ON SAINT RICHARIUS,
FOUNDER AND ABBOT OF CENTULA IN GAUL.
7TH CENTURY.
PrefaceRicharius, Founder and Abbot of Centula in Gaul (St.)
By G. H.
[1] Ponticum or the Pontivensian region is in Picardy, commonly called le Ponthieu, between the rivers Somme and Authia or Altilia, where it extends from the borders of the Ambiani to the Ocean. In this territory rises the town of Centula or Centulum, the Centulense monastery, on the little stream of Scarduo, illustrious most of all for the birth and habitation of St. Richarius, and the monastery there constructed: whence, the name Centula having become obsolete, both the town and the monastery are called by the name of St. Richarius. Two leagues from there is Abbeville, a city on the Somme, which owes its name to the Abbots of Centula. St. Richarius flourished there in the seventh century of Christ, there St. Richarius was visited by King Dagobert. and especially at the time of Dagobert I, King of the Franks; who, aroused by the great fame of his holiness, came to Centula, commended himself to his holy prayers, and asked him to come to his banquet, and granted him a tax for lamps. Leaving Centula afterwards, he sought the wilderness, and in the forest of Crisciac, ten thousand paces distant from Centula, he began to build a monastery, which is still called Foreste, the Foreste monastery. perhaps formerly called Argubium; for, as Hariulfus attests in the Chronicle of Centula, volume 4 of the Spicilegium published by Luca d'Achery, book 2, chapter 11, in a Hymn these things are read of St. Richarius:
"You built a monastery, in the place near Argubium, And another in Centulus, both of perennial merit."
In the letters of Guy the Bishop of the Ambiani, in the said Hariulfus, book 4, chapter 22, the altars of the villages of Argubium and Montis-Elisius are mentioned.
[2] The Life formerly written, Since St. Richarius shone with miracles immediately after his death, so that ancient fame placed him second to none after the Apostles themselves, a booklet about his Life was composed, either by Sigobardus, a fellow-soldier, to whom St. Richarius had commended his burial, and to whom he had appeared in glory after death, or by another Centulensian monk. Alcuin polished: But because the said booklet had been put together in a simpler style, at the request of St. Angilbert the Abbot, Albinus or Alcuin Flaccus polished the same, and inscribed it to Charlemagne. But this Life (for the earlier is nowhere found) we give from several manuscript codices, namely of the church of Saint-Omer, given here from manuscripts of the monastery of Bonne-Fontaine, and another of our Antwerp house; likewise, but with the Prologue omitted, from the manuscript of the monastery of Long-pont near Soissons, and another of the Most Serene Christina Queen of Sweden, numbered 1171; which we have collated with the editions of Laurentius Surius, and editions. Andreas Quercetanus among the works of Alcuin, and Luca d'Achery in volume 2 of the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order.
[3] There also existed at the Centulensian monastery a codex of greater size, Miracles from manuscripts in which were read miracles untouched by Alcuin, which we grieve to have perished along with the earlier Life. In place of these we give miracles, written in the 9th century of Christ in two books by a Centulensian monk, which we had in our own Antwerp manuscript codex, and another of the said Queen of Sweden, numbered 1171, and we collated them with those which are extant in d'Achery from the Centulensian and Compiègne manuscript codices. We add the History of the double Removal under Arnulph Count of Flanders and of the Return to the Centulensian monastery. Which History we have from a manuscript codex of the Red-Vale monastery near Brussels of the Canons Regular, History of the return of the body in the 10th century. and another Centulensian manuscript codex, communicated to us by John of St. Martin of the Congregation of the Foulles: and we have collated it with those things which exist, word for word the same, in Hariulfus book 3, chapter 22 and the two following. Finally we add miracles which are subjoined in the Centulensian manuscript.
[4] In the 11th century of Christ flourished Angelrannus, or Ingelramnus, Life in verse written by Angelrannus, first a monk then Abbot of Centula: from whose illustrious deeds Hariulfus begins the fourth book of the Chronicle of Centula, and in chapter 8 has these things concerning the writings of this Angelrannus: "I consider it the most impious error not to make mention of his sagacious genius. For at the command of his venerable former Master, namely the Lord Fulbert Bishop of Chartres, he made more pleasing by heroic verse the life of the nourishing Confessor of Christ Richarius, briefly described by the ancients, adding almost nothing extrinsic, but rendering the same sense throughout. Indeed the miracles which the Lord and our Savior exhibited through the merits of the same Saint in his own time, compiling into a single booklet, this book 4 is given. he compacted them with his ancient miracles: at the head of which, after what he had woven above, he thus begins to speak:
'Now I will gather those things which my eye saw more closely.'"
So Hariulfus. Angelrannus divided his Poem into four books. In the first he displayed the Life written by Alcuin: in the second and third the miracles which we said were written in two books in the 9th century: in the fourth the Return of St. Richarius and some miracles following. But he wrote still as a Scholastic, as the title prefers, and the very inscription of the Preface; and that before the year 1029, in which Fulbert died. To us this poem from the Centulensian manuscript was transmitted, as was said before, by John of St. Martin, of the Congregation of the Foulles, from Amiens, which we have collated with the previously indicated manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden: in this were lacking the preliminary distichs with the dedication to Bishop Fulbert, but, contrary to what we esteem more, at the end, the miracles which we give in the last chapter were present, which were lacking in the Centulensian autograph, if indeed all things were described for us down to the end. But we omit the three earlier books, because the same things are all brought forth, except the form of meter; so that, if the chapters are compared with the chapters, it will be clearly seen. D'Achery published the first book, but of the second and third books only the headings: which can be seen there. But what Angelrannus testifies to have seen in the fourth book could have been best known by him, and what does not exist whole elsewhere we think must necessarily be given: since they have been added only in summary at the end of the History of the last return of the Body.
[5] Besides these which we are about to give, we have a certain tractate or sermon concerning St. Richarius, A sermon on St. Richarius omitted. from the Bodecensian manuscript in the diocese of Paderborn, drawn out by John Gamansius, with this beginning: "Solemn is this day for us, on which the noble Priest Richarius merited to ascend the heavenly kingdoms." And this is the closing there: "If anyone with pious heart shall have sought more concerning this blessed man and Priest of the Lord Richarius, let him read the book fully described on his virtues to Charles King of the Franks, and so he will find the gift desired in it." To us, however, let these things said be enough. But the things there said are extracted from the aforesaid book, and are elucidated with some moral and Scriptural passages interposed here and there for the grasp of the common people: which pertain less to our purpose.
[6] Other things of evil faith, We have other Acts from a Centulensian manuscript codex transmitted by the aforementioned John of St. Martin: which we also copied from the codex of Rouge-Val with the prologue of Alcuin; of which in part it is the offspring, but corrupted with a wretched interpolation. But what has been inserted in the said codices, we ourselves copied, separately embellished, in the Cistercian Archmonastery from a second manuscript codex with this title: "Preface of Nicon the Deacon and Monk, in the relation of the nobility and miracles of St. Richarius"; and in this Preface these things are said: "The heights of the lofty nobility and renowned prodigies of signs, by which Almighty God adorned his servant formerly chosen, the Priest Richarius, by those indeed who could see him placed in the flesh, though most truthfully, have been so unpolished and negligently written that there seems to be great shame in bringing them forth in public … Since the venerable man of life, Lord Sigobardus, assigned to a contemporary author: who had been his companion in the wilderness, and from whom the whole series of his deeds was first known, was held in so great a flood of compunction and lamentation, that the holy man and monk, his parent Grimoaldus, could scarcely obtain more than what seems reported in the same booklet. But in the course of time, with his grief now lessened, the same Sigobardus made known to the Brothers many more and marvelous things; ... related indeed with a true narration, but with an unlearned diction: all of which we have stripped from the vileness of speech, and propped up with the beauty of words."
[7] Thus the said Nicon the Deacon, in whose relation, as in the aforementioned interpolated Acts, first the national lineage of Richarius is derived from Raganarius, are rejected. brother of Clovis, the first Christian King of the Franks (whose power is described as very great), through Alquarius, his son, Duke of Pontivensium: although the Saint is said by Alcuin to have been born not so much of noble parents, as honest in morals, so that in his rustic life he bore certain presages of future sanctity. Which Angelrannus explains thus:
"In whom not only the nobility of race shone forth, But constant in holy morals he remained, So that, as a layman, he bore the presages of a holy life."
These things it has pleased us to indicate, because we also, on account of such varied Acts not yet examined, attributed some of his nobility from the Merovingian stock to the Acts of St. Angilbert the Abbot on February 18. Secondly, two monks priests, namely SS. Caidocus and Frichorius, are said to have come from Hibernia under the leadership of St. Columban. But since according to Marianus Scotus and others St. Columban came from Hibernia in the year 589, these things are far distant from the times of King Dagobert, and the name of Columban is better absent in Alcuin and Ingelramnus. Whether they brought the rule of St. Columban to Centula, and thus occasion was given to say that they came with St. Columban, let others inquire. Thirdly, a double Roman journey of Richarius is concocted; the first undertaken in the year 533, to Pope John II, surnamed Mercurius, who sat from the year 532 to the year 535; the second, resumed in the year 537, to Pope St. Silverius, who sat from the year 536 to the year 540; and in the middle time he is said to have been consecrated Priest by Flavius the Metropolitan of Rheims, who was present at the Council of Clermont in the year 535. Who would not laugh at these stupid impostors, who in their reckoning are mistaken by a hundred years, and soon indicate the coming of King Dagobert to St. Richarius? We therefore think nothing of this relation should be given. Mabillon has some miracles extracted from it, which may be seen in him. He thinks that the rule of St. Benedict flourished there from the beginning, or certainly not long afterwards. St. Angilbert in the time of Charlemagne built three
temples there: the first and greatest was sacred to the Savior and to the holy Richarius, the second to the Virgin Mother of God, the third to St. Benedict, so that we do not doubt that even then the rule of the same St. Benedict flourished there, having been introduced long before.
[8] Celebrated is the memory of St. Richarius on this April 26 in many sacred calendars: Memory in the calendars of April 26, whose name is inserted in the copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology of Lucca and Corbie printed at Paris in these words: "At Centula, a monastery in Gaul, the deposition of St. Richarius." Usuard has this: "In the region of Ponthieu, St. Richarius, Presbyter and Confessor." Wandelbert honors SS. Cletus and Richarius with this distich:
"And the sixth day recalls the contests of Cletus the Pontiff, And shines with Richarius, cultivator of blessed life."
In the very ancient Centulensian Martyrology, these things used to be recited in the first place: "On the 6th day before the Kalends of May. In the region of Ponthieu, in the monastery of Centula, the birth into heaven of our most holy Father Richarius, Priest and Founder of our place, who, a follower of wondrous abstinence and unceasing preaching, shone far and wide with miracles; and at length, with the Lord revealing it to him, leaving this temporal life, he ascended to the heavenly kingdoms." The various printed and manuscript Martyrologies generally follow with the present-day Roman. Another solemnity, and that, as is noted below, the chief, lasting three days, with the greatest concourse of neighbors coming from every direction, is thus described in the Centulensian manuscript Martyrology on the 7th day before the Ides of October: October 9, "In the Centulensian monastery, the desirable Translation of the precious body of our most holy Father Richarius, from the hermitage to the place of the monastery founded by him, that he might strengthen by his presence the soldiers of Christ whom he had previously educated by word and example." On the same day and the following, various manuscripts with Greven, Canisius, Saussay, and others make mention of this translation. Of it there is treatment below in the Life, no. 14. Nay, even the Octave of this solemnity is indicated on October 16. A third solemnity is indicated in the said Centulensian Martyrology on the 3rd day before the Nones of June. "In the Centulensian monastery, June 3, the glorious return of our holy Father Richarius, the distinguished Priest and precious Confessor." That return was made in the year 981, through Hugh Capet, afterwards made King of the Franks: and this is described at length below, as it was performed. Finally, on October 19, these things are indicated in the same Centulensian Martyrology: and October 19. "In the Centulensian monastery, the dedication of the Eastern crypt, in honor of St. Mary and St. Richarius, the glorious Priest."
LIFE
By Albinus Alcuin Flaccus.
From 5 manuscript codices collated with various editions.
Richarius, Founder and Abbot of Centula in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 7223, 7224
By Alcuin FROM MSS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] "To the Lord always venerable, and always desirable, the most pious Defender of the holy Church, At the request of Angilbert, nay also of Charlemagne, Charles, always Augustus by the grace of God, a perpetual friend of your Excellency, Albinus. While the piety of your Excellency was lingering in the holy and deservedly venerable place a of Centula, when I too, a servant of your glory, following the footsteps of your piety there, was staying for some time, the great man in Christ, the Lord and venerable Abbot Angilbert b, had asked my little self, that, in the praise of the Creator, who always appears wonderful in his Elect, I should note down more cultivatedly a certain booklet, put together in a simpler style, concerning the Life of the most holy and truly magnificent Confessor Richarius. And when, his prayers having been immediately heard, which are known to the divine Majesty as audible and dear, I had asked that the same booklet be shown to me, I wondered not a little why so great-named a Confessor, who was known to be the worker of so great virtues, and whom ancient fame in the working of miracles placed second to none after the Apostles themselves, should possess so modest a volume of deeds. And while I was astonished, the aforesaid memorable man Angilbert and the spiritual Brothers of the same holy place made known to me that they had with them, nay even in various Churches, c another codex of greater size, in which namely those miracles were read with which, not undeservedly, all Gaul exalted the holy Confessor of Christ. He polishes the Life of St. Richarius. Whose simple and less polished speech, because to the Brothers it seemed clearer to recite to the people, they consented that the same description sufficed for them. And while I now applied my mind to noting down what they asked, suddenly I was met by a messenger of your piety, that I should so note down what I was handling, as really to be brought to the ears of your wisdom. Hence I, having called a Notary and with the aforesaid booklet fixed before my eyes, what it seemed to relate of his conversion, of his morals, of his continence and truly incomparable sanctity, and also of his glorious transition to Christ, or of the return of his precious body to its former place, with a quite compendious dictation, under the title of the Life of the most blessed Father Richarius, we have adapted: and unless I am deceived by my own inexperience, as precious refined gold, we most devotedly commend it to your most prudent wisdom, for adorning the diadem of Christian Philosophy, with humble faith. And because we know the glory of Christ and the honor of his Saints to reign in the chamber of your breast, this Preface of our so blessed little work we dedicate to your in the Lord blessed honorableness. d"
NOTES.
