, is found. We have two writers of her Life, both contemporary: Caesarius of Heisterbach, who wrote in the year 1222, and not about a strange province but about his own, and a monastery most known to him; and another anonymous of the same house, namely of Schönau: this author, manuscript, found by himself, Rader published in his Viridarium." Thus Manrique. [another, Rader: but this from a manuscript of most certain trustworthiness, whence we too give it] But Rader asserts that he reports the Acts syntomos kai syllebden (summarily and compendiously), which had been prolixly written out by the author, and what was more certain from the manuscript codex which he had received from Marcus Welser, a most ample duumvir, he summarily published. We give the Life entire from the said codex, excepting a gap of two pages. The author in the Prologue says that he was compelled by others to write, saying that no one could more worthily and fully commit the Life of the blessed Virgin to writing than he who had learned it not from elsewhere, but from the mouth of the Virgin herself. written by her fellow novice and master For the Priest, coming to the Order, was endowed with no mean knowledge of letters, with some experience of political matters, and the highest gravity of manners; so that Hildegund deservedly loved him reverently, though still a novice, yet as her master in letters and spirit, and opened to him all her temptations, and made known to him the whole series of her admirable life; and would have manifested to him the secret of her hidden sex at the end of her life, had not the slowness of the one coming at her call impeded it, and the power of speech been snatched away from the dying woman: for so they bid us presume on what is said in number 34. You have an indication of his priesthood in number 30 where
the Saint asks him as her Confessor; he shows experience of weightier matters, because in number 10, treating of the great controversy at Cologne over the election of an Abbess, he says that he had often been present at that case, and had frequently heard the allegations of the parties set forth on both sides, probably as a Master in Canon Law or even as an advocate in one or the other court. The rest will become clear by themselves; and especially from this, that Blessed Eberhard de Comeda, a man of most well-known sanctity (which will be shown by the Life to be illustrated on November 30), held the recently professed man in highest esteem.
[3] He had scarcely completed the second year after his probation and the monastic consecration he had received, when about the year 1190 (according to the prophecy of the said Eberhard noted in number 24), a new Colony was led into Bebenhausen from the house of Schönau; to correct the defects of another less accurate one and he himself was one of those who were sent to procure this business; and there, desperately ill, he merited to be healed by his disciple appearing and to be taught many things, which he preferred to pass over in number 35, lest anyone should think he had written out of boastfulness. There, while he acts perhaps as Prior or Oeconomus, it seems that some of the monks of Schönau, while he was absent, had undertaken to write the Life of Hildegund, already famous (such as was reported among the mouths of the Brothers, who had partly seen and partly heard from the aforesaid master of hers and from seniors). We have this Life in our illustrious manuscript codex of the Lives of the Saints, which once belonged to the College of Paderborn; and we had prepared to give it in first place to the press: but afterwards, comparing the same more accurately with the other, we judged that wherever it diverged from it, it also departed from the truth; and transcribed by Caesarius not indeed as regards the substance of the matter, which is the same in both, but as regards certain principal circumstances of the same matter: and therefore we have rejected it as useless. Yet the novelty of the pious narration, everywhere welcome, made a place for it in the Legendaries; and Caesarius, having received this alone, and not entire but mutilated in its first part, so inserted it in book 1 of the Miracles, chapter 40, that what she is there introduced as herself narrating to the Prior about her cases before she came to Schönau—always speaking in the first person—he has referred in the third person, adding some things told him by Hermann the monk, then while the matters were being done still a boy of fourteen years.
[4] When therefore either this writing had come into the hands of the aforesaid monk, he wrote as he had heard from the mouth of the Virgin formerly (as we said) Saint Hildegund's fellow-novice and master, or he saw things not sufficiently certain being narrated about her after his departure from the Schönau brethren, but in many ways defective and partly false (as is wont to happen with water, which, transferred through many and various channels, can scarcely ever be traced back to the source with the same purity), he consented to those asking that he should more accurately and anew write the matter, from his surer knowledge, which he alone had immediately drawn from the mouth of the Blessed, not however (as others had believed) the Prior; and this perhaps through frequently repeated narration, since that commemoration greatly helped to confirm in her purpose of the undertaken religion her greatly disturbed mind, and to persuade a certain trust in God. But he wrote after Abbot Godfrey, under whom Hildegund had been admitted to the habit (believed to be a young man), had gone out of office and life; not under Theobald, perhaps Godfrey's immediate successor, whose name crept in place of the other's to Caesarius, when he tried to supply the proper names of persons which the earlier Life had not expressed. Likewise, after the aforementioned Eberhard de Comeda had migrated to the Heavenly Ones, perhaps within 10 or 12 years from her death as appears from number 21. When Godfrey died is not known: but it is credible he did not long survive Hildegund, so that Caesarius's lapse is the more excusable, and also the errors which crept into the Life written at Schönau. Of Blessed Eberhard we know that he died in the year 1191 in the 26th year of his age: and the Life was written in the same year in which Eberhard's fourth brother Norbert died; and still in the world there lived a fifth, by name Henry, and the Sister Adelheid, Abbess of a certain monastery, and very many others who had familiarly associated with the blessed man. And at that time Hildegund's Life was already written and was being read in the monastery of Comeda, from which an entire chapter is inserted into the Life of Eberhard himself, and we profess to have been helped in filling a defect of one gap and in completing the history, otherwise incorrigibly mutilated; and we think it not improbably can be believed that this second and more accurate Life of Hildegund was written before Caesarius began his History, although he himself did not have it.
[5] Another title the Welser manuscript codex does not offer, except "Life of Joseph"—for by that name the Virgin was known at Schönau. And in the Life of Eberhard she is only cited as "The Acts of Hildegund, who, surnamed Joseph, had been made a Novice in male habit at Schönau." Yet both in the prologue and at the end the author calls her with the title of Holy Virgin, and Caesarius writes "Blessed Hildegund" absolutely. But that a more ample cult, and one that can be called public, was soon attributed to her, various arguments persuade. For first, in our aforesaid manuscript Codex, in which the earlier Life (omitted by us) is contained, this title is prefixed: "Here begins the Legend of Saint Hildegund the Virgin, Name of "Saint" in an ancient manuscript codex on the 12th day before the Kalends of May": where for the sake of veneration she is called both "Saint" and the day sacred to her cult is indicated. That this was not done by chance or rashly by the collector of the Lives contained in that codex is demonstrated by the titles prefixed to the other Acts, here to be recalled for that reason: "Life of Saint Hildulph, Archbishop of Trier, the 5th day before the Ides of July; of Saint Severus the Priest and Confessor, the 6th day before the Ides of August; Concerning the blessed vision of the translation of the Emperor Charlemagne, the 6th day before the Kalends of August; Life and miracles of the worthy memory of Margaret the Virgin, of the Order of Preachers, daughter of the King of Hungary, the 5th day before the Kalends of February; Saint Romuald the Confessor and hermit, the 13th day before the Kalends of July; Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, the 15th day before the Kalends of October; Saint Morand the Confessor, the 3rd day before the Kalends of July; Saint Poppo the Abbot, the 3rd day before the Kalends of February; Saint Lazarus, Bishop and Confessor, the 16th day before the Kalends of January; Saint Werner, the 13th day before the Kalends of May; Life of Lord and Master Albert the Great, the distinguished Doctor of the Order of Preachers, the 17th day before the Kalends of December; Saint Arnold the Confessor, the 15th day before the Kalends of October; Life of the devout Priest Heymerad, hidden in Hasungen; Life of the venerable Lord Peter, Provost of Arolsen; Life of Saint Ethburg the Virgin; New history of the 11,000 Virgins; Wonderful visions of the religious Elizabeth of Schönau; Passion of the holy Martyrs of Ebstorf, on the Kalends of August; Passion of Saint Simeon, Bishop and Martyr, the 13th day before the Kalends of March; Deposition of Saint Wulfram, Bishop and Confessor, the 13th day before the Kalends of April." Of these, in the tenth place, is inserted the Legend of Saint Hildegund the Virgin.
