ON SAINT HONOFRIA THE VIRGIN,
Roman Martyr, at Antwerp in Belgium.
CommentaryHonofria, Virgin, Roman Martyr, at Antwerp in Belgium (Saint)
G. H.
[1] Nicolaus Lancicius of the Society of Jesus, a man illustrious in outstanding learning and who died with the reputation of sanctity, during his lifetime cultivated a familiar friendship with John Bolland, the principal author of this work on the Acts of the Saints, John Bolland obtained the body of Saint Honofria from Nicolaus Lancicius, and entrusted to him all his works for printing in type, which he here took care to have printed in two simultaneous volumes, as we more broadly explained in the preliminary treatise to the first volume of the Acts of the month of March on the Life, works, and virtues of the said Bolland. There in chapter 5, then in chapter 20, we indicated that the same Father Bolland, through the gift of the said Lancicius, obtained the sacred body of the holy Virgin and Martyr Honofria, of whom we here treat. There is extant, printed at Vilnius, an account of the supplication held when many bodies of Saints were brought there, which the already mentioned Lancicius had brought with him from Rome; and among the others there was kept the head of this Saint: the head preserved at Vilnius. how the rest of her body was brought to Antwerp with the bodies of other Saints Translation and the Bull of veneration granted by the Bishop of Antwerp. is evident from the diploma of Gaspar Nemius, then Bishop of Antwerp, afterwards promoted to the Archiepiscopal See of Cambrai, to be inserted here, by which at the same time the faculty was given of exposing the said Relics in the church of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp: concerning the splendor of which church and the various relics brought into it we treated on February 3, at the Acts of the Translation of Saint Fortunatus, the Roman Martyr.
[2] When therefore Jubilate Sunday, or the third after Easter, had been assigned for the veneration of this Saint Honofria, which in the year 1646 April 21 fell on this April 22, on the day before this day this sacred body, in an elegant little case, was carried from the oratory of the lower Sodality to the church, across the intervening courtyard, in a procession organized in this way. There went before, with burning torches, the Coadjutor Brothers cloaked; then all the Priests in linen and marked with stoles: four in the habit of Deacons (of whose number one was the aforementioned Bolland) carried the bier: The body carried from the place of the Sodality into the church, the sides were surrounded by twelve youths in the habit of Angels. Following behind was the Reverend Father Conrad de Gaure, the Provost, and two other Priests clothed in copes. Meanwhile, through the windows of the temple, with trumpets sounding, flutes, and other musical instruments, the Saint was honored. In the middle of the church a platform was erected, on which the case was placed. The Te Deum was sung, with a versicle and prayer of the Saint, and in her honor a brief sermon was delivered by Father Hendrik van Olmen, then the Orator of our church, who afterwards as a Missionary in the town of Breda, there among the heterodox, when the plague was raging, publicly exposing himself, in obsequious service of outstanding charity toward Catholics, ended his life, which even among non-Catholics many years afterwards was most praised.
[3] The next day the case with the body of Saint Honofria was placed upon the high altar, and a solemn Mass was sung of her, April 22 she is exposed on the altar as also all the private Masses with the Ecclesiastical Office of the same were recited. After dinner, after a twofold sermon again delivered concerning the same Saint, the solemnity was concluded with varied song and the usual Prayer. Afterwards arrived the body of Saint Rufina, Virgin and Martyr, whose solemnity is celebrated on the first Sunday of September. Each body, by the extraordinary munificence of the Houtappel Ladies, was enclosed in two silver reliquaries of great weight and artistry, adorning the altar of the Marian chapel on the more solemn feasts, and is enclosed in a silver case. which, founded by the same with memorable liberality for posterity, and entirely clothed with exotic marbles, is counted among the more august and more worthy to behold sanctuaries of Belgium. Here therefore we append the diploma cited before.
[4] "GASPAR, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Bishop of Antwerp. Since the honors rendered to the saints redound to the glory of God Most Great and Good, and to the benefit of the whole Church; for this reason we judge that whatever things make for increasing the cult of the same Saints are to be promoted by us with singular zeal. After the bodies brought from Poland, Since therefore the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus, asserting that some bodies of Saints, brought in previous years from Rome into Poland, had been transmitted from there to this place, desired (so that they might be exposed for the public veneration of the faithful) that they be examined and approved by our authority; gladly assenting to their pious requests, we came to the Professed House of the same Society at Antwerp, on July 20 of the year 1636. Here first in the presence of several venerable Canons of our Cathedral College, The Bishop of Antwerp, and Fathers of the said Society, we read the Patent Letters of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Abraham Woyva, Bishop of Vilnius, reads the letter of the Bishop of Vilnius, given at Vilnius on September 21 of the year 1635, by which he makes trust that he had seen various public and authentic instruments, duly and legitimately made at Rome and elsewhere, and lacking all suspicion; from which he acknowledged many Relics of holy Martyrs and of holy Virgins and Martyrs brought from Italy by Reverend Father Nicolaus Lancicius, by which he approved various relics, then Provincial of the Province of Lithuania of the Society of Jesus, to be true and legitimate Relics of the Saints, duly and legitimately acquired, and therefore as such through the most extensive kingdom of Poland; in various Episcopates, by the Ordinaries of places, and
