Helena

ON ST. HELENA, WIDOW, EMPRESS, MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT,

AT ROME,

About the year CCCXXVIII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Helena, widow, empress, and mother of Constantine the Great, at Rome (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. Her name, the year and place of her birth.

This great and valiant Woman shone so brightly, both by her own merits and virtues and by those of her son Constantine the Great, The Saint's threefold name; her birth and its place. that she spread the splendor of her name in every direction throughout the world, as will become plain in the course of this our Commentary. And first indeed, as concerns the name of our Saint, that not one name only was given her is shown by the coins which Du Cange exhibits among the Byzantine imperial families, page 41; for the same matter I find cited also the Thesaurus of Antiquities which Goltzius published, page 125. She was therefore called Flavia, Julia, Helena. What will be brought forward below in § II about her death furnishes ground for attaching her birth to about the year of Christ 248. But concerning the place of her birth there is greater controversy, the judgments of authors being drawn apart into various opinions. For there are those who will have her a Briton; others, of Trier; others proclaim that she was of Drepanum in Bithynia; others, of another place. This subject Ussher handles at length in The Origins of the British Churches, chapter 8; to transcribe all of which hither is as long as it is unnecessary.

[2] Our Alford published a book with this title: Britannia illustrata, or the country and faith of Lucius, Helena, and Constantine: where what he heaps up in favor of Britain may be consulted. But since, after that work of the praised author, there came to light his Ecclesiastical Annals of the Britons, etc., it has seemed good to set forth from these where and why St. Helena is said to have drawn her first light among the Britons. Helena is born, he says at the year of Christ 247, number 2, of her father Coelus, whom I have said above to have been a chief man in the provinces of the Trinobantes, the Regni, and the Iceni. Whether she was born among the Regni or rather among the Trinobantes may be a question (of which below at the year CCLXXV, number 61), since in both places her parent held the principality. The more common opinion of our writers is for the Trinobantes: where the country of Essex, and the city of Colchester, chief town of that country, claims Helena as its citizen and princess. Certainly at this time that city was most flourishing, "as the boundless quantity of ancient coins daily dug up plainly teaches," says Camden under Colchester, and he adds: "Yet we have met with none older than Gallienus. They were of the Tetrici, the Victorini, of Postumus, Carausius, Constantine, and of the emperors who followed." These are they (I speak of the first) who, usurping tyranny in the time of Helena as maiden or as mother, drew the Britains into their faction.

[3] For the rest, that Helena was born in the aforesaid city the same author proves by no contemptible argument. "The citizens of Colchester," he says, her birth "Flavia

Julia Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, was their foster-child, born of king Coel. And in memory of the cross found by her, they bear on their public shield a knotted cross set between four crowns." That Constantine also was born of Helena in the same city I shall say below, namely at the year CCLXXV, numbers 61 and 62: which passage the reader may consult. But the authors who made the Saint a Briton I indicate summarily from Ussher, cited above. He reports her as a chief woman of Britain from the Chronicle which is attributed to Flavius Lucius Dexter; but that Chronicle is everywhere exploded by the learned as apocryphal. Then from the Chronicle of Martin of Poland he relates that she was the daughter of a king of Britain; and from Henry of Huntingdon he writes this: Helena, a noble foster-child of Britain, is said to have girded London with a wall, which [] still survives, and to have adorned Colchester with walls. From Polydore Vergil: Constantine, born of a British mother. From the Orators of the king of England, who in the council of Constance contended with the French, and in that of Basel with the legates of the king of Castile, about πρωτεῖα (that is, primacy): The royal house of England… is found to have brought forth St. Helena. From Henry of Huntingdon, he records that she was the daughter of the British king of Colchester, whose name was Coel, and that she adorned Colchester with walls, etc. To which add, if you will, the Life of St. Helena, of which we have a transcript from the Blaubeuren Manuscript at Hirsau: Helena, it says, daughter of Clohel, king of the English.* These things being thus far set forth in favor of the birth of our holy Empress among the Britons, we may be allowed to desire other testimonies of such a kind that by their antiquity, sincerity, and credit they may be able to give a fitting weight, and so to win assent, in a controversy so agitated and so uncertain, before we assent to the opinion of the English.

[4] claim her for themselves; Further, the difficulties which stand against it are alleged in Morin's History of the Christian Church freed by Constantine, published in French, part 2, chapter 6, page 178 and following. And indeed there is the silence of the Venerable Bede, who flourished in the eighth century with so great praise of erudition among the writers of his time, and who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation very exactly and at length, carried on from the time when that province began to be known to the Romans down to his own days. Bede, I say, in book 1, chapter 8 of the praised History, records thus: In these times Constantius, who while Diocletian lived governed Gaul and Spain… died in Britain. He left as emperor of the Gauls his son Constantine, begotten of the concubine Helena. I now ask of the reader free from party zeal whether it is likely that Bede would have passed over in silence the Saint's British birth from her father Coel, so illustrious to the British nation, if he had found it anywhere among the more ancient monuments of Britain. Besides this, had not St. Gregory the Great got a most excellent opportunity of treating of that birth, when, writing to Bertha, otherwise Adilberga, queen of the English, he congratulates her on the conversion of the English, and earnestly exhorts her not longer to neglect to kindle the king's mind to a perfect love of the Christian faith? Yet that most holy Pontiff speaks thus, in letter 29 (otherwise 59), book 11, Indiction 4, column [ ], volume 2 of the Works published at Paris in the year 1705: For as through Helena of blessed memory, mother of the most pious emperor Constantine, He (God) kindled the hearts of the Romans to the Christian faith, so also through the zeal of your glory we trust that His mercy works in the nation of the English.

[5] Now if that birthplace of St. Helena had been known only among the older writers of England, but we do not assent to them. how was it unknown to St. Gregory, who labored with his whole heart for the conversion of the English? But if it was known to him, how could it come about that, writing to that queen of England and speaking of Helena, he did not indicate by so much as a single word that she first began to breathe there, and that from thence that illustrious star drew its first origin, which by its virtues and examples illuminated far and wide the East and the West? For surely the great Pontiff would seem likely to have written these or like things opportunely and aptly to Bertha concerning Helena, that by her example he might the more have spurred her to his purpose, if he had known anything of the said country. But what of the others who will have our Empress to be theirs? Let us come to the people of Trier.

[6] Almannus, who lived in the ninth century, and who will be mentioned more fully below, says in the Life of the Saint, Blessed Helena, sprung of Trier. Godfrey of Viterbo in part 15 of the Chronicles, toward the end, writes thus: Some assert that Helena sprang from the country of the Treveri. Otto of Freising in the Chronicle, book 3, chapter 45: They say that Helena sprang from the district of the Treveri: whence they hand down that she greatly adorned that church. Among the supplements to the Usuard published by us, from the Lübeck-Cologne edition of the same author, this is noted at this XVIII day of August: Of St. Helena… a most noble native of the Treveri. In the Annals of Trier in Brouwer, volume 1, book 4, at the year of Christ 327, number 14, a chapter of an old writing is cited: This Helena, a native of Trier in Gaul. And this is noted: A new thing, you say; nay, an old one, which they pass over [] who here give ear to Nicephorus, so much later in age, or to the far more recent writers of the English. But indeed it was long ago chanted in this church, and passed over into the Breviaries of public use, that the august Helena was born at Trier. Could those be ignorant that this was everywhere believed some centuries ago, who had as witnesses of public credit Otto of Freising, Godfrey of Viterbo, and the by no means contemptible documents of the church of Bonn in ancient parchments; which the most illustrious jurist Jacob Campius, once dean of the church of Bonn and afterward protonotary of Mainz, brought forth and communicated with archbishop Jacob?*

[7] But this star of the Treveri, rising at last so late, is scattered and darkened by the light of history now everywhere publicly diffused, as I well know, which the learned eagerly follow, since the more numerous proclaim her a Briton of royal race, and the weightier claim her for themselves proclaim her born at Drepanum or in Dardania of humble and obscure family. For the latter stand Ambrose and Eutropius, when they call her a stable-keeper and of obscure marriage; for the others make the British writers, not indeed ancient, but whose assertion, as a man of most elegant genius said, is of middle or recent age, when they give out that she was the daughter of Coel, some king or other. And from this variety of narrative it has come about that one of those most skilled in these matters, who embraced the British view (namely Baronius, volume 3 of the Annals at the year 306), rejected the history of Nicephorus as most mendacious; while, on the contrary, one to whom the Greek view was pleasing wrote that Nicephorus had handed down what was most true. But both these things which I have recited, and the others which follow in the praised author, rather indicate that Helena's country is little ascertained than prove that any certain and determined place, out of the many disputed among the learned, was truly her birthplace — although nevertheless he rejects the Greeks and the Britons as her competitors.

[8] by arguments Our Father Jacob Masen, in his notes and additions to Brouwer's first volume from page 576, has tried with more labor to unravel this web, and to bind our Saint's birth more closely to Trier; but was it not with greater effort than profit? For, the opinions of the various writers who contend each for his own as her birthplace being set forth, he says it is manifest, from the very disagreement of the authors fighting among themselves, that the matter is carried on by conjectures alone. And now, as he goes on, since Brouwer, and before him Lipsius too, overthrows the chief foundation of the Britons taken from the Panegyric, no support thereafter remains to them except in domestic witnesses of late age, justly suspect; so that accordingly the truth hitherto tossed about would seem likely to find its greatest defense among the people of Trier. Next the same Masen recites some things from the books of the Basilica of the emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, containing the imperial constitutions, where he admonishes his son Romanus that marriages are not rashly to be contracted with any nation whatever, except with the Franks alone. For these alone that great man, the holy Constantine, excepted, because he himself also had his origin from those parts. But, first: What will you make out solidly enough concerning the country of Constantine the Great from Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who lived in the tenth century? Secondly: Suppose that something be made out thence for the same; what then? For whether Constantine the Great was a Frank, or a Briton, or something else (to revive which controversy, so much agitated among the learned, is not the business of this place), by what means will you hammer out from his country, whatever it may be at last, the country of St. Helena his mother?

[9] and by a certain diploma, The weakness of this argument Masen himself sufficiently perceives, when, leaving it, he takes up another in these words: But since this suit has been undertaken by us rather for Helena the mother of Constantine than for the country of Constantine, I shall bring forth a more illustrious testimony from our archive, granted by Silvester, Pontiff of the same age, to the church of Trier, in favor of Helena Augusta, by an apostolic diploma, which is exhibited among the diplomas of the metropolitan and archiepiscopal church, collected fully three hundred years ago by Baldwin, archbishop of Trier, in a very ancient book; of which, since Brouwer gave a certain part, and that not from a transcript of entire fidelity, and Father Sirmond left it among his posthumous writings, I shall render the whole word for word in this place. For thus Pope Silvester writes to the Church of Trier: "As in the time of gentilism thou didst obtain the first place by thine own valor, so now also, O Trier, obtain the primacy and precedence over the Gauls and Germans, which Peter, the head of the Church, marked out for thee to have above all the bishops of these nations, in the first teachers of the Christian religion, namely Eucharius, Valerius, and Maternus, and by his staff, in a manner diminishing his own dignity that he might make thee a partaker of it. Which I, Silvester, his servant and unworthy in the succession, renewing through Agritius the patriarch of Antioch, do confirm, to the honor of the country of the lady Helena Augusta, a native of that same metropolis; which she, happy woman, magnificently enriched and specially advanced with the apostle Matthias, translated from Judea, and with the tunic and nail of the Lord, and a tooth of St. Peter, and the sandals of St. Andrew, and the head of Pope Cornelius, and the rest of the relics. Let the harmful rivals who are privy to this privilege be cut off from communion, since they are stained with anathema."

[10] If that diploma were genuine and authentic, no one would deny not sufficiently fitted to persuade. that the present controversy must be decided in favor of the people of Trier, since it is declared in the said diploma in terms so clear and so express, to the honor of the country of the lady Helena Augusta, a native of that same metropolis: if it were genuine, I say: whether it ought to be held for such, we shall now presently weigh; and for that cause we have transcribed the whole of it as it stands in Masen. This diploma is also found in the Epitome of the Deeds of the Treveri, published in the German tongue by Johann Enen and rendered into Latin by Johann Scheckmann, chapter 5, folio 16 verso; and likewise in the Deeds of the Treveri from the founding of the City to the year of Christ 1132, which are extant among the Historical Accessions of Gottfried Wilhelm

Leibniz, chapter 30; which we shall now examine.

read qui*

perhaps præteriere*

§ II. The diploma is examined by which the people of Trier attribute the Saint's birth to themselves; to whom she more probably seems to belong; Helena's family.

That diploma Among the other disadvantages that stand against this diploma, this may deservedly seem capable of being urged against its genuineness, that various monuments which are current under the name of St. Silvester the Pope are held to be suspect and apocryphal: of which kind are his Acts, as may be seen in Pagi's Baronian Criticism at the year 315, number 4; his indulgences, in the same place, number 5; likewise the rescript to the Nicene synod in Labbe, volume 2 of the Councils, column 58, and in Coustant in the Appendix to the letters of the Roman Pontiffs, page 54; to which add the letter which is extant in the same place, page 38; and lastly the Constitutum under the name of the aforesaid Pontiff, of which there is treatment in the same place. Since these things are so, tell me, I pray, whether he would have to be accused of imprudence who should not at once admit that diploma of Silvester, as they will have it, as lawful, genuine, and authentic, but should conceive a fear that that instrument was foisted upon this holy Pontiff, or was corrupted at least in that part in which it ascribes the birth of St. Helena to the people of Trier? And indeed that suspicion is most strongly confirmed from Brouwer himself, Annals of Trier, book 4, number 2, where he writes thus: For the rest, the diploma delivered by Silvester, although it perished amid so many injuries and mishaps of things and times, yet its substance has remained preserved in most ancient sheets. And presently he recites it thus:

[12] in the part at least where it asserts "As in the time of gentilism thou didst obtain it by thine own valor, so now also, O Trier, obtain the primacy over the Gauls and Germans, which Peter, the head of the Church, marked out for thee to have above all the bishops of these nations, in the first teachers of the Christian religion, Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, by his staff, in a manner diminishing his own dignity that he might make thee a partaker of it. Which I, Silvester, his servant, unworthy in the succession, renewing through Agricius the patriarch, do confirm." Thus Brouwer: where you see that there is not so much as the tip of the smallest syllable about the country of St. Helena. From what has been thus far set forth concerning both copies of the diploma, various arguments may be formed by which those skilled in such matters may impugn those copies of it in which the country just spoken of is asserted — whatever be the case with the other things contained in the same diploma, which do not properly belong to our purpose.

[13] the birth of St. Helena among the people of Trier, is rejected. They will say therefore against it, first: Brouwer, the most keen-eyed and most sagacious searcher out and clearer of the monuments of Trier, asserts that the diploma delivered by Silvester perished amid so many injuries and mishaps of things and times — the original and genuine diploma, I say; yet that its substance remained preserved in most ancient sheets; who then would believe that the copy which Masen produces is genuine? They will say, secondly: Masen accuses Brouwer of having given a certain part of the Silvestrine diploma, and that not from a transcript of entire fidelity. But how will Masen prove that his own copy is of more entire fidelity than Brouwer's? They will say, thirdly: That Masen's copy is of worse stamp than Brouwer's is deduced from this, that it proves too much, and therefore proves nothing: for it proves the suit about the country of St. Helena to be ended; which nevertheless we think has hitherto neither been ended nor is ever to be ended among the learned clearly, plainly, and with historically certain credit. They will say, fourthly: It seems likely that Masen's diploma was not hidden from Brouwer, who assuredly saw far more in matters of Trier than Masen; but that he preferred to exhibit from his own, which had perished, the substance preserved in most ancient sheets, because he judged it to be more genuine than Masen's diploma. They will say, fifthly: From all these reasons we altogether suspect that those words, To the honor of the country of the lady Helena Augusta, a native of that same metropolis (of Trier), were foisted in and thrust in by some later lover of his native place. And these are the things which can be objected against Masen's diploma, and which we propose meanwhile to the learned men of Trier for consideration, laying upon them the burden of proving by solid arguments the integrity and credit of that instrument, if they can. It is another question whether the Saint dwelt among the Treveri, and what she did there, which can be treated below. To Almannus, cited above at number 6, it may be answered that he does not seem to have been sufficiently informed about the affairs of Helena, since he presently adds: She was of such nobility (of which matter I shall treat in §3). Certainly he is not ancient enough for one to be able to stand upon his authority. It remains that we speak of the people of Drepanum in Bithynia, who will have St. Helena to be theirs.

[14] The opinion is preferred, Procopius of Caesarea, who flourished in the sixth century of the common era, in book 5, chapter 2, On the Buildings of the emperor Justinian, records thus: In Bithynia there is a city named from Helena, the mother of Constantine Augustus. For they declare that Helena was born there, when it was an ignoble village: to which indeed Constantine, as a reward for her nurture, granted the name and dignity of a city; but he left no monument of imperial magnificence. For if you look to ornament and structure, the place retained its former state, distinguished by the bare title of a city, and glorious in the name of Helena, its foster-child. From these things it is made out that in the time of Procopius of Caesarea there was a report in the East that St. Helena first drew the breath of life in Bithynia. If you ask in what place of Bithynia, in the Chronicle of Eusebius Pamphili, which St. Jerome rendered into Latin and Joseph Scaliger published, these words are woven in at the year 328 about that place of Bithynia: Constantius [], restoring Drepanum, a city of Bithynia, in honor of the martyr Lucian who was buried there, named it Helenopolis from the name of his mother. That city therefore of which Procopius was just now speaking is Drepanum. Cellarius, book 3, chapter 8 of the Notitia orbis antiqui, page 174, describing the site of that place, says: Toward the Bosporus, Drepane or Drepanum. Stephanus: "There is also a Drepane in Bithynia on the Astacene gulf." But in the Etymologicum Magnum the site is thus described: "Drepanum is also a place of Bithynia situated on the Bosporus." It was therefore very near the Bosporus, or between the Astacene gulf and the Bosporus, so that it could be named from either, and farther from Nicomedia than Pronectus. That this Drepane or Drepanum is that place which Constantine named Helenopolis in honor of his mother, Nicephorus Callistus hands down in book 7, chapter 49. "The town of Drepanum," he says, "honoring his mother, he named Helenopolis."*

[15] Now from the things which we have hitherto set forth at length concerning the three peoples — the Britons, that is, the people of Trier, and the Bithynians — upon whom the hinge of the present controversy chiefly turns, which asserts that her country was Drepanum in Bithynia. two conclusions seem to us able and bound to be deduced: of which the one is that this most famous suit, which has long and much drawn apart the minds of so many learned men into various opinions, has neither been decided hitherto nor is henceforth to be decided here with historically certain credit; and the other, that the cause of the Bithynians or people of Drepanum seems to us the stronger, inasmuch as it has been already from the sixth century in stable possession, so to speak, since at that time the public report of that matter was current, as we gather from Procopius. But the authors who were alleged above either for the Britons or for the people of Trier, if they be compared with the third century of Christ, in which St. Helena was born, must be reckoned newcomers; and if with the sixth century, in which Procopius lived, too recent to be able to outweigh his antiquity. What Brouwer said above at number 6 from an old writing, as he called it, does not seem to have much weight, so long as it is not established to what century or time approximately that writing ought to be referred, and no notices are produced by force of which it can be examined whether, in respect of St. Helena, it has a true and suitable antiquity. And these things which we have reported in favor of the people of Drepanum in Bithynia agree very well with what was long ago said by our Papebroch in volume V of May, on the XXI day, in the historical Commentary on St. Constantine the Great, emperor, page 20, where this is read: Since we are to treat of St. Helena with the Latins on the XVIII of August, we have no need now to dispute more laboriously about her birth; meanwhile we hold that she was not a Briton but a Bithynian, and probably of that city which her son afterward, when it had been restored in his mother's honor, willed to be called Helenopolis.

[16] An answer is made to Baronius, Baronius, volume 3, at the year of Christ 306, from number 12, treating of Helena's country and family, says: We know that the more recent Greeks (for Eusebius, though an excellent amplifier of Greek affairs, passed these things over in silence), Nicephorus in book 7, chapter 18, and others who lent credit to a fictitious history, affirm that she was a Bithynian by race; concerning whom they also put together a fable of this kind, etc.; of this matter we shall see presently, when the Saint's family is treated. Then, after the same Baronius had asserted that Britain was the native soil of Constantine, he goes on thus at number 16: For which reason it is likewise more just to say that Helena was a Briton than a Bithynian. But I answer, first: It is one thing altogether to inquire about the birth of Constantine the Great, another about the birth of his mother; nor can the latter rightly be deduced from the former, as I hinted above at number 8. Secondly: Among the more recent Greeks and the followers of fictitious history Procopius of Caesarea, of whom I have spoken, is not to be placed. Thirdly: Different men lay down different countries for Constantine: for Pagi in the Baronian Criticism at the year 306, number 9, correcting the most eminent founder of the Ecclesiastical Annals, says: It ought to be certain that the country of Constantine the Great was Naissus, a town of inland Dacia, now called Servia. And after the proof of this assertion of his, he thus concludes: Wherefore that Constantine was an Englishman or a Briton is to be reckoned among the fables. Tillemont, volume 4 of the History of the Emperors, note 3 on Constantine, page 615, likewise holds that he was born at Naissus.

[17] and is refuted Apocryphal is the opinion of Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, who in the book entitled The Weaving of Gems, or in his Annals, translated by Edward Pococke, volume 1, page 408, fables thus about Constantius, the father of Constantine: He, having set out into the parts of Mesopotamia and of Roha, while he was staying in a certain town of Roha called Caphar Phacar the potter's village, saw there a woman fair and comely, named Helena, who had been converted to the Christian faith by Barsica, bishop of Roha, and had also learned to read: and when he had asked her of her father and taken her to wife, she was made pregnant by him. Then, Constantius having returned to Byzantium, Helena bore a son fair, gentle, and endowed with understanding… Constantine, who, being brought up at Roha, learned in addition the wisdom of the Greeks. Thus he there. What the said author trifles about the marriage contracted by Constantius with Helena can be corrected from what will be said in the next following paragraph; but the Mesopotamian country which was there indicated is confuted by what has gone before, in which we have thought the Saint to have been born in Bithynia among the people of Drepanum. Apocryphal, I say, is the opinion of Eutychius,

who only in the tenth century of Christ, in which he lived, either invented such a fiction or adopted it from fabulous documents — one at any rate among many others with which he stuffed the Weaving of Gems which I have cited. For in these there occur many things indeed most worthy of note, which are sought elsewhere in vain: but certainly very many most like old wives' tales, which, if he did not invent them out of his own little brain, he at least drew from the worthless monuments of his church, as Cave the heterodox observes in his literary history of ecclesiastical writers.

[18] the opinion of two others, Nor of better stamp are the things which are found in the Preface to the Nicene council, translated into Latin from the Arabic codices of the Orientals by Abraham Ecchellensis, in Labbe, volume 2 of the Councils, column 384, in these words: All those furies and sparks of wrath which the devil had long since kindled in the minds of the emperors against the Christians were calmed and extinguished by a certain woman named Helena, who from her earliest age had been steeped in the Christian faith and manners by the bishop of the city of Edessa. But in the same place, column 386 (for which one should read column 388), that author, whoever he is, says more expressly that Helena was born at Edessa, when he mentions Constantine, son of Helena, a woman of Edessa. But that writer indicates plainly enough his ignorance in the affairs of St. Helena, when he wrongly asserts that she was FROM HER EARLIEST AGE steeped in the Christian faith and manners by the bishop of Edessa; as will become plain presently from §§4 and 5, since she was converted to the faith of Christ only about the sixty-fifth year of her age. An ignorant blunder of the same author I shall also produce at the end of the same §4. It must now be considered from what family she drew her origin.

[19] St. Ambrose, in his discourse on the death of Theodosius the elder Augustus, records thus to our purpose: The Saint drew her birth They assert that she was at first a stable-keeper, and thus became known to Constantius the elder, who afterward obtained the sovereignty. A good stable-keeper, who so diligently sought out the manger of the Lord. A good stable-keeper, who was not ignorant of that innkeeper who cured the wounds of the man wounded by robbers. A good stable-keeper, who chose rather to be esteemed as dung, that she might gain Christ. Therefore Christ raised her from the dunghill to a kingdom, etc. Morin, cited above at number 4, weighs three circumstances in these words of St. Ambrose at page 182, that every doubt by which his authority might be lessened may be removed. And one circumstance indeed he takes from the time at which that holy Doctor was writing, namely fifty-eight years after the death of Constantine; who moreover, by reason of great old age, was so near to the times of Constantius that his own death preceded the birth of that man's son by five years. The second circumstance Morin draws from the person of St. Ambrose, whose father was prefect of Cisalpine Gaul, that is, of more than a third part of Italy. The third, finally, he takes from the persons of Constantine and Helena, whose origin and kinship or parentage at that time could not have been unknown to so great a lord. And why do I say, he says, to so great a lord? nay rather, who could then have been so foreign in the Roman empire as to be ignorant of the birth of men so illustrious, whose children they had seen distinguished with imperial dignity? Thus the cited author reasons to strengthen the testimony of St. Ambrose, in whose time our Saint was asserted to have been raised from that mean condition to the honors of empire. Whence it follows that at that time public report held it to be so.

[20] Eutropius in the Breviary of Roman History, published together with the lesser Greek writers of Roman History at Frankfurt in the year 1590, from a humble family. speaks thus in book 10, pages 128 and 129: Constantius being dead, Constantine, HIS SON BY A RATHER OBSCURE MARRIAGE, was made emperor in Britain. And that writer deserves great credit for his antiquity: for he lived in the time of Julian the Apostate. Let him be heard in the cited book 10, page 133: Julian obtained the sovereignty; and with a vast array made war upon the Parthians: in which expedition I too took part. In George Codinus, in the Excerpts on the Origins of Constantinople, page 9 of the royal Paris edition of the year 1655, there occurs Eutropius the Sophist, who was likewise with Julian the Apostate in Persia; and among the other writers who are there named and praised as having deserved well in writing of Constantine's affairs in the building of the city of Constantinople, he too is praised in these words: All these (among whom Eutropius the Sophist had just been named) accurately committed to writing what they then saw with their own eyes. Hence it comes that Eutropius, an accurate observer and witness of those affairs of the emperor Constantine the Great, can scarcely seem to have been able to be ignorant of many other things concerning him, among which the family of his mother seems capable of being reckoned. With these two testimonies which we have produced from St. Ambrose and Eutropius agree the Excerpts of an unknown author concerning Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great, and other emperors, which are found at the end of the Ammianus Marcellinus published by Gronovius at Leiden in the year 1693; where at page 504 Constantine is reported as born of Helena, a mother of the meanest sort, in the town of Naissus. Add that neither Eusebius nor the other ancient historians, who indeed extol her with the highest praises but never speak of her birth, furnish argument enough for judging that they had not found in it anything for which they might praise her; as Tillemont observes, volume 7 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, note 1 on St. Helena, page 638. From these things therefore it appears to us more probable that St. Helena sprang of an ignoble family, even though there are not lacking others who determine otherwise. Let us therefore weigh their reasons.

§ III. The arguments which are opposed to the Saint's humble family are examined; she was the lawful wife of Constantius Chlorus.

What Baronius Baronius at the year of Christ 306, number 20, tries to explain Eutropius and St. Ambrose, alleged by us before, writing thus: Eutropius, though he affirms that she (St. Helena) was the wife of Constantius, yet seems to testify that she was born in an obscure station, when he says: "Constantine, his son by a rather obscure marriage, was made emperor in Britain." But who is there to deny that, in respect of the most illustrious nuptials which he afterward contracted with Theodora, the emperor's daughter, by which he also obtained the empire, the earlier marriage of Constantius with Helena, from which Constantine was born, ought to be called more obscure? But of St. Ambrose he adds this: We know by the testimony of St. Ambrose that this same Helena was called a stable-keeper… but she was commonly called by that name plainly because she was the daughter of the host with whom Constantius lodged in Britain. But what sort of host, who should receive in his house the general of the whole army? Certainly of no lowest rank among the Britons, and of moderate means: but it is right to believe (as is wont to happen in military lodgings) that those who are the nobler and richer in a city are wont to lodge those who likewise lead the worthier ranks of the army.

[22] objects, Wherefore those who have followed up the ancient affairs of Britain (which they ascertained from ancient Annals) hand down that Helena was the daughter of one of the petty kings of Britain named Coel, with whom (as has been said) Constantius lodged, and whom, having found her most beautiful, he took as his wife — his daughter Helena; and such a marriage was thought obscure because it had been contracted with a foreign, barbarian, and non-Roman woman by so great a man, namely by the very grandson of the emperor Claudius and the general of the Roman army in Britain; but it was rendered still more obscure indeed when he was made emperor and together with the empire received Theodora as wife. Since therefore, as happens with those who serve the times and the more prosperous fortune, all turned their eyes toward the later wife, and she an Augusta, that former one seemed exceedingly mean and abject, who had been repudiated by order of the emperor Herculius, and accordingly, for contempt's sake, was called a stable-keeper; just as Galerius Maximian also, who reigned at the same time, was commonly called the Herdsman on account of his humble family. Thus Baronius: to whom, before I answer, I indicate in passing that the genealogy of Constantius Chlorus, husband of St. Helena, is treated in Tillemont's History of the Emperors, volume 4, page 77.

[23] Now I answer, first: It is not sufficiently proved to me do not overturn our opinion; that Eutropius meant that our Saint bore Constantine of a rather obscure marriage in respect of the most illustrious nuptials, etc. For Eutropius speaks absolutely, not relatively; since I find in that place in him no mention of those second and most illustrious nuptials afterward contracted by Constantius with Theodora. I answer, secondly: The word stabularia for the daughter of a host seems to be too improperly, not to say violently, wrested from its proper signification to a foreign one, for there to be any likelihood that St. Ambrose so understood it. I answer, thirdly: I do not indeed sufficiently see what necessity compels us to take refuge in explanations of this kind in favor of St. Helena's birth in England or Britain, since I judge it more probable that it did not take place there, as has been said above. I answer, fourthly: As to what Baronius said about ancient Annals — would that he had indicated them more distinctly, that a judgment might be passed on their age, authority, and value! For indeed I have said it more probable, on the authority of Procopius of Caesarea, the most ancient, so far as I know, of all who have expressed her native soil, that our Saint was born in Bithynia; while the authors who think otherwise, if they be compared with the time at which St. Helena began to live, must be reckoned newcomers.

[24] Alford in his Annals at the year of Christ 275, number 44, answering the objections against her humble family, nor do those things, enters upon a way plainly different from Baronius's in explaining the word stabularia. For, he says, that word was the Jews', not Ambrose's. For what they cast up as a reproach, because she had adorned the stable of Christ in the East, he reported as praise. But, pray, how will you hammer out that meaning from the words of Ambrose, especially from these: They assert that she was AT FIRST a stable-keeper, and thus became known to Constantius the elder? How likewise from these: Therefore Christ raised her from the dunghill to a kingdom? Which causal particle, with the words following it, Alford, citing Ambrose in the said place, does not produce. From what I have said above, sufficient answer has also been made to what Banduri has in his work entitled Coins of the Roman Emperors, etc., volume 2, published at Paris in the year 1718, page 111. But it is worth while also to weigh what the praised Alford brings forward for the nobility of St. Helena at the year 247, number 3, where he discourses thus:

[25] The panegyric orators (of them below, at number 28) who praised Constantine in his presence and publicly which he produces take up no theme more frequently than discourse about the nobility of his family; and without doubt they express the origin of both parents when they say: "So great is the nobility of thy origin that the empire has added nothing of honor to thee." And again of the same: "Who by the loftiness of his birth the summit of felicity

held, so that he could not be nobler." In the margin Eumenius is cited, Panegyric 9. And so from these Alford argues thus: Which can in no way be true, if in fact he is born of the other parent as a mean woman, a stable-keeper or a host's daughter. But with the same ease with which this is asserted by Alford without proof, as he will have it, nay rather with better foundation, it is denied. For why should that orator not truly have praised Constantine for the nobility of his father Constantius, whatever at last the family of his son Constantine may have been on the mother's side? The following argument, which he there proposes, is exceedingly weak. But since, he says, those who poured themselves out in praise of Constantine cover the name of Helena with silence, let the religious abbot Berengosus tell, in book 2 On the Finding of the Cross, chapter 1 — who is read in the Great Library of the Fathers as of the seventh century — who Helena the mother of Constantine was: "Helena," he says, "was of noble family, but nobler in sanctity. For by the nobility of her own character she surpasses the nobility of others." And since Helena married neither a king nor a caesar, but only the senator Constantius, as will be said below, therefore the same author affirms that Helena was nobler than her husband: for thus he speaks elsewhere (in the margin is cited book 3, chapter 1): "Whence, since Helena was better than Galerius and nobler than Chlorus (so Constantius was called from his pallor), it is no wonder that so noble a woman was joined to so noble a man."

[26] Alford. Exceedingly weak, I say, is this argument which is fetched from the testimony of Berengosius, or, as others write, Berengosus; for the reason that that author, whom I read to have been abbot of St. Maximin at Trier, lived about the year 1110, according to Labbe in the chronological Library of the holy Fathers, etc., and Cave the heterodox in his Literary History of the ecclesiastical writers. These things are confirmed from Mabillon, volume 5 of the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 1107, page 516: He who in the aforesaid history (namely of the translation of the relics of St. Modoald) is praised as Berengosus, abbot of St. Maximin at Trier, is believed to be the man who composed the three books on the finding of the holy cross, published in the Library of the Fathers, and certain sermons. Certainly in the first and second chapters of the third book he sufficiently declares that he lived at Trier, and especially in the second chapter, where he says that the nobility of blessed Helena is attested at Trier by the buildings she left, where "the pavement of her house, laid with various marbles and once with Parian stone," was even then to be seen. Berengosus, abbot of St. Maximin, is praised in a diploma of Henry V for the abbacy of the monastery, and in the Necrology of St. Arnulf of Metz on the IX of the Kalends of October. This is the abbot Berengosus at whose request Henry V confirmed the possessions of St. Arnulf in the year MCXV. By what authority, therefore, on what foundation, does Aubert le Mire in his Supplement on ecclesiastical writers, chapter 199, page 219, place Berengosus, abbot of St. Maximin, among the authors of the seventh century? But that Berengosus is not to be trusted in all things you will understand from what was said long ago about him in our work at the III day of May, page 363. But now we shall inquire of what sort the marriage of St. Helena with Constantius Chlorus was.

[27] The question is discussed. There are many things which stand in the way of that marriage being held lawful. For Zosimus the Count, book 2 of the Histories, page 672, among the lesser Greek writers of Roman history published at Frankfurt in the year of Christ 1590, records this: Κωνσταντῖνος, ἐξ ὁμιλίας γυναικὸς οὐ σεμνῆς, οὐδὲ κατὰ νόμον συνελθούσης, Κωνσταντίῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ γεγενημένος, etc. Which the Latin translator renders thus: Constantine, born from the intercourse of a woman who was not a matron, nor had lawfully come into the hand of the emperor Constantius, etc. The Alexandrian Chronicle, published by our Rader, page 651, says: Constantius… died, whom Constantine, his bastard by Helena, succeeded. In the Chronicle of Eusebius Pamphili, which Joseph Scaliger published in Latin, Jerome being the translator, page 180, Constantine is said to have been begotten of the concubine Helena. And this is confirmed from the Greek text of Eusebius, which the same editor made public, page 211. St. Prosper in his Chronicle, which is found among his works published at Paris in the year 1711, column 724, and likewise Cassiodorus, printed at Rouen in the year 1679, in his Chronicle, volume 1, page 391, are of the same opinion (although this last adds it is said); which St. Bede also follows in his Ecclesiastical History, book 1, chapter 8. St. Ambrose had preceded them, whose saying, given above at number 19, They assert that she was at first a stable-keeper, and thus became known to Constantius the elder, seems also to stand in the way of a true and lawful marriage of hers. To this is added that Nicephorus Callistus, in book 7, chapter 18 of the Ecclesiastical History, wove in a rather long narrative on this matter, clothed with various circumstances. You have, reader, what makes against the lawful marriage of St. Helena. Receive now what favors it.

[28] For against the testimonies just produced there is, first: whether Helena's marriage Who could well conceive with what face a public panegyric orator either would have wished or could have publicly praised the continence of Constantius Chlorus, and have dared to say that Constantine, having entered upon marriage from his earliest years, imitated the same, if the very birth of Constantine had been a tacit reproach of his father's incontinence? Jan Livineius reviewed twelve ancient Panegyrics and illustrated them with notes, printed at Antwerp in the year 1599; among which the Panegyric of an uncertain author to Maximian and Constantine is inscribed, fifth in order. There, at page 126, he weaves into the praises of both this apostrophe to Constantine: For not only thy father's form, Constantine, but his continence also… presents itself to the prayers of the nations. For in what way couldst thou more equal thy father's continence than that from the very end of boyhood thou didst straightway deliver thyself to the laws of matrimony, so that at the first entrance upon youth thou mightest form a husband's mind, etc.

[29] From which Baronius rightly argues thus at the year 306, number 18: with Constantius Chlorus These things the author there spoke in a public assembly, with the magistrates looking on, when Maximian joined Fausta to that same Constantine by the bond of marriage: which have been recited by us not so much in commendation of the continence of Constantine as of Constantius his father; whose imitator he became, having known no other woman before his lawful wife. But with what face, I ask, could a noble orator, at public solemnities of marriage, before a most noble and most flourishing audience that knew everything, have proclaimed these things about his father Constantius, if he had had Helena as a concubine, of whom Constantine himself also had been born, before he took Theodora as lawful wife? By these things, therefore, both all the others who say that Constantine was born of a concubine, and Zosimus the Count, are convicted of falsehood, when he says that he was begotten from the intercourse of a woman who was not a matron: for that heathen man, most addicted to heathenism and most hostile to the Christian religion, when he treats of the affairs of the Christians is often manifestly convicted as a betrayer of the truth, and is likewise most unjust toward Constantine, whom he assails with insults as a deserter of the gods; so that you may understand that he wrote Philippics against Constantine rather than a history of Constantine.

[30] was lawful; There is against it, secondly: It appears to me no less credible that Constantine would have given his mother the title of Augusta if he had not been born of her by a true and lawful marriage. There is against it, thirdly: That when new caesars were to be created in the year 305, Constantine, who was the son of Constantius, was without delay proposed by Diocletian for this dignity, and that no one doubted that the prerogative of that honor was deservedly due to him, I gather from Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapters 18 and 19, where this is read from page 142 of the Utrecht printing of the year 1693: It remained that by the common counsel of all the caesars should be chosen. "What need," said Galerius, "of counsel, since those two" (namely Maximian Herculius and Constantius) "must needs be pleased with whatever we shall do?" "Just so" (the answer is Diocletian's; see the notes here); "for their sons must be named." Now Maximian had a son, Maxentius, the son-in-law of this same Maximian… Constantius too had a son, Constantine… most worthy of that eminence… When these things had been settled, they proceed on the Kalends of May. All looked upon Constantine. There was no doubt. The soldiers who were present, and the chief of the soldiers chosen and summoned from the legions, intent upon this one man, rejoiced, wished, and made vows. The Panegyric of Eumenius inscribed to Constantine Augustus, which is ninth in order, in the aforementioned Livineius, page 191, briefly indeed, but no less magnificently, addresses Constantine in these words: No chance agreement of men, no sudden issue of favor, made thee prince. Thou didst deserve the empire BY BEING BORN. And page 192: It is another thing to hold the summit of fortune supported by the very nobility of one's birth, and not to hope for the highest things, but to possess them. Thou didst enter that sacred palace not as a candidate for empire but as one designated, and forthwith the paternal household gods saw thee their lawful successor, etc. Who, forsooth, would believe that bastard sons stood in such honor among the Romans? Nor indeed did Galerius, of whom I have just been speaking, allege the bastard birth of Constantine among the reasons which he had for hindering Constantine from being then created caesar; which matter Tillemont weighs in volume 5 of the History of the Emperors, note 1 on the same Constantine, page 613. Add that long before he had been held in the highest honor by the emperors; to whom it also fell to stand at Diocletian's right hand, as first man of the court. See Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 1, chapter 19, page 417 of the edition of Valois, and the History of the Emperors, in Constantine, article 4, page 83, and the first note cited.

[31] but that There is against it, fourthly: Constantius was compelled to repudiate the wife whom he had, in order to marry Theodora; on which matter Eutropius in the Breviary of Roman History, book 9, page 126: Both (namely Constantius and Maximian Galerius) were compelled to repudiate the wives whom they had had. Aurelius Victor, published among the writers of Roman history at Frankfurt in the year 1588, says at page 524, Their former marriages being broken off. And in the same place, in the Epitome of the same, it is said at page 542, His former wife being cast off. Du Cange also may be consulted in the Byzantine Imperial Families, page 43. If therefore the wife of Constantius before Theodora was St. Helena; if she was his wife; if Constantine was his son by a rather obscure MARRIAGE, as I have said before from Eutropius; it follows that he was born of a lawful bed, and not of concubinage or of a mistress. Which Joseph Scaliger also rightly observed in his Animadversions on the Chronology of Eusebius, page 226 of the Leiden printing of the year 1606, noting this upon the words of the concubine Helena: If from a marriage, then κατὰ νόμον συνελθούσης, against the opinion of Zosimus and Jerome. She therefore was not a concubine but a first wife. Thus far well, if Scaliger had stopped there; but he committed a wretched blunder when he subjoined the following to these words: And yet it cannot be, he says. But for what cause? For

his former wife was Minervia (or Minervina), mother of Crispus the caesar, whom he was compelled to dismiss when he took as wife Theodora, stepdaughter of Herculius, sister on the mother's side of Maxentius, their mother being Eutropia, etc. But Scaliger ought to have noticed that Crispus was the son of Constantine, and not his brother. To make clearer what I have just brought forward for the Saint's lawful marriage, there conduces a passage of St. Augustine, book 6 of the Confessions, chapter 15: She was torn from my side, he says, as a hindrance to marriage, she with whom I had been wont to lie… But I, unhappy… because I was no lover of MARRIAGE, but a slave of lust, procured another woman, not indeed a WIFE. Therefore, according to St. Augustine's expression, if Helena was a wife, she is not properly to be called a concubine. Which is what I shall now say.

[32] There is against it, fifthly: Our Saint is indeed called above, at number 27, a concubine; was lawful, but by that word it is not indicated that Helena was in no way the wife of Constantius Chlorus: for elsewhere a wife was so called who was either without dowry or lacking the other marks that belonged to matrons. Although therefore Helena was not of that station which by the laws might be joined to a man sprung from the imperial stock of Vespasian and kinsman of the emperor Claudius II, yet it appears from ancient coins that she clave to Constantius Chlorus by the lawful bond of matrimony; whatever certain men, envious of the glory of Constantine's son, have brought forward to the contrary, or even though certain of the holy Fathers, deceived by a report spread by slanderers, may seem to have thought the contrary, as is found in the notes to the Chronicle of St. Prosper cited above. But Baronius explains it otherwise at the year of Christ 306, number 19: It was provided by the laws of the Romans (which Papinian the jurisconsult attests) that if a prefect of a cohort, or of cavalry, or a tribune, should against the prohibition take a wife in that province in which he held office, it should be no marriage; since the ground of authority (as he says) forbade such nuptials. For which cause they thought Helena, taken in this way by Constantius [], rather a concubine than a wife. But what did Paul the jurisconsult answer? That if after laying down office he should persevere in the same will, lawful nuptials are brought about. What like this did Ulpian write, interpreting the Papian law; by which, though senators were forbidden to take a freedwoman to wife, yet if he had taken her, although (he says) she is not his wife, nevertheless on this condition, if he should cease to be a senator, then she will begin to be his wife. For such seems to have been the case of Helena with Constantius, that he took her in such a manner that, when he had departed from the province and laid down his magistracy, she should be truly his wife and the marriage valid: which indeed the event declared: for her whom he had once taken he never dismissed until the nuptials of Theodora, when the emperor Maximian compelled him… to give Helena, his former wife, a bill of divorce.*

[33] There is against it, sixthly: Her lawful nuptials are confirmed from this inscription, which is found in Gruter among the Ancient Inscriptions, page 1086, 2: by various reasons

AND TO THE MOST CLEMENT

OUR LADY AUGUSTA

HELENA, MOTHER

OF OUR LORD THE VICTOR

EVER AUGUSTUS, CONSTAN-

TINE, AND GRANDMOTHER

OF OUR LORDS

THE BLESSED CAESARS,

WIFE OF THE DIVINE CONSTANTIUS,

THE COUNCIL of the Neapolitans

AND THE PEOPLE.

The same inscription is exhibited by Banduri in the work entitled Coins of the Roman Emperors, etc., volume 2, page 113.

[34] it is confirmed. There is against it, seventhly: The old wives' tales which are somewhere current about a stealthy or clandestine intercourse of Constantius with Helena ought rather to be hissed off than heeded. It is worth while first of all to recall here what I brought forward in volume 2 of August, at the V day of that month, page 71, on occasion of St. Eusignius the martyr, from the Commentaries of Lambeck on the Imperial Library of Vienna, where I said that this author (in book 8), at page 107, censures the fabulous Acts of St. Eusignius on the ground that there is inserted in them, and indeed under the person of St. Eusignius himself as narrator, a most lying fable about the birth of the emperor Constantine the Great from the illegitimate intercourse of Constantius Chlorus, while he was still a tribune of soldiers, with Helena in a certain public inn; and that the same most shameless fable is also adopted by Nicephorus Callistus in the Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chapter 18; and that therefore it is at length and solidly refuted by the most eminent Cardinal Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, volume 3, under the year of Christ CCCVI. Then that Lambeck, from page 108, subjoins in Greek and Latin the drama of that little fable, welded together out of a linked heap of falsehoods and absurdities; which I do not transcribe hither. Further, the trifles of Callistus, a Greekling fabulist who lived in the thirteenth century or the next following, the bibliographers chastise; so that I must wonder that Justus Lipsius, book 4 On Roman Greatness, chapter 11, treating of the country of Constantine the Great and of the fictitious intercourse of Constantius with Helena at Drepanum in Bithynia, attributed so much in this matter — let us rather say in this dream — to the aforesaid author, whom he cites in the place just designated, as roundly to profess that he judges that Nicephorus handed down what is most true. These things having been thus far disputed concerning the present controversy, I conclude that the marriage of St. Helena was true and lawful either at its very beginning, or at least afterward became such before the birth of Constantine, as I have reported from Baronius that this happened in other cases; but the Panegyric praising the chastity of Constantius, above at number 28, persuades me that it was true and lawful from the beginning. Almannus therefore also went astray, when in the Life of St. Helena he affirms this about the marriage of Constantius: He took as wife Theodora, stepdaughter of Maximian: of whom he raised six sons, brothers of Constantine, his future son by Helena… Meanwhile, while he was happily and valiantly administering the affairs of war, having learned of the incomparable nobility, beauty, and power of Helena, so blessed in the eyes of the Lord, he pondered obtaining her in marriage, desiring, if perchance he might, to have a son by her; and he treated her, though in a concubine's station, with much reverence and honorableness. But now of the offspring of St. Helena, whether one or more.

Constantinus*

read Constantio*

§ IV. Whether Constantine was Helena's only child; when and where he was born of her; whither the Saint betook herself when repudiated by her husband; whether she converted Constantine to the faith of Christ, or the contrary.

Constantine was, so far as we know, the Saint's only child; The Menology of Sirletus at the XXI day of May speaks thus about the father of Constantine: He begot one only son, Constantine — namely of Helena, whom he had mentioned before — the first Christian emperor. That they had any other offspring besides Constantine, I read has not been recorded by the ancients. This is certain, that Constantine was Helena's only son when she departed this life, on the testimony of Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 46, page 506 of the Valois edition: Set on the very border of death, he says, … she declared her last will, leaving as heir her only son, the sole emperor and lord of the world, together with his sons, the most noble caesars, her grandsons. Therefore the things which are reported in Capgrave, in his Life of St. Helena such as it is, folio 174 verso, must be reckoned of untrustworthy credit so long as they are not proved from ancient writers: When therefore Constantius had received her into the fellowship of his bed, he begot of her a son whom he called Constantine, and six other sons, and a daughter named Constantia. But Bouchet, in the Annals of Aquitaine, printed at Poitiers in the year 1644, part 1, chapter 5, page 17, attributes to Helena two sons by Constantius besides Constantine, from a hymn composed on the foundation of the church of Luçon, whose beginning is Gaude Lucionum. Of these he records that one, Lucius, his elder brother having been slain, was driven from his country and condemned to the monastic life, and thence, being put on shipboard by his father with many priests and religious men, was carried by the winds to a place among the people of Poitiers near the Aquitanian sea, and there built an abbey and a church sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, and called it Luçon from his own name. But what is this dreaming here about an abbey in the time of Constantius? In the latest edition of the Gallia Christiana, volume 2, column [ ], it is related from the Chronicle of Maillezais: In the year MCCCLXXVII the monastery of St. Mary of Luçon, which a certain Lucius of the imperial family began… had been destroyed. Whether that Lucius of the imperial family gave occasion to the above narrative, which I relegate to the fables, I have not ascertained.

[36] In what year our Saint bore Constantine, the moderns are nearly agreed. [about the year of his birth the moderns are sufficiently agreed, but not about the place.] Ussher in his chronological index, page 1081, assigns the year 273 of the Christian era; Tillemont, volume 4 of the History of the Emperors, page 82, about the year 274, and the XXVII day of February, for his birth; which Alford in the chronological index after volume 3 of the Annals, page 30, defers to the year 275. The same author of the Annals, volume 1, at the year of Christ 272, number 1, alleges, but does not follow, some who attach it to the said year 272. As concerns the place of that birth, I have already indicated above that this subject belongs not so much to St. Helena as to St. Constantine, about whose native soil alone so much, so long, and so keenly has hitherto been disputed by various writers, and perhaps will be disputed further. Meanwhile from what has been premised we have this, that that great emperor, the immortal ornament of his great mother, was the true and lawful son of Helena, in whatever part of the world at last he drew his first light; so that nothing compels us to spend labor in renewing this most agitated and most intricate controversy, about which nevertheless some things have been said in passing above at number 16. Wherefore let that suit here remain before the judge. But if a desire has come upon anyone to examine this question treated at greater length, I assign him the authors whom he may consult, namely Baronius at the year of Christ 306, number 16; Lipsius designated above at number 34; Ussher, chapter 8, and from page 989; Alford in the Annals at the year of Christ 275, numbers 2 and following, and also in the Britannia illustrata, chapter 1, section 2; Morin, assigned before, chapter 6; Tillemont, volume 7 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 1, and volume 4 of the Emperors, page 82, and also note 3 on Constantine, page 615; Pagi in the Baronian Criticism at the year 306, number 9.

[37] It is not established, Constantius, on occasion of the caesarean dignity which he obtained in the year 292, was compelled to repudiate his wife Helena, that he might marry the stepdaughter of Maximian Herculius. But whither Helena meanwhile betook herself, or what became of her, I do not know to be ascertained from ancient writers. If it please us to hear the more recent: Alford at the said year, number 3, says: I say that after she had yielded place and bed to Theodora, Constantius nonetheless had special care of her and of her son, and appointed for Helena most elegant buildings, not at Quantia among the Morini, where now is Hesdin (as Malbrancq thought), but at Trier. Before we go further, let us hear Malbrancq, On

the Morini, volume 1, book 2, chapter 15: At Quantia of the Morini a quieter refuge was afforded. There Helena founded an excellent stronghold on the higher bank, with a village adjoining on either margin, which took on her name of Helenum, and which the times afterward changed into Hedenum and Hesdin. For the Panegyric delivered to Constantine, in that emperor's honor, mentions the town of Helenum: whence later historians gathered that it was named from his mother, and transferred it to Hesdin, since it is certain that Helena, driven from Britain, dwelt across the sea, and that no other special seat is assigned to her. It is also handed down that Chlogio, bursting in upon the Morini, celebrated his nuptials at the village of Helena; on which matter he treats in the book cited, chapter 27, page 173. So he.

[38] whither St. Helena withdrew Alford, on the contrary, says: Neither did Constantine the caesar allow her to return to Britain, defiled with tumults and persecutions, nor even to be so far away. For the rest, that she dwelt at Trier the abbot Berengosius affirms, whom he cites in the margin, book 3 On the finding of the cross, chapter 2, in these words: The nobility of Helena at Trier is attested by the still ancient character of her buildings: where the pavement of her house, laid with various marbles and once with Parian stone, well declares how great a primacy she seemed to have there above others. And besides, the very flat surfaces of the walls, painted with tawny gold as with a hyacinthine weaving, well attested the tokens of her unconquered nobility. Moreover, the abundance of her estates, once conferred on all sides upon the churches of God, well declares with how most noble an antiquity of family she was strong. Thus he there. But how weak is the authority, both for the nobility and for the dwelling place of Helena after her separation from her husband, which is taken from Berengosus, who is handed down to have lived only in the twelfth century, from what has been said above at number 26! Let us go on with Alford: The city of Trier willed Helena's name to be eternal, a coin being struck a little later, when Constantius was emperor, or rather when the son was reigning. The inscription of the coin was of this kind: FL. HELENA AUGUSTA. And on the reverse thus: SECURITAS REIPUBLICAE. And below: S TR. Namely, struck at Trier.

[39] There may be added to these the house at Bonn, from the Roman Journey undertaken by Henschen and Papebroch in the year 1660, when repudiated by Constantius. which is marked among our papers ✠ Ms. 146: We turned aside to the Collegiate church… which is at Bonn… Not far from the church there is an ancient house of squared stone, in which Helena is said to have dwelt, and over against it a chapel round in the old fashion, built by her. But from all these things, even if admitted as true, I do not sufficiently see it to follow that the Saint betook herself to the district of Trier at the time of her repudiation. For why should this not have happened at another time? See below, §10. Nor is it more certain to me where our Saint was at the beginning of the famous tenth persecution. A greater light seems to shine for the year 306; in which, since Constantine the Great was substituted for his father Constantius as emperor, and pursued his mother with wonderful reverence and the tenderest affection as long as she lived, as will afterward be shown at length, I do not seem likely to turn aside from the truth if I persuade myself that in the aforesaid year she was summoned by her most loving son to the imperial court; and how she brought him up before that, remains also to be said. Wherefore let us return for a while to earlier times.

[40] Theodoret, published by Valois, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, chapter 18, [From Eusebius we assert that the Saint was steeped in the knowledge of the true God] which is about Helena the mother of the emperor Constantine, praises her for having advanced her son in piety: The emperor's mother, he says, … brought forth that great light to the world, and supplied him with the nourishment of piety. But unless this be understood either of piety or moral virtues, and not of supernatural virtues meritorious of eternal life, or of the time after the youth and conversion of Constantine (which seems more fitting, since the discourse is about the Jerusalem journey of St. Helena, which, he says, she entered upon a little before her death: and she departed this life an octogenarian), Eusebius contradicts Theodoret in book 3 of the Life of that emperor, chapter 47, page 506, saying: Whom indeed it is fitting to proclaim blessed for other things, but chiefly for his piety toward his mother. For her, although she had not before been a worshiper of God (θεοσεβῆ … οὐκ οὖσαν πρότερον), he rendered so pious and religious that she seemed to have been instructed by the common Savior of all. Thus most expressly Eusebius, contemporary with Constantine and most knowing in the things done by him. Whence it follows that Helena's conversion to the true faith took place after the conversion of Constantine; of which the latter indeed is referred by Baronius to the year of Christ 312, but by the compiler of the History of the Emperors, volume 4, in Constantine, article 24, to the year immediately preceding; while the former doubtless followed the latter at the time when Helena was about the sixty-fifth year of her age.

[41] The impious Zosimus therefore does not deserve to be heard, who in book 2 of the Histories, page 685 of the edition cited above at number 27, indicates that the man by her son Constantine (on which occasion who led the emperor to embrace the Christian religion had before been familiar with the women of his court. For, having related the death of Crispus and Fausta, he subjoins this: Being himself conscious of these things (Constantine), and moreover of religion's rites despised, he went to the priests and asked for purifications of what he had committed. When they answered that no manner of purification had been handed down which could wash away crimes so foul, a certain Egyptian, brought to Rome out of Spain and made familiar with the women of the palace, and admitted to conversation with Constantine, affirmed that the doctrine of the Christians had the power of abolishing whatsoever sin, and promised this very thing; namely that impious men who accepted it were straightway freed from every offense. When Constantine had accepted that speech not unwillingly, and had let go the rites of his fathers, adopting what this Egyptian offered, he gave this beginning to his impiety, that he held divination in suspicion. For because many prosperous things had been foretold him by it, to which indeed the event in fact answered, he feared lest likewise adverse things should be foretold to others consulting it about what was to come. And urged by this design, he turned himself to abolishing such things.

[42] the falsehoods of Zosimus are touched upon.) So that shameless and silly hater of the Christians fables most absurdly, lying that the superstition of divination was then first abolished by Constantine, when Crispus was slain, which happened many years after Constantine's conversion to the Christian religion. But of that matter there will have to be treatment afterward in §5, when we shall see how our Saint bore herself in it. Meanwhile, besides those things by which above at number 29 I depicted from Baronius the marks of this impious gentile, I add this which I read in Cave the heterodox, in the Literary History of the Ecclesiastical Writers, page 269, where, among the gentile writers condemning the faith of Christ in the fifth century, he brands his books of Histories with this censure: In these books, as often as he treats of the affairs of the Christians, he keenly attacks their religion; and on that account he strenuously rages against almost all Christian princes, especially against Constantine the Great and Theodosius the elder. I am not unaware that John Leunclavius, a most learned man indeed, published a lengthy Apology in favor of Zosimus, in which he vindicates him from injuries and feigned calumnies against the Christians and from every stain of envy and malice with which he chiefly burned, with all the acuteness of wit he could. But while he cleanses a gentile man, and a most hostile enemy of the Christian name, he washes a brick and tries to whiten an Ethiopian, etc. Now let us return to what went before.

[43] Arguments Baronius at the year 315, among the things which he recites from number 10 out of the corrupted Acts of St. Silvester, and afterward corrects, writes this in the same place at number 12: But that there are in them many things manifestly contrary to the truth is clearly shown: namely that Helena became a Christian after Constantine; whereas she herself it was who instructed that same son Constantine in piety from boyhood, as St. Paulinus is author, who in this same century shone with celebrated fame in the senate. For he himself, writing to Severus, says this: "This wickedness of the former age remained down to the times next to our own, of Constantine, who deserved to be the first among Christian princes no more by his own faith than by that of his mother Helena." Thus Paulinus, distinguished by nobility of birth and by learning, and illustrious in sanctity, and on that account worthy to be believed rather than Eusebius, who asserts that Helena, before by no means steeped in piety, was made pious through Constantine. The letter from which these things are extracted is found among the works of St. Paulinus printed at Paris in the year 1685, page 193, and is noted as written in the year 403. But that phrase of St. Paulinus, no more by his own faith than by that of his mother Helena, from which Baronius draws his opinion against Eusebius, I explain thus, and say that it signifies nothing else than that Constantine deserved it as much by his own faith as by his mother Helena's, etc.; which is true, even though she was converted after him. For I cannot hammer out from it whose conversion came first. But since the words of Eusebius are so clear and plain, and since he was most versed in the affairs of Constantine, in a place most fitted for this, and wrote before St. Paulinus, I altogether incline to the opinion of Eusebius rather than to that of Baronius.