[6] Secondly, among the various Martyrologies of Usuard, augmented for the use of various Churches, which we have, likewise in first place in a manuscript Martyrology is one which Wido Krentzelin in the year 1417 (as he himself asserts) lengthened with certain additions of his own on account of the Predicants: in which on this day in first place these things are found: "The 12th day before the Kalends of May, At Neuss, of Saint Hildegund the Virgin." Neuss is, to the ancients, Novesium, a city of the diocese of Cologne, in which or in whose neighborhood Saint Hildegund was born, and was educated among the religious Sisters: in which her mother and sister Agnes are buried: so that she seems to have been in singular veneration in the said monastery, or also in other churches. and inserted in the manuscript Florarium The author of the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum, a Regular Canon, has this of Agnes and Hildegund: "The 12th day before the Kalends of May, of Agnes the Virgin, sister of Saint Hildegund the Virgin. In the monastery of Schönau, the deposition of the aforesaid Saint Hildegund the Virgin, who heard the soul of her sister Saint Agnes, while she hung on the gibbet, carried to heaven by rejoicing Angels. She afterwards, taking the habit of a man and calling herself Joseph, professed as a monk at Schönau, and rested with a glorious end, in the year of salvation 1188." Afterwards very many followed, among whom first may be reckoned Greven the Carthusian of Cologne, who in the Additions to Usuard has this: "Likewise, of holy memory Hildegund the Virgin, religious of the Cistercian Order, who was also called Joseph." and in other calendars especially monastic Canisius describes Greven in his German Martyrology, and Molanus in the Appendix of Usuard; Arnold Wion in his Monastic Martyrology thus speaks: "At Schönau, the deposition of Saint Hildegund the Virgin of the Cistercian Order, who, her sex feigned, living in the monastery, was called Joseph by the Brothers." Wion is followed by Dorganius, Menard, and with a long elogium Bucelin. Likewise in the Cistercian Menology Chrysostomus Henriquez, and before him Barnabas de Montalbo part 1 book 4 chapter 13, and Bernardus Brito, who in book 5 chapter 31 folio 363 testifies that she had been inscribed in the Catalogue of the Saints of the Cistercian Order.
[7] These were preceded by Trithemius in his Chronicle of Hirsau, in which he gives this testimony of her: and in Trithemius "Saint Hildegund of the Cistercian Order, in the monastery of Schönau died in the year 1188, on the 12th day before the Kalends of May: who, feigning herself a male by simulated habit, had received the habit of novitiate among the monks there; and, her name changed, called herself Joseph, and until her death remained unknown. Her Life Caesarius, monk of Heisterbach, wrote." So there. and Caesarius Caesarius at the end of this history hands down these things reserved to this place: "When, some years ago, a new oratory was being consecrated at Schönau, peoples flowing from diverse provinces to the dedication, and hearing the aforesaid virtues of Blessed Hildegund, frequented her tomb; matrons especially commending themselves to her holy prayers, and glorifying God over so great wonders. And let us Brothers with them give thanks to our Savior, who willed these things to be done in our times in our Order, for his glory and our edification, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen." He adds moreover this epitaph:
Let every man marvel at what this man did. Her epitaph She, whose ashes and bones a grave enclosed, Appeared a man living, but dying is known to be a woman. Life deceived, death refuted the feigned matter. Called Hildegund, her Life is written in the codex, On the twelfth day of May's Kalends this one died.
[8] Some things fictitiously added Angelus Manrique, in his Laurea Evangelica book 3 discourse 7, wishes to make her have lived as a nun for many years. In book 3 of the Cistercian Annals, year 1188, chapter 8 number 10 and following, he adds some things to the history from Bernard Brito, and from the writings of Saint Hildegund in praise of John the Baptist, which, lest he seem uncurious, he himself published. We prefer to omit them, since they can be seen there, and are not sufficiently consonant with the truth: for that this Schönau
Hildegund was lightly tinctured with letters, is clear from the Life, and that she died within the year of her probation; in which, exercised with most grievous temptations, it can scarcely be believed that she wrote anything worthy of the memory of posterity. We should rather wish that the bones of her holy body had been preserved, or were even now found among the ruins of the church by divine indication: for nothing now remains at Schönau to teach that Saint Hildegund was venerated there, except the remains of certain stained-glass windows, which in the year 1620 our John Gamans surveyed, testifying that in no other monastery had he seen such immense and bold substructures of huge stones and masses, which now all lie undermined.
LIFE
By a Priest, her fellow-novice, familiar and master of the Saint herself.
From the Manuscript Codex of Marcus Welser.
Hildegund the Virgin, of the Cistercian Order, at Schönau in Germany (St.)
BHL Number: 3938, 3939
BY A FELLOW-NOVICE FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
PROLOGUE.
[1] Asked by the Brothers The pious devotion of holy Brothers, with frequent zeal of exhortations, has provoked me to write the Life of Joseph: not that one who was the son of Jacob and Rachel, the twelfth among the Patriarchs, and sold by his brothers into Egypt; but the one who, under a man's name and habit, was concealing her woman's sex, pretending to be a male which she was not. Laying a sufficiently grave and most difficult burden on my shoulders, those men of virtues asserted that such a precious pearl, fittingly adorned with gold and silver, or a necklace of such distinguished brightness, wrought by the hand of the supernal Craftsman, ought not to be withdrawn the author writes this Life but rather hung on the breast or on the face of holy Church: which could contribute no small advantage to many who would diligently inspect this. But these things, which might more easily incite me, adding further to the zeal and discipline of such a labor, for the profit of many they said: "The lamp kindled by the Lord is not to be placed under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may illumine with the light of its brightness all who enter the house." By these and like goads of reasons and assertions, when they saw me, recalcitrant and resisting, still struggling—though in vain—they overcame me by the opposition of such an argument, inferring that no one could more worthily and fully narrate the Life of the blessed Virgin by pen, than he who had learned it not from elsewhere, but from the very mouth of the Virgin, staying with her, dwelling together, conversing, placed in the house of novices, himself a novice and newly converted, who together with her had been a novice at Schönau in the place which is called Schönau, where there is a most famous and most religious house of the Cistercian Order, most opulent with the riches of virtues and the delights of spiritual studies. What more? I obeyed, I did—not what I wanted, but what they wanted, who drew me, less wise, as has been said, by their allegations to the making of this little work. I indeed, as an ignoble painter with simple color, have depicted what I know, what I have learned; until a more suitable one come, who may paint with variety of colors, compose, and make precious from vile. I beseech those reading, therefore, to give credence to what is said, and not to believe that I, out of love or favor for the holy Virgin, bring in anything as I understood from her which I have not received from her, which I have not learned from her. I would prefer (I call God to witness) to be silent altogether, rather than to advance false things boastfully and rashly for true.
CHAPTER I.
Hildegund's birth and education: pilgrimage to the Holy Land and return.