CHAPTER I.
Birth, conversion to pious life, Priesthood. Those nearby helped, even the Britons.
[2] "In the time of the most glorious King of the Franks, Dagobert, who shone illustrious both by secular power and by the Christian religion (for he both exalted his Magnates with dignities, Richarius the Pontivensian. and a sublimated the servants of God with honors), in those days, I say, very many monasteries everywhere began to be built by the holy Fathers: and also many men from the lay habit were found religious. Among these a certain Richarius, born in the village of Centula in the province of Ponthieu, shone forth like the morning star rising among shadows, born not so much of b noble parents according to the age, as honest in morals and most devoted in all probity, so that in his rustic life he bore certain presages of future sanctity. He welcomes SS. Caidocus and Frichorius, It happened at that time that two Priests, flourishing in holiness and shining with the merits of virtues, of whom the first was called Caidocus c, and the other Frichorius, had come from the regions of Hibernia into the Pontivensian regions; but by the rustics and common people of that place, on account of the insolence of their morals, they were not received, nor treated with honor worthy of their sanctity; but rather afflicted with injuries and chastised with reproaches, they began to expel them from their borders. The future servant of God Richarius went to meet their violence and wicked presumptions, and rescued the servants of Christ from the hands of the impious, and with all benignity led them into his house, with God providing that these might be protected and he himself saved. Nor could the kindled lamp of the grace of God be hidden any longer: but, as it was made clear, it spread far and wide the light of holiness and preaching for the salvation of many. For the guests whom he had brought in, he cared for with great honor of charity, and preaching the word of God to him, he listened with all humility and attention. Nor was the seed of the word of God cast in vain on good ground: but what he heard with his ear, this he retained by the root in his heart, and bore a hundred-fold fruits into the barns of Christ, as afterwards shone clearer than light in his sanctity and the showing of miracles.
[3] Therefore, pricked by the preaching of the servants of God and the inspiration of Divine grace, he turns to better fruit, turning to tears, he made confession of his sins; and ardently asking pardon in the sight of Almighty God, he absolved with tears what he had ignorantly sinned from the enticements of youth: and he who had received the Lord in his servants by the grace of hospitality, was received by the Lord d in mercy and piety. For from that time e he took the beginning of holy religion, and strove daily to ascend to the higher peaks of piety by the steps of humility: and, the way of life once taken up, he endeavored to travel through it by the footsteps of faith: and, forgetting the things that were behind, he stretched himself to the things that were before with the Apostle; mindful at each step of that little verse: 'The Saints shall go from virtue to virtue; until he arrive at what follows, The God of gods shall be seen in Sion.' Phil. 3:13, Ps. 83:8 And so from the very beginning of his conversion he so bound himself by hard castigation, that after long and daily fasts, with great austerity of life, with barley bread mixed with ashes, and water tempered with tears, he refreshed his little body wearied with fasts, f admitting nothing richer at the table for all the remaining time of his life: and sustaining himself with this food only twice in the week, namely on the Lord's day and on the fifth feria, the devout athlete of Christ served the Lord in vigils and prayers day and night; not beating the air, but chastising his body, lest the future preacher of Christ should be found reprobate in anything.
[4] He becomes Priest and preacher, But by these and such-like degrees of virtues and morals of a most holy life, acceptable to God, with worthy successes he came to the honor of the Priesthood: so that he to whom the devotion of preaching was present, the dignity of honor might not be lacking. Which honor, as a servant of God, he adorned with great humility, and cultivated with true charity, and amplified with the preaching of the word of God, and as a good husbandman he uprooted the thorns of sins from the field of the Lord with the Evangelical plough, and watered arid hearts with the heavenly dew of perpetual salvation. But the Divine clemency after his watering gave very many increases of faith in this people. Whence the aforesaid man of God Richarius became honorable and dear to all: because what he preached with his mouth, he showed by example; and the way of life which he showed to others by his sermon, he himself first ran through by his action.
[5] Whatever the people willingly offered him for the support of his preaching, merciful to the poor, he hastened to divide all among the poor: and it seemed to him unworthy to think of the morrow of the present life, who was eagerly panting to receive the riches of eternal life. Therefore he distributed what men offered, that he might receive what God had promised. A happy exchange, that he who had cheerfully distributed small and transitory things, should happily receive great and eternal things. For he was a most zealous consoler of the poor, receiver of pilgrims,
defender of widows, father of orphans and wards: so that most truly the testimony of the most holy Job could be said of him: "I was an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, and a father to the orphan: and I searched diligently the cause I knew not." Job 29:15 Wherefore from all sides the sick flowed to him: whom, receiving with glad mind, he offered them the remedy of consolation through holy prayers. Nor did he shrink from lepers or those with elephantiasis, and lepers: but embraced them as brothers, and fostered their wounded limbs with baths: and entered the same baths after them, rather cleansing them with that piety than staining himself, not a deaf hearer of the prophetic sermon saying: "Bring the needy and the wandering into your house, and cover the naked with your garments, and do not despise your own flesh." Isa. 58:7
[6] He distributes the word of life to all: Nor did he cherish those coming to him only with bodily refreshment, but also did not cease to refresh them with the spiritual solace of holy preaching. And just as he was everywhere a fit consoler of the wretched, so he did not fear to be a hard chastiser of the proud. Those he lifted up with the clemency of piety, these he depressed with the censure of severe invective. Nor did he outwardly fear the wrath of earthly power, whom the fear of divine power wholly strengthened within; making little of the threats of the rich, that he might stand forth as a herald of truth. Nor was he a reed shaken by the wind, that the breeze of human praise or detraction should move him: but standing in the citadel of solid truth, he despised, according to the Apostle, to be judged by man's day: and walking the royal way, he did not turn aside, neither to the right for the terrors of the powerful, nor to the left for the flatteries of the fawning. 1 Cor. 4:3 Wherefore he acquired a great people for the Lord his God in this present province, and merited for himself perpetual honor. Whence the people, With offered money he ransoms captives. perceiving his religious devotion in Christ, began to honor him more attentively, and to bring him many things for the giving of alms: which he, as he was full of the love of God and of his neighbors, distributed all in the solaces of the poor, and above all expended on the redemption of captives. For some, bound by the hidden bonds of sins by diabolical fraud, he loosed by the assiduous exhortations of preaching; others, oppressed by secular captivity, he redeemed by the giving of money: that those spiritually absolved, might rejoice in the Lord; and these freed from carnal servitude, might be converted to God.
[7] And not only in these regions, through works of piety or through the lights of preaching, He visits and cultivates the Britons across the sea: did the aforesaid man of the Lord shine illustriously: but as the Morning Star, crossing the watery plains of the Ocean, the herald of the daily light at its rising scatters the nocturnal shadows; so he, into the transmarine regions of Britain, for the expelling of the shadows of ignorance, spread the light of truth by his coming: namely that, as in these regions, so also in those, he might free some from diabolical servitude, and others from carnal captivity. Into those he poured the word of God, to these he paid the price of charity, that for a temporal redemption they might receive eternal freedom. So therefore the good trader of the Lord's money strove to multiply the two talents of the double charity, of God and of neighbor, so that he might be able to meet his Lord with the manifold fruit of his labor, and to hear that most pleasant voice: "Well done, good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things; He frees his own servants, enter into the joy of your Lord." Matt. 25:21 It is said that, while he lingered rather long in Britain for the sake of preaching, it suddenly came to his mind that he had left some under his jurisdiction in servitude in Gaul. And so, struck with grief, he said to his companions: "Alas! we have left our own in servitude in our homeland, while we have come here to free others, and most of all I know that they will soon die. But go quickly, and board a ship, and make them free before they die." They, not sluggishly following the fatherly command, came into their homeland; and found the aforesaid servants of the man of God safe and sound, and, manumitting them, as they had been ordered, made them free: who, not long after, as the holy man of God had foretold, died. O how great is the clemency of God's Christ, who inspired in his servant the affection of piety, and showed him the coming death of his servants! So that the reward of mercy might not perish for him from his own, and that the yoke of servitude might not burden them in dying; who, to free others, did not fear to undergo the danger of so great a journey, and from that time did not wish to retain anyone of his jurisdiction under the yoke of servitude; but everywhere pardoned all belonging to him with their own liberty; lest he should seem harder to his own, who strove to appear most gentle to strangers; and lest he should heap up from his own the reward which he had collected from others.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Deeds with St. Rictrudis and King Dagobert. Retreat into the Forest of Crisciac.
[8] "Therefore, the office of preaching in Britain having been completed, he returned to his homeland with manifold fruit of the word of God; Returned, he devotes himself to holy exercises: lest while he sought a reward in another's harvest, he should lose it in his own: and he subjected himself the more ardently to the servitude of God, the nearer he sensed the day of reward to be for him. For he macerated himself with daily fasts, constrained by the mortification of the flesh, afflicted with vigils, fortified with prayers, confirmed by charity, strengthened by hope, armed with faith; rendering to no one evil for evil, flatterer of none, despising no one; that he himself might walk first the way of truth, which he had shown to the others by preaching. So the man of God, clad in the helmet of salvation, and girt with the sword of the word of God, and encompassed on every side with the breastplate of justice, and armed with the shield of faith, and shod in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, went forth into public battle against the ancient enemy, repelling all his fiery darts with the strongest boss of faith: and by daily triumphs brought back many spoils from the conquered enemy into the Church of Christ, as much feared by the enemy of the human race, as necessary to the human race: inasmuch as he sought not only his own, but the salvation of many. Therefore it is just that by the mouth of many he be praised in Christ, he acquires many for Christ: the redeemer of many through Christ: concerning whom it is not as great a thing to narrate the miracles which were done by him, as to know the power of the miracles, by which he acquired much people for the heavenly King in his days. For that the office of preaching is greater than the showing of all signs there is no doubt; although the performance of signs, which Divine clemency carried out through him according to the opportunity of times or the fitness of affairs, was not lacking.
[9] At a certain time a temptation of the malignant spirit befell the man of God to his shame, He visits St. Rictrudis, which by the mercy of God he granted to turn out to his praise. For he visited, on horseback, a certain woman devoted to God, named Rictrudis a: and when, after the sweet feasts of life and healthful conversations, the man of God had mounted his horse and prepared to return home, the aforesaid woman, according to custom, followed the footsteps of the Father riding, holding in her arms her little son b, that the little one might also be strengthened by the blessing of the man of God, whom he himself had before regenerated to God by holy baptism. When therefore the venerable rider took the infant, either to bless or to kiss, the ancient enemy, enemy of all good things, sent ferocity into the horse, which, gnashing its teeth hither and thither, and kicking with its feet, and raging with its whole body, began to run through the field with unaccustomed impulse. Which the fearful mother, seeing, turned away her eyes, lest she should see her son dying, and saves her son in danger on the horse, whom the servant of God was holding in his hand while the horse raged. But the household did not cease to make noise, to lament, to wail over the death of the boy or the fall of the man of God. But the right hand of Christ, which lifted up Peter trembling, lest he sink in the waves, lifted up the falling boy, lest he be dashed to the ground. For, a prayer having been made by the servant of God, the boy, unharmed, came to the ground like a little bird, and the horse was restored to its gentleness. And the mother indeed received her son, on the ground safe and laughing, in her arms: but the Priest of God himself from that time wished to travel the way not on a horse, but on a very gentle little donkey. and decided from then on to use a donkey: So then, by God's mercy, the temptation of the evil enemy was turned for him into the honor of praise: and the pride of the horse was made the grace and teacher of humility. For he was not unmindful that the Lord Christ, while he hastened to the redemption of the human race, traveled on a donkey, not on a horse: so he too, while for the sake of salutary preaching he hastened daily through many places, judged that a donkey was sufficient as his bearer. But wherever he was traveling, either psalms sounded in his mouth, or the preaching of salvation was heard from his mouth. Nor is it a wonder if his tongue always preached Christ, whom he always bore in his heart, through whom he was a kind comforter to the miserable, and a harsh rebuker of the powerful; lifting up the poverty of the former with merciful pity, repressing the pride of the latter with severe chastisement.
[10] For at a certain time the most powerful King Dagobert, He gives healthful admonitions to Dagobert: at the request of the illustrious Gislemarus, came into the same parts, and it happened that he visited the man of God, that he might commend himself to his most holy prayers. Whom the servant of God himself both strengthened with the blessing of his holiness, and with priestly authority chastised with free voice; denouncing to him, that he should not be proud in secular power, nor hope in fleeting riches, nor be exalted by the vain rumors of flatterers, nor rejoice in fallen honors; but rather fear the power of God, and praise his immense glory; but should reckon human power or glory nothing, which suddenly withdraws as a flying shadow, and like foam on the water, with the wind of temptation blowing, vanishes: and should rather think with fear that 'the mighty shall mightily suffer torments; and to whom more is given, more shall be required of him.' But he who scarcely suffices to render an account to God for himself alone in the day of judgment, how will he be able to render an account for so many thousands of people committed to him? Therefore anyone can fear more to be set over, than to be under: for he who is under, renders an account to God for himself alone; but those who are over, are to render an account for all who have been placed under their power. By which chastisement the King, as he was most wise, benignly
receiving, rejoicing in his free confidence of truth, he asked the Priest of Christ to come with him to the banquet. he dines with him: Who strengthened by the example of Christ, not rejecting the banquets of seculars, that he might take an occasion for preaching, came with the King to his table, and the whole day and night, among the feasts of joy, he ministered to his fellow guests the saving feasts of the word of God. With whose constancy of manners and insistence of preaching the aforesaid King being delighted, began to love him from his heart and to follow him with honor, so much that on that same day he gave him something from his revenue for the lamps of the house of God; he receives from the King revenue for the lights. thinking it fitting, that as he himself had been illumined by him with the invisible light of preaching, so by him the house of the Lord should be adorned with visible light; and what was shining within him in faith, should outwardly shine in the church; mindful of the Lord's precept, in which it is said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven": and likewise in the Psalm, "In your light we shall see light"; that is, in the light of faith which shines in the mind, a light will sparkle outside which will shine in the work. Matt. 5:16, Ps. 35:10
[11] He seeks the hermitage: Thenceforth the servant of God, because he was honored by men, was meditating to flee men; that, avoiding temporal honors, he might receive perpetual honors: and he longed for the hermitage, that he might more freely have leisure for God alone, and pluck contemplative fruits, since up to that time in active things he had not sluggishly sweated; knowing it was said by the Lord of Mary, sitting at his feet and more attentively hearing the word of life, "Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her." Mindful of this sentence, he sought the monastic life, that more secretly he might pierce into heavenly things alone with his mind; handing the rule of the church to another, which he himself had founded for Christ in the village of Centula. Luke 10:42 Now Gislemarus, an illustrious man and devoted lover of the Christian religion; and also Maurontus, a certain noble man, and keeper of the lands or forests belonging to the King; provided him a place to stay in the forest of Crisciac, who also the same Maurontus afterwards, laying aside his secular habit, became a monk in the same place: and when he had prepared a solitary dwelling for the man of God, he began to build a monastery for Christ.