[44] Alford, at the year of Christ 256, number 3 and following, contrary to me, to this opinion besides other things which he brings forward, recites St. Ambrose affirming that Helena gave more to Constantine than she received from him. Which, whether it signify the cross or the Christian faith, sufficiently shows, he says, that the mother went before. For thus Ambrose in the discourse on the death of Theodosius: "Helena found much more that she might confer upon the emperor than what she might receive from the emperor." And this indeed would be false if Helena owed to her son the substance and foundation of the things to be hoped for. Another argument, and an illustrious one, as he calls it, the praised writer of the Annals takes from St. Gregory's letter to the queen of the English; of which I have spoken on another occasion above, §1, number 4, and whose words I here repeat: For as through Helena of blessed memory, mother of the most pious emperor Constantine, He (God) kindled the hearts of the Romans to the Christian faith, so through the zeal of your glory we trust that His mercy works upon the nation of the English. Then out of the Greeks he produces this from Sozomen (but he does not indicate the place in him): Among the Britons and the other inhabitants of that world it is clearly agreed among all that Constantine was the first steeped in the Christian religion. Add Berengosus, if you please, from whom he recites two testimonies about the piety of St. Helena.

[45] But I answer to the first, from St. Ambrose: That holy Doctor speaks thus: contrary Blessed Constantine, with such a parent, who sought for her reigning son the help of the divine gift (namely the wood of the cross, on which the Lord had hung; a part of which she brought

to her son, as Rufinus says, to be cited in §8 of this our Commentary), that he might stand safe even amid battles and not fear danger. A great woman, who found much more that she might confer upon the emperor than what she might receive from the emperor. Alford says, this indeed would be false if Helena owed to her son the substance and foundation of the things to be hoped for, that is, her conversion to the true faith. I answer, I say, to the first: Does anything persuade us to have recourse to that conversion, in order that St. Ambrose may have spoken truly? Alford affirms it; I deny it. As though St. Helena did not give more to her son Constantine when she gave him the incomparable treasure of the life-giving wood, or a part of it, even if we abstract from the said conversion, than she received from her son. For although she had received from him so many and so great, so magnificent and honorable ornaments, of which I shall treat afterward, yet much more, without any comparison, did she find to confer upon the emperor, and did in fact confer, than what she received from the emperor, when she gave him that most precious pledge of our salvation.

[46] I answer to the second, from St. Gregory: There is not a tittle in the words objected which makes anything for the present question. they are refuted. For who would argue thus? Through… Helena… God kindled the hearts of the Romans to the Christian faith: therefore Helena was converted to the Christian faith before Constantine. For indeed everyone sees that this argument is not illustrious, as Alford said above, but feeble and faulty.

I answer to the third, from Sozomen: That is by no means inconvenient to me. For grant that it is agreed… that Constantine was the first steeped in the Christian religion among the Britons, etc. (whether and where this happened elsewhere does not belong here); will you legitimately hammer out from it that Helena was steeped in that religion before Constantine?

I answer to the fourth, from Berengosus: Alford intends to prove too much from him, and therefore proves nothing. For he brings forward his words as though everywhere he affirmed Helena to be a Christian before she was joined to Constantius. But these things fall utterly from the premises. Finally, of little or rather of no moment is the authority of Berengosus in this question, so as to add any weight to it, however much he be called by Alford an ancient author; whom, namely, we have indicated above at number 26 to be referred not to the seventh century of Christ but to the twelfth; where you will also find that he is not to be trusted in all things.

From what has been said, those things also are convicted of falsehood which are related in volume 2 of the Councils in Labbe, from the Arabic preface to the Nicene council rendered into Latin, columns 386 and 387 (for which columns 388 and 389 should be read), and which run thus: Helena, although she did not dare openly to unlock the faith of Christ to her son while he was a youth, lest the matter, pushed forward by a youth of too ardent a spirit, should create danger both for herself and for the other Christians among the heathen subjects, who had long been accustomed to rage against the Church of Christ, therefore committed the whole matter to God most good and great, being led chiefly by the hope that He would at some time provide for the Church. Hence she poured out unceasing prayers to God for her son, gave assiduous labor to fasting, distributed alms, went as a suppliant to men distinguished for sanctity, that they might earnestly entreat God both for her son and for obtaining the peace of the Church. And truly the labors of so great a woman were not in vain, her prayers and vows were not empty: since not only was the great Constantine converted to the faith, etc.

§ V. Whether she converted Constantius to the orthodox faith; whether before she was converted to Christ she was a Jewess; whether she was baptized by St. Silvester the Pope; her zeal for propagating the faith; how she bore herself in the death of Crispus.

Constantius was not converted by Helena It follows from what has been premised concerning St. Helena's conversion to the Christian religion in the year 311 or 312 of the common era, before which time, on the testimony of the cited Eusebius, she had not yet been enlightened with the worship of the true God — it follows, I say, that she did not convert Constantius, who died in the year 306, as may be seen in volume 4 of the History of the Emperors, note nine on Constantine, page 618, and in Pagi's Baronian Criticism at the same year, number 7. Nay more, that even if Christians were in Constantius's affections, yet he never professed their religion, you will find in the alleged History of the Emperors, volume 4, pages 80 and 81. Hence there fall to the ground, as resting on a foundation not firm enough, the things which Alford has at the year 306, number 2, saying, Having embraced the ordinance of the Christian religion at the persuasion of Helena, he composed himself for death after the Christian manner. Of which matter he alleges Eusebius as witness. But let us consider whether anything can be made out from him. That writer, then, in the Life of Constantine published by Valois, book 1, chapter 17, page 416, records this about Constantius: But what sort of end of life befell him, since he had shown himself such toward God, and how great a difference God, whom he had worshiped, willed there to be between him and the rest of his colleagues in the empire, whoever weighs the matter more attentively will easily know. For after he had for a very long time given many tokens of royal virtue, acknowledging indeed the one supreme God of all, but condemning the impiety of those who worshiped many gods, and had fortified his house on every side with the prayers of holy men, he is said thenceforward to have passed the remaining time of his life unencumbered and tranquil, with the highest glory, possessed of that felicity which men commonly declare to consist in this, that we neither be troubled by others nor ourselves trouble others.

[48] In this manner therefore, throughout the whole time of his reign, to the Christian faith, which was uniformly peaceful and calm, he consecrated his whole household, that is, his wife and children with all his servants, to the one King of all, God. So that the multitude of those who lived together in his palace differed in nothing from the Church of God. Among whom there were also ministers of God, who with continual prayers worshiped God for the prince's welfare; while nevertheless commonly among others it was not lawful even to utter the name of the worshipers of God. And in chapter 18 Eusebius goes on thus: Further, for these things not long after he obtained a reward from God, so far that he held the first place in the empire… But he also surpassed the other emperors in the excellence of his numerous offspring… Finally, when, being set in extreme old age, he was about to pay the debt of common nature and to depart from this light, then God, showing him anew His wonderful power, provided that Constantine, the eldest of his sons, should be at hand to take up the empire when he was on the point of death. Grant also that to be true which is read in Zonaras, book 12 of the Annals, page 645 of the royal Paris edition: For it is reported that to Constantius, sick and grieving on account of the unfit disposition of his other sons, an angel stood by, who bade him leave the empire to Constantine. But what then?

[49] Now therefore I require the judgment of the fair reader, whether from these things even the least indication can be drawn who, as a Christian, seems never to have existed. whereby it may be persuaded that Constantius ever professed the Christian religion. A gentile he by no means was, on the testimony of Eusebius, being a worshiper not of many gods but of the one true God: besides, he was a most kindly favorer of the Christians; but was he therefore himself a Christian? Eusebius is silent, who would not have been silent if he had ascertained anything of this matter, a most apt occasion being offered him in that place of praising Constantine for his father's conversion to the orthodox faith of the Christians. What he says of the reward of Constantius, what of his offspring, what of the power of God who substituted Constantine for him in the empire — these are temporal, not eternal rewards; of the former Eusebius speaks, but not of the latter. The same may be applied to the angel reported from Zonaras; so that from this no argument can be formed to the contrary. Eusebius is silent, to repeat this again, and other writers are silent, that Constantius embraced the faith of the Christians; for neither Eusebius nor the others say it expressly, as the author of the History of the Emperors designated above observes at page 80. That St. Helena therefore never obtained that felicity of gaining her husband for Christ seems to me far more probable.

[50] They are apocryphal, That the Saint favored the Jews before she was converted to the faith of Christ is the opinion of some. Baronius at the year of Christ 315, number 10 and following, says: From those things which we have said Constantine decreed this year against the Jews, that part of those Acts which are called Silvester's seems to be confirmed by some conjecture, in which, in this very year and under the same Consuls, that famous disputation is narrated to have been held at Rome, in the presence of the emperor Constantine and his mother Helena, between the Jews and Silvester, the philosopher Crato and Zenophilus, a most excellent man, being chosen as arbiters. And when these had been vanquished and utterly confuted (as appears from those same Acts), Constantine decreed against them in this same year the things which have been reviewed. But many things were afterward added which are utterly contrary to and contradict the truth of those same Acts. But it is better here first to set down the very beginning of them, which is of this kind, transcribed from the Vatican codex, that of St. Mary Major, and that of our library: "In the fourth consulship of Constantine and the third of Licinius [*], on the day of the Ides of March, a synod was held in the city of Rome, in which there were bishops of divers provinces to the number of seventy-five, and priests of the Jews one hundred and nine, besides those twelve who had been appointed by the pontiff Isachar for the sake of the disputation," etc.

[51] what is told of St. Helena's But this cause is alleged there for summoning the Jews to that assembly: That Helena, when she was in the East together with her two grandsons Constantine and Constans, the Augusti, and being still a gentile had been made almost a Jewess by the Jews, and being stirred against her son Constantine because he followed the Christian religion, wrote to him with hostile mind, and, blaspheming much against Christ, invited him at last to the religion of the Jews. To whom he, writing back, determined that which of the two religions were the more excellent, that of the Christians or that of the Jews, should be proved by a disputation held between them in a public assembly to be celebrated at Rome: and that so by Isachar, the high priest of the Jews, all the most excellent of the Jews were chosen who should dispute against Silvester and the other Christian bishops before Helena, their patroness, and Constantine Augustus. This most fabulous invention the most eminent author refutes, first, on the ground that Helena was a Christian before Constantine; for which matter he cites St. Paulinus against Eusebius. Consult paragraph 4 above. But since the contrary seemed to us more probable, according to what was said in that paragraph, let us go on to Baronius's other reasons. But in what way, he says, could anyone say that Helena was at these times still a gentile and an adversary of Christ, if her daughter Constantia, married to Licinius (as we have said), was a Christian? So that it appears that a tender maiden coming forth a Christian from the secret inner chambers of her mother's house could have obtained this only from her mother's instruction.

[52] Judaism Again, what a foul lie it is to say

that Helena was in the East this year with Constantius and Constans, the Augusti: since these same (as has lately been shown) had not yet been created caesars in this year; but Constantius obtained the dignity of caesar after ten years, and Constans after twenty. But equally far from the truth is what is said of Isachar, high priest of the Jews; since it is most certain that from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus the creation of high priests wholly ceased, and the name of pontiff quite died out among them: but those who held the chief place among them were called by them patriarchs, and the other magistrates rulers of the synagogue, apostles, and elders. Of these Epiphanius is above all a rich witness, treating against the Ebionites; and the ordinances of that same Constantine and of other princes, which the same Baronius cites, attest the same. Besides this, Who, says Pagi in the Baronian Criticism at the year 315, number 4, would persuade himself that the prelates of the Christians and the priests of the Jews came together into one council to enter upon a disputation about religion? For indeed to have reported monsters of falsehood of this kind is to have refuted them. Meanwhile observe briefly something about the time at which Baronius above marked Constantius and Constans as created caesars; for the latter I read in two more exact chronologists to have been made caesar in the year 333, and the former in the year 323. Now again to what went before.

[53] Trifles of this kind, not unlike the filth of which I was just now speaking, is circulated concerning her before she was a Christian: I find in Capgrave, folio 174 verso, where this stands: Helena, that most holy woman, stayed for some time with her grandsons, the sons of Constantine, at the city of Byzantium, which was afterward called Constantinople: where, being circumvented by the impious Jews, she had lost almost entirely the Christian faith which she had before put on, though but slightly, and clave more strongly to Jewish perfidy. Many other things are found at folio 175. Likewise that passage of the Hagenau Codex smells of a sewer infected with the filth of fables, recited by us among the supplements to Usuard at the XVIII day of August: Helena was first a pagan… afterward she was a Jewess, and perfect in that law. Last of all she was a Christian. But as concerns the disputation of the Jews with the Christians, of which I was speaking a little before, these words in Marianus Scotus's Chronicle at the year of Christ 321 deserve to be struck out as apocryphal: Then, in the fourth consulship of Constantine and Licinius, on the day of the Ides of August, there were gathered with Helena at Rome 120 of the wiser of the Jews. And when a question was raised by Pope Silvester, twenty-four bishops sitting with him, the Jews were overcome in all the divine Scripture. Likewise deserving of correction are the things which Vincent of Beauvais has in the Speculum historiale, book 13, chapter 50 and following, and St. Antoninus in part 2 of the Histories, title 9, §3, about the disputation of Pope Silvester and the Jews concerning Christ; and among the Greeks Zonaras, Annals, volume 2, book 13, page 4; Glycas, Annals, part 4, page 248; Cedrenus in the Compendium of Histories, volume 1, from page 273. I have cited the royal Paris editions. Add Nicephorus, Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chapter 36.

[54] But from those things which Eusebius said above at number 40 about Constantine the Great: [who seems before to have been a gentile, nor afterward baptized by St. Silvester the Pope.] Whom indeed it is fitting to proclaim blessed for other things, but chiefly for his piety toward his mother. For her, although she had not before been a worshiper of God, he rendered so pious and religious, etc.; from these things, I say, I gather that St. Helena before her son's conversion was a gentile. For since she had not before been a worshiper of God, she was not then a Jewess; otherwise she would have been a worshiper of God. But according to what has been premised by me about the time at which St. Helena's conversion happened, I may be allowed to incline to the opinion that she was not baptized by St. Silvester the Pope; since that holy Pontiff was raised to the Roman see only in the year of Christ 314; nor is it established that the Saint's baptism was deferred so long, especially since she came to Christ in so declining an old age of about 65 years. I therefore do not approve the following narrative in Capgrave, folio 275. For after treating before of Pope Silvester, this is reported in the place cited: But the most blessed empress Helena… most humbly asked baptism of blessed Silvester, and with the greatest devotion and reverence of heart received it from his hands. And these indeed are the things which, considering the antecedents of which I have spoken, I judge worth recording about our Saint's baptism.

[55] The holy Woman made up for her late conversion by virtue. But although she entered the school of Christ at a very advanced age, yet she made such progress in His doctrine, Constantine striving with her, that she seemed to have been instructed in it by the Savior of all, Christ Himself, according to the words of Eusebius above, §4, number 40; and thus she excellently redeemed the long loss of time which she had hitherto incurred for the gaining of a happy eternity. For her faith and zeal for advancing the orthodox religion are thus praised in Rufinus, book 10 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 7: Helena, mother of Constantine, a woman of incomparable faith, of religion of soul and of singular magnificence; so that Constantine deserved to be the first among Christian princes no more by his own faith than by that of his mother Helena, on the testimony of St. Paulinus alleged above, §4, number 43; and God through Helena of blessed memory, mother of the most pious emperor Constantine, kindled the hearts of the Romans to the Christian faith, as you will find in paragraph 1 of this Commentary, number 4, from the letter of St. Gregory the Great, Pope. I am therefore easily led to believe that to St. Helena is to be attributed the conversion of very many men, especially of those who were of the emperor's household, from the darkness of gentile superstition to the one true God and Christ the Lord. And this seems capable of being presumed of Crispus, Helena's grandson by her son Constantine; in whose sad death how she bore herself is not to be passed over.

[56] In the death of Crispus she so bore herself, The French collector of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, in volume 7 of that work, page 2, treating of St. Helena's Roman journey about the middle of the year 326, mentions at the same time the very grievous grief which she drank in from the slaying of Crispus. The same author, in volume 4 of the History of the Emperors, note 54 on Constantine, discusses the year of that prince's death, and holds that it happened at the time just indicated. Zosimus, book 2 of the Histories, page 658, records this to our purpose about Constantine: He put to death his son Crispus, adorned (as has been said before) with the title of caesar, because he had fallen under suspicion of consorting with his stepmother Fausta, no regard being had to natural right. And when Helena, the mother of Constantine, bore so great a calamity with a grieving mind, and conceived an intolerable sorrow from the slaying of the young man, Constantine, as though consoling her, healed the evil with a greater evil. For when he had ordered a bath to be heated beyond measure, and had shut Fausta in it, he drew her out dead. In the Epitome of the Augustan History of Sextus Aurelius Victor, published at Frankfurt in the year 1588, volume 1, page 543, these words are found: Constantine, at the suggestion, as they think, of his wife Fausta, orders his son Crispus to be put to death. Thereafter he killed his wife Fausta, thrown into a burning bath; since his mother Helena reproached him with excessive grief for her grandson.

[57] that she had no part in it. Codinus, On the Origins of Constantinople, printed at Paris in the royal types in the year 1655, page 34, having related the death of both, says: Helena, the mother of Constantine, took ill the unjust death of that youth, who had already obtained the dignity of caesar, and unceasingly neither spoke nor pondered anything else than his hasty and unjudged condemnation. Wherefore at last his father too, moved by late repentance, mourned him a full forty days with such sickness of soul that he never either washed his body or lay upon a bed. Besides, he set up a statue to him, etc. Doing penance therefore in this manner, he also besought God with many and assiduous prayers for the pardon of that sin. From which I draw three corollaries. First: St. Helena had no part in the death of Crispus. Second: I suspect that she had some part in the penance of Constantine. Third: Although alone of the authors just cited Zosimus says that Constantine inflicted the death of Fausta as though consoling her, yet I do not doubt at all that, considering Helena's so eminent virtue, she was very far from desiring so severe a punishment.

quater* for the fourth time

§ VI. The finding of the cross elaborated here with a second treatment; the Saint's journey into Palestine; whether a divine revelation preceded it; with what spirit, at what time, and with how great praise it was undertaken.

[What has been said elsewhere in our work about the finding of the cross is here treated more fully.] The Saint's grief, of which I was speaking just now, God quickly relieved, when in a wholly prodigious manner He made manifest to her the most sacred treasure of the Cross. In volume 1 of our May, at the III day of that month, on which the yearly memory of the Finding of this most precious pledge is celebrated by the Church with solemn rite, from page 361, on occasion of that feast it was related how Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, returning from the Nicene council, received Helena, and, being taught from heaven the place of the buried cross, distinguished by a miracle, among the three crosses dug up, the cross of the Lord from the other two; and how she afterward sent a part of it to her son, but delivered another part to bishop Macarius, etc. Then Papebroch met a certain advocate who fabled that nothing in this whole business was to be attributed to St. Macarius, but ascribed everything to the Jewish informer. In chapter 2 there is treatment of the fabulous Acts of the finding of the cross, and of certain other writings on the same subject. Finally in chapter 3 it is treated on what days the cross is shown at Jerusalem; when the feast of the Finding began among the Latins; and of what sort is the monk Alexander's discourse on the cross. Thus there long ago on occasion of the aforesaid feast; the idea of which I have thought good to premise here. But since at that time neither nothing nor everything was said upon the present subject, so far as it concerns the deeds of St. Helena, I therefore judge that it must be taken up again in this place with a second treatment and handled more fully. And first indeed I shall speak of the reason of the Jerusalem journey undertaken by St. Helena.

[59] Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 42, indicates Why St. Helena made a pilgrimage into the Holy Land: that the Saint undertook that journey in order to visit the peoples and provinces of the East and to provide for their necessities. For, he says, when she had resolved to pay the due tribute of pious affection to God, the King of all, and had determined that thanks with supplications must be rendered by her for her son, so great an emperor, and for his sons the caesars, most dear to God, her grandsons, although she was already afflicted in years, yet with a youthful spirit she hastened — a woman of singular prudence — to traverse the land worthy of veneration, and to visit the provinces of the East, and the cities and peoples, with a certain royal solicitude and providence. But the chief

end of her pilgrimage seems to have been that she might traverse Palestine, full of so many prodigies, and that there she might pay to God the thanks He deserved for the so many and so great favors with which she was being heaped by Him, both in her son Constantine and in her grandsons, as we have from Eusebius, whom I have just cited. Let us hear St. Ambrose in the discourse on the death of Theodosius the elder emperor, of which I have made mention before, speaking thus: The mother, anxious for her son, to whom the sovereignty of the Roman world had fallen, hastened to Jerusalem and searched out the place of the Lord's passion. It is also reported that this journey was undertaken as the result of previous revelations.

[60] whether she was forewarned by God: For Rufinus, book 10, chapter 7, says of our holy Matron: Whose son when Constantine was, and she was believed to have been admonished by divine visions, she sought Jerusalem, and there inquired of the inhabitants for the place in which the most sacred body of Christ had hung fastened to the gibbet. With Rufinus agrees Socrates in the Ecclesiastical History, book 1, and he indeed teaches the matter more positively, when he thus begins chapter 17 there: Helena, the emperor's mother… being admonished by God in dreams, came to Jerusalem. And… she began diligently to search out the monument of Christ, in which He was buried and rose again. Theophanes in the Chronography, published at Paris in the royal types in the year 1655, narrates thus at page 18 concerning our Saint: But she saw a portent bidding her set out for Jerusalem, and bring to light the divine places buried under the earth by impious and profane men. Then she asks her son Constantine that she might fulfill the duties divinely laid upon her. He, stirred by the divine will, complied with his mother. St. Paulinus, designated above at §4, number 43, indicates that this journey was undertaken by her from a special admonition of God, although he does not add whether it was done with or without a revelation from God. Here are the words of that same Saint: She, namely Helena, inspired, as the issue taught, by a divine counsel, when she knew Jerusalem by name, being an Augusta reigning together with her son, asked him that he would give her power to cleanse all the places there marked by the Lord's footsteps.

[61] with how great fortitude of soul she set out thither. But with how great a preparation of mind, and with how tenacious and fervent a purpose of carrying out her resolve that most holy Woman girded herself for that journey, may be plainly enough perceived from the great troubles which on that occasion, either before her coming into the Holy Land or after it — let us say indeed both before and after — that noble pilgrim overcame. For, on the testimony of Eusebius, book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 42, Although she was already afflicted in years, yet with a youthful spirit she hastened to traverse the land worthy of veneration, and to visit the provinces of the East, and the cities and peoples. Thus he. And the same writer entitles chapter 44 in the same place Of the greatness of soul and beneficence of Helena. Theodoret, in book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History, after producing in chapters 15, 16, and 17 three letters of the emperor Constantine, of which the one recited in the third place was given to Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, about the building of a church, says, in chapter 18, page 47 of the Valois edition: No one else carried these letters, but the emperor's mother herself… herself undergoing the labor of the journey and reckoning as nothing the discomforts of her old age. For she entered upon this journey a little before her death: and she departed this life an octogenarian. Do not these things prove abundantly that our Empress brought vast and untiring spirits to a journey so hard for her in such advanced old age? But had she on the journey itself St. Silvester the Pope as her companion?

[62] Zonaras affirms it, volume 2 of the Annals, book 13, page 5 of Du Cange's edition, writing thus of her journey: St. Silvester the Pope was not her companion. Having therefore taken the lord Silvester as her companion, she sets out for Jerusalem. But that fabulous companion Baronius refutes at the year of Christ 326, number 42, saying: It must rightly be called an invention, which is proved by no tradition of our forefathers nor supported by the authority of ancient writers. But many other things too of less solid truth have likewise crept into the history of the most holy cross, not lately but in ancient times, which Gelasius, Roman Pontiff, left so doubtful and uncertain that he refers them to the judgment of the prudent reader, who knows how to separate the precious from the vile and the true from the false; so that, all things being examined with an even balance, he may judge all by a right weighing. And presently Baronius renders the words of Gelasius. Of the finding of the cross we shall treat a little later. Now therefore, since we are thus far occupied with the Saint's journey, let us briefly consider when it was undertaken.

[63] This did not happen before the year of Christ 325, in which the most celebrated council of Nicaea was celebrated. [She did not go thither before the year 325; and she is said to have arrived there in the middle of 326.] For Theophanes in the Chronography, page 18, records thus: Besides, the emperor charged Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, who was present at the council, that on his return he should search for the place of the holy Resurrection, and the Golgotha of Calvary, and the life-giving wood of the cross. And yet by the same chronographer, at page 20, it is related that Macarius, patriarch of Jerusalem, came with due honor to meet the empress Helena, who was setting out for Jerusalem: therefore Helena did not undertake the journey before the said year. Which I gather besides from more ancient writers. For Eusebius, in book 3 of the Life of Constantine, keeps this order of writing, that, after narrating the things which the emperor did on occasion of that council, he subjoins this at chapter 25: These things being so done, the emperor, dear to God, undertook another thing especially memorable in Palestine. And what is it? He judged it to be his duty to make that most blessed place of the Lord's Resurrection, which is at Jerusalem, illustrious and venerable to all mortals. Straightway therefore he ordered an oratory to be built there, being led to it not without God's will, but the Savior Himself stirring his mind. To the said order refer also the other things which are set forth in that place in several chapters. Rufinus, book 10, chapter 6, having spoken of the formula of faith of the Nicene synod and of its decrees, goes on thus in chapter 7: About the same time Helena sought Jerusalem. But that that council probably began on the XIX day of June and lasted until the XXV of August, the French author of the History of the Emperors observes in volume 4, in the chronological table, page 712; while he judges that Helena probably did not arrive in Palestine except after her Roman journey, about the middle of the year 326, according to note 54 on Constantine in the same place, page 649, which treats of Crispus who died then. But that arrival in Palestine can hardly be understood to have happened at that time, on account of the so many and so remarkable things, requiring so much delay, which the Saint accomplished there, if you fix her death with Pagi to the same year 326. But of this matter below.

[64] Further, that this expedition of our most pious Empress was most religious and most pleasing to God, That journey is wrongly gnawed at by the heterodox. both from the very nature of the thing, and from its circumstances, and from the encomiums of writers, and finally from the most holy end which she set before herself, no Catholic will deny, however much the heterodox and the enemies of the cross of Christ clamor against it. But that I may not, as the saying is, put my sickle into another's harvest, one may read what Gretser writes against the sectaries, to be cited below at the end of §8, volume 1, book 1, chapter 63; and also Alford at the year of Christ 326, or what other polemical writers record. But it does not appear foreign to the order of the things which that most praiseworthy Woman accomplished when she had come to Jerusalem, if I speak first of the finding of the cross, then of the sacred places built in the Holy Land, and lastly of the virtues she practiced there.

§ VII. A historical collection concerning the holy cross found by Helena.

What preceded The history of the finding of the cross Baronius recites at the year 326, number 43, from St. Ambrose, the circumstances being considered, that a greater weight of authority may accrue to it. Ambrose, he says, thus recounted the deed publicly before a most ample assembly of magistrates, when he set forth in an excellent oration the praises of the deceased emperor Theodosius, of which I have spoken above. And so, when Helena came to Jerusalem, as Ambrose relates, she began to revisit the holy places; the Spirit poured into her a desire to seek the wood of the cross; she came to Golgotha and said: "Behold the place of the battle; where is the victory? I seek the standard of salvation, and I do not find it. I," she said, "in kingdoms, and the cross of the Lord in the dust? I in courts, and the triumph of Christ in ruins? Does it still lie hidden, and the palm of eternal life? How do I think myself redeemed, if the redemption itself is not seen? I see what thou hast done, devil, that the sword by which thou wast slain might be blocked up. But Isaac cleared out the wells blocked by the foreigners, and did not suffer the water to lie hid. Let the ruin therefore be taken away, that life may appear. Let the sword be brought forth by which the head of the true Goliath was cut off. Let the ground be opened, that salvation may shine. What hast thou done, devil, in hiding the wood, but that thou shouldst be conquered again? Mary conquered thee, who bore the triumpher, who without diminution of virginity brought forth Him who crucified should conquer thee, and dead should subdue thee. Thou art conquered today also, that a woman may detect thy snares. She as a holy woman bore the Lord; I will search out His cross. She showed Him begotten; I, raised again. She brought it about that God should be seen among men; I will raise for the remedy of sins the divine standard from the ruins."

[66] the finding St. Paulinus, in the letter which I lately cited, sets forth the matter thus: That venerable queen, when she came to Jerusalem, diligently and piously, curious about the divine tokens in all the places there and round about, and eager to drink in with her eyes the faith which she had received with pious ears and by letters, set herself most zealously to seek out the cross of the Lord. But what way or method of finding it was there, since no fit informant could be found, where both the antiquity of the age and the long duration of impious superstition had abolished the memory and the care of a religious conscience or observance? But the Lord Himself being privy to and witness of all things covered both in the earth and in men's minds, the faithful Woman deserved the Holy Spirit by her pious affection; by whose inspiration, when she had diligently but in vain sought a thing divinely removed from human knowledge, she strove to be assured at least of the place of the passion. Nor was the place found by her without great trouble; for, as Rufinus says, book 10, chapter 7, it was difficult to find, because an image of Venus had been set up in it by the ancient persecutors, so that if any of the Christians had wished to adore Christ in that place, he might seem to adore Venus: and on this account it was little frequented and had been almost given over to oblivion.

[67] But that valiant Woman, not deterred by these difficulties from her undertaking, of the holy cross; not only (the words are the praised St. Paulinus's) of the Christians men full of learning and sanctity, but of the Jews also the most skilled,

as being witnesses of their own impiety, in which the wretched men even glory, she sought out, and, summoning them, gathered them at Jerusalem. Then the united testimony of all about the place of the witness [] was confirmed, etc. When Rufinus says, but when, as we have said above, the religious woman had hastened to the place designated to her by a heavenly token, he indicates besides that the place had been made known to her from heaven. What then followed? She straightway ordered, as Paulinus goes on, doubtless urged by the impulse of the revelation she had conceived, that the work of digging should be undertaken in that very place; and, a band both of citizens and of soldiers being soon made ready, she quickly drained the labor of that undertaking: namely by casting out from it everything profane and polluted, the rubbish being cleared away to a great depth, as it stands in the Rufinus cited. Eusebius in book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 26, sets forth how the impious covered the sepulcher of the Lord with rubbish and images laid over it; and, ascribing the cleansing of that place to the emperor Constantine, he says: Straightway those works contrived for deceit were cast down from their height to the ground, and the buildings erected for deceiving men were pulled down and scattered together with the statues and the demons themselves. And presently in chapter 27 he goes on thus: Nor yet did the emperor's eagerness rest here; but he further commanded that the quarried and cut material [] should be taken away and thrown as far as possible outside the boundaries of the regions… Nay more, stirred by a certain divine ardor, he ordered that, the place being dug out to a great depth, the very soil, as contaminated by the pollutions of demons, should be carried away as far as possible together with the earth dug out. But although here the cleansing of the place is attributed to Constantine, and above to St. Helena, these things are so far from conflicting that they can easily be reconciled by saying that the matter was indeed commanded by Constantine, but committed to execution by Helena, since she had perhaps written about it before to Constantine and informed him of the profanation of that most holy place.

[68] And so, against the hope of all (I use the words of Paulinus), but according to the faith of the queen alone, the recesses of the earth being unclosed by a deep digging, the hidden secrets of the cross lay open. These things are confirmed from Eusebius, book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 28: Nor was there any delay; this too (what I have just said from him about the soil and the earth dug out) was fulfilled as had been ordered. After another soil, namely the place which was lowest, appeared, then indeed that august and most holy monument of the Lord's Resurrection shone forth beyond the hope of all, and that cave, which may truly be called the holy of holies, expressed a certain likeness of the Resurrection of our Savior; since after the neglect and darkness by which it had been covered it came forth again into the light, and exhibited most manifestly, to those who had flocked together to behold, the history of the miracles which had once been wrought there, attesting by the very facts, which sound more clearly than any voice, the Resurrection of our Savior. But more than one cross was found there. For Theodoret, alleged before, book 1, chapter 18, page 47, records this: But when the sepulcher, which had hitherto lain hidden, had come to light, three crosses appeared buried beside the Lord's monument. With Theodoret agrees Sozomen, book 2, chapter 1, saying: When by the emperor's command the place had been deeply dug out and cleansed, in part of it the cave of the Resurrection appeared. But elsewhere, near the same place, three crosses were found. Rufinus, book 10, chapter 7, adds this: She (Helena) found three crosses in confused order. But the joy of the gift discovered was troubled by the indistinguishable character of each cross. But this trouble was afterward removed by a notable prodigy, as will presently appear; since other evident tokens there were none. There was indeed at hand the title of the saving cross, by which it had once been distinguished on Mount Calvary from the others on which the two thieves had been fastened; but this did not at once afford a certain token.

[69] happened at the very finding; and in how wonderful a manner By Sozomen, just designated, it is written that besides the three crosses there was found another tablet apart, on whose white surface these words were written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words and letters: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Rufinus in the place above: There was present also that title which had been written by Pilate in Greek and Latin and Hebrew letters. But not even it plainly enough betrayed the marks of the Lord's gibbet. Ambrose in the oration on the death of Theodosius, besides the title which he relates that Helena found, signifies that the nails also were found by her, in these words: She sought the nails with which the Lord was crucified, and found them. Of one nail she ordered a bridle to be made; of the other she wove a diadem, etc. But neither title nor nails afforded at once an evident token by which she might separate Christ's cross from the two others. What then is done? Let us hear St. Paulinus: But when the three crosses had been found together, as they had once stood fastened for the Lord and for the thieves, the joy over their finding began to be confounded with anxious doubt, by a just fear of the pious, lest perhaps they should either choose a thief's gibbet for the Lord's cross, or violate the saving wood by casting it away for a thief's stake. St. Ambrose judges that Helena had from the title alone a sufficient token to distinguish the one from the other, when he records this: She found three gibbets confused… But the triumph of Christ could not be blotted out. The woman hesitates in uncertainty; but the Holy Spirit inspires a sure search, in that two thieves were crucified with the Lord. She therefore seeks the middle wood: but it might happen that the fall of the ruin confounded the gibbets among themselves, that chance changed and inverted them. She returns to the reading of the Gospel, and finds that on the middle gibbet the title was set forth: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Hence was gathered the sequence of the truth; by the title the saving cross lay open… She found therefore the title, and adored the king. To St. Ambrose add another Doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, homily on John 85, otherwise 84, as it is noted in the latest Paris edition of the works of that holy Father, volume 8; where at page 505 these words occur: For when the wood of the cross had been buried, and no one dared to dig it up for the fear that pressed; when the faithful were occupied with other urgent matters; and yet it was to be that in the time following the cross would be sought out, and three crosses lay together, that it might not be unknown which had been the Lord's, first because it was in the middle, and then from the title, it was recognized; for the crosses of the thieves had no titles. And indeed, why could not the Lord's cross be sufficiently distinguished by Helena even from the title of the cross alone, if, having inspected the place of the nails by which the title had hung fastened on the cross, she compared this with them and with their place on the cross?

[70] the true cross of the Lord We confess indeed that Theodoret raises some difficulty in this matter, when he writes thus, after what we have given a little before from him about the title of the cross: Yet it was still difficult, though the divine cross had been found, to distinguish it from the rest: since its inscription had been torn from it and cast away. But whether the inscription alone were enough for the said distinction, or whether Helena wished a surer token, and, God Himself inspiring her to make manifest the mighty works of the cross, asked a heavenly sign whereby it might most certainly be established about it — assuredly Here now the uncertainty of human ambiguity, to use the words of Rufinus, demands a divine testimony… Macarius at that time was bishop of that church, and he suggested the means, as I shall presently relate: that most wise and plainly divine Macarius, as he is called by Theodoret, book 1, chapter 18; of whom the same author in chapter 16 of the same book had premised this: This was that Macarius of whom we made mention above; who also had been present at the great synod, and together with the rest had overthrown the impiety of Arius. And so, as Rufinus narrates, it happened in the same city (of Jerusalem) that a certain woman of the first rank of that place, worn out by grave sickness, lay half dead… He (namely Macarius), when he sees the Queen hesitating, and likewise all who were present, says: "Bring hither all the crosses that have been found, and God will now show us which it is that bore the Lord." And entering with the Queen and the people alike to her who lay sick, with knees fixed he poured out a prayer of this kind, which is found in book 10, chapter 8, expressed in these words:

[71] Thou, O Lord, hast deigned through thine only-begotten Son to confer salvation on the human race by the passion of the cross; was distinguished from the two others and now in the last times thou hast breathed into the heart of thy Handmaid to seek out the blessed wood on which our salvation hung; show evidently which of these three was the cross for the Lord's glory, and which were for the punishment of slaves, that this woman, who lies half alive, as soon as the saving wood shall touch her, may be called back from the gates of death to life. And when he had said this, he applied first one of the three, and it profited nothing. He applied the second; nor thus either was anything done. But when he brought near the third, suddenly the woman, her eyes being opened, rose up, and, the steadiness of her strength recovered, began to run through the whole house much more briskly than while she had been well, and to magnify the power of the Lord. Thus the Queen, having obtained her desire by an evident token, built with royal magnificence a wondrous church in the place in which she had found the cross. But concerning the building of this church, which is here ascribed to St. Helena, consult what I shall report in §§8 and 9.

[72] The aforesaid miracle of the woman's healing is also reported by Sozomen, book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 1, was distinguished. and another is added to it in these words: They say also that a dead man was in the same manner called back to life. In St. Paulinus, in the letter mentioned, page 197, I find only this latter miracle: for it is there said thus: The Lord looked upon the pious cares of those faithfully burning, and poured into her especially, who was the chief of so pious a solicitude, the light of this counsel, that she should order some newly dead person to be sought out and brought in. Nor was there delay: the word was done: a corpse was brought in: it is laid down: to it as it lies one of the crosses is applied, and a second; but death spurned the woods of the guilty. Last the Resurrection reveals the Lord's cross, and at the touch of the saving wood, death fleeing, the dead body [] was shaken forth, and the body raised up; and, the living trembling, the dead man stood, and, freed at once from his funeral bonds like Lazarus of old, stood among those who awaited [] him. Nor does St. Sulpicius Severus narrate any other than this miracle, book 2 of the Sacred History, published in the Plantin types at Antwerp, page 153.

* That is, of the martyrdom or passion

* that is, the material and the rubble

* That is, the corpse, or the dead man, was raised up

otherwise spectatores* onlookers

§ VIII. Whether Eusebius made no mention of the finding of the cross; whether it was pointed out by a Jew; the acts of St. Helena after its finding; the cross is made illustrious by public veneration and by miracles.

Baronius wonders that Eusebius made no mention of the finding of the holy cross The silence of Eusebius about the finding of the cross Baronius wonders at, and thus declares it at the year of Christ 326, number 42: But plainly a great wonder holds all men, what the reason is that Eusebius, going over the building of all these basilicas (of which Baronius had just treated), and making rather lengthy mention of Helena, says not a word about the cross found by her: since that it was found under Constantine is doubtful to no one, Cyril bishop of Jerusalem writing thus to Constantius, the emperor son of Constantine himself: "In the time indeed (he says) of thy father Constantine, most beloved of God and of blessed memory, the saving wood of the cross was found at Jerusalem," etc. Yet we know that the same Eusebius made mention of the finding of the holy Cross in his Chronicle; but (as it seems) at another time, namely in the fifteenth year of Constantine's reign, where he says this: "Helena, mother of Constantine, admonished by divine visions, found at Jerusalem the most blessed wood of the cross, on which the salvation of the world hung." For the rest, since we have most evidently shown at the end of the previous year that Eusebius's Chronicle has been much corrupted by the copyists; and since in that same Chronicle it appears that, although there is an error in the number of the years of Constantine, yet it is certain that the finding of the cross is there placed in the year following the Nicene council; not without reason indeed does the arrival of Helena at Jerusalem and the finding of the cross seem to be placed by all the ancient Greek authors in this year, namely the year following the Nicene council. But the most eminent author wonders without cause at the silence of Eusebius, who did not keep silence about the cross found by St. Helena, but expressed it plainly enough, although he does not then mark either the name of Helena or that of the cross. But this matter is not to be made out from the Chronicle of Eusebius.

[74] in the Life of Constantine the Great: For in the Chronicle of Eusebius which the most illustrious Pontac published, at the years of the Lord 324, 325, and 326, I find the passage just cited from Baronius; but marked with characters different from the text. But in Scaliger's edition, page 181, I read at the said years no trace of that finding; so that hence too it may appear that little or no trust is to be put in the Eusebian Chronicle in the present matter — as though the things which Baronius cited above as Eusebian were truly Eusebian, and not added perhaps from elsewhere. Wherefore, that Chronicle being set aside, it is asked whether Eusebius passed over the finding of the cross in silence in the Life of Constantine. But that he is undeservedly accused of silence by Baronius is plainly enough gathered from the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 30, where Constantine's letter to Macarius is produced concerning the building of the Martyry of our Savior, or the basilica of the Resurrection or of the holy Cross; whose finding, or the place of whose finding, gave occasion to the most pious emperor for building there that most magnificent church.

[75] But that whole letter was long ago printed by us in volume I of May, but it seems more probable to us that he treated of it there. on the III day, page 362; which, although it is not long, yet because it can be read there, or in Eusebius himself as published by Valois from page 499, therefore we cull only a few things from it, which nevertheless suffice for our purpose: So great is the grace of our Savior that no abundance of speech seems sufficient FOR THE NARRATION OF THE PRESENT MIRACLE. For that THE MONUMENT OF HIS MOST SACRED PASSION, LONG SINCE HIDDEN UNDER THE EARTH, SHOULD HAVE LAIN CONCEALED THROUGH SO MANY YEARS, until… it should shine forth when His servants were restored to liberty, truly surpasses all wonder… I would have you above all persuaded of this, that I have nothing more at heart than that that sacred place, which by God's command I have unburdened of the most shameful accretion of an image, as of some heavy weight; and which from the beginning indeed was holy by God's judgment, but afterward was made far holier, since it brought to light the testimony of the Lord's passion — that place, I say, we should adorn with the beauty of buildings. Do you hear the narration of the present miracle, the monument of the passion long since hidden under the earth, it brought to light the testimony of the Lord's passion? To what do these things point, if they do not point to the finding of the Lord's cross? They do not, then, point to the sepulcher; which was rather the token or monument of the Resurrection than of the Passion of Jesus Christ. For indeed Papebroch in the place cited gave that whole letter, that it might be understood, he says, more clearly that all these things were ordered by the emperor in respect of the Lord's cross, dug up and made illustrious by miracles, which cross is here called τὸ γνώρισμα τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου πάθους, and τοῦ σωτηρίου πάθους πίστις, the token of the most holy and saving Passion, and the testimony or witness of it. Who then would deny that the most holy cross of our Lord, and its finding, is indicated by antonomasia by Eusebius in that letter of Constantine? That Eusebius did not speak of this more expressly (for he speaks only in the person of Constantine, whose letter he recites), nor made mention of the miracle wrought for its recognition, we should wonder at, did we not see him so occupied in the praises of Constantine alone that he did not so much as remember his mother Helena, sent to Jerusalem for this purpose, hastening as he was to the description of that most august fabric, on which he presently spends ten whole chapters: and then at last, as if drawing breath, he comes down to praising the piety of Helena, closing chapter 41 thus: "And these places" (namely Bethlehem and the Mount of Olives) "adorning with magnificent worship, he (Constantine) at the same time consecrated to the eternal memory of posterity the name of her by whose work and ministry so great a good was procured for the human race." Then, beginning to enumerate more distinctly the places built by the care of Helena and at the expense of Constantine, he pursues the praises and the death of the Empress, weaving rather an encomium of her than an orderly and historical narration of the things done by her in the East. What wonder then if he did not touch upon that miracle, which belonged more properly to the proclaiming of the faith of St. Macarius and of the power of the cross itself? This is Papebroch's reflection on that miracle; whose being passed over in silence by Eusebius and others ought by no means to stand in the way of its truth, since it is confirmed from other quarters by ancient authors, as we have seen; for not all authors always record all things. But, to return to the finding of the cross, for the reasons given it seems to us more probable that Eusebius indicated it in the letter of Constantine cited.

[76] But granted, though not conceded, that Eusebius was in this matter more mute than a fish, so to speak, The truth of the history would stand, are so many other most weighty authors, who assert it so expressly, to be accused of falsehood on account of the silence of one Eusebius? For indeed that history is established on foundations so solid and unconquerable that it can be overturned by no petty reasonings whatever, of the kind they call negative, as has just now been evidently shown by me; to all which is to be added the constant, stable, and perpetual tradition of the Catholic Church. Andrew Rivet, therefore, that heterodox petty minister, is worthy of pity, or rather of laughter or contempt, when in the specimen of his Sacred Critic, as he calls it, he boldly, shamelessly, and rashly babbles this against the finding of the cross, book 3, chapter 8:

[77] even if Eusebius were silent Eusebius, who lived at Caesarea in Palestine in the times of Constantine, and who was a most diligent observer of such matters, would not have kept silence about that finding of the cross, afterward so much sung of, in his History or in the book on the Life of Constantine. For what is said in the Chronicle is not held legitimate even by Baronius. But those who followed as narrators of the fable, deluded by others, wrote with a certain simplicity what each had heard; but in such a way that by their varying accounts they make a thing uncertain in itself more doubtful by their narrations. Whoever will not believe us, let him go to Ambrose, oration at the funeral of Theodosius []; to whom he adds Paulinus, Rufinus, Theodoret, and Sozomen. Thus that shameless and silly mouth, on occasion of the Catecheses* of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, which he gnaws at, and by eating away tries to destroy their most solid foundations.

[78] since it is shown to be so solidly confirmed from elsewhere But although the boldness of that heterodox petty minister has been abundantly blunted by what has gone before, it is nevertheless worth while to add to these things what Noël Alexandre answers him in the Ecclesiastical History, reprinted at Paris in the year 1714, volume 4, chapter 6, article 12, page 120: Nor does the silence of Eusebius about the finding of the cross prove that this history is to be rejected among fables, as Rivet and the other enemies of the cross of Christ reject it; since St. Ambrose, who flourished in the same century, reports it as a most certain history in the Oration on the death of Theodosius, and St. Paulinus narrates the same in letter 11 to Severus: with whom agree Socrates, book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 3, Sozomen, book 2, chapter 1, Theodoret, book 1, chapter 3, and before these Rufinus, book 1, chapter 7. The authority of all these, and the tradition of the Church, is to be preferred to a silent Eusebius. But the variety which occurs in their narratives concerns certain circumstances, which some report and others omit, not the sum and (so to speak) substance of the history, about whose truth they all agree among themselves.

[79] against a certain heterodox writer. But since that ill-employed heterodox writer, who carps in the place cited at various passages as patches added to St. Cyril from elsewhere, and who finishes his eighth chapter with this inept close, that whoever shall read these Cyrilline matters should bring all to the Lydian stone, and not think himself to possess a treasure when he has found coals — since, I say, that despoiler of St. Cyril, among the passages which he attacks with malignant tooth and would have to be apocryphal and corrupt, judges that the finding of the holy cross must be relegated to the fables; it follows that he also rejects as false and spurious the letter of that same St. Cyril to the emperor Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, and likewise other texts of Cyril in which he indicates that the true cross was at that time in veneration. In that letter, then, which is among the genuine works of that same holy Father (the works falsely ascribed to him are exhibited at the end), published at Paris in the year 1720 and illustrated with notes, this is found at page 253, number 3: And in the time indeed of thy father Constantine, most friendly to God and of happy memory, the saving wood of the cross was found at Jerusalem, the divine grace bestowing this upon a man rightly seeking piety, that he should find the hidden holy places. What says the critical brow of the said heterodox writer to this? These are the things which I have gathered for the true history of the finding of the cross; of the false I add only a few things, since it was refuted at length in our work at the III day of May from page 362.

[80] Occasion for the fabulous narrative about Judas Cyriacus as finder or informant of the cross may have been given by that passage of St. Paulinus The fable about the finder or informant of the cross is rejected. which I produced above at §7, number 67, relating of St. Helena: Not only of the Christians men full of learning and sanctity, but of the Jews also the most skilled… summoning them, she gathered them at Jerusalem, etc. For indeed that text was afterward much amplified by others. Of a certain

Hebrew Sozomen indeed makes mention, book 2, chapter 1, treating of the fraud of the gentiles, that the place of the Resurrection and of Calvary might not lie open to the veneration of the Christians; but he rejects that Hebrew. For he says the place was laid open either by the information of a certain Hebrew dwelling in the parts of the East, as some say, who, being taught by a certain writing of his father, disclosed the matter: or, as it may more truly be thought, God showing it by certain signs and dreams. For I do not think that divine things need the information of men, as often as God has determined to make them manifest. But whether that Hebrew be the same as the said Judas Cyriacus, or different from him, that same named man is noted in St. Gregory of Tours, illustrated by Ruinart, History of the Franks, book 1, chapter 34, column 27, where, speaking of Constantine the Great, he says: In his time the venerable wood of the Lord's cross was found by the zeal of Helena his mother, Judas the Hebrew disclosing it, who after baptism was called Quiriacus. Whence it is plain that these scraps about that Jew as the shower-forth of the cross are very ancient. But what did our empress do after that most precious treasure was found?

[81] Steeped in the highest joy, she venerated with inmost affection the cross on which the salvation of the world had hung, The acts and which the Lamb without spot had empurpled with His most sacred blood. Ambrose in the Oration on the funeral of Theodosius thus affirms the matter: She adored the King (in that wood), not indeed the wood, so far as it is wood; for that is the gentile error and the vanity of the impious; but she adored Him who hung upon the wood… Him, I say, who like the beetle cried out that He might forgive their sins to His persecutors. The eager Woman hastened to touch the remedy of immortality, she feared to tread upon the sacrament of salvation. With glad heart and trembling step she knew not what to do. Yet she pressed on to the couch; the wood of truth shone forth, and grace flashed out. Nor did the piety of that most holy Woman stop here; but she made others partakers of the good which she had found, on the testimony of Rufinus, book 10, chapter 8: Of the saving wood itself, he says, she brought a part to her son; but a part, laid up in silver caskets, she left in the place: which even now (namely in the fourth century, in which Rufinus lived) is kept for a memorial with careful veneration. Codinus, On the Origins of Constantinople, page 38, adds this: Helena, the mother of Constantine, bringing the sacred cross of Christ from Jerusalem, entered Constantinople by the gate which is called Littorea, and the things which had been found above the cross — lilies, phylla, basil, thirty-leaved roses, marjoram, balsams — all these she planted in vessels that they might be preserved, and there laid them up, and built a monastery in the same place by the name of Gastria. The above is confirmed from Theodoret, book 1, chapter 18, of the edition designated above: But of the Lord's cross she assigned a part to the palace; the rest, enclosed in a silver casket which she had ordered to be made, she gave to the bishop of the city (namely Macarius of Jerusalem; for of him there had been treatment a little before), exhorting him to guard diligently the monument of our salvation for the memory of posterity. Then, having gathered workmen, when she had procured material of every kind from all sides, she built those most ample and most beautiful churches, etc.

[82] after the finding of the cross; its public veneration and miracles. St. Paulinus teaches us more in the letter so often alleged, page 197: The cross of Christ was found and proved; and presently it is consecrated with worthy pomp [], a basilica being founded on the place of the passion, which, gleaming with gilded panels and rich with golden altars, keeps the cross laid in a secret shrine; which the bishop of that city every year, when the Lord's Pasch is kept, himself the chief of those venerating, brings forth for the people to adore. But was the cross exposed to the veneration of the faithful only on this day, unless sometimes, as Paulinus says, the most religious ask it, who have come thither on pilgrimage for this cause alone, that its unveiling may be granted them as it were in payment for their far pilgrimage: which they say is obtained only by the bishop's favor? St. Paulinus affirms it; but Papebroch on the III day of May, page 365, does not agree with him in this, as may there be read. But I shall exceed both the limits of my design and the measure of my discourse if I here treat at greater length of the public veneration and the miracles of the life-giving wood. Wherefore let the reader take it in good part if for his benefit I assign the following writers who have treated of this subject. They are, then, our Jacob Gretser, whose works On the Holy Cross were published together in one volume at Ingolstadt in the year 1616; Baronius, volume 3 of the Annals, whose index consult; Papebroch at the III day of our May, from page 364; Tillemont, Ecclesiastical Monuments*, volume 7, articles 4 and 6, on St. Helena. The dispersion of particles of the cross of Christ throughout the Christian world Noël Alexandre defends in the place cited above against Rivet the heterodox, of whom I have spoken before.

read Theodosii*

* That is, with honor and pomp

§ IX. The instruments of the Lord's Passion found by St. Helena; the churches built at Jerusalem; the virtues practiced there and elsewhere.

What the Saint did with the Lord's nails when found St. Ambrose in the Oration on the funeral of Theodosius says: She sought the nails with which the Lord was crucified, and found them. Of one nail she ordered a bridle to be made; of the other she wove a diadem: the one she turned to adornment, the other to devotion… She sent therefore to her son Constantine a diadem distinguished with gems, which a gem more precious than iron, the gem of the cross of divine redemption, bound together with them. She sent also a bridle. Constantine used both, and transmitted the faith to later kings. The beginning therefore of believing emperors is holy, which is upon the bridle. From that came faith, that persecution should cease and devotion succeed… A good nail, therefore, of the Roman empire, which rules the whole world and clothes the brows of princes, that they may be preachers who were wont to be persecutors. Rightly is the nail on the head, that where the sense is, there may be the defense. On the crown a diadem, in the hands a rein. Rufinus, book 10, chapter 8, speaks a little differently of the nails: The nails with which the Lord's body had been fastened she carries to her son. Of these he made a bridle, which he might use in war, and out of the others he is said to have furnished a helmet likewise fitted for the uses of war. With Rufinus in the matter agree Socrates, book 1, chapter 17, and Theodoret, book 2, chapter 18, who at the same time, alluding to the saying of the prophet, says: Zachariah the prophet had long before foretold: And that which is on the horse's bridle shall be holy to the Lord almighty — in agreement with St. Ambrose in the aforesaid oration; but whether as fittingly to the sense of the sacred text as piously? St. Jerome indeed says that bridles were ordered by Constantine to be made from the nails of the Lord's cross; but he does not approve the application to the saying of Zachariah: for in volume 3 of the works of the Martianay edition, on chapter 14 of that Prophet, column 1804, he writes this: I have heard from someone a thing said with a pious sense indeed, but ridiculous; that the nails of the Lord's cross, from which Constantine Augustus made bridles for his horse, are called "holy to the Lord." Whether this is to be accepted I leave to the reader's prudence.

[84] St. Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs, book 1, chapter 6, their number; the lance. column 727, which is entitled On the finding of the nails, uses the same allusion, and, adding the cause, says: For at that time the Adriatic sea was stirred with great waves, in which shipwrecks and the drowning of men were so frequent that it was called the whirlpool of sailors. Then the provident queen (Helena), grieving over the destruction of the wretched, orders one of the four nails to be let down into the deep, trusting in the mercy of the Lord that it could easily quell the savage commotions of the waves. Which being done, the sea is rendered quiet, and thereafter tranquil breezes are afforded to sailors. Whence to this day sailors venerate the sanctified sea, and when they have entered upon it give themselves to fastings and prayers and psalmody. Ruinart here observes, first, that Gretser and others think the nail was indeed let down into the sea by Helena, but was straightway drawn back by her. Consult Gretser in the works on the holy cross, volume 1, book 1, chapter 93. He observes, secondly: Of the Lord's nails (of which St. Gregory of Tours goes on to write in the place cited) found with the holy cross, most of the Fathers praised in the preceding chapter have written: but no one, so far as I know, has so expressly declared that there were four nails. But on the number of the nails Gretser may be consulted, volume 1 of the said works, book 1, chapter 20. Helena found also the title of the cross, from what has been premised above in §7; as also the sacred lance, if what was written on that matter long ago in our work stands, volume II of March, at the XV day, page 379, from Bosio.

[85] St. Paulinus in the letter to Severus cited narrates this at page 196: She showed a most lavish By the ready assent of her son the emperor, the august mother, her treasures being opened for holy works, used up the whole treasury: and with as great expense and ornament as a queen could and religion counseled, by the basilicas she built she covered over and adorned all the places in which the Lord our Redeemer had fulfilled for us the saving mysteries of His loving-kindness, by the sacraments of His Incarnation and Passion and Resurrection and Ascension. Rufinus, book 10, chapter 8, attributes one sacred building to her, saying: The Queen… built with royal magnificence a wondrous church in the place in which she had found the cross. Theodoret, book 1, chapter 18, records more than one sacred building, but does not determine the number nor expressly the name. Having gathered workmen, he says, when she had procured material of every kind from all sides, she built those most ample and most beautiful churches: whose amplitude and beauty I think it superfluous to describe, since almost all the pious and religious flock thither and contemplate the greatness of the works. But Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 25, page 497, ascribes the church of the Resurrection to Constantine in these words: He judged it to be his duty to make that most blessed place of the Lord's Resurrection, which is at Jerusalem, illustrious and venerable to all mortals. Straightway therefore he ordered an oratory to be built there, being led to it not without God's will, but the Savior Himself stirring his mind.

[86] munificence But it is very credible that his holy Mother, as long as she lived, turned her cares thither with the greatest effort she could, but at Constantine's expense. As long as she lived, I say: for she died long before that vast work was finished. For that the dedication of that church took place in the year 335 we have from Eusebius, book 4 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 45, page 549, since he there says that that solemnity was celebrated in the thirtieth year of the emperor Constantine. For there, treating of the priests of God who graced that festivity, he writes this of himself: There we too… adorned the solemnity with various discourses publicly delivered; now setting forth in writing the beauty and magnificence of the royal fabric, etc. In this manner the solemnity of the dedication was celebrated with the utmost gladness at the emperor's very tricennalia. Of the various names given to the place Tillemont treats in note 4 on St. Helena; where some

difficulties too are proposed. That great church, then, of which we have just treated, was called now the Martyry or place of the passion, the Great Martyry, the Martyry and monument of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; and now the church of the holy Cross, etc.; as may be seen in the note just alleged.