[2] In a the territory of the city of Cologne, situated on the Rhine (which is the metropolis of that province, a city indeed strongest in walls and fortifications, most pleasant in situation, devoted to divine worship, intent on good actions above other secular things, where the eleven thousand Virgins are laid), In the territory of Cologne there was a certain girl, noble indeed in lineage, but nobler in faith; her parents noble and rich fair of face, but fairer in life. Her parents, since they had no children, though noble according to the world and rich in goods, diminished for this single reason the temporal happiness in which they excelled above other men—that an heir had not been granted them by God, who, entering the paternal household, might in his time possess the substance reserved for him; that they lacked offspring or who, when they should depart and enter the way of all flesh, would prevent their lineage and race from obtaining afterwards a mournful end, no offspring begotten and left surviving. For which reason they judged that the mercy of God almighty should be implored, and his grace entreated, praying earnestly to obtain offspring that he would deign to look worthily on their vows, and bestow the blessing of the desired offspring.
[3] When they had poured out frequent sighs and tears for this cause, and had fervently offered an abundance of alms to God; by almsgiving the devout father also had often visited the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul and other Saints, by pilgrimages pouring forth prayers, humbly bestowing innumerable gifts, and accomplishing nothing, his own wife, no little religious, still remaining sterile; at length, by the inspiration of divine grace recalling to mind how blessed Anna, mother of Samuel, by the vow which she vowed to God obtained not so much a son as a Prophet, By the example of Anna the mother of Samuel both equally, by an equal vow, man and woman, upon taking salutary counsel, bound themselves, doing the same thing anxiously, vowing the same thing they bind themselves by vow which Anna, placed before the Lord at Shiloh, had vowed. Thanks be to God, that devotion not dissimilar, and reasoning similar, was not frustrated of the desired blessing. For the woman at once conceived, and bore not one but b twins, which is wonderful to say, in one birth twin girls. Two girls are born and brought up in a monastery When they had been weaned and were making daily progress, the devout father, instructed by the holy Spirit, judged that both should be placed in c a monastery of religious Sisters to be imbued with sacred letters and instructed in cloistral disciplines, as a precious treasure given by God. There, how much they advanced in the love of God, and how much they grew strong in all discipline and all knowledge, the outcome of matters afterwards proved: which will be more fully unfolded in the following series of the narration.
[4] The aforesaid father, therefore, that he might more fully discharge the due thanksgivings to God The father conceives a journey to the Holy Land for such benefits conferred, conceived in his mind that, having received the sign of the holy Cross, he would cross the sea, visit the sepulchre of the Lord, and in all the places where his feet had stood, adore. But before he should gird himself to carry out the purpose inspired to him from heaven, the mother seized by a fever the good woman, who was ready for every good, and had always in all things submitted herself to her husband with the promptest obedience; who also with heart and mind rejoiced that she had brought forth not so much to the world as to the Lord, alms being given is meanwhile seized by a fever, and laid on the bed, and as the grievousness of the languor grew strong, the crowds of the poor being summoned, in hope of eternal salvation she gave ample alms, she refreshed the poor; then the Priests being called the sacraments of the Church being received that she might efficaciously fortify the passing of her exit, having received the most holy Viaticum of the Lord's Body and been anointed with the holy Oil, and all things having been duly performed which ought to be shown according to the Catholic faith, persevering in thanksgiving, and chanting hymns to God with the Clerics who awaited her passing, she happily migrated to the Lord, buried in the place where her daughters had been commended to the Lord: to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. she piously dies
[5] These things so done, the father, made freer and more cheerful, strove as much as he could to hasten those things which he had divinely conceived. The father about to set out Having gathered all things necessary for his own use on the pilgrimage, he thought to lead with him the daughter of whom we speak, and to make her his companion on the way, and to leave behind the other forever in the monastery joined to the immortal Spouse: betrothes one daughter to Christ and as he had determined in his heart, he strove thus to fulfill it. Therefore at the next passage, when all together under their standards were ready to go to maritime places, alertly and constantly preparing, and were fervently exhorting each other with divine love, taking Hildegund with him his little daughter, whom he tenderly loved (by a certain secret counsel of God, who willed to put his hand to strong things, and, as it is written, gave her a strong contest, that she might win, and know that wisdom is the mightiest of all Wis. 10:12), he drew from the monastery, shaved her as a boy, clothed her in male habit, under male garb and the name of Joseph imposed on her the name Joseph, that thus going more securely, he might seem to be leading not a woman, but a male. He was content also with a single servant, who, attending them, might minister and guard the things they had. Thus proceeding, thus going forward, together they came to the shores of the sea. he sails to Jerusalem Where, the price of the passage having been given to the captain, the soldier of Christ with his Joseph mounted the sea, and with the breaths of the winds favorable, for some time sailed prosperously.
[6] But how long did that serenity last? how long did that prosperity persevere? Alas, alas! The undaunted soldier, the faithful father, and devoted, about soon to leave his Joseph, for whom now to live was Christ and to die gain, began to grow ill, and utterly to fail. and seized by a grievous disease And when he saw himself now next to death, and, about now to migrate, gathered his spirit to the vital parts, he called the servant, and faithfully and intimately commended Joseph to him, and handed over the gold and silver which he had brought: partaking of the Lord's Sacraments, with hands clasped in the shape of a cross and head bowed, oh grief! he breathed out his spirit. The corpse having been then cast into the sea, as is the custom, what tears, what groans, what sighs Joseph, deprived and bereaved of both parents, poured out for her father's soul, who can tell, who can estimate? he dies at sea It is more fitting to weep and to grieve with the weeping and grieving Joseph, than to speak.
[7] Yet she, crossing the sea with her guardian, came to Jerusalem, the daughter visits the holy places and there visited the sepulchre of the Lord and the other holy places where the feet of the Lord had stood; and she returned to Acre, where was the harbor of the ship. There, when passing the night she was resting with her servant, that wretched and most wretched one, she is robbed by her servant all the things of Joseph having been stolen by theft, rising in the morning took flight, and left not a young lord (as he thought), but a young lady, alone in exile. These are the beginnings of sorrows. Joseph waking up thereafter, as if from heavy sleep, like Jacob, having lost her companionship, left in anguish found herself alone, found herself alone now destitute of all solace. Alas, dearest brothers, who would not now grieve with the grieving? who would not now weep with the weeping? Good Jesus, your Joseph, yours, I say, what is she to do, where is she to turn, she has not. Ps. 10:14 "To you is the poor man left, you will be a helper to the orphan." Often repeating this verse in her grief, she commended herself and her chastity to the Lord. The merciful and pitying Lord, man Jesus Christ, to be helped by Christ who wishes none to perish, who knows how to snatch his own from temptations, could he leave his handmaid, known to him alone, placed in such strait temptation? Where is what is written?
"A helper in due seasons in tribulation"? Ps. 19:10 And again: "Who has hoped in him, and has been forsaken?" Ecclus. 2:12 Far be it that Christ should leave his Joseph, whom perhaps he willed to suffer such things. Far be it that he should deprive of his protection him whom he willed to come to parts beyond the sea for this reason, that, like Paula and Eustochium, she might traverse the Holy Land and the holy places, and investigate all things which are read in the Scriptures, that she might be divinely instructed.