[12] The man of God therefore entered that habitation with one only companion; content with a little tiny hut, made with the cheapest work, that the dwelling might match the life; esteeming it superfluous, that a despiser of the world should wish to have anything of the world's delights. But there he chastised himself with such mortification of the flesh, in which he leads a heavenly life: macerated himself with such continual fasts and vigils, that scarcely dry bones, with joints separated, clung to him, and with trembling feet guided by a staff he could scarcely move. Now in mind greater than the world, he always thought only of heavenly things; and as much as he was alien to the world, so much was he near to God; daily conquering in the wilderness him by whom Adam was once conquered in paradise: walking upon the asp and basilisk, daily bruising the head of the ancient serpent, despising temporal things, sighing only for eternal ones, ascending every hour the ladder of dreaming Jacob, and walking through the narrow way which leads to life, he strengthened his journey with continual prayers. he heals many sick. Nor could the closed narrowness of the hermitage hide the column of light, but rather with the rays of his brightness it became more widely known far and wide. Wherefore from every side they flocked to the man of God, weary with various infirmities, whom he healed with the medicines of holy prayers; and all coming to him afflicted with any disease, or distressed by the bitterness of any sadness, he made return home whole and cheerful; nor could the disease remain long in the house of salvation, but the more nearly it approached, the more swiftly it departed. It is not my intent to narrate the various kinds of his virtues one by one, but to touch briefly in a few words the holiness of his life; lest by the slowness of my eloquence the manifold fame of the signs performed by him be obscured rather than praised.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Pious death. Translation of the body to Centula: miracles.
[13] Leaving those things therefore to the more learned, how that holy soul at the end left this present world, let it suffice for me only to say. He provides for his burial. For by the author the Holy Spirit, by whom he was always enlivened, foreknowing the day of his summons, on which he was about to receive the long-desired happiness; and about always to be joined to Christ, whom he had always loved; he called to himself Sygobardus his fellow soldier, and said to him: "I know, my son, I know, that my end is not delayed; and I shall soon see my King, whom I have long desired; and would that I might be as propitious to me his servant, as he is desirable to his Saints. But you, my son, prepare a little vessel for my little body in which it may be stored, not with superfluous zeal, but for necessary use: that there it may be kept for that day, in which this corruption shall be changed into incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality: and prepare yourself with all diligence, sweetest son, that when that day which is now approaching for me, shall come to you, it may find you prepared. I now enter the way of all flesh: only let the Savior of the world be merciful to me; and now defend me from the enemy, who once redeemed me from the enemy; and whom I have had as a consoler in the present life, may I find as a giver of eternal life." The disciple hearing these things from the Father, drenched with tears, yet followed the precepts; finding a tree he split it, hollowed it, and fitted it to the Father's body, and with pious tears he watered what he had made, nearly filling it first with bitter tears rather than with the Father's members: and adjusted as he could he composed the sarcophagus in the place foreordained by the Father. With Viaticum received he dies April 26, Meanwhile while the son was preparing the sad services for the Father, a stronger infirmity was burning the Father, and in the cold little body scarcely remained the last breath, nor yet did he cease from the office of prayer or service of divine praise: and while he fortified his journey with the saving Viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ, amid thanksgivings and words of prayer, on the 6th of the Kalends of May he sent forth his spirit: and was placed in the sepulcher by his disciple, in the place where he himself had commanded.
[14] He appears glorious to Sigobardus: But wondrous to say: during the paternal funeral rites the disciple suddenly oppressed with sleep, saw in a vision as if he were carried into a most splendid hall and most beautiful with every ornament, indeed clearer than the light of the sun: in which he saw Blessed Richarius with bright and cheerful face dwelling, and speaking to him: "Behold, Brother Sigobardus, what a dwelling God has prepared for me, for the vile one I had on earth, a most beautiful one in heaven, for the contemptible a glorious one, for the dark a most luminous, and for the smoky one resplendent with every sweetness." Waking up, Sigobardus joyously completed the work of the funeral, with God providing that the son should be consoled, and the glory of the Father should be shown him. He was buried therefore, His body is translated to Centula. as I foretold, the Soldier of Christ, where he had served his King. But not long after the Brothers from the Centula monastery with their Abbot Ocioaldus, a religious man and successor of the Saint, came, and took the body of St. Richarius, and placed it in the place, in which even now with great glory of merits he rests. For there by God's grant, through the Relics of his servant, new miracles are often heard to be performed, so that the faith of those praying may become evident, the merits of the holy man may be shown, and in his servant Christ's praise may be celebrated, as it is said, "Praise the Lord in his Saints." Ps. 150:1
[15] A certain man, contracted in body, but strong in faith, was frequently praying at the sepulcher of the Saint of God: a contracted man and others are healed: who having suddenly received the hoped-for health, gave glory to God, because he had come sick and was leaving sound. In memory of this miracle, to this day the supports of his infirmity hang in the church of St. Richarius. But also, many times demoniacs, brought to the body of the holy one of God by the service of their own, with divine clemency granting, are freed from the vexation of the evil spirit. At a certain time certain men bound with chains and fetters were being led through the public square, those bound are loosed: which is next to the church of B. Richarius: who when they drew near the temple of the man of God from afar, began to cry out with a loud voice, "Holy Richarius, save us": and immediately with the bonds broken they were loosed.
[16] a plague is cured: Likewise a great plague, which they call a venomous lizard, far and wide with bitter death killed the inhabitants of the earth; and scarcely did anyone, touched by it, escape alive. And there was struck by this plague one of the Brothers of St. Richarius: who although he feared death because of the plague, yet did not despair of life because of his Patron. Therefore, as though to sure suffrages, with the Brothers accompanying him, he ran to the tomb of the man of God: and there prayer being made in common, both he was freed from death, and all were defended from the plague, nor was any one of those Brothers
struck by the deadly devastation of that plague. Nor were those alone freed, but also if anyone coming from afar, touched by the pestilential blow, should with faith flee to the solace of St. Richarius, even with the plague of death he escapes danger.
[17] Whence it is given to understand, how great power he has with God in interceding for our sins, if with faith we cry to him, who is endowed with such virtue for driving away diseases from those who come to him with faith. For it is plain from miracles, what he is from merits; and his past life shines in the subsequent work: so that there is no need to doubt of his sanctity, when he is so great in virtue. Understand hence, conclusion to the hearers, most dear Brothers, he who willed to be poor for Christ, what riches he now has with Christ: and he who sought to be contemptible among men, how gloriously he reigns among Angels, now possessing most happily in the heavens the honor he fled on earth. Wherefore it is fitting that he be honored by all, who always loved the Lord of all: more eagerly however by us, who daily attend his body: that those whom he begat as sons in doctrines, he may possess as worthy heirs in merits. Nor does our praise profit him so much, as his imitation profits us: a devoted imitator pleases him more than an idle praiser. Whence, most dear Brothers, present at the feast. and most holy Fathers, and most joyful sons, and people of the whole holy Congregation, who have come together to the feasts of so great a Patron, make yourselves worthy, so that almighty God through his intercessions may hear your prayers. Adorn yourselves with spiritual beauty, with the glory of charity that surpasses, with the fortitude of victorious faith and most sweet hope in the goodness of Christ, always following the footsteps of the holy Fathers: so that walking by their examples, you may be made worthy of their society; and according to the Apostle, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live soberly, justly, and piously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and cleanse to himself an acceptable people, a pursuer of good works: to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen. Tit. 2:12
NOTES.
MIRACLES
By a monk of Centula, From Mss. codices, Antwerp, another of Queen of Sweden, and the Acherius edition.
Richarius, Founder and Abbot of Centula, in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 7230
By Alcuin FROM MSS.
BOOK ONE.
Miracles worked from the year 814.
CHAPTER I.
Miracles done under Abbots Hericus and Elisachar.
[1] The sacred miracles of the Saints, with divine clemency working, we have learned by an Angelic oracle should be made known, who among other things speaks to Blessed Tobias: "To hide the sacrament of a king is good, but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorable." Tob. 12:7 Prologue, Moved by this admonition, what miracles for the merits of Blessed Richarius divine condescension performed, we have striven to commit to letters: and since through the neglect of the ancients all things seem to have been passed over, except a few which are inscribed in his Life; we have considered it worth the effort, what by the testimony of faithful witnesses we have gathered, to begin from the rule of the most pious Caesar Louis; and to carry down the rest to the present, as far as the faculty of their memory suffices.
[2] In the year of the sacred Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 814, seventh Indiction, while happy France flowered with every adornment, under the rule of the most glorious Caesar Louis; Abbot Hericus obtained, by the favor of that Prince, the rule of the monastery of B. Richarius: which while he held, a certain man of his vassals, by name Heuto, obtained by his prayers the village of Sidrudes, which was of the portion of the Brothers appointed for their shoes and certain other of their garments. in the village of Sidrudes, It is the same indeed, as ancient industry has handed down to its posterity through the order of generations, where our venerable Father Richarius was wont to hold his lodging, when he had sought to cross the watery plains of the Ocean; partly devoting himself to the salvific preaching of the region of Britain, partly also sweating in the redemption of captives. For there was near a grove, which to this day gives some indication of it, where the inhabitants of that very place, both on the going and returning journey, to temper the weariness of the body, and to pour forth holy prayers, they have handed down by the line of genealogy. Among which there was a certain beech, near which the same colonists reported the holy man himself was wont to insist on his customary prayer, which afterwards was held in reverent honor by them. The devotion of mind of the holy man as a certain noble woman, to whose dominion that very possession pertained, perceived with the ear of the heart, who was named Sigetrudis (from whom afterwards that territory obtained a name) loved him with such a bond of charity, cutting down the beech famous for the prayer of St. Richarius, that she gave to him that village to be possessed perpetually. When the aforesaid Heuto had obtained this, he began to use that free power. One day, when he was going around his fields, he came upon the already-named beech: which when he saw to be huge, he ordered it to be cut, and judged it was fit for the service of the hearth. To him his servants professed that they in no way dared to endure this, because they had learned by paternal tradition, that this was a sacred log, and that there B. Richarius was wont to pray, when he sought the transmarine regions, and they wove him the whole chapter of this matter. Which he with proud mind despised, saying this was vain observance, and on this account it must not be omitted that it should not be cut down. Constrained by his force, they did as they had received the order from their lord. But when it had been cut and broken into parts, the upper parts could be split: and when they had come to the second to last, [they found there hairs, like Relics, and certain cuttings of beard: which when the rest held in honor, he ordered all to be scattered, confirming it was the work of fools. But when they had tried to split the last with mallets and wedges and every machine of this kind, it repelled all and remained indivisible: and when they were wearied with vain labor, as it was whole, he ordered it to be placed on a cart, and carried to the house where he himself lived: and he called a certain colonist, named Herrardus, to whom the care of it was entrusted, asking to bring his horse, and commanded that he go with him for the sake of hare-hunting; for Herrardus himself was skilled in this sport. And where they had scarcely ridden a space, as much as twice or thrice is the cast of a sling, he began to be anxious and to profess himself gravely tortured with infirmity. When he was urged by the said Herrardus, he is punished by a fatal disease: that if he should descend from the horse, and gradually rest in his bosom, he hoped he would be better, he consented; and he gave him no help at all, but with the infirmity growing, as he could, he returned to the village from which he had departed.
[3] The servants however, as they had been ordered by him, carried the insectile (non-splittable) part of the beech, and threw it before the door of his house. Which while it lay there, and no hope of splitting remained; on that very day a certain one of the colonists; "Is this," he said to his companions who were present, "the part of the beech which our many attempts joined could not split?" To whom when they gave faith to the matter; "It seems," said he, "to me easy to lay open for division." And taking an axe, as if trying, at the first blow of the striker immediately it was divided, and there was found a certain Cross, and in the trunk of the beech a Cross was found, which was inserted in one of those parts, and in the other, as it were impressed, appeared: which whether the Saint himself had cut, while he was there having leisure for prayer, and with the growing mass of the tree was it grown around; or divinely for the miracle of such a man was planted, it is held uncertain. Those who were there when they saw this, were struck with great terror: and counsel taken, as the parts with the Cross were, they brought them into a storeroom under the custody of a certain Herold, to whose care that very service looked. Who securing the door with a bolt, afterwards with the trunk it vanished: not only because of this matter, but also because he was keeping there certain treasures of his Lord, departed: and on the following night, when he gave himself to sleep in that very storeroom, and the parts with the Cross were still there, he secured the door with bolts and bars. And in the morning, he found nothing of those parts or of the Cross; and struck with huge fear, he strove to tell all of such a wondrous deed. They hearing and with all solicitude searching, found nothing: which remains unknown to this day. The aforesaid Heuto truly, about the fifth day lying in infirmity, gave forth his spirit. These things thus being had from many inhabitants of that village, especially Herrardus and Herold, whom we placed above, who were present, were confirmed by testimony.
[4] Nor does that seem to be covered in silence, which happened in the times of Abbot Elisachar, successor of Hericus, in the aforesaid village. There was a certain lime tree, in the lord's manor, which presented no small mass of body. A lime tree cut by the force of winds, But this one night being touched by the force of winds, was so shaken, that from top to bottom it was split into four sections, leveled with the ground, held only by the roots. This when a certain one of the Brothers of the monastery of St. Richarius, named Egelwinus, to whom this duty was imposed, discovered it was so when the day shone, he asked his men to prepare wedges and mallets, so that on the morrow flasks and whatever would be necessary might be made from it. But vain labor deceived them: for when they first in the morning came equipped to carry out this work, they see the tree whole and erect in its former state, is restored to integrity, except that scars from top to bottom appeared, as if it had suffered no damage from this matter: which lasted for a long time afterwards, preserving the same scars in testimony.
