Jonatus

CONCERNING ST. JONATUS, CONFESSOR,

FIRST ABBOT OF MARCHIENNES IN BELGIUM.

Toward the end of the 7th Century.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Jonatus, abb., conf., of Marchiennes in Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 4447, 4448, 4449

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. Notice of the place & of the Saint, & his deeds & age.

Concerning this celebrated monastery, founded by the true apostle of Belgium St. Amandus with so many others, which is inflected Martiana, Marcenia & Marcena & in other ways, it has already so many times had to be spoken of in our Acts, both especially when, concerning its first author, at 6 February, Notice of the place & when, concerning its endower & endowress Adalbald on 2 February & St. Rictrude on 12 May, it was fully & learnedly disputed, just as also where, concerning the daughter Eusebia, on 16 March, so many times, I say, it had to be treated, that here we might be able to pass over more at length, unless at least a few little things had to be premised, which are connected with the first abbot of the place by a certain singular union. And indeed the situation the Chronographer of the same monastery describes briefly enough, in this part by no means suspect, when he says that the place of Marchiennes is surrounded by circumflowing waters & marshy reed, & has toward the North a great wood, to the Southern part the river Scarpe, which glides to the East, on either side of which lie meadows strewn with marshy herbs. It lies between Douai & Elnon or Amandopolis (not Audomaropolis, as with others Mabillon wrongly writes), distant about three leagues on either side. Concerning the first straits of its affairs & concerning the most ample possessions with which it was afterward enriched by St. Rictrude, her Life is to be consulted, tome III of May chapter 2, number 16, page 85.

[2] & of the ancient inhabitants The Chronicle, Ms. among us, thus explains the matter: But in the same place, first to persons of the masculine sex, delegated to serve, a most vigilant shepherd & procurator, within & without a faithful & simple man, Jonas, was given to them. Who, one of the disciples of the blessed pontiff Amandus, thoroughly informed by his sacred erudition, was found fit for this office. But not after much time it was decided, by a higher investigation, that, since the glorious mother Rictrude, foundress of the place, & mistress of all the things which had been there handed over, seemed to serve in that holy company among the servants of God, it would be more congruous to send in there faithful ones of the second sex to serve, & that the order of nuns should obtain the primacy of that holy habitation. That small conventicle of men being removed, by their leave, noble matrons flock thither from every side in rivalry; religious widows, who were truly widows, eagerly run together; a chaste youth also of maidenly modesty is introduced, all together approach the wrestling-ground of the spiritual gymnasium. The place becomes meanwhile a domicile of chastity, a school of virtues, a sheepfold of the Lord's sheep, at all which the mind of the thrice-blessed Rictrude vehemently exults in the Lord of lords.

[3] These things Mabillon recalls to some series, not fully conformable to the text already given, of men & women. in the preliminary observations of the 2nd Century page 938, where, together mentioning in few words the lamentable vicissitudes of the illustrious monastery, he says that it was solemnly dedicated by SS. Amandus & Autbert, bishops, on the 6th day before the Kalends of November in honor of the Apostles Peter & Paul: over which monastery, he says, St. Jonatus was set as first abbot. There was in that place from the first founding a twofold congregation, of monks & of nuns; over the former Jonatus, over the latter Rictrude presided. That monks were there first placed, then a little after, that is about the year 647, virgins consecrated to God, in favor of St. Rictrude the endowress, the Chronographer of Marchiennes hands down.

of Marchiennes. The monastery being laid waste by the Normans, in the year 879 the nuns gradually lapsed into worse things, until Baldwin the count, surnamed the Bearded, the women being expelled, substituted monks, having summoned Lietwin, the most illustrious abbot of the monastery of St. Vaast; who, after he had ruled the place nine years, imposed the government of Marchiennes on Alberic his disciple. Alberic dying in the year 1048, St. Poppo abbot of Stavelot succeeded, &, a month elapsed, Wido succeeded Poppo. And hence flows accurately enough the succession of the abbots of Marchiennes in the Gallia Christiana, which between St. Jonatus & Lietwin you will nowhere find.