[8] g It remains now to know what was done after the malign manager and unfaithful companion, secretly having escaped, had dismissed her. For on the very day on which he had turned aside, going backwards after Satan, she is joined to the company of a pious man who had been appointed as manager and minister, when all hope of consolation seemed taken from her, by a sudden and as it were unexpected chance came to her aid a helper and pious comforter, sent by God, who refreshed her with food and received her into his company, and softened her with many-fold consolation, she stays at Jerusalem among the Templars and led her back to Jerusalem. Where, when she had stayed for a year, received into the house of the Templars, and had seen all the holy places by wandering about, and had learned all things that had been shown her, visited by a kinsman there came, by God's wonderful disposing, from the parts of Cologne, a near relative and kinsman of hers, inquiring about his friend, whether he was living or had died. When he was brought to Joseph, not knowing that he was her kin, and had learned (Joseph relating) that he was his son whom he was seeking, who had stayed at Jerusalem a year after his father's death, awaiting whether God would perhaps bring any of his kin, who might bring him back to the land from which he had come, the pilgrim thought to restore the nephew going with him to his own kinsfolk. she is led back to her homeland Setting out then together, and prospering on the way, and seeking again their homeland and their own homes, and by him dying, instructed with the viaticum when they had come to the borders of the province of the city of Cologne, that pious guide and faithful manager, prevented nonetheless by death by the Divine judgment, perished: and being buried there, he left the money and silver which he seemed to have to Joseph.
[9] Then the most strong athlete, the illustrious warrior, the soldier dear to God, so often deprived of human consolation, so often having lost so necessary a consolation, she gives thanks to God for her chastity preserved gave thanks to God that after so many dangers and perils, after so many spacious seas laboriously crossed, without damage to her integrity, now more joyful she beheld the land of her nativity, and would in a little be restored to her kinsfolk, now fearing neither swords nor fires nor beasts nor any injuries of fierce enemies. Knowing that it is written: "Every soil is a homeland to the strong." For she had now fully learned to endure hunger, thirst, frost, snow, every intemperance of cold and heat, and every labor for the Lord. and the dangers overcome Yet she thought to enter the city of Cologne, and there after innumerable sweatings and infinite labors to rest for some time, and among honorable men and women devoted to God, herself not a man but a woman, to lie hidden with God protecting her. By chance therefore proceeding, she entered the house of a certain Canon, she is received by a Canon of Cologne who had a large house in the city: who, believing her to be a pilgrim (which indeed she was, she who had traversed so many foreign lands), kindly received her into hospitality, and cherished her with kindness, not letting her go, but asking her to stay some time with him.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Journey undertaken to the Supreme Pontiff. Danger of hanging removed by divine aid.
[10] Nor is it to be passed over in silence that this same Canon had a sister of his own in a a monastery of religious Sisters, very religious and devout, who in the same monastery had at that time been chosen as Abbess, A schism having been stirred up against the Canon's sister elected Abbess by the greater and saner part of that congregation. But another young woman of the same convent, indeed noble by birth (for she was niece of Lord b Philip, Archbishop of Cologne), some were trying to promote, so that they might annul and impede the lawful and authentic election. The Lord Archbishop himself, to the great detriment of his soul, favored the weaker party, so that he might elevate his kinswoman to such a dignity, being entirely opposed to the prior one elected. I too happened to be often present at this case, and frequently to hear the allegations of the parties set forth on both sides; and therefore no one can convict me of falsity in writing. When this case, long ventilated, could not be determined, the Bishop opposing, at length it came to this, that the said Canon, citing the Archbishop, appealed to the Apostolic See. Which I thought worth recalling and inserting into this little work, since for the completion of this business the pious Joseph was wondrously led and taken up; as the following will clearly declare.
[11] At that time c there was a schism in the Church of Trier in the times of the Emperor Frederick, and the recourse to the Pope impeded by the schism of Trier on account of two Elected men, of whom one, by name Volmar, a man of great virtue and great prudence, with equal vote and common counsel almost the whole city of Trier had chosen as Pastor; but the other, by name Rudolph, a man equally reverend, the Emperor Frederick named, few favoring him, rather out of fear of the Imperial majesty than out of love of devotion and piety. This man therefore the said Prince, not acting by reason but rather using power, intended to force in and to elevate to the height of the Archbishopric, judging his elect more potent and more worthy, and more competent to the Church of Trier: and therefore he decreed that he should be elevated and placed on the Pontifical chair, Volmar violently thrust out. Which was so done, a few of the plebeian folk acclaiming, and singing praises. When Volmar therefore appealed and provoked to the Apostolic See, the Emperor with rash daring promulgated an edict hateful to God and therefore contemptible: that if any Cleric carrying letters wished to go to Rome, he should be seized by his men, captured, and held, and brought before his sight, either to be ill treated or to be cruelly killed. d
[12] Hildegund is asked to accompany the Canon about to go to Rome Hearing this, the aforementioned Canon of Cologne, that he might be able to prosecute his appeal, by all means implored Joseph that he would go with him to Rome, promising very many gifts and ample benefices after the completion of the labor. And seeing him a young man (not a woman), as he thought, elegant and ready, who would know the way and understand the language, and therefore less suspect, he more pressingly urged by asking and imploring. When Joseph had for a long time cried out, denying and refusing, at length overcome by the petitioner's prayers, undertaking the labor in return, and subjecting himself to great danger, she thought to consent to such importunity, and to the constancy of one asking such things. They took for this journey necessaries to be spent; they set out together, and mutually served each other, she sets out on the way with him servant and lord, master and disciple. Going therefore, they came prosperously to Mainz, which is the metropolis of all Germany. Thence setting out they entered Swabia, and traversing the cities and towns placed in those borders, they came to a certain town established within the diocese of Augsburg, by name e Zusmarshausen, where they determined to pass the night, and at early dawn, so that they might not be seen, secretly and covertly to enter the city of Augsburg (which was near, only two leagues distant from the lodging where they were hiding). For they feared and greatly dreaded, they lodge not far from Augsburg because that city was imperial, lest perchance they be apprehended by the Emperor's vassals, of whom there was a great number there, and, robbed of things and letters which they carried, be treated with reproaches or tortures most atrociously. But what miracle, by the benignity of almighty God, happened in those places, is to be committed to the memory of all who hear, and to be proclaimed through eternal ages. Morning having come, when they had moved from that little town in which they had been held, the lord the Canon going ahead on horseback commended the letters, which he carried enclosed in a staff, to Joseph; but he alone, sitting on a horse, hastened to Augsburg. When Joseph, as a disciple and scholar, had to follow the master on foot, and had entered quickly a wood which was nearby, a certain most abandoned man, who that same night had committed theft in the aforementioned town, was following, carrying a sack with the things which he had stolen. When he heard that the men who had been robbed were following him from behind, and wanted to apprehend him, he gave the sack to Joseph, with the things contained inside, as though now about to return, and about to be her companion on the journey. g What was Joseph to do? She received the sack; she sat upon it; she waited until her companion should return; suspecting no evil, secure of good conscience. But the guilty one, fleeing, hid himself, until he should see what happened to his wickedly abandoned companion. The robbed men followed; coming with much tumult, fiercer than lions, with savage minds, on foot following Hildegund they seized Joseph, tore her, inflicted countless blows on her, thinking her to be the guilty one, and that she had perpetrated the theft which had been committed. When she denied it, so as to detest so enormous an evil, she is seized as a thief she was not heard, was derided, was afflicted with reproaches. At length led back to the town, and condemned to death it was discussed concerning her death, that she should be condemned without mercy.