[87] in founding sacred buildings at Jerusalem. Eusebius, book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 43, page 504, testifies that two churches were erected by our Saint. She dedicated at once, he says, two temples to God: the one at the cave in which the Lord was born; the other on that mountain from which He had ascended into heaven. For Emmanuel also, which is God with us, endured to be born beneath the earth for us; and the place of His nativity was called Bethlehem by the Hebrews. And therefore the Augusta most loving of God adorned the childbearing of the Virgin Mother of God with excellent monuments, illustrating that sacred cave with every kind of embellishment. And not long after the emperor honored the same Nativity of the Lord with royal gifts, heaping up his mother's magnificence with various offerings of gold and silver and with veils embroidered with the needle. Besides, the emperor's mother, in memory of the Ascension of Christ the Savior of all, raised lofty buildings on the Mount of Olives, erecting on the very top of the mountain a sacred building with a church… And these two august and most beautiful monuments, worthy of immortal memory, in two sacred caves, Helena Augusta, the most religious mother of a religious emperor, dedicated as proofs of her pious devotion to God her Savior, her son affording her the support of the imperial power. The honor of the construction of both these monuments Socrates, book 1, chapter 17, and Sozomen, book 2, chapter 2, attribute to our most religious Empress. And truly the divine providence at that time gave St. Helena a most excellent occasion of restoring and adorning this most sacred place in which the eternal Word of God came forth into the light in the substance of our flesh, since long before it had been profaned by the emperor Hadrian, as the often-cited St. Paulinus testifies, with a shrine of Adonis. But in the building of the church of the Mount of Olives this marvel happened, that the middle of this church could never be paved with marble — namely the place from which Christ ascended into heaven — nor could the vault be closed on that part where it looked down from above upon this place. This miracle, and the testimonies of authors for it, the French collector of the Ecclesiastical Monuments cites in volume 1, in the compendium of the history of our Lord Jesus Christ, §24. See St. Paulinus, page 196. But did the most holy Empress bestow labor on the building of other sacred edifices?

[88] Nicephorus affirms it, book 8, chapter 30, enumerating them thus: Nicephorus enumerates several others. She raised also another wondrous church at the estate of Gethsemane to the Mother of God, and firmly enclosed her life-giving sepulcher in the shrine itself. And since that place is on a slope, she took care to have marble steps made, leading travelers from the Holy city toward the eastern quarter. It is also commonly reported in the discourse of many that that lower place is called the Vale of weeping, and the torrent Cedron, and also the Vale of Josaphat. That near by too is that garden in which Christ was betrayed, and in which He had been wont to pray. Likewise to the holy Infants, and where the angel brought the glad tidings to the shepherds, in those very places she built sacred buildings; namely to the Infants themselves, and to the Bearer of the Word, and also another building to Joseph the Spouse. After this, leading the Saint through various places of Palestine, and then bringing her back to Jerusalem, he attributes various other sacred buildings to her. But before we give credit to these, proofs are needed, confirmed by an authority older than that of Nicephorus, who lived in the fourteenth century.

[89] Nor indeed did the notable endowments of that most pious Woman shine forth only in the founding of excellent churches; The various virtues in which she excellently shone, but she added to them virtues altogether singular alongside her royal magnificence. Will you hear Eusebius speaking thus on this matter, book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 45? Here is his testimony: Assiduously, in the sight of all, she came to church, and adorned the sacred buildings with excellent ornaments, not despising even the chapels of the smallest cities. And so it was possible to see a wholly admirable woman, in modest and seemly attire, moving among the rest of the multitude, and declaring her religion toward God by every kind of pious work. Socrates, book 1, chapter 17, speaking of the churches, says: Further, she was so piously and religiously affected toward these that in the rank of the women she prayed to God together with the rest. She had a remarkable lowliness of mind, despising all pride and imitating Christ, both toward all men and especially toward the sacred habit of monks; from the Lexicon of Suidas printed at Geneva in the year 1619, volume 1, at the name Ἑλένη, page 875. Rufinus praises her for lowliness of mind and hospitable kindness thus, book 10, chapter 7: The venerable Queen left this token also of a religious mind. The virgins consecrated to God whom she found there (at Jerusalem) she is said to have invited to a meal, and to have waited on them with such devotion that she thought it unworthy to use the services of her attendants; but with her own hands, girded in a servant's dress, she would set food before them, hold out the cup, pour water on their hands; and the Queen of the world and mother of the empire reckoned herself the handmaid of the handmaids of Christ. These things indeed were done at Jerusalem. That praise is strengthened from Sozomen, book 2, chapter 2, and Theodoret, book 1, chapter 18. Nay more, that after the finding of the cross she placed virgins in the oratory chapels, having first committed to writing the names of those virgins, and ordered food to be supplied them at the public charge, is handed down in the Lexicon just designated at the word Ἑστιάδες.

[90] [are enumerated, with an observation on the monasteries founded by her, as some will have it.] But the most ample beneficence of the Queen could not be contained within so narrow a space as the city of Jerusalem among the said virgins; but it ranged both to various kinds of men and calamities and to various places of the East. For Eusebius thus extols her greatness of soul and beneficence, book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 44, page 505: While she traverses the whole East with royal magnificence, she heaped countless benefits both upon cities and upon private persons who came to her: countless things also she distributed with liberal hand to the military companies. But to the poor and naked, and to those destitute of every help and comfort, she gave very many things, bountifully supplying money to some and clothing to others to cover the nakedness of the body. Others likewise, afflicted with chains or with the hardships of the mines, she released: some, oppressed by the violence of the more powerful, she set free: some too she recalled from exile. Sozomen also may be consulted, book 2, chapter 2. But before we depart hence, upon what has just been related about the sacred buildings and the holy Empress's service among the virgins consecrated to God, we wish this to be observed in Lezana's Annals of the Carmelites, volume 2, at the year of Christ 326, where he writes this: Under the auspices of this holy Woman many monasteries of the prophetic and Elian institute, both of men and also of women, were erected or restored… She found the Sepulcher of the Lord, which before could not be found, by the revelation of two nuns… For so our historians hand down, Arnold Bostius, book 5 of the History, chapter 22, and John Palaeonydorus, book 2, chapter 4, and others after them.

But that these nuns were of our Order the same Bostius and Palaeonydorus express in set terms… But in what manner in this place that same pious Queen built a monastery of nuns according to the rite of Carmel, and whom she set over it, with other circumstances, the said Bostius has thus in chapter 23 of the book already cited… Bostius adds that in this monastery the aforesaid Mary was the first mother; on her death, Syncletica; and that St. Matrona succeeded her, and afterward St. Sara; and Palaeonydorus and Coria subscribe to this, adding further that a certain woman named Romana succeeded this Sara, and afterward another named Nonna. Thus Lezana; who then also treats of the monasteries of men of the Carmelite Order built by St. Helena, etc. Believe it, posterity! For indeed, that these things might have even the least shadow of credibility, they must be strengthened by the testimonies of an older author than Bostius and Palaeonydorus, the genuine antiquity of writers being silent about them; for the latter is written to have made profession in the year MCDLVI… in the Speculum Carmelitanum, volume 1, book 11 of part 2, page 220; while the death of the former is ascribed to the year of Christ MCDXCIX, in the same place, page 274, from the Annals of that Order, volume 4. But what proportion is there between deeds of the fourth century and writings of the fifteenth century at last, even for producing credit of any sort whatever?

§ X. Whether she built a church of St. Lucian the martyr; whether she obtained the bodies of the Three Holy Kings; the various things she did in Belgium; her testament and most pious death.

Baronius at the year of Christ 326, number 57, records thus: [An objection is raised against the church of St. Lucian which is reported to have been founded by Helena,] St. Helena left in that pilgrimage also that noble monument of her piety, namely the excellent memorial of Lucian the martyr, raised at Drepanum in Bithynia with royal munificence. For the recollection of so great a martyr's contest was fresh in men's minds, and the notable miracle which had followed his martyrdom upon his body being sunk in the sea, when it was borne to the shore on the back of dolphins, at the time when (as the unjust condition of the age bore) it was given a humble burial at Drepanum. When therefore Helena, who was most zealous for the holy martyrs, had learned these things published by the mouths of all, she resolved to adorn the martyr's triumph with a worthy trophy; and there, where his body is placed at Drepanum, she caused a sumptuous basilica to be erected above it. These things the Acts of the martyrdom of that same Lucian, written in ancient times, attest, in which this is read at the end: "But after she had restored to us the saving cross of the Lord, she who bore that great one among illustrious emperors, Constantine — the venerable Helena, when she was returning from Jerusalem, honoring the place, founded also a city in it, calling together inhabitants from the regions which lay round about, and making them partakers of the work; and she girded it with strong walls, and built for the martyr a very great church, which even now is seen, notable and beautifully built, by those who enter and sail both by land and by sea." Of this martyr and of his Acts one may consult what has been said in our work at the VII day of January, page 357 and following.

[92] Upon this, which was just now said from the Acts of St. Lucian the martyr, the venerable Helena… honoring the place, founded a city in it, some difficulty. observe that the restoration of that place is elsewhere ascribed to Constantine. For in the Chronicle of Jerome in Scaliger, at the year 328, page 181, these words occur: Constantius (rather, read Constantine), restoring Drepanum, a city of Bithynia, in honor of the martyr Lucanus (nay, Lucian) who was buried there, named it Helenopolis from the name of his mother. In the Alexandrian Chronicle, which was published in Greek and Latin by our Matthew Rader and printed at Munich in the year 1615, this is confirmed at page 663:

Constantine, having restored the city of Drepanum in Bithynia for the worship of St. Lucian the martyr, named it Helenopolis from his mother, etc. So there at the year of Christ 327. Procopius of Caesarea, book 5, chapter 2, On the Buildings of Justinian, treating of that place, says: to which indeed Constantine had granted the name and dignity of a city as a reward for the nurture of his mother Helena, but had left no monument of imperial magnificence. For if you look to ornament and structure, the place retained its former state, distinguished by the bare title of a city, and glorious in the name of Helena, its foster-child. And presently the same author adds what Justinian built there. Do these testimonies which I have produced cohere with a city founded there by St. Helena? But what of the church? I leave free judgment about it to the reader, since to prove or disprove it from a document of better stamp is not in my power. From what has been said, that also can be corrected which is found in Philostorgius in the Ecclesiastical History published by Gothofredus and illustrated with Dissertations, book 2, number 13, page 19, namely that Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, built a city at the mouth of the gulf of Nicomedia, it being called Helenopolis. Which the said editor censures in the Dissertations, page 80.

[93] [The Saint is said, when she had traveled to the provinces about India, to have destroyed idols and carried off the bodies of the three Kings.] Another journey is ascribed to our holy Empress after she had set out from Jerusalem, in Capgrave, in the Life of that Saint, folio 176, where this is related: The holy Empress therefore, as we have said, when she had accomplished to her wish all that she had resolved to do at Jerusalem, at last, enriched with infinite and priceless treasures of relics, hastened to her son at Constantinople. Yet, before she came to Constantinople, she betook herself with a very great and noble retinue to the lands and provinces about India, in which she destroyed, so far as she could, all the temples and altars of the idols, and in their place founded most sumptuously and most devoutly churches and monasteries to the praise and honor of God, and in all those parts everywhere repaired and enlarged the divine worship; and exalted and glorified the Christian faith, which had almost slipped away. Moreover she obtained also, not so much by zeal as by miracle, from the princes and Prelates of those lands the bodies of the three holy Kings, namely Jaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar: supported by these and by various relics of others, she returned rejoicing to her son at Constantinople, being a little after to pass to the palace of the heavenly kingdom. Our Michael Inchofer, in the book entitled The Three Evangelical Magi, chapter 37, treating of their translation first to Byzantium and then to Milan, says: That this translation was made by Helena, that most religious queen, is handed down among others by James of Genoa, John Frasquetius, and others in John Picard. The bishop of Equilio and certain others attribute it to Constantine the Great, Helena's son: and many older writers also to both. Nor is there any doubt that the son's piety agreed with the mother's religion. And so, having received the report of the sanctity of the Magi, which the worship of the Christians had long spread abroad in the kingdoms of Persia and Ethiopia, Helena left nothing undone whereby she might most zealously seek out their bodies even from the most distant parts of the world, wherever among the nations they were, and enrich with so precious a treasure the new city then first called after the name of her son Constantine… And having obtained her desire, she ordered them to be conveyed with solemn pomp and to be placed in the church of Sophia, etc. Galesinius in the notes at the VI day of January records that their bodies were long since translated from Persia to Constantinople and placed in the basilica of St. Sophia with most august ceremony; but by whom and at what time he does not add. Saussay in the Supplement to his Gallican Martyrology on the VI day of January: Their bodies, brought by the zeal of St. Helena Augusta from the East to Constantinople, in the church of St. Sophia there, etc.

[94] but we desire testimonies fit enough to persuade of this. Alford at the year of Christ 326, from number 57, examines the narrative which I designated a little before in Capgrave, and defends it as true, concluding thus: And here you have sufficiently proved what Capgrave said above, that Helena went on beyond Jerusalem, destroyed idols, built churches, everywhere promoted the worship of God, and carried off the bodies of the three Kings. I answer to what has just been reported, first: That Helena went on beyond Jerusalem is sufficiently conformable to Eusebius, cited by me toward the end of §9: While she traverses the whole East with royal magnificence, etc. But how the whole, and how fitly, and how far, and whether it ought to be so taken that it can be extended to lands and provinces about India, is more easily asked than answered. I answer, secondly: I desire to have older testimonies for the bodies of the holy Magi brought by St. Helena from the East to Constantinople before I inscribe that fact on the roll of truth; and it may be considered by our successors, when the month of January shall be reprinted enlarged with a second treatment, whether documents of better stamp can be brought forward by which that translation may be confirmed.

[95] From the East to the West we are called by certain deeds Judge the same there attributed by some to our Saint. Miraeus in the Fasti Belgici at the XXII day of July, page 438, writing of Hilary bishop of Besançon (of whom mention is made in our work among those passed over at the said day), says: At the expense of St. Helena the empress (who at that time had come to Besançon) he built at the foot of Mount Caelius an august basilica, and carried it to its summit, which is now called St. John's. Besides, he began to raise another in the upper part of the mountain, which alone has kept the name of St. Stephen the protomartyr. The same man received as a gift from blessed Helena a portion of the blood of that same St. Stephen, brought from Jerusalem; and he died about the year of Christ three hundred and thirty. The Sainte-Marthe brothers, volume 1 of the Gallia Christiana, page 118, mention only one basilica of St. Stephen built, not long, as they add, from the year of Christ CCCXXV. Which things are not certain enough for me, in so great an antiquity of the deed, without testimonies suited to it. Meanwhile, upon that phrase, who at that time had come to Besançon, I would have observed what was woven in by Papebroch to the present purpose on the XXI day of May, in the historical Commentary on St. Constantine the Great, page 20; namely that the mother of the praised emperor, who is said to have treated with Hilary about the building of the church of Besançon, could not have seen Gaul except after the year 312, against Chifflet, who had thought this happened earlier, but far too prematurely, as is there related at length; and this is added: Nay, that he (Constantine) afterward sent her with her son Crispus into Gaul and Belgium, so that she herself dwelt for some time at Besançon and at Trier (which the writers of both cities contend), being in each place the foundress and endower of notable churches, I would not deny; it is enough if I have persuaded that the things which she is said to have transacted at Besançon with Hilary, bishop of that city, are referred to far too wrong a time, and that nothing can be had from thence whereby it may be proved either that Constantine passed through Besançon, or that he treated with its bishop Eusebius before Hilary.

[96] Hence it follows, first, that St. Helena's meeting with Hilary at Besançon, about the matters which is attributed to our Empress, if it truly happened, did not happen before the conversion of her son Constantine; for after him she was converted to Christ, as I have tried above to prove from Eusebius. See there, §4. It follows, secondly, that although, following Papebroch, I am unwilling to deny the said meeting, yet I shall not act amiss if I desire to see a document by which both to the reader and to myself the building of the aforesaid basilica may be more certainly established, especially in a matter of such antiquity. Let the same be the judgment about the foundation of Xanten in Cleves. Miraeus, praised before, thus records it at the XVIII day of August from page 480: At Xanten in Cleves she instituted a college of Canons in honor of St. Victor and of the other CCCXX martyrs of the Theban legion, slain in that place for Christ; as Stephen Pighius, Canon of Xanten, records in the Hercules Prodicius. But on occasion of St. Helena's dwelling among the people of Trier, the Sainte-Marthe brothers, cited a little before, write this under Agroecius or Agricius, bishop of that see, page 715: He is read as having subscribed the first council of Arles in the year CCCXIV (see Labbe, volume 1 of the Councils, column 1430). He is also handed down to have dedicated the house of blessed Helena under the invocation of St. Peter. The Life of that holy Prelate was given by us on the XIII day of January, where at page 779 it is said: The house of the blessed empress Helena, which at the request of that same most holy woman was dedicated by the blessed patriarch Agricius as the episcopal see of the metropolis in honor of Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and was nobly enriched and specially honored with a treasure of incomparable worth, namely a nail and the other relics of the Lord: which things be said on the author's credit.

[97] which they will have I judge altogether the same about the following fragment, which I fear deserves no greater force, as it seems to me at least, than that of a merely popular tradition, until an ancient testimony be added. Gelenius, therefore, On the Greatness of Colonia Agrippina, book 3, syntagma 2, §1, treating of the collegiate church of St. Gereon, says: To this among the churches of Cologne belongs the dignity next after the metropolitan, and an origin indeed august and altogether royal, as being built at the beginning of the fourth century from the birth of Christ, by the Augusta Fl. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great Augustus, with a great affection of piety toward the divine Theban and Moorish soldiers, in a royal and rare work. For it was very lofty in the manner of a vast tower or citadel, and octagonal; which, while the affairs of Cologne remained entire, flashed with such a gleam of gold that by its mosaic elegance without and within it deserved to be called "at the Golden martyrs," which name, attested a thousand years ago by Gregory of Tours, book 1 of the Miracles, chapter 62, still clings among the learned down to our times, though that splendor is much diminished. Nor indeed did that blessed foundress of churches, Helena, only set up the walls, thresholds, and roofs of this place, but also a clergy gathered, as I think, from men of the Eastern discipline excelling in religion: whose office it was, being kept apart from the intercourse of men by night and day and enclosed in a common cloister, to praise God with psalms and other sacred strains, to watch over the sacred Scriptures, and to give themselves to the reforming of the inner state of the man to the likeness of Christ. That I so judge, this chiefly moves me, that it is certain that in this church before the age of St. Benedict abbots presided, of whose succession is St. Maurinus: of whom more will have to be said in the praises of the basilica of St. Pantaleon. All which things, if the people of Cologne wish them to be believed by the learned as true, must not merely be reported but proved.

[98] in Belgium. Further, inquiry may here be made about the sacred relics which St. Helena is reported to have given to Belgium. Almannus in her Life in our work, number 43, reports this: Of divers relics of the Martyrs she made a casket, in which she also laid up a little knife,

which our Lord Jesus Christ used at the most sacred banquet of the supper; with which admirable and desirable dignity she wished to fortify and distinguish her own region, that she who was to the whole world the pillar of restoration through the finding of the holy cross might be also in some measure the special ornament of her country — of Trier, that is, according to Almannus. The same biographer, in our work at number 52, speaks thus of the city of Besançon: In the river Doubs, on which the city of Besançon is situated, the ship which carried the chest of sacred pledges sent by Helena suffered shipwreck, and the water became for a long time the guardian of that most holy chest; with which most precious relics, after a very long time and with great difficulty raised from the water, the aforesaid city deserved in part to be distinguished. In Martène, in the Most Ample Collection of Ancient Writers, volume 4, among the Deeds of the Bishops of Trier, column 168, there is sought the nail of the Lord which is had in that place by the bestowal of the lady Helena Augusta; and which, if credit is to be given to the testimony of a demon, when a certain man was tormented by a demon, and this nail with other relics of the Saints had been brought thither to drive him out, was declared by that malignant one to be the very one which had been driven through the right foot of the Lord as He hung on the cross for the salvation of the human race; and that by its exceeding power he was compelled to go forth. These sacred pledges we leave in the pious possession of those who attribute them to themselves. It remains to speak of the death of St. Helena.

[99] Eusebius in book 3 of the Life of Constantine, chapter 43, page 505, praises her in these words: After a most pious life, And not long after the building of the two churches, of which I have spoken above in §9, number 87, the aged woman received a reward worthy of her labors. For when she had passed the whole time of her life, down to the first threshold of old age, in the highest felicity, and had brought forth abundant fruits of the divine commandments both in words and in works; and had therefore lived a life free from pain, with the utmost soundness of mind and body, at last she obtained from God an end suited to her piety, and a reward for her good works even in this life. But she died not long after her journey into Palestine, having returned to her son: for these things and other like ones having been done there, which I have just narrated, she returned to her son. And not long after she passed with tranquil mind to a better life, as may be seen in Theodoret, book 1, chapter 18. Nor did she omit to perform a most pious office toward Constantine before her death. For she departed this life when she had given her son many charges, as the same author reports in the same place, about a pious and religious manner of life, and had heaped upon him final blessings of every kind. Further, I should believe that she then impressed upon him these or like things which I read in Suidas, alleged before, page 875: She taught her son to be perpetually praiseworthy, so that he should have a mind endowed with virtue but free from pride, and should carefully care for the commonwealth, and serve God with fear and trembling.

[100] The year of the Saint's age, and her last will declared by testament, Eusebius describes in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 46, page 506: [having first made her testament, and in the presence of her son Constantine, she dies.] But when, a sufficiently long span of life being run out, she was called to a happier lot, being about the eightieth year of her age, set on the very border of death, she made a testament and declared her last will, leaving as heir her only son, the sole emperor and lord of the world, together with his sons, the most noble caesars, her grandsons. To each of them she divided the goods which she possessed throughout the whole world. But as the most pious mother followed her son at this point of time with the tenderest affection of duty, so he with the utmost observance paid the last and likewise most humble services to a mother so beloved by him. Which Eusebius in the same place thus testifies, teaching also with how blessed an end she rested: In this manner, her testament being made, she closed her last day, so great and such a son being present and standing by her, and cherishing his mother with every kind of service and embracing her hands: so that to those who judged rightly the most blessed Woman seemed by no means to die, but rather to exchange this fleeting life for an immortal life. Her soul therefore, transformed into an incorruptible and angelic substance, was taken up to God her Savior. Theodoret, book 1, chapter 18: And she indeed obtained after death that honor which it was fitting she should obtain who had so zealously and with so ardent a mind worshiped God. Thus far we have looked upon and looked up to Helena living; henceforth we are to illustrate her dead.

§ XI. The laying to rest of her body; her elogium; the place, year, and day of her death; whether the sacred buildings which are said to have been founded by the Saint agree with these; her age.

Her sacred body is honorably laid to rest, and she is praised: But her body was treated with no common honor. For, being conveyed with a vast number of attendants to the royal city, it was there laid in a royal monument. In this manner the emperor's mother made an end of living, a woman most worthy of everlasting memory both for the religious acts in which she shone and for that most excellent and admirable offspring which sprang from her. Whom indeed it is fitting to proclaim blessed for other things, but chiefly for his piety toward his mother. For her, although she had not before been a worshiper of God, he rendered so pious and religious that she seemed to have been instructed by the common Savior of all. And with royal honors he so adorned her that in all the provinces she was called Augusta and empress both by the civilians and by the soldiers, and golden coins were stamped with her image. Nay more, Constantine had granted her power over the royal treasures, which she might use at her discretion and according to the judgment of her own mind, as she pleased. For in this respect also he rendered his mother conspicuous and blessed in the judgment of all. Wherefore, among the things which pertain to the illustration of her memory, we have not undeservedly taken up these also, which the emperor out of his singular piety did in honor of his mother, obeying the divine laws which lay upon sons the duties owed to parents. Thus Eusebius in book 3 of the Life so often designated, chapter 47; which will hereafter furnish matter for various elucidations.

[102] where she died, And first indeed let that phrase made an end of living be explained, by asking where and when she made an end of living. About the place of her death authors do not agree. It is well first to set forth their opinion, and then, the weight of the reasons being examined, to determine which seems to prevail above the rest. Pagi in the Baronian Criticism at the year of Christ 326, number 15, is copious in enumerating the journeys of Constantine at that time, in order to prove that the death of his mother Helena happened in the city of Rome. Helena, he says, died at Rome, as Eusebius teaches…; and that on the XVIII day of August. For it is certain from the chronology of the Theodosian Code that Constantine the Great at the beginning of this year stayed in Thrace or in Macedonia at Heraclea, where on the III of the Nones of February was given the law 2 On the custody of the accused; thence that he set out into Pannonia; where at Sirmium on the Ides of March he gave law 1 On restitution in full. From Pannonia he came into Italy, and at Aquileia in the month of April issued the law: If anyone her whose guardian. Then he set out for Milan, where in the month of July law 3, On false coinage, was issued. Hence he came to Rome in the same month of July, and there magnificently celebrated his Vicennalia, on the testimony of Jerome and Idatius in their Chronicles, which fell on the XXV day of July, the birthday of Constantine the Great. There was given law 3 On the annulling of those things which were done under tyrants, on the VIII of the Ides of July. Hence too was recited in the palace, Constantine namely being present, in the month of August, law 3 On vacant goods, and in the same month of August Helena died and was buried at Rome. All which things were rightly observed by Gothofredus in the same chronology, who adds that those are mistaken who will have Helena to have died in another than the current year. So Pagi reasons.

[103] But this may be objected to him: If Eusebius teaches, as Pagi just now would have it, or at Constantinople that Helena died at Rome, the suit is decided and nothing further need be sought. But, pray, let Pagi set forth to us where Eusebius teaches it. What if Eusebius teaches the contrary, by laying down, namely, a certain foundation or indication by force of which it may be deduced that Helena did not die at Rome? For if she had died at Rome, her body would not have been conveyed by Constantine's order to the royal city, that is, to the city of Rome, as we shall presently say; which nevertheless Eusebius above indicated to have been done. For although εἰς βασιλεύουσαν πόλιν, that is, to the royal or imperial city, is ambiguous, and therefore by the force of the terms it is not signified whether ancient Rome and royal city, or rather new Rome, likewise a royal city, that is Constantinople, is here to be understood; yet from other quarters it seems to be gathered that ancient Rome is here indicated by Eusebius. Socrates, however, book 1, chapter 17, followed Eusebius indeed, but did not attain his sense, as appears, when he has it thus: And her body, carried to new Rome (εἰς βασιλεύουσαν, that is, to the imperial or royal city, stands in the Greek), was laid in the royal monuments. For in Baronius at the year 326, number 62, Socrates is corrected, thinking that Constantinople was described by Eusebius in those words, having (as appears) too little examined Eusebius's phrase: for that the same writer was wont to understand by those same words the city of Rome, what he says elsewhere, when he treats of the legates sent to the Nicene council, openly declares, since in signifying Rome he uses the same appellation, saying thus in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 7: "And although the bishop of that city in whose hands the empire is" (in the Greek text it is τῆς δέ γε βασιλευούσης πόλεως), etc., understanding the bishop of the city of Rome, Silvester. But when he treats of Constantinople, he is wont to call that city by its own name. On Socrates, however, one may consult below, in the Posthumous Glory, §1, number 1. In the Lexicon of Suidas at the word Ἑστιάδες these words occur: But her son (Constantine) buried her body at Rome in the palace.

[104] The opinion of Baronius is approved and followed by Valois in his note on that phrase of Eusebius in which the whole hinge of this controversy turns, or elsewhere, in the cited book 3, chapter 47, εἰς βασιλεύουσαν, using these words at page 231: He (Eusebius) means Rome. For thither the body of Helena Augusta was carried. And besides the argument of Baronius, on which Valois there dwells against Socrates, he says: Add that Constantinople had not yet been dedicated, and therefore could not be called the royal city, since at that time it was only old Byzantium. Cedrenus, however, followed Socrates. And indeed Constantinople was not yet then — namely in the year of Christ 327

or 328 — called the royal city: for it was only begun to be built in the year 328, according to the Alexandrian Chronicle, page 663 (nay rather, perhaps only toward the end of the next following year, as Tillemont observes, volume 4 of the History of the Emperors, note 60 on Constantine). In the Alexandrian Chronicle, then, these words occur: In the 1st Indiction, the XXIII of Constantine, January and Justus being Consuls… Constantine, that most praiseworthy emperor, having set out from Rome and stayed at Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia, and having often gone to Byzantium, first restored the wall of Byzantium, and added a great part to the old wall, and joined the new to it, and called the city itself Constantinople. And in the same place at the year 330: In the III Indiction, the XXV of Constantine, Gallicanus and Symmachus being Consuls… Constantine… founded a city most illustrious and happy, adorned it with a senate, and named it Constantinople on the V of the Ides of May, on a Monday, in the III Indiction; and whereas before it was called Byzantium, he now ordered it to be called new Rome. Under that name, therefore, it was not called Constantinople by solemn dedication or celebration before the year 330, Pagi observing at that year in the Criticism, number 2, this to our purpose:

[105] authors dispute. That Constantine celebrated the fifth quinquennalia of his august rule is shown by the dedication of the city of Constantinople: for that cities were dedicated in years devoted to such solemnities, or distinguished with new names, or rebuilt, I have already many times hinted. And at number 4: As to the encaenia of Constantinople, they are rightly recited by Baronius in this year, he says. For Idatius in the Fasti at these Consuls (namely Gallicanus and Symmachus) writes thus: "In their consulship Constantinople was dedicated on the V day of the Ides of May," namely on the eleventh day of the month of May. In the year of Christ 328 or 329, therefore, according to what has been premised, that royal monument at Constantinople of which Eusebius speaks above did not yet exist; and therefore when he says that the Saint's body was conveyed to the royal city and there honorably laid to rest, this cannot be understood of new Rome or the royal city of Constantinople, but of the ancient seat of empire, or Rome. And hence it follows that Theophanes strayed from the truth in the Chronography, when at page 21, having related the death of St. Helena, he straightway subjoins this: She was buried at Constantinople in the church of the holy Apostles, which her son Constantine had built, that Christian emperors might be interred there after death. And blessed Helena was the first buried in it, honored with the solemn Offices of the Church and with nocturnal vigils.

[106] She did not die at Rome; but where, is not certain. From what has been said it is besides made out that she did not die at Rome, since Eusebius affirms that her body was conveyed to the royal city. Wrongly therefore Nicephorus, book 8, chapter 31, page 599: But when the end of her life was at hand, she departed at Rome with most celebrated memory. The same error is committed by those Acts of which Aringhi gives a fragment in book 4 of Roma subterranea, chapter 9, number 4; where I read the following: After the most blessed Helena returned to Rome to her son, there, full of days… she gave back her spirit to heaven. Where then did our Saint die? Since Eusebius has transmitted to posterity this alone, In this manner the emperor's mother made an end of living, and adds nothing there about the place of her death, and since I know of nothing handed down on the same by the most ancient authors, it remains that I frankly confess that it is thus far unknown to me. Nor do I assent to the recent French legendist, who from conjecture reports on this XVIII day of August, in his historical collection about St. Helena, that she died at Nicomedia, at the time when Constantine, to make her name famous with posterity, was in fact founding (or restoring; see §2 above) the city of Helenopolis in the same province in the place of the village of Drepanum. But although from what has been premised she did not die at Rome, yet we have announced her at Rome in the title before this our Preliminary Commentary, because her body was translated thither, as we have already shown by various reasons. Of the year of the most holy Empress's death, as I proposed above, I must now treat; concerning which I observe the following.

[107] Baronius at the year of Christ 326, number 59, frankly confesses Although in marking the year of her death that in what year of the Lord she chiefly died is utterly unknown, nor is it granted to assign her death to certain consuls. Pagi in the Baronian Criticism fixes her death to the year 326, as may there be seen, number 15. Gothofredus in the Chronology of the Theodosian Code, page XXVIII, at the same year, says: At Rome Helena died amid the embraces of her son and grandsons, on the XVIII of August, and was buried there. The author of the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapters 46 and 17. Which is wrongly referred by others to the next A.D. CCCXXVII. In the place of her death Gothofredus errs, as has just been shown from Eusebius, the author of the Life of Constantine; nor in the year of her death does he seem free from error; of the day of her death, below. Valois in the annotations on book 3 of Eusebius, On the Life of Constantine, page 231, reports from Cedrenus that Helena departed this life twelve years before Constantine; and thus by this reckoning Helena must have died in the year of Christ CCCXXV, or at least CCCXXVI. In which year, however, she is said by Eusebius and Rufinus to have set out for Jerusalem. Add that after the slaying of Crispus the caesar and of Fausta Augusta Helena survived for some time, as Zosimus testifies in book 2. Now Crispus was slain in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the seventh time and of Constantius caesar, in the year of Christ CCCXXVI, as is read in the Fasti of Idatius. The death of Helena, therefore, can rightly be assigned to the year of the Lord CCCXXVII, as Sigonius thinks in book 3 On the Western Empire.

[108] Theophanes in the Chronography, page 21, having spoken of the death of St. Macarius, patriarch of Jerusalem, authors do not much disagree; adds this: About the same time blessed Helena, eighty years of life being counted, and many precepts of the Christian life being left to her son, fell asleep in the Lord. But that that time fell in the year of Christ 326, Pagi judges at that year, number 14, from Theophanes. But I do not sufficiently combine those dates, nor understand them. For the death of St. Macarius, praised in our work in volume II of March, on the X day of that month, page 35, is fixed to about the year 335; and in the Chronological History of the Bishops of Jerusalem, which is found before volume III of our May, page XVII, it is said that Macarius did not survive beyond the year of Christ CCCXXXIII, save perhaps by a few months. How therefore can the time of Helena's death be combined with the time at which Macarius departed this life, and with the year of Christ 326?

[109] Pagi, however, in the same place both sets down that year and adds another reason for it in these words: yet the same Which the consulship of Flavius Valerius Constantine, brother of Constantine the Great, held in the following year, also shows. For since Helena followed her grandsons, the children of Constantine the Great, with the greatest love, she provided above all things that none of the children of Constantius, brothers of Constantine, should snatch the empire from them. Wherefore, as long as she lived, she always kept them as it were in exile, now at Toulouse in Gaul, as Ausonius writes, now at Corinth, as Julian relates in the letter to the Corinthians, a fragment of which is extant in Libanius, in the Oration for Aristophanes of Corinth, page 217; where Libanius testifies that by Helena's counsel and by stepmotherly hatreds Constantius, Julian's father, was carried hither and thither. Since therefore Constantine, brother of Constantine the Great, as Zonaras relates, came forth as consul in the following year, there is no doubt that Constantine the Great conferred this honor on his brother after his mother's death. Thus Pagi. Of the stepmotherly hatreds which are imputed to St. Helena in Libanius I shall speak afterward in §12, numbers 119 and 120.

[110] to determine precisely, Meanwhile that argument which Pagi drew from the said consulship does not seem to have so much firmness as he wished it to have. For the French collector of the History of the Emperors, volume 4, treating in various places of Julius, as he calls him, Constantius, brother of Constantine (see the index to that volume), in the emperor Constantine, article 74, page 258, sets him as consul in the year of Christ 335. And in article 63, page 227, on the consuls of the year 327, he notes that the first consul of that year, named by some Constantius and by others Constantine, is probably that same Constantius, then prefect of the praetorium. But in note 56 on the emperor Constantine, page 651, where he discusses the Constantine or Constantius who was consul in the year 327, among other things he says: it might also be believed that this is Julius Constantius, brother of Constantine; but he would have been marked as consul for the second time in the year 335, in which he most certainly was consul with Albinus. Then he charges with confusion Pagi, by whom in the Dissertation On the Consuls, page 251, Flavius Valerius Constantine is marked as consul in the year 327. But to have reported these things from him is more than enough; and they are of this force, that it may be seen how difficult it is from such an argument to define precisely the year of the Saint's death.

[111] it is liable to difficulties. Tillemont, volume 7 of the Monuments, page 16, defers her death to the year 328 by this reasoning: If, he says, she was not in Palestine until the end of the year 326, it is difficult to mark her death earlier than the year 328; and it can scarcely be deferred later, because she died not long after that journey, according to Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 43. Then he cites Rufinus, who in book 10, chapter 11, writes this: His mother Helena… departed from this light. Constantia, then the widow of Licinius, was enjoying the consolations of her august brother. Constantia, therefore, sister of Constantine, survived Helena for some time, on the testimony of Rufinus; and if her death can be marked about the year 329 or 330, which the said collector of the Monuments does in volume 4 of the History of the Emperors, in Constantine, article 69, it follows that Helena's death can scarcely be deferred beyond the year 328. Let these things then avail for fixing approximately the disputed year of St. Helena's death; for whence I should determine it precisely, I have nothing at hand. If therefore, says the same collector, volume 7, page 16 cited, she had any part in the founding of the church of the Apostles and of certain others at Constantinople, as the modern Greeks say, this happened before Constantine thought of founding this new city — which seems to him little likely, and to me also, unless you understand her to have had a part in them because she either resolved to found them afterward, or designated them to Constantine to be founded; which indeed might have happened, but I do not know that it did. Codinus in the Origins of Constantinople, on the church of the Apostles, page 38, has this: The church of the holy Apostles his mother took care to have built together with him (Constantine), of an oblong form and covered with a wooden roof. Likewise the monuments of the emperors, in one of which he himself was buried with his mother. Unless you understand this last

in that sense which I have just indicated about the churches, it does not stand, according to what I have premised above. And at pages 49 and 50: Blessed Helena built the church of St. Romanus, and near it laid a chest with the relics of the prophet Daniel and of the great martyr Nicetas, as also the relics of other Prophets, which she brought safely from Jerusalem. And a few lines later: Besides, St. Helena also built the monastery of SS. Carpus and Babylas in imitation of the sepulcher of Christ, of various and admirable marble, and enriched it with many possessions.

[112] The day on which the Saint passed to a better life The day of her death, is believed to have been the XVIII of August, as seems to be indicated everywhere in the Martyrologies when they report her memory. The apocryphal Acts of St. Judas Quiriacus, printed in our work in volume 1 of May, on the IV day, do not deserve to be heeded; where at page 448 this is narrated: But blessed Helena, leaving many gifts to the holy bishop Cyriacus for the service of the poor, fell asleep in peace on the seventeenth of the Kalends of May. Elsewhere too her name is noted on the same XV day of April, as was said long ago in our work among the things Passed Over at that day, in volume II of that month, page 371: The passing of St. Helena the empress is recorded in the Additions of Grevenus, and in the Martyrology of Canisius, and in the Manuscript Ado of St. Laurence at Liège, and in the archdiocese of Salzburg she is honored with a proper Office with three lessons from her life. In Aringhi, Roma subterranea, volume 2, page 33, she is said to have died on the sixth of the Ides of February.

[113] I here briefly observe this about the age at which the holy Empress died. the year of her age That this happened in the eightieth year of her life, not indeed then quite complete, yet almost fulfilled, seems to be gathered from Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 46: for there she is said to have been called to a happier lot being about the eightieth year of her age (in the Greek is added σχεδόν, that is, almost, well-nigh). If therefore she was numbering those years σχεδόν and ἀμφί, as it is in the Greek text, that is, almost, about, she had not yet completed them, according to Eusebius; who is rather to be believed than any fragment of Acts, such as that alleged a little before in Aringhi, where it is narrated that she gave up her spirit beyond the eightieth year of her age. Suidas at the word Ἑστιάδες writes that she lived about eighty years. But Theophanes in the Chronography, page 21, marks the round number ἐτῶν ὀγδοήκοντα, that is, of eighty years.

§ XII. Places distinguished with Helena's name by Constantine; she is made empress by him; coins struck in her honor; her illustrious gifts of grace and of nature; the sophist Libanius is censured.

Drepanum in Bithynia is called Helenopolis, etc. Among the encomiums which I recited at the beginning of paragraph eleven from Eusebius there occurred the record of the public honors rendered by Constantine the Great to his mother. The words in which I there reported the matter from the said author it is not needful to transcribe hither again, although it is altogether fitting to illustrate that passage more fully from other sources. Which I now do. Baronius at the year of Christ 326, after treating at number 57 of the building of the basilica of St. Lucian the martyr (see what I have reported of it above in §10), goes on thus at number 58 to our purpose: But her son Constantine, who supplied most abundant expenses for everything, willed that the city, being made larger, should be named Helenopolis from his mother's name, which Sozomen and others after him affirm. Nay, he willed that Pontus itself, before called Polemoniac, should be named Helenopontus from his mother. Justinian attests this in a Novel constitution, when he says: "Let it be called by all Helenopontus: which name was imposed on it by the most pious prince Constantine on occasion of his most honorable mother, namely Helena, that most pious woman, who also found for us the sacred wood of the Christians. For that old name of Polemon, which very many tyrants in Pontus used, let it henceforth rest: first, because it was a tyrant's; secondly, because he has a city named from his own name, namely Polemonium; and then also because it will be more seemly to designate regions by the names of Christians and of kings than by those which bear the notion of polemos, that is, of war and tumult." Thus he there. Yet the often-cited collector of the Ecclesiastical Monuments observes, under St. Helena, page 18, concerning those two names, that both alike remained, each of them denoting its own province. Baronius goes on:

[115] Whether two cities were called by the name of Helena: But that not one city only, but two, were erected by Constantine with the name of his mother Helena, Sozomen affirms: the one, namely, of which we have treated, in Bithynia; the other in Palestine. But this is at variance with what Socrates hands down in these words: "But that the emperor took much pains in founding cities, that out of certain villages he made cities, that he called Drepanum by his mother's name, that he built in Palestine a city named Constantia from the name of his sister Constantia, I judge it by no means opportune to commit to writing at present." In this manner Socrates: which is also proved to be truer, since no city is found in Palestine which was called Helenopolis. But near Antioch, at the grove of Daphne, there was a celebrated memorial of Helena, called the Augustale, where the same emperor Constantine placed a statue of his mother Helena. This is in Suidas. Further, the citations by which Baronius makes good the credit of what has been said are noted in him at the place designated in the margin. Helenopolis in Palestine I have sought in vain among various geographers; yet Ortelius in his Geographical Thesaurus, under Bethany, says that this was it, Freculph writes, where Lucian the archbishop was buried. Our Jacques Longueval, volume 1, book 2 of the History of the Gallican Church, page 206, reports that Constantine ordered Elne to be built in the Pyrenean mountains upon the ruins of ancient Illiberis, and gave it the name of Helena from the name of St. Helena, his mother.

[116] her imperial dignity expressed on coins, Constantine also displayed a notable token of the highest veneration with which he followed his mother, when, as I said above from Eusebius, with royal honors he so adorned her that in all the provinces she was called Augusta and empress both by the civilians and by the soldiers, and golden coins were stamped with her image. One coin Baronius represents at the year cited, number 61; several Du Cange in the Imperial Families, page 41; our volume V of May, on the XXI day, page 23, may also be seen, and above all Banduri in the work which he entitled Coins of the Roman Emperors, etc., volume 2, from page 112. Among several other coins, notice of one is given at page 113 as follows: PROVIDENTIAE AUGG. A camp with a star above: in the lower part S AA, with a star between. On this coin, which is there called royal, some things are observed in the same place, which I set down: Coins of Helena with this legend and of this type are very rare. Writers relate that Helena was named Augusta by her son Constantine in the year CCCXXV; in which year it is certain that the public peace and the security of the commonwealth could be vaunted; for, Licinius being slain, the rival of Constantine not indeed in praise but in power, new commotions from the ambition of leaders were scarcely to be feared; and it appeared that the barbarians, worn down by various disasters, would thenceforth take more thought for their own safety than attempt to invade the wealth of others: wherefore the reason of both inscriptions is clear enough; but this, to confess the truth, presents no slight difficulty: for one Augustus indeed I find in that year, Constantine the Great, to whom both the public peace and the security of the commonwealth are ascribed; the other I do not find. And so this alone occurs, that coins of this kind were struck in the year CCCXXVI in those few months which passed between the slaying of Fausta and the death of Helena, and that the two Augusti whose providence is commended are Helena herself and Constantine… For the rest, coins inscribed PROVIDENTIAE AUGG., though they occur under various emperors, never occur under Augustae except under the Helenas. If, besides the inscription which I gave above about Helena in §3, number 33, the reader desires others, let him consult the Banduri cited, page 113.

[117] As concerns the time at which Helena was distinguished by Constantine with the dignity of Augusta and empress, when it was conferred on her: and which was said a little before to be recorded by writers to have happened in the year 325, Pagi in the Baronian Criticism at the year 326, number 14, brings in Theophanes speaking thus of this matter: In the same year also Constantine crowned his mother Helena, a woman endowed with divine understanding, and granted that as empress she should distribute money struck with her own stamp. This, as Pagi adds, says Theophanes, speaking of the things done in the preceding year. For, as I have said in the Consular Dissertation, the mothers, wives, and sisters of emperors were by custom named Augustae at the Vicennalia and festivals of that kind.

[118] Nor indeed was this most blessed Empress adorned with such excellent tokens of honor by Constantine alone; for her singular gifts of grace and of nature, but both living and dead she was praised by the various encomiums of writers. The encomiums with which Eusebius extols her we have given above. By St. Ambrose in the oration on the death of Theodosius she is called Helena of holy memory, and is honorably proclaimed. And she indeed obtained after death that honor which it was fitting she should obtain who had so zealously and with so ardent a mind worshiped God, says the above-cited Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, chapter 18. With St. Paulinus, as with the other writers alleged in the course of this our Commentary, her memory is in benediction. Brief is that of Rufinus, book 10, chapter 7: A woman of incomparable faith, of religion of soul, and of singular magnificence. The council of Chalcedon in Labbe, volume 4 of the Councils, column 608, wishing to celebrate the empress Pulcheria with an excellent heap of praises, institutes a comparison between her and Helena, extolling both together: Pulcheria, the new Helena… Thou (Pulcheria) followest the zeal of Helena. St. Gregory of Tours, book 1, On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 5, praises St. Radegund in Helena, saying: Queen Radegund, to be compared to Helena both in merit and in faith. Of her we have treated in this volume III of the present month, on the XIII day. Let it be permitted to add to these Theophanes, who, having related the death of St. Helena, says this in the Chronography, page 21 of the royal Paris edition: But the sacred virgins of Jerusalem, to whom Helena, thinking religiously of God, standing after the manner of servants, ministered with her own hands, celebrating her name with continual and pious remembrance, prayed for her everlasting blessedness.

[119] and she is praised especially for her prudence. Let it be permitted lastly here to repeat that very brief saying which I produced before at number 59, of Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 42, about her, but most fitted to commend the endowments of her mind and nature, when he records her as ὑπερβαλλούσῃ φρονήσει, that is, a woman endowed with singular or surpassing prudence. On which passage Valois thus comments in the Annotations, page 230: That Helena, the mother of Constantine,

was a woman of singular prudence, besides the testimony of Eusebius there are many things which persuade us. For since she had the emperor Constantine obedient to her down to the last day of her life, even this one thing is an argument of singular prudence. This too was an indication of the highest prudence, that she did not abuse her son's wealth and the height of the Augustan dignity for luxury and delicacies; but relieved cities and provinces and private men by her liberality. And since she loved her grandsons, the children of Constantine, with the utmost love, she provided above all things that none of the children of Constantius, the brothers of Constantine, should snatch the empire from them, etc. Recall what I have lately said in §11, number 109, from Pagi; where there is mention of Julian's letter to the Corinthians, a fragment of which letter is there indicated to be extant in Libanius, in the oration for Aristophanes of Corinth, page 217. There too there is mention of Helena's counsel and of the stepmotherly hatreds by which, as Libanius testified, Constantius, Julian's father, was carried hither and thither. Besides this, that Helena is there called πανοῦργον μητρυιάν, the cited Valois observes, that is, so far at least as I interpret it, a crafty or fraudulent, a shifty stepmother: for although the word πανοῦργος properly signifies one who is versed in all things, yet I suspect that more was cast in the reproach against the holy Woman, for reasons which I shall presently bring forward — arising, that is, from hatred of Constantine and of the Christians.

[120] The sophist Libanius is dealt with. Tillemont, volume 4 of the Emperors, in Constantine, article 85, page 287, shows how that emperor bore himself toward his brothers; where he refers that care which seemed to be taken of sending Constantius away now to this place and now to another to the fear lest he should disturb the affairs of the empire; which he rightly asserts to be not unworthy of Helena's prudence. Let fraudulence therefore, and stepmotherly hatreds, depart hence, which do not agree with so holy a life of hers, nor dwell in one and the same seat. Let Libanius shut his mouth — a gentile man and an assailant of the Christian religion — while the holy Fathers, while other writers, while the most ancient monuments proclaim with so honorable testimonies the most approved probity of manners and holiness of our holy Woman. And who, after all, is that sophist Libanius, that he should dare so much as to open his lips against Helena's virtue? He has many things about himself in the book which he wrote about his own life, where he treats of himself and his affairs to the point of nausea; against the Christians he draws his pen rather often, especially in three orations. The first… covertly carps at Constantine the Great (for that he is meant the scholiast notes) because he had waged a vehement and unceasing war upon the gentiles, had utterly extinguished the sacred fire, because he had forbidden the sweetness of victims, etc. The second… is exceedingly long, in which he not only assails the emperor Constantius and secretly gibes at the Christian religion, but also openly casts the murder of Julian upon the Christians… and adds that they had long prepared plots to this end… The third, finally, which is extant in print, is the oration on the temples of the gentiles… in which he not only pleads professedly the cause of the solemnities and sacred buildings of the pagan religion, but also, the veil being lifted, more vehemently accuses the Christians, especially the bishops and monks who chiefly bestowed their labor on the destruction of the temples of the gentiles, says Cave the heterodox in the Literary History of Ecclesiastical Writers from page 198. What wonder therefore if, as it were in passing, that enemy of the Christian religion drew his pen here also, dipped in black bile, against St. Helena, so illustrious a worshiper and propagator of that same religion, and the mother of Constantine, that most religious champion of the Christians? For, as Alford rightly and briefly says at the year of Christ 326, number 71, the Christian world owes to Helena Constantine and the cross: in both, the faith restored.

§ XIII. Her cult from the sacred Latin calendars; her public veneration diffused through various regions of the West; her sacred remains; her yearly memory among the Greeks.

Her yearly memory Who among the genuine and ancient Latin hagiologists inscribed the name of St. Helena in a Martyrology on this XVIII day of August before Usuard, I know of none. He therefore announces her thus: On the Lavican Way, of St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine. But about that announcement, in the Observations on the said Martyrology published and illustrated by us, this is noted: Helena, found in the codices of Ado, Mosander marked with an asterisk, as an addition, and Rosweyde judged the same: it remains doubtful therefore whence Usuard took her: but that she was marked by him, as we have reported in the text, seems most certain. And indeed that that announcement is truly Usuard's, the Martyrology of that same hagiologist gives credit, published at Paris in the year 1718 after the copy of the autograph preserved in the abbey of Saint-Germain, in which the very same announcement is found. Concerning what was just said about the codices of Ado, one may consult the Appendix to the Martyrology of Ado, published after it by Rosweyde, where at the VIII day of February is marked: Likewise the deposition of St. Helena the queen. The memory of the same Saint is also found on the XVIII day of August in the additions to the Martyrology which was printed by us under the name of Bede before volume II of March.

[122] Our Manuscript Florarium reports her on the same day thus: is noted in various sacred calendars, At Rome, on the Lavican Way, the deposition of St. Helena the queen, mother of the emperor Constantine, who miraculously found the wood of the holy cross. She died in the year of salvation CCCXXV. Correct this year from what has been said in § XI; from which it seems also to need amending in the new Paris Martyrology, printed in the year 1727, in which to the announcement of St. Helena is added in the margin 330. Maurolycus and Galesinius also record her, as does Saussay, who fits the following elogium to her: On the same day (the XVIII of August), at Reims and at Orléans, the festival of St. Helena Augusta, who, mother of Constantine the Great, etc. At Rome she afterward founded the basilica of the cross, which she distinguished with a portion of the saving cross. Being also religiously inclined to the adornment of Gaul, she built at Orléans a chief church in veneration of Christ crucified: whose seamless tunic also she sent to Trier to be reverenced with pious worship, together with very many other monuments of human redemption, etc. Saussay has said more there than I can solidly prove from ancient documents.

[123] (which was especially famous in Gaul), and in the Roman Martyrology. Then, as Saussay subjoins, since she shone after death with miracles which she had wrought also in life, her most sacred body was carried into France by the monk Theogisus, and was placed in the monastery of Hautvillers with a vast blaze of miracles, where it is kept to this day with great reverence, save for some particles which, sent hence to Orléans, are held in worthy regard also for the adornment and patronage of the chief church. Of the translations there will be treatment afterward; but the abbey of Hautvillers excellently increased and propagated the public veneration of the holy Empress, as will afterward appear. Father Philip of the Visitation, in the Well-ordered Army of many Saints and Blessed of both sexes of the Order of the Carmelites, etc., published in print, announces this at this XVIII day of August: St. Helena, empress, pinzochera (that is, a sister of the third Order) of Carmel. Of the word pinzochera in this sense the newest edition of Du Cange's Glossary treats, volume 5, column 494. But in the Annotations on the cited Army, which we have in Manuscript, the same Father Philip sets forth his position and explains it at greater length: St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, is to be ascribed at least to the third Carmelite Order: because, when she had found the wood of the holy Cross by the help and work of St. Mary, of Martha, and of the other nuns of Carmel in the year CCCXXVI, in the monastery of Jerusalem then restored, that St. Helena remained serving and obeying all the nuns. At length she brought their institutions to Rome, which with St. Constantia and other virgins she diligently observed until her death. These things we give, as he adds, from Bostius, chapter 22, from Rinchenius in the Vine of Carmel, from Thomas of Jesus, book 1, and others. He must be very simple and credulous who admits these things. The deeds of St. Helena at Jerusalem we have gathered from the most ancient writers above in §7 and following: where, among other things, what is found in §9, number 90, may be consulted and applied here. Other hagiologists who mention our Saint in their calendars I omit, and pass to the Roman Martyrology, in which her yearly memory, venerable to the whole Catholic Church, is prescribed to be recited thus on this XVIII day of August: At Rome, on the Lavican Way, St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, that most pious emperor, who was the first to give the other princes an example of protecting and enlarging the Church. These things being thus set forth, I come to other monuments by which the public veneration of the Saint is illustrated. And first let discourse be made about Italy.

[124] Her public cult at Rome, Baronius in the Notes on the announcement of the Roman Martyrology just reported says: The noble memory of St. Helena flourishes at Rome in the Sessorian Atrium in the basilica called of the Holy Cross, which it is certain was once called the Helenian basilica, as appears from the Acts of Pope Sixtus III, in which there is treatment of the condemnation of Bassus the ex-consul. Fronto in his Roman Calendar, page 49, notes: This was also called the basilica of Jerusalem, etc. In volume 1 of the Councils in Labbe, column [ ], from the little book on the munificence of Constantine, this is related: Constantine Augustus made a basilica on the Lavican Way between the two Laurels, to blessed Peter and Marcellinus, martyrs: and a mausoleum, where he laid his most blessed august Mother in a porphyry sarcophagus. Aringhi, volume 2 of Roma subterranea, book 4, chapter 9, page 33, reports this from Manuscript Acts of St. Helena, such as they are: She was honorably buried with spices on the Lavican Way, where it is called between the two Laurels, at the third milestone from the City. And in the same place he (Constantine) made a basilica to the holy martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, and there in a porphyry mausoleum, richly carved on all sides, according to royal excellence, he buried his mother. Of the mausoleum of Helena the empress Mabillon makes mention in his Italian Journey, page 83. Anastasius the Librarian, under Stephen V, narrates thus of the same: In the basilica of blessed Helena he made a veil of embroidered work. From which public honors I gather that, as they are tokens of her cult, so they were increases of it.

[125] Piazza in his Sacred Calendar of Christian and Gentile Rome, at the XVIII day of August, writes and in various places indeed; and elsewhere in Italy: that the feast of this holy Empress is solemnly celebrated in the church sacred to her which they call de' Credenzieri, with a plenary indulgence; at the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, in her most noble chapel (in which place, as that author indeed reports, she dwelt, and where she left precious pledges of the instruments of our Savior's passion, namely the rope with which Christ was bound; the sponge with which He was given gall and vinegar to drink; a part of the Lord's garment); and elsewhere. Some things also remain to be noted about other places in Italy. I suspect too that

there were at Venice, or perhaps still survive, notable tokens of her cult, since I read in Ughelli, Italia sacra, volume 5, column [ ] of the earlier edition, that the body of St. Helena was translated thither from Constantinople: of which matter I shall say more below, when I treat of the translations of the body. Further, that the feast of St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, is kept in the church of Verona on the XVI day of April is noted among the things Passed Over at that day, volume II of that month, page 402. Of the church of St. Helena by the river Lavinus in the territory of Bologna mention was made in volume 1 of January, page 90.

[126] In the Lectionary which we have, of certain Saints of the Office of Trier, likewise at Trier. printed at Trier in the year 1645, at the XVIII day of August, a double of Helena Augusta is marked, with 3 proper Lessons in the second Nocturn. The council of Trier convoked in the year 1549, and published by our Hardouin, volume 9 of the Councils, column 2146, says: In our city of Trier these feasts of the patrons: of Maximinus, of St. Simeon, of the Visitation, of Helena, etc. In Brouwer, Annals of Trier, volume 1, at the year 1075, number 45, I read this: In this year I have found that at the foot of Mount Jura, in a pleasant plain, in an old suburban village, a church was restored, in which once the bones of the bishop Numerianus rested, the noble patronage of St. Helena being set up, which it holds to this day. The title of the dedication, inscribed on stone, is read thus: IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S INCARNATION MLXXV, INDICTION XIII, ON THE VI OF THE KALENDS OF SEPTEMBER, THIS ORATORY WAS DEDICATED IN HONOR OF ST. HELENA BY UDO, ARCHBISHOP OF TRIER, IN THE VIII YEAR OF HIS ORDINATION, IN WHICH THERE IS A PART OF THE SEPULCHER OF CHRIST THE LORD, AND OF SS. SIXTUS, LAURENCE, FORTUNATUS, MARTYRS, REMIGIUS, MAXIMINUS, NAZARIUS, AND OF THE AFORESAID MATRON HELENA, AND OF ST. MARGARET, AND OF ST. CHRISTINA, VIRGIN.

[127] In the districts of England But of England Alford speaks thus at the year 326, number 69: But, as was fitting, our island paid its rites to its queen far more sacredly by churches built and named from Helena. There were without doubt in the age of the Britons many of this kind. But the various and most inconstant vicissitude of things which so often afflicted the island and ruined sacred things has almost blotted out all. Yet the Saxons, when they had learned Christ and that the Saints might be honored, honored this most august Woman among the first, not only among the Trinobantes and in the county of Essex, her native soil (as Alford thinks), where at the town of Mersea there is a church named from Helena; but elsewhere also among the Atrebates, and in the county of Berkshire: where from a sacred building once dedicated to Helena the town was called Helenstow. There is also another town of the same name among the Cattieuchlani near Bedford: where Judith, a most illustrious woman, erected a monastery for sacred virgins, and consecrated the place to Helena.

[128] At London too, which city the Queen, as was said above, and at London she had public veneration. had girded with walls (so at least Alford will have it), there was a church sacred to Helena, which William Basing is recorded to have made. And these monuments indeed of her name still survive out of so many ruins which this age, hostile to the Saints, has made. Finally our Alcuin mentions a church where together with the holy cross Helena also was honored; which he describes in this manner in poem (which is cited in the margin) 248:

Behold, O reader, the pious tokens of our salvation In the midst of the church, a wondrous gift to us; For the life of the world, the world's own Life has hung, etc. Here too let there be for us a great hope of sacred salvation By the apostolic band: since this altar has shone, And likewise by the living merits of kindly Helena, Who is reported to have found the wondrous wood of the cross, On which Christ, the world's honor, praise, and life, has hung.

