ON BLESSED WILLIAM THE PILGRIM, IN BAVARIA BEYOND THE DANUBE.
ABOUT THE YEAR 1140.
CommentaryWilliam, pilgrim, in Bavaria beyond the Danube (B.)
By G. H.
The most ample monastery of the Premonstratensian Order is seen in Bavaria beyond the Danube, on the side toward Bohemia, called Winburgum, commonly Windperg, not far from Pogen; Near Winburg the monastery whose Counts Albert and his children Albert, Berthold, Hartwig, founded the said monastery in the twelfth century of Christ, Pope Eugene III approving, by a Bull about the foundation and privileges signed in the year 1166. These things may be read at more length in Wiguleus Hund and Christopher Gewold in tome 3 of Metropolis Salisburgensis page 488 and following. "In this neighborhood," says Matthaeus Rader in tome 1 of Bavaria sancta page 128, "as though carried by a tempest and shipwreck of a long pilgrimage William, he dwells in the County of Pogen escaped from chains and endured with greatest labors and dangers, found here a grateful haven of rest, being liberally aided and relieved with provisions by Luicarda, whom some have called both Hedwig and Hadewige, wife of Count Albert of Pogen. Assiduously devoted to divine things alone in those places, he learned many things from the heavenly ones, which were impending over the Emperor and the Empire. He foretold the war and slaughter of Henry III he foretells various things (who among the Germans is the fourth) with the Saxon race. He restored health to Count Albert; he heals the Count he foretold his own death as about to follow. After death, he appeared to the same as author that in the place where his body was preserved, he should erect a chapel as a sostra (thank-offering) for the health received, and as the nemosynon (memorial) of a grateful soul. This Albert was also the founder of the monastery of Winburg. William had as his companion of pilgrimage Blessed Junanus, from whose limbs, after his death, they recall that there exhaled a fragrance of a certain divine odor above all the perfumes of Arabia. he dies April 20 William lived until the 13th day before the Kalends of May in an uncertain year, yet not long before 1147, when Albert died."
[2] Thus Rader. Hundius adds that the said year of Albert's death is found on his tomb with "the 5th day before the Ides of January." Meanwhile he notes that the Bull of Eugene III, published in the year 1146, testifies that the founder himself was then already deceased. These things can stand together, if the Bull was signed not long after his death, before Easter or the feast of the Incarnate Word: namely when, according to the custom of the Roman curia, the year 1147 had not yet begun, which however had begun from the Kalends of January among the Bavarians. The same William the Pilgrim, with the title of Blessed, Ferrarius inserted in his General Catalogue on this day. A distinguished effigy of Blessed William, in the habit of a pilgrim, surrounded by heavenly rays, sculpted effigy and appearing to Count Albert sick unto death, has been published in the said Bavaria sancta of Rader with these verses subscribed:
Through a thousand chances and a thousand perils of things, The Bavarian land, to the escaped one, furnished a place. Albert, whose name comes from a bent bow, Abandoned by all physicians, had felt his help. a temple erected At whose warning he built a noble temple as thank-offering, Kindled, O William, for the divinities as you were kind. The place is Winburg: at which Thessalian Tempe might envy; A saint from the sacred shrine, holier than its natives.
ON THE VENERABLE ODA, OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER IN HAINAUT.
IN THE YEAR 1158.
PrefaceVenerable Oda of the Premonstratensian Order, in Hainaut (St.)
By G. H.
Among the monasteries of the Premonstratensian Order founded while Saint Norbert was living, the sixth is reckoned the one which exists in Hainaut near Binche, called Bonne-Espérance, which began to be built about the year 1126; whose first Abbot, Odo, about the year 1130, Lietard, Bishop of Cambrai, is said to have imparted his blessing to. Oda a religious of the Premonstratensian Order Not far from the said men's monastery was built another of religious of the same Premonstratensian Order, as we have shown was commonly done at the beginning of the Order on April 5 at the Life of Blessed Juliana the Virgin, Prioress of Mont-Cornillon at Liège. under Abbot Odo and Philip of Eleemosine, the writer of her life In this monastery of religious lived, under the said Odo the Abbot, the Venerable Virgin Oda, Prioress of the said monastery, of whom we treat here. Under the same Odo flourished among the men of the same place Philip Harvengius, afterwards successor of Odo in the monastery of Bonne-Espérance and second Abbot, a most eloquent and wonderfully learned man, pious and holy, and a familiar of Saint Bernard, whose works were published together at Douai in the year 1620, among which are various Lives of Saints and in them inserted the Life of the Venerable Oda, who died in this Philip's time: which, as he says in his Prologue, "shone distinguished by virtue in his times, under his eyes; commending himself to her merits, he undertakes out of devotion to stammer her Life"; and in the epilogue he hopes that she "will give pardon to him who, out of zeal of love and devotion and at the request of the Sisters, undertook to write her Life; and will obtain ampler grace, and lead him to the desired harbor, that he may deserve to please God with her in the region of the living." John le Paige in the Library of the Premonstratensian Order, book 2 page 486 and following, presents, as he says in the title, "the Life of Blessed Oda the Virgin, Prioress of the nuns of Rivroelle, Called Blessed near the monastery of Bonne-Espérance, drawn from that which was faithfully written by the venerable Philip Harvengius, second Abbot of Bonne-Espérance, in the book of certain Saints."
