ON ST. SIGRADA, WIDOW,
AT SOISSONS IN GAUL.
Seventh Century.
A Collection on her cult, date, and deeds.
Sigrada, Widow, at Soissons (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The most celebrated royal monastery of noble nuns of all Gaul at Soissons, named after the undefiled Virgin Mother of God, In a most celebrated convent renowned for many Saints of both sexes, has had to be mentioned more than once in this work. Its first beginnings are described on the V of February, on the occasion of St. Vodalis, or Vodoalus (in French S. Voue), a hermit there, whose sacred body was long ago laid in the church of that same convent, with very many others. But the whole matter is explained far more fully at the V of March, where St. Drausius or Drauscio (S. Drausin), bishop of Soissons, is treated, that chief founder, institutor, and father of the most illustrious congregation. But these things Dom Michel Germain, the inseparable companion of the most illustrious Mabillon's travels, cleared away somewhat more laboriously and fully in the French history of that same convent which he published at Paris in the year 1675, in which he also records those few things which survive concerning today's St. Sigrada (Segrede, Segrette, Segrauz), whence had to be drawn what can here be said by us:
[2] From that history, I say (since elsewhere you will scarcely find anything besides her name alone), and that chiefly in the notable letter of St. Leodegar, an illustrious religious lived; by which he consoles his holy Mother upon the savage slaying of another of her sons, St. Guerinus, to be seen in the Bibliotheca of Labbe, volume 1, page 777,
and in the 2nd Benedictine century, page 707, and of which Le Cointe also makes mention, volume 3, page 760. Thence and from Germain you will understand that she was sprung of a most noble family; that after the death of her equally illustrious husband, her sons already flourishing in mature age, she withdrew to the congregation of Soissons just praised, taking the habit of a nun, and crowned a religious life with a most happy end, so that she obtained the honors of the Saints; which, before we proceed to other matters, we here undertake to establish altogether, although in no more general Calendars or Martyrologies, at least ancient ones, is her name found recorded — not even in the most ample Gallican one of Saussay, who, having set forth both the holy brothers Leodegar and Guerinus or Guarinus with due eulogies, does not mention this holy Mother of theirs by a word.
[3] And so I refer the first knowledge of her, as received, to the most illustrious Castellanus alone, in his Universal Martyrology, first marked by Castellanus, who thus marks her among the additional Saints of this day: At Soissons, of St. Sigrada, widow, a religious of the abbey of Our Lady; which words are reported in the Paris Martyrology of the year 1727 in this manner: At Soissons, in the monastery of blessed Mary, of St. Sigrada, widow, mother of blessed Leodegar, bishop of Autun. Our Longueval also expressly pronounces her a Saint in the History of the Gallican Church, volume 4, page 116; and under the guidance of all these I thought I should proceed to where I might be instructed concerning her immemorial, true, and constant cult; in which matter, with his usual most obliging kindness, our tireless helper Father Étienne Souciet, most learned librarian of our college at Paris, removed all my scruples, employing the labor of another friend, by whom I was made more certain of the whole matter. Accordingly an exact letter was given at Soissons and sent to me on 12 January of the year 1732, which I render word for word from French into Latin:
[4] concerning whose cult we have been informed. I went to the abbey of the most blessed Virgin, where I carefully inquired of the Lady Grand Prioress, and of another religious there, whether they in particular celebrate every year with festal solemnity the anniversary day of St. Sigrada, and also whether with a proper Office. To the first question they answered that the annual festival of the Saint is there observed from all memory on the VII day of the month of August. To the second, that the Office is chanted under a double rite, but wholly from the common of neither a virgin nor a martyr, except the collect, which is that customarily recited of St. Gregory the Great, Pope, and adapted to that holy woman: O God, who to the soul of your handmaid Sigrada, etc. Nor indeed were the good Ladies content to have explained this to me by word of mouth; they deigned also to entrust to me their particular Breviary, in which are contained the propers of the Saints, male and female, whose Offices are celebrated among them. I was allowed to examine each item accurately at leisure, and I found everything plainly conformable to what they had before set forth to me when asked, and which I now communicate in a few words. Why it is deferred to the VII day of the month it is easy enough to gather from this, that this and the two following days are impeded by greater Offices.