[14] she asks a Priest for confession and viaticum Therefore Joseph, when she saw herself to be condemned and about to be destroyed by the hands of the impious like a thief, asked for a Priest
who might receive the confession of the dying, and give the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood to the innocent, lest she depart to destruction without the Viaticum of death, unfortified. This was scarcely and not without great difficulty obtained from those petitioners who were present at this spectacle, and to whom a saner and readier mind for compassion was present. The Priest being called, came, brought the Lord's Body, and approached Joseph, bound behind, about the deed. When he had by order learned the matter that had been done, Joseph relating it, and had seen the staff in which the letters were contained, and had by questioning fully recognized of what habit and stature the man was who handed her the sack, she is asked by him about her state and the quality of the thief he began to suspect a certain wandering and shifty man, who had consumed all his substance in gluttony: lest perhaps he had committed this evil, which indeed was true. The Priest, therefore, having received the truth through such inquiries, dismissing and nullifying the deed entirely, suggested to the people, excusing Joseph himself, that they should return to the wood which was nearby, and seek out the guilty one. When this was done, that most wretched man who had committed this theft, made more secure after the apprehension of the innocent, this one, led in, recognizes in returning h is captured, bound, and led to Joseph. Joseph, being asked whether this was he, constantly asserted that he was truly the one who had committed to her the sack with the things in the wood. He denied; she affirmed. When there had been long altercation on both sides on this matter i, and the truth could not easily be found, and by the judgment of the hot iron she is freed the judgment of the hot iron was proposed by the Priest. Which, when each had submitted at the judge's command, Joseph, like Susanna, or as the boys in the furnace, was freed by the grace of God from the falsity of the evil perpetrated: the other, as guilty, was burned by the hot iron. the guilty one being hanged Wherefore a sentence was passed against him, and he was hanged on a certain tree, and Joseph the innocent was set free.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Hildegund wondrously freed from hanging, goes to Rome; thence returning to Spires, is led to Schönau; she is tested among the recruits.
[15] By the friends of the hanged man seized, she is hanged At length the Priest gave thanks to God that his athlete had so manifestly, so celebratedly, escaped the ruin of such an evil; and giving her five solidi of that money, he permitted Joseph, with blessing given, to go to her lord. As she was departing and entering the wood, the satellites of Satan, namely the relatives of the man who had died hanged in the noose, seized Joseph, and on the same tree where the condemned one had justly hung, hanged her, staining themselves with eternal disgrace by perpetrating such a crime. It remains now to see what was done about the Virgin, holy in mind and body uncorrupted, who under the appearance of a man had suffered such great evils on the branch of a tree: whether the Lord abandoned her hanging, or by redeeming from thence liberated her. Far be it that the pious Lord should ever have forsaken her whom he had rescued before from so many dangers, and had mercifully preserved in all her straits and necessities, lest she perish. He did not delay to stretch forth the arm of his power to his little handmaid, so deformed, so dishonored, and to liberate her powerfully from such a reproach. An Angel of the Lord, therefore, she is sustained by an Angel the executioners having departed, was at once present, who sustaining her did not let her die. The good virgin therefore asked who he was who was holding her, and with such immense sweetness as though refreshing her, was cherishing her.
[16] and she is cherished The messenger sent from heaven answered: "I am an Angel of the Lord assigned to your keeping; fear not, because I will free you, and what you are to do, when you shall have gone, she understands how she is to live and to die I will announce. For with the Lord directing and protecting you, the business being completed for which you are anxious, on account of which you are going to Rome, thence returning you will come to Spires, and then, a good Brother leading you, you will go to Schönau to the house of the Cistercian Order; where among the sons of God, their habit assumed and the monastic tonsure received, before the year of your probation is finished, you will enter the way of all flesh: thence taken up to heaven, you will be eternally joined with all the Saints to the Lord in a happy matrimony, for the traffic of holy labor." When the conscious and interpreter of heavenly secrets had pronounced these things, the blessed Virgin heard in heaven voices sweeter than honey, and a melody not of human but of Angelic song's harmony. and the happy passing of her sister to heaven She therefore asked, saying: "What is this that I hear?" The holy Angel said: "They are my companions, bringing the soul of your sister Agnes, who has just now breathed out her spirit in the cloister where she was committed, to her spouse whom she loved in death, to be associated in the heavenly nuptial chamber: and know that you are to follow within this b two-year period, with the same jubilation, we singing and rendering the hymns due to God."
[17] The matter is made known in the town Meanwhile the rumor reached the town mentioned above, that the young man who had been hanged had lost his life, whom the Lord had liberated from the infamy inflicted on her among them; all judging that those who had committed so great a sacrilege should be condemned to a most shameful death. Which the blessed Virgin did not escape, because hanging on the tree, whatever men of the little city were saying meanwhile, she heard fully. c But also shepherds, grazing their flock near her, she is taken down by shepherds for burial and conferring about her death (not knowing that she was living), deliberated to commit her body to the lap of the earth. And when they had made a grave, and carefully placed the body from the branch on which it seemed to be hanging, before they could throw earth on it, in a moment two wolves from the grove came out in sudden course, and invaded their flock with rabid bite. Seeing which, the shepherds ran, that they might rescue the animals; and laying aside the burial, they hastened eagerly to lead the herd to the town. d
[18] They having been put to flight by a wondrous chance, Joseph, free from every bond, rising, saw an Angel sitting on a most white horse, who, when he said: "Do you desire to see your lord, whom you seemed to have lost?" she said, "I wish and desire it." "Give me," said the Angel, "your hand, and I will, placing you on my horse, lead you most swiftly to him." When she had done so, she is carried off by the Angel the Angel again repeated the words he had said before: that she was to come to Schönau, all other occasion being set aside, and there most certainly to die. And when they were going together sitting on the horse, Joseph fell asleep; and after a brief time when she had awakened, the Angel again taking up his parable, said: "Do you see this city? This is Verona. e Taking up therefore your staff f with the letters, you will find your lord in the lodging of that host: to Verona and I wish you to be mindful of my words, until they be fulfilled: I too will be your guardian in all your ways, and wherever you shall go." This said, the Angel disappeared, where she finds her Canon and Joseph saw him no more. Joseph therefore going ahead, found her lord as the Angel had foretold, offered the letters, related the causes of her impediment, and caused great joy to her lord. Wherefore, with hands raised to heaven, her lord said: "I give thanks to God that I have you safe again."
[19] and Rome having been entered with him she returns to Spires Reciprocating again their journey, they went together to Rome, and completed all things pertaining to the case for which they had come to be determined. At length, so great a labor being explained, he came returning to Spires: and there they sought the Bishop h who had been petitioned as Judge of the case. When they had not found him, the Canon said to Joseph: "Either wait for me in this city until I return to you; or, taking a boat, go to Cologne, and there I will joyously present myself to you, after I have spoken to my judges." These things said, he proceeded to investigate the Bishop of Spires, whom he asked to be pointed out to him, and to investigate the rest of the judges whom he had obtained. Joseph again, her lord going away, when she alone remained, went to the house of a certain Recluse named Mechtild, i and by that Recluse she is received into hospitality [and being received into hospitality by her, she began to frequent the schools. Meanwhile the rumor was spread that the Recluse] "of All Saints" had near her a scholar, an elegant young man, comely in form, and conspicuous of countenance. When this was found to be true, a certain lay brother, Bertholdus by name, once a soldier in the world, came to Spires, by a lay brother of Schönau entered the little house of the holy woman: asked what scholar it was whom she had received into hospitality, and by what name he was called. She, when she had said: "He has the name Joseph, and frequents the schools in the church k, reading with those reading, studying with those studying," he, placing his horse in the stable, hastened to the schools, to see if in some way he could find the scholar shown to him. When he had found him quickly brought forth to him, with bland and persuasive words he approaches him to entice him, and exhorts him to go with him to Schönau, to fight for God. When he refused, and for some time refused as if contradicting, at length overcome by the prayer of the petitioner, mindful of the Angelic preface, he promises to go with him. The good man therefore, she is led to Schönau after he had come to his wishes, and saw his journey successful, l took Joseph, and joyfully went on to Schönau. This was done by the Lord, and is wondrous in our eyes, who have seen, and heard, and testify
all these things, which have been done by him whose kingdom and empire remains forever and ever. Amen.