[2] and inscribed in the calendars This Virgin Oda died on April 20, the day of Easter, in the year 1158, in the cycle of the moon 19, of the sun also 19, with Sunday letter E. Aubert Miraeus, who spent his first studies in illustrating monastic antiquities, and published a Chronicle of the Premonstratensian Order in the year 1613, after then ten years, in his Belgian and Burgundian Fasti composed this elogium of her: "On the 20th day of April, Blessed Oda Virgin and religious, of the Premonstratensian institute in Hainaut, born in Hainaut of noble parents Wibert and Thescelina, and confirmed by Odo Abbot of Bonne-Espérance in her purpose of preserving her virginity, spurned carnal nuptials. That she might not be dragged to them unwilling by her father, she cut off her nose herself, on which account she is to be rightly numbered among the Martyrs. She took therefore the monastic habit of the Premonstratensian Order from the said"
Odo, and entered the monastery of Virgins formerly situated not far from the Abbey of Bonne-Espérance (which now has ceased to be), in which as Prioress, on the 12th day before the Kalends of May in the year 1158, she ceased to live. She is buried in the said monastery of Bonne-Espérance: yet the certain place of her tomb is today unknown. Her Life was elegantly written by Philip, Abbot of Bonne-Espérance, etc." John Chrysostom Vander Sterre, in the Natales Sanctorum of the most pure Premonstratensian Order, adorns her with this elogium: "The 12th day before the Kalends of May. At Binche, a town of Hainaut, near the monastery of Bonne-Espérance, the natal day of Blessed Oda the Virgin of the Premonstratensian Order. She, by a wondrous stratagem having eluded the loves of the world, and for the faith of her integrity having endured very many things, given to her heavenly spouse, after various crowns of patience had been woven for her, when she had presided with sacred Virgins with distinguished sanctity, migrated to receive the laurel of inviolate virginity." Philip Brasseur in the Origins of the monasteries of Hainaut page 181 calls her "Blessed Oda the Virgin, who by a wondrous stratagem eluded a bridegroom, she is honored by us with the title of Venerable that she might be joined to another, upon whom the Angels desire to look." We, though we see her honored by the cited authors and others with the title of Blessed, yet prefer with Arnold Raizius, who in the Appendix of Molanus has some compendium of her Life, to use only the title of Venerable Virgin, but without prejudice to the other writers. Saussay also in his Gallican Martyrology places her among the Pious and gives her the appellation of blessed memory. Balduinus finally Willotius, in the Belgian Hagiology, names her Blessed Virgin Oda for the sake of honor.
LIFE
By Philip Harvengius, Abbot of Bonne-Espérance.
Venerable Oda, of the Premonstratensian Order, in Hainaut (St.)
BHL Number: 6262
BY PHILIP THE ABBOT.
PROLOGUE
If the Poets, conjecturers of silly and old wives' fables, who, covering the truth with a cloud of lying, have resolved to cultivate vice for virtue, Beyond the pagan Poets the blind error of the Gentiles strove to commend with great praises, and to extend their names with more illustrious titles, much more does it befit us to exalt our own philosophers, assertors of truth, lovers of justice and virtue, with special encomiums, who have more diligently consigned by the bond of writing whatever anywhere either in the sentences of Doctors was praiseworthy, or shone clear in the deeds of illustrious men, Christian writers to be praised and have derived it by celebrated memory to the knowledge of posterity, to be read and not neglected. The prudent intention of whom, by the succession of gliding ages, has watched even down to us; so that not only of men, but also of women who shone wonderful in virtue above their sex, a worthy catalogue of memory should be woven: so that if anyone has been blown upon by the healthful breath of such report, he may be provoked by pious zeal to live similarly; and so, in the night of this world, in the slipping times, wherever such a lamp has been kindled and shone, it should not be hidden under a bushel, but that it may give light to all in the house of God, especially those who compiled lives of the Saints be raised upon a candlestick. Moreover, just as he who, either puffed up with knowledge, or corrupted by envy, or pressed by sloth, chooses to know only for himself what he has learned, rather than to extend it to the ears of many, incurs no little note of reproach; so he who exalts men worthy of praise in the Churches, and preaches them at the head of every thoroughfare, makes himself praiseworthy and adds grace to his head. Which the first of the Apostles took care to do, when the Scribes and Pharisees forbade him to speak in the name of Jesus, he elegantly met them with this kind of response: "We cannot," he said, "but speak the things which we have heard and seen." Acts 4:20 For, as someone has said, he in some way seeks the fellowship of praise, who first announces the well-spoken or well-done things of others. For the possession of no good is joyful without a sharer.
[2] Wherefore, although the file of literary learning has not polished the grossness of my wit; although the author writes out of devotion the Acts of Oda although I have in no wise attained the sophistic conclusion of Socrates, or the enthymeme of Demosthenes, or the opulence of Ciceronian eloquence, yet relying more on devotion than on knowledge, I shall undertake as best I may to stammer in pedestrian speech the Life of a certain Virgin, who in our days, under our own eyes, shone distinguished in virtue: commending myself to her merits, that she may deign to open my mouth in her praise, so that a better fortune may follow the weak beginning; nor shall I fear the poison of an envious reader, commending himself to her merits nor dread the garrulous judge, while in the veiling of her prayers, secure from such whirlwind and rain, I lie hidden.