[129] Here for you, reader, are some sacred remains which indeed I find attributed to St. Helena in authors, and on their credit I transcribe hither. Her sacred remains. Piazza, mentioned a little before, assigns various ones to various places at Rome. Rasponi in the work On the Lateran Basilica and Patriarchate, book 1, chapter 18, page 77, makes mention of the ashes of the divine Helena Augusta. Among the relics of the Saints of the Metropolitan church of Brindisi, whose catalogue is extant after the Offices of the patron Saints of that church, printed in the year 1583, I find R., that is, relics of St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine. In the Annals of Trier in Brouwer, volume 1, at the year of Christ 327, number 23, this is narrated about the church of Trier, where the Saint's head is reported to be: It has likewise her consecrated head among its treasures, translated hither many centuries after by the bounty of the emperor Charles IV and of archbishop Cuno. Then in volume 2, at the year of Christ 1378, number 51, he narrates thus of the adornment of that head: In this very year Arnold of Sarapons, archdeacon of the greater church of Trier, on the sixteenth of March, released from the prison of the body, departed… He… among other things had the head of blessed Helena Augusta clothed with gold and silver, and, in a statue adorned with precious stones and gems, left in the treasury a monument of his piety toward the holy Woman. Among the relics of Lisbon, of which mention is made in our work, volume II of January, page 612, there are noted at the XVIII of August the sacred remains of St. Helena Augusta. François le Maire, in the History of the church and diocese of Orléans, together with the Lives of the bishops of that see, printed at Orléans in the year 1648, page 37, records a neck-bone of St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, brought from Hautvillers in the diocese of Reims, where the greatest part of her glorious body is.

[130] The Greeks in their calendars on the XXI day of May honor the yearly memory of the holy emperor Constantine the Great and of St. Helena under one announcement. Her memory is honored among the Greeks on the 21st of May, The Typicon of St. Sabas reports them both thus: Of the holy great emperors, equal to the Apostles, Constantine and Helena. The Menology of Sirletus: The commemoration of the most religious emperors Constantine and Helena. The great printed Menaea: The memory of the holy, glorious, God-crowned, and Apostle-equaling great emperors Constantine and Helena. And presently both are praised with these two little verses, which I have slightly corrected:

Οἱ κοινὸν εἶχον γῆς βασιλεῖς τὸ στέφος, Ἔχουσι κοινὸν καὶ τὸ τοῦ πόλου στέφος.

Whom on the earth one common crown raised up, One common crown in heaven now makes blest.

The memory of both is likewise marked by the Menology of the Emperor Basil, our Arabic-Egyptian Martyrology, the Slavo-Russian Menology of Sparwenfeld, and the Greek transcripts which are preserved among us. Add the Greek-Muscovite Ephemerides, which are found before volume 1 of our May, page XXVIII, and the metrical May of the Greeks in the same place, page XXVI. In Wadding, in the Calendar of the proper feasts of the church of Jerusalem, volume 3 of the Lesser Annals, page 499, Helena occurs alone at the XVIII day of August, reported in these terms: Of St. Helena, queen, neither virgin nor martyr, a double.

[131] But this is a peculiar document of her public veneration among the Greeks, [a document of whose public veneration is produced; a sacred building at Constantinople.] that on the said XXI day of May, in honor of SS. Helena and Constantine the emperor, the tribunals are ordered by royal authority to be vacant, as may be seen in Balsamon, printed at Paris in the year 1620: for on title 7 of the Nomocanon of Photius, from page 79, he writes thus: But if you wish to know plainly on what days the courts keep holiday and rest, read the imperial novel which was issued in the month of March, of the XIV Indiction, in the year VI thousand DCLXXIV, by our God-crowned, most excellent and most holy emperor the lord Manuel Comnenus, which treats these things after the beginning: We decree therefore that those days be free from all business and actions which we have expressly enumerated in the present Constitution: and on some of them indeed let all action cease, so that during their whole space no judgment be exercised at all, unless perchance the emperor's dispensation, for some reason or necessity — as business often easily arises and breaks forth — shall will that on these days also the court should sit. But on some let the courts be held in part. And first indeed we must treat of those which are free from all action… Among which at page 81 is noted the XXI day of May, on account of the memory of the holy emperors Constantine and Helena, equal to the Apostles. To this is added the building sacred to St. Helena at Constantinople. Baronius at the year of Christ 326, number 62, says: It is certain that there was at Constantinople a sacred building of St. Helena, which, as the emperor Justinian testifies, cited in the same place, was joined to the most holy greater church. Du Cange, book 4 of the Constantinopolis Christiana, page 147, mentions indeed a monastery of St. Helena; but not the said sacred building.

§ XIV. Various copies of the Life are designated and censured; which one is here printed by us.

Among the very many copies of the Acts or Life of St. Helena which are extant among us, The Böddeken copy is one I bring forward in the first place the Manuscript from the notable parchment Manuscript Passional of the month of August of the monastery of Böddeken, of the Order of Regulars of St. Augustine, in the diocese of Paderborn, folio CXXXVIII, page 4. We received it from Father John Gamans of the Society of Jesus. It begins thus: When the King of kings and Lord of lords, to His Church which He had planted through the weak things of the world, etc. After the end it is noted that the same is to be read in the Manuscript Lectionaries of the choir of the metropolitan church of Trier; likewise of St. Paulinus, as the same John Gamans gives assurance. In that Life the following is narrated of our Saint: Having learned of her son's belief, and having sent a letter that he should follow her in the observances of the Law, she wished him whom she scorned to follow in his own religion to follow her. But he, writing back, asked that at his mother's instance the Jews and the Christians should meet… And the queen gave her assent to the emperor's request, and, a multitude of the Jews being called together, set out for Rome. But the high priest Isachar, because he feared to succumb in the contest of disputation, feigning sickness, withdrew himself from that journey. Yet he sent twelve with the Augusta, who among the rest shone in the honor of teachers, and knew not only the Hebrew but the Greek and Latin tongue.

[133] copy And when they wished to set against them twelve other doctors of the Church, who should engage with them in disputation, Silvester was unwilling to trust in a multitude of men, but alone, trusting in the power of God alone, did not fear to dispute with them about the word of God. But these things are apocryphal, according to what has been said in this Commentary, §5. Besides, it is also said: The mother of Constantine founded Helenopolis, in which, being admonished by a vision, she sought Jerusalem; which does not agree with the said Commentary, §10. Nor shall I dissemble in pointing out other trifles contained in the said transcript of the Life: for when in that place she met with many of the Jews, and separated the teachers among them from the crowd, they wondered what the Queen would do… But while they wavered… Judas, one of them, revealed the secret which about the wood of the holy cross he alone

knew, to very many… Impatient of delay she called them, and inquired where the Lord's wood was hidden. And they gave her no fitting answer, until they all feared to perish by burning and flame; and therefore, compelled by necessity, they delivered up Judas, who was privy to this matter: whom the Queen could break neither by blandishments nor by threats, but ordered him to be thrown into a dry well. The rest it irks me to report. But how the cross was found I have set forth in this my Commentary, §§7 and 8.

[134] and a second; In the second place I exhibit another of our transcripts from the notable parchment Manuscript Passional of the month of February of the monastery of Böddeken, of the Order of Regulars of St. Augustine, in the diocese of Paderborn, folio XC, page A. The prologue begins: If, according to the Apostle's saying, we are not ignorant that spiritual things are to be compared with spiritual. After the prologue this is subjoined: Here begins the Life of St. Helena the queen, whose festival is kept on the sixth of the Ides of February. Blessed Helena, then, a native of the city of Trier. Of her country I have discoursed above in §§1 and 2; whence it seems to us more probable that she was of Drepanum in Bithynia. A very few other things out of many I cull from that Life: Therefore, having become a Jewess in faith, she wished to be their associate in mind and body also. The author of that Life likewise cites the deeds of St. Silvester; concerning which consult above, §5, number 50; and toward the end I read this: He buried her (the discourse is of Constantine) on the Lavican Way between the two laurels in the village of Drepanum; which village prince Constantine dedicated as the city Helenopolis by his mother's name… Fitly… she had her burial in a certain village called Drepanum. For indeed, since in Greek drepani is interpreted the sickle of gladness, that same place was transferred from the signification of a sickle to the moon, which in Greek is called Helenos. Let these things suffice as a specimen of that Life; whose absurdities you may learn from §10 of this our Commentary. I go on to another copy.

[135] It is noted as taken from the Blaubeuren Manuscript at Hirsau. It bears this title: the Blaubeuren copy, Here begins the History of blessed Helena, finder of the wood of life, and mother of the emperor Constantine the Great. The most blessed Helena had been a stable-keeper, etc. I draw from it some things on account of which that history displeases us. She, being circumvented by the Jews when she was in Bithynia in the parts of the East with her two august grandsons Constans and Constantius, could almost have become a Jewess, had she not by the calling of Christ through her son been delivered from the counsel of the perfidious. Finally she sent to him writings of this sort: To her lord ever Augustus, her son Constantine, his mother Helena, ever Augusta, etc. To this the reply was: To his lady ever Augusta, his mother Helena, etc. I transcribe neither the letter of the one nor the answer of the other; but I observe that the honors of Augusta were bestowed on the Saint by her son only when she was drawing near the last period of her life, namely in the year of Christ 325, as you will find in the Commentary, §12, number 117. Those letters therefore are of no authority. And in that indeed which is attributed to Constantine, he is brought in speaking thus: Let presumption therefore cease at this our decision, so that the priests of the Jewish sect and the pontiffs of the Christian religion may come together in one, and, disputing in our presence by mutual contention of their opinions, may make us arrive at the searching out of the truth. And a little after this is reported: Then all the Pharisees, and all the princes and doctors of the Jews, were gathered to the Augusta Helena… And so, in the fourth consulship of Constantine Augustus and Licinius, on the day of the Ides of March, an assembly of the Christians and Jews was held in the city of Rome, in which there were bishops of divers provinces to the number of LXXV; and of the Jews CXX priests, besides those XII who had been appointed by the pontiff Isachar for the sake of the disputation… The bishops also are present with Pope Silvester.

[136] The consuls there marked agree with the year of Christ 315, from these specimens they are shown to be of little value: when namely Constantine had already for three or four years embraced the orthodox faith. And so, when the disputation was finished, as is subjoined, St. Silvester the Pope, and Helena, being admonished by a dream, hastened to Jerusalem. But the Saint made that pilgrimage thither only about the last times of her life. See what was premised in §6, number 63. Yet the compiler of the history which I am censuring subjoins to the aforesaid narrative the finding of the cross, and observes this: But how these things were done, different men say different things, etc.; but I do not pursue either those things, lest I be too long, or the many others which afterward follow in our transcript, apocryphal, and coming assuredly from the same sewer from which the fictitious Acts of St. Judas Quiriacus issued, which are in our work, volume 1 of May, on the IV day, from page 445, as will become plain to one who compares both narratives. Besides these, in the said Blaubeuren transcript this is recorded of the Saint: When she was passing beyond the eightieth year of her age, she died at Rome. Both I have disproved in the Preliminary Commentary, which consult, § XI. Finally there follows in the same transcript: The body of the most blessed Queen has lately been translated to Venice, and is kept in the monastery which is called of St. Helena, near Castello, in a certain chapel. But clearer and more likely things will be given below about the translation and preservation of the Saint's body.

[137] and which mark Another copy of the Life I have in hand from the Manuscript of Rougecloître, whose author, as I read written on our copy, is thought to be Almatius (or Almannus), monk of Hautvillers; for so the codex of Rebais bore. The prologue begins thus: About to present to the holy Church the head of the most excellent Roman empire, we rise to the presence of the Holy Spirit. But the narrative is divided into twelve chapters. In the third chapter this is narrated: Trier is a city of Gaul… In this city there was a noble maiden, illustrious for the excellence of her royal ancestors, derived from the proud blood of the ancient Treveri. Of the Saint's humble family I have treated in the Commentary, §2; where also of her country, §§1 and 2. In chapter 5 of the same copy she is said to have been circumvented by the Jews and to have turned aside to Judaism, and to have written to her son a letter, whose words are there produced, about his embracing the same. In chapter 6 the answer of Constantine is given. In chapter 7 occurs the disputation of St. Silvester with the Jews, etc. See what we have said a little before. From these things gather of what stamp that Life is. It consists of 14 chapters. But it does not seem to us improbable that the author of this Life is Almannus, although he wrote another; for it is not inconsistent that the same man should have written two different Lives of one and the same Saint.

[138] in our other transcripts Lastly, another copy is extant among us, sent hither by Chifflet, which is noted as taken from the Manuscript of St. Benignus of Dijon, and of Val-des-Choux, and of the Charterhouse of Dijon. Here this title is prefixed to it: Here begins the letter of Almannus the monk on the Life of St. Helena. Then follows: Knowing, O reader, or whoever the hearer, the due bounds of obedience, do not, I pray, reckon it boldness that I, so small a man, have as it were rashly undertaken a matter worthy only of the most skilled men. And, some things being interposed, the author declares the time and subject of his work, and also the manner of his life, in these words: Therefore, to be brief, under the rule of the apostolic lord Hincmar, bishop of the city of Reims, and also at the exhortation of my Brethren in Christ, I have willed briefly to gather, so far as it could come to our knowledge, the birth, the course, and the departure of St. Helena, and how she was brought from the city of Rome to our country, and by what miracles of virtues she has shone in our times.

[139] is deservedly branded. To the letter is subjoined a prologue; and to the prologue the chapters: which indeed I had determined to transcribe in this place, nay had already transcribed, when it was my mind not to commit the said copy of Almannus to the press; that from the sight of those chapters it might become plain that not so much a historical Life of the Saint as a pious homily about her had been written by him. But afterward, having prepared this copy, such as it is, for the press, according to our usual custom I shall give those chapters after the author's prologue. Nor indeed is Almannus without his blemishes. For besides those which we have indicated in passing above in §§1 and 2, he has also, in our work, chapter 2, number 24: At length, circumvented by the Jews, turning aside to Judaism, she thought that she could there find the truth. Having become a Jewess in faith, she wished to be their associate in mind and body also. And a little after he alleges the deeds of blessed Silvester, which are truly apocryphal. Wrongly likewise is it afterward said by the same Almannus, chapter 6, number 59: She returned to Rome to her son, and there fulfilled the course of her life. But see what has been said above in § XI, and what will be said below in the Annotations on the third part of the miracles, letter h. Then the same author presently subjoins: There she was buried by her son… on the Lavican Way between the two laurels in the village of Drepanum, which village prince Constantine dedicated as the city Helenopolis by his Mother's name, etc. But how ineptly these things are put together may be seen in the Annotations on chapter 6, letter c. But of Almannus the discourse will presently return, when I shall first have reviewed certain other copies of the Acts.

[140] The Life of the same Saint is also extant in print in Capgrave, in the Legend of the Saints of England, from folio 173 verso: as also the Lives printed in Capgrave and elsewhere. but how much emendation it needs will become plain to one reading it, both from what has been said about the other lives and from the following. For the writer was so ignorant and simple that he records that the Benedictine Order existed in the time of St. Helena. Another besides, he says, and of the same beauty (she made a church) on Mount Tabor, where she also founded a most strong monastery… whose abbot of the Order of St. Benedict used the mitre, ring, pastoral staff, and leaden seal. For my part I shall not apply the sponge to wipe away the stains of that Life, nor shall I amend that which is found in Peter de Natalibus, book 7, chapter 73. That the history of St. Helena which Aringhi cites, book 4 of Roma subterranea, chapter 9, number 16, is also of small authority is persuaded even from this single indication, that it was not written except after the time of Pope Anastasius IV, that is, after the year of Christ 1154; since mention is made in it of that Pontiff's burial.

[141] And these indeed are the various copies of the Lives, so little suited to the deeds of so illustrious a Saint that I determined to commit none of them all to the press, Which one is given by us, and whose it is. judging it assuredly better to illustrate her excellent deeds by a historical collection alone drawn from the most ancient historians, and to follow the fountains themselves rather than streamlets not cleared of their filth. Yet, that we may not give no Life at all, we give that of Almannus. To this is added that we do not know it to have been published in print. Likewise it is altogether fitting that at least some one out of so many rejected copies should be printed: and finally the reader will have in that of Almannus

besides a history, such as it is, something whence he may also feed a pious affection toward the Saint. The history itself too he will be able to amend and supplement from our Preliminary Commentary. The writer of the Life was a monk of the monastery of Hautvillers, of the Order of St. Benedict. He flourished in the year of the Lord 890, according to what will be said below in the Posthumous Glory of our Saint, §1, number 9, on occasion of her translation to the aforesaid monastery, which the same biographer also set forth in writing. See there more about him. But because he wrote this Life under the rule of the apostolic lord Hincmar, bishop of the city of Reims, as he says in his letter prefixed to that Life, it follows that he did not write it before the year of Christ 845, in which that prelate began to sit; nor after the year 882, in which he ceased to live. Further, our Manuscript copy we have divided after our custom into new chapters, the former ones being nevertheless retained and set in the margin of our edition. Nor have we neglected to censure and illustrate it with notes. We owe it to Father Chifflet, as appears from his name, which is written upon it. But the things which will be enclosed in brackets, and which will be noted in the margin, are taken from another transcript which is among us, and which is marked as received from the Manuscript of St. Martin at Trier, and it is added that it was collated with the Manuscript of St. Maximin in the same place. It remains that we set this Life, or rather Homily, before the reader's eyes.

LIFE, OR RATHER HOMILY

By Almannus, monk of Hautvillers,

From the Manuscripts of St. Benignus of Dijon, of Val-des-Choux, and of the Charterhouse of Dijon, collated with the copy of Trier.

Helena, widow, empress, and mother of Constantine the Great, at Rome (St.)

BHL Number: 3772

By Almannus.

THE AUTHOR'S LETTER.

The author, conscious of his own slightness, Knowing, O reader, or whoever the hearer, the due bounds of obedience, do not, I pray, reckon it boldness that I, so small a man, have as it were rashly undertaken a matter worthy only of the most skilled men. For although I ought by the mere fear of the judgment to come to restrain myself, and to temper the bitterness of grief with the weeping of sweetness, having my sins ever before me; yet I could take the greatest hope in so great a matter from this, that, as the Apostle teaches, I know that the kingdom of God is not in speech but in power. And I have learned that the virtue of obedience is very great, whose pattern our Lord showed in Himself, or rather showed Himself to be, and to this alone He invited His own, and delivered to them this alone as the chief discipline, saying: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, pouring in charity through meekness, and through humility imparting to every faithful soul its due self-knowledge. Whence He made the poor and simple, and those who lived by the labor of fishing or by the craft of tentmaking, the masters of His Church — not orators by the art of grammar, nor stiff with the pride of eloquence, nor abounding in the riches of the world — seeking rather the affection of the mind than fluency of words. Seeing this indeed by a slight spark, I have by no means hesitated to believe that He who lifted to heaven the first fruits of the mass of our bodies can raise the mind to accomplish in part the little gift of our devotion — He who both showed Himself capable ^a to the freely favored, and, when He found none capable of Him, made all capable of Him by His free gift.

[2] Therefore, to be brief, led by divine fear, under the rule of the apostolic Lord Hincmar ^b, [led on nevertheless by the exhortation of Hincmar, bishop of Reims, and of others,] bishop of the city of Reims, and also at the exhortation of my brethren in Christ, I have willed briefly to gather, so far as it could come to our knowledge, the birth, the course, and the departure of St. Helena, and how she was brought ^c from the city of Rome to our country, and by what miracles of virtues she has shone in our times. And if anyone should wish to be the relater of this matter according to an exposition worthy of it, he would need either to surpass the eloquence of Tully or to be fragrant with the style of Augustine. For it is no small thing that must be handled, as you will see, whoever you be who shall have deigned to touch upon the cause of our littleness — how holy Helena was, nay is, fair as the moon, chosen as the sun, terrible as an army set in array. For if the Greeks labored to mark their Helen ^d with leaves of words, and for the sake of earthly nobility and of bodily beauty to feign a thousand lies in her praise, to weave epilogues, to bring forth declamations — that Helen whose auguries were as unwelcome among the Trojans as the prophecies of Cassandra were disbelieved — how much more ought we to follow our Helena with the praises of piety, who, being made a tower of whiteness, and founded moreover with a firm root upon the rock, Christ, one perfect dove, stands nearest at the right hand of the Lord in gilded raiment, approving the works of truth and confirming the sayings of truth; to whom David sings in the present life: Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house, and the King shall desire thy beauty, for He is the Lord thy God.

[3] For she effectually heard these things, and happily saw them. he set his mind to write about St. Helena. For she humbly inclined her ear, and with much meekness forgot her people and her father's house. Therefore a vast reward remains for her, because the King desired her beauty, saying to her: Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee. These things being briefly touched upon to stir up the reader's will (for although it comes from one who is small, yet the matter is great), we take care to premise this: that, apart from the right of compiling, which needs no commendation of ours, if whatever the wrestling-school of our wit could add has offended grave ears, it be laid to our ignorance, which could reach nothing more or truer out of so great a matter; but if in anything it shall please men of sense, let it be referred to Him from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift, coming down from the Father of lights. But now let us set to the narrative, premising this: how from the beginning of the creation of man the saving mystery of the cross was foresignified, by whose finding blessed Helena triumphed on earth; whence also she rejoices forever in heaven, having accordingly the veneration due to her, both in the present Church, which overcomes all the storms and waves of this world by the standard of that same holy cross, and in the Church to come, which through that very wood of the most sacred cross has already deserved to attain to this, that in happy contemplation it may behold the Crucified.

ANNOTATIONS.

PROLOGUE OF THE SAME AUTHOR.

Of profane Very few, contemplating the character of mortal prudence, have been able with the mind's edge to behold in a riddle the light of understanding, and therefore, cleaving to visible things, they suffer the darkness of ignorance, vainly dreading outward darkness while they gladly embrace inward. Yet those in whom the Athenian reason seemed to flourish, although they were able in the definition of man to contemplate a certain and most true division, nevertheless, beaten back by the light of immortality and reckoning it by memory alone, gave their hope to fables and set the end of their soul in the tomb. For the Pythagorean pen, which they extol with such great praises, was not of such worth, nor did the empty disputation of worldly philosophy so far avail, that by these and the like our being could truly be reached, whereby a mortal animal is defined; and that, as man's fall was even unto death, so he should have a way back even unto the immortal reason of truth, in which he was not only created but also formed to the image of God. This those men saw to whom God by the gift of His clemency granted to be such that for them a fountain should rise out of the earth to water paradise; who, being filled with the fourfold order ^a of the principal virtues, as if endowed with the abundance of the four rivers in an intelligible form, as in the Platonic idea, squared themselves by an immortal number; and, that by the fountain rising from the earth they might come to the Fountain reigning in the heavens, contended by inward purgation and most robust faith. And a fountain, says the Scripture, rose out of the earth to water the face of paradise.

[5] and of sacred Holy men therefore saw this with the gaze of the heart; they saw man wondrously formed and set in paradise, as the sun in heaven; and as the sun is of the whole bodily frame, so the mind is the ruler of the whole body according to the ways of sobriety and peace; and the soul set in this, that it might retain in itself the image of the monad ^b, which was able by free will both to avoid what is alien and not to abandon what is its own — most powerful, that is, in discerning and in joining, that it might discern itself from evils and join good things to itself. Therefore such and so great a being justly lost the liberty of will, the work of justice being abandoned and the guardianship of judgment; and by this it underwent the wiles of the serpent, the uprightness of its Creator being lost. And so Adam, then a particular man, made general by natural generation, became wholly a mass of perdition, suffering the exile of death on earth until death, and after death down to hell. But by the Cherubim set there, and the flaming and turning sword, God almighty willed it to be understood that He would order the ages by a twofold disposition, and would out of the same mass, according to His purpose and grace, redeem those whom from the beginning of the world He should predestine as partakers of His kingdom; and that man should learn humility, who through pride had incurred the fall of death; and that, since all were by nature children of wrath, the divine justice would be blameless if He left all in that guilt which they had found by nature.

[6] But God almighty, who is rich in mercy, philosophy then marked Adam; [He marked the tree and the snare of death; He marked the cunning of the serpent and the envy of the devil. To the general Adam therefore He opposed a particular Adam,] and to the tree of transgression and death, the tree of life, the most sacred cross; and to the snare of eternal death, the snare of a momentary death; and to the cunning of the malignant serpent, the cunning of the serpent that was but a likeness ^c; and to the envy of the devil, the free goodness and mercy of His own clemency. These things indeed [if] man should learn, he would by no means be proud, set as he is in the exile of death; in which religion of humility those to whom God gave the gift of understanding saw that the universal way of freeing the soul is contained; since by no other than this can it be freed. This is in a manner the universal and life-giving way, which alone leads to life, which is the only and truest philosophy, not found by any windy invention, which neither the manners of the Indians could attain nor the reasoning of the Chaldeans lay hold of; which is imparted not humanly but divinely, and to all nations by the divine compassion

granted. Whence also the Psalmist: That we may know thy way upon earth, thy salvation among all nations. Which says: I [am] the way, the truth, and the life: the way, namely, without error; the truth without falsehood; the life without death; the way by which one goes; the truth to which one comes; the life in which one rests.

[7] Whoever have held blamelessly the certainty of this way the author discourses have deserved to attain to the seeing of God and to be happily joined to Him forever: and although He multiplied visions, and strengthened the hearts of His faithful, whom the Redeemer would fortify from the very beginning of the world, and comforted them with divers figures and manifold revelations, and gave them hope of Himself with much certainty; yet He did not remove the darkness with the conquering light before the Word was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin: where, being made the bridegroom of His Church, He made His testament for her, hanging on the wood of the cross, on which, being slain, He was made to God the Father the one sacrifice and the singular holocaust. These things therefore, which I have briefly touched upon for the sake of commending the wood of the cross of Christ, if the reader needs them [] beyond what is required; if out of the debt of devotion, which, from spiritual buildings unfailing, ought in heart, mouth, and work always to remain firm, fixed, and unshaken in the hearts of believers, let him weigh, so far as he can, what the Apostle says: And certainly great is the mystery of godliness, which was revealed in the flesh, was manifested in the spirit, was preached to the gentiles, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory.*

[8] Which great mystery of godliness, although it is to be fulfilled generally at the end of the world, on occasion of St. Helena, who found the cross of Christ. for the holy Church [not] then still journeying in the exile of death, but reigning happily and immortally with her King in her own country, is nevertheless fulfilled specially; and now it comes to pass in every elect son of the Church, who, fighting the good fight to the end of this life, when the burden of the body is laid down is taken up into the glory which Abraham's bosom holds, through the testament which God almighty, the Son of the eternal Father, and by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit the Son of the Virgin Mother, the loving and great Redeemer, made, as has been said, for His bride, sister, and daughter, hanging on the wood of the cross; which most precious wood of the most sacred cross, how it was seized [] and hidden away by the enemies of the cross of Christ, and how after a long space of times that same cross was found by blessed Helena, we have from writings. But of that holy Helena, to whom the gift of so great a bounty was given from heaven, and who by the grace of God accomplished so admirable [] an office with most prudent skill, with imperial rod and royal authority — of how great nobility and reverence, of religion and wisdom, that woman was, the foresignification of created man being finished, and the commendation of the cross of the suffering Christ — let us try in part to bring to our [*] knowledge.

ANNOTATIONS.

otherwise indulgeat*

read depressum*

otherwise memorabile*

otherwise vestram*

THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE CHAPTERS.

Here begins the letter of Almannus the monk on the Life of St. Helena.

Here begins the Prologue on the Life of St. Helena.

Here begins the account of the birth of St. Helena, and with how incomparably greater excellence the Helena of the Christians shone in this world than the Helen of the Greeks once did, chapter I.

How it came about that St. Helena married Constantius Augustus, chapter II.

Why blessed Helena was called the mother of the empire; and of the comparison of the ten plagues of the Egyptians with the ten persecutions of the Romans, chapter III.

Of the change by which the mercy of God turned all these evils into good through Constantine, son of the mother Helena, chapter IV.

Of the twofold business which St. Helena by the grace of God conferred upon the world, and of her most devout progress, chapter V.

How the mother Helena and her august son were admonished to the building of the holy church and the finding of the holy cross, chapter VI.

How the wood of the most precious, most sacred, and life-giving cross was found by blessed Helena, chapter VII.

Of the like sleep of Jacob and of St. Helena in this, that he saw in dreams a ladder, and she the holy cross, chapter VIII.

Of the providence of God, sufficiently good and just, toward the condition of human nature, to which St. Helena faithfully rendered herself conformable, chapter IX.

Of the banquet which she gave to the handmaids of God, where she made herself their servant, chapter X.

Of the most pious finding [*] of both, namely of the mother and of the son, chapter XI.

Of the queen of Sheba, in that she prefigured St. Helena in all that she did with king Solomon, chapter XII.

What purity and cleanness St. Helena possessed, striving to be, according to the Apostle's precept, holy both in body and in spirit chapter XIII.

Of the prophetic presage, and of the hardness of the Jews and the love of the gentiles, chapter XIV.

An apostrophe to St. Helena on her threefold designation, and of Helena queen of the Adiabeni, chapter XV.

Of her self-knowledge, and of her threefold speech, chapter XVI.

Of the holy relics which she received from Jerusalem, and wished to send to the country of her birth, chapter XVII.

Of the quality of St. Helena, which by the grace of God she deserved to have in this world, chapter XVIII.

Of the last departure of St. Helena, and of her death, chapter XIX.

Of the burial of St. Helena, chapter XX.

An address to Constantine and the Romans on the death and burial of Helena, chapter XXI.

Since the number of chapter XIII has been supplied by us from the Manuscript of St. Martin at Trier, therefore in this our copy chapter XIII has become XIV, and so the rest have been ordered thereafter down to the end.

otherwise intentione*

CHAPTER I.

The birth of St. Helena; the greater excellence of this Helena than of her Greek namesake; her marriage with Constantius Augustus; she is called the mother of the empire; the ten Egyptian plagues compared with as many persecutions of the Romans.

Chapter I.

Blessed Helena, then, sprung of Trier ^a, was of such nobility ^b according to the honor and dignity of the present life, Helena, born at Trier that almost the whole of that city of vast size was reckoned as the field of her estate. Which is shown to this day by her house, made the greatest part of a church in honor of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, dedicated as the episcopal see of the metropolis, so that it is called and is the first see of Belgic Gaul; and likewise by the chamber of royal magnificence made in the same city with wondrous workmanship: since the pavement was laid with various marbles, as in the palace of Xerxes surnamed Ahasuerus, with Parian stone, and the walls were made translucent with tawny gold as with a glassy ^c weaving, as in the time of Solomon his hall was framed of thyine ^d woods, and the paneled ceilings, after the manner of a grotto, were adorned with precious marbles, and with reliefs ^e; and likewise the chamber was furnished and distinguished with golden couches ^f, all these things portending the appearance of the truth to come, so that with her they passed over into the ornaments of the Church — all which showed the excellence of high blood, and a vast and singular nobility in every age, and by the succession of great kings a royal offspring, and the greatness of an ancient lineage.

[10] Nor, were it not that antiquity forbids, would it be too incredible she is compared with the Helen of the Greeks; that she drew the antiquity of her origin from that Helen of the Greeks, who was of such nobility that, long sought, she was at length scarcely betrothed to the most noble king of the Greeks, Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon. But if anyone turns away his ear from this, saying that Greece and Gaul can by no means run together into one genealogy, so great an antiquity also standing in the way, let him know that blessed Jerome said and wrote that Paula, daughter of Scipio, who lived long after blessed Helena, was the famous offspring of the aforesaid Agamemnon. But when the aforesaid Helen of the Greeks was carried off by Alexander [*], son of Priam king of the Trojans, the aforesaid brothers, fearing lest through Helen's alliance the kingdom of the Greeks should yield and give its hand to the Trojans, undertook for her a ten years' war against them. Let there be no doubt therefore that this Helena shines with the same nobility according to the dignity of the world; but though she equals that other in name and in beauty, yet who could suffice to unfold in words how incomparably greater this one was than that, in all prudence and power, in the riches of the world and in wisdom?

[11] but this one is more excellent than she. For that one married the son of a king, who had a part of a kingdom; this one married Constantius, that most pious Augustus, who with Galerius, likewise Augustus, divided the Roman empire into two parts. That one possessed a part of a country; this one governed the empire of the whole world with most just laws and pious moderation, as a true heroine. For that one wars almost infinite were exhausted; this one, living and flourishing in wonderful faith, incomparable religion, chastity of manners, and holiness of mind, deserved to come to Christ, who made peace through the blood of His cross, both as to the things that are in heaven and those that are on earth. Whom she followed with faithful mind and devout heart, subjecting to Him all her riches, and all her power, and all her sovereignty, all which she now knew by holy faith that she had received from Christ: and, flourishing and vigorous with so great an advance of the truest and most devout faith, she deserved to find the most precious yoke [*] of the most sacred cross, on which God-made-man was hung for the salvation of all; and so by word, example, and work she armed the holy Church against all the darts of the enemy. By these works therefore it plainly appears how incomparably more excellent the holy Helena of the Christians is than the Helen of the Greeks. But let us return to our subject.

II.

[12] Galerius and Constantius, the Augusti, first divided the Roman empire, as has been said, into two parts. Her marriage with Constantius, And Constantius, a most tranquil man, was content with Gaul and Spain alone, the paternal parts being yielded to Galerius ^g. He took as wife Theodora, stepdaughter of Maximian; of whom he raised six sons, brothers of Constantine, his future son by Helena ^h. He, being of much piety and gentleness, and rejecting idols, shut out false Christians by a wonderful device ⁱ; against whom the nation of the Germans and Britons, becoming rebellious, could scarcely be subdued in seven years ^k. Meanwhile, while he was happily and valiantly administering the affairs of war, having learned of the incomparable nobility, beauty, and power of Helena, so [*] blessed in the eyes of the Lord ^l, he pondered obtaining her in marriage, desiring, if perchance he might, to have a son by her; and he treated her, though in a concubine's station ^m, with much reverence and honorableness, the Lord preparing the king's heart in this. For since she was of such nobility and excellence

a woman, yet in all her way [] she chose to practice patience, truth, meekness, moderation, and justice. For she greatly longed, though still ignorant, to be near to God as far as is possible to human nature, inasmuch as the divine grace was preparing her to be for itself a precious member and a chosen vessel, and so to be a vast advantage [in] every age, since afterward in her widowhood she was to equal in merits Anna, whose life is commended by the authority of the Gospel, and whom she also equaled in the span of the present life; and in devotion she was to balance Paula, whom holy Jerome commends. At length therefore she is first advanced by an unequal-sided fortune ⁿ, in that the mother Helena bears a son, Constantine, who by unswerving magnanimity should prevail over enemies, and should be sufficient to govern the Roman empire, and should direct a pious rule to his sons' sons, as if by a foreboding augury of the mind he unrolled again the sixfold perfection in the creation of man: whom, when he sinned, and applied to himself the hissing of the serpent against the precept of obedience, and deservedly fell away into death, God spared with wondrous and unspeakable patience, and did not even spare His own [His] Son, but delivered Him up for us all; in which foretitling He had also once spared the Hebrews, serving in Egypt under a most hard affliction in mud and straw, and making for Pharaoh two cities, Pithom and Ramesses ^o; which are interpreted the mouth of failing and holding malice*.

[13] But let us inquire more subtly how justly Helena the queen was called the mother of the Roman empire, She is called the mother of the empire. the aforesaid inequality being disposed in a manner worth noting: and this will rightly be done if, setting before our soul the sixth day of man's creation to the image of God, and the sixth feria of his wondrous already reformation to the first likeness which he had lost by sinning, we compare the ten plagues of the Egyptians with the ten persecutions of the Romans, in which with many straits and pains the church of the gentiles was brought forth, which the Lord built when, dying for her on the cross, He shed the blood of the eternal testament. To which persecutions Constantine, by the help of God's grace, was the boundary, the term, and the end — the son of the mother Helena. But what we have said we shall do with Paulus Orosius as our guide after Christ [p]. Through all the bounds, then, of the Roman empire and of the whole world, sudden disturbances running through, the crashes of many wars resounded, so that almost the whole world was shaken with war. Terrified by this danger, the most impious Diocletian, who then held the citadel of the Roman empire, made Maximian surnamed Herculius Augustus from caesar. But Constantius and Maximian Galerius he chose as caesars. Which Constantius the caesar, attempting to subject the nations of the Gauls to the Romans, strives to extend the Roman empire from Alemannia to the borders of Britain. And while he does this in Gaul itself [q], he begot his son Constantine of the mother Helena: and, being of the greatest gentleness and piety, he died in Britain [r], and left his son Constantine, born of Helena, emperor of the Gauls [s]; who, Maxentius being overcome, as will appear more manifestly in what follows, ascended to the citadel of the Roman empire by the merits of his mother Helena. And he, thirty-fourth from Augustus [t], in the year one thousand and sixty-nine from the founding of the city [u], took the helm of empire, which was the three hundred and fifth year of the Lord's incarnation. And so blessed Helena was made mother and lady not only of the City but of the whole world; and deservedly indeed, because by the grace of God she was to find for the world the wood of life.

[14] But let us now see the comparison of the ten plagues which, on account of the wicked contradictions made against Moses, The ten plagues of Egypt were deservedly inflicted on the Egyptians, and of the ten vengeances which were justly inflicted on the Roman people for as many edicts promulgated against Christ. For divers were the plagues of the Egyptians, and divers the calamities of the Romans. There the first plague of the Egyptians had this, that blood commonly either flowed from the wells or ran in the rivers. Here the first plague, under Nero, exacted this, that everywhere the blood of the dying was either corrupted by diseases in the city or poured out by wars in the world. Which Nero, a follower — nay a transgressor — in respect of all vices and crimes, practiced the wantonness, lust, luxury, avarice, and cruelty [x] of his uncle Caius Caligula with every kind of crime. Indeed, stirred by wantonness, ranging through almost all the theaters of Italy and Greece, and taking on besides the disgrace of divers attire, he often seemed to himself to have surpassed heralds [y], lyre-players, tragedians, and charioteers. Moreover he was so driven by lusts that he is reported to have abstained neither from his mother nor from his sister out of any reverence of kinship. And he was of so unbridled a luxury that he fished with golden nets which were drawn up by purple ropes, and he is handed down never to have made a journey with fewer than a thousand carriages.

[15] with as many persecutions Finally he made the burning of the city of Rome a spectacle of his pleasure. For for six days and seven nights the burning city fed the royal gaze, and those great engines which had once been prepared for extreme wars were set aflame; and that flame was driven even to the dwellings of the monuments and tombs; which he himself, looking out from that very lofty Maecenatian tower, and delighted, as he himself said, with the beauty of the flame, chanted the Iliad in tragic garb. And he was of so headlong an avarice that after the burning of the city, which he [z] had boasted that he had founded of marble instead of brick, he allowed no one to go to the remains of his own goods; but himself carried off all that had in any way survived the flames. And he was so maddened with the rage of cruelty that he killed the greatest part of the senate and almost destroyed the equestrian order. But he did not abstain even from parricides: his mother, his brother, his sister, his wife, and all his other kindred he laid low without hesitation. And after he had raged with vast wickedness through the five sisters of crimes set forth above, and after the most impious Nero had done all the evils he could devise, the rashness of his impiety against God increased the mass of his wickedness. For he was the first at Rome to visit the Christians with tortures and deaths, and commanded that through all the provinces they should be tormented with a like persecution. Attempting to root out even the most blessed Apostles of Christ themselves, the most glorious princes of the earth, the most just judges of the age, the truest lights of the world, he slew the most precious Peter by the cross and the most sacred Paul by the sword.

[16] as many But soon, as the aforesaid historiographer sets forth, calamities arising on every side oppressed the wretched city, which was not governed but unhappily crushed by such a prince. For much pestilence lay upon it, and divers disasters befell. But when Nero learned that Galba had been made emperor by the army in Spain, he fell utterly in mind and hope, and, while he was contriving incredible evils for the disturbing of the commonwealth, he is declared a public enemy by the Senate, and, fleeing most ignominiously, at the fourth milestone from the City he killed himself, and in him the whole family of the Caesars was consumed. Seeing these things, the reader will easily be able to perceive how fitly the first plague of the Egyptians, which was in the flowing of blood, is compared to Nero, as the figure to the form, since so great and so manifold was the greatness of his crimes that like corrupt matter it corrupted the whole Roman empire.

[17] Roman ones The following plague of Egypt brought forth this, that frogs croaking and leaping in the inner chambers were to the inhabitants well-nigh a cause of hunger and of exile. The following plague, in this manner, under Domitian, likewise showed among the Romans that through the unbridled and wicked runnings to and fro of his soldiers, executing the orders of a most bloodthirsty prince, all the Roman citizens were driven almost to want and scattered in exile. There the third affliction had gnats; here likewise the third plague was under Trajan, who, when before they were utterly quiet, all being stirred by a sudden heat, raged throughout the whole world against those among whom they were. There in the fourth plague were dog-flies, nurslings of putrefaction and mothers of worms. Here likewise the fourth plague, under Marcus Antoninus, gave over to putrefaction and worms alike a pestilence poured upon very many provinces, and all Italy also with the City of Rome, and the Roman army dissolved in death. There the fifth chastisement was fulfilled by the sudden destruction of cattle and beasts of burden; here likewise in the fifth vengeance, under Severus the persecutor, by very frequent civil wars the very bowels and supports of the commonwealth, that is, the peoples of the provinces and the legions of soldiers, were broken in pieces. There the sixth affliction brought boiling blisters and running sores; here likewise the sixth punishment, which was made through the persecution of Maximinus, who, passing over the common crowd, had ordered especially the bishops and clergy, that is, the chief men of the churches, to be slain, swelled with wrath and envy, and was breathed out.

[18] There the seventh plague is numbered, poured out as hail from thickened air, compared: which was destruction to men, beasts, and crops; here likewise the seventh under Decius the persecutor of the Christians; and when he was slain, under Gallus and Volusianus, who succeeded him, the plague was a pestilence poured from corrupted air, which through all the spaces of the Roman realm from east to west both gave almost every kind of men and cattle to death, and also corrupted and infected the lakes and the pastures with foulness. There the eighth crushing of Egypt was made by locusts stirred up on every side, gnawing, wearing away, and covering all things; here likewise the eighth overthrow of the Roman world was brought by nations stirred up on every side, which destroyed all the provinces with slaughters and burnings. There then the ninth disturbance had long, thick, and penetrable darkness, threatening altogether more danger than it wrought; here likewise was the ninth chastisement, when upon Aurelian, as he was decreeing a persecution, amid dire whirlwinds a terrible and dreadful thunderbolt fell at his very feet, showing that as much as such a vengeance demanded, so much the Avenger could do. There, last, the tenth plague, which was also the last of all, was the killing of the sons whom each had first begotten; here likewise the tenth, that is, the last punishment, is the destruction of all the idols, which, being first made, they loved above all. There the king perceived, proved, and believed the power of God, and through this allowed the people of God to depart free; here never afterward was the people of God compelled to idolatry. There the precious vessels of the Egyptians were handed over to the Hebrews; here the chief temples of the pagans passed to the Church of the Christians. Therefore, Constantius having died, as I said, in the Britains, Constantine was made emperor, the first Christian of the emperors, except Philip, who was a Christian [aa] for very few years, and who seems to me to have been appointed only for this, that the thousandth year of Rome should be dedicated rather to Christ than to idols; in the third year of whose reign the thousandth year from the founding of Rome was completed.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Paulus Orosius, Histories against the Pagans, book 1, chapter 10, writes of the people of God afflicted in Egypt, and of the ten plagues of the Egyptians.

q. That there is a controversy among authors about the country of Constantine I have indicated in my Preliminary Commentary, §1, number 8.

r. At York, namely, in the year 306 of the common era: but these and many other things pertaining to the death of Constantius the author of the History of the Emperors, alleged a little before, has gathered in Constantine, article 7. See our Preliminary Commentary, §5.

s. Nay rather he handed over to him the rule of the empire, on the testimony of Lactantius in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 24, where he records this of Constantine and his father: But he, using incredible speed, came to his father (Constantius) when he was already failing, who, having commended him to the soldiers, handed over the empire by his own hands, and so in his own bed received the rest of life, as he desired. Having taken up the empire, Constantine Augustus did nothing sooner than restore the Christians to their worship and to their God. This was his first ordinance, of the holy religion restored.

t. From Augustus down to Constantine the Great I find more emperors than thirty-four; whom I leave the reader to number from the historians.

u. Constantine began to reign in the year of Christ 306, to which corresponds the year 1059 from the founding of the City.

x. His manners, deeds, and cruel crimes Orosius depicts, book 7, chapter 5, and other historians.

y. There is among the Greeks the word κήρυξ, which among other things signifies a trumpeter: and that here by cerycas trumpeters, or men of the stage, or something like, are denoted seems also to agree with the author's sense.

z. In Orosius, book 7, chapter 7, whence Almannus copied out this narrative of his about Nero, I read thus: Which Augustus had boasted that he founded of marble instead of brick, etc.

aa. So Almannus from Orosius, book 7, chapter 28. Receive the following observation on this matter. It is a famous controversy among the learned whether that emperor was a Christian. The arguments on both sides Tillemont gathers and weighs in volume 3 of the History of the Emperors in the first note upon that emperor. But Pagi in the Baronian Criticism, volume 1, after reporting at the year 244, number 4, Eusebius and others for the affirmative side, confesses that he too was of that opinion in the first edition of the said volume: but in the second he retracted his former opinion. Let us hear him at the year cited, number 5: The matter being more maturely examined, I now do not doubt that Eusebius reported what he has about the Christian profession of Philip from uncertain hearsay; since Lactantius, contemporary with Eusebius and the tutor of Crispus, son of Constantine the Great, in the Proem of book 1 On the Institutes, chapter 1, writes: "This work we now begin under the auspices of thy name, Constantine, greatest emperor, who first of the Roman princes, errors being repudiated, hast both known and honored the majesty of the one and true God." Sulpicius Severus, who in the four hundredth year published two books of his Sacred History, speaking of the peace given to the Church under Constantine the Great, after narrating the end of the persecution (book 2, page 158 of the Louvain edition of the year 1680), says: "Then Constantine held power, who was the first of all the Roman princes to be a Christian." Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, book 5, chapter 39: "Before the principate of Constantine the Great, as many as were Roman emperors did not cease to rage against the worshipers of piety." (Yet from this I judge Constantius, Constantine's father, must be excepted, on account of what is said in the Preliminary Commentary, §5.) The other testimonies which are subjoined to these in Pagi I do not transcribe; nor his answers to the objections in numbers 5 and 6. In the works of Lactantius published by Christopher Cellarius at Leipzig in the year 1698, page 4, it is said in the notes that those things which have been produced above, and others down to number 17 of the said edition, concerning Constantine, are absent from many codices, and are condemned by Joseph Isaeus; but that Stephen Baluze defends them from the evenness of the style, who thinks that the Institutes were written in sad times, but in happier ones emended, enlarged, and dedicated to Constantine.

read thyinis*

* he is also called Paris

otherwise lignum*

otherwise jam*

otherwise vita*

CHAPTER II.

The better state of the Roman empire through Constantine and Helena; the admonition about founding churches; the finding of the holy Cross mystically foreshadowed before.

IV.

These things being briefly culled from the history of Orosius, let us see, according to the truth of the authors, which the mercy of God of how great reverence Constantine was, the only ^a son of the mother Helena, who both overcame the enemies of the Romans, pacified the citizens, increased the commonwealth, and set against the ten persecutions the ten edicts of a most just law, and, by believing in the living and true God, destroyed idols and raised churches — after whom all Christian emperors have always been created down to the present day, except Julian the Apostate ^b, whom, while he was plotting, his baneful life impiously deserted. But Constantine, unconquered by the grace of God, rejoicing in his mother Helena, on whose account we have taken up all these things, showed himself such toward the holy Church that he turned the destruction and malice of the preceding kings, through God's mercy, into peace and goodness, and transferred their persecution of the Christians into a defense of them. For indeed the blood of Nero, with which he defiled the earth, being held fast by wantonness, lust, luxury, avarice, and cruelty, he turned into a cleansing of crimes by living in gravity, modesty, temperance, bounty, and gentleness.

[20] through Constantine Even that impious war of his against God [*] he turned into a most devout and due worship for all the world, so far that he deserved to build churches to the most blessed Apostles whom the other slew with the sword of impiety, and to adorn and ennoble their tombs: to Peter, I mean, by the clemency of divine providence the most approved and greatest of all the Apostles, and by the magnificence of his faith and the merit of his virtue their prince, who, coming from the parts of the East as a certain heavenly merchant, brought us the merchandise of the divine light, and by the word of saving preaching, namely by the keys of his Gospel, first opened to the Romans the gate of the heavenly kingdom. And to Paul, who, being made in the hand of God a fiery arrow, removed from the world the darkness of vices and of ignorance, and was made the instructor of souls and of minds, and, by the help of God's grace, the teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth. To these most blessed Apostles, holding the citadel of sanctity and of the Christian religion, Constantine Augustus clave with devout mind, being advanced to this by the piety of his mother Helena: and by this both he punished the deeds of the most bloody Domitian, croaking after the manner of frogs, by the religion of gravity and sobriety; and he repressed the gnats of Trajan by royal cheerfulness; and the turn of Antoninus, corrupted with the putrefaction of flies, he cleansed with a revived peace in the true faith of the Christians; and Severus, swarming with the destruction of beasts of burden, he drove off by the benefit of his bounty; and the persecution of Maximinus, boiling up like blisters, he plunged by the tranquillity of goodness and peace into the pit of abolition.

[21] Finally the pestilence and hail of Decius, of Gallus, and of Volusianus he stilled by Catholic faith and mildness, and Helena and the overthrow by the nations, like the terror and covering of locusts, he vehemently broke asunder. For indeed, the more religiously and humbly he had subjected himself to God, the more amply did God subject all things to him. And so he calmly cut away the dense darkness of Aurelian's persecutions by the heavenly light which he had deserved by zeal for the orthodox faith, and in the tenth step he crushed the idols, when he overthrew the heresies. To whom it was granted from heaven that in his times the finding of the most sacred cross should take place. So indeed the mother Helena bore Constantine, who, by the ordering of the divine clemency and supported by divine protection, should wipe away so vast and countless evils, destroy the images of idols, build churches, overcome and scatter heresies, strengthen the holy and orthodox faith, and follow most fervently the Apostolic doctrine. And she herself, kindled with the zeal of piety, and admonished from heaven by a dream ^c, should find the most precious wood of the life-giving cross, on which the price of our salvation hung, the body of the Crucified, at whose fragrance the dead come to life again. And so we see how highly holy Helena is to be esteemed,

who both bore such a son and conferred so great a benefit upon our salvation.

[22] For as from the beginning of the world there was no end and no rest from unceasing disasters, changed until Christ the Savior of the world shone forth, who, as the rising sun floods the day with light, so, coming mercifully, clothed the world with an outstretched peace — whence the Psalmist: In the days of the Lord shall abundance of peace arise, and He shall have dominion — so from Nero down to Constantine (if small things may be compared with great) there rested scarcely the least leisure from the harassing of the Romans and the persecution of the Christians. Which anyone will easily see to have happened for this reason, that the princes themselves sought, and in all ways strove, unhappy men, unhappily not only to drive from themselves but also to extinguish in the whole world true peace; nor indeed were they men of any good will, to whom, when the Lord, the prince of highest peace, was born, the host of angels sang: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will; and therefore, so far as in them lay, they slew those who brought us the gift of peace, namely the incarnate Son of the eternal Father; in whom at last truly believing, Constantine, perhaps by the merits of his holy mother Helena ^d, being called to this through God's mercy, deserved to obtain peace both for himself and for his own.

[23] O blessed woman, to whom it fell to succor the world by a twofold service, namely of soul and of body; into a better for whom she bore in the body Constantine, the first ^e and great worshiper of the Christian faith and religion with the imperial scepter, and with all his might the greatest assailant and defender against all heresies, and chiefly against the deadly poison of Arian craft; and then in the course of time by the prudence of her religion and faith and of her vigorous soul she deserved to find the wood of the holy cross: thrice and four times blessed. For when from the parts of Gaul, in which she bore Constantine, holy Helena came to the Roman dignity on account of her son's excellence — at that time indeed the commonwealth was under four new princes, Constantine namely and Maxentius, sons of Augusti, and Licinius and Maximinus, new men. But when a civil war had arisen between Constantine and Maxentius, Maxentius, wearied by many battles, was at last struck down and killed at the Milvian Bridge [*]. In like manner, while Maximinus, the kindler of the persecution of the Christians, was preparing a civil war against Licinius, he perished at Tarsus. Which Licinius, having conquered Maximinus, when he was stirred by a sudden rage against the Christians, war blazed out between him and Constantine: but Licinius was crushed by Constantine and forced even to surrender. And so Constantine, having by divine disposition obtained the monarchy of the whole Roman empire, passed over ^f to the true religion and granted peace to the churches, so that in his times the canons of general councils began to be, and by synodal decision the Catholic faith grew strengthened ^g; and this with so great an advance that in his times even the nations of the Indians ^h and of the Irish ⁱ received the rudiments of Christian teaching. But true report also testifies that the Armenians were then first ^k made Christians.

[24] the state of the Roman empire Therefore, as has been said, on account of so great an excellence of her son, the mother Helena came to the city of Rome: and since she was a woman of much prudence, and governed the Roman empire together with her son by mildness and gentleness — she indeed by counsel ^l, and her son by valor — she began to explore the worship of the several nations, seeing the diversity of manners and of habit. For she had read and was reading many things to which she either did not dare to apply her mind, fearing falsehood, or hesitated, being ignorant of the truth; since she was now seeking to find certain knowledge about the word of God, about the creatures of the world, about the origin of the soul and its immortality, about the judgment to come and the resurrection of bodies; at length, being circumvented by the Jews, turning aside to Judaism ^m, she thought that she could there find the truth. Therefore, having become a Jewess in faith, she wished to be their associate in mind and body also. But neither did this happen without divine providence. For perhaps the grace of God, which was ordering holy charity in her, willed or permitted that she should know all the Jewish observances, figures, shadow, ceremonies, new moons, and sabbaths, so that, these being known, she might afterward more easily discern the most solid, so to speak, body of the truth in every kind — the Apostle testifying that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily: which we understand as if he said substantially. Then, that when the matter destined to her from heaven from the beginning of the world should be come to, she might more easily trample and destroy the letter that killeth, holding most firmly the spirit that giveth life. And so it came to pass; when, as we have in the deeds of blessed Silvester ⁿ, both her son Constantine Augustus by the grace of baptism obtained the faith of Christ, and blessed Helena, departing from Judaism, was made in the true faith and religion of the Christians a partaker of Christ, holding, according to the Apostle's teaching, the beginning of His substance through the grace of God unto the end.

VI.

[25] Therefore both Mother and son rise up to build the Church of Christ among all nations, state. the son taking up war against the enemies of the Church with much fortitude, and coming to trample down the forces of the heretics, relying upon the truth of the Catholic and Apostolic faith; and the Mother going forward with most valiant and manly constancy to drive away the shadows of the Jews; both [] being admonished in this by a dream, and Constantine also forewarned before he had received the grace of baptism, when he had undertaken the war against Maxentius. Which Maxentius [], as we have from the opinion of Socrates in the Tripartite History, was held at Rome as a tyrant, shamelessly practicing adulteries and killing the husbands of those women. Whom Constantine, wishing to crush and to free the Romans from disasters, pondered what God he should have as his help in war, knowing that the gods whom Diocletian worshiped profited nothing, and that his father had rather lived happily when he despised the religion of the pagans. Set therefore amid these anxieties, as Sozomen relates, he saw in sleep the sign of the cross splendidly set in the sky; and as he marveled at the vision, angels stood by, saying: O Constantine, in this conquer; and the rest concerning the same revelation. But the Mother, both for her son's anxiety and for the love with which she was most fervently kindled toward God, began earnestly to desire that they should find the wood of the holy cross.

VII.

[26] But since the emperor was occupied in battles with enemies, this precious business was committed to the holy mother Helena, In what manner and deservedly; for she both was strong in wisdom and evangelical doctrine and burned with wondrous love toward the Crucified. And so with a vast multitude and royal magnificence she goes to Jerusalem, and enters the city no longer a Jewess but a Christian, and began to seek with manly mind and most fervent zeal the wood of the holy cross.

Which was for that reason very difficult to find, because, as the ecclesiastical History relates, by Aelius Hadrian, at the suggestion of the pontiffs of the Jews, a temple to Venus had been built in that place. Which pontiffs did this in order that by envious jealousy they might take away the place from the faithful, that they might not be able to bend their knees to Christ there, where the image of a harlot woman was set up. But the most faithful Queen, the temple being utterly overthrown together with the said idol, found three crosses, of the Lord and of the thieves alike; about which, when hesitation had arisen, since it was not properly known which was the Lord's cross, according to the narrative of the aforesaid History, a venerable man, Macarius, at that time bishop of Jerusalem, resolved this doubt; which he who desires to know more fully, let him read the tenth book of that same History. But we have judged it not amiss if we here also briefly follow out that same account.

[27] At that time there was there a widow named Libania, The Saint who had formerly been a Jewess; but, her husband Isachar being dead, having left the perfidy of the synagogue, she betook herself to the Church of Christ. She at that time, being overtaken by a sudden death, was drawing her last breath with the final gasp of her breast: and the whole church had grief over her death, and there was boundless sadness over the hesitation about the Lord's cross. Set between both distresses, the man of God Macarius, bishop of that city, wishing to take away both the sorrow of the people and the anxiety of the Queen, ordered the pallet on which Libania lay to be carried. And when the body had been brought thither, bishop Macarius spread his hands to heaven and said: Thou, almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son didst deign to confer salvation on the human race by the passion of His cross; and now in the last times hast breathed into the heart of thy handmaid Helena to seek out the blessed wood on which our salvation hung, show now evidently which of these three was the cross for the Lord's glory, and which were for the punishment of slaves, that this woman, who lies half alive, as soon as the saving wood shall touch her, may be called back from the gates of death to life. And when he had said this, he applied first one of the three, and accomplished nothing; he applied the second, and not even so was anything done. But when he brought near the third, suddenly the woman, her eyes being opened, rose up, and, the steadiness of her strength recovered, began to run through the whole house much more briskly than when she had been well, and to magnify the power of the Lord. Thus the Queen, having obtained her desire by an evident token, built with royal magnificence a wondrous church in the place in which she had found the cross.