[20] It is good to conceal the secret of a King, but to proclaim the wonders of God is magnificent: of whom it is said: "God is wonderful in his Saints." Ps. 67:36 Though all things which God has made are wonderful works, and worthy of wonder, yet he is said to be wonderful in his Saints, By the wondrous disposition of God because he makes those wonderful, through whom wonderful things come to be; not only through men, stronger in sex, but also through women and tender virgins (which is more wonderful), more fragile and weaker in sex. For if a man, having a manly mind, does anything wonderful, much more wonderful is it that a woman, doing the work of virtues, anticipates and excels men, doing nonetheless wonderful things. What could be more wonderful than that God willed a woman, hidden under the habit of a man, to be so hidden that it could not be known that she was a woman? Therefore Joseph, entering Schönau, under the appearance of a scholar bearing the male habit, bearing herself humbly and devoutly, suppliantly prayed to be received among the monks. as a scholar she asks for the habit and obtains it What should the Abbot, the Prior, and the rest of the Brothers do? For their eyes were held, lest they should recognize her. They agreed to the vows of the petitioner, not knowing that they were receiving a woman for a man. Then, as is the custom, she is led into the Chapter; asking pardon, she is interrogated as to what she seeks. When she had answered, "the grace of God," the petition is admitted. Hence to the guest-house, about to spend a few days there, she is led. Hence, according to the custom of the Order, the monk's tonsure received, she is clothed with monastic garments, her own being put aside: she is clothed in monastic garments she is received into the congregation; thenceforth among the novices, she is set to be instructed in regular discipline, in manners, and in the cloistral life.
[21] Some one here could with no unreasonable argument allege and say, since it is written: "It belongs to virgins to tremble, and to fear all the approaches of a man and all his addresses"—whence had this Virgin a mind of such confidence, such presumption, that without modesty, without reverence, finally without shame, she should thrust herself among men, offer herself willingly, and do this, so that she might seem a monk? St. Ambrose book on Virginity she fulfills all things from the will of God What can I reply to these, I do not have, except only this: that she was led by an Angel, that she was comforted by the Lord, and to speak briefly, the will of the Lord was that it should be so done, who inspired this to her mind that she should do so and not otherwise; who wonderfully preserved her to the end, lest she should be recognized, lest she should be betrayed. She was therefore going in and out with us, who were together in the house of novices. I too at that time, by the counsel and help of a good man who was called Eberhard m of Comeda, through whom God did many wondrous things, by the writer of this Life, then a novice which are not to be passed over in silence, was received at Schönau, and placed in the house of probation among the other Brothers, who likewise had to be proved. Therefore the Lord Abbot n Godfrey, a chosen vessel, a vessel filled with the riches of all virtues, at the direction of Abbot Godfrey a lamp shining and burning in his days, who then presided over the monastery of Schönau, hearing Joseph reading and chanting among the Brothers, understood that in the study of learning he had been not a little neglected. Therefore, by what pact, by what merit I know not, since I had recently come from the world, a young man to be educated and instructed, he committed him to me; that in the house of probation, as far as I could, I should educate, rule, and instruct. she is instructed I did what I could, fearing more for myself than he. But because I have said many less useful things, which ought to have been said briefly or altogether passed over, for brevity's sake I pass over many things which were said to me by my fellow-disciple.
[22] So we were, living among the Brothers, reading, studying, day and night in regular discipline, so far as it pleased the Lord, she performs all tasks admirably advancing. And, to confess the truth, Joseph so bore herself within and without, that she showed herself irreproachable, rendered herself amiable to all, not sparing bodily tenderness, subjecting herself to the hardest labors; carrying stones and heavy loads from the forest with the monks, loving vigils, seeking fasts, frequently applying herself to reading and prayer, so that she could deservedly be reckoned not a woman but a strenuous and robust man.
NOTES.
CHAPTER IV.
Exercised by most grievous temptations, Hildegund overcomes all.
[23] The devil therefore seeing that the new recruit of Christ was growing in such virtues, and daily advancing in increments, envied the novitiate of such great probity, and undertook the battle of the strongest temptation against him. For as an illustrious warrior, fortified on every side with divine protection, she is attacked by diabolical temptations that he might be tested like gold in the furnace, she was delivered for a time to the tempter, who might vex her for a while, yet preserve her soul, and not betray the secret which lay hidden. At length, power having been received, the ancient enemy, by his most wicked suggestion, so acted that she conceived in mind to lay aside the cloistral habit, she is incited to flee from the monastery and secretly to depart from the monastery: which however did not come to effect, divine grace procuring it and prohibiting such insults and mockeries of demons. For what God had disposed from the ages concerning his little handmaid dedicated to him could be changed by no incursion of the raging enemy, by no impetus of temptation. Yet to be marvelled at by all and greatly to be feared is it that he, damned and excluded from the joys of Paradise, after so much suffering of pains, after the suspension on the gibbet and thence deliverance, after the Angelic vision and address, and finally after the announcement of her death, could suggest such things to a mind so holy, and infect with pestiferous poison a breast so chaste. It will not be amiss if I now pursue by relating what happened to the good Joseph, after the malign one produced the poisons of his fraud, and bringing out the spreading of the old leaven, by artificial suggestion wished to corrupt the mind which had now been made a temple of God. For the purpose which she had conceived from the malign one, to me first b…
[24] When the year of my probation was finished, Brother Eberhard of Comeda arrived, Blessed Gerard of Comeda wishing to be present at my consecration, because he himself had been the cooperator of my conversion and the procurer of my leading to Schönau. On the very day on which the blessing was to be given me and my companion, who had been received with me and had entered the house of novices, by the Abbot of pious memory Godfrey, he was present and standing by; and when they had come to that place where it is said: "May the Lord strip off from you the old man with his acts," the man of God was raptured, whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows, after in ecstasy he had foretold the erection of a new convent the Abbot and all the congregation standing by. All wondered what had befallen the man, or what had happened. After the space of three or four hours, when his body had lain as if lifeless in the choir where he had fallen, with the Abbot and the whole Convent sitting around and waiting for what so wondrous a fall, never before seen, might mean; the man began to speak words not human but Angelic, his whole body remaining immobile. The beginning of his speeches was this: "An Angel has spoken in the height of joy." Then, using the Teutonic tongue, he uttered mystical words, both concerning us who had already been consecrated as monks, and concerning the state of the Congregation and the tribulations of the whole world: adding also that from that house of Schönau a new house must immediately be born. And after two years the house which is called c Bebenhausen went forth from the house of Schönau, that the prophecy might be fulfilled by which he said: "That house shall advance and be enlarged in things and persons: and innumerable souls from this great and spacious sea it shall lead to that heavenly homeland, namely the heavenly Jerusalem."
[25] This speech being said, when he ceased to speak, his spirit was again raptured, his body lying as though dead. Seeing this, the Abbot ordered the body, which seemed lifeless, and he had admonished to beware of the snares of demons to be carried to the infirmary, because Sext had to be celebrated, and the Convent had to refresh itself. Which done, he made another speech, about the snares of demons and their battle against the faithful: addressing monks, lay brothers, and all who came, thus: "These are your enemies and foes, pursuing you day and night, and tirelessly insisting to take any of you captive: but fear them not, because the Angels of God are with you,
who protect you at every hour and help you in every necessity." And so he remained lying that day and the following night, without food or drink, not moving hand or foot. But rising in the morning, when he had heard Mass, and had to refresh his weak body with some liquor, sitting in the kitchen of the sick monks, he saw a thing worth relating and committing to memory.