[5] a spring is obtained from heaven by B. Richarius. It is reported by the ancients, that B. Richarius, while he was still leading a military life on earth for the palm of the heavenly homeland, often held lodging in the aforesaid territory with the already-mentioned handmaid of God: who with great familiarity being joined to him, seeing his life assiduous in God's work, asked him, that by his sacred prayers with the clemency of almighty God he would obtain, in such a way that she might merit to be enriched in the supply of water: for it was there very
necessary. Compelled by that prayer, he is reported to have prayed: and after his prayer to have fixed his staff in the earth, and immediately a spring to have burst forth, which remains there to this day, showing that to which at first by the holy man's prayers it issued forth. Many things could be said from this, but we have decided to omit them, because we hasten to pass to those things, which where the bright pearl of his body is kept, almighty God, for the glory of his soldier, has deigned to work for the salvation of men.
[6] A paralytic girl, A certain father of a family, very illustrious in wealth, placed in the region of the Burgundians, lived honorably: to whom all hope of children had been taken away, except for the sight of one daughter (who, placed in virginal years, remained the only hope of her surviving) whom the dire suffering of paralysis so afflicted, that she could not even extend her hand to her mouth. And when her own father led her around to various places of the Saints for this purpose, and obtained no cure, it happened that his own people despaired that she could obtain health. his father being warned through a dream, With these men having their hearts clouded in darkness, it happened one night that the father was addressed through a vision by someone unknown to him, with such words: "Go," he said, "into the region of France to the Northern parts, taking with you your only beloved daughter, and seek out the monastery of the venerable St. Richarius, which is situated at a distance of fifteen leagues from the port of Quentovic, and there know that, by his merits, she will receive her former health: and since there are three churches there, prepare many candles, that you may place a proper candle on each altar: nor do not delay much, because in the near future there will be a great festivity of the Saint himself." He, awakened, rejoicing at the vision, did not delay to fulfill the orders quickly: she is carried to Centula, and with all things necessary for the journey prepared, with a large retinue and his daughter placed in a litter, using an inquiring path, he reached the aforesaid monastery. And when he had arrived there nearly two days before the space of that festivity, he stopped waiting for its approach: and because at that time the custom was, at the institution of the famous Abbot Elisachar already mentioned, that women should not touch the threshold of the monastery, from the southern region he pitched two tents. When the vigil of the splendid solemnity, which is observed on the seventh of the Ides of October, had come, he placed the candles taken on each altar, and offered certain small gifts to B. Richarius, and also gave to the Brothers a quantity of his own treasures: the Brothers however for the sake of mutual charity strove to repay the turn of his humanity. Therefore on that venerable day, after the solemnities of Masses had been performed, from the vintage of St. Richarius, and from the wine of their storerooms sent him a blessing; that daughter of his, drinking wine from the vineyard of St. Richarius, she is healed: whom cruel paralysis had possessed, hearing of that vintage, asked that a drink of it be given her. And when her procuratrix wished to take the vessel with her own hand, and offer it to her mouth as was the custom; she refused, but with her hand extended in an unaccustomed way, she somehow brought the drink to her mouth, and drank it all. When she had drunk it, she rose whole, and begged all the guests in the love of the Confessor of Christ to drink, going around, and giving each one a fitting cup: and her father and all his people were turned to the glory and praise of God, because He manifests the name of His Saint even in distant regions. And she obtained health to such a degree, that she returned home riding.
[7] There was a certain harlot, named Olgia, of the territory which is called Villare, adjoining the walls of the monastery on the Northern side, a contracted harlot is healed once, who was the cause of ruin for many. She, while she was grassing much in the mud of this dregs, it happened that she suffered contractions of all her members, so much so that her face did not look forward in the manner of humans, but backward. She was brought by her own people with candles to the suffrages of our Father, where by his merits she obtained her own health. But after she merited, by divine aid, to use her lost ability; she did not rise to shatter the vices of her accustomed lust, but sought more to serve: for if previously she had been insatiable in the filth of this misery, afterwards she added much more the worse. Whom God's clemency chastised with a harder rod: for as much as she added greater things to the previous ones, so much more copiously the second time she was contracted, with the ability of speaking taken away at the same time. Whom again her own people strove to carry to the accustomed aid, and again, and is corrected: who was led there at the time of the Vesper Office of the Lord's day. Prayer made, as she waited there a little, she saw apples lying on the altar, which is before the splendid mausoleum of our Father; and she nodded, as she could, that they be given her from them. Which as she touched at the first taste, she received the gift of her lost speech, and then in that very night she obtained complete health; she never again applied herself to wallow in the poison of this calamity, having been chastised by two scourges.
[8] A certain man came, named Restoldus, of the district of Evercinum, to the monastery of the Soldier of Christ, among the other foot-soldiers of the already-mentioned Abbot Elisachar, using such company, for the sake of seeking a living: who when he had dwelt there for some time, it happened that on the vigil of holy Pentecost, being of light mind, he sought the fishpond, which is situated next to the monastery, a thief lurking among the servants, for the sake of fishing. There nearly the whole night completing vain labor, he obtained nothing, but began to grow numb with huge cold. And when he was thus wearied, leaving the work begun, he proceeded to where the bakery art was exercised, that there the remaining time of night he might rest: for now daybreak was imminent. And because there by the mason's work the oven was made with such a shape, that above in its circuit almost a bed of six men might suffice, he gave himself there to idle rest. Around the coming of the dawn, with the Brothers performing their hymnody to God, and the bakers with the laziness of sleep wiped away kindling the already-mentioned furnace for the work of humanity, he began in sleep to emit voices with great groaning. Which the ministers hearing, first marvel at the person of the sound: then gathered they approach the man, asking when and why he had come there. And he narrated to them the chapter of the matter done. They taking him place him before the face of the fire: they also began to inquire, why he had first emitted such dire voices. To whom he; contracted for 2 or 3 years, "I saw myself," he said, "in the sweet time of sleep, being so pressed by the keeper of the storerooms with hands and knees, with continual rebuke, why I had been given to such great boldness, that I dared to seek out that lake for the sake of my robbery; so much that (as you see at present) the gait of my feet is denied me, with the nerves contracted, and I cannot creep except on hands and turned knees." In which weakness he remained occupied for two or nearly three years, not departing anywhere. After such spaces of time in the month of August, on a day fit for the mystery of Christ's resurrection, while the life-giving praise was celebrated in the church of B. Richarius at the nocturnal time, it happened that he was present. And when from the custom of the institution of the glorious rule of St. Benedict the sacred reading of the Gospel was brought to its conclusion, and the one voice of all bystanders had answered, "Amen," and the Priest was adding the Ambrosian hymn, "To you praise is due, to you hymn is due"; he burst out with a huge cry into voice. And some of the Brothers swiftly running, struck by the cause of this matter, found the man lying prone on the ground, with his whole body extended beside the middle door, which is passable for those entering from the West; and his suffragines wet with blood, with drops so flowing that they appeared in his footprints: which, he is suddenly healed, as they themselves afterwards asserted, gave much stench of putridity. But when the inviolable praise of God had been completed, with great joy and with all the brothers singing in hymnic voice "Te Deum laudamus," adding the sweet melody of the bells, they carried him before the dewy mausoleum of St. Richarius. And because he could neither sit nor turn himself to the other side, they placed a mat under him: and so after all was finished, all alike gave themselves to their cloister. And after the divine praise of the first Hour of the day was performed, the Brothers come to him, asking with human curiosity, if he had seen anything worthy of speaking, at the very blow of his voice. Then he: "When, with you celebrating the magnificent praises of the kindly Office, I had entered this venerable house, I sat down where you afterwards found me lying prostrate: and when I had long kept vigil for the work of the inviolate office, suddenly a huge sleep invaded me. And behold two men of venerable whiteness, clothed in white garments, address me with these voices: 'Why do you sluggishly sleep, and not hear the things which are being recited?' And when I, struck with fear of these, tried to lay aside the laziness of sleep, they seized me, one by the feet and the other by the shoulders, and thus stretched me out, as you found me prostrate. Know that for these reasons, I burst out into voice." And when he was asked what had seemed to him to be, who could be such magnificent men; he replied that he did not know. And the Brothers to the Giver of all good things, who makes His Saint wondrous, offered praises with consonant voice of heart, consecrating them with tears. He obtained perfect health, and remained until the last limits of his end around the threshold of the monastery, fed by the alms of the Brothers.
[9] A woman, named Bethania, from the village with the name Altiswico, with contracted hands so much that the nails were stuck in the middle of the palm, came on the vigil of the sacred Nativity of Christ to the monastery of St. Richarius for the sake of her cure: and there, on account of his intercession, Likewise three contracted are cured: in the celebration of Masses of that very day, she received the health of her own hands. A certain man from the aforesaid village, when by chance it happened that he was drinking with certain robbers, he however being ignorant of their wickedness, was taken with them, and in the village of Dulcurium, which is about three leagues distant from the monastery, he was committed to the stocks of our Pastor: who remained there, having no surety, until all his members were contracted. Which the guards seeing, and considering their own gain nothing in him, they released him from custody: his kinsmen taking him, brought him with them to the aforesaid estate. After some space of time it seemed to them, that he ought to be brought to the aid of our Father, believing that there by his intercessions he would obtain health. Nor did the divine credulity deceive them. For placing him in a cart, they led him there: when however he had there lead almost a revolution of the year, by the special merits of B. Richarius, he merited to obtain fitting health. A certain woman, from the possession named Longo, with contracted hands, in the solemnity of the Confessor of Christ received her former wholeness.
[10] a blind girl sees. A girl blind from birth, continuing for almost three years, whose father was called Justinus, and mother Grimberta, from the village of Prineres, was brought by her parents to the celebrated festivity of B. Richarius. Whom when there, on the vigil of the said day, among
the walls which are called by the name of Paradise, the sacristan of the church found held by her own people; asking those known to him, what had befallen her; and they unfold the order of the matter. Whom he exhorted them to beseech the Omnipotent with urgent prayer, that He might deign to display His mercy toward their pledge. And with a lighted candle, he offered it to her sight: but she with extended hand took the candle. Following up, he offered her an apple, which nonetheless she took in the same order. And thus by these two indications she obtained most perfect sight. They, struck with huge fear, unanimously from the depths of the heart gave praises to God.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Under Abbot Louis. The body was taken elsewhere, and brought back. Various miracles.
[11] When the Abbot of the monastery of Centula was Louis holding the rule, on account of the fear of the evil Danes, whom the Seine nourished at those times, whose leader was Raginerus, many monasteries surrounding the neighborhood of that coast, and also fertile villages, lost their former adornment. because of the incursion of the Normans, For at the said time the temples of the churches laid down their ornament, and the one multitude of those serving God disturbed by their canine rage, sought flight, carrying away with them everything that pertains to the beauty of the altar. Nor did that whirlwind alone breathe the fervor of its savage flood on the nearby places, but also the more distant were moved by its breath: for by that pestilential rumor this monastery too was shaken. Which grew to such extent, The body of St. Richarius taken elsewhere, that not only the resources of the church, but even the very inviolable treasure of the body of St. Richarius happened to take flight. For the Brothers, who were there to serve God, taking it, departed, leaving a few keepers of the place: by which dispersion they endured about three weeks of time.
[12] But after it pleased Him, to whom all good things substantially belong, what happens far off lies hidden, not to leave his accustomed help, he exercised that which was in him from eternity. and after their departure brought back: For his ministers, whom his justice uses for our punishment, because in many things we all offend, by his copious clemency he caused to seek the seats of other regions. When this was done, it seemed to the servants of God of this monastery, that so honorable a treasure should not be long absent from the place whence it had been taken; and on a certain Lord's day, on which by the faithful the Resurrection of Christ is celebrated, clothed in white silk garments, with flamens (priests) and crosses and every adornment composed, and filled with unspeakable joy of spiritual gladness, in hymns and praises of God they brought back the precious body of the most Blessed Richarius, where before they knew it had been. On which company no small part of the region of Ponthieu was present, congratulating the return of so great a Patron. In which happy journey, almighty God deigned to show two splendid miracles for the honor of His Soldier.
[13] a paralytic is healed, For a certain man, named Gotselinus, whom the blood of noble parents had begotten, was possessed by the savage plague of paralysis, so much so that the use of all members was denied him. He, after he learned the Saint of God was being brought to the former place, asked his people to make him a companion of this happy journey, believing that there by his merits he would obtain his own body's wholeness. Whom, because his own servants could not otherwise make the journey, they placed on a very gentle horse, and holding him on both sides led him. He when from afar he caught sight of the bier, in which that noble pearl was being carried by his Priests, with the whole faithful crowd following, immediately confessed that he was better. When however his servants wished to take him down from the horse, he did not agree at all, but wished rather to descend by himself: for already he had felt the clemency of God done upon him by the prayers of B. Richarius; and on foot, as he was able, he went forth to meet, with no one supporting him: and when he drew near, as much as is the space of a sling's cast, he adored God in the glory of His Saint, falling to the ground with his whole body extended, frequently invoking the Saint of God, that by his merits he would deign to confer on him health of soul and body. And when he rose from the place, he was made so whole, that on foot without anyone's support he followed such a desired treasure, even to the place of its deposition: and after the solemnities of Masses were finished, he returned to his own riding, so safe that he felt no injury of his members.
[14] and a dropsical man: A certain Landricus had a servant, having the name Magimbertus, whom so dire a passion of dropsy afflicted, that he was deemed incapable for any work, and could scarcely be moved from place, placed in the monastery where the tornale (turning) work was exercised. After however the aforesaid precious treasure drew near the walls of the monastery; certain of the servants who were there, urged him to go with them to meet the body of B. Richarius, and there he hoped, for certain, to be able to obtain fitting health. To whom he as if excusing; "You see," he said, "that from the place in which I now lie, I cannot raise myself to my steps; and how do you compel me to go where I cannot?" To him they professed that they would bring help, provided he would give assent. Conquered by their importunity, with them supporting him, as he could, he directed his steps there: but before he reached the gate, which looks at the Northern signs, they meet a choir of psalm-singers before the inviolable treasure of the body of our Father: and falling down they adored. But when the Priests, to whom the care was entrusted of bearing the aforesaid honorable pearl, reached the region, that dropsical man cried out, saying that he was being trodden by a certain Priest who was carrying the bier. Which is established to have been otherwise. He after he raised himself from the place in which he had lain for the sake of prayer, it seemed to him that he was being drenched, as if from a full cauldron and boiling, from head to foot, and thus obtained his former health. Who long after remained there, most perfectly sound.