[28] found the cross of the Lord, The nails also with which the Lord's body had been fastened she carries to her son, of which he made bridles which he might use in war, and out of the others he is said to have furnished a helmet likewise fitted for the uses of war. But of the saving wood itself she brought a part to her son; and a part, laid up in silver caskets, she left in the place, which even now are kept [*] for a memorial with careful veneration. O happily blessed woman, who, holding especially the form of the Church — as the holy Church deserved by saving faith to find the Crucified, and to embrace Him with long-suffering hope, and to embrace Him forever in ordered charity — so blessed Helena too sought with zeal of faith, and with wondrous fervor deserved to find ^o the wood of the holy cross, meditating on the Crucified with so great devotion. And so it came to pass that the son triumphed over visible enemies, and the Mother over invisible. For indeed the son, seizing earthly arms, by the gift of God's grace, whose alone is the kingdom and power, honor and rule, glory and might, overcame and prevailed, wherever he turned, against barbarous nations. But the Mother, having obtained the grace of Christianity, did not, as has been said, suffer her soul and body to have rest until she attained her desire of finding the most sacred wood of the most precious cross, on which the kindly Jesus, true God and man, our most certain salvation, hung for His Church. How wonderful a mother is holy Helena! to whom it fell both to rule the world and to serve God, and to triumph over the devil by the finding of the holy cross: by whose merits her son is exalted, so far that in his times took place the finding of the wood which malignant fraud by diabolical prompting had hidden, and the Apostolic faith against all heresies was at the Nicene

council, in his presence and with his profession and confirmation, set forth. By which two causes the Catholic Church shines strengthened and victorious, and goes forth as the sun, and ever ascends to God like the rising dawn. Which the same Constantine foresignified, when, as the Tripartite History relates from the eighteenth chapter of the second book of Socrates, the public festivity of his vicennalia [p] being celebrated, he presently hastened to the raising of churches; and this he did in each several city, now holding the Church towered with faith; and he raised churches also in the city of his own name.

VIII.

[29] Which Jacob long before had prefigured, who, going out from Beersheba to go to Haran, foreshadowed in Jacob's ladder when he had come to a certain place and wished to rest there after the setting of the sun [q], putting stones under his head, slept in that place; and he saw in dreams a ladder standing upon the earth, and its top touching heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending by it, and the Lord leaning upon the ladder. And a little after: Rising therefore in the morning, he took the stone which he had put under his head, and set it up for a title, pouring oil upon it, and called the name of the city Bethel. Bethel, then, that is, the house of God, is the church, in which stands the ladder, whose sides we know to be the wood of the cross and the foundation of the Apostolic faith, whose top reaches to heaven; and the Lord also leaning on the ladder, who by His teaching and example calls us to go; and makes us go, and receives those who go from virtue to virtue, until we see the God of gods in Sion. But by the angels ascending and descending by it we understand the holy preachers, according to Paul, that excellent preacher, who ascending by that ladder said: For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; and again descending by the same he said: or whether we be sober, it is for you; and he saw the Lord leaning on the ladder, because the charity of Christ urged him.

[30] Therefore blessed Helena slept after the manner of Jacob, when she was admonished by a dream was shadowed forth. to hasten to seek, and to persist in finding, the hidden treasure, the sign and the wood of life. Which, being found, she set up like Jacob's stone for a title, when she brought forth that sign from its underground recess before the face of men. For with that title, both by the grace of religion and for the sake of defense, our forehead has been titled, and our soul and body fortified and, as it were, stamped with a seal. O blessed woman, kindled with the fire of divine love, most robust in faith, most patient in hope, nectar-sweet in charity! who, serving the zeal of piety and the desire of truth, brought to nothing the gall-cup of the devil, with which he gave us the bitterness of death to drink, when she restored the most holy cross, which bore and sustained for us the sweet wood of life against the wood of the bitterness of our death, the sweet nail against the presumption of our hands, the sweet weight of the body of Christ against the weight of our sin. For thus that valiant woman opposed to the envy of the devil, so far as by God's grace she could, the earnestness of her most sweet benevolence and kindness, that she might uncover his frauds and bring help to the human race that was in need of aid. O of how much worth the holy Church in the heavenly country esteems her before God, with all the orders of angels — the Church to which she brought so great a help in its pilgrimage on earth. For by so great a pledge she made it her debtor, so that every faithful soul embracing the Crucified loves her; believing in Him, praises her; hoping in Him, admires her; and, loving, worshiping, adoring, fearing, and trembling before Him before all things and above all things — nay, Him alone with the Father and the Holy Spirit with all its heart, all its soul, and all its strength — loves her in Him, and renders to her in Him a return of love: her who assuredly sprinkled abroad in the holy Church the odor of her sweetness, when by the finding of the wood of life she made present to us the odor of our life.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. That is, the twentieth year of his reign, which began in the year of Christ 325. Various things pertaining hereto have been gathered by Pagi at the same year, and by the author of the History of the Emperors, in Constantine, article 59.

q. Genesis 28, verse 11: He took of the stones that lay there, and putting under his head, etc.

* that is, a battle with God.

* the Milvian or Mulvian Bridge.

otherwise utique*

otherwise Maxentius*

otherwise servatur*

CHAPTER III.

The Saint conformable to divine providence; her deep modesty of mind; she is compared with the queen of Sheba; the integrity of her life.

IX.

For we know that the divine providence is good and likewise just, St. Helena, imitating the justice and mercy of God, and that by it the world and man are governed: and that man, by the changeableness of his nature and the liberty of his license, is both weak and stubborn, and that necessarily those in need of help must be governed by kindness, and the immoderation of liberty be corrected by justice; and therefore that from the beginning of man's creation this world is exercised by alternating goods and evils: of which divine providence blessed Helena took on the pattern, when by wonderful prudence, which proceeded from this, that the zeal of the house of God consumed her, she trampled also upon the necks of the proud, who wished to dissemble what perhaps they knew. Whence with heavenly vigor she threatened them with fire, and, as being stubborn in the liberty of license, ordered them to be burned with fire; and, the most celebrated finding of the wood of unspeakable sweetness being accomplished, and to all the world

most longed for, she cherished all with royal excellence and endowed them with imperial bounty.

[32] Moreover she showed herself a servant to the handmaids of God, marking the example of Mary the perpetual Virgin: who, when she obtained from the angel only Hail in the office of greeting, and the humility of the Virgin Mother, ministering to the handmaids of God. whereby the Woe of our death might be driven off or swallowed up, and was endowed with so singular a gift that the Father sent to her an angel to announce to her that of that co-eternal Son of His, whose co-eternal Father He was in heaven, she, a perpetual virgin, should become the temporal mother on earth, through this, that the Word which was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God, should in her virginal womb, by the assumption of flesh, be made flesh, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and by the fire of charity which she had drunk in through faith — so that, kindled with that charity of which it is written, God is charity, and set alight with that fire of which it is written, Our God is a consuming fire, she should conceive, instead of by the heat of seed, by the heat of faith and the fervor of charity; and therefore she brought forth the heavenly King and eternal Pontiff, consecrated forever in her most sacred virginity. Endowed therefore with so singular a privilege, she nevertheless answered the angel: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And so blessed Helena too, if small things may be compared with great — or rather, as must more safely and truly be confessed, in comparison with the all-holy [] Mary, nothing — yet because in most devout service she strove to please Him whose most precious Virgin Mother she had deserved to be, it must be said that she followed for herself the example of her Lady, or rather of the Lady of the whole world. For forgetting that she was the mother of the empire, and reckoning as of no worth that she was lady not only of the City but of the world, a banquet being made for the handmaids of God, she herself, standing by, undertook the office of serving ^a, they reclining and she ministering, desiring to serve Christ in them, and with pious devotion giving thanks to the Lord God for the accomplished business of her desire. And therefore she desired to be reckoned among the lowly of Christ, imitating Moses, of whom the Apostle says that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians*. Therefore, forgetting the pleasantness of an earthly empire, she transferred herself wholly to the service of the Lord, with faithful intent preparing herself for the profit of the Church: at whose deed Asia marvels, Africa is astonished, Europe rejoices. For we rightly assert the threefold-quartered ^b world beholden to her, who deserved to bring to light the wood of the cross, on which the Savior, hanging Himself, raised it up from the jaws of hell.

XI.

[33] In this manner therefore both mother and son preparing a ladder by which the Church may climb to heaven, What of Constantine? the Mother indeed in Judea exalting the cross of our Lord; but the son among the nations cherishing his subjects and repressing rebels for the extension of the profit of the present Church by the Roman empire, and confirming by synodal decisions and edicts the Apostolic faith, and destroying the forces of heretical depravity for the fruit of the holy Church which is built in the heavens. At Rome that same Constantine Augustus, his victories being accomplished, exults, and to him the Mother, the triumph of the finding of the holy cross being accomplished, returning, dances for joy. We omit indeed how blessed Helena from Judaism, and the unconquered Constantine from paganism, were brought over to the religion and faith of the Christian religion by the revelation of the Apostles and the preaching of blessed Pope Silvester ^c. For we have these things from writings, and therefore it is superfluous to repeat what has been said by others. But let us return to what we have set before us.

XII.

[34] Holding therefore, as has been said, the likeness of the present Church, holy Helena — in whose type the queen of Sheba had come from the ends of the earth, namely from Ethiopia, to hear the wisdom of Solomon — What the queen of Sheba laying aside the blackness of gentilism, with purity of faith and integrity of mind came to the true Solomon, no longer doubting nor bringing questions which seemed to her insoluble; but, being already taught about Him by the doctrine of the Apostles concerning the knowledge of the Word of God, concerning the creatures of the world, concerning the immortality and impassibility of the soul, and concerning the judgment to come, she had been made certain of those things about which the queen of Sheba had doubted and had proposed to king Solomon to be resolved. And so the queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem to king Solomon with a great multitude and power. She came bringing to king Solomon many spices, and gold, and every precious stone, and she spoke all that was in her heart. Then, having marveled at the king's prudence, she saw the house which he had built, she saw the food of Solomon, she saw the seat of his servants, she saw also the orders of his ministers, she saw the garments and the cupbearers, and his holocausts: and after she had seen all these things, she was amazed with exceeding admiration.

[35] So too came holy Helena, bearing [] the likeness of the Church, did with Solomon, to Jerusalem, that is, to the vision of peace, with a multitude of Roman soldiers and much power of the nations, bringing to the true Solomon, Christ, worthy gifts, that is the sweetnesses of perfumes, which are pure prayers and the good works of the Saints, with which blessed Helena wholly glowed and through these, and through the odor of such sweetness, she desired to come and ascend to God. She came also filled with pure gold, and with Catholic sense and understanding without doubt, and with the rational disciplines which by scholarly training, as being most noble, she had learned; and so by the advance of the faith and of the Christian religion she had gathered them by Apostolic teaching. She brought also precious stones, the chastity and probity of her manners, with the adornment of which she was strong with much vigor. With such an array therefore she comes in to the peaceful king, Christ, and opens to Him her heart, putting off blackness and putting on beauty. On which account Christ also, who is our peace, tells her all things, as, when the time of His passion drew near, He speaks to His disciples: Now I call you not servants, but friends; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have made known to you all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father.*

[36] So then the peaceful Son of God, the Lord, announces every word to the queen of Sheba, are compared with the deeds of St. Helena; the truth to the Church gathered from the gentiles, to blessed Helena, that queen, and one bearing especially in herself the person of the Church. She saw at last the house which He built, without doubt the mystery of His Incarnation: for that is the house which wisdom built for herself, having hewn out seven pillars; by which pillars holy Helena longed and desired to be ruled and upheld. She saw also the food, namely the work of the Father, which He came in the flesh to accomplish, whence He Himself speaks: My food is to do the will of Him that sent me, that I may accomplish His work; and He accomplished it, dying on the wood of the cross and rising from the sepulcher, of which God made this sacred Queen of whom we speak the finder; and therefore the more clearly she saw these things with the eyes of the heart and of faith, the more fervent she was to find the wood of the holy cross and the Lord's sepulcher. She saw also the seat of the servants, of the bishops and priests, who are for this reason called servants, because both by purity of heart and by cleanness of hands they strive to please God: who offer to God the sacrifice of praise in the consecration of the body and blood of the Lord. Of whom the Apostle, from the testimony of the Prophet, says: Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me. Which, expounding it, He Himself, privy to the heavenly secret, adds: Because therefore the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He also in like manner hath been partaker of the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the empire of death.

XIII.

[37] And because she ate and drank of that cluster which He alone had trodden in the winepress, and He Himself had been pressed out in it, whence to her virtues she sought the winepress with great eagerness, and could truly say in the person of the Church: My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus: for He who had been a bundle of myrrh in the passion was made a cluster of Cyprus in the resurrection. Blessed Helena therefore, mortifying her flesh and crucifying it with its vices and concupiscences, says: A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; and, exulting in the hope of the resurrection already accomplished in her Head, she rejoices that the same her beloved has been made a cluster for her. She saw at last the orders of the ministers also, namely of the levites and of all who faithfully minister to God. Whence she too showed herself a faithful minister to God, when, laying aside the purple of the kingdom, she served and ministered as a faithful handmaid to the handmaids of God. For she was fully instructed in the evangelical doctrine, in which she had learned that whatever she did to the least of Christ's she bestowed on Christ Himself; and therefore she judged it more excellent, more wholesome, and more powerful to serve the least [] of Christ than to rule the mighty of the world, as it was said also of Moses, that he judged the reproach of the Hebrews worthier than the kingdom of the Egyptians. She saw also the garments, of which the Apostle says: As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.* And since Christ had clothed her with the garment of salvation and had surrounded her with the robe of justice, she rejected garments woven with gold and jeweled necklaces.

[38] to be reviewed She saw also his cupbearers, namely the teachers, who give the word of God and the divine doctrine to the faithful peoples to drink, like wine which gladdens the hearts of the hearers: and indeed this wine too blessed Helena had drunk from the cupbearers of Christ, she who, either equaling or surpassing the queen of Sheba in the riches of the world, but trampling her in spiritual things, believed with the heart unto justice and confessed with the mouth unto salvation. She saw also his holocausts, without doubt the mysteries of prayers and supplications; which holocaust blessed Helena, daughter, sister, and mother of the Church, always offered to the Lord after she deserved to come to the knowledge of the truth, serving the Lord day and night with prayers, fastings, and entreaties: ready also to offer herself a holocaust and sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness, if a persecutor had not been wanting. I call Jesus to witness, our common and singular hope, that she would gladly, at eighty years, have doubled the troubles, labors, and griefs of this pilgrimage and the hardships of the world for the love of martyrdom alone, if it had been the Lord's will; nor would she be found unequal to any holy martyr; nay, exulting and rejoicing, as if invited to the bridegroom's chamber and to the famous banquet of the marriage feast, she would run of her own accord to the crown of martyrdom, would hasten impatiently, would gladly offer her body to be handled by torments with such thanksgiving that she would keep festival even amid the stripes, and scorched and almost consumed upon the gridiron would solemnly rejoice. Him who saw the desire of her heart, and who knows the hearts of each, I believe, hope, and trust that I have as witness: that if she were called to martyrdom among many, she would first give her name, stretch out her hands, mount the rack, and answer with emulation the love of the Crucified, which was strong as death, hard as hell.

[39] the author of this homily proceeds. And therefore, although she desired Christ insatiably, yet for the love of martyrdom alone she would bravely endure for Him the long continuance of this pilgrimage. And if, bound to a stake and stretched out in the manner of a cross, she were made ready as food for beasts, such a death would be dearer to her than her whole present life

such a triumph; and with undaunted face, hanging on the stake, she would gladly sing a new canticle to the Lord. But the crown of martyrdom was not lacking to blessed Helena, which our Lord Jesus Christ, weaving it together of various flowers, offers to the Father, that from Him, as the camps of a faithful soldiery, the victors of the great contest may receive the recompense of eternal rewards. It was not lacking, I say, it was not lacking to blessed Helena, the crown of martyrdom, who rendered herself so conformable to the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ that she would even then have wished to break off the present life, had she not, obtaining her vow, found the wood of the most sacred cross, by which we have been given a leading to eternal life, through the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who, hanging upon it, gave examples of so unspeakable a patience that by so dying He deigned to make out of the weak sound men, out of the impious just men, and out of enemies friends, when He found none sound, none just, none at all a friend. And therefore the holy Martyrs vowed themselves and offered to God a sacrifice of praise in the contest of martyrdom, because so great a love and so sure a hope could greatly soften their torments, so far as concerned their minds sprinkled with the good odor of Christ. With this odor, then, blessed Helena was filled, in whose special prefiguration — the understanding of the universal Church being preserved, which is joined not now to the typical but to the true lawgiver, as the Ethiopian woman to Moses, and comes from the ends of the earth in all nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, who is, as He Himself says, more than Solomon, because the truth is greater than the figure, and incomparably greater is God and man, one person from two and in two natures, than any man however mighty, just, and wise. These things therefore were done as a figure of the Church. They were done also in foresignification of holy Helena, who came from the ends of the earth not only to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our peace, who made both one, but also to seek and by the grace of God to find the wood of life, on which for us hung our reconciler and peacemaker, our salvation and our life.

ANNOTATIONS.

* that is, most holy

otherwise gerens*

otherwise ministris*

CHAPTER IV.

The Saint compared with Jeremiah, and with Helena queen of the Adiabeni; the relics received at Jerusalem; her gifts of grace; her journey into the Holy Land praised, and Constantine.

XIV.

That too greatly foreshows a sign of blessed Helena Jeremiah cast into the pit, which is written in Jeremiah: that the princes of the people of Israel cast Jeremiah into the pit… ^a. And what more? Abimelech was an Ethiopian, who brought Jeremiah out of the pit. Behold, in this is there not now a manifest likeness plain to any reader, that by the envy of the Jews the wood of the cross was hidden and concealed, and by the zeal and fervent piety of blessed Helena was brought out of the pit of the ditch, and, as was fitting and most necessary for us, was exalted upon the altars of the Church?

XV.

[41] O venerable and in every way admirable woman! that thou art black by gentilism, but fair by the conversion and purity of faith. and the Saint representing Helena queen of the Adiabeni The Ethiopian woman in the Law marks thee: whence the king of Jerusalem in his epithalamium, beholding thee as it were in likeness, and taking on thy person, and holding also prophecy in his manifold wisdom, speaks beforehand of thee: I am black, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. But that thou art filled with the odor of virtues, enriched indeed with the gold of understanding, and adorned with precious stones by the probity of thy manners, the queen of Sheba foretitles in king Solomon. And that thou wast to be the finder of the most precious wood of the most holy cross, which had been covered by the perfidious error of the Jews, Abimelech [*] in the prophet figures. But thy namesake also, Helena queen of the Adiabeni ^b, preludes thee in this, that in the time of the famine ^c under Claudius — of which famine the book of the Acts of the Apostles also makes mention ^d — she supplied to the needy people of Jerusalem grain bought with much money from Egypt and brought to Jerusalem; foresignifying by this deed that thou, wondrous Woman, being to go and find the wood of the cross, wouldst minister to us the food of life. And if she for this work deserved a noble sepulcher ^e before the gates of Jerusalem, who could suffice to say with how great reverence and love thou art worthy in the holy Church, who hast taken from it the famine of life and the peril of death by the finding of the holy cross? In this way therefore, as in name so in work, she was thy figure, O blessed Helena.

XVI.

[42] Truly thou hast known thyself, O fair among women, and hast known the causes of thy beauty. she shines with various virtues. Therefore thou hast fed not kids but sheep; and against the hardness of the Jews, O valiant Woman of manly soul, thou hast brought a tongue of which it is written, The tongue of the just is silver tried by fire, in which first thou didst direct to God the speech of thy faith. Secondly thou didst frame words about the Bridegroom of the Church. Thirdly, to the young maidens, that is to the daughters of Jerusalem, among whom and the Bridegroom thou wast made a certain middle one, as it were a leader of the chorus ^f, thou didst both deliver [] these words of consolation and turn a face of much humility. Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return: thou returnest indeed by purity of faith, thou returnest by perfection of works, to the knowledge of thy Redeemer, to the peace of brotherly kinship, in which the Church, trusting and daring, says: Our Father, who art in heaven.* And therefore we see in thee the choirs of the camps, namely the soldiery of peace, with which thou both appliest thyself to the divine praises and, as with the hands of armed men, drivest back and confoundest all the ranks of the enemy, until, the contest being finished, thou enterest into the rest of thy Lord.

XVII.

[43] Thus blessed Helena, who stood as queen at the right hand of the Lord in gilded raiment, She gathers relics: as a bee makes out of divers flowers the nectar-sweet comb of honey, so she too made out of divers relics of martyrs a casket: in which she also laid up a little knife ^g which our Lord Jesus Christ used at the most sacred banquet of the supper. With which admirable and desirable dignity she wished to fortify and distinguish her own region, so that she who was to the whole world the pillar of restoration by the finding of the holy cross might be also in some measure the special ornament of her country. For her soul, consecrated to God, strove with intent mind and with all the earnestness of devotion she could to imitate the death of Him by whom she knew herself redeemed, mindful of that Apostolic saying: And they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences. Therefore in these things she was, and on these she meditated: namely, either by sacred readings, assiduous prayers, frequent fastings, and many vigils to share in the sufferings of Christ, or to render due veneration to the Saints who had gone before, and especially to those whom she knew to have deserved to shed their blood for Christ and to have fulfilled even in the flesh that charity which by the heavenly precept and teaching they had drunk in with the mind. For indeed she knew that the price of wisdom is not found in her own land, but in the land of the living [], and that Christ had come into the world for nothing but sufferings, that for all to whom by the desert of sin punishment was owed, Christ Himself, by the grace alone of His loving-kindness, might by His momentary punishment put an end to our eternal one. And with so great and so unspeakable a power was so great a patience mingled, that by the death of the cross He came to the aid of a world vehemently given over to death that raged with impious dominion. Foreknowing this by religious faith, blessed Helena strove to love in return Him who without any merits of ours esteemed our littleness so highly that He even bore away [] our infirmities and sorrows, in which we were failing unto perpetual death, and crucified together our old man, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer serve sin: of whom the bride also, and in her holy Helena, says in the Song of Songs: My kinsman ^h is white and ruddy: white in the fullness and purity of virtues; ruddy in the passion, when, the sun fleeing, the ages feared eternal night.

XVIII.

[44] But our Helena received beauty from Him, her life is praised; so that not only was she called by name the moon, but also by faith and work was made fair as the moon, chosen as the sun, terrible as an army set in array: for she was made fair as the moon, because, illumined by the sun of justice, she flooded the night of this world, by living justly and piously, with the light of a pious conversation. Chosen as the sun; because, receiving from Him, by whom she was enlightened, the image of her Creator, and keeping it unimpaired after the knowledge of the truth, she went forward in truth and meekness and justice, serving Him in holiness, and truly giving thanks to the Lord who has signed upon us the light of His countenance. Or fair as the moon, because she imitated the form of the holy Church, which in the night of the present life, the state of the times varying, is sometimes bright to the world, as in the evangelical doctrine and Apostolic preaching; sometimes despised by the snares of heretics; sometimes oppressed, as in the holy Martyrs. And so the Helena of the Christians was now made bright to the world by finding the wood of the cross; now despised, bearing [*] in herself the troubles of the Church; now oppressed, because she joined her mind and soul to the Martyrs. But chosen as the sun she will be in the blessedness to come, in which, the state of eternity abiding, she will enjoy the true vision of the unchangeable light. Finally she was terrible as an army set in array, who, holding the shield of faith with which she might quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one, could never by any adversities, even if they had befallen, be hindered from showing in herself both the beauty of the moon and of the sun — namely by the holy action of the moon and by the blessed contemplation of the eternal sun: and in this way, setting in herself the order of the virtues, she was terrible to the powers of the air.

XIX.

[45] But thus far, for the knowledge of the matter, we have noted the rise and progress of holy Helena, as also and have sailed with prosperous winds; now, turning to the point of her departure, our discourse runs as it were into the shoals. The ecclesiastical History relates that, after the Queen received an evident token of the cross of Christ from the resurrection of the dead woman, having obtained her vow, she built with royal magnificence a wondrous church ⁱ in the place in which she had found the cross. The nails also with which the Lord's body had been fastened she carries to her son, of which he made bridles which he might use in war; and out of the others he is said to have furnished a helmet likewise fitted for the uses of war: but of the saving wood itself she brought a part to her son; and a part, laid up in silver caskets, she left in the place, which even now is kept for a memorial with careful veneration. The venerable Queen left this token also of a religious mind: [for] the virgins whom she found there, consecrated to God

she is said to have invited to a meal, and to have waited on them with such devotion that she thought it unworthy to use the tokens [] of her attendants; but with her own hands, girded in a servant's dress, she would set food before them, hold out the cup, pour water on their hands; and the Queen of the world and mother of the empire reckoned herself the handmaid of the handmaids of Christ. And these things indeed were done at Jerusalem. With this the Tripartite History also agrees, narrating thus: And so the emperor's Mother, recognizing what she desired, of the nails with which the hands of Christ had been pierced sent some into the emperor's helmet, [bearing the prudence of her son's head, that it might turn aside the darts of war; others she mingled with the horse's bridle, so that,] exercising the emperor's caution, she also fulfilled an ancient prophecy. For long ago Zachariah the prophet had cried, saying: And that which is on the bridle shall be holy to the Lord almighty ^k. But of the saving cross she distributed some part indeed to the royal treasures, and the remaining part, enclosed in a silver casket, she delivered to the priest of the city, and, gathering workmen from every side, she built there very great and adorned churches ^l.*

[46] her journey These things being so done, the banquet being given to the sacred virgins, and she herself bearing the service of a handmaid, being past ^m the eightieth year of her age, and doing things like these, she returned to her son, and with gladness passed from the world, committing to her son many charges of piety, having fulfilled her last blessings ⁿ. For the manifestation and certainty of the matter I have set down the substance of the history, that our discourse may be propped and strengthened by its authority, on whose authority the present Church also relies. But as to what both Histories say, that she returned to her son and so died, lest about so great a woman, divinely prepared as a remedy for men, there should be any hesitation whether she returned to her son at Constantinople or at Rome, Eusebius resolves this doubt. Jerome, who, as Bede of most keen wit sets forth in his Chronicle, says that she returned to her son at Rome, who by the unconquerable might of arms had by that time subdued on his own soil the Sarmatians ^o, the Goths [p], and other barbarous nations, until she at Jerusalem — whither [*] she had hastened, admonished by a dream — confounding the Jews and bringing Judaism to nothing, and driving out from it all the filth of idols, suddenly ordered that most wicked temple to be cast down; and, the Lord's monument being laid open, there appeared about it three crosses buried, and the nails likewise, and the title [q]. And fitly: because in the place where the Lord was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new monument. And so the venerable Queen was made victress by the grace of God, and, having obtained her desire, found the thrice-blessed wood on which God-made-man was stretched out, and, weighing Himself upon it as on a balance as our price, paid our debt; and, dying on that very wood of the cross, He tempered His drink with weeping, triumphed over the devil with perpetual dancing, and redeemed the world: for He destroyed death and gave life. And these things being accomplished, she returns to her son, pressing on with works of mercy, and, as the historiographer says, doing things like these — she in whose heart was that perpetual fire which is said never to fail upon the altar, and whose soul the plowshare of Apostolic preaching had so impressed that on the one hand the zeal of the house of God consumed her, and on the other she languished for divine love. Who, after forsaking the error of gentilism, being fervent in Judaism, as once the Apostle Paul, thinking that only there was the knowledge of the truth to be had, had deserved to be blessed with the face and contemplation of the truth, through the teaching of holy Silvester. Rising therefore she went about the city through the streets and squares, seeking him whom her soul loved.

[47] The watchmen who keep the city found her; blessed Pope Silvester, a watchman still living in the flesh, found her. into the land And when she had passed by all these, she found him whom she loved, because they showed and commended by example the Jesus whom they preached by word or taught by writing, to be not only true man, in whom He was made a priest forever, but also true God, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, King of the ages, of whom the Psalmist says: O God, give thy judgment to the king, and thy justice to the king's son. And she believed with faith, and reached out with hope, and the eye of charity poured out from heaven saw. Finally, in faith she imitated the Apostle Paul, because the more harshly she had departed from Judaism, the more tenaciously she afterward, when the light of truth was known, clave to Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life: mightily she confounded the Jews, who, following the letter that killeth, could not by a special [*] understanding see through to the spirit that giveth life. For she had been made a mother, and such a one that a worthy offspring answered to her: for she bore Constantine, [and] that I may repeat these things in a recapitulation; who, in the very font of his baptism [r], beholding Christ with the devotion of his mind, was likewise the destroyer of idols, the builder of the Church, the keenest assailant of heretics, and the surest defender of the Catholic faith — whose faith he will best be able to prove who reads his letter to Sapor [s], king of the Persians, written about the providence exercised toward the people of God: for, keeping with manly mind the admonitions of piety received from his mother, and adorned with that piety, he had care not only of his subjects but even of those who were governed by other rule.

[48] For in that same letter he preached the most sacred faith the Saint: on which occasion by which he deserved to share in the light of truth: he professed that he held the venerable worship, the religion, and the doctrine of the knowledge of the most holy God, whose power having as his help, he testifies that with the firmest hope of salvation he had obtained the whole world, beginning from the bounds of the ocean; and he professes that he honors with immortal remembrance such and so great a God, alone living, eternal, and true, and that He is above all things; that he believes this with pure and highest mind, and always adores Him with vast vows, with bowed neck and bended knees — Him to whom every knee is bowed of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; who demands of us a pure mind and an unstained soul, seeks out virtues and acts of piety, delights in works of meekness and clemency, gathers up the humble and punishes the proud; whom, as to confess is life, so to deny is assuredly to die with death. Certainly in this manner Constantine Augustus, teaching God, not only had his subjects everywhere devoted, being master of all Europe and Libya, holding also above these the greatest part of Asia; but many of the barbarians also served him of their own accord, and, if any wished to fall away, Constantine was there like a thunderbolt, and triumphing over them by strength given from heaven: and so the emperor was seen a victor in all things. These things we have set down for this reason, that it may be seen with how wondrous benevolence Constantine Augustus looked to the favorers of piety, having in mind his father's modesty and, as it were naturally implanted in his mind, his mother's piety.

[49] Constantine also is extolled. For he wrote these things because he had learned that the Christians settled in the region of the Persians were vehemently afflicted by the impious, and that their king, raging in errors, inflicted upon them divers and exquisite torments — who raged against the Christians with such madness that he spared not even Ustazades [t] [], his own most faithful foster-father and one devoted in his familiarity, nor pitied his old age, but ordered him to be killed for the true faith; and moreover on one day, which was the sixth feria of the greater week, on which, before the day of the Resurrection, the yearly memory of the saving passion is celebrated with a solemn office of the passion, the aforesaid king Sapor ordered a hundred in number, long before shut up in prison for the true faith, to be killed together with blessed Simeon, archbishop of Seleucia [u]. So devoid was that king both of God and of the humanity of our Lord, which He deigned to put on for our salvation. Learning of which madness of cruelty, Constantine wrote to him by his own [] envoys, who were then present, admonitions of piety which he had received from his mother Helena, wishing both to free the king from error, and asking that the worshipers of the true God might obtain worthy honor with him, setting himself forth in this as an example, who preached almighty God with all the earnestness he could: to whom he had by due right submitted the neck of his faith, and whom he asserted with most true profession to be terrible to sinners and gentle to the just: whence also, most greatly fearing and loving Him who is terrible, kindly, alone to be loved above all, who alone in the Trinity is to be adored, worshiped, dreaded, venerated, and glorified, the one and true God, he had the greatest care for the Christians; but he so turned away from the superstitions of the pagans that he publicly exposed to mockery in the city of Constantinople their images once adorned, and gave the Delphic tripods [x] as a spectacle in the theater [y].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Of the Goths conquered by Constantine there is treatment in the same History, in the same place, article 48, among the things which Constantine did in the year 323.

q. That the title of the cross was truly found is confirmed in the Preliminary Commentary, §7, number 69.

r. The controversy about the baptism of Constantine was long ago discussed in our work, volume V of May, on the 20th day, from page 14.

s. A copy of that letter is extant in Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 4, chapter 9 and following, from page 530 of the Valois edition.

t. There is treatment of him in our work, volume II of April, on the 21st day, page 844; but his martyrdom took place after the death of Constantine, if indeed it must be attached to the year 349, as is there marked: on which matter Tillemont disputes in volume 7 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, article 4 on St. Simeon, and in note 2 upon that same Saint, affirming that the year in which he underwent martyrdom is uncertain; and consequently also that of St. Usthazanes, who suffered one day before him, as he had premised in the same article 4, and as is said in our work at the place cited.

u. Of this bishop and of the hundred other Persian Martyrs, etc., consult our volume which I have just indicated.

x. The Poetic History written in French by our Gautruche, and afterward rendered into Latin by another of ours, writes thus to our purpose, book 1, chapter 5: But as concerns the places where Apollo gave his oracles, Delphi is chiefly recorded: there was seen a temple most magnificent in the elegance of its work… In that temple the rites were performed by a priestess called Phoebas, or Pythia, and Pythoness, who, sitting on a small three-footed table, inspired by the divine power, received the enthusiasm from Apollo. This table was called a tripod, and cortina, because it was covered with the skin of the serpent Python.

y. The fact is confirmed from Socrates, whom we shall cite in the Annotations below on chapter 5: Certainly, he says, he publicly set forth the images of the gods for the adornment of the city of Constantinople, and exhibited the Delphic tripods in the circus of that same city.

read Abdemelech*

otherwise legisti*

otherwise not to be found in the land of those who live pleasantly*

otherwise toleraret*

otherwise perferens*

otherwise ministeriis*

* namely the city

otherwise spirituali*

otherwise Usthazani*

otherwise suos*

CHAPTER V.

The praises of Constantine for the two churches he built; of Helena, for the cross she found; sacred relics sent by her elsewhere; her death; her divine gifts.

The church of Irene, Finally, being strong in the sweetness of a twofold charity, he made in that same city two churches, one of which he willed to be called Irene ^a, acknowledging the gift of peace which the grace of God deigned to grant to the pilgrim Church in his times. For in Greek Irene is in Latin peace, which, when the Lord was born, the angels announced to have been brought and given to us, singing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will: but the other he ordered to be called [*] by the name of the Apostles ^b, who set forth to us the peace delivered to them by the heavenly master, by a temporal leaving and an eternal giving; and who, as true and holy preachers, made manifest to the world the mercy and judgment of God, and, bearing peace, enlightened the nations. He made therefore, as has been said, two churches in the aforesaid city, one which he called Irene, that is, peace. For he had shaken his neck free from the tumult of demons and of vices, and by believing in the true peace had obtained the gift of the highest peace.

[51] and of the Apostles, Constantine founds: But the other he called of the Apostles, who brought us the gifts of holy [*] peace. Let the reader consider, therefore, with how great a height of faith Constantine Augustus was fervently distinguished, and by the grace of God constantly unconquered — whose mother, because so great a force of the love of Christ had drenched her as had long ago kindled Mary Magdalene, and because she could not see Him present, turned her purpose to the search for the wood on which our Lord as victor fulfilled His course. She sought therefore at first, and did not find; she persevered in seeking, as Mary also sought the Crucified. Whence it came about that she found the wood of the cross, on which God-made-man, being lifted up, drew all things to Himself; through which all adversities are driven back, all blessings are hallowed, all gifts are bestowed: and by which was made, as Augustine says, a power for the sound to persevere, a power for the sick to grow well, a power for the dying not to fear, a power for the dead to rise again, a power finally to put to flight and trample down every power of the enemy; because on it hung He who, in His patience made the sacrament and example of all these things, reconciles us to God the Father, and, being our advocate and judge, pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

[52] Helena sends relics into Gaul. Therefore holy Helena, showing works of charity to all, clothing herself with bowels of mercy, and perfecting [] them from day to day, returned to her son at Rome; and sending from thence to her own country most sacred pledges of the holy Martyrs, which she herself would have wished to bring if her son had permitted, the Lord not consenting — perhaps because Gaul had been unworthy of so great a privilege — the Queen could not in this fulfill her vow; but in the river Doubs ^c the ship which carried the chest suffered shipwreck: on which river the city of Besançon is situated, and the water became for a long time the guardian of that most holy chest; with which most precious relics, after a very long time and with great difficulty raised from the water, the aforesaid city deserved in part to be distinguished. But why do we longer delay from the affection of our humanity, prolonging her death, as if that could be deferred by a space of time which we defer by the delay of speech? — if indeed that is to be called delay by which almost nothing has been said worthy of comparison with so valiant a Woman, nor perhaps what befits the works of her piety, matter failing through ignorance and forgetfulness, which age brings upon all things unless the most skillful industry and shrewd sagacity of writers come to the rescue. But a few things were not to be kept silent, because more tokens of her goodness could not be known. We render therefore to her the pledge of our devotion, who so greatly strove to profit us; and knowing that no tears of bitterness, but of much sweetness, hang from her whom assuredly we love by the inspiration of our crucified Lord, and in Him we venerate her, our pen now composes her death, nor do our hands fall from such a writing for grief, because we truly believe her established in eternal life, who after the death of the human condition lives in Christ, death being left behind, which even now shall be swallowed up at the end of the world. Not therefore as though straining our sinews to words do we begin the text of her decease, who, filled with good repute and good odor, passed to the joys of the heavenly life, and who by the grace of God, while she lived in the body, extinguished the complaint of the human condition, when man says to reason: I desire to be strengthened in hope, but I cannot be left by human tenderness; before my eyes I have the tears of our mortality, which break me, while I recall ashes after a man, and turn as it were ashes taken up to my breast; but reason prevails, when it truly proves that those then live better and more truly, nay only then live, who live in Christ, the burden of the flesh being left and laid down.* O how happily did holy Helena trample on this complaint! who, passing to the heavenly country, left the present Church beholden to her in all love of piety and devotion.

[53] Let us therefore, as we can, solemnly adorn, as with a certain brush ^d, She departs most piously if not with the eloquence of words, at least with the painting of devotion and of due charity, the passing of holy Helena, by which she deserved to come to the angelic solemnity and the fellowship of the Saints. Not therefore was blessed Helena dismayed in mind at what happened to the sacred relics; but always desiring to follow the will of the Lord and His good pleasure with a perfect and most excellent heart, and longing unceasingly and fervently to embrace Him in most blessed contemplation, when at last she heard the Lord calling her and saying to her: Arise, make haste, my love, my beautiful one, my fair one, my dove, and come; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; and now the time of thy pruning is come, that, loosed from the bonds of the flesh, thou mayest come to me, whom by fighting the good fight, by finishing thy course, by keeping the faith thou hast sought; and that there may be fulfilled to thee what I promised to my faithful, because he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him — therefore when she heard these things with the ears of the inner man, out of the great desire with which she wished to be dissolved and to be with Christ ^e, rejoicing she gladly answered: Grant, most loving God, that, numbered [] among the daughters of Sion, thou wouldst at last allow me to go forth from the troubled converse of this world, in which, long absent from thee and a pilgrim, I have nevertheless sought thee with faithful devotion. It is time, O Lord God, that I journey from the body, that being present I may deserve to behold thee, the King of peace and of glory and the Lord of hosts, shining in thy diadem — not that with which thy mother crowned thee, but that with which, rising from the dead and ascending into heaven, thou abidest crowned, sitting at the right hand of peace [].

[54] Most gladly, O Lord, do I follow the saying of that drama ^f: Go forth, and see, ye daughters of Sion, king Solomon: permit me, I pray, O Lord, from this life: to go forth out of the midst of Babylon, since I desire to have a part in the heavenly Jerusalem. Would that I might see thy flowers in the region of the living! which, abiding unfading, bloom there in pleasant loveliness with eternal light unto perpetual exultation, that I may see thee in the goodness of thy elect: namely in which goodness thy elect see thee forever: and this with hands outstretched and intent heart I pray, O Lord, because now the time of my cutting is come. For now the flowers have appeared in the land, the time of pruning is come. And now it is time that, the burden of the flesh being cut away and laid down, as I believe, hope, and trust in thee, I may see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living, whom with my whole heart I have always desired in the land of the dead; in which land, for the working out of my own salvation and my neighbors', for which, O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, thou didst deign to be incarnate and to die, I have labored as much as I could. And amid those blessings with which she filled her son and animated him in divine fear and love, and those with which, blessing the Lord, she glorified Him and gave thanks for all the good things mercifully bestowed upon her by Him, laying down the burden of the flesh [*] she rendered her spirit to heaven, while blessings and thanksgivings were still in her mouth, on the VIII of the Ides of February ^g. Thus therefore blessed Helena,

who had imitated the likeness of death according to the Apostle, who says, The world is crucified to me and I to the world — who had carried about the death of Jesus in her body, that the life of Jesus also might be manifested in her body: for death had wrought in her whatever it would, that life also might work; the contest being ended and the labor finished, and the work fulfilled through the course of the present life, after victory she passed to the good life, so that she has now no strife with the body of death, but has a firm and abiding victory over the body of death.

[55] divine gifts For the Lord had painted her walls with the colors of the virtues, as He Himself speaks to Jerusalem: Behold, I have painted thy walls in my hands; when by the gift of His grace He granted her most firm walls, from which, standing above, she might see with the gaze of her eyes that she was one of those faithful souls of whom it is written: I am a fortified city, I am a beleaguered city: and might have the hearing of ears in understanding, and discipline in her manners: and finally by the office of her hands might gather her myrrh, that is, might mortify her flesh: for myrrh is the burial of the dead, whence the Magi also offered among other things myrrh to the Lord, whom they saw to have taken on mortal flesh. Blessed Helena therefore, fruitful in these instruments of walls, set forth to the Lord her soul adorned with the flowers of the virtues like a garden, and which had in itself a budding paradise, whence she both destroyed worldly things and built up spiritual; and therefore she did not receive her soul in vain, which assuredly she would do if she destroyed worldly things and built bodily ones, which always tend to ruin: for such things have not the foundation, Christ Jesus our Lord.

[56] most abundantly heaped upon her. Since therefore the soul of holy Helena was fortified by the grace of God with such and so great a defense that neither the principalities and powers of the air of the world, nor the rulers of these darknesses, could, while she was a pilgrim in the body, either break her from the wall of her solidity, or hinder her as she walked uprightly and tended to higher things, nor were able to cast her down and recall her to earthly things — therefore, stripped of the body, in pure liberty she followed the Word of God, the Lamb of God, the Son of the Father, even to the fellowship of perpetual light, in which with the rest of the Saints she has this unspeakable recompense, to see the face of God and the light which enlightens every man coming into the world, which is life eternal and glory everlasting: for she strove that her soul might draw near to God, [that her prayer might draw near and her desire cleave to Him, while she lived in this world: where, being set, she wrestled with every kind of purpose, by meditating, reading, seeking to be joined to the Lord God.] Therefore there remains for her for this a vast reward forever, with the fellowship of the citizens above in a paradise of delight not earthly but heavenly; where, according to blessed Ambrose, Adam, who fell among robbers, no longer knows how to weep for his wounds: where the robber himself also rejoices in the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom; where no clouds, no thunders, no lightnings, no storm of winds, neither darkness nor evening, neither summer nor winter shall vary the changes of the seasons; there will be no cold, no hail, no rains, no use of this sun or moon, nor of the globes of the stars, but there shines there the brightness of God alone ^h.

ANNOTATIONS.

otherwise dicari*

otherwise salutiferæ*

otherwise profitens*

otherwise intemeratam*

otherwise Patris*

The Manuscripts of St. Martin and of St. Maximin: carnis*

CHAPTER VI.

Her heavenly glory; her burial; the author's apostrophe to Constantine and to the Roman people.

To her merits There therefore blessed Helena, rejoicing and reigning after her release from the body, sees the reward for which she sighs and which the harmony of the angels insatiably desires: namely the Word which was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God. For by the grace of God she both was, and what here she sought by faith, hope, and charity, there she found, charity alone being poured out, faith and hope being turned into sight and reality: for there she found the living with the Living, that is the Son with the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from both by a nectar-sweet and secret treasure. She is not therefore anxious, nor can she now be, about the sins of the age, the iniquities of the world, and the waves of bodily passions, because there by His Holy and just Spirit she deserves to contemplate Him who is the remission of all sins. Nor is she anxious about death, who sees face to face Him who says: I am the life, and to whom whosoever shall come shall not see death forever; because He Himself is the fullness of the Godhead, who therefore deigned in the way to drink of the torrent of our death, that He might make us partakers of His life.

[58] answers heavenly glory. Easily therefore will whoever attends be able to see with how great gladness and eagerness holy Helena passed from the world, who dying commended to her son many charges of piety, not leaving even in death the Apostolic doctrine which had taught her that piety is profitable to all things. For piety it is that has the promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come; which is the rule of living and the form of worshiping God. Therefore the holy Mother, going by the exercises of piety to the life to come and likewise eternal, strove to commend to her son piety, which has the promise of the life that now is also: for both small life and great is from the Lord God, that through it he might be able to come to that life which abides forever, and which, so far from succumbing in any way to death, itself swallows up death in perpetual victory. Thanks be to the Lord God, who has given us so great a victory through God, Christ our Lord. To that life indeed the holy mother Helena wished her son to come, filling him with her last blessings, imitating Jacob and Moses, the understanding in them being preserved concerning the mystical sacrament of Israel and the calling of the gentiles. Therefore in this manner holy Helena, completing the course of her body, departed from the world and came to the Lord, and in Him rested in perpetual gladness, in most blessed delight, and in a most perfect station.

XX.

[59] But as we said above, on the teaching of Bede, on the authority of Jerome, without any doubt, all things being accomplished for which she had gone to Jerusalem, Of the place of her burial, and the author's digressions she returned to her son at Rome, and there ^a fulfilled the course of her life, that, passing into the heavenly country, she might see the good things that are in Jerusalem all the days of her life; and, as the Tripartite History, and the aforesaid Bede in his Chronicle, and the book which is entitled Deeds of the Roman Pontiffs testify, there she was buried by her son, who, embalming her with spices, buried her on the Lavican Way between the Two Laurels ^b, in the village of Drepanum ^c, which village prince Constantine dedicated as the city Helenopolis by his Mother's name ^d, where he made her a mausoleum, carving in stone a sepulcher of wondrous size and of elaborate structure, of royal excellence and of much dignity: and well between the Two Laurels — she assuredly who had always been green with the ardor of a twofold charity. Fitly too she had burial in a village once called Drepanum. For indeed, since in Greek drepanos is interpreted in Latin sickle, that same place, which was transferred from a village to a city in name [], and from a sickle in signification to the moon, which in Greek is called Helenos ^e, was most fitly assigned for burial to her who, judging the twofold sickle of the divine examination by the balance of equity, as is that of man's justice, strove in this world to cut away superfluous things with the threefold sickle of thoughts, words, and works, to chastise her body with the Apostle and to bring it into subjection, having this before her eyes: If we judged ourselves, we should not be judged.* And knowing that if we judge ourselves, we are indeed judged by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world; and in this way we are judged by the Lord through His mercy unto salvation, and are not judged by that judgment unto condemnation. For He it is who has both sickles, namely that of the reaper and that of the vintager.

[60] Led therefore by this, and foreknowing these things with due veneration, on that occasion and possessing her soul in her patience according to the Lord's precept, blessed Helena strove by the holy showing forth of good works to pass from the village of this world, in which the Church is a pilgrim, to the heavenly city, the Jerusalem above, her country and her dwelling [*]. And deservedly too was a sepulcher fitted to her

of purple color ^f, she assuredly who with most fervent devotion and with that faith which works through love had clung to Him who appeared in the flesh clothed in a purple robe, and, dying on the cross for us, poured out His blood as the price of our redemption; to the love of whose most valiant death she would have answered with an emulation hard as hell, had the persecutor's sword not been lacking to her: but there was not lacking to her, as we have already said above, the palm of martyrdom, who both by the merit of her faith and by the constancy of her virtue and patience both would be a martyr and could be. Certainly, since there are two kinds of martyrdom, one namely in the mind, the other in the mind and in action together, the one she most diligently kept, the other she desired with vast vows and much sought — nay would have sought, had not, as we have said, the executioner's stroke been lacking. But even that which she kept, after the truth, which is Christ, shone upon her heart, she would perhaps gladly have kept in a wholly celibate life, had not by divine providence such a Mother been owed to Constantine. For since there are two integrities to be sought in the perfection of man, one by the incorruption of the flesh in the body, the other by the sincerity of inviolate truth in the mind, as she guarded with all vigilance that which is the greater, so perhaps she would have guarded the other also with the utmost chastity, had she not been divinely chosen as mother of the empire. But that too she mourned with the voice of the turtledove in our land, saying with the Prophet: My soul hath desired thee in the night.

[61] being added. Therefore with the moan of a turtledove she cried to the Keeper, who, watching by night, guards His people with everlasting keeping, and, as it were in the night while they sleep, watches lest the enemy break in; and with the dove's drawing and flocking by day she pressed on to be an example to others of praying to the Lord, and, by meditating day and night in the law of the Lord, of profiting in it, and so of obtaining the glorious fruit of good labors. In these things it must with every certainty be seen that she showed herself to all such toward the Church of God that, although she lacked in the litter of the true Solomon the purple ascent, yet the true Solomon had in her a silver pillar — hearing and learning the Apostolic sayings, as a faithful woman ought, in subjection and silence; but, as a woman of manly spirit, by reason of the excellence of imperial dignity and the devotion of faith and charity, imparting them to others also — and had a golden couch, because, endowed with mystical and sincere understanding, and taught from the breasts of the two Testaments, she shone like gold in the holy Church. Certainly the true Solomon paved the midst of the litter with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem, among whom she, shining forth notable in charity and outstanding in faith, appeared to be a member of Christ in the body of the Church. In such a manner therefore, having followed the doctrine of the Apostles, she strove in her life to cleave to them, and most devoutly and happily earned this even through the place of her burial.

XXI.

[62] Thou buriest therefore, O Constantine, thy Mother, for whom death, with Christ as leader, was made a way to heaven; The same author's apostrophe to Constantine, where she passes the age with the angels — she who so lived in the body as to bring sorrow to the wicked and joy to the good; who in the conforming of her body gave labor to its reformation in greatness and in place; who joined the continuation of a great hope to the heavenly life, and, fleeing the place of malice, knew the region of the living to be her place; and by such an instrument of precious death as the Apostle teaches, blessed Helena, by reformation and greatness of hope and consideration of place, deserved to come to God Himself, the eternal light. At length therefore, O Constantine, thou buriest thy mother in the village of Drepanum — she who by the grace of God deserved to blunt and repress the grim sickle of the Jews, which, that it might crucify the Lord, did not hesitate to slay with itself the harvest of its own descendants, imprecating at the Lord's passion and saying: [His] blood be upon us and upon our children. Thou buriest a mother by whose merits, with the help of God's grace, thou hast obtained the monarchy of the Roman empire; who even dying strove to kindle thee with piety and to heap thee with blessings, exhorting thee to strive with admonitions of holy piety, that thou shouldst take care that, by the mercy of Him whose earthly empire thou heldest, thou mightest by His grace be able to come to the eternal kingdom. Whither she went before thee, and whither, that thou shouldst reach and fervently pant, she besought the Lord with all her bowels and with the groanings of her heart; and to this she admonished thee with a mother's piety — whose burial the tears of grief do not fill; since she who, dying full of days, had entered the joys of eternal light, it were a disgrace to follow her with funereal lamentations.

[63] But this we refer to good hope; yet if we turn the mind's gaze back to the human condition, and to the Roman people there meets us at the burial of holy Helena the whole multitude of the Roman people with Constantine Augustus. And so they followed the poor body of blessed Helena with the singing of hymns. But who, O Romans, can dry our [*] tears, when you follow to burial her who cherished you in the bowels and bosom of piety, and was to all of you and to each a mother in a holy purpose, and who desired by her prayers and merits to exalt you with the same God above all other nations: whose son at last you rejoiced to be your prince, who by the grace of God and the merits of his mother Helena deserved to be the avenger and the term of your persecutions and of your divers disasters? When he grieved, who of you could not grieve? O Constantine, who by the scepter of antiquity deservedst by the grace of God, and wast able, to rule the Roman empire, how could the Romans spare their tears and dry their eyes, when thou wast weeping ^g for the human condition, and following the body of thy most loving Mother to burial, and rendering the due obsequies?

[64] But raise thy mind to good hope, and with the affection of piety and the constancy of faith imitate thy mother, of the death of St. Helena. if thou wilt both reign here before God and hereafter with God. For such an end adorned thy mother that it is both piety to weep for her in her death, and piety also compels us to rejoice at her death. For she died delightfully, who after the knowledge of the divine Word had lived long in patience; and virtue strove with sorrow so far that both easy pardon comes to those who weep, and perpetual rejoicing remains for those who are glad. For her soul indeed possesses paradise forever. Nor do we thus follow thee in this, O Constantine, so as to imitate the poets, who are complained of as having brought this one evil, that they bring in most valiant men lamenting: and they soften our minds and those of whatever readers, and break the sinews of all virtue, when by a delicious discipline they come to a delicate life — if indeed that is to be called discipline which lacks the virtue of constancy. Nor do we for this summon the philosophers of this life, who, though they wished to seem masters of virtue, called pain the highest evil. But, O emperor, by the virtue of constancy thou didst press down grief, nor did sorrow bring thee confusion, because with the sure and secure hope of thy heart thou knewest that thy mother had passed to perpetual light and to the eternity of the ages. Therefore in this manner holy Helena, having returned to Rome, met the passing day and departed to the eternal day, in which by happy contemplation the God of gods is seen; and, buried in such a manner, she gave back her body to the tomb and bore her soul to heaven. There is no doubt that she obtained the fellowship of the angels in the heavenly life with God.

ANNOTATIONS.

otherwise nominetur*

otherwise sanctam*

otherwise vestras*

POSTHUMOUS GLORY

FROM THE VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS OF HER BODY.

Helena, widow, empress, and mother of Constantine the Great, at Rome (St.)

BHL Number: 3773, 3789

From various documents.

§ I. Among the several translations the most celebrated is that of Hautvillers in Gaul; the year of the event, and its writer.

After the laying to rest of her body at Rome The first laying to rest of the body, and that nearest to St. Helena's departure from this mortal life, took place at Rome, whither it was carried by Constantine's order, according to what I have reported above in §11 from Eusebius. If we believe Nicephorus Callistus, the same body was two years afterward translated thence to Constantinople: for in the Ecclesiastical History, book 8, chapter 31, he records this: Being buried outside the city of Rome, laid in a porphyry urn in a round temple, she was two years after carried together with the urn to Constantinople, herself the first brought into the imperial monuments of the church of the holy Apostles, and thereafter, as was fitting, celebrated with joyful and even nocturnal memorials. If, I say, we believe Nicephorus Callistus; for that translation is liable to no small difficulties, as will become plain from what follows. Others before him have set down in writing that she was buried in the said church: for Theophanes in the Chronography, page 21, records thus: She was buried at Constantinople in the church of the holy Apostles, which her son Constantine had built, that Christian emperors might be interred there after death. And Cedrenus in the Compendium of Histories, page 295, writes this: The holy and blessed Helena passed over to the Lord… and was the first of all buried in the church of the Apostles. Du Cange, book 4 of the Constantinopolis Christiana, page 109, from a Manuscript codex of the Origins of Constantinople, among the emperors who were laid in the tomb called there the Heroön, reports that the bodies of St. Helena and St. Constantine were laid in the same tomb. There might to this translation

lend support the error of Socrates, of which I have spoken in §11, number 103, and that error itself be thereby excused, if only it were sufficiently established.

[2] Du Cange, Constantinopolis Christiana, book 4, page 147, alleges the Manuscript Chronicle of Andrea Dandolo of the year MCCXII, the Saint is said to have been taken to Constantinople, and thence to Venice in which this is noted: In the eighth year of the Doge, Aicardus, a Regular canon of St. Helena of Venice, subtly carried off from Constantinople the body from the monastery dedicated to her name; which, being translated to Venice, he laid up in his own monastery. Peter de Natalibus, book 7, chapter 73, adds that the monastery to which the Saint's body is said to have been translated was called by her name. For thus I read in him: In the course… of time that body is reported to have been translated by the Venetians from that royal city to Venice; and it lies buried in a monastery built to her name. But that the Venetians believe that they keep that body, and that it is there in veneration, I gather from Baronius at the year 849 at the end, where he has it thus: The Venetians… glory that they possess it, brought from the East, and they follow it with worthy honor. But besides that for the translation of the body to the city of Constantinople I know of no older author named than Theophanes, Eusebius also gives great occasion for believing that Constantine did not build the mausoleum in which he was laid, and where before him, as we have seen, St. Helena is reported to have been buried, except toward the last times of his life.

[3] Let Eusebius therefore be heard, Life of Constantine, book 4, chapter 60, page 556: translated; but these things are not sufficiently proved. But he built that church having also something else in mind; which at first indeed was obscure, but at last became known to all toward the end. For he had designated this place for himself after death, foreseeing with incredible eagerness of faith that his body after death should obtain a common name with the Apostles: namely, that even dead he might be a partaker of the prayers which were to be celebrated there in honor of the Apostles. When therefore he had raised twelve caskets there… he set his own ark in the midst… These things being long before arranged by him with sagacious mind, he consecrated the church to the Apostles… and while he persisted in works of this kind down to the end of his life, God… at length deigned opportunely to transfer him to a better lot. It does not therefore appear sufficiently near the truth that that excellent emperor ordered the body of his mother to be translated into that sepulcher, either two years after her death — namely about the year 330 or 331, when indeed the church of the Apostles had perhaps not yet been begun (see what I have said above in §11) — or even afterward. For indeed Eusebius keeps deep silence about that matter in the place just cited. But if Constantine did not do it, what other emperor after him did it? That any one of his successors did it I have at least thus far not seen proved. Du Cange, Constantinopolis Christiana, book 4, page 108, touches this controversy in passing, but decides nothing.

[4] As concerns the Westerns, it is certain that they were by no means all persuaded that St. Helena's body was at Constantinople in the ninth century; Most celebrated is the translation as becomes plain from that most celebrated translation of it into Gaul to the abbey of Hautvillers (commonly Hautvillers) of the Order of St. Benedict, situated by the river Marne, at the fourth milestone from the city of Reims (which is the metropolis of Champagne in Gaul), as may be seen in Mabillon, Acts of the Benedictines, century 2, page 831. Of the foundation of that monastery and of its abbots there is treatment in the Sainte-Marthe brothers, volume 4 of the Gallia Christiana, from page 32. The place is praised by Almannus, an ascetic of it, in the history of the miracles which he relates to have happened when St. Helena's body was translated from Rome to that monastery; the history of which matter we shall afterward give at length from him. But how notable a name the translation of Hautvillers obtained is made out from the sacred calendars in which it is announced.

[5] to the monastery of Hautvillers near Reims: For in our volume II of February, among those Passed Over at the VIII day of that month, page 152, we long ago noted that the translation of St. Helena Augusta is marked in the appendix of Ado, in the Martyrology published under the name of Bede, and in several others, on this day, as also on the VII of February. Molanus in the additions to the Usuard published by him records it thus on that VII day: On the same day, the arrival of the body of St. Helena at the monastery of Hautvillers, who, being the mother of the emperor Constantine, etc. Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology reports this translation on the VII day of February in these words: In the territory of Reims, at the monastery of Hautvillers, the reception of the body of St. Helena Augusta, etc.: on which day also Ferrari marks that translation at Reims, from the additions of Molanus, in the Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology. But our Bolland, among the things which he left noted in his own hand about the oft-mentioned translation, says: It is customary in the church of Mechlin, of Antwerp, and others (as I gather from their old Breviaries) to recite this collect about it: "O God, who among the other miracles of thy power strengthenest also the frail sex by the virtue of right intention; grant, we beseech thee, that by the example of St. Helena, that most Christian queen, by whose zeal thou didst deign to uncover the longed-for wood of our King, we may deserve, by thy favor, ever to search out and attain the things that are Christ's. Through," etc. Likewise in our work at the XXII day of May, volume V of that month, page 127, you will find among the things Passed Over that the Saint's elevation at Rome and translation into Gaul, of which we here treat, are indicated by the martyrologists cited there, and that she is honored with a Double rite at Cracow in Poland. It is now worth while to inquire when that translation happened.