CHAPTER I.
Birth: love of chastity, flight from secular things.
Just as at midnight, with shining stars, the pole is adorned with pleasing variety, and the rough fleece of shadows is gradually wiped from the world by the benefit of light, so in the deep blindness of this pilgrimage, the Saints compared to stars the congregation of the Saints is wondrously invested with the diverse splendor of merits: which, while it sends forth manifold rays of virtues through the world, is found brighter than all the beauty of the stars. By the grace of this diversity, the variety feeds the eye of the beholder, since it knows nothing confused, receives nothing dissonant in itself, but always recurs to the same. Just as in that habitation of the heavenly city, whose participation is in the same, there are many mansions, distinct orders, diverse brightnesses; yet one God is all in all, the inextinguishable light, the undying life, the unfailing peace, the unwithering beauty. In this order of eternal seats certain ones excel the rest with more illustrious titles, gifted with a greater gift of blessedness: namely those who, in the pressure of this wine-press, crushed their bodies for the testament of God, or those who, denying themselves, fried flesh and spirit in the frying-pan of temptations, some brighter than others sweating in many fastings, vigils, and labors. Over all these, virginal chastity by a higher grade and a certain prerogative of dignity rightly presides: it accompanies the King of glory, the Lamb without spot, the more closely as the more like. as the Virgins are This height of life the venerable Virgin Oda desired to undertake: in which the very author and consecrator of the same virginity, and among these Oda kindly favoring her vows, kept her unstained to the glorious end of her life.
[4] In the time when Pope a Innocent was steering the chariot of the universal Church, b Lothair was administering the Roman empire in the western parts, c Louis son of Philip was holding the royal right among the Franks, the venerable man d Rainald was overseeing the metropolis of Reims, e Liethard the diocese of Cambrai, and f Baldwin of Jerusalem held the principate of Hainaut, in the aforesaid region, in a village which is commonly called Allodium, g this Virgin proceeded from distinguished birth: her father Wibert, her mother by name Thescelina: who shone both with the piety of divine worship and with the nobility of their origin. The wise Virgin therefore, drawing her noble carnal origin from both parents, born of pious and noble parents would not obscure her native brilliance by a degenerate life: but cutting back in its very germ the itching of the flesh, which powerfully enervates feminine softness, she utterly banished from herself the tractable allurements of the world and illicit affections; and devoting herself wholly to the school of virtue, she fittingly adorned her first age with the flower of chastity and the title of modesty. For she felt, according to a certain [h] pagan, that "she would rely without cause on her parents' titles, she loves chastity unless she were helped by her own." Whence also Boethius: "The glory of another does not make you splendid, if you have not your own." She consecrates herself to Christ as her spouse She purposed therefore in her mind, and vowed while still a young girl, to dedicate the privilege of her virginity to that heavenly Spouse: and daily meditated like a dove how, leaving the marshy places of earthly pleasure, she might the more fittingly and freely swim to the mountain of a holier life, and place her little nest in the cleft of a humble rock.
[5] And now with all vows she aspired to that of the Song of Songs: "I will go, she said to me, to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hills of Lebanon." Cant. 4:6 For she saw many in the plain of secular life, with noxious liberty, more licentiously unbridled through the declivities of morals; and knowing that perverse things are not corrected except by the rule, she desired to be raised to the mountain of myrrh, that is, to the arduous discipline of the regular formula. And because the lily of chastity is very often forced to be swallowed among the thickets of transitory vanity and the overflowings of a miry valley, she longed to be transported to the hills of Lebanon, that is, to the assemblies of religious women, which were blooming again with the most agreeable whiteness of all sanctity. she aspires to monastic life Indeed, after her vow was made, she lay hidden under the custody of her parents until the years of puberty; and with her mind at leisure from the things of the world (which is the first argument of a composed mind), she determined to withdraw into herself, and to dwell with herself. And lest the fame of her innocence should in any way be envied as a stepmother, she shunned as vipers the gatherings and conversations of girls whose hearts were set on luxury and idleness: admitting to herself only those i Sabine (modest) women whose talk was of honesty and friendship, she avoids wanton girls whose public testimony their private action would not obscure. Although her native color wondrously adorned the outer aspect of her countenance, and with virginal moderation she imparted honeyed cups to those conversing with her, she loves honesty yet all her beauty and glory was from within: because her Beloved was delightfully tarrying between her two breasts, with whom in the secret of her conscience, as in a nuptial chamber, she continually conversed. Therefore she feared, or rather despised, the wanton addresses and looks of young men, she despises the company of young men whose eye announces impudent things and mouth speaks vanity; who walking with supine chest are emptily lifted up over themselves, and are rolled headlong into every pleasure of lust.