[4] Further, St. Jonatus, of whom here we chiefly treat, destined by St. Amandus from the monastery of Elnon to govern that of Marchiennes, Abbot I, St. Jonatus, presided not over that one alone, but also over Elnon itself, as Cointius shows from the Chronicle of the same monastery at the year 643 number 2. The words of the Chronicle are: Amandus, solicitous for the flock committed to him, arranged to visit his diocese of Maastricht: but first he ordained as his own abbot at Elnon his deputy, a disciple named Ursus, who ruled laudably for some years, & at last rested with a blessed end. To whom, ordained by the blessed Amandus, succeeded the holy Jonatus, a most modest man, a monk of that same monastery, whom long before the same blessed Amandus had instituted at Marchiennes as first abbot. Excellently would the chronographers already cited above have deserved, if—which was theirs to do—they had woven the several deeds into their proper years, just as also that which Cointius reports from them at the year 653: We find that Amandus, the thresholds of the Apostles being visited, returning to the place of Elnon, Jonatus returned to Marchiennes, where, even after the death of B. Amandus, living regularly for some lustres, he led divers of either sex to religion & chastity. That those "lustres" can be expounded by a fitting reckoning, is not so very obvious, as below it will appear more manifestly.

[5] For the rest, concerning the already-said & other illustrious & doubtless sublime virtues & plainly notable deeds of St. Jonatus, I indeed shall by no means doubt; but from our chronographers, whose deeds have been sought in vain. whether of Elnon or of Marchiennes, to dig them out, there is no one who has hitherto studied; so that I utterly do not understand what Bellecampe (or, as Bolland calls him, Beauchamps), the editor of Silvius, means, when in his Marchiennes Antiquity, having magnificently promised many things, he thus notably writes at page 505: But we meditate to supply far more concerning our most holy prelate Jonatus of Marchiennes, when he shall be treated of in our Marchiennes Hagiology. This, I suppose, [is] the idea of a work never completed, & that it did not see the light, is to be gathered from this, that neither our Elders nor Mabillon anywhere made mention of that Hagiology. Perhaps Bellecampe undertook a province of this kind, but, prevented by death, could not finish it or publish it in print, & so that attempt remained among the Marchiennes papers, which would that the lord synonymous with our Saint, the present Prior of the aforesaid monastery, had consulted, with whom through friends I insisted in vain; whose repeated prayers, equally as my own, that man not long ago repelled & spurned in a manner certainly not urbane enough, nor honorable, by an example not usual in matters of this kind, when I was demanding those documents alone which could conduce to the glory of St. Jonatus his own patron. The rest I shall not pursue.

[6] His age entangled Now, as pertains to the Saint's age, our chronographers left it equally doubtful & obscure, nowhere indicating even remotely about what year he was brought forth into light, when made a monk, when instituted abbot, how long alone, how long with St. Rictrude he ruled, how long each monastery, of Elnon & of Marchiennes; in what year at last he obtained from the Lord the reward of his labors. Bellecampe fights, contends, & in a marvelous manner wrestles, to maintain his little verse of Blandinium, feigned I know not by whom:

In the six-hundred-and-tenth year Amandus founded Blandinium, giving to it Peter as patron.

But since he lays down his monastery of Marchiennes to be of altogether the same age as the said Blandinium, by an ineluctable consequence he thinks he has proved that already from the year 610, or at least 611, his monastery of Marchiennes existed, & in the same year, if it please the powers above, that St. Jonatus presided there, when perhaps he was not yet born: & this he so many times against any adversaries whatever repeats & inculcates, that he altogether creates nausea in his readers. Namely from his chronographer he had learned that St. Amandus died in the year 661, & so was born in 571; which was long enough the entangled opinion of many, yet long ago overturned by Henschen in his Commentary §11 & following, whence also those "lustres" fall, in which the already-said chronographer, & from him Bellecampe, equally ineptly lay down that St. Jonatus survived St. Amandus.

