ON BLESSED AVA, VIRGIN,
AT DENAIN IN HAINAUT.
9TH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Ava, Virgin, at Denain in Hainaut (Bl.)
D. P.
Concerning Blessed Ava on April 29 Ferrarius, Menard, Molanus, Saussay, Miraeus and Wion treat: on which day also her memory is recorded in the ancient Martyrology of the monastery of Denain with these words: Mention in the Martyrologies, "At Denain, the feast of Saint Ava the Virgin." Denain, commonly Denain or Doneng, is a village on the river Scheldt, situated at the second milestone from Valenciennes, a city of Hainaut: veneration at the monastery of Denain, in which is a monastery of nuns; which Blessed Aldebert Count of Ostrevent, and his wife Saint Regina, niece of King Pepin of the Gauls, founded; Saint Ragenfreda, their daughter, being established as the first Abbess there. Whence Baldric in book 2 chapter 28 of the Chronicle of Cambrai thus writes: where Saint Ragenfreda first presided, "In the village of Doneng Blessed Rainfreda founded a cell from things of her own right, and nuns being appointed, she herself as Abbess held the rulership." But Blessed Ava, because she no little increased the recently built monastery, is regarded as a second foundress of Denain. Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii relates her Life briefly, from the monuments of the Church of Denain, in this manner: "She was flourishing in wealth, but by God's judgment blind, to show forth the merit of Saint Ragenfreda. For when she had honored with a donation many places of the Saints, seeking her sight, at last she was admonished by an Angel, at whose sepulchre Ava, having recovered her sight, offered herself to God, that for recovering her sight she should not neglect the sepulchre and relics of Saint Ragenfreda. Moreover, having obtained her sight, she offered her estates, her male and female servants, and all the furnishings of her right to the sepulchre of Saint Ragenfreda. She caused the church of Saint Mary to be improved, and the blessed relics of her physician to be transferred to it. There also, taking the sacred veil, she served God as a soldier until the end of her life, and merited the place of her sepulchre in the church of Saint Martin, with the Saints of God buried there." Similar things are in the Sacrae Reliquiae Solitudinis of Simon Martin: and briefer things in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay. The source of all is the Lessons wont to be recited on September 2 at Denain, when is commemorated the Elevation of Saint Ragenfreda, effected through the care of Blessed Ava: but we shall treat of her on October 8, her age, which is the chief solemnity and the anniversary of her holy death. But because the said elevation occurred before the irruption of the Normans, which took place in the year 881; and Saint Ragenfreda, born from the niece of King Pepin, lived on after the year 800; altogether to the ninth century, and indeed to some advanced part of it, belongs the death of this Blessed one: concerning whom in the Calendar of the Breviary of Denain Molanus found this noted: "Saint Ava. As for the dead." "Nor is it peculiar," he says, "or singular to this place to pray for one who is honored among the Saints, although apart from canonization: but it is observed elsewhere too, concerning Walbert, Pepin, Iduberga; yet not without the wonder and silent contradiction of certain Doctors." This contradiction is indeed not altogether unjust, yet not altogether necessary: inasmuch as such a custom, begun immediately from death, when not yet the holiness of such was certain and proved, after certainty of their sanctity need not necessarily have been abolished: and such prayers, by the intention of those offering them, may benefit the other dead of their family, whose benefits endowed the churches, which were accustomed to render this as it were an annual census to their founders and benefactors; for that such rights pertain also to descendants and heirs, there can be no doubt. Hence the Catholic Church justly and laudably retains the custom of making perpetual anniversaries; and rightly those who trace their lineage to their authors demand their observance, although the very founders of such anniversaries must be presumed by no means to need prayers continued through so many centuries.