[6] While therefore nothing earthly sat in her mind, while she daily resolved to satisfy her vows, while she burned with love unyieldingly but happily conceived, she reveals the secret to one alone she called to her a certain kinsman of hers, more familiar to her than the rest, and, though fearful, explained to him to a nicety her holy ardors: imploring him and testifying with many tears, that the secret she had entrusted to him should with the utmost study be concealed from her parents, and that through his suffrage she might deserve to come to the desired effects. But because to a desiring mind nothing is hastened enough, she repeats her prayers that the present vow should not be deferred to tomorrow, but that she might be taken as quickly as possible to Dom Odo, then Abbot of Bonne-Espérance: so that from him and under him she might without delay deserve to obtain the habit of holy religion. But because "nowhere is trust safe, nor can a friend easily be guarded against, if he wishes to plot," while the Virgin in her dove-like simplicity thought her vow was being more secretly taken care of, he turned backward; and not fearing to wound a friend's breast, went to disclose the secret to her father and mother, and on the contrary and in perverse order, strove to impede the journey he ought to have prepared. When her parents had perceived such a thing about their daughter in their ears, they were troubled, and moved upon this word, they grievously grieved; and, counsel having been taken with their kin, they determined to weaken the purpose of chastity with the marital fetter.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Nuptials prepared by her parents. The consent asked before the Bridegroom and the Priest.
[17] A bridegroom was therefore sought for the virgin, She is destined for nuptials who was found fitting for her nuptials in race, morals, wealth, and honor: and a multitude of friends and relatives having been gathered from this side and that, they treated of the joining together in marriage of their children. That young man, Simon by name, received with prone favor the bride offered by her father and parents, with the equal assent of his own, and boasted, on a good hope indeed, that he would be happy with such nuptials; and he urges that pledge be given to the promises as soon as possible, which was also confirmed without delay with the sacrament of an oath. A pact therefore having been given by both sides, at length the day for celebrating this joining is fixed and named.
[8] Meanwhile, while the sacred virgin hovered suspended between hope and fear, and her mind was held by diverse and doubtful thought, she was terrified by the sad and unexpected auspice of this rumor; for the secret, which she had committed to be concealed in the ear of one, she heard spread to all in public: and she who had resolved not to know the bed of a man in offense, allowed to be tempted received that her nuptials must be celebrated immediately: and she who had now prepared to go out of her father's house, and with ready journey to proceed to the place of her proposed holiness, is impeded by a grave stumbling-block, and is shaken by a new fear, lest she lose the seal of her virginal chastity. that her virtue might shine forth But he who has not been tempted, what does he know? Further, that is not virtue, or does not appear to be, which the diligent athlete in the gymnasium of temptations does not compel to sweat by frequent exercise; which either the shameless South wind does not press with all its force, or the Thracian Boreas does not more frequently strike with a free blast; which pressed down by harmful torpor, does not bravely repel from itself the poisoned arrows of the enemies. For virtue is named from this, that relying on its own strength, it is not overcome by adversity. But virtue, having nothing contrary in itself, does not shine out, nor is it made splendid without examination: but not proved or examined, it is not virtue, nor can it bring great spirits to the contest, who has never been bruised. Therefore the Lord of virtues, who so allows his fighters to be tempted, yet so that the temptation can be sustained by a successful outcome, willed his handmaid (whom he was arranging to fight with the enemy in a triumphal contest, that she might have the custom of fighting) to be more diligently exercised in this wrestling-school: for custom makes the endurance of labors easier. He permitted, I say, and willed her to be tempted, not that she, fainting under the load of feminine weakness, should be hurled about by the enemy, but that a wondrous spectacle might be given to all: while an unarmed and humble girl was sent into single combat against that armored and lofty Goliath, and by manly engagement bravely vanquishing the enemy, she might worthily obtain the palm of victory for her merit.