[15] The Merciful and compassionate Lord, who with manifold ray of piety illuminates the human race, applying the antidote of divine medicine consecrated to body and mind, himself speaks to some, cured from the plague of sickness, by an interior unction, so that it stands openly, what the flame of supernal kindling has done inwardly: but others he looks upon with the gaze of mere cure, the reward of unction by no means granted; who seem to follow the wickedness of their heart, and they enter where temptation leads them. Nor is the omnipotence of God to be denied in these, but rather mercy to be praised, A noble boy offered to the Saint, and just judgments fearfully. And finally, because we said that God mercifully speaks to some after the wound of cure by interior unction, by a subsequent miracle
clearer than light it shall appear: for such is this heavenly deed, as by no means should it be omitted in letters. Certain parents, noble according to the habit of this world, hedged about not only by many services and honors, but also imbued with the sacraments of the divine faith, brought in cradles their uniquely beloved son, named Albricus, to the kindly suffrages of our Father: which little boy was afflicted as if with the passion of paralysis, so much so that he was held unfit for all things which that age receives: who also labored with the obstacle of voice, is freed from paralysis, and could not strike a word of one sound with the whip of the tongue. Placing him before the mausoleum of the Soldier of Christ, suppliantly vowing with vows and promises, that if by God's help and the imploring of his Saint he should merit to enjoy his former soundness, he should be committed to the Lord and to the Patron of that very place should serve under the monastic rule. As the title of this devotion, taking a shears, they tonsured the head in the manner of a crown, under that condition or tenor, so that in future he might not be able to turn back his foot from this profession. Finally all the altars which were in the church of B. Richarius, as well as in that of St. Mary, they vested with palls. He lay there the whole night, in that smallest little place, with Christ's clemency touching and mercifully regarding him, through the intercession of this Saint, he obtained the health of all his joints. and as a monk fulfills the vow of his parents: Of his tongue however a certain connection remained, by which however, as it were lying beside him, he is wont to utter words. He being brought back for a certain period to his parents' home, and in a fitting or equal time brought back, he was more worthily and more honorably committed to the service of the Lord: who hitherto carries this out both in vows and in professions, to which he was first given by the assent of his parents. For although he is hindered by the obstacle of his tongue, yet his sedulous mind longs to dwell in heaven: and what he does not fully use with the office of the mouth, from the penetrale of his heart he the more abundantly enjoys heavenly things. And this is what we prelibated above, that he who is touched by unction, it is necessary that he be solidified in mind to things above: him however we believe, if sight does not fail, to do those things which divine piety is believed to love: and that in these with a fixed gait he may persist, until the limits of his end the mercy of God is to be implored for him.
[16] a blind and lame man is healed: A certain poor man, too, named Bertoldus, was deprived of two gifts, namely sight and gait. Who for some time by the inhabitants of Nova-villa, which is situated next to the walls of the monastery, was placed in a certain hut, pursuing parsimony of food. But after he left that station, he approached the walls of the monastery, and began to live in similar fashion. When however he had there led the turn of a year, one day, with the time of the Vesper synaxis now impending, he began on all sides to be most violently tortured in his members. When however by ear he perceived the first sign of the bell of the vesper office, as he could, he directed his steps thither of his knees. And when he had a little stayed in the bosom of the church, and the melody of the four Psalms was completed, and it came to the concert of the sacred Gospel, immediately he cried out with a loud voice, falling to the ground with his body stretched out: and where the praise of his mouth was completed, he was carried by the industry of the Brothers, singing "Te Deum laudamus," with a deep sigh of the heart and with bells ringing, to the nectareous sepulcher with spiritual flower of the kindly Richarius. He fully obtained the dignity of his steps, but the gift of his eyes in part: for he received sight so much, that he could attend his journey from near, who until the term of his death remained around the doors of the monastery, using the alms-bread of the hospital.
[17] a blind woman, A certain one of our Brothers, by whose industry we have learned many other of the virtues of B. Richarius also by narration, hinted to us among other things, that a certain woman while she remained in conjugal life, was deprived of the light of her eyes. She, while she was long in the hardship of this calamity, and saw herself incapable in the service owed to her husband, begged her husband to leave her, and give permission to place a veil on her head; asserting that she had been warned through a vision, that in the monastery of St. Richarius near St. Mary she should receive the veil of her head in the manner of nuns, and that she should be nourished thereafter from his alms-food humbly asked. As he heard it, he consented: with permission of her husband, and having received a fitting parting gift of his hand, from her Lord, in whose service she was, she merited to obtain permission for this matter; and taking with her a certain friend as a companion of the journey, she came to the aforesaid monastery. And when there with eulogiae for her ability she had come before the Provost of the monastery, she opened to him all her desire, and suppliantly suggested that by his command she should be veiled. Whose unmoved affection the Provost saw, for a while doubting, said that this was not his own, finally did not forbid it: and she being led by her own to the basilica of B. Mary, as she herself had asked, received the already-said habit. received to the habit, When however on that very day she was returning, where she began to draw near the village, which is called Mount of Angels; "It seems to me," she said, "that before us is a certain mountain and upon it a church, whose little tower is beheld by me." Which when her already-said familiar mocked with derisory word, and she could only see it so that she could move her foot from place to another, affirmed; "Leave me," she said, she is illumined: "and then my assertions shall appear true." As however she was dismissed, most rightly along the path she walked, always rolling that in her mouth: "I praise God, that through the merits of my Lady St. Mary and B. Richarius, the light of my eyes has been restored to me." To such an extent indeed she was enriched with this gift, that she saw as at first.
[18] When a certain bound man was being led by his keepers, it happened that they had to pass through the monastery of the holy man. And when prayer being made there again they attempted to take up the journey, that bound man raised his voice with these words: a bound man is loosed in the church of St. Richarius: "Lord God and St. Richarius, help me." Whom one of the guards with proud mind rebuked, saying: "St. Richarius, whom you invoke, shall not help you today." But before they went out of the atrium of the monastery, the bound man was loosed of his own accord, and with swiftest course fled into the basilica of the Confessor of Christ, and there was saved; and immediately the passing voice of pride fell down, but humility was exalted by the intercessions of St. Richarius.
[19] There was a certain pestilential man, a worker of robbery, named Dierbertus, who in the aforesaid village of Dulcurium was thrust into public bonds. likewise another, Where when he was long tortured, and had no surety for his release; with no one caring for him because of his frequent evil deeds; he began in some way to be loosed by the keeper of that torture, named Goifridus. For taking him and binding him with wooden bonds, made with mechanical art so that his neck and hands were interwoven with them, he was leading him through the reapers, through any houses, not only for his sustenance, but rather so that he himself might be fed thence. accustomed to be led around by his keeper for the sake of alms. When he was doing this some time, it happened that he came also to the monastery of St. Richarius on such business: for at that time it was a prescribed fast, and the Brothers with the other faithful followed the Crosses. When however they were returning, and had come to the walls which are next to the church from the Western side, which obtain the name Paradise; the said Goifridus held him bound with him present, hoping in his alms in accustomed manner to gain a stolen profit. But the clemency of almighty God turned that with a reciprocal turn: for he who before had deceived the eyes of many, and rashly usurped the things which were given, not to him, but to himself; in that manner he himself was deceived. For when he went into the interior of the church, for the sake of hearing the divine office of Masses, and had left the aforesaid bound man before the doors of the basilica; by the intercessions of the holy Confessor the bonds were loosed of their own accord, and with swift course he gave himself into the church, and there by God's protection and his soldier's imploring, he was freed.
[20] A girl from the village, named Durcaptum, with all her members contracted, was brought in a little carriage to the solemnity of our Father: Two contracted are healed. who, while the mysteries of Masses of that day were celebrated, merited to obtain her former health. Likewise a girl, afflicted with a similar disease of contraction, was brought to the feast of B. Richarius, who there obtained her own cure.
NOTES.
BOOK TWO.
Miracles done in the time of the writer.
CHAPTER I.
Another Normanic incursion. The body taken elsewhere and brought back. Various miracles.
[1] Thus far, although with unskilled style, we have followed the truth of these things; yet it is established that we have placed those miracles, The author writes here the things he saw. which by the report of faithful witnesses we believe to bring no scruple of doubt to any devoutly reading them. Now next must be placed those which being present we have seen: in which the external person of testimony is not sought, our own conscience instructing us in all things. There exist indeed some inserted things, which have been performed in various places, in that manner or tenor swiftly reported to us, that the mind is confirmed by their words, as if we had been present with them.
[2] With the Normans devastating France, In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 859, eighth Indiction, a dire plague depopulated no small part of France. For the sea at that time, although under certain assiduously dark significations it does not cease to exercise it, showed its naked affection to its neighbors: for at that time it vomited forth its own nurslings, whom it had nurtured with the gall of its corruption, as if giving birth. Alas how savage its twin birth-giving, that is significative and uncovered! Of which the earlier has its own purpose in snatching souls, and by submerging them to the lowest of its savage stream: but the next transgressed the laws of its nature, and for a pious affection uses bloody homicides. For what sometimes was wont to bring sweet pasture to its neighbors, now brings the destruction of death: and whence once enormous satiety had been brought forth, thence now black famine goes forth. For at the aforesaid time a dire hand of the Danes covered the surface of the sea far and wide with its ships, so much that wild beasts of the forests were thought to be raised upwards with apples: by whose ravages monasteries were destroyed, cities overthrown, villages fell from their roots: and (what is more wicked) the very multitude of men, no less of the common folk than of those serving God, is handed over to foul dogs: and these they partly slaughter, partly lead off as prey of their ships, partly also slay with fierce flames. By which plague it happened that the monastery of St. Richarius was enveloped. For the monks who had seized the subtle way of theoretical contemplation there, were scattered like sheep at the presence of a fierce wolf: who fleeing hither and thither, endured various calamities of their ways: but most recently obtained a place of habitation in the territory of a certain woman devoted to God and beneficent, the Centulensian monks flee: named Hengilrada, obtaining the name Podervais; and there by the liberality of the aforesaid woman they led not a few days. And when almost twice-three solar months were passing in the time of this savage misery, the Lord remembered, through the intercession of His Soldier, His servants set in great distress: for on a certain Lord's day, on which at that time by the Faithful was observed Septuagesima, it was thus declared. There was a certain old woman in the aforesaid village, who was fed by the alms of the aforesaid woman, who reported that she had seen such a vision. "For when," she said, "I had given myself to silent rest, that same night there stood a certain old man with venerable whiteness, clothed in garments white as snow, carrying in his hands a golden staff: whom the holy man, striking, asked where the Centulensian monks were. But she, although in the vision, as she afterwards reported, feared that he was some spy of the Danes, and altogether denied that she knew. To whom he a second time; 'Do not fear,' he said, 'but tell me where they are.' And she answered: 'I confess that I do not now know their gathering, on account of the fear of the evil Danes, whom they flee running here and there; but nonetheless most frequently they are wont to come here to the walls of my mistress, by whose alms I am fed.' To whom he subjoining, 'Go,' he said, 'and tell my servants: Do not fear. I will protect and guard them, nor shall you any more suffer the ambushes of the evil Danes at this time, and I have been the defender of my place from all impending pressures: for from that time, when you went out of there, I remained and guarded from all adversities: and you shall quickly return to your former place.' But she reported that happy vision to some Brothers. Which when it came to the ears of many, they were filled with unspeakable joyfulness, offering praises of thanks to God, who always deigns to remember his servants placed in distress, through the intercession of His Saint. Which vision the outcome of the matter proved. For afterwards the malice of the Danes did not rage so much, nor did the Centulensian Brothers change their various seats of dwelling out of their fear, but after a little time passing, they gave themselves to their own sea, departing. O how merciful does B. Richarius show himself therefore to his own, who deigns when they suffer adversities, to be present as a kindly consoler. By whose intercessions the enclosures of his monastery were guarded, his servants' servitudes protected, the ambushes of the Danes put to flight from afar.
[3] Nor does that seem to be covered in silence, what in the district of Beauvais the divine clemency worked, accustomed to plunder the goods of the church, out of reverence for B. Richarius. There is a certain estate there, named Civinocortis, which is subject to his monastery, and situated in the lot of the Brothers. In this there is a church in his honor and a lord's manor on one side of the church, and on the other of the Priest, to whom the governance of that very church is committed. This while Wariculfus the Priest held, there was also a thoroughfare through the church from the Lord's manor to the Priest's manor. He had a servant, who because of the smallness of his stature used a diminutive name, that is Martinellus, who was seizing fitting hours for his theft, with his master unaware and not at all consenting, and whatever he could of things fit for his hand he carried from the Lord's manor into his manor. Which while he was doing at some time, and did not wish to restrain himself at all from this rashness; it happened that one day, when he passed through the aforesaid church carrying wood, he found there an old man with venerable whiteness, clothed in a white stole, with a staff in his hands, who with a chastising word forbade him to exercise that theft any more, he is rebuked by an old man appearing, nor to pollute that church any more with his unchaste work. Which command fearing, as those newly ordered are wont, he strove to fulfill. When however he had bound himself in these observances for three or nearly four months, and had begun from day to day gradually to let this go, as past things are wont to be forgotten; he began to resume the accustomed work as before, and again, while he passed through the aforesaid church, carrying the customary stolen profit, behold the old man who before had forbidden such things was present, harshly addressing him with these voices: "Why, man," he said, and sinning again is chastised with a blow. "did you not observe what I had ordered you, that you should not steal what is in this dwelling, and not pollute this basilica with your foul works?" And with this voice he impressed on him with his hand a huge blow, so that he fell down as if lifeless. Who until the end of his life was fit for no work, remaining in poverty, so that his skin together with his hair flowed off him.
[4] There is also a certain little village, named Argovillare, in the district of Amiens, The feast of St. Richarius a woman violating is punished with death: subject to the monastery of the soldier of Christ. In this while the yearly feast of his was being celebrated, it happened that a woman, named Awinda, sweated in the service of weaving of that property. Whom when her neighbor rebuked with a scolding word, who was not of that family, why she did not celebrate the solemnity of her lord, but gave a base example to strangers; she gave this response: "There is no need," she said, "for me to observe this celebration, since many of his servants are working to keep it." To whom after this voice the disease of the venomous lizard or panuncula miserably grew, by which disease on the third day she put an end to her present life.
