ON ST. FRAMBALDUS, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR,
AT SENLIS IN GAUL.
In the sixth century.
COMMENTARY.
Frambaldus, abbot and confessor, at Senlis in Gaul (St.)
BY J. B. S.
This Saint, although sufficiently famous in the sixth century, is of the number of those Known from calendars not ancient, who, unknown to Ado and Usuard, scarcely became known to the more recent Martyrologists: certainly this Frambaldus is not found marked even in any of the Usuardine additions, unless he lies hidden in Molanus under the name of Fraubaldus, and that not on this day or the preceding, on which he departed this life, but on the XXIII of August, which whence Molanus took I cannot conjecture. Thus he has it there: On the same day, of blessed Fraubaldus, abbot and confessor. Wion expressly confesses that he follows him, yet changing the name into Frambaldus, with the position "at Le Mans" added, and the little word deposition; which whole announcement was thence transcribed in the same words by Menard, as it is also reported in Dorgan, but a little more simply: Of St. Frambaldus, abbot and confessor. Bucelin moreover and Mabillon, following their fellows without further examination, have likewise referred St. Frambaldus to the said XXIII of this month. But Bucelin has spoken in such a way that he seems not to have sufficiently understood of what Saint he was treating. Let us hear him:
[2] At Le Mans, the deposition of St. Frambaldus the abbot. He was a monk of the most famous monastery of Micy near Orleans, he is too much praised by Bucelin. and had as his most perfect master St. Maximinus, abbot of that same place, whose most perfect life he diligently imitated, and was himself celebrated for a remarkable sanctity of life. He was likewise abbot at Silva Gabronica, not far from the city of Le Mans; and since he was of no slight eminence in learning, being ordained bishop for the conversion of the nations, he commended himself greatly to the Church by apostolic labor. He flourished in the times of King Childebert and afterwards, commended by the Divinity with the glory of miracles. As witnesses of what he says Bucelin appeals to René Benoist and Menard; among whom not even a shadow of St. Frambaldus' episcopate is to be found. The monastic life at Micy was suggested to him by Menard alone, when in a note to his Martyrology he roundly asserted: He was a monk of Micy near Orleans and a disciple of St. Maximinus, abbot of that same place.
[3] For the rest, his cult is established These things, I say, are Menard's alone, taken I know not whence; certainly the aforesaid René Benoist is wrongly cited by him, in whom, as also in Labbe's eulogy to be given below, there is deep silence about that monastic life at Micy; and I have thus far sought in vain for anyone else who has written of St. Frambaldus. Nor indeed does Mabillon seem to have acknowledged him as his own, when in the Praetermissi of volume 1 of the Acts of the Order of St. Benedict he wrote thus of him: Frambaldus, a monk of Le Mans in the time of Bishop Innocent; but he wrongly added that he is honored on the XXIII of August. He goes on, and rightly: His body is honored in a collegiate church consecrated to his name at Senlis, except for some relics which are preserved in the church of Blessed Mary of Victory in the same city. And these things sufficiently clearly demonstrate with how solemn a cult St. Frambaldus has been honored both among the people of Le Mans and among those of Senlis, both formerly and today, so that there is no need to have recourse to Saussay, who confuses many things about the Frimbalds and Frimbolds.
[4] although few things survive concerning his deeds. But here above all Castellan's announcement, marked by him on the previous day, deserves to be brought forward, clearly explaining the day both of his death and of his cult, in the Universal Martyrology, which I render into Latin: Among the people of Le Mans, in the archdeaconry of Passais, of St. Frambaldus (Frambourd) the solitary, who had dwelt for some time at Yvry not far from Paris. His body was laid at Senlis in a church dedicated to his name, where the feast is celebrated on the following day. The impediment of that day is plain enough. He is rightly here called a solitary, or hermit, or monk; yet that he properly had companions and can truly be called abbot you will sufficiently perceive from the eulogy to be given. For the rest, as abundantly as these things suffice to prove his cult, so few are those which survive that may be recorded concerning his illustrious deeds and miracles — not to be taken from the more wordy history of René Benoist, liberally amplified, but from the briefer one which our Labbe published, as here follows:
EULOGY OF ST. FRAMBALDUS, ABBOT.
Transcribed from an old Breviary of Senlis in Labbe, volume 2 of the Library of Manuscripts, page 559.
Frambaldus, abbot and confessor, at Senlis in Gaul (St.)
BHL Numbers: 3090, 3091
FROM THE PUBLISHED WORKS.
[I] Blessed Frambaldus was begotten in the region of Aquitaine, not of the lowest parents, but sprung of a noble family. Being delivered by them to the studies of letters, he was prudently instructed. From the very cradle of his infancy he placed all his hope in the disposition of the Savior: believing it enough for him if he commended all his love to the Lord of the heavenly country alone.
[II] Who so subjected himself to the servants of God and to religious men that by the honesty of his manners he laid claim to the privilege of nobility; and the effect of his daily exercise so advanced in him that, ever rising beyond himself, he surpassed the rest of his fellows by his merits, and triumphed rather over himself.
[III] And the Lord showed forth his sanctity by miracles. For it happened that a certain young man burned with grievous fevers, so much that all despaired of his life: whom Frambaldus, having made his prayer, healed with the liquid of consecrated oil. A certain woman also, drawn together by a weakness of the hands, her sinews being numbed, came weeping to St. Frambaldus, who, making the sign of the Cross over her, restored her to her former health.