[6] in what year In Sigebert's Chronicle at the year 849 it is thus written of it: St. Helena the empress, buried by her son Constantine the Great… at Rome in the church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, martyrs, in a purple mausoleum, is translated to France by the monk Theogisus, and is honored in the diocese of Reims with great veneration of the Franks. Baronius follows Sigebert, whom he cites at the end of that year, adding that among the Latins and Greeks there is an ancient controversy about her body, where it was buried; on which matter our Preliminary Commentary above, §11, may be consulted. Likewise in the Chronicle of Tours, which is extant in Edmond Martène's Most Ample Collection of Ancient Writers, volume 5, column 966, that translation is attached to the ninth year of Lothair, who in the year 840, after the death of his father Louis Augustus, began to reign in France. But this reckoning of time is contradicted by Almannus, a contemporary writer, when in one of our transcripts which we preserve with his name, in the narrative of the Hautvillers translation, which we are presently to print here, he narrates thus: When therefore a very long time had passed… down to the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCCXL, etc. And below: By the edict and consent of the whole church of Reims, and by the authority of the vidame named Pardulus, who was afterward bishop of Laon (for at that time the city of Reims was without an episcopal benediction), and also by the consent of the aforesaid congregation, there are sent to the city of Rome from that same monastery of Hautvillers, which already was strong in the relics of a precious body, two brothers, both approved in monastic religion and conspicuous in the priestly office, and a third who was only a monk, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses this word also might stand, etc. The archiepiscopal see of Reims, therefore, was vacant when that thing happened, and accordingly it did not happen in the year of Christ 849.

[7] This parachronism Marlot long ago noted and disproved, volume 1 of the Metropolis of Reims, book 3, chapter 25, writing thus at the year 848: that took place The monastery of Hautvillers happened to be enriched with the most sacred pledges of Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, at that time in which Hincmar was preparing at Reims a most excellent Mausoleum for the Apostle of the Franks. Sigebert writes that they were brought into Gaul in the year DCCCXLIX. But a contemporary author, who at Hincmar's command consigned the course of the translation to posterity, relates that it was done while the archiepiscopal see was vacant; but that the relics were tested by the judgment of water (as Flodoard says) when Hincmar had been raised to the prelacy: whence it comes that I have of set purpose deferred the narration of the whole matter to this place. Bolland, alleged a little before, thus proves the matter and sets it forth at length: But this translation was not made in that year (namely 849), but in DCCCXL… or DCCCXLI. For Theotgisus, who set out for Rome in DCCCXL, brought those relics to Hautvillers when the see of Reims was vacant.

[8] And yet Ebbo, condemned and cast out in the year DCCCXXXV in the council at Thionville, it is inquired: after the death of Louis the Pious, which happened in the year DCCCXL, on the XX of June, came to his son Lothair, who soon restored the see to him by an edict given at Ingelheim and subscribed by twenty bishops on the XXIV of July of the same year DCCCXL; and Ebbo held it almost a whole year, until, hearing that Charles the Bald, who had before been driven out by his brother Lothair, was coming into Belgium with recovered forces, he fled again to Lothair, namely in the year DCCCXLI. And thus the church of Reims was left without a bishop, until in the year DCCCXLV Hincmar, a monk of St. Denis, was elected, who died in the year DCCCLXXXII. Hence it is plain that in the year DCCCXLIX Reims could not have lacked a bishop. Then Pardulus, who, when the translation was made, was still vidame of Reims, in the year DCCCXLVIII was present at the council of Quierzy, being already bishop of Laon. Thus Bolland in Manuscript. Yet see what was long ago published by him in our work, volume III of February, on the XXIII day, page 374, where he observes that if those heavenly remains were brought to Hautvillers on the VII of February, as is noted in very many Martyrologies and old Calendars, it is plain that this could not have happened except in the year DCCCXLII; since otherwise in the month of February of the year DCCCXLI the church of Reims did not lack a pastor. Of Almannus, who wrote the history of the translation, it is well to observe some things also, besides what is said of him in our Preliminary Commentary, §14.

[9] Trithemius, book 2 On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 50, thus praises Almannus: Almannus, monk of Hautvillers, exceedingly learned in the holy Scriptures, its writer, and sufficiently instructed in secular learning, of clear wit and polished in speech, a notable rhetorician and poet: he wrote… the Life of St. Helena the queen, 1 book… He flourished in the year of the Lord DCCCXC. Of Almannus's deeds and writings Mabillon treats, volume 3 of the Annals of the Order of St. Benedict, at the year 868, number 89; in the appendix of which volume, page 677, he produces his epitaph. Of him too the praised Mabillon may be seen, Ancient Analecta, volume 2, page 95: where, from the Necrology of Hautvillers, at the XXII day of July, on which day his death is there said to be recorded, this is written of him: The commemoration of the lord Almannus, a monk of our congregation, who France

devastated in his time by the Normans, lamented after the example of Jeremiah with a fourfold alphabet. He wrote also the Lives of the holy Nivard, archbishop of Reims, of Syndulf, priest and solitary, of blessed Helena the empress, and the translation of her body from the city of Rome to the monastery of Hautvillers, and other works. But the history of this translation is noted in our transcript as received from the Manuscript of St. Benignus of Dijon and of Val-des-Choux. This title is prefixed to it: How the body of St. Helena was brought to the country of Gaul. The same history is found also in our Manuscript of St. Martin, of which we have made mention above in the Preliminary Commentary, §14 at the end, in chapter 22; and with this the copy which we commit to the press has been collated by us. I indicate in passing that the monastery of St. Benignus of Dijon is of the Order of St. Benedict; but that of Val-des-Choux (commonly Vauluisant, in the diocese of Sens in Gaul) is Cistercian. Of the first the Benedictine Annals published by Mabillon may be consulted; of the second, Jongelinus in the Notitia of the abbeys of that Order, book 1, page 43.

§ II. The History of the Translation to the monastery of Hautvillers,

By Almannus, monk of that same monastery,

From the Manuscript of the monastery of St. Benignus of Dijon and of Val-des-Choux, collated with the Trier transcript of St. Martin.

Theogisus, having set out for Rome When therefore a very long time had passed from the day of her death, which happened between the vicennalia and the tricennalia of her son Augustus, down to the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and forty; since, according to the good pleasure of the divine disposition, it had pleased the Lord God by the relics of so precious a body to ennoble, distinguish, and exalt the parts of Second Belgica — the body, that is, of her who had been born in the parts of the First — it came to pass that by divine inspiration a certain priest of the parish of Reims, named Theogisus [], for the sake of his own salvation hastened to pay his vow to the Lord of going to Rome and visiting the thresholds of the Apostles, for the remedy of his soul and the soundness of his body: and when he had been kindled from heaven with such [] an impulse, he was so far animated that, in visiting the thresholds of the Apostles, he sought also for himself the suffrages of St. Helena. And although for five continuous years before he had labored under a disease of such weakness that he despaired of life, much less could have had any hope of going to Rome, yet, the journey being undertaken, he began to recover his former health.

[11] He went therefore, and at last according to his vow came to the City, trusting in the merits of St. Helena, secretly carries off the body of St. Helena, and pressing on with vast vows; and among the other basilicas of the Saints he began anxiously, with much circumspection, ranging about, to search out for the sake of prayer, and (as it was) in every way, the church in which the sepulcher of St. Helena [was] abiding, and her body was then buried with royal dignity, if perchance he might find an access by which he could fulfill his desire. Therefore, bearing himself in this manner, disclosing the secrets of his heart to no one, but committing them to God alone for the gift of effectual working, according to the good pleasure of His goodness, by the grant of the divine clemency he found an opportunity, and, like the Syrophoenician woman, accomplished a faithful theft. Nor in this was there long difficulty of time. For, having entered at evening for the sake of prayer, God granted him the gifts of an excellent plunder. And so through the secret silences of the night he hastened to return to his lodging.

[12] But when morning came, he set out on the journey of returning to his own country. and carries it into Gaul, signs accompanying. But when the length of the road gave hope of safety, with all the reverence he could he raised up the casket of the holy relics, and, having obtained a due concourse of the people, he made known the coming of St. Helena, she herself manifesting a due magnificence by works of power which the Lord wrought through her merits to the praise and glory of His name. Nor is it a wonder that St. Helena should shine with kindly powers, now reigning with Christ in heaven, to whom it was given by the finding of the holy cross to triumph over the devil while she still lived on earth. Therefore signs and mighty works rightly accompanied that journey by the merits of blessed Helena, wrought to the praise and glory of the Lord our God. But when he came to the appointed borders of our country, a profitable doubt is born in the breasts of very many: how it could be that, in a woman of such sanctity in God that she deserved even to find the wood of the holy cross, and of such great height and nobility in the world that she became the mother of the empire and the lady of the world, she should be handled by the hands of so slight a priest.

[13] Therefore, while many doubted in this manner because of the greatness of the matter, But while it was doubted whether that body was St. Helena's, and said that it could not be that she who had been a daughter of the Church by conversion and faith, a sister by devotion and manner of life, and a mother by reason of the finding of the holy cross — and this according to God, from whom she obtained the eternal kingdom; but according to the dignity and honor of the present life the mother of the empire and lady of the whole world — could in any way be touched by the hands of so slight a priest and brought to our country. Therefore, while many persisted in this conflict of doubt and altercation, by reason of great necessity, lest the people should be deluded by the blemish of this error, an assembly of the church of Reims is held, histories are unrolled, the map of the city of Rome is produced in the midst, they inquire of one another, question, seek, consult, and by the help of truth are brought to complete certainty that she returned to Rome to her son, and so died, and had there in a most well-known place a most noble sepulcher.

[14] And since by the wonderful power of her merits, by which she had guided those who bore her [] through the dark perils of death [] [and] when they had destruction ready on either hand if they should stray but a little, she had now been carried from the Villa of Falesia to the monastery called Hautvillers; [and when a contention had arisen as to where that sacred pledge was to be carried;] there arose thence a ready envy, that so great a pledge was owed rather to a most excellent city than to a monastery, as they said, very small. For that cause an unbelieving contention raged. But the monks of Hautvillers, relying on piety, fearing God, and cleaving in all things to the truth, both for the conflict of the whole Church and for the attaining of the truth of the matter, fled to the Lord who had deigned to honor them with so great a patronage; and by religious consent they decreed it should be done, and exacted a fast of themselves, appointed litanies for themselves, and celebrated Masses to the Lord for this very thing with much devotion. And the fast being accomplished, the truth of this matter is sought by judicial trial: and by the grace of God the truth is disclosed, and, confirmed in every way, the truth triumphs, and by the manifest truth every envious and likewise infecting falsehood is destroyed.

[15] God favoring the men of Hautvillers, it was brought to their monastery. For God almighty, who granted to blessed Nivard by the gift of His grace that he should build the aforesaid monastery by an angelic revelation and manifestation, in which men approved, living justly and piously in monastic religion, should await the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, granted also to the brethren of that monastery increases of salvation, sending to them the venerable pledge of blessed Helena, and defending them in this matter from every envious falsehood. Let the brethren of the aforesaid monastery therefore rejoice in the Lord, even for so great a benefit, and let them serve Him in justice and holiness, since by many gifts of graces the Lord deigns to manifest to them that He will be propitious to them forever, if they strive to please Him by the showing forth of good works. But let us return to our subject.

[16] [Men are sent to Rome to inquire into the truth of the body. And returning, they confirm it,] But lest the aforesaid trial should be less than could suffice for the certainty of the whole people, by the edict and consent of the whole church of Reims, and by the authority of the vidame named Pardulus, who was afterward bishop of Laon (for at that time the city of Reims was without an episcopal benediction), and also by the consent of the aforesaid congregation, there are sent to the city of Rome from that same monastery of Hautvillers (which already was strong in the relics of a precious body) two brothers, both approved in monastic religion and conspicuous in the priestly office, and a third who was only a monk, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses this word also might stand; who should inquire into all these things in which there had been doubt about blessed Helena, both secretly and diligently, and report to them as quickly as possible. After not many days, therefore, the aforesaid brothers, returning from the City, brought back not only the searching out of the truth but a doubled joy. For they brought the sacred body of blessed Polycarp the priest, who in the company of blessed Sebastian, by preaching, baptism, and example, was a leader of many to the right faith, and by this likewise to eternal life. And so they brought it with the relics of the aforesaid most blessed Sebastian the martyr, and of St. Urban and Quirinus, each of whom, being a glorious Pope, purchased everlasting glory by the palm of martyrdom.

[17] and the Saint's body remains laid up among the men of Hautvillers. Thus it pleased God almighty mercifully to visit, distinguish, and exalt the monastery of Hautvillers, which He Himself once willed — built by St. Nivard through an angelic revelation and manifestation (as has been said), which the venerable abbot Bercharius saw, and who afterward became a precious martyr to the Lord — to appoint for the gains of the souls of His elect unto perpetual glory and eternal life: where a church has been built by devout brethren in honor, veneration, and the name of blessed Mary ever virgin and of blessed John the Baptist, and this from the ancient and first foundation of that place; in which church holy Helena has, according to the possibility of the place, a mausoleum: where to those who ask piously, and seek with good faith and devotion, are given helps of salvation and afforded benefits of health, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for us: to whom with God the Father and the Holy Spirit the Paraclete be all salvation, honor, and power, all glory, might, and dominion; all comeliness, brightness, and kingship; all giving of thanks, praise, and jubilation, highest fortitude, loftiness, and blessing through immortal, eternal, and boundless ages of ages. Amen.

[18] There followed here, and in the transcript of St. Martin, a wondrous fishing; Various notes upon the history related. but we shall give it afterward from another Manuscript, when we treat of the Saint's posthumous glory from her miracles; where we shall report many marvelous things which happened on the journey narrated above in passing, but in that other Manuscript excellently ennobled with heavenly favors and signs, as will there be made plain. Meanwhile in the narrative just brought forward there occur certain things for which the following observations will be useful. First, of St. Helena's country, and the year and place of her death, consult our Commentary above. Secondly, of Theogisus or Tetgisus note this: That he was a monk of Hautvillers, says Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 4, part 2, page 154, number 4, abbot Notker hands down, of whom we shall have to make fuller mention hereafter. Thirdly, in the Syrophoenician woman the author will have alluded to that passage of Mark, chapter 7, from verse 24, where this is narrated of Christ the Lord and that woman: And rising thence, He went into the borders of Tyre

and Sidon. And entering into a house, He would have no man know it, and He could not be hid. For a woman as soon as she heard of Him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at His feet. For the woman was a gentile, a Syrophoenician by race. And she besought Him that He would cast out the demon from her daughter. And He said to her: Suffer first the children to be filled; for it is not good to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs. But she answered and said to Him: Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children. And He said to her: For this saying, go; the demon is gone out of thy daughter, etc. Fourthly, St. Nivard occurs in Flodoard, History of the Church of Reims, book 7, chapter 7, and in the Mabillon just praised, century 2, pages 832, 835, and 839. Fifthly, St. Polycarp the priest we have given on the XXIII day of February, volume III of that month, from page 369; where the translation of his body to the monastery of Hautvillers is treated at page 374, which, from what is said there, perhaps happened on the XXIV of February in the year 843 or earlier. Sixthly, of the relics of St. Sebastian brought to Soissons before Almannus wrote these things, see the XX day of January, our volume II, page 261, and also pages 278 and following. Seventhly, St. Urban the Pope is honored on the XXV day of May, on which one may look at what was then said of various relics of the same name, volume VI of that month from page 9; and also volume II of August, on the XI day, page 615. Sixthly sic, no Quirinus occurs to me among the Roman Pontiffs. But a Martyr of the same name is marked at Rome on the XXV day of March, as may be seen in volume III of that month from page 543. Eighthly, in Flodoard, book 2, chapter 8, I do not read that the said Saints were translated to the monastery of Hautvillers, but the body of blessed Polycarp the priest, colleague of St. Sebastian. Ninthly, St. Bercharius, abbot and martyr, is found in the Roman Martyrology at the XVI day of October; and Mabillon in the Acts cited, page 831, published his Life. Tenthly, concerning that which at number 13 Almannus had premised about the Saint, that she returned to Rome to her son and so died, consult our Preliminary Commentary, §11, where at number 106 this matter has been treated.

otherwise Theutgisus*

otherwise tali namque*

perhaps corpusque*

otherwise conferentes*

otherwise noctis*

§ III. Acts in the ninth and eleventh centuries for the confirmation of the body, at Hautvillers; the opening of the casket in the twelfth century; the inspection of the same body and its translation into another chest in the fifteenth century; the reliquary opened again in the seventeenth century; the parts of the body; the casket; the chapel, etc.

The truth of the body of St. Helena After this sacred treasure of so great a name had been brought into the monastery of Hautvillers, the report of the matter spread far and wide through the whole province of Reims. But since some doubted, as Flodoard, alleged before, testifies, whether she were the Helena who was mother of Constantine Augustus and finder of the life-giving wood, Christ deigned to assert it by a convincing judgment of water, being supplicated with a three days' fast. The matter is expressed more plainly by abbot Notker in our transcript, to which this title is prefixed: On the translation of St. Helena the empress. Notker, abbot of Hautvillers, to all the faithful of Christ. From this transcript, then, I cull some things: We have thought it worthy to write down those things which are wrought divinely in our place by the merits of St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, and God is my witness that we shall say nothing other than the truth which we have seen with our own eyes. After God had made the church of Hautvillers illustrious by the body of St. Helena, He clothed it with the highest glory. For, that it might be made clear that the body of that Queen was had there, very many from lands beyond the sea and from neighboring regions recovered health by the merit of St. Helena, from whatever infirmity they were held. King Charles the Third [], when he had heard the report that St. Helena, having been carried thither, lay at Hautvillers, would by no means believe it.*

[20] Whence, summoning Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, with many abbots, confirmed by various arguments he willed that a public judgment should be made in that monastery whether this were so or not. And they judged that it was not otherwise to be believed unless that same monk who carried her to us should, in testimony of the truth, enter into hot water stripped over his whole body. Which he also did; and God preserved him unharmed amid the boiling waters in the eyes of all who were present. This testimony being seen, the faith of the king and of the princes grew strong to belief, and thenceforth he honored that place with the greatest devotion, and all his posterity paid it worthy veneration. Add from Flodoard that there were also sent to Rome, as I said a little before at number 16 from Almannus, three brothers of that same monastery to search out the certainty of this translation of the blessed queen: who returning brought back to this monastery both the searching out of this truth and a doubled joy, namely the body of blessed Polycarp the priest, colleague of St. Sebastian.

[21] But let us return to Notker. In the course of time, says Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, century IV, part 2, page 154, where he treats of the translation of St. Helena, that is toward the end of the eleventh century, when abbot Notker perceived that the same doubt about the truth of the relics of St. Helena the queen was breaking out afresh, he saw to it that the matter should be settled by a judgment. The whole course of the affair the same Notker comprised in a separate little book divided into nineteen chapters; from which it is well to cull those things which seem the more important for history, as they are had in the Manuscript codex of Hautvillers. I take my beginning from the fourth chapter of that little book, in which this is read in so many words, which he then begins to narrate. A transcript of these things too is in my hands, copied by Dom Rupert Reginald, a monk of the monastery of Hautvillers, to be praised more fully hereafter, with this title: Here begins the letter of abbot Notker upon the translation of the most holy empress Helena, which was made on the V of the Kalends of November in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and ninety-five. Then follows the narrative of the affair, which we shall give, beginning likewise from the fourth chapter of our transcript; but together with the various miracles which are reported in the same transcript and were omitted by Mabillon; yet we shall first narrate what is recorded to have happened in the following centuries concerning the sacred deposit of the body of St. Helena.

[22] To the twelfth century, then, belongs this, [The abbots of Hautvillers Hugh and Rodefrid open the casket; the former in the year 1120, the latter in 1235.] which is extant in the Sainte-Marthe brothers, volume 4 of the Gallia Christiana, page 35, under Hugh, abbot of Hautvillers: Hugh obtained from Pope Paschal letters of protection for the abbey in the year MCII. He also opened the casket of the lady Helena, adorned with ornaments, and, for the memory of the thing, willed the names of those present to be written on parchment, namely of Hugh the abbot, Walter the Prior, Limarus, Rofridus, Richard, Heribert, and Everard, in the year MCXX, in the reign of Louis, son of Philip. Dom Rupert Reginald in the Manuscript notices sent hither says that into that casket, which he ordered to be opened, he put a slip signed with his own name and those of forty-three monks who were present. The letters of Pope Paschal II which I mentioned I have before me; but because they do not properly belong here, I do not produce them. Let us go on therefore to the thirteenth century. The same Dom Rupert Reginald in his Manuscript notices left this noted: In the year MCCXXXV also Rodefrid, who was also called Radulph, abbot of this place, put into the casket a slip bearing these words: "I, Rodefrid, beseech thy clemency, O glorious empress Helena, that on the day of the great judgment thou wouldst succor me, a wretch." It is added in the Sainte-Marthe brothers cited, concerning that abbot of Hautvillers: He had a cover made for Helena's casket. Now let us speak of the fifteenth century.

[23] The Sainte-Marthe brothers touch this matter in passing at page 36: [the body is translated into another casket by the archbishop of Reims in the year 1410,] John I (abbot of Hautvillers) is named in the Acts of the translation of St. Helena from the old casket into a new silver one, by Simon de Cramaud, archbishop of Reims, formerly patriarch of Alexandria, in the presence of William Fillastre the dean, on the VII of May MCDX. Of that archbishop there is treatment in the praised Sainte-Marthe brothers, volume I, page 536. But in what manner the thing was done we learn from the transcript of the following instrument, which the Reverend Father Dom Rupert Reginald, monk of Hautvillers and keeper of the sacred relics of that monastery, copied from the original itself and sent hither; who, for many other things concerning St. Helena likewise copied out and communicated by him long since, has deserved excellently both of that Saint and of our Work, and is worthy of praise. The aforesaid instrument runs thus: In the name of the Lord. Amen. In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and ten, on the VII day of the month of May, in the III Indiction, in the first year of the Pontificate of the most holy father in Christ and lord Alexander, by divine providence the fifth Pope. We, Simon de Cramaud [], of the diocese of Limoges, by divine permission archbishop of Reims and formerly patriarch of Alexandria, have reverently translated, in the church of the monastery of Hautvillers of our said diocese, from the old shrine into another new silver one, which John, the venerable abbot of the said monastery, had prepared for this, the trunk of the body of blessed Helena the queen, mother of the emperor Constantine, who found the cross of the Lord — translated formerly, about the year of the Lord eight hundred and forty-four, from the basilica of the blessed Marcellinus and Peter at Rome to the diocese of Reims by the monk Theugisus, as we have received on the credit of the letters of our predecessors, and of ancient histories, and of other documents.*

[24] an indulgence of 40 days granted. For whose special reverence and for the spiritual profit of the Faithful, we have granted to all who on the festivals of the finding and the exaltation of the holy cross, and also of the said St. Helena in August and February, shall devoutly and in a state of grace visit the said church, forty days of indulgence on each of the days of those festivals, to endure for perpetual times. And these things were done above the high altar of that monastery in the year, on the day, in the Indiction and Pontificate aforesaid, there being present at them the said abbot and Convent of the said monastery, and the venerable men William Fillastre, doctor of both laws, the dean, Pontius de Ulmonte and Simon de Ulmonte [], canons of our church of Reims, professors of the sacred Page, John Raimundi, canon of Soissons, our official, and the religious man Fulk de Roëria [], licentiate [] in Decrees, prior of Argenteuil [] … of the diocese, and a copious multitude of the people; who, being named, subscribed themselves below with their own hands together with our notary underwritten. Simon, archbishop of Reims, with his own hand. G. Fillastre, dean. Pontius de Ulmonte. Simon de Ulmonte. Fulk de Roëria. John Raimundi, Official: and below, It is by me, John Burgentinus, licentiate, by Apostolic authority public notary, and secretary of the said lord archbishop. And in attestation of the transcript this is added: That it agrees word for word with the original I, John Husson, royal notary, testify.

[25] Some notes on the instrument of the deed. Observe, first: the first year of Pope Alexander V began on the XXVI day of June 1409; and in the year 1410 he died at Bologna in the night between the III and IV of May, as may be seen in Antonio Pagi's Historico-chronologico-critical Breviary of the Roman Pontiffs, volume 4, pages 359, and 368 and 369. Observe, secondly: the elogium of William Fillastre, dean of Reims and Cardinal, Marlot has composed in volume 2 of the Metropolis of Reims, book 4, chapter 29; of whom one may also see in the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs and Cardinals in Ciacconius, volume 2, column 807. And of the said translation the same Marlot writes in the place cited, chapter 30; from whom I have taken that different forming of the names which I have set in the margin of the instrument of that translation. Observe, thirdly: John Raymundi, provost of the greater church, was appointed vicar general in spirituals and temporals by Reginald de Chartres III, archbishop of Reims and afterward Cardinal. See the Marlot alleged, chapter 32.

[26] In the year MDCII, at the instance of Henry IV, king of France, [The casket opened again in the year 1602, relics cut from it for the church of Orléans.] and at the prayers of the Cardinal of Guise, archbishop of Reims, the casket was likewise opened, and some relics were cut off to be sent to Orléans to that most celebrated church of the holy Cross which the aforesaid king Henry was having magnificently repaired at his own expense. And the casket was opened in the presence of Philippe du Bec, secretary of the aforesaid archbishop, sent specially for this; who was afterward bishop of Nantes, and later obtained from Clement VIII a bull both for the archbishopric of Reims and for the abbey of St. Remigius. In the year MCCLXXVIII, as Symphorien Guyon, a modern author, reports in the History of Orléans, relics of blessed Helena cut from the monastery of Hautvillers were sent to Orléans; but at whose petition we do not know. Which relics perished with others in a fire, when the church was destroyed by the heretics under a certain impious leader named de la Noüe; who also himself burned the monastery of Hautvillers in the year MDLXII: and so not only the church but the library, with the lucubrations of learned men, and the ornaments of the church were consumed: yet, the sacred remains having been carried to Reims by the zeal of the monks before the fire, no outrage was done to them; on the testimony of Dom Rupert Reginald, whose words I have recited from his Manuscript notices. But in another paper of his there is a French attestation about the casket opened by order of the Cardinal of Guise, archbishop of Reims, in the said year MDCII, and about certain relics of that Saint to be carried to Orléans, etc. In which instrument it is said that the casket was opened in the presence of all the Religious of the said place of Hautvillers, and of a great number of the people. In attestation of which the said secretary wrote on the parchment which was there, and which he left in the casket, the names of the Religious who were then present, and his own likewise, namely of John de Maupoix the Prior, John Geoffroy, John Moreaux, Thomas Michelet, Giles Fournier, Henry Bourgeois, John le Large, Charles Deu; MDCII, by me the secretary of my lord the archbishop, P. de Bec. François le Maire in the History of Orléans, volume 2 of the second edition, page 37, records among the relics of the church of the holy cross a neck-bone of our St. Helena brought from Hautvillers.

[27] The same most diligent collector of the affairs of Helena among the men of Hautvillers subjoins in the same place this about the Saint's body, Of the body, and of the reliquary, the casket, and the chapel: The body of blessed Helena is not entire at the monastery of Hautvillers: for the head is lacking (see of it below, §5, number 42), the arms, and the feet, which perhaps are kept at Venice (although some assert that the men of Trier possess the head). The legs are laid up within the trunk of the body: the body is uncorrupt, as being anointed with aloes and balsam, and covered with a silken veil. That the casket was formerly of silver, some manuscripts attest: but how it perished, and to what use the silver was turned, is not known. The Manuscripts give assurance that the monastery with the church was burned about the year MCDL. Wherefore Nicholas V, of that name, Roman Pontiff, granted indulgences to those who should lend helping hands to the church and its restoration. We read too that in the year MCDXCII on the night of Pentecost the gold and silver ornaments of the caskets were carried off by theft (on which day they are wont to be carried in procession through the town), with which they were clothed round about; among which, other adornments of the casket of blessed Helena, and a silver image of the most holy Virgin Mary of the value of three hundred gold pieces. Whether from that time the present one was made is utterly unknown.

[28] and also a notice of the chapel, etc. The casket which now is, is a little more than 5 feet long, nearly three high, wholly surrounded with copper plates beautifully gilded, figured, and skillfully carved of solid bronze, representing the deeds of blessed Helena. It stands above the high altar, than which none more beautiful is seen in the whole region: for it is supported by four very large jasper columns and adorned with as many of marble, and with various images of Verdun stone and other ornaments. In the same church there is a chapel becomingly adorned and exceedingly beautiful, sacred to blessed Helena, which is the whole devotion of pilgrims: in which are seen many crutches, which those who were powerless in their limbs, being made whole by the intercession of blessed Helena, left as a token. There are seen also votive offerings, and various tablets indicating certain miracles, and besides a silver lamp… Among the tablets, there is one very large one of blessed Helena, before whose feet are seen two noble matrons kneeling, namely the lady Catherine Deltouffes, wife of the late noble man Claude de Baudiers, lord of La Chapelle-Modon and of a town in Tardenois, etc., governor of Mézières, Charleville, and Rethel; and Mary, the daughter of these spouses, afterward joined in marriage to the baron of Ternus; and below the tablet, together with the various charms which the aforesaid Mary vomited up, these verses are read: whose sense I thus render from the French tongue into Latin: To these ladies, O Saint, thou hast rendered an immortal benefit. For thou couldst not free them from a spell without a benefit. The one is mortal, the other immortal. MDCXIX. Lest the word Regiteste detain the reader: Adrien de Valois in the Notitia Galliarum says: Reiteste, commonly first called Retest, afterward Retel, on the river Aisne on the borders of the Remi, etc. But some wrongly call it Regiteste. More I shall give below in the Annotations on class 1 of the Miracles, letter a, among which miracles those matters which concern the said noble matrons are narrated at length.

Calvus* the Bald

otherwise Cramaudo*

otherwise Simon and William de Vilemonte*

otherwise Fulk de Roya*

otherwise licentiato*

otherwise Peter d'Argenteuil,*

§ IV. Whether the Roman translation overturns the possession of the men of Hautvillers; whether likewise, and how, the claimants of the body can be reconciled among themselves; the possession of Hautvillers is established.

The arguments of Aringhi The things which I have premised above in §§1 and 2 of the Posthumous Glory about the body of St. Helena carried from Rome to the monastery of Hautvillers, namely in the year 841 of the common era or the next following, are not so plain and certain but that they suffer difficulty from this, that it was believed that the sacred pledges of that Saint were still kept at Rome in the year 1140. In our work, volume I of May, page XXVII, this was long ago noted: Her body (namely St. Helena's) is believed to be still had at Rome in a porphyry tomb at Ara Coeli: on the contrary Gaul claims to have it in the monastery of Hautvillers. Add this from Mabillon, Italian Journey, page 135, among other things which he records of the basilica which is called Ara Coeli: On the left side of the altar a chapel and an altar with four columns, beneath which the body of St. Helena is believed to lie in a porphyry urn; although certain old French writers hand down that it was translated to the monastery of Hautvillers in our Champagne. Aringhi, Roma subterranea, book 4, chapter 9, number 16, thus determines about the said translation to Hautvillers: Further, in whatever manner that translation which is to be recalled took place, we judge that it must be understood not of the body itself but of the sacred relics of the same, as was formerly the custom. For that under Pope Innocent II the venerable bones of that same St. Helena were translated from the Lavican Way into the City, to the church of St. Mary commonly called Ara Coeli, where they are today reverently kept; and that likewise that most noble mausoleum or porphyry urn, in which her body had been laid, was carried by Anastasius IV to the Lateran buildings, that it might stand in that same most sacred basilica as a perpetual monument of the Christian religion — this is read in the Acts reviewed above in these very words:

[30] "But when in the times of Innocent the second, on account of the war [], for the possession of the body among the Romans in the twelfth century that place was deserted, certain thieves, breaking the lid of that tomb, carried off the gold and gems of the garments of blessed Helena. Which certain Religious seeing, they took up thence the head and the larger bones and brought them into the City: but the Mausoleum itself Anastasius IV brought into the Constantinian basilica: where afterward he himself also was buried. Then too the smallest bones of blessed Helena were taken out thence and distributed among very many churches." These being cited, Aringhi then tries thus to confirm his case in the same place: This same is confirmed by John the Deacon, who flourished under Pope Alexander III, in a Manuscript book of the Lateran codex on the memorable things of the Lateran basilica; where, describing the altars of that same Lateran basilica, he says this:* "But on the left side of the basilica is the altar of St. Antoninus the martyr: where beside it lies Anastasius IV, who was bishop of Sabina, in a porphyry mausoleum carved with excellent workmanship, in which once lay Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine: which mausoleum, namely, the same Pope had caused to be carried away from the church which that emperor had built outside the city in honor of his mother."

[31] From which Nicephorus is indeed deservedly convicted of error, [that they overturn the possession of the men of Hautvillers, we are not persuaded.] when he wrongly and supported by no prop of truth asserts that the body of Helena was translated together with the urn itself to Constantinople. Further, this notable mausoleum, by the labor of Bosio, a man who has deserved excellently of sacred antiquity, was printed in the reviewed work of Roma subterranea, which was published in the Italian tongue and is now contained in these our pages rendered into Latin: and it is, as may be seen below, of this form which he then represents, premising that it once stood in the Lateran basilica beside the gate commonly called the Holy Gate: but that when, in the year one thousand six hundred, on the recurrence of the sacred secular Jubilee, it happened to be partly broken and damaged during the customary unbarring of the entrance of that gate, the canons of that basilica, Bosio, most zealous for the preserving of antiquity, exhorting and striving for it, had it repaired, and to this day behind

placed in the Constantinian apse of the same basilica may be seen. "I should believe," says the same Aringhi, "that it is most ancient, and that it was employed by Constantine Augustus for the burial of the body of his most chosen mother." But I so far from agreeing with Aringhi, who believes this, that I rather incline to the contrary suspicion, for this reason: that in the description or drawing of that mausoleum I perceive nothing but what is profane, or at least not sacred. But let this be said in passing, since the present controversy is not concerned with this matter, but with the body of St. Helena. Now I have related above that it was believed her sacred pledges were kept at Rome in the year 1140 on account of the Tiburtine war (see what Aringhi has just reported concerning that war, drawn from Acts of whatever sort), under Pope Innocent II; concerning which war see Baronius and Pagi at the year 1141.

[32] We attempt to reconcile the claimants to the body From those things, however, which in the preceding paragraphs I have brought forward concerning the various translations, it seems to follow that all and each of them so fail to cohere that one rather conflicts with another — nay, that one destroys the other. Hence, therefore, a suit may be moved between the Venetians, the Romans, and the people of Hautvillers concerning the truer and stronger possession of the St. Helena of this day, the widow, the empress, and the mother of Constantine the Great. The burial at Constantinople could favor the Venetians, if it were established on surer ground than that of Theophanes, who flourished in the ninth century; and Eusebius does not appear to favor him, as may be seen above in §1 of the Posthumous Glory — which title I wish to be understood hereafter, unless I indicate otherwise. But the Venetians will have it that the Saint's body was at last carried thence to them in the thirteenth century, not from the church of the Apostles, in which Theophanes asserts that she was buried, but from a monastery dedicated to her name. Peter de Natalibus uses the word it is said when he speaks of that translation, as may there be seen. Besides, it lies upon the learned Venetians to prove that the body carried off to them is that of the Helena of this day and not of another.

[33] assigning a part of it to each. Difficulties can also be brought against the Romans, who will have it that the body existed at Rome from the twelfth century, as was indicated above. The people of Hautvillers, however, judge that they have possessed the true body of the Helena of this day ever since the ninth century. What way, then, is there of composing this controversy? If the claimants of this sacred deposit are content with some part of the same — behold, here you have the suit composed. What, then, if an arm be given to the Romans; the feet to the Venetians; and to both, perhaps, a part of the head — a part, I say, not the whole head; for the people of Trier claim the head for themselves (see what is said in our Preliminary Commentary, number 129), and if this be true, a notable part of the head may be granted to them; while the other members, which were described earlier in §3, number 27, may be granted to the people of Hautvillers. And in this way each one of the three claimants named above will have the body of the St. Helena of this day, taking a part of the body for the whole by synecdoche, as it is very well known has been wont to happen not seldom in this matter elsewhere. If the Romans want more (and indeed they seem to want more) — namely the head and the larger bones, as was indicated above at number 30 — we leave this point to them to examine and to prove historically: from what time any author more ancient and more solid than the writer of the Acts in Aringhi speaks of the body of St. Helena at Ara Cœli. The monks of the Escorial in Spain attribute an arm to themselves, as appears from a document which is in my possession.

[34] The deposit at Hautvillers is confirmed. I, meanwhile, should not dare to overthrow the possession of the body at Hautvillers, for the following reasons. First: Tetgisus, or Theogisus, is not only said to have brought it from Rome to them, as in §2; but three men were afterwards sent to Rome to inquire there into the truth of the matter, as is narrated in the same place. Secondly: because proof of the same was made by boiling water, as was set forth in §3. Thirdly: because, against the doubts that were breaking out afresh, a public and solemn translation was proclaimed in the eleventh century. I shall produce the transaction from Notcher below in §5. These reasons, taken together, have with me so great a weight of credibility that the people of Hautvillers do not seem able to be dislodged from that possession which for so many centuries past down to these times they have constantly enjoyed. Wherefore it shall in no way rest with me that they should not continue to enjoy the same. The most eminent Baronius also seems to favor them. For although, when cited by me in §1, number 6, he does not decide the controversy between the Greeks and the Latins as to where the body of St. Helena was buried, yet the same most eminent author, at the year 326, number 62, decides the same in favor of the Romans, and against the translation to Constantinople — of which, he says, there is no mention among the ancients — he sets the Gallican translation from Sigebert; upon which translation alone he seems to insist and to adhere in his notes upon the Roman Martyrology on this XVIII day of August, where, writing expressly of this one alone, he pronounces thus: Sigebert treats of the translation of her relics in his Chronicle at the year DCCCXLIX. Since these things are so, we do not see that any room for doubt is left that the possession of Hautvillers is more probable and stronger than that of the other claimants. From these premises gather what answer can be made to the things which the most illustrious Albert Ernest, bishop of Laodicea, coadministrator of Ratisbon (so I understand characters not sufficiently legibly written), wrote hither in a letter given at Ratisbon on the XXXI of March in the year 1692; in which, after he had made mention of his church of Bonn, laid waste by the disturbances of war, etc., he also makes passing mention of the translation of Helena's body, of which, he says, we still have a great part.

*. That is, the war.

§ V. The solemn translation of the body in the eleventh century, made famous by miracles; by which are illustrated the things premised by us above in §3, number 21; by Notcher, abbot of Hautvillers.

Notice to the reader. Above, in §3, number 21, we spoke of the little book of Abbot Notcher, and in the same place we indicated that we should give from it the narrative of the translation, beginning from the fourth chapter of the said book. The three preceding chapters we omit as less necessary. For the first is headed with this title: That Hautvillers is distinguished by many relics of the Saints, and chiefly by those of St. Helena. Concerning this matter, so far at least as it regards our Saint, enough and more than enough has very lately been said, and will further be said. The second is inscribed: That St. Helena shone with many signs, and that King Charles, doubting of this together with his palatines, believed when he had seen the testimony of the proof. Of this matter I have treated out of Notcher himself in the same paragraph 3, number 10. The third chapter bears this title: That doubt again seized the Franks to such a degree that they demanded a proof of the translation of St. Helena. See what is indicated there from Mabillon at number 11. The summary of the fourth chapter is this: That it was decreed at Reims, in the presence of the bishops, that the body of St. Helena should be translated, and that this was afterwards confirmed by royal edict. Let us begin, therefore, from that chapter, the titles of the others which follow this not being transcribed hither, but nevertheless marked by Roman numerals in the margin, with the addition of various miracles from our manuscript which Mabillon passes over.

IV.

[36] In the year, therefore, of the Word made man one thousand and ninety-five, in the fourth Indiction, The translation appointed for the feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude: and in the thirty-fifth year of the reign ^a of Philip, king of the Franks, son of King Henry; and in the twelfth year of Reginald ^b, archbishop of Reims, there was performed at Reims the solemn consecration of the lord Philip as bishop in the see of Châlons ^c, the brother of Stephen the Count Palatine: for the canonical administration of which there were present the suffragans of the diocese of Reims, namely Hugh, bishop of Soissons, and Gerard, bishop of the Morini, and Gervin, bishop of Amiens: among whom, when in the presence of Archbishop Reginald many ecclesiastical matters worthy of praise were being authorized by sanction, and certain neglected things corrected, I, Notcher, humble abbot of Hautvillers, made a report, that the revelation of the body of St. Helena might be made with a worthy translation, and that to the doubting Franks a testimony of certain faith might appear. Long, therefore, as is usual in such a business, was counsel taken with priestly reverence, and it was decreed by Apostolic authority that on the coming feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude it should by all means be translated. But since, for the settling of the affairs of the kingdom, they were on the eighth day to meet the glorious King Philip, together with the other fellow bishops of Gaul, in a village subject to the see of Soissons which is called Mont-Notre-Dame ^d, it was resolved that the consent to so great a matter should be reported in the sight of the king and his nobles, and be corroborated by his edict, or by the authentic confirmation of all the courtiers and bishops who were to come thither. And so it was done. For we believe it happened by divine disposition that there were present the greatest metropolitans of all Gaul, namely our lord Reginald, archbishop of Reims, and Rudolph, archbishop of Tours, and Richer, archbishop of Sens, each with a number of the suffragans and abbots of his diocese. And that it might truly be made manifest what Job says, Who maketh concord in the high places, all consented with unanimous concord: the King with his chief men and palatines and with all the fasces of the royal dignity; the archbishops with their suffragans and abbots, and with the remaining ranks of the ecclesiastical order. And so by an authoritative edict they published abroad that, without the excuse of any delay, that most holy body of the glorious Queen Helena ought to be translated on the aforesaid feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude.

[37] Meanwhile, for the reforming of the state of the churches of Gaul, the lord Apostolic ^e had come from the city of Rome. at which the archbishop of Reims could not be present. And while on his way, having tarried for some time in order to restore the ecclesiastical dignity, which at that season was miserable enough, he directed an Apostolic legation through all the provinces of Gaul, that all the metropolitans with their suffragans, each with his abbots and with the other orders of the church, and the king with the forces of the whole kingdom, should assemble for a decretal synod in the city which is called Clermont ^f, situated in the district of Auvergne. Hence, bound by an edict of so great authority, Archbishop Reginald is again pressed by another business, as is wont to happen in the whirlwind of this worldly commonwealth: namely, that he should meet King Philip at Chalon ^g on the aforesaid feast of the Apostles. Doubtful, therefore, in the midst of these matters, he delegates his place to a man of great repute, the lord Hugh, bishop of Soissons ^h, and to Philip, bishop of Châlons, that they, namely, might discharge the office of his authority in this pious work of the holy translation. Prevented by such an occasion, the archbishop was unable to be present, because (as we have said) he met the king at Chalon on the same day.

VI.

[38] Therefore the long-desired festival of the Apostles, sought by us with all our prayers, dawned upon a Sunday. The place of the translation is illuminated with heavenly splendor: And not only did France send her faithful sons to the service of so great a queen, but almost the whole of Lorraine also rejoiced to appoint her own as legates, so to speak, of holy peace and as hostages of pious devotion. For how should not the whole

Christian religion applaud her, which has received so many benefits from her merits, and whom even the mute elements served by the acclamation of signs? For there is a certain place in view of the whole of Hautvillers, called by the inhabitants Mont-Écolle. Here, jutting out with a lofty brow like a navel, it spreads out above into a plain sufficiently level, and with a gentle descent it reaches all the way to the bank of the river Marne ⁱ. This place had been chosen beforehand by the regard of the divine dispensation, as the place in which the members of so great veneration ought to be translated. Upon it a mass of beams was raised, and an engine of such capacity was built that it should both receive the sacred orders of the whole clergy and suffice for the palatine dignities. Therefore in the silence of the dead of night — the night which was famous for the martyrdom of the Apostles, and by the nuptial prerogative of the dedication of the church — the divine majesty blessed the aforesaid place with the grace of a great commendation. For, that it might be made plain of how great merit she was whose members were to be translated there, a flash of lightning, hurled with sudden onset from the sky, settled upon that same place; then, after no small interval of expectation, creeping with a long train and advancing gradually, it was at last seen to descend upon the roof of the church, where the relics of the Saints rest in their honor. Not by a few nor by trifling persons was the vision of so great a marvel observed; but a certain monk of ours, of reverend age and great gravity, testified that he had seen it; and the fishermen who were keeping watch upon the river Marne over their wave-wandering catches; and many laymen of sufficiently religious moderation, whom the devotion of a freely offered vow was inviting to the solemn vigils. If any chatterer should wish thence to draw a contentious rope, on the ground that whenever it should please the Deity such a thing is wont at times to happen — let him know that that night, lit by no star, was drenched with unceasing rain until daybreak; and let him marvel that, whereas a pillar of divine fire consecrated this place alone with no brief delay, wheeling through the air in a long course, it at last settled over the pledges of the Saints, and there, after a long space of expectation, sank down into the church itself.

VII.

[39] Hereafter, in the things which are to be written, if anyone should demand assurance, let him know that I, who have written them, have seen some things with my own eyes: A crippled boy is healed: and some I learned from the report of those who experienced the work of recovered health. Before the festival of the Apostles a certain poor man had come with his wife from the city of Soissons, who, staying eight days with other needy persons, was fed by the alms of the church. He had brought with him a son of nearly ten years, who from his birth, his right hand being bent back, had never brought any food to his mouth; and whose knee-joints being likewise loosened, had never set his foot upon the ground with a single step. Both his parents were holding him before the memorial of the most pious queen, while in the same festal night we were anticipating the divine countenance with our morning confession. But when, the recitation of the lessons being ended, that trumpet-call of the Holy Spirit sounded forth, Te Deum laudamus, both parents are struck with amazement, seeing their son with his hand raised and his fingers flashing, scratching his head with repeated motion, and with his legs straightened attempting steps with unaccustomed effort. Thereupon new joys thrill the silent minds of the parents: all approve with their eyes the mighty works of God, and with tearful devotion lift up the heralding of thanks for the merits of St. Helena. The novelty of this glory lay hidden from the Brethren who were serving the morning Office, until, when the light of day had increased, the boy was called forward as a proof of the health he had received. Straightway the hearts of the Brethren rise again as though out of a certain sepulchre of sorrow, and, venerating the Most High with the modulation of a gracious canticle, they cannot be satisfied with gazing again and again upon the sight of the boy.

VIII.

[40] Scarcely would the arguments of the art of rhetoric suffice any eloquent man to set forth more copiously the distinctions of so noble a day in the way of praises. wonderful serenity of the air: Whence I myself fear one day to undergo judgment for my own unskillfulness, who, unequal in strength, attack with a tongueless style of no weight a work that ought to be submitted to eloquent men. Nevertheless I hope for pardon in this, that, although unworthily, yet a later age will not complain that these titles of pious memory have grown obsolete through the sloth of those who went before. If anyone, with the breeze of his mind made clear, should worthily marvel at the works of God, he will recognize that this day had as many sweetly breathing odors of virtues as the many-colored graces of flowers are fragrant in the mildness of spring: and just as, when the old age of winter is wiped away, the elements smile with a certain native power beneath a more gracious lamp of Phoebus, so the hearts of all were growing young again with a certain budding gladness, magnificently delighted by the joyous sight of the miracles. For who would not pour out all the reins of joy for so great a queen, for whom the whole heaven was doing service? For whereas before, for nearly fifteen days together, the wintry air had been drenched with falling rain and the stars had languished, at the very dawn of that festal light so great a pleasantness of clear weather smiled forth that presently, when the mists of rain had been scattered by the rising radiance of the sun, it sweetened the whole day until evening with a springlike mildness in favor of so great an Empress, and with friendly familiarity allured those who were coming to the joy of so great a sight. How special a day for so great an Empress! — a day which lays the bridle of so imperious a law even upon the mute element itself. Certainly it is to be believed that on this day all the dwellers in heaven served in her train, and that Christ her Spouse set the nuptial diadem upon her.

IX.

[41] There had assembled, therefore, in the archbishop's stead Hugh of Soissons and Philip, bishop of Châlons. Illustrious persons honor the translation by their presence: And among these there were also present great luminaries of the monastic rule, namely Burchard, abbot of Saint-Basle, and Peter, abbot of Orbais, and Rudolph, abbot of Saint-Thierry, and Lambert, abbot of Saint-Pierre-aux-Monts of Châlons, and Philip, abbot of Rebais. Of secular power there were present Stephen, Count of the Palace, and his wife Adelaide, daughter of William, king of the English; and Constance, daughter of Philip, king of the Franks, wife of Hugh, Count of Troyes, brother of the same Stephen; and Dudo, viscount of Marœuil; and other innumerable persons sufficiently notable in their kind, whom I have forborne to name. The special glory of the Mother of the whole empire commanded those whom of old, from her rising, the forces of Rome had subdued with much blood, now sworn by the sacrament of Christ, to celebrate a solemn triumph for her. O crown of unconquerable victory, which Hautvillers sets upon thee! Joyous is the showing of thy Queen.

[42] The almighty Word, the Son of God, who says to his Apostles, Without me ye can do nothing, ordered this day by his own wonderful disposition. whose solemnity is described. For when they were deliberating at what hour the most holy relic ought to be translated, by the inspiration of God all with unanimous consent breathe out this counsel: that first the mystery of the Lord's redemption should be celebrated by the lord bishop Hugh, and that thus, when those initiated had made complete fulfillment of the divine Office, merit might increase with worthier devotion for the worthy performance of so pious a work. And when this was done, Brethren of pious gravity were chosen, who carried up the relic of so glorious a body to the very place of the translation, which is called Mont-Écolle. As they went, the pomp of so great an Empress was in motion: before and behind and on either side, thousands of the people, who with worthy ovation sang jubilations in the triumph of her exaltation. And so, when they had mounted the platforms of the timbered engine, which had been framed, as has been said, for the receiving of the ecclesiastical ranks and the secular potentates, the casket of the holy pledges is set down upon a higher stage, which for this reason stood out above upon a loftier framework of beams, that a wider view might suffice for those standing round on every side. But when the minds of all had been raised to the zeal of so pious a devotion, the litany is celebrated with a worthy outpouring of tears; and when this was finished, and a sermon had been made to the people concerning the business that had been begun, there is opened with the highest veneration the urn of the silver chest, which in truth contained within itself a manna more precious than that which carnal Israel glories to have rained down from heaven for its food for forty years. Then, sprinkling the holy ashes with the odor of incense, we drew out from within a little label, on which we read written: The body of St. Helena the queen, mother of Constantine, without the head ^k. And this was also read by the Countess Adelaide, wife of Stephen the Count Palatine, and was interpreted by her, herself pointing it out, to the other persons of the same power.

XI.

[43] All, therefore, being held in suspense in expectation of so great a thing, The body is enclosed in another casket: a blind man and a lame man are healed, we brought forth the most holy treasure of the body, more precious than refined gold and emerald: which within was wrapped in white linen, and without in a brandeum ^l dyed with Iberian purple. This relic of so royal a body still blooms with the grace of imperial magnificence; which, anointed with the pure aroma of balsam, will keep off from itself, as is fitting, the injury of all corruption. It shines purer than amber, clearer than glass, whiter than milk: and certain friends of the truth have testified to us that they were sprinkled with a fragrance of wonderful sweetness, so long as by a lingering exhibition provision was made for the raw unbelief of all France, and the hardened obstinacy of the babblers was beaten back by the long-continued sight of the proof. Then, when it had been long saluted by all with a veneration well worthy of admiration, the members of the blessed Queen herself are laid up by the bishops in another new vessel, in which they now are. And without delay — behold, in the very moment of the transposition, a proof establishes the divine presence, and of what merit he is whose bones are here handled: for among so many thousands of the numerous people, two poor men of advanced age had come; of whom the one, by divine chastisement, had already been blind for three years; the other, deprived of the soundness of his sinews, went limping with his right leg bent. These two, visited by the wondrous loving-kindness of so great an Empress, in one moment receive different remedies of different healing.

[44] "Thanks be to God," says the one, "that after the course of three years with my eyes bereft of light, not unmindful of the benefit. at length through the merit of St. Helena the joyous radiance of Phoebus's chariot breathes upon me." The other, whose sinews were somewhat loosened during the lingering exhibition, said: "Lo, by the intercession of the blessed Queen, with my leg made straight I labor at steps long denied me." Each of them comes forward as a proof of restored health, and, going up upon the engine of the raised mass, they cannot be satisfied with kissing long the bier of the holy Empress. O how fair are the spectacles of things which this votive day sets before thee, Hautvillers! Today thou art sweetened with the genial delights of thy Queen. Today thou art crowned with her nuptial diadem, woven with the various rays of gems. Today thou art gladdened with a sweet epithalamium, amid the manifold applause of miracles. This is the day of dancing, preordained for thee by God from the beginning of the world: by his providence a magnificent fragrance of perfume now soothes thee, and the yoke of derision which the stubbornness of unbelievers had laid upon thee rots away before the face of the divine oil …

because the power of thy Empress has now laid low for thee every haughty brow of a rival forehead.

XII.

[45] All, therefore, being made certain by the attestation of signs, pour forth tears full of joy. A fair is granted to the people of Hautvillers. Never did any pomp of things lead a more welcome triumph. On this side the clergy, leading glad choirs, resound to God the praises of a canticle on high; and on that side the throng of the laity, clapping their hands, shouts for joy with the voice of exultation. But when the thanksgiving was ended, we judged it worth our while to approach Stephen, Count of the Palace, that he himself, a man of patrician dignity, might vow to so great an Empress such a gift as should not fall short of the honor. To this the prudent man, benevolent as he always was, in answer to our just petition asks what the church would rejoice more conveniently to have given it. And when he learned that the estate of the church would profit in this, if he should proclaim ^m a fair with public marketings of provisions, having taken counsel with the wife of his brother Hugh, Count of Troyes — Constance, daughter of the king of the Franks — and

with his brother Philip, bishop of Châlons, who by right of patrimony were sharers in the county, he decreed by the edict of a lawful ban that a market should thenceforth be held there on the sixth day of the week; in this also Dudo, viscount of Marœuil, giving his assent. And that this constitution might be made with a ratified stipulation, all of these laying their hands upon it, it is assigned to St. Helena by perpetual right.

XIII.

[46] These things being happily settled, we judged it fitting to crown the people with another gift of salvation. St. Polycarp and St. Helena the patrons of Hautvillers. For one silver casket had from of old until now received into its happy bosom the bodies of the holy martyr Polycarp and of Helena the queen. But, as was fitting, when the solemn translation of the holy empress Helena had been performed, it pleased us also to bring forth into public the bones ⁿ of the holy martyr Polycarp, the companion of St. Sebastian, that we might prove that we also possessed the treasure of so great a patronage. All the people are signed with the blessing of so great a martyr and priest, and, adoring the holy ashes, salute them with the pious devotion of the heart. That the church of Hautvillers should be exalted by the privilege of such great Saints, the whole world of the Franks marvels, and acclaims that this day has deserved the fame of eternal praise. Truly this day is memorable to thee every year, Hautvillers: for as it is dedicated to the whole world by the martyrdom of the two Apostles Simon and Jude, so to thee it is votive by the exaltation of thy two patrons, the martyr Polycarp and the holy empress Helena. And now, the devotion of the whole Office being completed, the relics of the Saints are carried back with triumphal applause to the seat of the church. For during the return the exultation grew still greater, because the light of truth, made manifest by evident signs, had driven the night of unbelief from the hearts of all, and it was permitted to none to be ignorant of what they had proved with their eyes. Chapter XIV, with this title — That it is not without mystery that the bones of the Saints were raised at the sixth hour of the day — and chapter XV — That the malignant spirit always rejoices in the perdition of the human race, and, when the senses have first been injured, claims the whole man for himself — we pass over.

XVI.

[47] There was a certain man, Baldwin by name, of the city of Tournai ^o, who came to us in the following manner on the sixth day after the translation of St. Helena. A certain lunatic man While he wished to visit the memorial of St. Leonard [p], and to ask of him the cure of his infirmity, he met on his way Stephen, Count of the Palace (of whom we have spoken above): and being asked by him who he was, or whither he was going, or how he had been brought to the misfortune of so great a plague, he began the tragedy of his unhappiness thus: "A native," said he, "of the territory of Tournai, I frequent the churches of the Saints, that by the help of their patronage I may obtain from God freedom from this captivity, which I incurred in this manner by the deceit of the devil. Having shared seed with a certain neighbor of mine, I had tilled a little field; but as the month of August drew near, when already the harvest was nearly yellowing and want of bread pressed me, I anxiously approached my neighbor, that with an equal division of the lot we might reap our common tillage. He, guarding against the future loss of a crop cut before its time, answered that he was waiting for the fit season of ripeness. Thus, the power of gathering more in the daytime being denied me, I was tormented by the destitution of my household affairs. As I turned many things over in my mind, at last this ill-conceived resolve settled in my soul. Entering the field with an ass on the festal night of St. Christopher the martyr, I set the straits of my necessity before the reverence due to the Saints, and, my partner not knowing it, I was reaping the common field by theft with a nocturnal sickle. And without delay — behold, the wrath of God from above raged with a heavy thunderbolt against the master and against the beast which I had brought: for the frame of its sinews contracted, and the ass grew stiff, and by the prodigious portent terrified all round about. But I, unhappy man, fell to the ground, stricken with a manifold kind of pains. There rise upon my neck, on either side, two scrofulous ulcers, and with the dreadful corruption of their putrefaction they afflict those who stand near. A sick panting wearies the air, my head is whirled upon a ceaseless hinge, my arms tremble with unremitting motion, my sides are beaten with frequent sighs, my thighs leap apart, my legs are broken, the fierce madness of the enemy grows cruel within me, and at the new moon he feeds like a wild beast upon my gnawings. Alas! with how deaf an ear, O death, dost thou despise my prayers, and prolong for me the unwelcome delays of life!"