[5] A girl, named Gerheldis, of Villare Gemmeticense, in the territory which is called Froocortis, situated on the south side of the monastery of our Father, they are healed, a contracted girl, held her lodging. Who when for some time she dwelt there, fell into the languor of a pestilent calamity, which she endured until she suffered the damage of contraction of all her members: in which hardships she remained almost a whole year's time. In which time of her misery, many times through the sleep of night she was exhorted by a certain unknown to her, to seek the basilica of B. Richarius for the sake of prayer, carrying a candle for her cure. Which she postponed to obey, especially because she had no solace of friends, by whose help she could accomplish this: but as often as she was ordered to go, so often she sent such a candle as she could find. But when the festivity of the most holy Richarius came, on the preceding night there appeared to her a certain one of bright face, who commanded her not to fail to come to the sacred celebration of the aforesaid day; and there he knew without scruple by the merits of this Saint to obtain fitting health. Who by no means despised the commands, but as she could strove to fulfill them. And when the time of the nocturnal office came, she was present among others in the basilica, who from many places had gathered out of love of this Saint. But when now the praise of the nocturnal office was being finished, and that of Matins followed, the little sister of the aforesaid girl began to doze. But as she sat, she struck her with a staff, asking that she help her, and because all her members were trembling she indicated it: and the women who were near her, reclined her in the bosom of someone. But where she began nearly to expire, immediately casting herself on the ground, then and there she was extended. After the solemnities of Matins were completed, with great alacrity of mind, in hymnic melodies and bells resounding, she was brought to the honorable sepulcher of the most blessed Priest: who so received health, that now nothing appears as if she had ever been a partaker of that languor: who to this day often visits his prayers, carrying a veil of the head in the manner of Nuns.
[6] a blind boy, A certain woman brought her little blind son to the suffrages of our Patron, on his sacred festivity: and when the solemnities of Masses of that day were being performed, by the intercessions of the Saint of God he merited to enjoy the light of his eyes. A boy named Dodo from the village Cathortum, almost 12 years of age, when on a certain
day he was returning following the oxen from the work of plowing, behold a most savage whirlwind was present; and it so struck him and the oxen, that in the violence of that whirlwind he was carried as it were the space of a stone's throw. For it dashed two oxen, another contracted. of whom one suffered the damages of death: but the boy it made to be for a long time outside the sanity of his mind, and so contracted, that he could by no means move himself from place, unless he were carried by another. Seeing which the boy's mother, she strove to bear him to the basilica of the Confessor of Christ: and there staying near in a dwelling, that is, in the aforesaid village of Froocortis, whenever possibility was there, for her cure sometimes she sent by another, sometimes herself brought a candle. And when three years' time had passed, he began to make his way with a support, which by a common name is called "Crocia." And again after the completion of three years, when in the festivity of St. Richarius we celebrated the solemnities of Masses, by the special merits of the same he merited to find his lost health.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
The head of St. Richarius is placed in a silver case. Various miracles.
[7] In the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 864, in the month of October, on the sixth day of the Kalends of November, The head of St. Richarius is carried into a silver case, the glorious head of St. Richarius was translated by the Brothers from a wooden case (in which it had been placed because of the impending Norman pressures) into a silver one, bound around with gold and gems, with due honor and reverence. At which divine office when we had been, there came also no small part of the servants of the monastery, who served in various offices, to such an honorable spectacle, likewise commending themselves to his sacred prayers. Among whom a certain one of the servants, named Geroldus, was present; who in the office of the kitchen of the Brothers serves to this day: they are healed: one suffering with his eyes, who was so deprived of the light of his eyes, that he could scarcely see anything, and in the pains of them without ceasing day and night was tortured: to whom no skill of physicians was of profit; and now by all was despaired of being able to obtain his former sight. Who when among the rest he had come for the sake of this saving spectacle, already in that infirmity for nearly a year and a half, and, as he himself reports, it always had come into his mind that through the life-giving merits of our venerable Pastor his sight should be restored to him; with suppliant voice he adored God, and, that by his merits B. Richarius would deign to pity him, he asked from his contrite heart. Who before he had completed his prayer, felt himself to be better; and before the revolution of a week's circle, he most perfectly received his sight, so that he testifies that he never sees more perfectly.
[8] There is a certain village, named Valcellas, about the space of two leagues from the monastery of B. Richarius, in which there was a man, a contracted boy, named Madewinus, and his wife Biada, whose son, named Hildradus, of nearly seven years, fell into a most severe weakness, so that he could not even turn himself to the other side: in which while he labored, he also fell into the damages of contraction. After however he spent about the circle of a year in this misery, it seemed to his own, that he should be carried to the suffrages of St. Albinus, so that by his merits health might be given him by God's clemency: for his Oratory is not distant far from the aforesaid possession. Whom, taking with them with candles, they carried to the aforesaid basilica: but they obtained nothing worthy of their vow there. Then as they saw themselves deprived of this gift, to our Father's monastery they led him. Who when there he had passed nearly a whole week, and obtained no remedy of his health, his parents turned into the shadows of despair, again brought him back to his own. And as he had there led some few days, divine clemency looked upon him, and made in him a desire, that again he should go to the sacred prayers of B. Richarius. and for a second time going to Centula creeping. And as soon as he was touched by that ray of divine light, he began with his hands and feet as it were to creep: which his own people considering, made no delay in leading him to the desired patronage. And making for him little short "anticulae" (little supports), so that in them he could walk as it were creeping, they left him there. When however he had there passed nearly seven years' time, he merited to obtain his former health. For when in the festivity of our Patron at the nocturnal time we were at the sacred office, and the second Lesson was being recited, by the intercessions of the same he was restored to his former soundness. Whom certain Brothers taking, carried him to the kindly mausoleum of B. Richarius: and after the completion of the divine praise, we offered the devout ecclesiastical hymnody for him to the Lord, who is now perfectly sound.
[9] A man named Lantfridus, from the village, which is called from the name of the little river Scalbacis flowing beside it, about a league distant from the monastery of St. Walaric, another because he had been less grateful relapsing, subject to the fisc of Cresiac, fell into a most grievous sickness. Who when he had given himself for the sake of remedy to many physicians, and had been cut or cauterized by their skill, nothing brought him of health: but rather whence he thought his soundness would come, thence he endured greater detriment. For he sought the help of physicians so much, until he fell into the plague of contraction, and could not walk the path of his way otherwise, than placed in a cart; nor could he move himself from place, unless he were lifted by two men. Who at last remembering himself, rejecting the effort of physicians, took up a better path, handing himself to the prayers of the Saints. Who when he was led through many sacred patronages of the Saints, it happened by God's dispensation, that he obtained no wholeness of his salvation. But at last he was brought by the sagacity of his own to the Centulensian monastery, on the sacred solemnity of our Patron. Who when there prayer being celebrated, was brought back to his own, the veins of his joints began to be relaxed for a while, and he himself to be better. But when the aforesaid festivity came after the circle of a year, he (as was fitting) did not giving thanks for that little remedy of his, seek the prayers of B. Richarius, but turned into the shadows of laziness, remained at home; and to such an extent at last he was contracted, that the second contraction could by no means be compared to the first. Which his own people considering, again he is healed: when again the feria of the solemnity came, placing him in a cart, they carried him there; giving also a certain animal to St. Richarius for his cure: and there prayer performed he was at last led back to his own. Who afterwards in the month of February was given his former health, and himself composed for us the whole chapter of this matter.
[10] Likewise a man, aroused by a vision, to seek health, Likewise a man, named Hermenteus, of the district of Vilcassinum of the village Freneicortis, from earliest boyhood was contracted and mute: who when he was about sixteen years old, at St. Sebastian the Martyr merited to obtain the gifts of lost speech, and the extension of his right hand. Who then approached the Ponthieu region, and in the village, which is called Longo, and in the surrounding villages, sustained a needy life by alms-bread. When however he was about forty years old, a certain one unknown to him began to urge him through a vision many times, to go to the Centulensian monastery, and there he would know for certain to obtain his proper health. And when the celebration of our Father came, placed on a little donkey, which he was wont to use on the journey, he was brought there. And when we had gathered for the nocturnal office, and the praise of the first Nocturn was being celebrated, with the merits of B. Richarius helping, immediately he was extended, and at the same time by the gift of loosening he obtained the left hand. Whom we taking and placing before the mausoleum of our Patron, after Matins were finished, we strove to celebrate the ecclesiastical praises for him to the Lord.
[11] A girl named Angla, from the village Botiono, of the family of St. Richarius, when on the Purification of St. Mary she was working something of flax, was contracted in her left hand, so much that the middle thumb was fixed between the joints of the index and middle (obscene) finger, with the rest hanging downward to the root of the palm. a woman working on a feast day in wool-working is punished and healed: Who when she labored in this hardship nearly a whole month, by the spontaneous extension of her hand she obtained her former health. But when the festivity of the holy man drew near, about the space of one month before, in the same order as above, but somewhat more gravely her aforesaid left was contracted. And when to the solemnity for the sake of her cure, among her other neighbors, who out of love of this Saint had gathered, she made her journey, and now was on this side of the village, which is called Hinwalthcortis; she merited to receive the health of her hand.
[12] There is a village in the district of Amiens, named Incra, belonging to the monastery of B. Richarius, in which when the vigil of the sacred feast of Easter was being celebrated, a contracted woman is raised, divine clemency performed a certain miracle. For there is a church consecrated in honor of B. Gervasius the Martyr, into which were brought the Relics of our Father, with the furniture of his church dedicated, because of the impending fear of the Normans, which without cessation we suffer. There was a certain woman there, with her right long contracted, with the nails of her fingers fixed in the middle of the palm, so that even from the other part they appeared: who, as we said, when among others because of the devotion of the Christian faith she had given herself to hearing the divine Lessons, and the tenor of the sixth Lesson was being had, with divine grace helping she merited to receive fully the health of her hand. Which although the miracle was performed in the church of B. Gervasius, we do not believe however that our Pastor is deprived of it, whose Relics and ecclesiastical furniture were there then.
[13] likewise a little infant: A woman, poor according to the appetite of this world, brought her little son, continuing about four years' measures, named Theodericus, to the suffrages of our Father; who (as she herself asserts) was contracted nearly two years. Whom the mentioned mother brought with a little portion of wax, which at the price of a denier is weighed, to the votive aid of our Father. And where for about three days he was there, he obtained his former health.
[14] A certain man, named Odelradus, of the district of Vilcassinum, and from the village with the name Floriacum, already pressed by mature old age, a mute's tongue is loosed: was mute from his earliest age. Who while in the aforesaid district he sustained his life at work, was often admonished through sleep by a certain one unknown to him, to seek the Ponthieu region, and there by the merits of B. Richarius to obtain the gift of a tongue being silent. Who when among others he had come to the aforesaid solemnity, with the obstacles of the tongue removed, he merited to obtain speech.
[15] A little one, named Dodigerus, of two years and almost four months of age, whose father is called Hildeboldus, a contracted man is raised. of the district of Rouen and the estate Durclaro, subject to the Gemmeticensian monastery, from the womb of his mother was contracted. Whose father kindled with the faculty of living faith, strove to bring him to the festivity of our Father. To whom by the aiding merits of our Father, there the office of his members was restored. Whom we taking, in ecclesiastical manner brought to the mausoleum of the Confessor of Christ, paying hymnody to the Lord for him.
[16] When the eloquence of Apostolic preaching going around each of the regions, has won many to the Christian faith, and the Lord's flock is augmented more eagerly daily; although already of old in the very time of Christ's Vicars the Prophetic verse was fulfilled, "Into all the earth their sound has gone out, and to the ends of the world their words": Ps. 18:15 yet more amply and freely in the process of our age is accumulated, who see even those, whom we often ravage with the sword, corrected in many things, and bowing their bloody necks to the yoke of Christ, which is light. Finally a certain Ansleicus, A Dane Ansleicus visits the church of St. Richarius, begotten of the stock of the Danes, taking the insignia of Christianity, was made a member of the palace by the munificence of the most pious Lord King Charles. Who while he was leading an embassy of the aforesaid Danes, whom till now the sea force keeps in the seats of the English, for their affairs, praying the clemency of the Lord King, and then with fitting answers returning; it happened that they returned through the monastery of the Priest of Christ. When however the aforesaid Ansleicus had gone to the threshold of the basilica for the sake of prayer, and had gone around individual altars supplicating; one of the Danes, whom still Gentile error was mocking, pricked by human curiosity, which a Gentile mocking is struck with sickness, among others entered; who neither adoring God bent the reins of his stiff neck, nor in any respect showed the reverence of honor to the Saint of God. After they touched the marine limits, he began to be deprived of the strength of his joints, and heavily weighed down by bodily affliction. Thence, as he came to the camps of his own, immediately he seemed as if taken out of human affairs: and his necessary companions, struck by the expression of this sinister fortune, asked if he could recall, whence this fuel of anguish had come to him. He, discussing many things with himself, and not retaining at all the plague of this incitement, now was thought by all to be deprived of life. When however the end was thought to be at hand, and no hope of salvation was believed further, at last there came to his memory, that he had swellingly entered the basilica of B. Richarius, at the last repenting he is healed. and had given honor neither to the God of Christians, nor to that Saint himself, and therefore to hope for himself this affair of torment at hand. Which investigating with divining inquiry, as he confessed they discovered: and soon he promised, if divinely life were given him, and he should merit to enjoy soundness, to lead a corrected path of life, and to rest from the shedding of Christian blood. And he ordered to be stretched four silver threads, and one gold of equal height with his stature, disposing to send them for his devotion's benefit to the basilica of B. Richarius, placing also on each altar a candle with individual coins. Which, as he deliberated, soon he merited to feel the aid of relief, so that after almost three days he became suitable for all business of his work.
NOTES.
HISTORY OF THE RELATION
From IV MSS. codices.
Richarius, Founder and Abbot of Centula, in Gaul (St.)
BHL Numbers: 7234, 7236
FROM MSS.
CHAPTER I.
The body of St. Richarius taken away, brought back, and again taken.