[9] Feeling, therefore, that various whirlwinds of temptations were being stirred up against her, and that the enemy was preparing wars against her with all his force, the virgin has recourse to herself, and awakens the beloved, prayers being poured forth delightfully lying down in the humble inn of her heart; and lays her plaintive voices before him, and announces the enemy lurking before the doors; and asks that help be sent her from the holy place, and that her loins be girded with fortitude, and having invoked Christ as her spouse knowing that there is need of fortitude against one fighting valiantly. She also more attentively commends to Christ the privilege of her chastity, which she consigned to him when still of tender age; and that she may run the way of truth which she has chosen with unoffended foot and unpolluted path, she prays that the bonds which Satan has prepared for her for ruin and scandal may be broken. While she so stands at the friend's door with pleasing importunity, repeating her prayers, he awakes, and inclines the ear of piety to the voice of his bride, and opens to her, and benignly consoles the tender soul of the loving one, impressing the kiss of inner love. And lest she fear from the nocturnal terror or start at any encounters of temptation, he refreshes her with the bread of strength, having every delight and every savor of sweetness; and he promises himself to be a protection to her in the day of tribulation. Receiving this divinely inspired oracle, and as though receiving in a fertile field a certain most strong seed, the virgin shuts out empty fears: she is strengthened and she who a little before could be inclined by the slightest breath of any breeze, now standing fixed laughs at the wraths of the ether, the sounds of the sea, the whirlwinds of the winds. While around her the enemy sets many snares, that the virginal flower might incur inevitable detriment, she proposes to fulfill with more ardent vow the purpose once well-conceived of living well; and with free flight she swims out to the defense of the solid rock. In the most fortified places, therefore, her tent fixed, she now does not fear the thousands of people surrounding her: but skilled in fighting if camps stand against her, in this hope she glories; she provokes the enemy rather than is herself provoked; now secure to say with Paul, that neither tribulation, nor sword, nor death, nor any creature will be able to lead her from the love of Christ. Rom. 8:3
[10] At length the day of the nuptials presses on, and by celebrated fame is spread to the ears of very many; the house is adorned with various decoration and painted tapestries, the household walks more neat and glad than usual, the manifold adornment for the virgin's attire is procured with the utmost care, the utmost zeal: yet she herself does not walk in great things nor in marvelous things above her, nor is the gravity of her face changed in any way. For she had put on a manly spirit, "beyond which," as one has said, "nothing is wonderful; to which, when great, nothing is great." Her father, noticing that his daughter was by no means inclining to the purpose of his desired will, is pressed by excessive fear, lest, while he insists with all his force that she be betrothed unwilling, excessive sorrow may occupy her mind and she be forced to fall into an incurable illness, or certainly attempt to take flight, from which she could not easily be recalled. While he revolves these questions of opinions in his plaintive breast, he resolves at length to meet them with a false argument: and with evening coming on, which was setting on the day of betrothal, he addresses a flattering speech to the virgin's ears, She learns from her parents that the day of nuptials was set covered with the veil of lying. "It is not seemly, daughter, that the flower of your youth should fall and wither in its very rising, lest your native color be tinged with the ink of any sadness: but rather rejoice in your adolescence, and enjoy much possession and many riches, and, the cloud of sadness wiped away, clothe yourself with the adornment of gladness. Drive away, I beg, from your mind all gravity, and do not wound with sad countenance your parents' piety. And do not fear what is not to be feared: I have, because of some affairs in which I am occupied, postponed the day of the nuptial union, which you think is to be celebrated tomorrow, to another time, when it can be more conveniently fulfilled." Hearing that word which the father spoke to her "in a heart and a heart" (i.e. deceptively), taking it as though for an omen, she not knowing embraces the false for the true: and unknowing of what the coming day would bear, she glories as though the first horn of the battle were broken off.
[11] And indeed, the night having passed, when with the revolving axis the sun had shone forth the morning of the day, the bridegroom is present at the appointed time with a great retinue of his own; and the parents of the girl arrive, and many noble virgins and matrons, she is led to the church adorned with much care and shining with costly arrangement of garments. And because the church was not near, the multitude of the guests is gathered in the court of the girl's father, and she too is ordered to come. She, knowing she must obey her parents, does not delay to obey the commands, and proceeds not as one about to marry into a hall, and after consent given by the bridegroom to the Priest but as one about to fight in a theater; about to show more evidently not only in words but also in works how great a love of chastity remained in her breast. And when the Priest (as is the custom) questioned Simon the bridegroom with a threefold interrogation, whether he consented voluntarily that Oda the Virgin should be lawfully joined to him, he answered that he had come for this, and promised that he would with all zeal fulfill what the conjugal law commanded. But when they came to the virgin, asked, she is silent and she was asked according to custom whether she would accept the aforesaid bridegroom, she with her face suffused with blush and her tender brow bent down, considering whatever sounded in her eyes or ears as empty and proud, did not answer the Priest with any word. When, of the bystanders, some assigned this silence of hers to arrogance, others to modesty, and were lacerating her pure conscience with diverse sentences, one of the matrons, who more familiarly joined to her side, consulting the virginal modesty, blandly and gently thus addresses her: "Do not fear, O noble virgin, with lawful response to send forth to those things of which you are asked the assent of your will: because as it was of honesty and modesty, to be silent once and again when admonished, so you will be noted of ignorance and contempt, if, where and when it is fitting, you neither know how nor wish to open your mouth. Ecclus. 32:11 For there is a time to speak, and a time to be silent. And though wisdom advises a young man that even in his own cause he should scarcely speak, yet lest he incur the worthy reproof of excessive silence, she teaches that when questioned a second time, he should begin his response. Lest, therefore, you too modestly confound the faces of so many and so great men; lest in your contemporaries you pour forth an example of silence, nay rather contempt of responding: to the interrogation of the Priest already uttered a third time, I pray, open your generous mouth, and bring forth a pleasing reply."
[12] To this the virgin: "Since," she said, "you so much ask whether it be settled in my mind to have this bridegroom whom you name to me; know most certainly that I wish neither to receive him, nor any other; because I am joined in love to Him, to Him alone I keep faith, to whom, Virgin, I willed the title of my virginity to be consigned while I was still a little girl; she spurns carnal nuptials from whose embraces neither by the love of another, nor by gifts, nor by the threats of my parents or scourges, shall I in any way be separated."
CHAPTER III.
Out of love of chastity her nose is cut off.