[26] He sees at noon itself a double solar light A little table had been set, food prepared; from which, when he tasted, during the meal the sun from heaven was shining from the south side and casting its rays through the windows; then another sun, of brightness not dissimilar, shone from the North, which filled the whole kitchen with its splendor. Seeing which he wondered whence that sun came, and what the two suns meant, shining from here and there. Going out of the kitchen, and entering the infirmary-house, he found it full of the same light. Wishing to find out whence that so bright splendor proceeded, going on he saw that it came out from the monastery. Soon entering the monastery, which seemed wholly suffused with the same brightness, he perceives one to proceed from one celebrating Mass he found a certain monk, by name Wolfram, an already decrepit man, who had toiled sixty years and more in the Order, celebrating Mass at the altar of the Lord Savior, from whom that whole brightness proceeded: whose face was as though horned, as it is read of Moses, from the greatness of the brightness. Ex. 34:29 At which Mass so great a multitude of Angels appeared, and such inestimable glory of the divine majesty, such as he had never seen before: for it was given him from heaven to see Angels and demons. and that innumerable Angels assisted him Giving thanks to God for the vision, he announced to me saying: "In that house an equal in merits is not possible to find." He added another thing, saying that never is Mass celebrated in the world in which at least two Angels do not appear assisting and serving their Creator. After this, going out of the monastery, he returned to the little table, and refreshed his body with a little food which he had left.
[27] His meal finished, he asked for the blessing of the Lord Abbot, because he wished to return to his own cloister, which he had wonderfully founded with an Angel teaching him, and had built with the whole state of the future house shown beforehand. Which having received, as he was going out of the infirmary, it happened that I went with him. And when then he sees a demon holding Joseph bound with a fiery chain he had come opposite the door of the house of novices, he saw Joseph sitting there, of whom he said that a certain demon, bound with a fiery chain, was striving to drag him outside; and unless divine grace came to his aid, it was impossible that he should persevere in that place. These things said, going together, we came to the guest-house; and there, saluting him and bidding farewell to him as he was departing, I returned to Joseph, relating to her what the man of God had told me that he had seen; and of his colleague, namely the malign spirit. She was stupefied, and, as if made bloodless, yet he did not know her secret thinking that I had betrayed her secret to him, asked: "What is it that he saw? Did he say anything else to you?" And when I replied, "Not anything else," she, smiling and becoming more cheerful, said: "Eh, your Prophet has not eyes to see what still lies hidden; to him is not given to see my secret." This word was hidden from me, nor could I understand that he said such things about the female sex, until her death. Then first these and many other things which she had proposed to me were explained: one of which, by way of example, I thought worth relating.
[28] she asks of the author what would happen to a woman discovered among monks On a certain time, when I was discussing certain things from the sacred Scriptures, which seemed to fit a man tempted, she asked me, saying: "Dear master, if a woman, perhaps coming under the male habit, were found in this congregation, and by some chance were betrayed, and it were made known that she was a woman, what would the monks do with her? Would they cast her out? or place her in some house of religious sisters, lest she perish?" To whom I: "What is this that you ask? I have never heard such things. What woman so petulant, so wanton, so insane, would dare to presume this?" Likewise another question: "What is it that monks, when they die, are uncovered, and their bodies afterwards washed? This seems unsuitable and a certain shameful thing, which would not befit even secular persons." To which I: "Far be it that they be stripped there where there is nothing to be seen." "I should prefer," she said, nor does she approve the washing of the bodies of the dead "that this not be done to me after my death." When she had often asked me such questions, I could in no way understand what she intended by speaking such things. e
NOTES.
CHAPTER V.
Sickness, death, recognition of the female sex, burial.
[29] Trying a third time to flee, she is impeded by a flow of blood The tempter did not cease, as was said above, to pursue the man known to God alone, to draw away, to betray, to destroy. At length, not able to sustain the conflicts of demons, she went out of the cloister, came to the gate, wished there to lay aside the habit: where the divine power powerfully recalled her with a certain scourge: for she began to suffer so vehement a flow of blood, that she had to return. And this happened up to three times. When this happened the third time, she was so vehemently afflicted with pain of belly, that she was carried into the infirmary and committed to the infirmarian. Where through the whole of Lent (for it was then Lenten time) she was held by the gravest weakness, and from day to day the pain was daily growing and increasing in one growing weaker. For the time was now at hand in which, as she had foretold herself, she was to die, as she had learned before through the Angel. She is carried to the infirmary
[30] On Good Friday she asked that I be called. Being called I came; I asked what she wished. On Good Friday she foretells that she will die the following fourth feria When she had explained to me the troubles of her illness, she added this: that without doubt on the coming fourth feria she would migrate from this world. Then I: "How do you go?" "Well," she said, "and securely: for my dross has by the Lord been purified to clearness." Then I: "Have you made your confession?" b "I will make it," she said. "To whom?" c "To you," she said. "Not to me," I said, "but to the Abbot you shall make it, or to the Prior. She confesses to the Prior Beware lest you conceal anything: for he who hides his sins is not directed." "I will do," she said, "what you wish, and I will conceal nothing." So I ran and called the Prior. Who coming and questioning about individual matters: "Have you," he said, "known any woman?" She answered: "Neither a woman nor a man have I ever known." she is strengthened with the last Sacraments This word the Prior did not understand: but he enjoined penance on her. Then the Lord's Body having been given her, he caused her to be anointed with holy Oil. Which done, the weakness more and more grew, and the continuous languor announced death to be near.
[31] On the fourth feria under Vespers she is brought to the agony On the fourth feria in Easter week, before Vespers, when she was now about to die, she had me called again; I think for this reason, that she wished to reveal her mystery to me towards the end. At length being called I came; what she wished, I again asked. But alas, alas! when she wanted to speak to me, she could not: because, with me coming late, she had completely failed; and her spirit, now placed in the agony, was hastening to set out to the Lord who had called her. What was I to do? Weeping and wailing I hastened to announce these things to the Abbot. Meanwhile a mat was spread in the middle of the house, according to custom, and on it the body was laid. Supper having been eaten, the board is struck; nonetheless the whole congregation is called by the bell. The Abbot is present with the pastoral staff, prepared to perform the obsequies. All run, and a station having been made, the psalmody is recited: then the Litany is subjoined. Which said through, when it was being said, "That you may order the Spirit of your servant to be received into the bosom of Abraham, we beseech you, hear us," as those who stood nearer could more certainly note, that wonderful Joseph expired, and amid the prayers of the monks she expires rendering to God the spirit called back by divine works.
[32] Then the body is lifted, and brought for washing. When, as is wont to be done, it was stripped, about the breast of the deceased a woman's binding was found, The body stripped by which the breasts had been constricted, lest they should flow or hang,
and by this she might be detected while she lived as being a woman. When the infirmarian had loosed it, he saw the breasts, and summoned the Brothers standing by, that they too might see. she is found to be a woman Who seeing were all stupefied, doubting whether she was a woman or a man. At length the infirmarian, exploring the truth of the matter, ran to the Abbot d who meanwhile was performing the obsequies: he announced what he had seen, and suggested that he should say "Handmaid" where he had said "Servant." The Abbot, hearing these things intimated to him, did not believe; but called the Prior and four of the seniors: to whom he committed that they should see diligently, if the thing signified to him were so. They go, they see, and announce that the deceased is a woman, not a man. Hearing this, he wept, and then first corrected what needed to be changed in the prayers.
