ON SS. BENEDICTA AND CECILIA, VIRGIN ABBESSES OF SUSTEREN, AND RELINDIS THE RECLUSE,
IN THE TERRITORY OF JÜLICH.
In the X century.
A Collection concerning their cultus.
Benedicta, at Susteren in the territory of Jülich (St.)
Cecilia, at Susteren in the territory of Jülich (St.)
Relindis, at Susteren in the territory of Jülich (St.)
J. B. S.
In his Flowers of the Church of Liège, on the XVII day of August, our Bartholomew Fisen prefixes this title: They are honored with their holy father at Susteren, SS. Benedicta and Cecilia, abbesses of Susteren, and Relindis the recluse, citing thus: Brustemius, and what James Kritzradt of the Society of Jesus gathered from the old monuments of Susteren and sent to me. From certain monuments of this kind the same Fisen chiefly led us to enroll Zwentibold, the father of these three holy virgins, in the number of the Saints on the XIII day of this month, as was there explained a little more fully. Among these, moreover, we more confidently reckoned the immemorial cultus which is constantly paid to his sacred relics at Susteren; by which same argument we here bring in his holy daughters, of whom — at least of the first two, who died at Susteren — Arnold Hertzwormius, more than once praised by us elsewhere, testifies in his manuscript History of Susteren, §7, cited on the said XIII day, that their relics, religiously preserved in the treasury of sacred things, are exposed to public veneration; where, after enumerating the relics of the holy father, he thus most expressly subjoins: The heads and bones of the daughters of the holy king Zwentibold, abbesses of Susteren, namely Benedicta and Cecilia.
[2] And these things indeed are expressly asserted concerning those two celebrated abbesses Benedicta and Cecilia, although the youngest was not laid there. but not likewise concerning the youngest sister Relindis the recluse, whom Fisen joined to the others, although he plainly enough hints that she neither died at Susteren nor consequently had her sacred remains laid there; the memory of which, together with the other things pertaining to her, the praised writer seems sufficiently to indicate as blotted out, as will presently be abundantly plain from his eulogy: whence, if I mistake not, we are compelled to confess that she can be joined to her sisters on this ground alone, that with them and in the same place Relindis's yearly memory also is celebrated, and on that very day — namely this XVII of August, and not the XVI of November, on which, from Gelenius, our Theodore Rhay placed Benedicta and Cecilia among the Illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, &c. We here follow Fisen and the praised historian of Susteren. Behold now the promised brief eulogy of the three:
[3] Together they were religious, They were sisters, born of Zwentibold, king of Lorraine and son of the emperor Arnulf: of whom we spoke on the thirteenth day of this month. That august majesty of their race those holy virgins all with equal minds laid aside, that, following the humility of Christ, they might set up a religious life. Their royal father had lately founded, or rather restored, the monastery which had been at Susteren, renowned for much virtue and for some sacred remains of the Saints, but which had fallen into embers and ashes through the Norman fury. This a virgin of remarkable holiness named Amelberga ruled, of whom we shall make mention on the XI of the Kalends of December. To her governance the three sisters subjected themselves, and attained a virtue worthy of their race.
[4] but Relindis ended her life as a recluse. And Relindis indeed (whom they say to have been the youngest), when she had laid solid foundations of a holier life, not satisfied with any contempt of herself, preferred solitude to the monastery, that, known to God alone, she might withdraw herself from the eyes of all mortals. She withdrew to Flémalle on the Meuse above Liège, where her royal father, complying (as at least I suppose) with his daughter's religious desire, raised a church to the Virgin Mother. Here Relindis hid herself in a little hut which adjoined the sacred shrine, and, shut up therein, passed her whole life, remarkable for singular integrity. Her God once adorned with many miracles; but the unfairness of the times has blotted out all memory of her.
[5] the two elder were successively abbesses. At Susteren the two other sisters remained, of such great purity of manners that, when the abbess Amelberga had yielded to nature, Benedicta was bidden to preside over the whole company of sacred virgins. The office she had undertaken she discharged with great splendor of religious discipline; and at last she who for Christ's sake had despised an earthly kingdom was called by Him to the heavenly. Cecilia succeeded, in no wise unequal to her sister; and after she had for some time made the convent illustrious by her excellent examples no less than by her counsels, she departed this life in holiness. The Church has consecrated the same day to both.