[13] At the novelty of this response all the multitude that was present stupefied wonders. But Simon blushes vehemently at being scorned, and seeking to cloak his confusion under the supercilious air of some objection, falsely boasts that he is unwilling to have her who, being mute, lacked the benefit of speech. the bridegroom withdrawing When he had turned away with suspended brow and departed indignant, and as an enemy pressed on from the rear, with a swift horse returned home with his own, the Virgin's parents and those who had remained with her, thinking themselves no less confounded, were gravely angry against her; and the word which had been uttered from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith, they try to infect with the ferment of a sinister suspicion. Thus indeed the human eye, while it is gladly clouded with the lippitude of envy, less diligently investigates the sentence of truth in doubtful matters: and those things which very often are done with a good mind, it chooses to incline to the reprobate side, rather than, keeping a sound eye, to judge nothing rashly of hidden things. Whence when Anna in the temple prayed to the Lord with poured-out tears, and no voice of hers could at all be heard with her lips slightly trembling, the priest Eli, whose eye already in his reprobate old age was dim, watched more attentively, as is written, the mouth and face of her praying; and the foolish old man judged her not so much to be pouring out the groaning of speech as belching forth too much drink: "Put away," he said, "the wine a little with which you are moist." 1 Kgs 1:12 But a mind cohering to itself by firm reason is not easily moved from the rectitude of its state; and a pure conscience cannot be deterred by the tongues of barking enviers: whence the Apostle says to the Corinthians: "With me it is a very small thing that I am judged by you or by man's day." 1 Cor. 4:3 The prudent Virgin therefore stands, with mind placid and serene aspect, in the midst, so to say, of Babylon, nor can the vehement blast of the North wind shake the citadel of her virginity; because a daughter of Jerusalem, surrounded with the rampart of all sanctity and chastity, to be forced to them by her father she spurns the swine of luxury and the eye of petulance, nor has anything in common with the daughters of Askalon. But her father, fearing lest he be accused of lying or perjury, lest a mark of blame be brought upon his name, takes with him some of his necessary ones, and goes to recall as soon as possible the confused young man, and to join his daughter to him, whether she would or not, by the promised marriage. But in vain is the net cast before the eyes of the winged.
[14] Now when she learned what her father was planning against her, while the crowd that remained was murmuring at what had happened and was disturbed, in her chamber finding occasion, she secretly withdrew; and coming home, retreated into her mother's chamber. The door secured behind her, she prays God to come to her aid: and seizing the sword which she sees hanging at the head of the bed, she hastens to cut off her nose. But her hand, trembling and not skilled in striking with the sword, when she cannot with her feminine stroke prevail to cut the upper hardness of the sinews, indignant, said to herself: "O sword, how dull is your edge, she cuts off her nose which cannot with biting keenness destroy the beauty of my face!" Saying these things, she erected herself against herself, and pressed the iron more hardly, and with an oblique wound cut off her nostrils, and distilled a precious little stream of rosy blood into a basin; and thus very greatly disfigured the native splendor of her face. O wondrous breast of the Virgin! That she might not be fit to be conformed to this wicked age, she chose to live with a crooked nose; and that her seductible beauty should be deformed, rather than be painted with adulterine dye of false beauty, and have wanton eyes lustily cast upon her. She preferred, I say, Christ's handmaid, with dirty skin and humble cultivation, to remain abject in his house, and among his handmaids to be reckoned even the last, rather than with superfluous adornment to wipe the dust after the manner of fox-tails, and to cherish her body with whorish unguents, by which the nausea of adulterers is usually provoked.
[15] We read of certain holy women, both married and virgins, when their chastity was assailed by impudent men, some to have cast a sword upon their breasts with strong stroke, others to have plunged themselves into deep waters, some to have perished in fires or by precipice, and to have forestalled the rash attempts of those men by self-sought death, and thus to have purchased the venerable name of martyrdom by the price of glorious death. And I seem to see Oda the Virgin no less enduring martyrdom than those: who though she did not put off the tunic of her flesh by her own or her persecutor's momentary blow; though the penal hardness of torments did not wear her out, on account of this wrestling of the flesh overcome yet she washed herself in the blood of the Lamb, and kept her white garments, until it should be taken out of the midst. But how, if necessity came upon her, would she avoid to die for Christ, who so disfiguring herself for love of him, went forth beyond the flesh in this body? For I think this kind of martyrdom greater, and to surpass all matters of torments, if someone live in the flesh beyond the flesh, if he has castrated himself for the kingdom of heaven. Finally, a general sentence is laid on all, that when the reason of faith demands, they should lay down their souls unto death; and to this foundation should not prefer houses, wives, sons, or themselves. But this is not prescribed by any law or drawn into a precept, but is set forth as supreme and best, nor is it argued as a transgression, save in him who has obligated himself by vow, or has spontaneously violated what has been undertaken. "He that is able," says the Lord, "to receive, let him receive." Matt. 19:12 And the Apostle says: "Concerning virgins, I have no command; but I give counsel." 1 Cor. 7:25 Blessed Fulgentius also, in a certain sermon commending virginity, says: "Virginity cannot be commanded, but is to be desired." Further, we find many magnificent men to have bravely overcome many powers of vices, to have taken many fortifications against themselves by strong impugnment, whom afterwards the native heat dried up from all the greenness of sanctity, whom the itching of the loins almost wearied, whom feminine softness basely subjugated to itself as weak and unwarlike. But he who, aided by grace, prevailed against this filth, against this enemy, and did not give place to corruption in his flesh or in his mind, is worthy of praise, since he has done marvellous things in his life. Oda therefore is both Martyr and Virgin, because virginity cannot be without martyrdom, She is to be judged a Martyr who repressed the inciting rebellion of the belly with the cincture of strong chastity, and, abhorring as noxious that beauty which in her displeased her, signed her face with a sword-like cautery, saying, not by voice but by deed, that of Agnes: "I have set a sign on my face, that I may admit no lover except Christ." But let us now return to the matter.