[48] At this the Count, piously kind, groaning for him, said: "Take these two denarii for thy journey, he recovers: and going to Hautvillers, thou shalt say that thou art sent in my name to implore the aid of St. Helena. Hold the hope of health for certain: that by her merits a blind man has seen and a lame man has leapt up, I have proved with my own eyes." Having received this encouragement, he had entered the hospice of pilgrims at the evening hour. You would be astonished at the man, destitute of every function of the body; you would see his head whirled with portentous motion, and see him fed and given drink by another's service: you would see his pains, by the excessive violence of his dizziness, befoul him with half-eaten mouthfuls, and see him constantly sprinkled with the spilling of his drink. Nevertheless, resting that night somewhat more easily, on the following day, which dawned upon a Saturday, after sunrise he betook himself early to the church. Scarcely will any age believe how pitiable the man's countenance appeared. Certainly, as is the condition of human nature — one sort gentler, another somewhat harsher — some fled him as he came, others piously groaned over the wretched lot of the dreadful spectacle. He lies down before the steps of the chancel, and, with the lamenting complaint of a tearful heart, thus makes the sweet Queen his friend: "O blessed Helena," he says, "mother of the empire, queen of all the Roman world, discoverer of the Lord's cross, a respite even today, a respite even today!" A wonderful thing! Scarcely had he uttered this, when behold, raising his head on high, first of all he is bathed with an evil sweat about his neck; then with wonderful steadiness he marvels to find himself immovable. O blessed efficacy of merits, how free from delay it is in the bestowing of health! Astounded at the sight of so great a benefit, we hesitated a little, as though caught up in ecstasy: then, marveling to see the man walk about, we prove by testimony of great authority that he has been restored to himself. O tears full of joys, which we pour out for thee, O Christ, while with the pious quill of the heart we beat out for thee upon the instrument of the voice the sweet melody of a canticle, and have cause to rejoice with him who has been snatched from the arrest of a diabolical captivity! O miracle famous through all ages, never seen in a like spectacle! The man is altered into a new figure, and offers himself to his neighbors who knew him before as a wonder of strange novelty; and, while he recognizes them all, he marvels also that he is not recognized even by his own parents, as though he were a foreigner.

XVII.

[49] This day our Queen dedicated to us with two crowns of benefits, a woman's contracted leg, and bade two candlesticks of healings shine before her. For at the evening hour of the Lord's night a certain poor man came from the village of Trécon, bringing his wife, Emelina by name, on a wagon. For half a year she had bestowed no care upon her domestic business, because, being contracted by the stiffening of the sinews of her right leg, she had lost the function of walking: and she, though small in means, yet great-souled in faith, as she entered the porch of the church, by the wondrous favor of God deserved the aid of St. Helena. For, silent with her lips, and saluting with pious heart the name of the holy queen Helena, she began, trying, to set her heel upon the ground: and having attempted this again and again with a slow loosening of the sinews, at length with an unlooked-for firmness of foot she venerates the altar, and, like that poor woman of the Gospel, enriches the treasury of the holy Empress with a scanty farthing. The performance of this evening miracle doubled for us the gladness of the morning one: for on this our day our illustrious Queen willed to solemnize her church to almighty God with a twofold holocaust of thanksgiving; even as the law-giving Seer bade the priest attend upon the divine presence morning and evening with a twofold offering of sacrifice. Happy church of Hautvillers, happily delighted by the happy auspices of its Patroness, it then deserved to say with the Prophet: Evening and morning will I declare and announce. And again: In me, O God, are thy vows, which I will render as praises unto thee.

XVIII.

[50] likewise a dumb boy It is a small thing for me to speak of those near at hand; it is my pleasure also to bear witness that the praiseworthy aid of our Patroness has been sprinkled abroad among foreign nations also. As of old the Queen of all the Roman world pacified with the even scale of justice every man subject to her, so now also everywhere upon earth, acknowledging her own as their lady, she comes to the help of all with the pious hearing of their prayers for health. In Lorraine there is a castle of famous power which is called Horum. Adjoining it is a certain village called Amecina, which a certain countryman, John by name, inhabited, having a son of about twelve years. From him the power of God — whose laws nature trembles at, and whose judgments are a great deep — had withdrawn the faculty of speech. And when he had now passed three years in the misfortune of this silence, his father, loving him uniquely, bound himself by the vow of a pious devotion that he would go with him as a suppliant to Hautvillers to the memorial of the holy empress Helena, and would honor her with a gift suited to his poverty, if by her favor he should be loosed from the bond of dumbness. O magnificent condescension of the most high God! who, lest anyone should doubt that the patronages of his Saints live everywhere, commends them with great efficacy of power to be proclaimed even in those places where only a pious remembrance of their name is made. For behold, he kindly approves the poor man's pious vow …, and now judges him worthy that he should stretch out the hand of indulgence to his son, as of old he judged the Centurion worthy, that he might set free his paralytic servant.

[51] are healed. And so, after the interval of a single night had followed, God unveiled a happy day with happy joy to the boy's parents, and by the merits of St. Helena fulfilled their desire. For the child rises from his bed with the instrument of his voice loosed, and attests by the worthy office of speech that the presence of the holy Queen had been with him. The parents rejoice with insatiable gladness, and the reverence of so great a proclamation is celebrated all around with wondrous fervor. Therefore on the ninth day after the translation of our blessed Patroness the father enters Hautvillers, to pay the vow of his promise, with his son accompanying him as a proof of the divine mercy. Then, having poured forth prayer and made an offering according to the measure of his ability, he gladdens the minds of the holy congregation with the tidings of his unlooked-for report, and it is proved by the present miracle of his speaking son that the holy Queen has shone upon all Lorraine like a new star. There follows in our transcript chapter XIX: That as the law preceded the Gospel in figure, so the ancients also by their comparison prefigured the moderns under grace. But this parallel we do not transcribe. To the end of this narrative also are appended a few verses of heroic meter. After these two miracles are related. The one, indeed, Of a blind woman enlightened by the merits of St. Helena in the fourth week of the Lenten fast. The other, Likewise of a blind girl restored to sight on the third day of the week of Pentecost. Of these we shall speak below.

ANNOTATIONS.

in volume 2, book 2, chapter 3 of the Metropolis Remensis does indeed assign the same place and day of death, but the year 1096.

p. I think that St. Leonard, the disciple of St. Remigius, is here meant, concerning whom see the Roman Martyrology at the 6th day of November. The Blaeu map of the diocese of Reims marks, in the very territory of the city of Reims upon the river Vesle, commonly la Vele, a place called S. Lienart. Whether this be the one of whom there is here question, or another, I cannot affirm. Greater and better light will perhaps be shed upon it when St. Leonard is treated on the said day.

*. Rather III.

*. Mabillon: Notcher.

. Mabillon: placuisse*.

POSTHUMOUS GLORY FROM MIRACLES.

Helena, widow, empress, and mother of Constantine the Great, at Rome (St.)

BHL Number: 3775, 3786, 3774

By Almannus.

§ I. Miracles wrought by the Saint's aid during her translation into Gaul in the ninth century,

By Almannus, monk of Hautvillers,

Here published from the Rebais Manuscript.

The author of these miracles is Almantius, or Almannus, a monk of Hautvillers, who lived in the year DCCCXC according to Trithemius, as our own Heribert Rosweyde noted in his own hand upon our transcript, together with this: From the Rebais Manuscript, by the care of Nicolas Belfort. As regards Almannus, consult what has been set forth concerning him above in the Preliminary Commentary, §14, and in the Posthumous Glory, §1. But that Nicolas Belfort I do not doubt to be the same of whom mention was made among us long ago in volume 11 of January, at the XX day of the same month, page 262, in the monastery — as it is there said — of St. John of the Vineyard at Soissons, a Canon Regular. Of the monastery of Rebais in Gaul, not far from the river Marne, in the diocese of Meaux and the forest of Brie, we made mention in volume 1 of February, at the VI day, page 817. The said copy is divided into twenty-two chapters: in place of which we substitute fewer, retaining nevertheless the old numbering in the margin. That this history was accustomed to be read to the monks of Hautvillers seems to be gathered from these words at the end of the same, number 75 in our text: On that night, therefore, on which on the morrow, being the day of her birth — that is, of our Saint — these things which have been collected by our labor concerning her were first to be recited before the brethren, etc. This, reader, is what I had, whereof I judged you should be forewarned. Consult also my Annotations. The narrative of the matter runs thus: of which, according to our new division, here follows for you

PART ONE.

The miracles which happened both about the sacred body and in others healed through it.

Chap. I.

The body of St. Helena cannot be lifted, and why: The most holy [] empress Helena, having gone forth from Rome with her train (the Lord God favoring the western region), had her second lodging in the wood which is called by the inhabitants of that place Sudria ^a. But when the third light had driven the chill shadow from the sky, those who had deserved to enjoy her company, seeing the sun restore the colors of things, after the manner of travelers began to load the pack-animals ^b and, in their eagerness to depart, to put their belongings in order — until such time as her chief guardian, Teutgisus by name, should return; who for some necessary cause was not present. Before the odds and ends of his own baggage, therefore, one of the rest, whom the aforesaid guardian had ordered, was eager to lift the precious pearl [] onto a little ass: but although he strove with every effort, the most blessed body nevertheless remained immovable. A wonderful thing! By no means could the kindly members of that precious grace be in the least moved by all the labor of a stronger man — members which on the two days now past had been laid upon that same ass and taken down again by the hand of the aforesaid guardian, who was far inferior in strength. Thereupon he who had been eager to lift it, confounded with astonishment, terrified with fear, and at the same time given over to wonder, went to his master: he said that holy Helena was unwilling to come further from Rome; and he strove to urge that they should depart quickly without delay []. But the other, turning over the messenger's words with himself, and pondering with fearful heart what needed to be done, came with hurried step to where the most blessed Mother of Constantine was resting: and, gazing long upon her, at length in fear he took her up and set her upon the ass without [any] resistance. At which, gladness indeed was restored to all who were following her (because they were carrying her, which they had by no means hoped), but their wonder was increased [], because they were wholly ignorant of what the matter meant; and with an eager road they began to pursue their journey [*]. At last, by the confession of the very man who had been unable to move her from the place, it was discovered by the guardian priest named Theutgisus that he had been polluted by a nocturnal dream. Then praise and honor to God enthroned on high, who conquers in the eternity of ages of ages, in his everlasting kingdom. Amen.

II.

[54] Furthermore, treading the road with a more eager pace, they came to a most haughty river, she is wonderfully carried across the most rapid river Taro: whose name is Taro ^c: which is loosed with so great a whirling and rush of speed that if a stone of great size be thrown into it, it is carried along by so swift an eddy that scarcely, though nature compel it, can it reach the bottom. Therefore with no small fear, beholding the haughty threats of the water, they were deliberating by no means to cross there: when suddenly the ass, upon which sat the most exalted Discoverer of the wood of life, without any hesitation entered the river; as though our Helena had said with great proclamation: "Why do you waver? Why do you dread the wondrous-sounding waves? Her whom you follow over dry ground, follow also into the waters of threatening streams." But fear conquered all: for one of the bystanders, casting in a spear to make trial, could in no way hold it even a little upright. But the aforesaid steward, pierced with the sharpest grief, judged indeed that it was in vain that a star shining in heaven could be swallowed up by such a whirlpool, and let down his feet from the bank only after her, being at the same time certain that, if he should move his foot a little from the ground, quicker than the word the mightiest whirling of the water would roll him headlong. Thus, as he hung there piteously, and upon the threshold of this present life, his own deliberation and that of all who stood upon the shore being overcome, the other ass, which was standing at the bank, of its own accord entered the stream and stood close beside him [*]; and leaning upon it — for now he was bearing the buffeting of the waves — he came all the way to the Saint. O thing given over to wonder! The alternating masses of water, poured back from the lowest depths, beat upon the crown of the outstretched priest's head (as he lay upon the ass), and did not reach even to the sides of the other ass, on which the most steadfast Mother of the hero Constantine was seated. So, with her leading and curbing the swelling blasts of the river — a thing which none of those who saw it could believe — the priest and the asses came forth safe from the haughty river. But the rest of the people crossed over at the public ford, which was three miles distant thence, praising almighty God for this.

III.

[55] Thus, lighting the way with the lamp of signs, she was carried — nay rather, she carried those who followed her — as far as the most noble of mountains, Mont Joux ^d. a certain girl is saved in a fall; And as a certain girl was following her with too trustful a step as she ascended — a step that would have been mortal, had it not been for her — she strayed a very little from the narrow path, hemmed in by crags of a defile, and fell miserably headlong. Alas the grief! from the excessive height of the mountain she was rolling like a ball to the depths, owing now no more than half her life; when at the voices of the people, unanimously imploring the aid of God, the help of the power-bearing Helena was present. For as soon as they began to send forth their voices from the depths of their hearts, to beat upon heaven with their cry, and thrice and four times to say aloud, "Holy Helena, help; St. Helena, help" — the maiden, who before was so whirling down the slope of the mountain that she could scarcely be seen by the eye, stuck motionless upon the sheer ground: until those who had seen her from above, and did not think her dead, gladly let down their bandages and wonderfully drew her back to themselves unharmed, having no injury from the fall; and they gave thanks to the Lord, who by the merits of the most glorious Helena so restored her sound to them that she did not even feel that she had fallen, and, brought to life again, ran after her healer — nay, her raiser from the dead — even to near the descent of the mountain. At these marvels the whole people, made more eager, began to follow her more devoutly and more joyfully.

IV.

[56] But after that, as they were now descending, they came to a narrower path, hemmed on right and left with the expectation of death; a certain vassal named Otinus, as also another, who was carrying the Saint's body, made more devout by the aforesaid miracles, to the veneration

of her he diligently took care to devote his service. For, fearing the fall of the horse which the little path threatened, he took her down from his own horse, to which he had a while before entrusted her to be carried after she was taken from the ass, and reverently set his own shoulders beneath the most precious burden: and thus he entered upon the peril of the path, bearing her who — as appeared not long after — was his bearer. For afterwards, in a very narrow turning, his foot slipping badly, he fell miserably. And he meanwhile, the more the deadly fall threatened destruction, the more ardently, as one at the point of death, clasped the kindly Queen in his arms: and scarcely lifting his eyes to heaven, as imminent death admonished him, he prayed with his whole being that he might be carried by her whom he had before carried. The people, therefore, though distrustful because of the greatness of the peril, believing that he would no longer draw the breath of life, were nevertheless raised in hope by the miracles of her powers which they had lately seen. And when they began to send forth their voices to heaven, saying, "Holy Helena, St. Helena, succor him" — at the name which thundered from the mouths of all, the horse upon which the Most Blessed had lately sat, accounting its own fall as nothing, stretched out its forefeet and within them most closely embraced the man, even as he was embracing the members most dear to God; and thus it held him, that he might not slip down the slope of the mountain, so long until men from the monastery of St. Peter ^e, which is situated at the foot of the mountain, roused by the outcry, ran up, prepared to bring help.

[57] and the horse that bore the sacred body. And when they saw the horse, despising itself, bringing comfort to the man, with much wonder they likened it to the ass which once had formed words. Then, the ice being roughened with axes, lances, and daggers, lest as usual it should mock the steps of those who were striving to help, they let down one of their number to bind the man with ropes and to release the horse from its service: and so together with the most holy body they drew back to themselves the man safe who had fallen, and along with him who had gone down, the helping steed. Say now, O nature, where are thy laws, after such miracles as Christ implants in the world by the merits of his Saints? — to whom, with the Father enthroned on high and with the Holy Spirit likewise, be praise and honor for ever and ever. May he himself permit me to set down the rest without any coloring of error, through the glorious protection of the illustrious Helena.

Now a certain count named Astaldus, and likewise Otinus, who had been snatched from death, were being compelled — the place to which they were bound being such — to change their road when the mountain was crossed, and to leave holy Helena: and they would have done so, had not the aforesaid miracles held them back; for, inspired by these, they utterly divided their company, and with the highest devotion kept to the road by which the Most Blessed was going.

[58] And so, the journey being lightened by these figures of miracles, rejoicing and singing psalms over the unwonted things they had seen, A contracted woman they came within the borders of Langres, namely to the harbor whose name is Osvia ^f; and they carried her into the basilica of St. Munebundus ^g. But winged rumor fills not only that village but all the district of Langres — that Helena, once mistress of the whole world, had come; and it ceases not to make known her quality, both from the most precious treasure of the whole cosmos [] imperially buried there, and likewise from the wonders confessed above [] and from those sent down from heaven admirably by her merits. To the most glorious splendor, therefore, of this power, a certain woman, creeping upon her hands and fulfilling the offices of feet with her knees, entered the church in tears. For she was to be seen so contracted by an inveterate disease that her feet clung miserably together, and, bowed down with a failing countenance, she looked upon the ground alone. Carried therefore upon wooden feet she came: trembling, she touched the litter in which the members of great veneration were borne; and straightway, her limbs being recalled, she is restored to her former use, so that not even the marks of her past infirmity could be traced.

[59] is healed. And so, from the not slight pain of her heels returning unwillingly to their proper place, she began to send forth loud and inarticulate cries. At her wailing those who dwelt nearby ran hastily up: and, beholding what they could never have believed — that she stood upright upon her feet — and seeing her hands free from the service of feet, they glorified God. The woman marvels at the lofty summit of the sky: she is astonished to tread the ground with feet unknown to her: her hands tremble to ply their proper office. All the people marvel that the power-bearing body of Helena was carried out of the church by her herself on the morrow, crying, "Blessed be God, who alone doeth great wonders," through Blessed Helena, who ceases not to put to flight the sad plagues of diseases: so that even yet those who saw it — and above all the priest, from whose report I learned what I write — remain as witnesses.

VI.

[60] From that place, therefore, our Helena having advanced a single day's journey, at the moment of the following night she shone forth with a notable miracle. For a certain man had been so undone by paralysis for six years The use of his limbs is restored to a paralytic; that he was utterly without the aid of all his joints: and his limbs, deserted by their proper functions, lay alive upon his little bed under the image of death. Therefore, encouraged by the fame of the signs, he sent by his wife a linen cloth as a gift to the Most Blessed, and along with it the very sword with which he used to be armed each day. But when the small gifts were brought to her, the Most Glorious at once sent back to him the functions of all his limbs, the torment of the harmful dissolution being put to flight, before the woman who had been sent returned to him.

VII.

[61] When a little girl, blind from her mother's womb, heard of this notable healing, VII. she came, led by another's light, Sight given to a blind girl. to where she had learned that the power-bearing Queen was. And when she touched her bier, in the midst of her darkness an open light shone forth, and she beholds the sun which she had never seen: and, praising and dancing for joy, on the next day she follows her Enlightener, herself reading her own steps with her own little eyes — she who a little before had been led to her by the eyes of others ^h.

ANNOTATIONS.

. Otherwise: Through all things most holy, of kindly vigor.*

. Otherwise: margaritum.*

. Otherwise: ipsa.*

. Otherwise: incerta.*

. Otherwise: arripere. Ast.*

. eum.*

*. That is, of the world, in Greek κόσμου.

. Perhaps suprafatis*?

PART TWO.

All manner of other ills healed through the body of St. Helena.

VIII.

These things being thus accomplished, the crowd of common people, praising the Lord, singing aloud of the Bridegroom's friend full of powers, A dumb woman deprived of the use of her hands. beating upon the stars with the cry of Kyrie eleison, and cleaving the way with a more eager oar, enters at length with our lady Helena into the village which by its common name is called Averga. And without delay there came to meet her a dumb woman, wholly deprived of the use of her hands. You would see her so miserably sick that, being dumb, she could not ask for what she needed, nor, being contracted in her hands, was she able herself to bring food to her mouth. And she was wonderfully cured.

IX.

[63] a lunatic, Going forth from the aforenamed village, she entered the next, by name Fallesia: and with her likewise came health for the dumb, the blind, the deaf, the paralytic, and the lame — as by her intercession and by the Lord's help what follows will show. For as soon as the members of her blessed memory were laid in the church, divine miracles shone forth through her upon all who were present. For a certain man entering, who for a long time now had been a lunatic, as soon as he fell, was grievously vexed by a dumb spirit, as though he had utterly fallen down dead. The whole church, therefore, given over to astonishment at this, called with unwearied mouth upon holy Helena, that she would also have taught how so great a fall of a man might be remedied ^a: when behold, quicker than the word, soundness came to all the man's limbs, and he, being restored most healthy, lived for a long time thereafter unharmed, deprived of his former infirmity. Blessed be God for this!

[64] But in that same village a certain man, wretched with disease, had passed three lustres upon a pallet, another afflicted with a most wretched disease, swallowed up by so great a sickness that, his flesh being putrefied, twenty-three bones fell from his body. Him his neighbors, laying him as one utterly broken in a litter, led by the fame of the signs carried down to the basilica where Helena, the beloved of the great spouse Constantius, was dispensing her powers: not, however, believing that he could in any way receive health, misled by the greatness of his disease. O wondrous thing, O thing perhaps incredible to some who shall hear it! From the little bed on which he had been carried he tried to rise,

he who within the course of fifteen years had not been turned upon his other side by his own strength. And those who had brought him, beholding this with great astonishment, and, because of the length and heaviness of his disease, accounting that effort as nothing, at last asked what he wished to do. But he, inspired indeed by the power of the most blessed Helena, yet still weighed down by his wasted body, urgently begged that he might be lifted up. Then those who had carried him, perceiving that this was not without the divine will, straightway raised him up, helping him now not wholly but in part. And behold, when the odor of salvation borne from the litter of the Mediatrix reached the nostrils of the scarred man, all the sick man's limbs were so made firm that they could find no traces of his former infirmity: and, treading thereafter firmly upon ground long unknown to him, he who had been brought by the strength of others returned joyfully to his own home by his own; he carried back his bearer with a grateful recompense, and stirred up all the neighboring provinces to praise the Lord.

XI.

[65] Not long after, the daughter of a certain man named Haderic — Bava by name — creeping upon her knees and holding wooden feet in her hands, a girl lame from her mother's womb, was breathed upon by the odor of the signs: and her, lame from her mother's womb, our Helena caused, in the presence of all the clergy, to walk with an upright step: and to this day, while life accompanies her, she is a nun in the city of Durocortorum of the Remi ^b, utterly stripped of every wrinkle of her sluggish infirmity. Whoever does not believe that she was lame may learn from her own words how great a power of our most blessed Queen she experienced within herself.

XII.

[66] At that same moment of time the report of these powers drew a certain woman to Helena, the dispenser of health: another undone by paralysis, who, undone by paralysis, had utterly lost the services of her tongue, and likewise, her sinews being relaxed, her languid hands hung from the bond of her right side. And when she came, and a little linen cloth brought with her out of her desire to receive health touched the litter of the Most Holy, straightway the functions of her healed tongue returned: her right hand flourishes with its strength restored, the heavy weight of the palm being taken away, which for many years had hung useless. Let us venerate, therefore, the notable ornament of so great a felicity or salvation; through which such great miracles of Christ are shown to us, through which, by the discovery of the wood of life, the fictions of the devil are trodden down, through which the oracles of prophecy are fulfilled, through which, by the bridle marked with the king's son, the darts of enemies are scattered, and triumphal victory accompanies him in every battle ^c. Blessed therefore be God the Trinity for ever.

XIII.

[67] Meanwhile the fiery-haired sun, pouring upon the earth its rosy radiance, was bringing back the day that drives out death ^d, which draws the height of its lofty name from the ruling Lord: a man deaf from birth, and behold, a certain man deaf from his mother's womb was bringing a wether as a gift to the most holy Queen: and as the solemnities of the Mass were begun, he entered the church. When they came to the Gospel, by the merits of Helena the sound of the voice in the air penetrates his deaf ears, and at once, when the Gospel was read through, he began to cry with living voice that never, save then, had he heard the Gospel, and, shouting "Thanks be to God," to fill the whole basilica with his cry. All, weighing these things, unanimously glorified the Lord, who through his own Helena was adorning his own church with the miracles of her powers.

XIV.

[68] A certain man named Haderic — not the one of whom we made mention above — had a firstborn son of three years, a boy dangerously sick, into whose most tender limbs such a disorder of the body had been poured that a fifth day had already passed since he had drawn from his mother's breasts the milk which was as yet his only food. The father grieves, the mother no less, seeing him die whom they had not yet fully known to live. Amid these things, turning over many plans in the greatness of their sorrow as to what they should do, they are compelled by the winged fame of the other signs to go concerning this to our Helena. Therefore the father went with hurried step to where the most holy relic of the kindly body was resting, prayed long for his son's health, vowed a gift, and returned home. And so he found the boy, who had fasted five days, joyful and unharmed: and he found that at the very hour in which at the crypt of the Most Blessed he had begged for his health, he had begun to draw milk; and he gave thanks to almighty God, who had restored to him — what he had in no way hoped — the sole love of his firstborn son, who to this day survives his father and, as heir, enjoys life.

XV.

[69] Let these pages be heaped up with miracles which have been learned by truthful report from those who were present. [a paralytic often relapsing through evil living; likewise a woman's useless body; likewise a blind woman are cured.] A certain man of Trier was so deprived of the use of all his limbs that he could in no way be moved from his bed unless he were carried in some litter. But roused by the winged fame of her powers, he had himself carried after the health-bringing body of the Most Blessed all the way to Fallesia, out of the borders of the Treveri. And when he was restored [*] to health through the merits of the most glorious Queen, his crimes, long since committed, drew him back again. And so, having seven times wondrously obtained the soundness of all his limbs by the intercessions of Helena, as many times, under the pressure of the desires of the flesh, he was miserably contracted again: because, as he himself at last confessed, the twentieth year was already turning since he had made confession. And so, at the urging of those who beheld the aforesaid marvels, he at length confesses the sins long concealed. Without delay: to him confessed there is restored a health that shall abide; and thus he who had been carried thither sick and lamentable returns home rejoicing and whole. For this God is to be blessed with praise and glory, so long as the sky shall keep the star-bearing courses in its sphere.

XVI.

Nor is this to be covered in silence: that the sister of the bearer ^e more than once already mentioned bore the right side of her body without any use, a useless weight; and her members, loosened, were deserted by their functions, and the languid joints on that side hung with slackened sinews. And when she was brought to the basilica in which the power-named Helena was resting, an odor of health issuing from her litter restored to the infirm body its proper uses: and thus the aforesaid poor woman rejoices to walk upon her own soles, who had been carried into the church by the strength of others.

XVII.

About that time a blind woman, hearing the report of the signs, was led to her: and because a mighty sleep had pressed upon her, on that account her husband was busy about sending her away. When therefore the sun began to give itself back to the earth, she enters the church to receive the gift of health. And without delay — that is, at the third hour — she recovers her sight, the darkness being driven off, while all the household that was present marveled; and thus, with none to lead her, she returned home in gladness ^f.

ANNOTATIONS.

. whom, restored.*

PART THREE.

Among the various claimants of the sacred body the monastery of Hautvillers prevailed; the praises of the same; its devastation; a wondrous catch of fish attributed to the Saint's merits.

XVIII.

From this point let the text begin to tell in what manner she was brought, by the Lord's favor, to the most noble monastery of Hautvillers. [While there is contention over the Saint's body, by God's favor it is carried to the monastery of Hautvillers:] When the fame of so noble a Woman ^a began to shine far and wide upon the surrounding provinces, and to announce that so great a treasure had been stolen from Rome and was laid up at Fallesia, those on whose land she had been placed guarded her the more attentively, and, lest she should thereafter wish to depart, with devout mind they vowed her a monastery of nuns out of their own goods and their own daughters. But others — and chiefly the people of Reims — gave themselves to every labor that they might possess so great a treasure: but almighty God, who has wonderfully chosen this place in many ways, destined for it a pearl of so precious a weight. For while many (as the priest himself was wont to relate to us) fought on opposite sides that they might have her, and desired to contend even to the death — and chiefly, as has been said, the people of Reims — it is clearer than the sun that it was the Lord's will, and hers, that she should come to the monastery of Hautvillers; concerning the situation and name of which place it pleases me to insert here a few words.

XIX.

[71] For by a presage of the heavenly gift, foreseeing that it would stand and endure within the interpretation [] of its own name, the prerogatives of that place they called it Altumvillare — "high," I say, and truly high indeed in name, but more so in office; in a name not literal but mystical, and to be cherished for it perpetually in the starry sphere. O true spiritual etymology of this name, mystically derived from height, which is a name of measure! For in the height of theoretic contemplation no cell is first before it; in the breadth of charity it is second to none; in the depth of wisdom, that is, divine and human, it is preferred even to Athens; and if adversities befall, in bearing them patiently it is long. But indeed literally also it is named Hautvillers, blooming with varied beauty after the manner of gems. For on this side is the woodland foliage of the leaves, and the manifold fruits of the trees. On that side a most fertile soil delights; on this, meadows green with grass; on this, the fragrant flowers of the gardens; on this abound the clusters of the vineyards ^b, which glow with swelling gems shining in their Falernian wines ^c. Such is the turf of the aforesaid place — so honey-sweet [], so pleasing, so gentle, so delightful.

[72] Nor would I pass over that it is adorned by the Marne — nay rather, that the Materna ^d receives more adornment from it, that stream being gladder in this part. are praised. Thus by divine ordinance was the citadel of Hautvillers founded; in which the noble camps of God stand in battle line, where those who hope, and who shed groaning tears with dewy eyes out of longing for paradise, shall not have to groan in the avenging flames. Nor would I pass over that it is diligently called by the common people Altumvillare; and how well. For Alt ^e in Teutonic is said in our tongue for "old." For those who strive in its school leave behind the crooked path of infancy and the way of youth impatient of the bridle, and walk by the straight track in the ways of prudence, and with a neck accustomed to discipline bear the Lord's yoke, sweet and light. Hail, hail, O mountain — a mountain third to none in fact, second to Olivet — and, that I may use the fables of the poets in thy praise, rising above the earth: justice fixed her last footsteps in thee. What more? Hadst thou the name, thou wouldst have been all Rome. Hence, from thy dignity sent from heaven both according to God and according to the world, it is plain to shine forth that thy measuring dove ^f upon the foundation will never suffer thy young to be destroyed by the kite, that ravening and foul bird. Let these few things be said of the most fitting name of that most noble place. Let our slender little pen return for a little while to what has been interrupted.

XX.

[73] Meanwhile, as has already been said, winged rumor, filling the peoples with manifold report, going about the western lands alone, and now at length hiding its head among the clouds, enters the most noble district of Durocordorum of the Remi in Belgica Secunda, The genuineness of the body is confirmed, announcing that Helena, the finder of the wood of life, had been stolen from the eastern citadels, and into the district of Voncq

[] ^g had been carried into the aforesaid village of Fallesia. Hearing this, the people of Reims, and likewise those of Hautvillers, do not believe that it could in any way come to pass that Rome should be deprived, and France adorned, with so great a treasure. Some even asserted that Jerusalem, not Rome, rejoiced in her mausoleum; until, the tripartite book of the Ecclesiastical History ^h having been turned over, it was found that so precious a body ⁱ had been laid up at Rome; and that this one truly had been stolen, and no other, but Helena herself, the mother of the emperor Constantine — which almighty God the Trinity, after she had entered this place, deigned to show to his servants, being entreated with a three days' fast and consulted by the common judgment of water. Therefore, so great a treasure being found [] to be in the estate of Voncq, you would see the people of Reims contending, and no less the people of Hautvillers laboring, and all who had heard of it thirsting for her presence. On this side fought Pardulus, prefect of the Remi; on that side pressed Hernieus, procurator of Hautvillers. But the emperor Charles ^k, when he had heard the report that St. Helena was said to have been carried to Hautvillers, was by no means willing to believe it. Whence, summoning the bishop of that city with the abbots and religious men, he willed that a public judgment should be made in that very monastery, whether the monks were speaking the truth or bringing forward falsehoods. They judged, therefore, that it was not otherwise to be believed unless that same monk who had carried her to us should undergo a manifest judgment, and, stripped naked over his whole body, should enter into hot water. But that God might more plainly disclose the truth of the matter, he so preserved this man unharmed amid the boiling waters as he had known him to be uncorrupted by the very lie which was alleged ^l.

XXI.

[74] But when, for the sins of men, God delivered very many kingdoms into the hands of the Northmen, and, when the devastation of the Normans raged, it is carried elsewhere and they burned the churches and laid waste the monasteries ^m, the monks of Hautvillers wished to carry all the ornaments of the church into the city ⁿ; but, the pagan people being close at hand, leaving all behind and scarcely rescued by flight, desiring to save their souls alone, they lost everything from the least to the greatest, except only the bodies of the Saints and their relics, neither chalice nor even candlestick nor many other ornaments remaining out of the whole monastery. All the monasteries also and dwellings of the servants of God they consumed with fire, and thereafter through very many years the desolate place came always to a greater desolation. Nor was there any who for the love of God and of St. Peter the Apostle would take pity on the place and come to its aid, seeing that a place so honorable was sinking to such destitution. And as it was then, so also now — which is and remains a matter for lament. But let all who desire to rejoice with Christ intercede, that God the Trinity may deign to restore it to its former state. Amen.

XXII.

[75] Moreover it has seemed to us not unfitting to append to this little work, to the praise of Blessed Helena, A fish caught in a wondrous manner that which we believe to have happened by her merits ^o. On that night, therefore, on which on the morrow, being the day of her birth, these things which have been collected concerning her by our labor were first to be recited before the Brethren, the fishermen of the Brethren, as was fitting, were laboring at their fishing [p] by night. But they had now spent almost the whole night in vain, and had wearied themselves with varied [] labor. And when the labor now wearied them, and they thought that they would accomplish nothing in the remainder of the night, certain of them, stretching out their hands, turned the weariness of their toil upon St. Helena, saying: "O St. Helena, what are we to do next? Behold, we have spent the whole night to no purpose. Are we today to return to the monastery without a gift of fish? Shall the Brethren, who exalt thy holy solemnities with praises [], go without the fruit of our labor?" Complaining thus, therefore, and at the same time recovering their spirits and hope by these words, straightway with a rush they let down the net into the deep. When suddenly a great fish, which in the Latin tongue we call esox [q], prepared by the merits of St. Helena, leapt into the net, and along with it another not much smaller felt that its native courses were denied it by the snare of the same net.

[76] But in a wondrous manner, while the water was being drawn off by the fishermen, at the invocation of St. Helena suddenly that smaller fish, when it perceived its own nakedness, put forth all its strength, and, the net being torn, betook itself back into the water with a great leap. Its captors, greatly saddened, began to raise a complaining voice, crying: "Alas! Lady St. Helena, what shall we do now? Why hast thou shown us what we asked, and hast not kept it safe for thy servants?" That the power, therefore, of the most holy Queen might be still more fully declared in this, while they were yet crying out such things, that same fish, giving a greater leap by leaving the water to which it had before fled and seeking it again, came right up to the net, and, opening its jaws with a certain fierceness, seized with its bite the upper rope on which the net hung, and hung there [*] until it was taken by the fishermen. Therefore there is no doubt that he was there present through the merits of St. Helena who was present to Peter when he was fishing and bewailing a whole night spent without a catch; to whom we ought to give thanks unwearyingly, through whom we perceive ourselves cherished by such great patronages of his elect: who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit before the ages, and unto all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Flodoard relates this wondrous catch of fish more briefly in book 2, chapter 8, and says that it happened in the river Materna (that is, the Marne).

q. Pliny, book 9, chapter 15, writes that the esox is found of exceptional size. Surius, Colvenerius, and others interpret it as the salmon, which some would have to be so named as though exos, "boneless." But the same Pliny treats of the salmon and calls it by its own name. Gesner, book 4, and Ulisse Aldrovandi, books 4 and 5 On Fishes, will have it to be the pike. So Bolland in his posthumous notes. To which I add this from Marlot in the History of the Metropolis of Reims, book 3, chapter 25: "Moreover the sulmo Note: perhaps salmo, so called from esox or exox, is a sea fish, and lacks bones (concerning which see Sulpicius Severus, book 3 of the Dialogues, On the Virtues of St. Martin, chapter 13), and once it has tasted the fresh water of a river which it happens to ascend, it scarcely ever returns to the sea. Whence it is no wonder if it was found in the Marne near the monastery of Hautvillers." But whatever be the case concerning that identification, in a wondrous manner, as here immediately follows, that smaller fish was taken.

*. That is, according to its etymology.

. Read: tam mellifluus*, etc.

. Perhaps to be read Vanciacum*.

. Perhaps compertus dum foret*.

. Otherwise: vanoque*.

. Otherwise: with divine praises*.

. Flodoard: pependit*.

§ II. Miracles wrought both by St. Helena and by the other Patrons of Hautvillers in the eleventh century, by an anonymous author, from a Hautvillers codex.

FIRST SECTION.

[The reader being forewarned concerning this narrative, a transcript of the same is given.] We have a transcript headed with this title: Here begins the preface to the miracles which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to show through the merits of the Saints resting in the church of Hautvillers. The preface begins thus: As often as human infirmity recalls to memory the miracles of the Saints, and the mighty works of God are thereupon praised together, etc.; which for brevity's sake we omit. There follows thereafter the narrative of the miracles, out of which I had at first determined to excerpt only those which pertain peculiarly to St. Helena; but, afterwards changing my plan, I judged that the whole context of the narrative should be committed to the press; because, since our Saint is one of the said Patrons, she has a part also together with

them in these miracles. The author of the narrative is anonymous. But as to the things which are related in it, whence and by whom they were transcribed, I read noted after the end of our copy in these words: Faithfully transcribed also from a manuscript of the monastery of Hautvillers by me, Dom Rupert Reginald, namely in the year MDCLXIX in May, as our Papebroch appended.

[78] These few things being premised, here for you, reader, is the anonymous narrative itself, Great dryness of the earth in the course of which you will also find several notes suited to its elucidation. We have divided it into two sections and the following numbers. It runs thus:

Therefore in the year one thousand and forty-eight from the Incarnation of the Lord, in the first Indiction, while Henry as king was administering the government of the kingdom of the Franks, and Wido ^a as archbishop was presiding with pontifical authority over the see of Reims, there were wrought miracles most worthy of the memory of all, by the aforesaid Saints in the monastery called Hautvillers; which by the present narrative I have determined to relate to the pious ears of good men, so far as shall be possible for my littleness.

[79] There was at that season, not only throughout all the province of Reims, devouring France, but also in very many parts of France, so great a dryness of the air and of the earth that by not a few mortals it was thought — nay, feared — that the times of the drought which happened under the prophet Elijah for three years and six months had returned. For the air had utterly denied the showers of rain; and the earth, watered with no moisture for the bringing forth [*] of the fruits of the crops, the vines, the trees, and the other produce, lay sluggish enough and more than enough: which two elements nevertheless the divine, but always most just, omnipotence had closed up, since the sins of men and their negligences in the worship of God required it; and a most dreadful famine, continual want, and a scarcity of all other things was miserably wearing down the people of the aforesaid province.

[80] on which occasion No other kind of remedy, therefore, seemed available for repelling so great a plague and appeasing the divine chastisement, which daily was raging more and more against the people, save that by fasts, vigils, litanies, and supplications to the Saints, and by carrying them in procession, the propitiable ears of God should by every means be assailed. What more? By the unanimous counsel of the bishops, abbots, clerics, monks, and of all the people of the province it was decreed that, as has been said, processions of the Saints should be held, if by any means the divine anger might thereby be mitigated. It seemed good also to the Brethren most devoted to God, namely the monks of Hautvillers, that, after the example of their neighbors in the province, there should be carried in procession the bodies of Saints Nivard ^b, Polycarp, Sindulf, Madelupus, and of blessed Helena the most Christian empress, which are believed to rest among them with the veneration of great honor. And it pleased them that this should be done on the fourth day of the week in which the festival of holy Pentecost is held every year. Meanwhile the time had now come at which the most precious pledges of the aforesaid Saints must [*] be borne forth and carried about. But what miracle befell on the very night which preceded the day of the appointed procession of the Saints, I judge to be worthy of record first of all.

[81] The bodies are raised There is a most devout custom of certain countrymen of the village which is called Alsuntia ^c, that at the coming of the evening of the aforesaid solemnity they carry the body of the most holy confessor of Christ, Sindulf, outside the doors of the monastery with a notable procession and with hymn-singing praises. And this custom of theirs comes down from this, that the aforesaid most holy man is said to have passed the times of his life in solitary seclusion in that same village: and because among them there he flourished with very many marks of miracles, therefore the said countrymen render him every year the homage of their devotion. And so, when, as has been premised, the body of blessed Sindulf was being carried forth and brought back with a worthy procession, there was there at that hour a certain poor little woman called Adelaide, contracted quite miserably in her whole body: who, while with most intent prayer she begged of the Saint relief from her infirmity, straightway rose up unharmed, most sound in all her limbs. But because, night being now at hand, the monks of that monastery were intent upon other cares, she meanwhile kept silence concerning the miracle wrought upon her.

[82] of the holy Patrons of the monastery of Hautvillers, But coming on the next day, and disclosing before all the truth of the miracle wrought upon her, she rendered innumerable thanks to God and his Saints for the recovery of her health, while all the people and the monks exulted with hymn-singing praises, and tears mingled with joy: and thus, lifting up the bodies of the Saints, they carried them into a certain meadow, pleasant enough, at the foot of the same hill of Hautvillers, situated beside the bank of the river Materna: and when they had come thither, the pledges of the Saints being set down upon prepared seats, the aforesaid monks asked a certain elder cleric of the city of Reims, Adalbert by name, to make a sermon to the people: for there was present a very great multitude of the common folk, who had flowed together from the neighboring villages, cities, and castles. Therefore, when the aforesaid elder began to admonish the people standing by concerning the contempt of the vices of this present world and the winning of the glory of the eternity to come, and also concerning the deeds of the life of those same Saints and their miracles, suddenly, with a horrible thunderclap, there rushed in a whirlwind of violent wind, although at that very hour there was a vast serenity in the air — so that it might be shown by an evident sign that all that was being done was pleasing to those same Saints, and that their spiritual presence was there together with the relics of their bodies. And straightway, when all who were present had been terrified, as the aforesaid elder made an end of speaking to the people, there followed a notable miracle by the intercession of the Saints' merits.

[83] For there was present there at that time, along with the rest of the multitude of the people, with miracles accompanying; a certain crippled girl, who had dragged herself with great effort from the neighboring town of Marœuil, creeping upon her knees and upon little stools in her hands. For — to say nothing of the other inconveniences of her infirmity — the divine power had so worn her down that, her heels clinging behind her, she could by no means so much as set any footsteps in walking. And so, after the thunder had come, when the pledges of the Saints were being lifted from that place to be carried back to the monastery, at once the aforesaid girl, the clemency of the Saints looking upon her, is raised from the ground free of all her infirmity. Finally, when their biers had been lifted, straightway — her heels being parted, nay, torn away with blood from behind — the girl stood upon her feet, not without great wonder of the people beholding such things. For the blood flowing from those very places of her hinder parts and her heels bore witness how venerable and how awful is the divine power in the Saints: and thus with the greatest joy and unspeakable gladness the most precious pledges of the Saints were carried back to their own places; and thereafter, by the intervening clemency of the Saints, there followed in abundance the benefits of all the produce of the earth.

[84] Let us join to these another miracle also, by which the wicked covetousness of mortals may be confuted and put to shame. and thereafter After the foregoing miracles which we have related in the running course of our reading, a certain little contracted man was making his way to the monastery in which the pledges of the Saints are kept, sitting upon a little ass, stirred by so great a fame of their powers. And when he was already at hand …, released from the bond of his contraction, the wretched man had begun little by little to be healed, being anticipated by the merciful compassion of the Saints. And so now he stood almost whole; and now he was walking back sound; when lo, the foolish mind of the man, thinking that he could in no way be wholly cured by the Saints without some recompense of an earthly gift, vowed to them the beast on which he sat, on this condition: that if he should depart whole from his infirmity, he would leave the little ass at the shrine of the Saints. O most foolish of all fools! who believed that divine benefits were by no means to be earned by faith, but by earthly, deceitful, and perishing money. Indeed, as soon as he had uttered this unhappy word from his mouth, straightway he was held fast by the lameness of his former infirmity, from which he had already begun to be wholly released; and so, returning home crippled, he gave a manifest token to all that the Saints of God had by no means accepted his gifts, which they judged to be full of covetousness and avarice.

[85] But a certain sick man had come to the thresholds of the Saints, with several from whom the noise of thunder and the crash of a falling thunderbolt had so taken away his hearing that, even when called to very loudly, he could not perceive the sound of any voice; and along with this inconvenience he had so lost the strength of his whole neck that he seemed to carry it bent back over his shoulders: who, when he … assailed the Saints of God with tears and continual prayers, at last, regarded by their pious compassion, recovered his hearing perfectly, and, the strength of his neck being likewise received back, returned home whole and rejoicing.

[86] with others A certain noble matron sent a contracted woman, to whom she furnished the means of her daily food, to the shrine of those same Saints, namely for the sake of making trial whether those things were true which were reported there concerning the miracles of their powers: and she, being straightway brought before the pledges of the Saints, clung with her whole body to the pavement of the place. Straightway therefore, anticipated by the compassion of the Saints, she began little by little to be raised up from her very contraction. And when she now stood almost upon her feet, one of the monks standing by, giving way to a superfluous levity, ran up and, as though in pity, wished to support her whom the most mighty power of the Saints was raising; which nevertheless was by no means pleasing to those same Saints, as presently appeared from the outcome that followed. For the aforesaid woman, contracted again, fell to the ground; and that Brother, seized with a very great infirmity, was carried away in the hands of others, and labored under that sickness for some considerable time. Thus the levity of the aforesaid monk both brought upon himself the pain of infirmity, and inflicted upon the poor little woman the loss of the health that was taken from her.

[87] with wondrous events At about the same time a certain very powerful Count of that province, Theobald by name, had gone hunting in the wood adjoining that same monastery of Hautvillers: who, having drawn up the ranks of his huntsmen and slipped the leashes of his hounds, set out to pursue a huge stag. But when the greatest part of the day had already gone by, and he could in no way take or overtake the stag, which was making the swiftest runs and taking leaps amid the darkest thickets of the woods, at last, worn out with excessive weariness, he is said to have burst forth into this exclamation of a most faithful voice: "Saints of God, who rest in the monastery of Hautvillers, I entreat with most humble prayers the kindness of your goodness that, if the things which are reported by the people concerning your powers are certain and worthy of belief, at the nod of your command that nimble stag may stick motionless upon the ground, lest it bring us any further weariness of toil. For henceforth I will remain the more devoted to you, and by this sign will prove the more faithful to your house." He had spoken, and quicker than the word the swiftest stag stood still; then, those who were present being greatly terrified at an act of so great power, and the hide of the captured beast being taken off, the said Count together with his companions hastens to the monastery of Hautvillers. Afterwards, when he had come thither, he faithfully disclosed in order what had been done and in what manner it had happened. And thus, having learned most certainly that the presence and power of the Saints was in that place, he returned home now more faithful, having given there, along with the stag's hide, fifty solidi of coin, for thanksgiving and as a recompense for so great a benefit.

[88] among the people of Hautvillers Nor was that unlike it which certain pilgrims, coming to the shrine of the Saints, beheld as they sat in the meadow which lies below that monastery: they observed birds which common speech calls hairones ^d. Among these there settled also one whiter in its plumage than the rest: of which one of the travelers spoke thus: "O that that white bird would cling to its place, and stay sitting for us until, having caught it, we might carry it to the thresholds of the Saints of Hautvillers." And when he had said this, they began to make their way more quickly to where the bird was sitting,

and while the rest of its fellows flew off more swiftly, it most tamely remained in its place: and the men, full of great wonder, took it up and carried it to the monastery, as they had spoken beforehand. It remained there a long while like a household creature, never fleeing away, though its wings were uncut. In such wise does the loving affection of the Saints know how to hear devout minds even in superfluous matters. These things being thus related, let us go on to recount the other miracles which the Saints wrought.

[89] It seems worth while to commit to writing a miracle wrought by the aforesaid Saints with a threefold power. with others following, For to those who saw it at that season it was wonderful in the doing and memorable in the telling. Now three needy men, drawn by the fame of their power, in faith sought out the shrine of the Saints. For one of them lacked his sight; another had lost the speech of his tongue; and the third grieved, being deprived of hearing. And so daily they alike frequented the thresholds of the Saints, and before their presence these three sick men with continual prayers besought the gifts of health. What more? When a week had passed, the Lord's day was now at hand; and when in the very twilight of the dawn the solemnities of the Mass were being performed, the aforesaid infirm men received the remedies of healing in this manner:

"I behold the clear lights of day," says the blind man; The dumb man answers: "Thou speakest truth; a clearer light is here." "I hear clearly," says the deaf man, "whatever ye report."

And the people who were then present, seeing and hearing this, struck with exceeding wonder and filled with an inward joy of heart,

Cry out with lofty voices in the praises of Christ.

And so great a miracle, wrought by the Saints with a threefold power within a single hour, brought abundant joy that day to all the people.

[90] Neither do I think that this should be passed over in silence: how the rashness of a certain man's unbelief was restrained with a fitting stripe, A certain man rashly unbelieving is punished, namely for the correction of those who presume to tear with foolish speeches the Saints of God when they work wonders. There was a certain man, a native of the district of Épernay, who, hearing the fame of the powers which were wrought by the Saints in the monastery of Hautvillers, most foolishly broke out into words of insolent unbelief. For he said that what was reported by the mouth of the people concerning the miracles wrought by the aforesaid Saints seemed to him in no way credible. But indeed, when the unhappy man had uttered those same words, he was straightway grievously stricken, divine vengeance following. For together with the word of unbelief, the bone of his neck leapt into the enclosure of his throat, so that thereafter he was not able even to utter a single word.

[91] But when he was held by an excessive anguish of pain, at length, punishment urging him, having come to himself, and thereafter obtains mercy. when he perceived that he had been so grievously stricken for the fault of his unbelief, he at once went in haste to the aforesaid monastery; nor did the loving-kindness of the Saints delay to show upon him also the power of their virtues. For while with worthy satisfaction he was making his fault known by such signs as he could, the bone of his neck, springing back from his throat, returned to its own place, and along with the power of the miracle a vast flow of blood mingled with gore leapt from his mouth: and thus, returning home safe from thence, he made his neighbors more certain of the miracles of the Saints, disclosing to all how he had first been stricken by them for his unbelief, and thereafter, when he believed, restored to health by their pious compassion.

ANNOTATIONS.

. Perhaps proferendos*.

. Perhaps deberent*.

SECOND SECTION.

Other prodigies wrought in the same place.

A certain goldsmith with a broken leg From the report of a certain goldsmith we have learned a miracle which he asserted had been wrought upon himself in this manner by the merits of the most blessed Helena. By a certain accident that man (he was called Eligius), while he was plying some piece of work, had fallen, and, his leg being broken, groaned quite miserably, afflicted with excessive pain. But having heard the fame of the miracles which were wrought by the divine power almost daily by the aforesaid Saints in the monastery of Hautvillers, he judged by wholesome counsel that he should be carried thither by every possible means, having altogether the hope, if he should arrive, of recovering health. Then, his crushed leg being bound up as best it might with bandages, he was carried by boat along the channel of the river Materna. And as soon as he arrived there, and, leaving the ship, touched the shore, since he could in no way set his foot down, he accomplished the ascent of the hill by the carriage of a single little ass. But when nearly half the way had been traversed, the little ass on which the man sat, stumbling with all its feet, fell to the ground with its rider, some sin or other, I know not what, hindering the wretched man once again. What more? Pain is joined to pain: the crushed bone is crushed again, the old fracture is renewed afresh. Bound therefore by such great sufferings, he is said at last to have burst forth into this cry with tearful groaning:

[93] through the invocation "O holy Helena, most merciful lady, other men flee to thee for the sake of their health; and I, most unhappy of all, while I flee to thee for the remedies of health to be recovered, have fallen into grievous dangers, as I believe, my sins requiring it. Behold, I was held bound with one pain, but now I am afflicted with a double one, while I labor to make my way to thy venerable thresholds. Do not, therefore, most loving one, spurn thy suppliant servant, nor deny me the help of that health which thou showest to others; but turn toward me the accustomed gentleness of thy clemency."

Thus weeping he spoke, and at last makes for the threshold, Borne as best he might upon the arms of his friends.

And when he came thither, I think that in no wise ought the tears and sighs to be written with which he prayed that the remedies of health might be conferred upon his infirmity. Then, when he had been carried by the hands of others to his lodging, upon his limbs weary with pain the welcome rest of slumber crept, as commonly happens:

And now to him asleep a shining Woman appeared, Renowned as a matron, glowing with a mighty light, In excellent garments adorned with gold and gems.

[94] And she, standing beside the sick man's bed, begins and addresses him with these words: He recovers a firm step by St. Helena. "Grieve not," she says, "afflicted with any sadness: for hereafter thou shalt in no way suffer any inconveniences from this weakness. Indeed, when tomorrow's light returns, thou shalt hasten joyfully to my threshold, sound in all thy limbs." And when she had said this with serene countenance, with most gentle and healing hands she handled the bones of the crushed leg, and so at last vanished from his sight. All pain straightway departed from the sick man. Whence it is given to be understood by an evident token that blessed Helena had appeared to him in the form and habit of a matron, whom he had before specially invoked to the aid of his own infirmity. Then, being freed from sleep for joy, he at once wakes his wife who was lying nearer him, and rehearses the vision in order: he tells her that a certain woman in a woman's habit had stood by him, and with the most soothing touch of her hands had handled the places of the crushed leg, and with commanding voice had driven away all the anguish of pain. Having said this, he rose more quickly, and sought the threshold of the church to render thanks, yet without the support of any prop: and a healing so sudden, wrought by the healing of the most blessed Helena, brought great wonder to those who were present. For they beheld walking with a most firm step him whom on the day before [*] they remembered they had left crushed and almost lifeless from excessive pain. Thus the aforesaid man, now well on in years, returning home, left no small joys to all who were present at the miracle.

[95] At the same time also two girls came from the city of Laon to the pledges of the Saints of Hautvillers, A contracted girl through the holy Patrons, both of them held by a pitiable kind of contraction. For although they were of comely aspect, yet they seemed to bear their weak limbs uselessly, and to drag them along the ground. The one of them had been reared upon the alms of the Blessed Mother of God, the other upon the alms of St. John the Baptist. Therefore, while they were making their way together to the thresholds of the aforesaid Saints for the remedies of health to be recovered, the servant of blessed John had by chance gone a little ahead of the other, her companion, whom we mentioned first: and she, as soon as she reached the doors of the church, by her faith deserved to obtain the health of her body, and straightway grew sound in all her limbs by the healing of the pious compassion of the Saints. After this the other, following, had now almost reached the middle of the court, when behold, she drinks in with her ears the shout of the people rendering to God and to his Saints the heralding of praises with exulting soul for the power of the miracle wrought. And so, having learned from the people's report the recovery of her companion, straightway she too, with a most intent supplication of the heart, turning her eyes toward the church, calls thus upon Blessed Helena with tearful voice:

[96] "Behold," she says, "most holy Helena, once empress of an earthly empire, the other likewise are cured through St. Helena. the queen of the heavenly kingdom, Mary the Mother of God, whose nursling I have hitherto been, directs me to thee: not as though she were powerless in respect of the remedies of my infirmity, but that whatever thou shalt have wrought toward my weakness may add to thy praise and fame. Wherefore I commit myself to thy clemency, now everywhere published abroad by the peoples, that thou wouldst deign to apply to my infirmity the help of thy healing." Scarcely had she finished these words when, behold, in the sight of all who were present, the aforesaid girl began little by little to be raised from the contraction of her body, blessed Helena's healing power working it. For, the joints of her limbs loosening themselves by the divine power, much blood was thereupon seen to flow forth. And thus, with the people as witness, she rose up whole, and, being long sustained there by the alms of the church, remained abiding in complete health.

[97] A woman powerless in her limbs from birth It does not seem unfitting to rehearse in writing that miracle also which the divine clemency, by the intercession of the merits of those same Saints, deigned to work in a singular manner upon the weak limbs of a certain woman who was called Teutberga. For she, born in the territory of Boulogne ^a, was a native of a stronghold which is called Lens ^b: and her — as we have learned from her own account — her mother's travail had brought forth into this light contracted in all her limbs. Yet let no impossibility be here imputed to the Maker, who denied to the matter formed by himself the functions of its members, although the fault of the parents may to some degree be suspected in this matter. For as blessed David says of himself: Every man is conceived in iniquities, and in sins is he brought forth. Whether therefore this befell through the deserving faults of her parents, or whether the inscrutable foreknowledge of God permitted it to the honor of his name, as also the course of the Gospel lesson tells concerning that man born blind? But in what manner the same woman was wholly restored to health by the aforesaid Saints, to the publishing abroad of their glory, the divine power cooperating, it is my pleasure to set forth briefly in writing.

[98] she steadfastly implores the aid of the Saints, Therefore, when the report spread abroad on every side

concerning the miracles of the aforesaid Saints, at length the frequent report struck the ears of the inhabitants of Boulogne: and when the aforesaid woman, whom her birthday had rendered powerless in her limbs from her very coming forth, had learned this, she set out from her native soil and with every effort makes for the thresholds of the Saints resting in the monastery of Hautvillers, and seeks their intercession; for she hoped that there she would find comfort for her inborn pain, and there the long-desired remedies of her own weakness. What more? Having traversed no small space of country, she at last arrives at the village of Hautvillers.

Hastening to the monastery, and entering the sacred threshold, She pours out tears upon the ground and lays herself level with it: Now she plants sweet kisses on the marbles of the church, Now names herself a handmaid, promising mighty vows If she may flourish in her limbs, if she may bring back the gifts of health, If whatsoever her natal light denied her The Saints, kindly in their wonted love, may restore.

[99] and obtains health. With such entreaties, therefore, and with such vows she assailed day and night the loving hearts of the Saints, that by some means they might at last be moved to the comforting of her necessity and might bring remedies to her infirmity: and behold, on a certain day, while she renews her prayers and promises fresh vows, straightway the most loving affection of the Saints is present with her, and how greatly their merits prevail with the Lord the divine power makes openly known to all in the working of a miracle. For the aforesaid poor woman, loosed from every fetter of her infirmity, in the sight of the people rose at once from the ground most sound; the contraction of her joints, born with her, is loosed for the use of walking; the frame of her limbs is relaxed; and whatever the beginning of her mother's travail had denied, the memorable power of the Saints supplies by a wondrous sign. Thus restored whole, she stayed there for some time to make known to all the power of the miracle, and she who before had come weak from her native soil to the shrine of the Saints, now returning thence homeward with a steady gait, scattered very great joys among her neighbors on every side. Meanwhile, while the power of the aforesaid miracle is published abroad by the people, the notable report, spreading everywhere with widespread rumor, penetrated even the borders of Flanders. And in that region at that time there were two contracted men, whom the bonds of a pleasant fellowship had made altogether attached to each other, and they lived together.

[100] These men at last, when the report of the miracle was received, by unanimous counsel determined to seek the intercession of the Saints, A contracted man whose ass had been carried off by his companion, and to make for their venerable thresholds. But for traversing so great spaces of country they had only one little ass, purchased with the treasure of alms, by whose carriage they bore their weak limbs by turns. Therefore, while, as we have said, they strive with lingering steps toward the thresholds of the Saints, fraud thrust itself between these two comrades: for the one stole from the other by secret theft the little ass which they had in common, and, deserting the fellowship of their companionship, fled away, hiding himself through byways. O blind greed of avarice, to what dost thou drive the breasts of mortals! Behold, now nowhere is faith safe, when frauds vex even the hearts of the poor. And so the other, named Dodo, although he endured the hardships of the ass taken away by his companion's fraud, nevertheless, as he had vowed in his mind, hastened to the thresholds of the Saints. And when he had come thither, with such groans as he could he besought their most mighty power, that they would deign to confer upon him the remedies of the health so long denied. Nor did the loving hearts of the Saints delay to impart to him also, as to others, the longed-for supports of their clemency. For after long sobs of groaning and prayers of the heart, he deserved to receive the joys of recovered health, the power of the Saints healing him.