[1] After, with sins demanding, it pleased Divine justice, that by the hand of the Pagans, whose leader had been Guaramundus, France should be afflicted; and with many places of the Saints destroyed, [With France by the incursions of the Normans, and the disagreements of the Chiefs disturbed,] the honor and greatest part of the glory of the Centulensian church was deleted; many things were done throughout Gaul very confusedly: with the royal Principate failing, the other chiefs
or peoples, as sons of Belial, exercise the pravities of their ways. Of course if any of the Dukes or Counts were more powerful, they did not cease to lay hands all around and to devastate neighboring provinces, to subject them to themselves, they also strove to usurp the kingdom for themselves. Of these Arnulph, Count of Flanders, began to do many unfitting things, [by Arnulf Count of Flanders are taken the bodies of SS. Richarius and Walaric to Monasteriolum:] and with Monasteriolum the royal castle captured, he subjected the Ponthieu province to his own dominion. This he having obtained by fraud, as he often did; he translated from here the holy Father Richarius, desiring to have such noble gain with certain Saints of his own region. At that time also he took away the holy body of Walaric, and in the castle Monasteriolum, together with the holy body of the most Blessed Richarius, he ordered them to be kept.
[2] After some years' turns, Fulchericus the monk (who after Gerbertus the Cleric and Abbot of Clerics of the monastery of Centula was Rector) came to the mentioned castle; and speaking with the custodian, who was keeping the bodies of the Saints, Abbot Fulchericus secretly with the greatest gifts and infinite prayers obtained, that the dear patron be given back to him. On a designated night therefore Fulchericus mounted his horse, and with the whole people resting stood at the doors of the church waiting. The keeper however very much fearing the Lords' animosity and the people's fury (for incredibly by all this Saint of ours was venerated and loved) going out of the church addressed Fulchericus with these words: "I indeed, conquered by your prayers and the fear of the Lord, shall give you back holy Richarius: but if it becomes known that I have handed him over, without doubt I shall incur danger of my life: whence it is necessary that, with you departing with the Saint, I must cry out as if at a theft, from the custodian he receives the body of St. Richarius, so that by such an art I can feign ignorance. You however with the Saint of God will quickly take flight: and thus restoring the Saint to his place, you will also save yourself." With these things thus arranged he entered the church, took the glorious bed of the holy body. to which his horse bows: And when he wanted to hand it to the hands of Fulchericus; the horse on which he sat, immediately with knees let down to the ground and head bowed to the ground, adored the Confessor of the Lord as much as he could with veneration. Fulchericus cheered by such a miracle, with ineffable joy received the most blessed Father; at once returning, as quickly as he could he was coming. But when the Custodian understood that he was now a league's space distant, as if rising for some need, with lights kindled he cries out, makes noise, and with many vociferations complains that St. Richarius has been stolen from him. Immediately therefore the church is disturbed, the people kindled, the Princes struck with such an announcement. Continuously the soldiers and peoples follow the fugitive, and because the horse on which Fulchericus sat was most white, on account of this through the whole night fleeing he is more easily recognized. But when he was almost exhausted, and a great way still remained, and when those following are hindered by a cloud, and they drew near; it pleased the Lord Creator to work something wondrous, by which he might be known to favor the Relation of this Saint. For when Fulchericus had come to the village, which anciently was called Mount of Angels, but on this occasion Cloudy Mount, such density of air, and such darkness of cloud hedged the pursuers in, that they could not only not see the fugitive, but not even each other. There was also a wondrous difficulty of the journey; so that they clearly knew, that truly by God's nod they were impeded. Seeing however that they were profiting nothing (for both the people of Centula were now running to meet him) with ineffable sadness they departed.
[3] [This relation of the Saint however availed little, when the Centulenses were not permitted to have him long. For Arnulph the same who first, again claimed the Saint for himself; and as if made more cautious, not now in the Pontiva homeland, which sometime he feared to lose; Arnulf again takes him but in a more confident and nearby place, that is in the monastery of St. Bertin he deposits him in the monastery of St. Bertin. he placed him, and at the same time Saint Walaric, where for a longer time than at Monasteriolum he was. For a long time therefore this Centulensian monastery was deprived of the presence of such a Father, the already-said Count Arnulph's power acting.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
The body of St. Richarius again brought back in the year 981.
[4] At last the divinity placated, and inclined by the prayers of his own, With Arnulph dead, decreed by a glorious return to relieve the hearts of the Fathers of their children: who were weighed down with continual groans for their removal. But with the Flandrensian Arnulph long ago snatched by death, and as heir of his power the son of his son substituted, likewise called Arnulph, the hierarchy of the Franks without the title of royal name was being disposed by the son of Hugh the Great, the illustrious Duke Hugh. Who when he gravely bore the fatherland torn by hostile bitterness, nor less was indignant; that the bodies of the Saints, and the other things which adorn churches had been taken by the fraud of the factious from their proper places, and for changing these to better he was sedulously preparing his mind; one night as he rested a vision came to him, from heavenly precept, which with the obstacles of doubtfulness repelled animated him to accomplish, what with pious though timid heart he was disposing to do. Blessed Walaric therefore through a vision standing by him, Hugh Capet, from God's mandate poured forth such words. is ordered by St. Walaric to bring back his and St. Richarius's bodies, "What do you do here," he said. And he having received this speech, began to inquire who he might be. And the Saint: "I am," he said, "Walaric, once Abbot of the monastery of Legonaci, and by God's precept I have come to bring these things to your senses. The venerable Confessor, and before God illustrious Priest Richarius together with me these years back is a captive, and by the treachery of Arnulph far from our seats for a long time we remain driven. Now it pleases God, that through your ministry be obtained, and at your command our return; with the kingdom of France added: that from the sight and presence of our bodies the sorrowful hearts of our servants may be refreshed; and that these may rejoice at our coming, who after God rejoice to have us as pious Patrons. Do it quickly, and take our places from the Clerics, and in them, as formerly, strive to unite monks under the regular norm. Which if you fulfill, I promise you by God's command, through the pious merits of Saint Richarius and my prayers, that you and your offspring shall be King of the Franks, and your stock shall hold the kingdom even to seven successions."
[5] The illustrious Duke therefore, wishing to more quickly accomplish God's precept, with Abbot Ingelard appointed, told by the Saint's voice thus, calling his Counselors, asks, how he might find a suitable man, to whom the Centulensian monastery could be committed to be restored. In this inquiry there were present some, who well knew the inhabitants of this province, and who are said to have given such solace to Hugh: "Behold," they say, "Corbie holds a man, very noble in distinction, to whom we think that the work you speak of can be worthily committed: for he is strongly supported by noble parents and famous warfare: who since in the neighborhood of that very place and in this very province they live, will not refuse to bring help to their kinsman laboring in God's work." Hearing this the illustrious Duke, as if congratulating salutary counsel, sent at once honest men, who from the Abbot of Corbie would beg that the election to be made over the already-mentioned monk should not be delayed. With him agreeing, a fine young man Ingelardus is called, who still at that time they say was in the schools, and was at that very day or hour performing the ministry of Subdeacon. Led therefore into the presence of the Duke, he received the care and labor, by which with him insisting might be repaired, as much as he could, this Abbey. Thence by custom he is consecrated Abbot, and taking a troop of Brothers and soldiers comes to Centula. Now that Lord Fulchericus Abbot, the relator of St. Richarius, had passed from the world on the day of the 8th of the Ides of November; the Centulensian monastery is restored: by whose suggestion and exhortation some of the Clerics had taken the monastic order. Abbot Ingelardus therefore coming to Centula improved everything as far as possible, repaired the cloister: not however as it had anciently been, but in the manner in which it is still seen to stand. Then day and night insisting on religion, and increasing the congregation of monks, he managed the progress of the place committed to him soberly. For there could be no difficulty for one willing: because the place, abundant with great villages, towns, and revenues, gave easy advancement to the undertaking.
[6] With the monastery therefore partly restored, and habitations fitting for religion; with legates sent the bodies are demanded, the aforesaid Duke began to inquire, how what still remained could be perfected, so that the holy Confessor of God Richarius might be restored to his proper place. Using wise counsel he directs Legates into Flanders, commanding Count Arnulph, to give the sacred bodies of the Saints to their proper seats. Which he hearing, and bearing ill to lack such great ones, first refused, saying: "The Saints, whom he himself had not taken away, ought not to be given back by him." The returned messengers tell the Duke that the Count was unwilling to obey. Then he, with a hand of soldiers gathered together most strongly, decreed to go there, where the Saints were; wishing to carry back the ones taken, to their proper places, with his own hand. Arnulph noticing that it would not turn out prosperously for him, if against the just Franks he as unjust should wage a conflict; wet with tears sent Legates to Duke Hugh, asking that he not bring any devastation to the homeland: let him only direct the best men, who receiving the Saints of God might go with peace. and with soldier gathered are brought: Count Arnulph had made silver couches for the most blessed Confessors, where with honor he had placed their holy bodies. On the couch of our most glorious Patron Richarius such little verses he ordered to be engraved.
"Wherever the deeds of Count Arnulph, the slates you read, Which accustomed to the pious Lord he himself had done: One who this bed to kindly Richarius made, Placed in it the chaste members of his own."
[7] Excellent men therefore are sent: the Saints are received by our people rejoicing, and with great joy are brought back, and magnifying God with pious tears and praises; they are followed by those sorrowing, and with excessive sadness wailing with voice lifted on high. And when now by Duke Hugh and all who were waiting a little further off they could be seen, who can adequately explain the voices emitted for joy, who the pouring out of sweet tears? For the greatness of joy had taken away the measure of cries, while the joy, conceived for the return of the Saints, boiling in each heart, scarcely contained itself. The most loving chests of the blessed bodies received, our people stop a little while. After this the chiefs of the people and those of good mind are asked by the Duke to swear, that nothing was withdrawn from the holy bodies, and nothing changed. Which when they had done with a free mind and cheerful spirit, with the Saints' bodies taken up they began to hasten to their own with modesty. The fame however of such a happy return when it struck the hearts of the provincials; they leaped forth at once all, both sexes, common condition, youths with old men, monks with Clerics, and every profession rushed to meet, and each thought himself guilty of crime who had not come. On the 2nd day of the month of June, Blessed Walaric was entrusted to his place; St. Walaric on June 2, St. Richarius brought on the shoulders of Hugh but the return of our native Father was postponed to the following light. In the already-said month pouring out the ages' third day, the illustrious Hugh received the Saint, for one league on his shoulders carrying our blessed Father; and with bare feet, and wet with tears, he came to the temple; the friend of Christ he placed on the seat of his altar. June 3 in the year 981 Meanwhile the choirs and the whole people shouted thanks to God, and praises to Christ. In the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 981, ninth Indiction, on the third of the Nones of July, this bringing back of the most blessed Father Richarius was made.
[8] But on the very road of the relation what miracle happened, we are bound to narrate as a matter worth the effort. The crushed crop yields a fertile harvest: For at the time of this month, the fields turning yellow and the produced ears promise an abundant harvest to the farmers. With blessed Walaric also restored to his proper seat, when the return of St. Richarius, as was said, had been ordered for the morrow, on that very night Duke Hugh stayed with the army and people in the middle of the fields, which of course with the glad harvest and now fertile were laden. And so, while here cooking is going on, there banquets are celebrated, while both for human bodies rest and for beasts stables are being adjusted, while by the long pressing of those standing or lying it is thrown down, while being grazed by the cattle and trodden by feet it is worn, all hope of fruits is denied to the reaper. But with such trampling worn down and destroyed, the harvest, the cultivator is not saddened, because by the Patron's obtaining it is reckoned as nothing. Afterwards therefore when the time of reaping came, the destroyed and despaired-of crops so joyfully and fertilely was cut, that in comparison of it the defended harvests and the ones protected with hedges, in richness of grain, were esteemed little. This miracle is divulged to this day through the mouths of many, which the Lord did through the merit of His soldier, for the praise and glory of His name.
[9] The Duke moreover made by hope at such service, shown to God and His Saint; Hugh Capet becomes King of France, flourishing with prosperous success, returned to France native. Nor long after, as had been foretold to him in the vision mentioned, by the author God, who is wont to raise up those serving him, by the merits of our most holy Patron, whom he had restored to his proper seat, as it is fitting to believe, he obtained the kingdom of the Franks: which as long as he lived he ruled with wondrous governance, and after him his heirs. but when he departed to it, and his heirs (as they are still seen) have followed in the series of succession; with Him granting, whose kingdom is always eternal, through all the ages of ages.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Certain miracles after the translation of St. Richarius.
[10] In the time when Baldwin held the county of the Flemings, the son of Baldwin the Bearded; there was a man in the Tournai region named Ofridus, a Priest of approved life, who with the help of Lady Adela the Countess, wife of Baldwin, was restoring a church in the district of Mempiscus in honor of St. Richarius; but when he could not have any part of the relics of St. Richarius, A church is built in honor of St. Richarius among the Flemings, he ordered the stonemasons, to make everything in the name of St. Nicholas. While they tried to observe it, nothing succeeded for them prosperously. And so he was compelled to finish the work in praise of St. Richarius. This Ofridus indeed after death appeared to a certain Virgin; to whom he narrated the greatest help, which he received even after death from B. Richarius.
[11] In the village Merimont near Liège, a certain one wishing to increase his land, theft is punished with blindness, and to diminish the land of St. Richarius next to him, is deprived of sight.
[12] A ship full of men of various nations, making shipwreck in the sea, and with all Saints invoked, obtained nothing from them. the storm is calmed, But with St. Richarius alone invoked, suddenly the storm ceased.
[13] A man and a woman, fallen into the depth of a dry well, existing near the monastery of St. Richarius, various are helped, were led out from it safe and unharmed. A Cleric eating in the monastery, swallowed a fishbone; and when he nearly expired, with St. Richarius invoked he received health. Engelvinus a carpenter, falling from the bell tower to the ground, with St. Richarius invoked, remained sound upon the stones.
[14] In Cinino-curte, a village of St. Richarius, two men bound and chained, with St. Richarius invoked, are loosed from bonds. the bound are freed, The same miracle happened about one man, whom Hucbert held bound with chains in prison, from which he escaped freed. In the village Berdena there was a church of St. Richarius…
[15] Radulphus was oppressing the colonists of Cinino-curtis, and through soldiers had the court of St. Richarius violently broken into, those injurious to St. Richarius die badly; and ordered to take all things which belonged to the monk custodian of that place, and to all the colonists. On which day the same Radulph; from throat to groins, all his intestines, including his heart, cast into the latrine, and died horribly. Hugh, son of Radulph, for the same cause perished with horrible death: not like a man, but like a devil, he dies, with mouth open and tongue protruding to the chest. With him dead and unburied, his wife took another most wicked man, who for the same cause died badly.