[16] When those who were then at home were suspected of what secret thing the girl was doing in her chamber, and were more curiously seeking the matter now with ears, now with eyes, they perceived with their ears a voice murmuring to itself, and knocking on the door, the door being broken open they asked with much entreaty, much insistence, that it be opened for them. And when she returned no answer, nor wished to open, they, suspecting that she was dying either by the sword or by excessive pain, all pushed at the door together, and threw it down with ax and adze. And seeing how cruelly she had savaged herself, she is found drenched in blood and that a great effusion of blood had rendered her nearly exsanguine, and that an icy pallor had already fully tinged her face, they roared out with a vehement cry, and were held in wonder more than can be told. And her mother, seeing the face of her daughter deformed, the mother lamenting falls on her face, beats her breast, stooped with skin loose from old age; and drawing long sighs from the depths, she pours forth heavy waves of tears; and weaving a tearful tragedy, proclaims herself the most unfortunate of all women. It flies to the father's ears, who was then in that place; and stricken with grief of heart within, he returns home on a swift horse: and beholding the wave of blood flowing from his daughter's face, and the old woman, her companion, plucking with bitterness of weeping the grey hairs of her head, and the father bursting into tears and the whole house spending the office of mourning with tearful voice as for the dead, not able to bear it, he bursts into tears, and is overwhelmed with inconsolable sorrow, nor does he soften his grief by the temperament of a manly mind, or moderate his tears. The cithara is turned into mourning, and the voice of gladness into sorrow; that jocular applause claps sad hands, and a grave sigh intervening doubles the new pain; the chorus of virgins also, preparing to lead festive dances, lays aside the song of sweet melody, and is forced to enter upon sad measures; and all that splendid array of the nuptials becomes dark with foul soot, and is covered with mourning garment: and, what is more wonderful, while all weep, she remains without weeping; she herself constant without weeping as though possessed of her vow, with deaf ear she passes over the sad complaints about herself, nor is shaken by any fear.
CHAPTER IV.
Entry into the Monastery.
[17] When the aforesaid Abbot Odo of Bonne-Espérance had learned these things by a sure report, and the virtue of the woman so celebrated had moved him, she is visited by 2 religious of Bonne-Espérance he summoned to himself two of his own, religious men, and sent them thither under the pretext of lodging: to whom he with the greatest diligence entrusted that they should cherish her with the hand of pious consolation, and find out what she intended to do. When these men, coming to him, the virgin's father most liberally received, he imparted cheerful countenance above all things: and she, venerating those sent as though messengers from a heavenly seat, served them with devoted ministry. And when to them secretly asking she had fully declared her vow and purpose, and had heard with believing ear that their aid was at hand for her in this, she asked her father that he would no longer impede with any bonds of conjugal union the way of chastity which she had chosen, but that he would, with kindly favor, grant permission to go out of the world to her, now useless and as though already cast off. He in no wise accedes to this petition, but interposes the bar of contradictory denial; and reckons it frivolous that she should seek to undergo the narrow hiding-place of voluntary poverty and the strictest religion, when, as heir of many possessions, she ought rather to be adorned with illustrious name, and, in her flowery and green youth, be joined to a man by the conjugal law of her puberty. Then she said: "If you will not hear the voice of my entreaty, again tempted by her father, she persists constant nor let me go, that with free foot I may now set out to the place of the heavenly calling; if the prize, for which I intend to run in this stadium, by your hindering I cannot attain; the flower, which you call the flower of my youth, I will so destroy and cut down that it ought not to be desired, not only by any noble, but not even by any plebeian: and I will add to your head a grief which, even if you wished, you could not forget. Why do you strive with such and so vain solicitude to join me unwilling in marriage? Why do you not more diligently consider that, dead to the world, I cannot live again to the world? Truly, father, know that, if no other hope at all smiled on my vows, if, I say, no other condition would grant me a favorable outcome of the way, than that, namely, you, subjected to my feet in some mire, should furnish me a bridge with your body, if for me to cross, you should bow yourself down; with free brow I confess, I would not delay to cross over you; and, you being despised, nay trodden under foot, I would hasten rejoicing to the place I have chosen."