[33] Meanwhile the convent wondered greatly for what cause that commotion and running to and fro was happening; thinking, which was also true, that something new had occurred. At length the body, placed on the bier, is brought in and set in the middle. The commendations finished, the Abbot related to the whole congregation what had happened. "You see," he said, "Brothers, the body which is placed before you. the body is placed on the bier It is not, as we thought, a man's body, but a woman's. God almighty willed us to have a person among us, who until this hour was wholly unknown to us: whose soul the holy Angels received, The Abbot announces that she was a woman and without doubt have led at this hour to the joys of perennial life. Let us therefore give thanks to him who has left us this so desirable treasure, and has willed us to have such a Patroness in heaven." This said, all wept, and from excessive wonder could not even answer Amen to the Abbot's prayers. What had to be said therefore having been said, the Cantor beginning the Responsory "Libera me Domine," the body is lifted; and he buries her with fitting honor it is set down in the choir; the Abbot by nods and signs exhorts that they chant manfully. Then, the Masses being celebrated and all things rightly performed, the body of the blessed Virgin is committed to the lap of the earth with fitting honor, to the praise and glory of him alone who is to be praised and glorified, for infinite ages of ages. Amen.
[34] The obsequies having been celebrated, and the virginal body deposited in the place fittingly prepared for it, the burial completed, brief letters are written, and according to custom are directed through diverse provinces to monasteries of religious, that there commemoration might be made of the deceased Handmaid of Christ, At Neuss with the prayers devoutly offered to God for the absolution of her soul. For so the Brothers of Schönau determined to write in the brief notices to be sent: "On the 12th day before the Kalends of May, N., a handmaid of Christ, has died"; the name of Hildegund is made known because they could not yet have knowledge of her proper name. Wherefore the Lord Abbot of Schönau judged it necessary to send a messenger with his letters, who might investigate the name in the monastery where she had been placed, that it might be printed on the letters, and to find out what was said about the life or manners of the Virgin. fame is spread on every side Who returning, brought letters from the Abbess of Neuss (for so the monastery is called in which with her sister Agnes she had been commended by her parents), in which was contained that she was called Hildegund, e and that her mother and sister had died, and her father, signed with the Cross, had remained in maritime places with the aforementioned; but what happened to them, they had just now first learned. Whence throughout the whole city of Cologne and throughout the whole province the fame of her name spread, it having been learned that at Schönau such a girl had been received among the monks; and remaining hidden until the day of her death, that she was a woman, then first became evident f.
[35] Nor shall I suffer this to pass in silence, that it was revealed to me through a vision about the same fellow-disciple of mine, regarding her death. At the time in which twelve Brothers were being sent to Bebenhausen, to begin a new plantation from the house of Schönau, I was one of those who were being sent to procure such business. To the writer of the Life, sick And when we had come together to the said place, it happened that I was vexed by such a grave illness that I was rendered entirely useless to the Brothers, so that I could neither read, nor sing, nor do any other work at all for pain. When therefore I had lost the strength I had had, and there was no hope of recovering health; Hildegund appears on a certain night, when my weak limbs were refreshed by very little sleep, the holy Virgin appeared to me in the same form in which she was previously seen: and with cheerful face said to me: "Benedicite." To whom when I had replied, "Dominus"; she adds, "How are you, dear master?" "Not well, but ill," I said. Then she: "Know," she said, "that you will do well, and will recover forthwith from this infirmity. For I am sent to you for this reason, to announce such things to you." When she had said this, she promises health little by little, as a white little cloud, she disappeared. Still she revealed some things by narrating which for brevity's sake I pass over, lest anyone for boastfulness think that I have written anything to have soon followed which does not seem supported by truth. After this vision, I call God to witness, I so recovered that even today I remain as then by her blessing I was restored to former health. Thanks therefore to God, who deigned to visit me through his handmaid, through whose grace I have obtained the benefit of health. To him be praise, and honor, and glory, whose kingdom and empire remains without end forever and ever. Amen.
She died in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1188.
O wondrous Joseph, believed a man, you were a Virgin. Here my writing joins three of Christ's handmaidens to you, With whom, as I believe, you have gone up to the ethereal seats. g
NOTES.
ON BLESSED DOMINIC VERNAGALLI OF THE CAMALDOLESE ORDER, AT PISA IN ETRURIA.
IN THE YEAR 1218.
CommentaryDominic Vernagalli, of the Camaldolese Order, at Pisa in Etruria (B.)
By D. P.
The Camaldolese Order had three monasteries at Pisa, under the invocation of Saints Michael, Fridianus, and Zeno, named in the Privilege of Alexander IV, in which in the year 1258 he confirmed all the possessions of the Order. The first of these, In the monastery of Saint Michael once fallen into commendam, returned by postliminy to its ancient right and liberty, by the benefit of D. Severus of Volterra, Vicar General of Saint John the Baptist of Padua, as Silvanus Razzi writes in his Epitome of the Camaldolese history; who spent many years there as Abbot, and about to write the Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Camaldolese, applied much diligence to learn something of Blessed Dominic Vernagalli, whose body is preserved most honorably in the church of the same monastery; yet he could find only very few things, relying partly on the tradition of the elders, partly on the testimony of a certain ancient codex. We have found nearly the same things contained in the epitaph, sent to us by the Most Illustrious Knight Franciscus Maria Ceffinus, he died holily who in a certain manuscript (perhaps the very one Razzi had before his eyes) found noted that it had been sculpted or painted on the altar-table; namely that which the aforesaid Razzi says was erected for the Blessed near the preaching chair; which was without doubt done only because of great and evident arguments of sanctity in life and of blessedness after death, though that careless and ungrateful posterity has consigned them to oblivion. The epitaph is this:
In the year one thousand two hundred and nineteen; Founder of a Pisan hospital He migrated to Christ, who possesses this tomb, Dominic, priest of Christ: who to this place Subjected himself, and founded a Hospital. He died on the 12th day before the Kalends of May.
That this Hospital was situated near the monastery of Saint Fridianus, Alexander IV testifies in the already cited privilege; which with its own Founder, now a priest as it seems, passed into the right of the Camaldolese Order: in which Razzi says he afterwards lived long and most holily, his body is honorably laid beneath the altar and his body after death was placed in a precious marble coffer, and rested beneath the altar we have mentioned. "There," he says, "it remained forty-two years, honored and visited with great concourse of the Pisan people: but afterwards, when the church was enlarged, that coffer was translated beneath the aforementioned pulpit in the year 1262." But not even there was it left long; for in the last restoration of the church and choir, it was placed where it is even today (namely in the year 1600, when he was publishing his work) in one of the chapels at the side of the sacristy. Ceffinus, writing in the year 1671, says it is preserved under the altar of Saint Romuald, which, as belonging to the Founder of the Camaldolese, is most dignified after the principal altar. The first
mention of him made in the first part of his Camaldolese History in the year 1575 was Augustine of Florence: him Razzi followed, and Thomas de Minis in the catalogue of Saints and Blessed of the whole Camaldolese Order: but because none of them expressed the day of his death, he therefore seems to have been passed over by Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology. All the same erred in the year of his death, not attending to the style of the old Pisans, who ended their year at Easter, when the modern year is but in the course of the third or fourth month: whence it comes that Easter of the common year 1218, falling on April 15, began their year 1219, as has already been shown at the Life of Blessed Clara of Pisa on April 17.