[16] Hugh, a monk of this monastery, being at night in the church, heard heavenly music, and saw poured light filling it. The same was experienced by venerable Baldwin the Abbot and others. A fire existing in all parts of the monastery, is extinguished: some other miracles, and a monk falling from a high place is not injured, without human help, but by the mediation of St. Richarius. A certain blind man of the Tournai district received sight. Likewise another blind man twice recovered sight. A boy, sick for three years, obtained health. At a certain time the body of St. Richarius was being carried to the village Asliacum, and passed through Buxudem, where a dying woman lay: and while it came against the couch of the lying one, immediately the woman leaping up was healed.
Let this be enough for us to have said, because all things cannot by the genius of letters be circumscribed by us.
NOTES.
THE SAME HISTORY
By Angelrannus described in meter.
From a double MS.
Richarius, Founder and Abbot of Centula, in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 7231
BY AUTHOR ANGELRANNUS FROM MSS.
[1] So far, what the page of the ancient book retains In song, as I was able, I have sung the miracles of the Saint: The body of St. Richarius taken, Now I will embrace these, which my own eye has seen. Strong in genius, also supported by great resources, Arnulph the Marquis possessed our homeland; And having obtained this by fraud, as he often did, He transferred the Saint from here, desiring to have such noble gain With certain Saints of his own region. Here having laid aside the coverings of the flesh, being old, He ordered, that his son's son become his heir, Who represented his grandfather only by name. After the King the first then ruled the rights of the kingdom, A man humble to all, to all pious and kind, Son of Hugh the great, the illustrious Duke Hugh; Hugh Capet, Afterwards raised with royal honor, He ruled the kingdom of the Franks with wondrous governance. He gravely bearing the fraud, to the aforesaid Homeland restored whatever had been snatched away, And that the return of the Saint might become more celebrated, He commanded an immense throng of people to gather. Not only did the assembly of our land come together, But also from many Franks a collection was made. with forces gathered, Thereupon he commands the Relics of the Saint to be given back. The aforementioned boy receiving his precepts, Is made sorrowful, about to lack such a prize. But thinking, if he should despise, it was not salubrious; He gave back unwillingly, fearing lest he be forced. Now at last the bright day had shone on the world,
On which so grateful a receiving of the Saint should be made; he receives, The parts proceed rejoicing and weeping: For those hand over, what they always wished to have; These receive, without whom they do not care to live. Afterwards the Chiefs of the people are asked to swear, That nothing at all of the body of the Saint should be missing: This done, our people hastened to return. O memorable day! O light to be observed with vows, On which the Saint deigns to visit the paternal borders! with the great joy of all: The gladness of this day scarcely to narrate Shall anyone be able, nor scarcely anyone the joys so great, Which the coming of the Saint was shaking everywhere. For to whatever villages the procession came, A meeting crowd of all the inhabitants proceeds: And for joy they cast sighs to the stars. Before they reached the temple, by the space of nearly a league, The Duke already aforesaid, descending from his horse's Back, begins to walk with bare feet and he carries it on his shoulders. And with his own shoulders to carry the bier, And with him the more noble-seeming of the common folk: He carries it thus long, drenched with tears, Until at last rejoicing he had placed it on the altar of his own.
[2] But now what by divine virtue has been done Let the reader ponder, with the Saint's merits associated. This return of the Saint which I have foretold was made, In the time when the field turns yellow with full ears: But because the roofs which would suffice for so many soldiers Were not there, they scattered themselves through the cultivated fields. The crushed harvest brings forth a fertile crop: Who can say, how destroyed the crop had been Nearly the whole, when by the feet of horses it is trampled Some part, while another part is grazed by mouth? Part also is burnt by the blazing kitchens placed there, In many parts the grass is cooked by the root. At last they depart, leaving the bare earth. I shall speak wondrous things; a few days passing, Behold an incredible harvest began to grow up Fruitful, and at last when the time and hour of reaping Pressed, you would see the whole fields yellow, As if the region had suffered no damage. Seeing these things to have been worked by the merits of Richarius, The whole people betook itself to the praises of the Lord.
Because a man and a woman, fallen into a well, lived.
[3] In the merit and virtues of the Saint was also that. Because when a great multitude came to his feast, By chance near the entrance of the temple was a well, from which unharmed they remain having fallen into a well: Already for some time the wave of water had completely failed: Its mouth had been closed with old wicker there. Unaware, while a man and a woman go over it, They slipped and fell into its great depth. Who would doubt that they had faced the danger of death? Yet they are seen brought back from the valley of the well, Not only alive, but in their whole body sound.
Because a certain one eating swallowed a fishbone.
[4] Rejoicing he was exercising by custom the Palms The people of the Lord: a certain Cleric taking food because of a swallowed fishbone, With the monks, born of not vile stock of parents, Incautious swallowed a fishbone of one fish: Feeling the anguish of it in the evening, Trying to cast it out by vomiting, But because he could not, it became worse on the following light. Now the third day presented worse things And at last on the fourth he thinks about, with future death Arranging also, what had seemed fitting. He orders the Abbot and Brothers to come to visit him, To whom having entered he spoke so much about death, brought to the danger of death, And asks that with the monks he be buried where he may merit. But on the fifth venerable day for the Lord's supper The crowd of his kinsmen brings him to the temple of the Saint, At the time in which the Brothers celebrate the solemnities of Mass: And supported on the right and left by two he comes: Nearly expiring already he ascends to the holy altar. On which after he had placed certain books as a gift, He strives, as he could, to turn his step back: But scarcely turned, with the heavenly nod touching, He felt himself drenched with warm water over his whole body, And cries out, that he had no anguish. he is healed: From this we too, as if brought back from death, Rejoice, with praises poured forth to the high Lord.
On the blacksmith, who fell from the high roof of the temple.
[5] Engelvinus was the cutter of wood among us, Who was accustomed to repair the falling roofs of the temple, Daring to ascend even many lofty things. He on the feria of Easter went to the bell-tower of the temple, Asked to tie together the broken rope of the sign. But having performed duly the office enjoined upon him, He tries to stop up a certain hole of the roof. But deceived by the hope, by which he believed he could well hold himself from the high ridge of the temple slipping, He fell; and would have died a horrible death utterly, If into a part of the wall, unless divine force had brought him; Whose stretched stones were so by chance, That through the circuit you could walk around the temple; That he might more safely through these fix his steps, Upon was joined the defense of the podiums. Simply Christ's compassion can be known How by this double event it was made open. For indeed death would nearly have been offered to one monk he himself is preserved unharmed, Had not by the Saint's merits, the Lord's custody been present. Finally when the aforesaid man fell from high, He is bent to the stones extended outside, and thus He fell, so that he tore all the defense of the podium And remained upon the extended stones. From that place and spot, whence the woods of the podium fell, One of the monks had risen a little before: as another perilously in its fall: About which who would doubt that he would have suffered the damages of death, Had not out of regard for the Lord he departed from thence. But those who had fallen, fearing he had died, Go, and to see him whom they believe dead alive.
That the temple climbed by a mad girl lived.
[6] The mind of one girl had been turned to rabies, Who with perverted sense driving her wandered everywhere. She, the crossroads of the village traversed at the time of night, When we were at the morning vigil hymns, As is the custom, seeing the doors of the temple open, Enters shouting and gnashing horrid words; a mad girl runs through the pathless heights of the temple unharmed. And at the sound of her voice turning our tracks, She found a ladder which was transmitting to the heights, And through its steps ignorant she began to ascend. But after she began to reach its top; Through the fractures of the stones extended for her She ran, as is the custom of the mad, running. Who would doubt she had suffered the ruin of death? Which however she also did, and did not suffer the damages of death: Indeed going and running she wandered, She came to the entrance of the spiral stair, by which the heights of the temple Were sought: which as long as it is, she too climbs. After this what she did, anyone's tongue Hardly sufficiently will tell: she does not cease at last, To add terrifying voices, and to run around the temple. And no one will know from how great a peril she was preserved, Unless one who has seen the places themselves. We however stupefied and solicited with fear, Lest by her fall the temple should be polluted, But since it was not yet the time and hour of speaking, To the standing crowd eagerly to signify We began, that they should ascend, seize, and lead her back with themselves. But no sane person presumed to touch the insane one: Of her own accord at last she returned through the same steps.
[7] The Beauvais district is present again to be mentioned, In which are certain estates of St. Richarius, Among which the village of Civino-cortis is called; Whose church is dedicated under the honor of the Saint. This the sacred presence of himself often visited, As the little book of this song is known To narrate, which is placed as third from the first: And it tells of the damnable theft of Martinellus. Of this village have always remained faithful to us, Colonists most of all placed under our jurisdiction. But this was sought by raging robbers once, And with them they carried off two men departing. From robbers bound they are freed: Meanwhile many days with iron guard While they hold them, the feast of the Saint began to be near. And now the day was at hand, when the joys would have been So great to follow, when with his companion he reports such words From these, one of them: "My foot under the fetter is loose Now more than usual, and I can draw it out." He had said, and with a slight attempt he drew his foot out. And now the day of Monday, the course was removing from the orb: When with too much drink by the heaviness of sleep are held All, to whom the care of guarding had been committed. Our offered ones, thus obtained freedom, They despised, joyful, the chains they had suffered.
A Brother is healed by the Saint, with the Brother praying.
[8] One who has read the writings of the earlier poets will find, Something excellent; because when they wished to resound, They would ask help from the Muses to do this. But we who are accounted by the name of Christ-worshipers, By what desire, with his piety asked, Ought we to set forth the miracles of the All-powerful? Whom the troops of heaven do not worthily praise, Ethereal, and at whose nod the frame of the world trembles, Heavenly, earthly and infernal. I ask that his clemency be favorable to me, While I strive to say what he did in our time, of two brothers in flesh and monks, Our Richarius, by piously assisting the patron. By flesh two Brothers our Convent had Germans, whose industry was much Useful to us, and anxiety in good things. It happened of them that the older was made superior Of the cell, which the Saint, pressed by the weight of the flesh, Built in the woods cut for him at Crisciac. While he ruled this under the norm of holy religion, It happened, that he fell sick, with languor spread through his limbs, So that the whole fabric of the body was wholly pervaded By no offices could his members be fitted. Dry bones hung under empty skins, one perilously ill, And from his corrupted eyes a drop was dripping: And what was worse he suffered an evil phantasm So grievously, that when he had taken a little sleep, Waking he was not seen with himself to have. That I may speak many things? many reported this, That no one who suffered such things avoided funerals; Although he was affected with such great anxieties, With prudent custom he always was vigorous with reason. Except as I have reported when he had tasted a little Sleep had happened, he held false things for true. When this sick one, the neighbors inhabiting Received the Brothers, to the ears of the Lord's piety, They make cries, with the affection of those pitying. I believe however on this account they did not fear for his safety, seeks the prayers of the other: That the Saint's virtue even in this might be made manifest. In which languor he spent days thirty-nine. These having passed, the solemn was coming, The feast of Richarius; which when he recognized was at hand, Who had been present, enjoined such things upon his brother. "Behold, as is fitting, you shall go to the Saint's solemnities. Tell him, To be mindful of me, to be mindful of his client Let his piety deign: let him recall how great it was for me Toward him always, with what ardor for his property, I handled for my ability his usefulness. Let him also pray to the Lord, that he may suspend the scourge, in which feast on the feast of St. Richarius praying, Which his just sentence is bringing on me." Bearing these commands the brother departed from him, And coming he prostrates himself before the Saint's tomb, Praying with weeping the help of the Lord's piety. But after the secret silences of night came, The aforesaid Brother, sitting by the Saint's cave, Some nocturnal hours passed vigilant, Constantly singing psalms, and laboring for his brother's cause. But where the light returned, the night having passed, Solicitously he celebrates the solemnities of the sacred Mass, Among which he implores the cure of his brother constantly. and celebrating Mass Let every faithful one lend us ear now, That he may know, how great a power of saving is in the Saint
Is at hand with the Lord, if any piously cries to him: Let no one delay to believe what I am about to say. From that night indeed any species of phantasm, The sick one did not feel: and thus of the body's With the disease expelled he began to feel health; he is healed: So that he who before had despised all carnal food, Would have been indignant if even small things had been given him then. We saw moreover him a little after time sound, To render thanks to the Saint, having come to the threshold.
That on the Saint's feast the wave of rain ceased.
[9] In the winter rains, we saw at a certain time The Autumn turned, in the month's time in which the feast October showed the Saint to be near at hand: About which while the Brothers speak as if suffering together, That the huge rain would prevent many from coming, Nor could they render their accustomed service to the Saint: Trusting in the Lord, from them one brought forth; "It is read that power has been conferred by the Lord to the Saints, the excessive rain in the triduum of the feast ceases: To close and open the gates of heaven: Not participant of this virtue I do not believe Will be Holy Richarius, whose feast now draws near. But unless one of bright faith would believe this, When the rains no roof could defend? But when the middle course already the light was entering Which preceded, the sky serene in every part You would see, with the clouds put to flight by the splendor of the sun. And thus the feast day passed, and another from it, So that no drop of the rainy storm dripped. By divine nod thus a temperature pleasing to itself The people having obtained, goes to the solemnity of the holy Patron Cheerful, celebrates, cheerful returns with the celebration over. That it might not be thought accomplished by the Saint's merits, The people had scarcely returned to their own abodes, When so sudden a shower fell upon the lands, That no faithful one could doubt at all; But as if a suspended mass of waters had held itself, For this three days, which his solemnities last.
The plunderers of the Saint were unable to kindle wood.
[10] The narration of the first book of this song Holds this, that after the Saint in this homeland Shone, and subjugated fierce necks to the Lord; Produced he strove to cross the flowing of Ocean, Eager to profit the colonists of another people, In the manner of the merciful Samaritan of the Gospel: Something similar the Muse approaches to narrate. There is a certain Castle in the district of Amiens, called Montdidier; under which lies one village, Whose church is dedicated under the honor of the Saint. Against this castle, the men of Roye began war; And with many villages plundered, the village is sought, Which, as I said, held the temple of the Saint. This the robbers kindled with fury attack, Not hesitating to violate the sacred temple. a wax taper taken from the temple of St. Richarius cannot be lit. By chance near the altar of the temple stood a wax taper: This presuming to snatch, they carry away departing. But after they were able to return to their own seats, The wax which they had taken with them they try to light: But the fire applied to it it so repelled, As if into the material of stones it had been converted. Which again they try, again they labor in vain. They repent of having violated in this way the Saint's secrets, They, and swiftly return to the temple the things taken. These things by some are reported to have been done thus, Although to us that place had been foreign.