[5] She died after the year 678, For the rest, that she flew away to those Above on this very IV day of the month I hold to be persuasive from this, that the praised Germain and Castellanus would not rashly have asserted it, and that more certain monuments must have gone before them. Concerning the year of her death the case is not the same: Castellanus marked the VIIth century in the margin, sufficiently indicating that nothing was ascertained by him about the true year of her death. It seems to be a received opinion that Guerinus, brother of St. Leodegar, who is honored with his holy Mother in the same church, was stoned to death two whole years before him, that is, in the year 676, but that St. Leodegar was slain in the year 678; so that St. Sigrada probably survived both her martyr sons; how many years, we have already said is uncertain; the cited Paris Martyrology notes, after the year 678. But now, lest I here pass over another notable testimony pertaining to her cult, the most learned Martène in his other Itinerary testifies as an eyewitness that an elegant reliquary of St. Sigrada, with two others of the named saints Vodoalus and Drausio, is exposed for veneration above the grating of the nuns' choir.
[6] greatly praised Le Cointe also commends not a little the sanctity of this Valiant Woman at the year 674, number 9, where, speaking of the first foundation of the monastery of maidens at Soissons: in that convent of nuns, he says, Sigrada, mother of St. Leodegar, lived piously and holily for many years; concerning whom, more after two years, namely at 676, number 2, he excerpts some things from the praised consolatory letter of the most holy bishop and martyr of Autun, which he addresses to his mother in this manner: To the Lady and most holy mother Sigrada, who before by kinship of the flesh, now by the joining of the spirit have been made a true mother, and that is fulfilled which holy Truth says: For whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother; Leodegar, servant of the servants of Jesus Christ our Savior, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Savior Jesus Christ. He then goes on to show from various places of sacred Scripture that the tribulations and persecutions of this world are only momentary, but such as beget everlasting joys.
[7] And hence that the loss of goods, nay even the slaying of a lost son, in a celebrated letter is a cause not of sadness but of joy, he pronounces in a fitting discourse to his holy Mother: O happy death, which bestows life; happy loss of goods, which shall restore everlasting riches; happy sadness, which brings the joy of angels! You have now proved how greatly the most merciful lord Jesus Christ has had mercy upon you, who granted you to have spiritual devotion, and the keeping of holy discipline, and contempt of the world, and snatched the pledges of your womb from the trouble of this world and from the error of the present life, and gave the hope of eternal life to those whom you might have had to mourn as dead, had you left them surviving in the world; concerning whom no sorrow is to be had, but manifold thanksgiving is to be rendered to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he bends his discourse to this, that she should be willing to forgive even the persecutors themselves whatever they have done wrong against her or her household: and then he exhorts her that, leaving Martha's solicitude, she should with the whole ardor of love pant with Mary after the Lord.
[8] Nor do I think that those things should be passed over which also pertain to the consolation of his holy Mother, by her son St. Leodegar. and prove her a true religious, when he thus addresses her: O good Lady, what the pious Lord has prepared for you, neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor can it ascend into the heart of man. Hear and listen how the Lord has rewarded you in the present life: for the service of maidservants, he has given you all the holy brethren, who daily pray for you; for the service of handmaids, he has given you holy sisters, whose fellowship you enjoy; for the labor of the present life, rest in the congregation of the monastery; for the loss of goods, the holy divine Scripture, and holy meditation, and assiduous prayer; for the loss of kindred, you have the venerable and holy lady Itheria the abbess; she is to you a mother, she is to you a sister, she is to you a daughter. Do you therefore return the like to her, since, as I am certain in Christ Jesus, you have one heart and one soul. From that letter it is plainly gathered how exact was the observance of the religious life in so numerous and noble a convent as that of Soissons then was — truly to be called a sanctuary.
[9] Two villages named after her Concerning St. Sigrada's affairs Germain had nothing further to produce. To some extension of her cult those things can conduce which the illustrious M. Lebeuf, canon and succentor of the church of Auxerre, praised more than once elsewhere in this work, communicated to me with his usual benevolence. He informed me not long ago that a district — let us rather say a certain village — is found, not far from Saulieu in the duchy of Burgundy, in the diocese of Autun, named after St. Sigrada, whence also the present lord of the place takes his appellation; so that it seems altogether to be supposed that in that place the Saint was once honored with some peculiar cult, although today no vestige of it survives. He noted moreover that there is a spring there quite celebrated, and called the holy spring, in which infants are wont to be cured, when they are dipped naked in its waters. The Saint is likewise known in the monuments of the neighboring collegiate church of Thil there under the name of St. Sacrata. Something a little more notable another village of the same name in the diocese of Amiens presents, where not only is St. Sigrada's name given to it, but she is also honored with her own annual festival, at least with an Office from the common of neither a virgin nor a martyr, as the Reverend Father Le Vaillant, Rector of our college at Cambrai, informed me; who, after all diligence had been applied, was not able to obtain further monuments thence, which we too have sought elsewhere in vain; so that accordingly we must rest altogether content with what could here be gathered by us sparingly enough.