ON ST. AGILBERTA, VIRGIN, ABBESS OF JOUARRE
IN GAUL.
Seventh century.
A brief notice concerning her cult.
Agilberta, Virgin, Abbess of Jouarre in Gaul (S.)
J. B. S.
To this one and chief point concerning the cult of St. Agilberta this whole disquisition must here be reduced, Certain arguments since for the rest scarcely anything has been handed down to memory concerning her; nay, I have not even found her name in any classic Martyrologies or additions to Usuard, except in Molanus at the XII of this month: At the monastery of Jouarre, of St. Agilberta the abbess; which Castellanus in his universal Martyrology has better drawn back to this day. The same cult Mabillon confirms in volume 2 of the Acts of the Order of St. Benedict, pages 487 and 488, and likewise in the Annals, volume 1, pages 364 and 456: for he everywhere so speaks that concerning the cult of St. Agilberta (who is also called Aguilberta and Agliberta) it seems altogether impossible to doubt, enumerating also the prominent tombs in which, with St. Theodechildis, the first abbess there, other female Saints are laid up, among whom St. Agilberta is expressly named.
[2] But the same Mabillon puts forward an indubitable proof of the same matter when he narrates that in the year MDCXXVII of the present century the most illustrious lord Cospean, bishop of Lisieux, solemnly enclosed the sacred relics of the blessed Theodechildis and Agilberta, raised from their tombs, for her cult. in a gilded silver case, and translated them with the bones of other Saints into the basilica of the nuns. Further, that St. Agilberta is venerated at Jouarre on the XI of August, the praised Mabillon notes most expressly in the Annals, page 456. And this alone concerning the received cult of the Saint we have undertaken to prove, since concerning her deeds nothing at all is ascertained, no more than concerning her age or the certain year of her death. This one thing seems established, that she was the second abbess of the monastery of Jouarre after St. Theodechildis. But since the death of the latter seems to be referred by Mabillon to the year 660, if twenty years of rule be assigned to our Saint, she may be said to have survived to the year 680 and perhaps even longer. And these are the only things which are safely asserted of St. Agilberta. The eulogy of Bucelinus at the day XII may be seen, which we have not judged should be reported here; that which Saussay has pleases us better:
[3] The eulogy from Saussay. In the territory of Meaux, at the monastery of Jouarre, of St. Aquilberta the virgin, abbess of that same monastery, who, begotten of the illustrious blood of kings — her father Abobinus, her mother Pientia, the sister of St. Ebregesilus, the most glorious bishop of Meaux — devoted in the first years of her blooming age to the service of Christ, dedicated to him the flower of her virginity: and, having been made a nun in that monastery under St. Theodechildis, so applied herself to the most holy pursuits of religion that she became to all an exemplar and mirror of the most chaste observance of the divine good pleasure. Whence, when the blessed Theodechildis herself departed to the seats above, being made governess of the virginal sisterhood, and flooded with abundant outpourings of grace from God, she poured into the company committed to her by her words and acts the most abundant gifts of the graces with which she overflowed; by which at length, having perfectly measured out the way of piety and justice, full of the merits of a holy life and administration, at the call of her Spouse she went on to eternal glory.