[7] by the restored chronology of St. Amandus Mark, I beseech, the paradox. That man's thesis is that St. Jonatus was abbot of Marchiennes from the already-said year 610, or 611, defending that epoch of his most fiercely for altars & hearths, from that preconceived "Achilles" of his, that St. Amandus died already a nonagenarian in the year 661, whereas we have already said it demonstrated that he died in the year 684. Let St. Jonatus, then, be laid down as surviving him some lustres: "some lustres" designate at least three or four, whence necessarily it will follow as consequent that that Saint survived beyond the end of the 7th century; & so was abbot of Marchiennes for a full ninety & more years, so that the last correspond to the first: which before I admit, I desire it to be demonstrated by Bellecampe or his fellow-mystagogues by some other authority than that of that chronographer. That St. Amandus died a nonagenarian is confessed: but if you connect his death with the year 661, he must have been born in 571; but since he is supposed to have constructed, at about forty years of age, the monasteries both of Blandinium & of Marchiennes; lo for you most aptly the year six-hundred-and-tenth: but if you remove all things by seven & twenty years, as Henschen most plainly demonstrates that all must be removed, you will most clearly perceive that all the Bellecampian engines so collapse, that his treatise, quite long, goes off into smoke.

[8] Lo now a fitter chronotaxis of the life of St. Jonatus from Henschen. it must be altogether arranged. He lays down at the cited place & proves evidently that the monasteries begun at Ghent, both that of St. Bavo & that of Blandinium, were begun in the year 636; that of Elnon constructed in 638, but that of Marchiennes at last in the year 645, over which the same prelate Amandus at that time set his disciple Jonatus, a venerable man, the order of the monks to be gathered being prescribed. But what we said above, that the monastery of Elnon was also commended to the aforesaid Jonatus of Marchiennes, that was done when Amandus renounced the episcopal charge, & sought the thresholds of the Apostles for the third time, namely in the year 650. But two years after, St. Adalbald being slain, he persuaded St. Rictrude to chastity, who not long after came to Marchiennes, in the manner said above, & she, under the direction of St. Jonatus, presided over the nuns until the year 688: but St. Jonatus, full of labors & merits, is believed to have followed that holy woman about the year 690, as Cointius probably deduces, at the said year number 25, by this argument: that since the government of that monastery was in the hands of the nuns for three hundred thirty-three years or thereabouts, if one goes back from the year in which they were expelled thence, 1024, or as others 1028, a longer life does not seem able to be attributed to St. Jonatus: certainly, so far as I know, not even thus far has the age of St. Jonatus been illustrated hitherto. Now let us proceed to his cult & elogia.

§ II. Sacred cult & brief elogia here & there.

Here I shall embrace in few words all things which I find conducing to the ancient cult of the Saint, those writings being set aside Sacred cult which, in long circumlocutions, record nothing more nor more certain concerning the Saint's life & deeds than those which Molanus & Miraeus faithfully drew from the Marchiennes monuments of whatever kind, whose texts, as also those of a few Martyrologies, I shall presently report. To the text of the chronicle, concerning the "some lustres" by which St. Jonatus survived St. Amandus, it is distinctly added: His festivity is kept on the Kalends of August. But at his sepulcher, in the church of Marchiennes, that these verses are read, Cointius testifies at the place cited above:

Here is laid up the most holy body of St. Jonatus, who first ruled this house.

The remaining verses do not pertain to this: this one thing Cointius subjoins: That after the death of St. Jonatus, the monks, whom he had ruled, departed from Marchiennes, & the whole monastery yielded to the nuns, over whom Clossendis had presided as abbess for three years. Which is the very same, & most received, opinion of Molanus & others, thus, unless I am mistaken, to be understood, that the monks remained for the governing of the virgins, whereby is saved the diploma of the Emperor Charles adduced by Mabillon, where he shows that in the 9th century mention is made of brothers equally as of sisters. But concerning this matter it has already so many times been disputed, that it does not please to begin that web anew. Let us pursue the Saint's cult.