[IV] The most blessed and venerable priest St. Frambaldus, in the time of Childebert and Clothar, kings of the Franks, came to the district of Le Mans, and was kindly received by St. Innocent, and, under the leadership of that priest of the Lord, was sent by him to preach.
[V] And the said Innocent gave to the aforesaid St. Frambaldus a place in Condita Gabronensis, which he had asked of him, which was solitary and remote from men, for the building of a little cell: since the Saint himself loved a solitary and secret place rather than one abounding in delights, or enriched with wealth, or frequented by men.
[VI] For there was in that place a very dense wood, but so much of it did he, with his own sweat together with the rest of his companions and disciples, root out there, and gain by his labor, supported by the help of the aforesaid bishop, that with his aid also he might afterwards build a little cell, and gather monks and religious men therein.
[VII] For St. Frambaldus was enriched with the gifts of virtues, and shone with great religion. And on a certain day, the fame of his sanctity being now spread abroad, while St. Frambaldus himself with the rest of the Brethren went out in obedience to the harvest, it happened that one of those same monks fell, and with his skull crushed lay half alive, whom the rest supposed to be dead.
VIII But presently St. Frambaldus of God, having made his prayer, obtained for him by his prayers to the Lord the most perfect health. And afterwards he gave light to the blind and cast out demons from many. And innumerable persons he freed from fevers by his prayers alone: from other infirmities also he restored many to health by his worthy merits.
[IX] These and innumerable other great miracles did St. Frambaldus of God work by the mercy of God, priest and confessor of Christ, sharer with the Angels, companion of the Prophets, partaker and fellow citizen of the Apostles, Martyrs, and all the hosts of the Saints: who died in peace honorably in Christ on the XVII of the Kalends of September.
Upon these things Labbe writes thus: A fuller Life of St. Frambaldus we have long been awaiting from other learned men; in whose place we substitute what has come into our hands, a diploma or authentic testimony concerning the discovery of the Relics of the same church of St. Frambaldus, performed by command of Louis VII, king of the Franks, in the year 1177 on the Ides of May, and in his own presence. There follows the diploma:
In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Amen. I, Ebroinus, by the will of God Dean, Hilduin the treasurer, Odo the precentor, and all the Clergy of St. Frambaldus of Senlis together. Since it is fitting above all for ecclesiastical persons to love the beauty of the house of God, seeing our church leaning as it were with the old age of antiquity, and the meanness of the old structure contemptible, trusting in the help of the Lord, and daring to renew it for the sake of enlarging it, we took of the treasure of the holy relics, having received from the lord king license to disclose them. Our lord indeed and the church's Patron, Father Louis, highly approved the design, and willed the relics to be seen under the testimony of Religious. By the king's letters, therefore, we summoned the abbot of Chaalis, the abbot of Longpont, the abbot of Fuscinacum, who had been our treasurer, and had them on the day; and in a certain sacristy, in the presence also of the lord Henry, bishop of Senlis, and of Simon, bishop of Meaux, and with the attestation of the charters, we found one by one the holy relics far more numerous and more worthy than we had hoped. And the king was very greatly gladdened at this, and appointed the day of the Ides of May, on which, laying aside other business, he purposed to come and to honor the church and the relics with his presence; and moreover he commanded that meanwhile the showing of so great a seed-plot should be published generally to all. It seemed good that the relics themselves should be expressly named: namely, the body of blessed Frambaud, abbot and confessor; the body of Gerbaudius, bishop and confessor; the arm of blessed Evulsus, abbot and confessor; the body of blessed Laudouena, queen of the Franks; the body of blessed Bertha; the body of blessed Baumerus, abbot and confessor. In the year, therefore, of the Lord's Incarnation 1177, on the appointed day, together with the lord king there were present the bishops, the lord Henry bishop of Senlis, the lord Simon of Meaux; and with these, and with great men and a numerous people, the lord King, devoutly and with great reverence carrying the relics outside the city as far as a lofty place, followed them; where, by the ordering of divine providence, a sermon was made by the lord Peter, cardinal presbyter of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Chrysogonus, and legate of the Apostolic See, who, by the authority of the Blessed Apostles who were present, the people being gathered, granted to all who should aid the renewal of the church remission of vows transgressed, of sins forgotten, and of the seventh part of their penances. But afterwards also William, archbishop of Reims, legate of the Apostolic See, dealing with us more indulgently, remitted a fifth part of the penances.
A NOTE FROM CORVAISIER.
To these documents no little light will be added, with regard to St. Frambaldus, by what Corvaisier has gathered in his History of the Bishops of Le Mans, from page 134, where he not only observes the day of his death as the XV of August, but also the place where he was first buried, namely a village by a certain brook, which even at this time continues to enjoy the name of St. Frambaldus. But since he there grew famous with so innumerable miracles, whether from fear of the invading Normans or by the gift of the count of Le Mans himself, that most precious deposit was translated to Senlis toward the end of the ninth century, and thereupon a college of twelve canons was founded by Queen Adelaide, wife of Hugh Capet. Further, so great was ever the veneration of the people of Senlis toward their holy Patron that, when the day of his festival returned each year, they constantly abstained from all servile work. He testifies also that his sacred vestments, alb, chasuble, etc., of plainly remarkable workmanship, are preserved to this day untouched and entire, which the bishop alone uses; and then that his yearly solemnity is kept in his own collegiate church with altogether singular piety.