finally by him, had been received for public and customary cult in the Holy Roman Church, and honorably carried in procession by the secular and regular clergy, and deposited in various churches: and that other similar Relics acquired and brought in the same way, for the propagation of the honor of God in his Saints, had been sent also to other provinces by the same Reverend Father Nicolaus Lancicius, and he attests the Original writings: to which the original instruments could not be sent for their certainty; and therefore, that due faith as is fitting might also be had for those Relics, and public cult given, he had given this testimony, sealed with his seal and signed with his hand. We then saw various letters of the same Reverend Father Lancicius to Reverend Father Florentius de Montmorency, he also read the letters of Father Lancicius to Father Montmorency, of the same Society, then Rector of the College of Lille, and now Assistant to the Father General, recently elected in the General Congregation; in which letters he both expressed the names of the Saints, and indicated in what manner their Relics had been packed into a wooden chest, and by what marks they could be distinguished. Then we ordered to be opened in our presence an oblong wooden chest, and he opened the chests brought by the Polish Legate, which a little before the Most Excellent and Most Illustrious John Zawaski, Captain of Succensis (who afterwards was made Palatine), at that time Legate of the Most Powerful King of Poland to the Most Serene Infant Cardinal Ferdinand of Austria, Governor of Belgium for his brother the Catholic King, and to the Most Serene King of Great Britain Charles, had received at Gdansk from the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and had faithfully carried here with him. It was inscribed to the same Reverend Father Montmorency, diligently and firmly fastened with iron clamps, closed with two seals covered with black leather. Which all, when they had been unsealed in our presence, we found a round pyx, with the number 119 affixed on the outside and inside, he found the skull of Saint Florentius, Roman Martyr, carefully closed, even with paper sealing the joints; which, being broken and torn away, we found the skull of a head, decently wrapped in cotton-wool: which from all the signs most accurately agreeing with the letter, we concluded to be of Saint Florentius the Roman, skull of Saint Martina, Virgin and Martyr. Martyr. Then two other smaller oblong pyxes were opened; in one of them, marked with the number 18, the skull of Saint Martina, Virgin and Roman Martyr, and most of the bones of her body; in the other, number 113, the principal bones of Saint Honofria, Virgin and Roman Martyr, were found; bones of Saint Honofria, from the size of which it could be gathered that both had not been of very great stature, nor perhaps of age. Then two other little chests, a bit larger than these, were unsealed: bodies of Sts. Sevilian and Anthimus, one, marked with the number 6, contained the body of Saint Sevilian, Roman Martyr; the other, number 8, the body of Saint Anthimus, Roman Martyr. Nor in these things was there anything which did not excellently correspond with the said letters and testimonies. Therefore to the greater glory of God and of the Saints, that either here, if it should seem good to the same Reverend Fathers, the said relics might be exposed for solemn veneration; and he Approves. or elsewhere received by the Ordinaries for the same public veneration; to all these things we then bore witness by our autograph and attached seal at Antwerp in our Episcopal palace on July 21 of the year 1636.
Afterwards, as the Fathers of the said Society informed us, With the other relics taken elsewhere, when the body of Saint Sevilian the Martyr had been carried to the church of Saint Michael of the same Society at Brussels, and there honored with solemn pomp; and the Relics of Saints Florentius, Martina, Anthimus were conveyed into the Gallo-Belgian province by the above-mentioned Reverend Father Florentius de Montmorency, and given to various colleges of the Society; the body of Saint Honofria, Virgin and Martyr, has so far been preserved in the Professed House of the Society in this city, he permits the body of Saint Honofria to be venerated in the Church of Antwerp, to be brought forth afterwards with greater celebrity for public veneration when the condition of our Belgium should be more tranquil. But because those heavenly pledges are not so much ornaments of churches and cities in the happy times of the Commonwealth, as a safeguard and bulwark in adversity; the Reverend Father Conrad de Gavre, Provost of the same Professed House, has recently petitioned us, that, by the force of the approbation previously made by us, he might be permitted to expose the Relics of the same holy Virgin and Martyr for the public veneration of the Faithful; and to celebrate the Ecclesiastical Office and Sacrifice of the Mass of a Virgin and Martyr, and to appoint it to be celebrated by the other Priests of the same Society dwelling in that House: and that the said Translation or Exposition of Saint Honofria, Virgin and Martyr, be carried out on Jubilate Sunday, the 3rd Sunday after Easter, or the third Sunday after Easter, which will be April 22 of this year 1646; and that on the same Jubilate Sunday thereafter her annual memory be recalled, we should sanction. We therefore, assenting to his pious petition, have decided that the said Relics of Saint Honofria, Virgin and Martyr, may on that day be publicly exposed for the veneration of the Faithful, according to the rite received in the holy Roman Church; and that on that day the Office and Mass of a Virgin and Martyr may be recited by all the Priests dwelling in the same House, or present for the time, and the annual memory of the Translation or Exposition of this kind may thereafter be recalled on the same Jubilate Sunday every year, with the double rite, according to the custom of the holy Roman Church. with double rite: And in order that we may rouse the minds of our people to honor the Relics of the said holy Virgin, and to implore Divine help more earnestly in these most wretched times by her intercession, to all Christ's faithful who on that Sunday visit the church of the said Professed House of the Society of Jesus, he attaches Indulgences. and there pour forth prayers for the extirpation of heresies, the peace of Christian Princes, the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, we grant an Indulgence of 40 days: and to those who on other days of the year devoutly pray to the holy Virgin Honofria in the same church, for the same needs of the Church, we impart an Indulgence of seven days. Done at Antwerp, in our Episcopal palace, March 26, 1646. Signed: Gaspar, Bishop of Antwerp, and sealed with a seal of red wax."