[10] it is also dug out from the Martyrologies. Concerning him it is wonderful enough that in the more ancient sacred Fasti no memory anywhere is made, not even in the more recent ecclesiastical Tables except the Belgic, if you except Ghini, who ranked St. Jonatus among his canons liberally enough. Concerning the age of the Anchin Usuard we have disputed elsewhere, where we judged that he must be referred to about the 13th century: & this is the first & most ancient who made mention of St. Jonatus, in these plain words: Marchiennes, the deposition of St. Jonatus the abbot. A little more clearly Molanus, from whom also Canisius: On the same day, the birthday of St. Jonathas confessor, disciple of St. Amandus, which in the later editions he repeats a little more briefly. Of him also Wion makes mention, with the rest of the monastic writers, among whom Menard neatly announces him, in this manner: At Marchiennes, of St. Jonatus the abbot, disciple of St. Amandus, & spiritual father of St. Rictrude, with which words he has embraced almost all things which are handed down to memory concerning St. Jonatus, since, for the rest, either no one professedly pursued his deeds, or they perished through the devastations: for those things which are circulated under the name of Hucbald are not a history of his life, but a mere oration composed in the Saint's honor, besides another most verbose one under the name of Gualbert, from which at last this is dug out, that the Saint's body was translated to Sailly, & thence carried back to Marchiennes, & that in a certain supplication the extinguished torches, by fire sent from heaven, were rekindled; as you will see in the following §.

[11] With the elogia of Saussay & Ghini Saussay adorns Jonatus with a proper elogium after his manner: At Marchiennes near Douai in Flanders, of the diocese of Arras, the deposition of St. Jonatus abbot & confessor, who, a disciple of St. Amandus, shone forth adorned with every beauty of virtues, & by examples & prayers led many to Christ: being indeed the religious instructor of blessed Rictrude, & appointed director of the brothers & nuns of the same place (on account of the excellence of his faith, doctrine, & morals); the precepts of both lives he so afforded, by his acts & morals, that by an unspotted path he showed them beforehand the way to heaven; & at last, enriched with the merits of a holy conversation, the flesh being put off, he happily transmitted to the Lord his spirit, to be associated with the citizens above in glory. Let the above-cited Ghini have place here, although in the year of death he errs; thus he almost contracts Molanus:

At Marchiennes, the deposition of St. Jonatus the abbot, disciple of St. Amandus, who, adorned with every beauty of virtues, by examples & prayers led many to Christ. There he rested, in the diocese of Arras, about the year of the Lord 670. This Ghini followed, doubtless, the opinion of those who judge that St. Amandus died in 661.

[12] the opinion of Molanus is preferred But the whole matter both more solidly & more elegantly Molanus himself embraced in the Index of the Saints of Belgium, so that elogia need not be summoned from elsewhere. Thus he has: St. Jonatus confessor, disciple of St. Amandus, was the first abbot at Marchiennes or Marcennes, & there, elevated, he rests. He was adorned with every beauty of virtues; by examples & prayers he led many to Christ. After him that place was for almost three hundred thirty-three years a monastery of virgins, over whom first presided the most holy Rictrude. The place is celebrated for piety & pleasantness, not far from Douai in Flanders, of the diocese of Arras. His birthday falls on the Kalends of August, his elevation on the sixth day before the Ides of April, as on that day you will find noted among the Passed-over. Almost the same words of Molanus, but with the phrase changed a very little, are explained also in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium; in all which openly shines forth the opinion of Molanus concerning the withdrawal of the monks after the death of St. Jonatus, & concerning the return to that same monastery, after three hundred thirty-three years, under Baldwin the Bearded, the nuns being expelled. Nor will it be out of place here to add what Miraeus hands down in the Belgic Fasti, that they may for a while supply the defect of others. Lo his words:

[13] Amandus of Maastricht & Aubert of Cambrai, bishops, dedicated the monastery of Marchiennes, & likewise those of Miraeus. constructed by St. Rictrude, widow of Adalbald duke of Douai, in honor of the holy Peter & Paul on the 6th day before the Kalends of November. In that monastery, monks being first appointed to serve God, a most vigilant shepherd was given, Jonatus, disciple of blessed Amandus. But afterward it seemed consonant with reason (since blessed Rictrude had consecrated her goods to this place, & had determined there to serve God) that nuns too should be placed there. Who indeed for three hundred thirty-three years or thereabouts ruled the church of Marchiennes. After the Norman devastation, Leduin abbot of St. Vaast, at the petition of Baldwin count of Flanders, placed Benedictine monks in that place, as is more fully narrated in the manuscript Chronicle of Marchiennes, which also exists at Rougevallée. And these are the elogia published in print, which concerning St. Jonatus we have judged should be described. Miraeus proceeds to report verses which are read in the ambit of the choir of Marchiennes, & by which are enumerated various bodies of Saints there deposited, among whom also those two which above we gave from Cointius. He who desires to know the rest, let him approach the source itself.