[18] When, in these or similar words, she contended in pious strife with her father, and he despaired of profiting at all, his heart was vehemently troubled in him; and at length, though sad, and she receives permission he assented to her vows. Having received permission, she meets with the aforesaid guests,
and indicates to them the whole series of her affair. They, rejoicing, give thanks to God, who by a new and unusual example preserved this Virgin from the shipwreck of carnal corruption, and commit the matter completed to their Father. Oda meanwhile, wishing to join herself as soon as possible to the holy society of religious women, was distressed by sorrows and impeded by delays: and because she had been too suddenly drawn away from the bonds of the nuptials which she had refused, she had not yet been able to prepare a fitting attire for the journey. Meanwhile her mother, watching diligently, and seeing her daughter, though disfigured, still noble, and fearing that her purpose might fail her, ceased not with tears and entreaties to urge her again to nuptials, and though she saw her unmoved, did not depart from her importunity. But when she saw that she was unmoved, she was overcome with great grief; and, weeping, blessed her and permitted her to depart. The Virgin, having put off secular garments, humbly put on the habit of religion, and, with the guidance of certain matrons, was led to the monastery of Bonne-Espérance, where she was received with great joy by Abbot Odo, and by him was sent to the monastery of virgins, which was not far off. There she was received by the Prioress and the Sisters with the greatest favor, and was clothed in the habit of the Order of Prémontré, and was numbered among the handmaids of God.
CHAPTER V.
Life in the monastery: humility, obedience, charity.
[19] Now when she had been received in the monastery, she leads a religious life she began to give herself wholly to the divine service, with such fervor of spirit, with such diligence of body, that all who saw her marveled. For she watched that nothing might escape her of those things which the rule commanded, and with the utmost zeal strove to fulfill whatever was enjoined upon her by her superiors. She was assiduous at the divine praises, attentive in reading, fervent in prayers, humble in obedience, punctual in works of charity. She did not seek her own, but the things of Jesus Christ; nor did she presume to do anything without the counsel of her superiors. In her mouth was the word of God, in her heart his love; her speech was seasoned with the salt of wisdom, her silence fruitful of holy thoughts. She treated the Sisters with such reverence, as if she were the least of all; and if anyone spoke a harsh word to her, she received it as coming from God, and repaid it with a meek and gentle answer. She was always the first to the church, the last to depart; she was always ready for the humblest offices of the house, and thought nothing beneath her dignity which could contribute to the common good.
[20] her abstinence In abstinence she so disciplined herself that she was content with the poorest food, and that in small quantity. She fasted frequently, and when she ate, took no pleasure in the taste, but only what was necessary for sustaining life. She drank water or very weak wine, and avoided all delicacies. In vigils she was so constant that she rose before the others to prayer, and after the others had gone to rest, she remained watching and praying. Her bed was hard, her clothing rough, her couch ever the floor or a bench. She afflicted her flesh with hair-shirts and disciplines, and did not spare her body in anything that might serve for the perfection of the spirit.
[21] her humility In humility she so excelled that, although she was of noble birth and distinguished learning, she reckoned herself as nothing, and delighted to be reckoned so by others. She shunned praises, and if anyone commended her, she was troubled as though hearing some ill word. She was always ready to serve the lowest of the Sisters, and gladly performed the meanest offices. If anyone was sick, she was the first at her side, ministering with her own hands. If anyone was sad, she consoled her; if any were tempted, she strengthened her with holy exhortations. Her charity extended to all, to friends and strangers alike; she loved her enemies, and prayed for those who persecuted her.
[22] she is chosen Prioress When, after some years, the Prioress of the monastery died, all the Sisters with one voice chose Oda as her successor. She, though she strove by all means to refuse, was at length compelled by obedience to accept the office, and entered upon it with such prudence and such diligence that, under her government, the monastery flourished more than before. She was the mother of all the Sisters, the guardian of discipline, the example of virtue. She so governed that all willingly obeyed her, and found in her not so much a superior as a most loving mother.
CHAPTER VI.
Miracles: her death.
[23] Her miracles in life The Lord willed to glorify his handmaid even in this life with signs and miracles. For at her prayer the sick were healed, the demons were driven out, the afflicted were consoled. Many who came to her with various infirmities departed whole; and her fame spread far and wide, so that from diverse places people came to her to obtain her blessing and her prayers. She however, hiding these things as much as she could, attributed nothing to herself, but all to the Lord, whose handmaid she confessed herself to be.
[24] Her final illness When, therefore, she had lived many years in the monastery, worn out with labors and vigils, and made ripe for the heavenly harvest, she was seized by a grave illness, and understood that the end of her pilgrimage was at hand. Having called together the Sisters, she exhorted them to perseverance in the service of God, to mutual charity, to observance of the rule; and she commended them all to the Lord with tears and prayers. Then, having received the sacraments of the Church, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, she rendered her blessed soul to her Creator on the 12th day before the Kalends of May, in the year of the Lord 1158, on the day of Easter. Her holy body was buried with due honor in the monastery of Bonne-Espérance, where it was for a long time venerated with great devotion by the faithful.
[25] Epilogue Thus we have run through, as we could, the Life of Blessed Oda, praying that by her merits we may deserve to attain the same glory to which she attained. For she, leaving the joys of the world, spurning carnal nuptials, disfiguring her beauty, bearing the insults of parents and kinsmen, shut herself up in the cloister, and there, by prayer, fasting, and works of charity, she prepared for herself a place in the heavenly mansions. May she, by her intercession, obtain for us that we may follow her example, and that we may deserve to have part with her in the kingdom of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, forever and ever. Amen.