[14] That nowhere exists any Life or Legend of St. Jonatus, Sparingly enough is altogether gathered from this, that in the Benedictine Acts of the Saints he is treated so meagerly, that from the Acts of St. Rictrude herself, tome 2 from page 937, a few little things are assigned, so conformable to those already reported that they do not deserve to be described. In the preliminary observations, among the other Saints, the editor praises Jonatus, that he flourished in the monastery of Marchiennes. At page 944 is reported what we have already said, namely that St. Amandus, in completing & ordaining the monastery, set over it his disciple St. Jonatus, a venerable man, whose sacred body is still kept laid up in the same monastery: in which also the blessed Amandus wished the order of monks to be held, but the already-said abbot aggregated nuns (as it had seemed good to him). Which, in what manner & how long they there persisted, from the things explained above is given not obscurely to be understood. To be deplored are those times of his successor, in which both discipline among the nuns wholly perished, & whatever was left in that place became a prey to the barbarians: so that both the monastery itself, & the things which had been written concerning the deeds of the Saints of Marchiennes, perished together: let us here adduce that which, concerning St. Jonatus, is besides mentioned in passing in the chronicle at Mabillon page 951.

[15] The monasteries also which were situated upon the river Scarpe being demolished, Mabillon treated of him. the monastery of Marchiennes too, … the dwellers of the land being put to flight & slain, was destroyed. But the bodies of the Saints, which in the destroying of the churches had been laid up, were by divine providence transported safe to safer places. In which destruction perished all the ornament of the church of Marchiennes, namely in charters & privileges & books & deeds of the Saints, & the other things pertaining to the beauty & use of the place. … But in the investigation of the elevation of St. Jonatus the abbot, who was a disciple of the excellent confessor Amandus, we found it written, that in the time of the abbess Judith, who presided over the monastery of Marchiennes in the time of Lothar king of the Franks, there still rested in stone tombs, with altars set before them, the bodies of the Saints, namely of the blessed Rictrude the noble matron, & of the good confessors Maurontus & the above-said Jonatus. Nothing else, moreover, do the Marchiennes monuments suggest that pertains to illustrating here the Saint's glory, besides a few elogia, conformable to those already mentioned, which from the little exhortation of Hucbald, or Apology of rashness, distributed in a manner into lessons, can be culled. Further, the history of the elevation of the sacred body & of the kindled tapers will be the matter, as I said above, of the following paragraph.

[16] From Hucbald Thus, therefore, Hucbald in lesson 3, a passage of Scripture being adduced, If thou wilt be perfect, &c., speaks concerning our Saint: Of which precept the holy Jonatus, made no slothful obeyer, humbly went to the blessed Amandus, a sacred prelate & a truthful teacher destined by God to the peoples; that of him, by whose marvelous doctrine he desired to be informed, he might, with full obedience, imitate the holy works which that magnificent man wrought. Whom the same Prelate devoutly taking up, taught him all the observances of Christian doctrine, & prudently enjoined on him the commandments of the Lord's service. Who, complying with the precepts of so great a Master, showed himself a faithful servant, & by a good conversation stirred up many to the divine service. Then he proceeds, lesson 4: Therefore these holy men, Amandus & Jonatus, like clear lamps shining in the house of God, dispelling the thickest darknesses of unbelief & sin, sprinkled all with the light of heavenly brightness; & by examples & prayers happily led many into the kingdom promised in the heavens. The remaining elogia there heaped together, common to St. Amandus equally as to St. Jonatus, savor plainly of the same vein, & are of altogether the same sentiment, until in lessons 8 & 9 Hucbald proclaims some things which are adapted a little more properly to this one, in this manner:

[17] the chief things are had For in the monastery of Marchiennes he set over [it] the holy Man & in all things praiseworthy Jonatus, to accomplish the things which were lacking, & to preserve in all things the rule of sanctity, charging him that he should ever, for the augmenting of whatever things were holy, from day to day amplify them. Which holy Jonatus, namely ordained abbot for this, being obedient, fulfilled the commands, & for that, in recompense, received the crown of eternal glory. Indeed, for the serving of the Lord, St. Amandus had arranged to gather monks at Marchiennes, but Jonatus, the power being granted to him by that same Amandus, loving the virginal chastity of mind & body, instituted that there should be nuns there. He did this perhaps taught by heavenly inspiration, that afterward the place might be fit for blessed Rictrude & her daughters, holy virgins indeed, & worthily removed from secular assembly. The fervor, therefore, of the Lord's love in holy Jonatus, praiseworthy & manifold, had heaped up no small harvest of holy virtues, & had spread far & wide the fame of his goodness. For he was chaste in heart, humble in mind, serene in countenance, affable to all, amiable to all.

[18] A certain mirror, in fine, & exemplar, holy Rictrude & all dwelling with her had in him, what things can be said of the Saint. whom the same Saint soothed with words, animated with exhortations, & by most holy works provoked to the highest summits of sanctity. What more? So did a singular grace stand out in him, that, just as a choice gem, praiseworthily & with becoming ornament set in a work of gold, showing forth the grace of its beauty, allures those who see it to love it; so this blessed one, adorned with every beauty of virtues, appeared gracious to God & to good men. Such, therefore, & so great when this blessed & most holy father of ours Jonatus was, the term of his calling pressing on, drawn away from the world, by divine grace placed in heaven, together with all the Saints blessing the name of the Lord, is cherished in the joy of blessed felicity, rejoicing without end. But he was buried at Marchiennes in a more eminent place, & is venerated there by all the people, to the praise of Christ, & through his merits & prayers fitting remedies are afforded to the needy, so that it may appear to all that in his Saints God is almighty & wonderful.

§ III. The elevation, translation & bringing-back of the sacred body.

After the little exhortation, of which we have just now treated, the same Hucbald subjoins this title:

The same proceeds, & narrates the body of St. Jonatus, confessor of Christ, was elevated, & he pursues the whole history of the deed through nine other, but shorter, lessons, which here in their order we faithfully describe, three barbarous little words being observed, which we have not neglected to explain in the margin. Lo lesson 1. At Marchiennes is a place of a monastery, consecrated by the blessed Amandus in honor of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. A church indeed adorned with a becoming design & decoration congruent enough; but thence far more decent & amiable it shines to spiritual men, that it preserves the pledges of the Saints resting within, on whose suffrages the devout people relies; abounding grace of heavenly dew, & fruitful, is supplied. There the order of monks, to the honor of the Saints, with psalms, hymns & spiritual canticles jubilates to the divine majesty, & the frequent ministration of angels visits the holy place, & the prayer of those devoutly asking hastens, flying, to the ears of the divine hearing.

[20] II. In this church, therefore, the body of the blessed Jonatus was buried in a more eminent & as it were more sacred place, by the due custom of the faithful, in what manner the body [was long hidden,] yet so committed to the lowest bowels of the earth, that, above, with beams laid double & crosswise, & a great apparatus of stones & a mass of cement composed, to all not piously seeking it the faculty of finding it was altogether denied. The places of the Saints & the sepulchers were there venerated without a sign of a title set above, only with altars placed before, as is done still in Italy & in Rome itself, glorious with the bones & dust of St. Peter & of innumerable Saints. But when, by the secret instinct of the divine counsel, at times the relics of the Saints are raised to human sight, a more fervent mind, & one more avid toward their cult, is certainly incited; as was done in the elevation of the above-said father Jonatus, when, by a frequently repeated admonition, he ordered himself to be elevated, & gladdened the minds & souls of the inhabitants of his place & at the same time of all the people. The manner of which elevation, that it may become known to all wishing to read, in a humble character & rustic speech let it thus be made manifest:

[21] III. Since long, as was said above, the holy Jonatus & holy Rictrude, the Saint himself revealing it, & the blessed Maurontus, committed to the lowest bowels of the earth, without any title set above the sepulchers, had lain,

yet at length, by God's permission & will, on a vigil which was held as the Lord's Day, the blessed Jonatus, tall of body, comely of aspect, with a swan-like head, & reverend in the vesture of his garments, appearing bland & joyful to a certain presbyter of his congregation, by name Malger, said: Go, saying, on my part; & command the abbess Judith (for then the place was ruled by nuns) to cause the relics of my bones to be elevated & to be raised to the sight of all.

[22] & urging it, IV. But when the presbyter said that he was less fit to make this manifest, & that no one would believe [it], again bland, after the admonition repeated, he subjoined, saying: See that thou be not made disobedient to my command, & seem worthy of unheard-of stripes. This was done by a threefold admonition of the apparition; but by the negligence of that presbyter & his disobedience the commanded elevation by no means came to effect. Yet the same Malger, greatly astonished at the Saint's precept, & on account of the illusion made to himself, fearing to seem a liar & false-speaker, keeping frequent fasts, seeking by prayers & almsgiving & disclosing the commands of this vision, [*] lo, on another vigil of the Lord's observance the holy Jonatus, in the same guise as above, holding a staff in his hands, struck the same presbyter upon the shoulders & said: Because, made disobedient to my voice, thou hast by no means bidden my relics to be elevated, from this time now thou shalt receive no eating of bread, until the time due to thee.

[23] by the abbess Judith, V. But Malger, waking, straightway began to tremble in his bones & in his whole body, & at the same time loathing the eating of bread, though unwilling, confessed to the abbess Judith, who was governess of the monastery, what he had long concealed, & announced [it], & with much persuasion, with tears, demanded that the elevation of so great a Father be most swiftly brought to effect. But the presbyter himself, for almost the whole year loathing the eating of bread, content with small & very slight refreshments of other foods, no little anxious, rejoiced that the day of the elevation was coming. But, the unavoidable causes of worldly business hindering, negligence too creeping in, this work was somewhat prolonged.

[24] the ministers being gathered, VI. But, not a full course of one year being passed, the abbess Judith, summoning from the see of Cambrai ministers & faithful men of her own pontiff, gave due care to the raising of the body of St. Jonatus, &, carrying off the connexion of beams which above we said was fitted over his burial, & no small mass of stones & cement, according to what she supremely desired, at last found the inestimable treasure of her vow, that is, that honorable body placed in the tomb, whose bones & ashes she caused to be received by the hands of the clerics in silken vestures.

[25] was elevated with other Saints; VII. Which relics afterward, in a title set over his sepulcher, that is, in that reliquary which they call "repa" [*] in common usage, she replaced. Where also the precious patronages of the saints, namely of the mother & son, that is, of blessed Rictrude & of Maurontus her comely offspring, were likewise set, & are venerated there by the arriving people with fullest devotion. But after these things the holy Jonatus, deigning to appear to the abbess Judith, said that his command was satisfied, & moreover promised that he would arrange the affairs of the whole congregation over which he presided.

[26] which festivity is celebrated there. VIII. Now, therefore, celebrating this day with spiritual gladness the mighty works of the Lord toward his Saints, most beloved brethren, it behooves us, venerating with congruent vows, suppliantly to adore, & faithfully to proclaim his name, which in all the earth is admirable, whose greatness of immense & inestimable loving-kindness is proved by evident reason in his elect, to whom he ministers forever the rewards of his promise. You, therefore, holy ones of God, placed in the confession of the Lord's praise above the heavens, & likewise joined by the bond of blessed fellowship in your patronages on earth, namely holy Jonatus; & also most blessed confessors Maurontus, & the blessed & venerable matron Rictrude, who have honored this place with our [*] pledges, deign to accept the devotion of our praise, & to all the people asking succor to the vows of holy petition, that the most merciful clemency of almighty Christ may piously forgive our sins, deliver them to oblivion forever, & by your intercession deign to open to us the door of everlasting life, & to introduce us into it. Who with the Father & the Holy Spirit lives & reigns, one God, through all the ages of ages. Amen.

[27] And let these things concerning the marvelous elevation of the sacred body, on the faith of the writer, be said enough; Other things follow concerning the translation, it remains that concerning the translation & bringing-back we cull a few things from a great Ms. of 24 pages in folio, which is said to be annexed to the work of Gualbert the monk, on the Life & miracles of St. Rictrude, published long ago on 12 May, tome III, page 118. It is a tedious oration, whose whole substance you will find more neatly handed down at the said day 12 May from page 104, where the title of chapter 3 indicates the matter itself: Various malevolent men divinely punished; candles kindled of their own accord: but there they are narrated in few words, which the author of this writing adorned & amplified with so many most verbose figures & digressions, that often whither he tends or what he means cannot be understood. Lo the title: Prologue upon the miracle by which the Lord illustrated his confessor Jonatus, the most holy abbot. The words are bombast-sounding; bombast & foot-and-a-half-long words, to which follows: The treatise of the miracle itself concerning the candles extinguished, but by the heavenly light rekindled; all which are reported in a neat enough compendium at the place already cited page 106, column 2. Let it be said in a word: after the murder of the excellent Charles count of Flanders, the wars breaking in on every side, & the plunderings of the goods of Marchiennes, persuaded the abbot to transfer his sacred relics, & among them those of St. Jonatus, to Sailly, for the safekeeping of the place, as a heavenly bulwark, whereby many things are said to have happily fallen out for the inhabitants.

[18] While in that place the sacred pledges were deposited & were often carried about in procession, it happened that the torches or candles were extinguished, &, by a manifest miracle, as they say, rekindled by heavenly fire; which matter is the marrow of the whole long composition, likewise by a wondrous bringing-back, but with which many other things are inopportunely mingled. Among these, what pertains more nearly to the Saint, the orator Gualbert notes the negligence of his own people in cultivating St. Jonatus, in these plain words: Nevertheless, not without a divine nod, I have very often meditated in my heart that the confessor of the Lord, namely holy Jonatus, concerning whom in our clime there is now great discourse, justly has cause to complain of our hitherto so tepid, &, as it is said in the Apocalypse, neither cold nor hot service, especially on his festival of the sacred deposition's anniversary, lacking the propriety of lessons, & the frequent occurrence of his miracles, & also the resounding dance. Whence it is greatly to be feared, lest at some time he vomit forth his favor from the bulwark of this place, which by his sacred presence he so long inhabited. But with what cult afterward they venerated their holy patron, or now venerate, the people of Marchiennes, someone to teach me thence I have sought in vain hitherto.

[29] & concerning the Saint's favors toward his own. There follow, further, there some confused arguments of veneration, even to the point that the people of Marchiennes took care that the sacred bodies of the Saints be carried back to their own seat. Hear again Gualbert: At last the same brethren of Marchiennes knew & by the thing itself experienced that the presence of the Saints presides salubriously over places destitute of human solace, profits not a little, strikes terror into enemies, adds something day by day to the advancement of good things. For, the time of harvest impending, the minister worthy of God & worthily his successor, both in fact & in name Amandus, father of the monastery, premeditating that a lesser diligence, the necessary occupation of the crops hindering, would be present in the country toward the holy confessor of the Lord Jonatus, gave order that the worthy burden of the holy relics be carried back to the veteran & as it were native domicile of the Marchiennes habitation, secretly & almost without worldly noise. Therefore, according to the edict of the aforesaid spiritual father, holy Jonatus was carried back to the due & congruous habitation of his former conversation, & with due honor, the favor of a great people, & especially of Sailly, accompanying him—whom by his defense he had long fortified—received, he revisited his own, a joyful & likewise white-robed pomp of the whole congregation going to meet him. And here we withdraw our hand from the tablet, since nothing else could be obtained.

* i.e. of the vision or of the dream. * he means to say "feretrum" (bier) for "operculum" (cover). * Should it not be "vestris" (your)?