[101] And when he had dwelt there for some time, on a certain day, going forth to the doors of the monastery, and he both recovers it and is given health. he beheld his fraudulent companion coming with the little ass of which we have made mention.

Straightway leaping forth, while the people looked on, he ran, Seized his companion, and seized the little ass as well. Now he recounts the fraud, now with his mouth rebukes the thief Of their ancient faith, and discloses the broken covenants. He assails him with words, and marks his companion's face with a blush. The other stood astounded, nor could return a word: For his voice, conscious of the crime, deservedly stuck in his throat.

At these things, therefore, the multitude of the people, astonished with great wonder, are carried away with no small voices into the praises of Christ and of his Saints for such great benefits of miracles. For they beheld the aforesaid man not only freed from the sickness with which he had come thither, but also, by the most equitable judgment of the Saints, restored whatever his companion's fraud had taken from him. Of him it is also related that, having returned home, under the dominion of a certain passion he was seized by another infirmity, so that the speech of his tongue was hindered; and, returning again to his most faithful healers, namely the Saints of Hautvillers, he straightway resumed the joys of the health he desired.

ANNOTATIONS.

*. That is, on the previous day.

§ III. Miracles of St. Helena among the people of Hautvillers in the seventeenth century. From printed sources.

FIRST CLASS

From the year of Christ MDCXIX to MDCXX.

The reader is informed of the document, Dom Rupert Reginald, our most strenuous helper in illustrating the posthumous glory of St. Helena, wrote thus to Fr. Papebroch on the XXV day of November of the year 1668, from the monastery of Hautvillers, for our purpose: "These" (namely the miracles, as will appear from what follows) "I ordered some years ago to be given to the press with this intention, that whatever should be done thereafter might also be added, so that all might the more easily be preserved in the archives and read: and of these I ordered only twenty copies to be drawn off. Of all of them we have the depositions, which they call processus verbales: and it is our custom to excerpt some of the things which happen here, to be presented to the lord archbishop or to his vicar, so that, after a previous examination and serious discussion, they may be permitted to be printed and published. But others, which seem to us obscure or not sufficiently proved — because the witnesses were fewer in number, or because the healing did not follow at once, or because medicines had been applied — we keep in the archives only, and do not publish. Nevertheless I have judged it advisable to send all to your most reverend Paternity, since very many even of these are most certain and of undoubted credit, so that you may do what you shall judge to be better. I shall send their continuation" — and it was afterwards sent, and began from the year 1650, as I gather from what the said Dom Reginald wrote upon the printed copy of the miracles at the year 1649, signifying there also that the continuation would be given.

[103] from which these miracles are given. But the names of the places which occur at nearly every article of the narrative I very often indicate in my Latin translation of the same; yet not always each and all. For besides that such indication contributes nothing to the substance of the matter, the curious reader will be able by his own labor to consult, if he wish, concerning those places which I have passed over, the geographical maps in which are represented the districts or territories of Reims, Châlons, and Soissons, the province of Champagne, etc., which have furnished the chief material of the wonders conferred upon wretched mortals at Hautvillers by the patronage of St. Helena, and which are for the most part named in the course of our copy. Let it suffice, then, the harsh and no small labor which I have undertaken in rendering into Latin, with Annotations, the French text of the following history; which history I now subjoin, as a clear argument by which it may be proved that this illustrious Saint has shown herself a great worker of wonders by the multitude, variety, and excellence of her graces and benefits. Finally, the words by which either birth or dwelling is signified I so translate into Latin as to apply them to those persons of whom the discourse is chiefly concerned; namely when in some place a doubt might chance to arise whether the author of the French text may not have had regard to the nearest, although less principal, persons. Let it suffice, then, to have indicated this once to the reader, although it contributes nothing to the substance of the matter.

[104] Wonderful is God in his Saints, who by their intercession works so many wonders in favor of men. The Saint gives health both in other diseases and in cases of sorcery; This truth appears in all churches where some notable portion of their relics exists. This is manifest in the prodigies which God works daily at the tomb of St. Helena: although they have neglected to note in writing the miracles of this great Saint, because they were too frequent. Some years ago very many of them were proved to be consonant with the truth, which may be seen in their authentic testimonies, signed by persons both ecclesiastical and secular; in whom there is too much virtue for them to lie, and too much judgment for them to allow themselves to be deceived. That miracles have happened in that church such that they might have a place among prodigies rather than among common wonders is acknowledged. And although the power of this Saint extends to every kind of disease, and there is no benefit which her authority with God cannot obtain for us, yet her command over the demons is especially noteworthy, heaven willing to communicate to her the power of that admirable cross which she found at Jerusalem. This is almost incredible, save to those who share with us the same motives of faith and apply their eyes as witnesses of the miracles which are wrought in her church. There the demons, their envy struggling against it, are often compelled to leave those whom by long possession they seemed to have made their own. There an innumerable multitude of the bewitched are freed from illusions, and also from the real evils which afflict them. There, in the presence of a thousand spectators, wretched men have been seen to vomit forth from their mouths tufts of wool, fragments of glass, nails, needles, etc., which appeared by the power of the devil's deceptions, or which his cruelty formed within their bodies. It is my purpose to record in this place the events of which Acts and formal depositions were drawn up, and which in part happened to men of such condition that it cannot be suspected of crafty fabrication or of falsehood for the sake of base gain.

[105] In the year MDCXIX John Thomas, a citizen of Rethel ^a, [as] being bewitched by a certain woman, began to feel such bitter pains in the shoulder in which he had been touched that his shoulder seemed to him to be on fire. Two months later the evil seized the rest of his body, and inflicted the most biting torments upon him. This gave him occasion to make a pilgrimage to that church, that he might implore the aid of the great St. Helena: where, when the exercises of religious piety had been performed and a Mass ordered to be celebrated, as he was returning home he cast forth from his mouth a dead toad, and by this remedy came off free from all his pains.

[106] In the same year Carola, daughter of the most honored Lord James de Baudieres [*], from the instances here enumerated lord of La Chapelle ^b, a town of the Tardenois ^c, and governor of Mézières ^d; and also Catherine d'Eltoufes, her mother, while both were greatly tormented by acts of sorcery, of which (to pass over in silence the other troubles of that sad malady) the least trouble was that they suffered for one and two hours faintings of the spirit, which sometimes left them no sign of life. When all human remedies had been applied in vain which could come to mind, the lord of La Chapelle,

meeting a certain citizen who was said to have been cured of a like disease at Hautvillers, inquired of him the outcome of the affair: and, being made more certain of the truth of the fact, he leapt down from his horse, and, setting both knees upon the ground, at the same time vowed on behalf of his lady wife and his daughter a pilgrimage to St. Helena; whither he ordered them to be conducted without delay; and during the nine days' exercise of devout religion which they performed in that church, his daughter, after very many objects of sorcery had been vomited forth at different times (as is related in the Life of St. Helena ^e), was at length freed from the great pains which she was suffering.

[107] of various persons, As regards the mother: on the same day on which her daughter was healed, being in her lodging, she began to smell a most delightful odor, which was breathing from the direction of the church; and after she had at the same time ordered herself to be carried thither, her lord husband, who was present there, consenting, and had remained wholly in a swoon and deprived of speech beneath the shrine of St. Helena for the space of about half a quarter of an hour, she raised herself up wholly healed, and thereafter walked alone, with none to help her. At last, their nine days' devotion being completed, mother and daughter returned to their home safe and sound. In witness of which they had a votive tablet painted in this church; and moreover they afterwards showed so great a testimony of a mind piously affected toward St. Helena, on account of the signal favor which by her patronage they had received from God, that the lady of La Chapelle, the mother, founded in that monastery a perpetual anniversary of the day of death for herself and her husband, two months before her own death, in the year MDCXLVII. As to the truth of the event, Dom Rupert Reginald, praised above, noted in the margin of this miracle: Examined by the most reverend archbishop, or by his vicar, and permitted to be published.

[108] by her aid The second miracle has as witnesses many learned men who signed the testimony of it, and as many ladies as there are Religious dwelling at St. Peter's in Reims. This miracle also is narrated in the Life of St. Helena. Sister Marie Noël, a Religious of the abbey of St. Peter at Reims, contracted an ulcer which, growing gradually, degenerated inwardly into fistulas. She passed a year and more in unwonted torments and pains, which were inflicted upon her both by the malady itself and by the treatments and remedies prescribed for its cure; which were so far from bringing her any relief that on the contrary they always further aggravated the evil, the pain of the affected part tormenting her more day by day. The Lady Dowager of Guise, who at that time was in the abbey of St. Peter, moved with compassion at the sight of the deplorable state to which that wretched daughter had been reduced, orders a second consultation to be held concerning her malady. And when it was found that it was of the same kind as had been judged the first time, but had grown and had notably worsened, it was concluded that the hazard of her healing should be made by certain treatments which could not but be beyond comparison more painful to her than the first. Some of them she endured; but with torments so horrible that the tears and cries which she uttered moved all to compassion.

[109] of those healed, Therefore, while deliberation was being held on what day the last and most severe remedy should be attempted, she prayed and adjured her physician and the surgeons to declare to her frankly whether from that treatment, and after she had borne all the evils that were being prepared for her, they hoped and would promise her a certain healing of her infirmity. To this the lord physician set forth to her that the proposed remedy remained the only one for attempting the healing of her wound, and that it was certain; but that nevertheless he neither could nor ought to affirm, for many and grave reasons (on account of which he was bound to give judgment that her malady was incurable), that by that treatment her health would certainly be restored. This he did not say with the end of turning her from it; but on the contrary he urged her to be willing to undergo that treatment, for which she was so bravely steeling her mind, and by which perhaps she might be able to recover her former health. By this answer, on the one hand, she lost heart; but on the other the increasing pain pressed her, so that, her thighs and legs being wholly affected with numbness, and being no longer able to walk save entirely bent over, it urged her to take even the hazard of restored health.

[110] In this wavering of a doubtful mind, having lifted her heart to God with wonderful and implored his aid, she learns in what manner the lady and the young lady of La Chapelle, of whom we spoke just now, had been freed at Hautvillers by the merits of St. Helena from an infirmity incurable by human remedies. And so, having obtained leave to go out of her monastery, she binds herself by a vow in that very place, and at the very moment in which she made it to that great Saint she feels a change in her whole body worthy of remark: her strength is born again, her pains abate: she is taken to Hautvillers: there she passes nine days in continual prayers, entreating God through the intercession of St. Helena that it might please his goodness to restore her health to her, that she might be able to discharge her duties and obligations, to conform herself to the pious exercises of Religion, and to celebrate his praises in singing both by day and by night with her other Religious sisters. These prayers, darted toward a holy end by a living faith with burning devotion, were heard. Her pains wholly cease, and the sick woman returns to her monastery in perfect health. And the lady abbess, as a token of a grateful mind for this miracle, presented a silver chalice to the church of St. Helena. In the margin the same Reginald as above adds in his own hand: This miracle examined by the most reverend archbishop, and permitted to be published.

[111] examples This notable miracle gave occasion to another, which happened not long after in the person of the lord marquis de la Vieuville. This lord fell into a disease so violent that the physicians despaired of his life. But his lady sister, who was then a Religious at St. Peter's in Reims, and who had seen the wholly singular healing exceeding the powers of nature (of which we spoke just now), had scarcely learned of his sorrowful state when she made a vow to St. Helena, and promised that she would send no small sum of money to serve for the adorning of her chapel, if her brother should recover through her merits and prayers. So happy a success answered her vow that at that very moment of time he began to be better, and in a few days recovered perfect health. Which bound that good sister to fulfill her promise, and to publish everywhere the power of our holy Empress in the most dangerous and desperate diseases. And the above-mentioned Dom Reginald writes in the margin: Examined by the most reverend archbishop, or by his vicar, and permitted to be published or printed.

[112] In the same year Gerarda Jaquesson, wife of Claude Lemaire, of Châlons, is confirmed. being unable to walk without supports, was brought hither: where, having implored the favor of St. Helena, she departed hence in perfect health, no longer in need of crutches.

In the same year Jacoba Boutton, widow of Peter Guarlet, dwelling in the place called Nogent l'Abbesse ^f, afflicted with sorceries and feeling the sharpest pains, performed three novenas in that church: at the end of which she obtained the restoration of perfect health, to the great wonder of all. Of which the magistrate of the place made a formal deposition, and sent it to the monks of this monastery, for the memory of posterity; and the inhabitants of the said Nogent l'Abbesse rendered public thanksgiving to God with a solemn rite, in which the hymn Te Deum was piously sung. And it is said, as above, that this prodigy was examined by the most reverend archbishop, and permitted to be published and printed.

In the same year Peter Lambin, son of Philip Lambin and of Marie Latoffee, of Rosnet near Reims, fourteen years of age, and afflicted with infirmity, and exposed to pains throughout his whole body which arose from the magic art, was brought to St. Helena by his parents; where, when the exercise of piety had been performed and a novena prescribed for his intention, the said Peter Lambin during it cast forth various magical filth, namely nails, needles, and others. Whence he recovered perfect healing, as they afterwards affirmed. And there is added in the margin, as above: Examined by the most reverend archbishop, and permitted to be printed.

ANNOTATIONS.

*. Otherwise: Claude de Baudiers.

SECOND CLASS

From the year of Christ MDCXX to MDCXXX.

A man infirm in body and mind, In the year MDCXX Peter Morel, born at Reims, reckoning the fifteenth year of his age, was deprived of the use of both thighs, of his right arm, and of his mind. His mother, afflicted at seeing her son reduced to these extremities, in which natural remedies could bring no relief, vows him to St. Helena, and brings him to Hautvillers with great trouble. And as soon as they had arrived there, they depart to pay their vows in the church:

where, while they pour forth prayers beneath her shrine, the boy began to feel a great relief of his ills: and on the following day about the fourth hour after noon, when prayers had been repeated beneath the same chest of St. Helena for the space of about half an hour, he felt a great stretching in all his limbs, and at that same point of time found himself wholly restored to his former health and to his reason: he left his crutches behind and returned on foot. Very many notable persons were eyewitnesses both of his great infirmities and of his prodigious healing. In the margin, by the aforesaid hand, this miracle is set down as likewise examined and permitted to be printed.

[114] In the same year William Nanteuil, of the place named Juniville, likewise another, recovered in like manner from a similar disease with which he had been afflicted for ten years. The lord parish priest and the magistrate of the said place sent hither an authentic testimony of the event. And the miracle is noted, in the same way as I have now said so often, as examined and permitted to be printed or published.

In the same year John Thiebault, son of John Thiebault and of Nicole Roland, dwelling at Villeralrand in the diocese of Soissons, being seized with paralysis and feeling bitter pains throughout his whole body, was brought hither by his parents; where, at the time of the novena which he was performing, a kind of abscess appeared upon his body, open in twelve or thirteen places; out of which there came forth first creatures like slugs, and then very much other filth. Which rendered him wholly sound and perfectly cured. And it is added, as I said before of the others, that this miracle was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Marie Frison, wife of Hector Baudon, a paralytic woman; another suffering in the knee; born at Laon and then dwelling at Reims, her legs being affected with paralysis so that she could not walk without crutches, after she had taken care to be brought to that church that she might be freed from her malady, obtained there perfect health.

In the same year William Cartenet of Nogent l'Abbesse likewise recovered from a complete paralysis which had long since attacked him, and that by the merits of St. Helena: whose testimony he brought hither signed by the magistrate of the said place. This miracle was examined and permitted to be published.

In the year MDCXXI Madeleine Drouet, daughter of Guy Drouet of Dormans ^a, twenty-two years of age, feeling great pains in her knee, which for two years past had been swollen, so that she could not support herself without crutches, after she had persevered with great faith and with the affection of a devout mind in that church for the space of three successive novenas of prayer, deserved at last to obtain the entire cure of her infirmity; so that, leaving her crutches there, she returned hence in full health. This miracle was likewise examined and permitted to be published.

[115] a woman afflicted by sorcery, In the year MDCXXIV Jeanne Richelet of Brugny, widow of Claude Blocquet, having been for the space of eighteen months vexed by a certain act of sorcery, came to the church of St. Helena at the urging of her parish priest; where, after very many ardent prayers, in the presence of a numerous assembly of men she vomited up a green frog entirely alive, a piece of gravel pierced with five needles, a bone, a piece of a lantern horn, a peach stone, a needle through whose eye a pin passed, three nails, three pieces of glass a finger in size, a piece of leather, a specimen of green cloth with six pins, some tow, two slugs, of which the one was alive and the other dead, and other things which are related in the French copy. This did not happen without wondrous convulsions; which nevertheless put an end to all her ills: for she returned free from the swelling she had, from her weaknesses, and from all the other troubles which she had formerly suffered. This miracle was likewise examined and permitted to be printed and published.

[116] a boy afflicted with many ills; In the same year Francis Perillon, son of Nicolas Perillon of Reims, nine years old, from a bite of an apple given him by a certain woman, felt for a whole month every day at the same hour the symptoms of a certain malady unknown to the experience of the most learned physicians. His breathing, the life of the heart, swelled his belly half a foot higher than is usual; and then it sank so deep that he seemed to have none at all. I say nothing of the strange words which were heard uttered by his mouth; nothing of his prodigiously violent struggles — such indeed that three men could not master them save with great difficulty. Some time later his arm was so stretched out in the air that it could not be bent; and his head trembled with continual agitation for the space of six weeks, and that even when he was asleep. The lord Dozet (whose rare learning and the integrity of his approved virtue are well enough known to the whole province), having seen him, judged that no physician was suited to this malady but God. The lords Hervet and Compere, physicians also, when they had examined him, confessed that their knowledge did not extend so far as to prescribe remedies for him. The wretched father, despairing of human remedies, at the advice of a certain Capuchin father and of another father of the Society of Jesus — nay rather of the most reverend lord Gabriel de Sainte-Marie, archbishop of Reims — determined to take his son to Hautvillers: where about the fourth day of the novena of prayers he was restored to health so complete that he never afterwards felt any of his troubles again. The miracle was examined by the most reverend archbishop and permitted to be published.

[117] a woman tormented by sorceries; and very many others, In the same year Ancelina [*] Naudin, daughter of Peter Naudin, an inhabitant of Idesfroiville, being so tormented by sorceries that daily there were heard within her body cries as of frogs and of other creatures, made a pilgrimage hither, and at the time of the novena of prayers which she performed she vomited up a quantity of poison: and immediately after her return, two lizards, the one alive, the other dead and not entire. Whence she enjoyed full health, as the lord parish priest and the magistrate of the said place testified with their own signatures. This prodigy was likewise examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year John Vuarlet, dwelling in the place called Ville near Machault, after being tormented for seven years by a troublesome disease unknown to the physicians, had recourse to St. Helena, who obtained health for him, a great quantity of poison being cast forth.

In the same year Nicolas Perat of the place called Neufville au Pont, near the town of Sainte-Menehould ^b, being agitated by a violent malady for which he had been unable to find relief among the physicians, came hither for the sake of pilgrimage, with great inconvenience indeed, but not without fruit. For at the end of the nine days he found himself wholly well, and returned endowed with the free use of his limbs. It is added that it was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Michael Peltier, dwelling at Sévigny near the abbey of Val-Roy ^c, who for twenty years past had been afflicted with an undiscovered malady which inwardly burned his body, having visited very many places of devotion, was here restored to entire health, much filth being cast forth from his arm immediately after he had completed two novenas of prayer here, God reserving his healing for the glorious St. Helena.

[118] In the same year Margaret Broquart, wife of Peter Valeret, with various a citizen of Châlons, likewise recovered from a disease which often deprived her of her reason, while she was occupied here with the novena of prayers, having recourse to the merits of St. Helena. Which she wished to be attested with her own hand, as did other witnesses also.

In the same year Peter Ronsart, son of John Ronsart of Reims, vexed with convulsions and violent motions of the body, and uttering horrible cries, was brought hither by his father; where he recovered health; as appears from the testimony drawn up upon this matter by the Religious of this monastery, and signed by father and son, etc.

In the same year Nicolas Rossignol, son of Nicolas Rossignol, of Condé ^d in Brie, greatly afflicted with a certain malady which stirred up grievous pains throughout his whole body, when all human remedies had been tried in vain, was restored to entire health after a third journey by which he came hither. The fact was likewise examined and permitted to be published.

In the following year MDCXXV Denise Dauphin of Châlons, wonderfully afflicted with a certain malady which stirred up a continual agitation in all her limbs, and so wretchedly swelled her breast and her throat that for this cause both her voice and her breathing very often failed her, when she had perceived that the knowledge of her malady was impenetrable to all medical skill, ordered herself to be taken to Hautvillers to implore the helping aid of St. Helena. At the end of the novena of prayer which she was performing, she vomited up a living frog, a dead toad, sixty-six pins, three needles, fish eggs wrapped in a plantain leaf, three masses of hair entangled with seven or eight pins, a piece of green cloth half a quarter [*] in length, and other trifles of this kind; which, as soon as they had come forth from her body, she was without delay put in possession of entire health; as is related in the formal depositions which physicians and surgeons, etc., signed.

[119] In the same year Peter Michaut, born at Juvigny near Rethel, afflicted with infirmities having lain sick with a long and grievous disease which had held him more than a year, toward the end of it found that his legs were so full of ulcers and malignant humors that he not only could not walk but could not even support himself; and he bore it very ill to be kept in bed, seeing himself hindered by so many troubles without hope of any human relief; but being brought to Hautvillers, and having there discharged the task of a novena in honor of St. Helena, at the end of it he obtained the complete restoration of health.

In the year MDCXXVI Dom Charles Boucaux, parish priest at Vanteuil, and thereafter at Damery in the diocese of Soissons, being seized for three weeks with choleric nephritic gripings ^e, and indeed with torments so great and so singular that he was reduced to extremities (all the industry of the physicians being baffled), commended himself with pious affection to St. Helena and offered her his prayers; upon which entire health followed, and he acknowledged that he had recovered it by the patronage of the aforesaid Saint.

In the same year Guillemette Roze, daughter of Peter Roze, a citizen of Rethel, fourteen years old, vexed and possessed by an evil demon who rendered her, just like that wretched demoniac woman of whom mention is made in the Gospel, deaf, dumb, and blind, was brought by her parents to Hautvillers, where, miserably afflicted, she had scarcely completed the nine days' offices of devotion when by the merits and power of St. Helena she was freed from the devil who was besetting her, and at once recovered her sight and also the free use of her other senses: and, asking for a pen, she at once gave this testimony of the event, written by herself and signed with her own hand: By the grace of God and the merits of St. Helena I have recovered my sight, and am in entire health. This fact was examined and permitted to be published.

[120] afflicted In the same year Margaret Rinage, wife of Francis Guillaume, of Villenserve, afflicted with a great pain in her arm, which afterwards extended itself through her whole body and brought her a continual motion now of her head, now of her arms and legs, obtained here the remedy of her malady through the intercession of St. Helena, at the time of the novena

of devotion which she was performing there in her honor. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

In the year MDCXXVII the lord Huguet, a priest, an inhabitant of Fère-en-Tardenois ^f, having made a pilgrimage hither together with his mother Michaela Lesterte, both he himself and his mother asserted as true, namely, that in this present year — he being then only nine years old — he had been healed of a paralysis in his feet and arms through the merits of St. Helena, and thereafter of smallpox and of the blindness which arose from it; and that he had recovered his sight and the free use of his limbs during the novena which his mother caused to be made in honor of St. Helena. And it is added: Likewise examined and permitted to be published.

In the year MDCXXVIII Nicole Pare, nine years old, born at Sacconin near Soissons, possessed by a demon who rendered her blind and wholly paralytic, was brought hither by her parents: where, after two novenas of devotion performed on two separate occasions in honor of St. Helena, she wholly recovered. This too was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Judith Jardit, wife of Nicolas Roger, dwelling at Hervillon near Mézières ^g, when she saw herself greatly afflicted with an unknown malady, caused a novena of prayer to be performed in her own district in honor of St. Helena: and when it was finished, she vomited up large creatures like needles, furnished with horns. Whence she felt herself greatly restored, and afterwards came hither to pay her thanks to her healer: where she obtained entire health.

[121] are healed In the year MDCXXIX Jeanne Oudart, who then dwelt at Villaine near Aubigny, having for a year or thereabouts been greatly afflicted with a certain swelling, vowed herself to St. Helena, and without delay felt relief: for which she afterwards came to give thanks. Which is noted as examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Anne Milet, wife of Nicolas Hurtan, of Auville in the diocese of Laon, for three years past afflicted with a continual malady of the heart which stirred up strange vomitings in her, vowed herself to St. Helena: through whose merits her former health was obtained after a novena of devotion instituted here in her honor.

In the year MDCXXX Nicole Deraudel, eighteen years of age, daughter of Nicolas Deraudel and of Nicole Drusseau, dwelling at Reims, swollen in a prodigious manner, her knees fixed against her shoulders, had been kept to her bed for two years; nor could she be moved without the sharpest pain, since her swelling was indeed upon her back. Being thus afflicted, human remedies for her health having been applied in vain, she was vowed to St. Helena by her parents, and carried thither in a cart by drivers who raised difficulties about undertaking this business, because they feared that she might die on the way; and when the nine days' invocation had been completed there, she fell into so grievous a weakness that she was judged to be dead. When the novena was ended, her swelling subsided, she began to walk with crutches easily enough, and a little after, continuing her affection of devotion toward St. Helena, she wholly recovered. Witnesses of her disease and of her recovery signed the fact together with her. Which also was examined and permitted to be published.

ANNOTATIONS.

. Perhaps Angelina*.

*. Of one ell, I understand.

THIRD CLASS

From the year of Christ MDCXXXI to MDCXLIV.

[A paralytic woman; another deprived of feet and hands; likewise another of disturbed mind are healed;] In the year MDCXXXI Claudine Ogee, wife of Peter Chopille, a citizen of Châlons, afflicted with a certain malady which inwardly burned her, which hindered her from drinking, eating, or sleeping, and being indeed paralytic in her whole body; after she had had recourse to the physicians, but with vain effort, called upon St. Helena, took care that the sacrifice of the Mass should be celebrated here in her honor, and at the same time vomited from her mouth a great quantity of poison, and also a great toad in the presence of her husband, and at the same moment felt that her health was restored: for which she came hither to give thanks two or three days later, and she herself together with her husband signed the testimony which was drawn up concerning the things now mentioned. And it is signed as examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Jeanne Hardy, daughter of Francis Hardy, of the place called Mont S. Pierre near Château-Thierry, deprived of the use of her feet and of her hands, which were wholly twisted, vowed herself to St. Helena; and straightway was endowed with entire health. And it is added: Likewise examined and permitted to be published.

In the year MDCXXXII Anne Potier, wife of John Muyse, an inhabitant of the place called Chouilly, long afflicted with a violent disease arising from sorcery, made a vow to St. Helena; and when she had ordered herself to be conducted thither, she was restored to entire health after three novenas, during which time she remained there, very much filth being cast out through her mouth; concerning which matter her lord parish priest gave a testimony signed with his own hand. The fact is affirmed to have been examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year a certain girl of disturbed mind, brought hither for the sake of pilgrimage by her parents, and slipping away from them, went and threw herself headlong into the river; and while she was drowning in it, they began to call upon St. Helena: and without delay the girl came back prodigiously upon the water, and was cast whole and unharmed upon the bank.

[123] as also a woman afflicted with a swelling, and another dumb, blind, and deaf. In the year MDCXXXIII Gerarda Torchet of Bertoncourt, twelve years of age, being held by a most grievous infirmity of swelling, was brought to this place; where she returned to health through the merits of St. Helena, as appears from the testimony of her parish priest and of other witnesses who signed the event. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

In the year MDCXXXIV Elizabeth Vaudret, fifteen years of age, daughter of Peter Vaudret and of Jeanne Thiebault, a farmer dwelling at Massiges, of the diocese of Reims, having fallen into a plainly singular disease which had rendered her dumb, deaf, blind, and paralytic in her whole body, after she had tried all human remedies, but in vain, was brought by her parents to this church: where, by the favor of the great St. Helena, she recovered her sight, hearing, speech, and the free use of her limbs (as is recorded in the Life of St. Helena). Concerning which a formal deposition was drawn up by the magistracy of Hautvillers before the lord provost and others of the magistracy, who signed the fact. And the same is stated to have been examined by the most reverend archbishop and permitted to be published.

In the year MDCXXXV Louise Foy of Renaucourt in Champagne, paralytic in all her limbs, was brought hither for the sake of pilgrimage: where, having stayed nine days and taken care that the holy sacrifice of the Mass should be celebrated, she departed into her own country; and there some days later, continuing her pious affection toward St. Helena, she cast forth a cord half an ell long, entangled here and there with knots, and saw the gift of entire health imparted to her.

[124] I cannot pass over in silence what happened in this holy place about that time. Another singular event A certain demoniac woman from the district of Beauvais was brought hither by two Capuchins and by two other ecclesiastics: who took the opportunity of the presence of the lord Dozet, vicar-general, archdeacon, and doctor of theology, who was making a visitation in that place, to set her before him and to know his judgment upon the proof of demoniac possession. Dom Dozet, having recognized the woman's possession from the most certain signs, applied exorcism; during which there was present near the possessed woman a man upon whom the demon continually cast his eyes; which thing gave occasion to a certain ecclesiastic to inquire of him the cause. That man, wholly astounded, began to allege excuses and to display great fear, and moved those present to the thought (God so permitting it, to the manifesting of the glory of his Saints) that something singular lay hidden there. That man is pressed to declare whence he was, and what manner of life or craft he professed. At last it was discovered from evident indications that he had some dealing with the devil. It was inspired in Dom Dozet, who had the right as superior, representing indeed the most reverend lord archbishop, that he should compel him to an oath, prescribing him the form, and that he should say (if indeed he were such as he had given all that assembly cause to reckon him) that he prayed God and St. Helena to punish him in a notable manner.

[125] That unhappy man refused as strongly as he could; is related. yet, being compelled, he had scarcely uttered that oath, though stammering, when he was cast wholly senseless upon the ground: and at the same time the demon was lifting the possessed woman to a height of four feet, yet stretched out at her full length, so that her garments did not fall. And thus suspended, she assailed with her feet the whole body of this wretched man, beginning at the head; and passing on to the rest of the body, she clung above all upon his stomach, crying aloud: "I hold him, I hold him; he is mine"; and with a horrifying howl declaring that it was he himself who kept the devil in the body of that wretched possessed woman. Whence he acknowledged that his life had been ill spent, holy Helena showing herself no less wonderful in freeing those whose soul the evil spirit possesses than in healing those whose body he possesses. I read noted in the margin of this event, in the hand of Dom Reginald: This I received from

the most illustrious gentleman Dom Dozet, doctor of theology and vicar-general of the lord archbishop, dean of the Chapter.

[126] In the year MDCXXXVI Carola Gerbeau, wife of the lord Lancelot Henry, A woman troubled with illusions, a paralytic, a blind woman; of Montmort, afflicted with illusions which troubled her, was brought hither to perform a novena in honor of St. Helena, by whose merits she carried off the victory over all the struggle of her mind.

In the year MDCXXXVII Robert Piant, a domestic servant of the lord Havetel, lord of the place called Voulcienne, having fallen at Paris into a paralysis of all his limbs, had recourse to human remedies; but seeing that they brought him no relief, he vowed himself to St. Helena, and without delay recovered; as he testified with his own hand, together with others, having journeyed hither to pay his vows.

In the year MDCXXXVIII Marie Zede, daughter of the noble gentleman James Zede, collector of tribute in the court or jurisdiction of Vitry ^a, having six months before been deprived of her sight through smallpox, in the failure of human remedies was vowed to St. Helena by her mother Dame Marie Dorigny; where, at the time of the novena of prayers which they were performing in this church, she recovered her sight, to the great delight of her parents, who had brought her hither to this end. And it is written beneath: Examined and permitted to be published.

[127] persons infirm in body and mind; a woman tormented with pains; In the same year Peter Preud'homme, of Igny-le-Jard near Dormans, came to Hautvillers to give thanks to God and to St. Helena; because both he himself and his wife Marie de Handes, after they had by acts of sorcery not only been grievously infirm in body but also afflicted with great disturbances of mind, were both restored to entire health from all their infirmities, when they had taken care to have bread and wine blessed, as is the custom at Hautvillers, invoking the name of God and the merits of St. Helena.

In the same year Marie Collin of Château-Thierry, tormented with piercing pains in her body which had deprived her of the use of her tongue, invoked St. Helena with inward affection; and that use being at once recovered, she vowed a pilgrimage to St. Helena: and coming thither to fulfill her vow, accompanied by her father, her pains departed and she was restored with the gift of entire health, as is related in the testimony which her father and she herself left with us.

In the year MDCXXXIX a certain man named Louis, of Mairy on the Marne, entangled in a certain act of sorcery which was a great pain to him throughout his whole body and which rendered him paralytic, came hither with his father and mother; where, by the patronage of St. Helena, he obtained entire health.

In the same year Jeanne le Noir, daughter of John le Noir and of Anne Dargone, of the town of Fismes ^b, after three months spent in wondrous torments which sorcery brought upon her, human remedies failing, which profited her nothing, took refuge with St. Helena: by whose merits she plainly recovered, a great quantity of horrible things being cast out, as is found in the instrument drawn up upon this matter.

[128] others deprived of their limbs are endowed with health. In the same year a certain woman of Avenay ^c, Anne by name, dwelling at Charleville ^d, paralytic and deprived of the use of her limbs, likewise obtained entire health at the end of a novena instituted in honor of St. Helena, whither she had taken care to be carried: for which she comes hither every year to give thanks.

In the same year Jeanne Mercier, widow of Peter Radelat, dwelling at Toul on the Marne, having lost through disease the use of her limbs, and being unable to walk save with great difficulty on crutches, ordered herself to be carried in a wagon to Hautvillers, her nephew John d'Estanne accompanying her: where, the aid of St. Helena having been implored from the heart and a novena performed, she returned to her former health.

In the same year Vincent Rousseau, son of John Rousseau, dwelling at Martigny, labored under two great troubles. For he was perpetually bent over, and so indeed that he could by no means look up at the sky: and besides, he suffered such torments in one thigh that he could have no support upon it, and could in no way move it. And so, since he could not see heaven with his bodily eyes, he directed thither fervent and assiduous prayers; which, proceeding from an afflicted heart, with all confidence placed in God and in the intercession of St. Helena, deserved to be heard. For when the space of a novena of devotion in honor of the Saint had run out, he rejoiced in the free use of his leg, and was wholly freed from his infirmities; upright indeed, strong, and fully restored. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

[129] In the same year Louise le Mange, daughter of Henry le Mange and of Anne Louvette, born at Passy ^e, likewise recovered from an inertness of all her limbs, To which add inertness of the limbs, sciatica, an evil of magic, which was accompanied by torments, on account of which she was compelled to cry aloud and to throw herself about like one out of her mind. And having been granted this favor, she was not forgetful of the benefit, coming every year to Hautvillers to give thanks to God and to St. Helena for her health, complete in every respect.

In the year MDCXL Margaret Pruvateau, wife of Dom Honoré le Prate, a citizen of Reims, suffering from sciatica which entirely hindered her walking, having tried human helps with fruitless effort, vowed herself to St. Helena, and on the next day found herself wholly well, walking indeed alone and with none to help her.

In the same year Francis Grivollet, dwelling in the place called Vuely la Petite near Gandelu, for three years past seized by the magic art, and so indeed that he had his arms without any motion or feeling; besides which he felt such torments within that he ceased not to utter lamentable cries; he received perfect health after a novena completed here in honor of St. Helena.

[130] In the same year Jeanne Landre, born at Mery near Château-Thierry, and various other infirmities, was vexed for a full eight months by an infirmity which took from her all the functions of her limbs, so that she could not even lift her hand to her mouth. That wretched woman, in that most wretched state, fled to heaven with an affection all the greater as the torments she endured were sharper; and taking holy Helena as her patroness, took care to be brought to Hautvillers: where, after nine days piously passed, she felt herself much better, and, going on ever more ardently to implore her aid, within a short time she was made possessed of entire health.

In the year MDCXLII Catherine la Corne, wife of Peter Hennin, a printer of Reims, tormented for ten months by a malady which rendered her consumptive and inert in her limbs, seeing herself given over by the physicians, performed a novena here, within which she was endowed with the gift of perfect health. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Marie le Poivre, daughter of Nicolas le Poivre of Reims, recovered from legs ill affected for four months: to which malady the physicians could bring no remedy: as is narrated in the instrument signed by witnesses of her disease and of her healing after the journey.

In the same year the son of the Count of Egmont, being very grievously sick and despaired of by the physicians, was vowed to St. Helena by his father, who purposely sent a certain man hither to make the pilgrimage and there to perform a novena for his intention; within which he was recalled to his former health. In memory of which and as a token of a grateful mind for that favor, he came to this church to give thanks to the memorable St. Helena, making the journey on foot with a great sense of devotion from Charleville all the way hither.

[131] In the year MDCXLIII Nicole Bouillard, twenty-five years of age, daughter of Nicolas Bouillard and of Jeanne Sainte, inhabitants of the place called Eterbe, of the diocese of Reims, having been ill for eighteen months past from a prodigious swelling from which by the merits of St. Helena which was the cause of her not walking without the support of another holding her up, with a pain in her right side, was brought hither to St. Helena, and began a novena in her honor, to be continued afterwards in her place of dwelling: from that time her swelling diminished, her pains ceased within a few days, and she was restored to her former state of health.

In the same year Madeleine Brossard, lady of the bedchamber to the Countess of Nanteuil ^f, being in ill health from a continual, most burning, and most dangerous fever, made a vow to St. Helena that from being sick she might be made well; which without delay she obtained through her merits.

In the same year Anne Maupin, daughter of John Maupin and of Margaret Stapart, of the town of Épernay ^g, having lost the light of her eyes through a certain malignant flux which had attacked her eyes two years before, took refuge with St. Helena, being disappointed of all relief in the remedies of the physicians; and she recovered from her malady after she had discharged here the office of a novena of devotion.

[132] wretched persons are freed. In the same year Peter la Joye, born at Reims, having been vexed for a long space of time by a bone which had stuck in his throat, offered himself to St. Helena, and presently the pain left him; for which he came hither to pay what he owed her.

In the same year John Galichet, son of Thomas Galichet, of the place named Notre Dame de l'Épine ^h, of the diocese of Châlons, having had his arm wholly bent and his fingers entirely crooked for four months, and so great a nausea at all food that he had taken almost nothing for three months, was brought hither by his father; where, when a course of nine days was completed and he had caused the Holy Sacrifice to be celebrated, he departed wholly restored to himself; as he himself signed and testified, with other witnesses.

In the same year Charles le Lombre, a citizen of Reims, recovered from a swelling of the legs which had lasted fifteen years and which hindered his walking: as is related in the testimony which he gave upon this matter.

In the same year John Mourron of Reims, suffering from a consumptive fever and deprived of all his limbs for four months, human remedies having been tried in vain, received back the state of entire health through the merits of St. Helena, having journeyed hither to venerate her sacred relics, as he signed and testified, with other witnesses.

In the same year Aimée la Vanne, born at the place called le Mesnil, of the diocese of Châlons, so disturbed in mind that she could not be restrained, wandering over the fields after the manner of one raving and desperate, so that it was necessary to bind her feet with cords, was brought hither by her husband to perform a novena in honor of St. Helena, by whose patronage entire health returned to her.

ANNOTATIONS.

Reims to the west. It is also called ad Fines. Thus does Baudrand briefly and sufficiently describe this place.

FOURTH CLASS

Miracles from the year MDCXLV to the year MDCXLIX.

To the foregoing are added a disease of the intestines, In the year MDCXLV Philippe d'Embly Fouquant, provost of the duchy and territory of Rethel, lord and baron of the place called Tourteron ^a, while he was at the place called Malmy near Bar ^b, was tormented for the space of a year by an infirmity of the intestines hidden from the physicians; who, all remedies having been applied to no purpose, judged it to be incurable, and advised the sick man to prepare himself for death: but when discourse was held before him of the wonders which God was working day by day through the patronage of St. Helena the empress, he at once vowed a pilgrimage to her into the hands of the reverend father, Brother Francis Pierrot, guardian of the convent of the Reformed Franciscans of la Cassine, as they call it, ordering them to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass for nine days in honor of the Saint: at the end of which nine days all his torments ceased, and he obtained entire health; for which, that he might give thanks to God and to St. Helena, he journeyed hither, accompanied by his wife and by the reverend father of whom I spoke; in whose presence an authentic instrument of the event was drawn up and signed by them. That fact likewise was examined and permitted to be published.

[134] [contraction of the sinews, hindered walking, an internal malady, likewise headache and paralysis,] In the same year John Rogier, son of Nicolas Rogier of Reims, being unable to walk without crutches on account of a contraction of the sinews, was offered to St. Helena by his mother Jeanne Bourgeois, and afterwards without delay left his crutch and found himself perfectly restored. To give testimony of which, and to render thanksgiving to the Saint, they betook themselves hither.

In the same year John Jauchier of Chéry-l'Abbaye was likewise healed of a malady with which his whole body was affected and which hindered his walking, human remedies having been baffled of all efficacy against his infirmity. Which he attested with the sign of his own hand, having journeyed hither to discharge the pledge of his vow.

In the same year Catherine Rollet, wife of John Guenette, born at Orbais, having been afflicted for four years with an internal malady which was the cause that she could not work, drink, eat, or breathe freely, human helps having been tried to no purpose, offered herself to St. Helena, by whose patronage she was recalled to entire health.

In the same year Anne Regine Fortier, of Eterbe, of the diocese of Reims, came off whole from a very violent malady of the head and from a paralysis of all her limbs through the merits of St. Helena, nine days being spent in her honor: to which she gave credit with her own hand subscribed, together with other witnesses.

[135] a side ill affected, hindered motion of the body, In the same year Marcon ^c Lamze, of Charbogne, of the diocese of Reims, held by a great trouble of the side which hindered her walking, wholly recovered here at the end of the novena which she performed in honor of St. Helena, and confirmed the matter by her own signature.

In the same year Antoinette Bouillon, wife of James Bizaut, of Vielersy, of the diocese of Soissons, being powerless to move herself, bound herself by a vow to St. Helena; to fulfill which her husband betook himself hither, ordered the Holy Sacrifice to be celebrated for nine days for his wife's health, and, having returned to his own country, had scarcely applied to her a linen cloth which he had caused to be blessed, when the sick woman began to be better; and when the course of the novena of devotion was finished, she obtained her former health. She came hither with her husband to testify the matter and to pay her thanks to the Saint, as appears from the instrument left concerning the same matter.

[136] swoonings of the mind, evils of sorcery, In the year MDCXLVI Philippe Copignon, son of John Copignon, of Bresme, of the diocese of Soissons, was vexed with an evil of magic through which he fell three times a day into swoonings of the mind, with such violent form and agitations of the body that he could not be held. Brought hither by his mother Marie Saladine, and a novena being performed, on his return he cast forth very many and various instruments of sorcery, and among others twenty-five pins at three times, the tail of a rabbit, and slugs; and thereafter he was entirely restored to himself; as is clear from the document drawn up on this matter, and signed by him and by his parents.

In the same year Ponce Lestinoit, wife of Peter Caboulet, dwelling at Villeralrand, of the diocese of Reims, was likewise restored to health, after she had cast out through her mouth many objects of sorcery. Of which fact a formal deposition was drawn up before the magistrate, and subscribed by eyewitnesses giving evidence; as is related in the Life of St. Helena. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Odard Brocart, son of Hugh Brocart, afflicted with sorceries which stirred up great convulsions in him, likewise rejoiced in health, a coal being cast out here: of which matter a formal deposition was drawn up, signed by witnesses of his infirmity and of his health, as is narrated at greater length in the same Life. The fact was examined by the most reverend archbishop and permitted to be published.

[137] In the same year Jeanne Nonon, of Rimogne, of the diocese of Reims, who for three years had been immoderately swollen a swelling, paralysis, a disease in the kidneys are cured. and could not walk without crutches, was advised to offer herself to St. Helena, human remedies failing: and this being done, she was restored to entire health at the end of her novena.

In the same year Antoine Fromentin, of Saint-Eugène near Condé in Brie, seeing himself seized with paralysis in all his limbs and feeling strange pains, obtained full health by having recourse to the merits of St. Helena, at the time of a novena exercise of devotion, as he attested by his own signature.

In the same year Antoine Tarte, of Blangy, of the diocese of Reims, likewise recovered from kidneys ill affected, which hindered his walking and often drove him into frenzies by the violent torments which they created.

[138] In the same year Jeanne Cheminot, wife of Peter Verrier, Not a few born at Soly, of the diocese of Soissons, had for fourteen months been affected by sorcery which deprived her of the use of her arms and legs, and also of her reason; but after her husband had applied without any success remedies of every kind for her relief, he vowed her to St. Helena; and when a novena had been piously performed there, it was scarcely finished when the sick woman cast out from her mouth much filth entangled from white horsehairs to the length of a foot: and this being done, she wholly recovered, as she and her husband confessed and attested with their own signature.

In the same year Nicole Huillot, twelve years of age, daughter of Peter Huillot of Reims, received the gift of full health in a disease which created a paralysis of all her limbs, human helps bringing no remedy, after she had paid her vows to St. Helena. In witness of which, she and her father signed the account of the fact which they left with us.

In the same year Sara Gillet, wife of Servatius Deschamps, of Congy, of the diocese of Châlons, so feeble that she could by no means support herself or take even a very little food save with great difficulty, was recalled to entire health through the merits of St. Helena; as she herself and others attested with their own hand.

In the same year Agnes Sirvenet, wife of John Poinssard, of Villers-Agron, of the diocese of Reims, afflicted with sorcery which brought her such pains that she could not rest day or night, vowed herself to St. Helena, and, a novena being ordered to be performed in her parish, she felt relief: which stirred her up to make a pilgrimage hither for the sake of obtaining entire health; and she had scarcely begun the journey when at half a league from her house she left behind the crutch which she used to steady her walking: and pursuing her journey with gladness, she was made possessed of perfect health even before she entered this sanctuary. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

[139] In the same year Sara Godot, wife of Didier Dupont, other examples of Coisart, of the diocese of Châlons, for two years so ill affected that she could not support herself or go forward without crutches and without great difficulty; when she had had recourse to the physicians for her health, but with no result worth the pains, she at length undertook with great effort the journey to Hautvillers with the intent of offering a novena to St. Helena. But on the sixth day of it, while she was present at Vespers and was invoking St. Helena with great faith and affection of devotion, she found herself without delay wholly well, and walking without support: of which fact there were fully six hundred men as witnesses. But some months later, having relapsed into her infirmity, she did not omit to have recourse again to her healer; so that, committing herself to the journey, she was restored to instantaneous and perfect health. All which things were entered in the record, signed by eyewitnesses of her infirmity and of her health; who moreover brought the testimony of the pastor of the said place of Coisard and of the dean at Vertus ^d. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Antoinette Franquet, daughter of the lord Franquet, royal counsellor in the presidial court of Vitry ^e, having now for a year suffered from so violent a fever that she endured great convulsions from it (although apart from this she was unable to support herself), so that seven or eight persons were needed to hold her; all human remedies having been tried, she vowed herself to St. Helena at the urging of a certain father of the Order of Minims, and at the end of the second novena

perfect health visited her again: for which favor she came hither to give thanks to God and to the Saint, and signed the instrument which she deposited with us. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

[140] are heaped together, In the year MDCXLVII Peter Savise, of Dole ^f, at that time a soldier of the garrison of the town of Ay ^g, having fallen into a disease with the loss of his judgment, was stirred up by his host to vow himself to St. Helena and to invoke her. And this being done, he obtained entire health, and journeyed hither to give testimony of the event and to render thanks to the Saint.

In the same year Simone Petit, deprived of the use of her hands, took refuge with St. Helena, through whose merits she recovered the free use of the same, at the end of a pious nine days' task discharged here in her honor.

In the same year Nicolas Hemard, son of Peter Hemard, an inhabitant of Reims, for two years vexed by a sorcery which cast him into convulsions so violent that he lost all sense, was offered to St. Helena by his mother, and on the fourth day of his novena sent forth from his mouth very many instruments of sorcery in the presence of the parish priest of his parish and of several other persons; and among other sorceries he cast forth a sea shell, the handle of a pewter spoon, two pins, a whetstone: and thereafter he was indeed better, yet did not obtain entire health. Being therefore brought hither, he moreover cast out from his mouth in this church various objects of sorcery, which are seen there even now; and by this remedy he was recalled to entire health, the merits of St. Helena healing him. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

In the same year Remi Planchart, of Condé, of the diocese of Reims, suffering from the falling sickness, was brought hither by his mother: and from that time the same malady never touched him again; as he himself signed, with his mother and other witnesses, having journeyed hither for the sake of a mind grateful toward the Saint.

In the same year Jeanne Bisette, wife of Peter Lambert, of Courtemont, of the diocese of Soissons, touched with a paralysis of all her limbs, with pains so sharp that she could take no share of rest; remedies of every kind having been tried, but without the desired success, she received here full health in a single instant, and afterwards experienced no pain. She and her husband affirmed the matter in the following year by a testimony noted with their own signature.

In the same year Charles de Prez, son of the lord John de Prez, procurator in the presidial court of Reims, afflicted with a prodigious swelling over his whole body, which the physicians could in no way relieve, was vowed to St. Helena by his mother Marie Moyen: by which Saint's patronage he attained to entire health: as is contained in the document which was drawn up on this subject.

In the same year Madeleine du Haisteau, of Saint-Martin d'Emble, brought into such a state of infirmity that she could in no way walk — nay, could not even speak or breathe without great difficulty — after she had fulfilled her vow, which she made here, found herself wholly well; as she herself testified to us with others by an instrument left with us.

[141] In the year MDCXLVIII John Proth, born at Avize, by which it is proved that the Saint was a wonderful patroness against diseases. suffering from a malady of the hip which hindered not only his walking but also his rest; after human helps had been used without fruit, he offered himself to St. Helena: by whose merits he was healed, left his crutches behind, and gave an instrument of the things above said, noted with his own hand.

In the same year John Baisle, born at Vertus, while he was serving in the army, was seized with a continual fever which lasted fifteen days; and when he saw death threatening him from it, he offers himself to St. Helena with a vow of making a pilgrimage thither and of offering a white taper; and without delay the fever left him: of which matter he handed us a testimony when he journeyed hither in the following year to fulfill his vow.

In the same year Nicolas Salmon, of Coulommiers ^h in Brie, of the diocese of Meaux, seized with sciatica in his thigh and also in his knees, which forbade him to walk save with crutches, vowed himself to St. Helena at the urging of another person who assured him that she had been healed of a like infirmity; and he obtained perfect health, as appears from the acts written upon this matter.

In the year MDCXLIX Simon Rubuy, of Aulny on the Aisne ⁱ, of the diocese of Reims, deprived of his limbs and at intervals bereft of his senses and reason, after he had tried human remedies without efficacy, was vowed to St. Helena; where, his pilgrimage being completed, he cast forth a snake wholly alive; whence, feeling himself not a little restored, but not entirely healed, he betook himself hither a second time; then he cast forth a second snake, and so came off whole from the one infirmity as well as the other: as is related in the writing drawn up upon this matter. The fact was examined and permitted to be published.

ANNOTATIONS.

FIFTH CLASS

From the year MDCL to the year MDCLV.

Legs, blindness, an internal disease; In the year MDCL Peter Seigny, dwelling in the place called Quatre-Champs, of the diocese of Reims, deprived of the use of his legs, offered himself to St. Helena, and came hither to implore her patronage. Moreover, as he was drawing near to this place, in a single instant he felt himself wholly cured; so that, taking his crutches in his hands, he walked alone, with none to help him, to the church, blessing God, who is wonderful in his Saints.

In the same year Peter Mauroy, born at Château-Thierry, lost the light of his eyes through smallpox; and when his mother had offered him to St. Helena and had sent hither that the sacrifice of the Mass might be celebrated for her son's health, the boy recovered his sight; as mother and son declared by the instrument deposited here by them.

In the same year Margaret Tremblet, wife of Gervase le Redde, an inhabitant of the place called Moulius, of the diocese of Soissons, tormented by an internal disease from which for nine months she was deprived of the use of all her limbs, so that she could not take drink or food without great difficulty, being unable to rest by night or by day, and suffering pains so bitter throughout her whole body that at the least touch she uttered lamentable cries; she was brought hither by her husband in a litter, human remedies having been applied in vain, and after the nine days which she spent there she wholly recovered, as appears from the document drawn up upon this matter.

[143] a fall into a stream, a deaf and dumb man, a one-eyed woman, In the same year Peter Durin, six years of age, son of Francis Durin, born at Futigny, by some accident fell at night into a stream, and having remained there for the space of an hour, was drawn out without any motion or sign of life. Scarcely had his parents invoked St. Helena when he began to move his lips, and at last enjoyed all the functions of life, to the great wonder of all who had accounted him dead. Eyewitnesses brought hither the testimony of the event, and subscribed the instrument drawn up concerning it.

In the year MDCLI Peter Petaut, seventeen years of age, deprived of the faculty of hearing and speaking, plainly recovered, as is narrated in the Life of St. Helena, and in the copy of the event which was drawn up concerning his prodigious cure.

In the same year Louise de la Bonne, of Château-Thierry, lost an eye through the heat of a continual fever which held her for two months; but taking refuge in the merits of St. Helena, in whose honor she took care that a Mass should be celebrated in the church of the Reverend Fathers Minim of the said place, at the end of that Mass she recovered the eye she had lost; which she attested and signed when she came to give thanks for this matter.

[144] In the same year Frances Pillier, wife of Nicolas Syron, suffering for the space of two years from a fever a jaundiced woman, a dumb man, a deaf woman, a woman disturbed in mind; which drew its origin from an immoderate heat of the liver, bringing upon her the jaundice and the sharpest internal torments with a troublesome dissolution of the stomach, so that she could take no food without great difficulty; after she had applied to no purpose the remedies prescribed by the physicians, she betook herself hither to give herself to the nine days' exercise of devotion, in which she was recalled to health, as she asserted in a document subscribed by herself and by other witnesses.

In the same year Simon Blonde, son of John Blonde, born at Rosnet, of the diocese of Reims, having lost his judgment and the faculty of speech through a violent pain of the head, for which malady no remedy could be found, was offered to St. Helena, and at the time of a novena recovered perfect health; as the instrument drawn up upon this matter attests.

In the same year Helena le Fevre, wife of Thomas Michaude, born at Cumières, was likewise healed of a singular deafness, the efforts of the physicians in curing that malady having been employed in vain; after three novenas performed here, at length at the end of them she reaped the fruit of her perseverance.

In the same year Marie Jacquin, born at Châlons, wife of Antoine Fuse, a craftsman in the smelting of metal, for a year disturbed in mind and tormented beyond measure with thoughts of despair, so that there was always need of someone with her to restrain her; after very many remedies, when she had been given over by the physicians, she was vowed to St. Helena; where she had scarcely completed her novena when she saw herself perfectly recovered both in body and in mind; as she attested and noted when she came hither to render thanks

to God and to St. Helena. Concerning the event a formal deposition was drawn up, subscribed by irrefragable eyewitnesses, and among others by the lord parish priest of St. Nicasius of the aforesaid city of Châlons.

[145] In the same year Jeanne Sutret, daughter of John Sutret and of Margaret Husson, [a woman afflicted with a singular disease, a captive, a blind woman, a woman suffering from vomiting,] born at Châlons, when she had been afflicted for three months with a singular disease and could find no relief in human remedies, obtained it when she gave herself to the service of St. Helena; as the writing relates, signed by her hand and by other witnesses of her disease and of her recovery.

In the same year Claude le Begue, born at Autun, a horseman in the cavalry troop of the marquis de Rohan, while he was in the garrison of the castle of Coucy ^a, was taken prisoner by the Spaniards and reduced to great straits. Seeing himself to be in so wretched a state, he commended himself to St. Helena; and not long after he was set free against all hope: and this he attributed to the merits of the said St. Helena ^b.

In the same year Marie Bernulle, wife of John Baudinet, of Château-Thierry, of the diocese of Soissons, here recovered her sight by the patronage of St. Helena, whose aid she had implored: as she attested, while she was paying her vow, by her own signature, and with other witnesses of the infirmity with which she had been afflicted and from which she recovered.

In the year MDCLII Master Peter Deschiens ^c, scribe of the royal revenue in Champagne and procurator of the tribunal of Châlons, afflicted with an unknown disease which stirred up great vomitings in him, so much so indeed that he could retain nothing in his stomach, his malady being accompanied by a continual fever which lasted a month; seeing himself brought to these extremities, he commended himself to God and to St. Helena, and presently the malady vanished, and some time after he came hither for the sake of a grateful mind toward God and the Saint, offering her a taper, and made us more certain of this matter by his own signature.

[146] [a lame woman, a boy afflicted with a swelling of the eye, and another with a continual fever are healed.] In the same year Marie de Roquefort, daughter of the honored lord Philip de Roquefort, a nobleman, and of the lady Marie de Vuarlet de Montecourt, lame from a certain accident of burning, and so ill affected that she could not support herself save with crutches under her arms, and that with difficulty; after she had had recourse to all human remedies for a whole year, in which she committed herself to the treatment of the physicians, her malady remaining incurable, she was vowed by her parents to the patronage of St. Helena, and brought to her that she might there perform the nine days' offices of devotion in the accustomed manner; on the fifth day of it her trouble began so far to diminish that she walked easily without the said crutches, which she left behind in memory of that benefit: concerning which an instrument was drawn up, fortified with her own hand and with those of her parents.

In the same year James Vannier, son of John Vannier of Reims, was brought into the light with so prodigious a swelling above his eye that it hindered his sight. His mother, seeing the thing, offered him to St. Helena, and without delay the boy began to be well, the swelling vanishing: the mother brought her son hither in testimony of a grateful mind for the favor received, and subscribed the instrument left with us here, as did other witnesses of the event above mentioned.

In the year MDCLIII Nicolas Chevalier, son of Francis Chevalier and of Elizabeth Barrat, of Toul on the Marne, of the diocese of Reims, likewise recovered from an unremitting fever, human remedies having been used without fruit, immediately after his vow was fulfilled: concerning which he deposited with us a document signed with his own hand.

[147] Are related In the same year Anne la Follée, wife of Antoine Belglose, schoolmaster of Jonchery ^d, of the diocese of Reims, was held for two years and a half with a malady unknown to the physicians, which tormented her with singular pains and took away her rest: and being unable to walk without great trouble and pain, after she had had recourse to remedies of every kind, but with vain effort, and the physicians despaired of her health, she vowed herself to the service of St. Helena, ordered herself to be conducted thither, and at the end of the novena which she performed she saw herself so perfectly well that she departed thence on foot. The narrative of the fact set down in writing she and her husband delivered to us, signed with their own signatures.

In the year MDCLIV John Grongnat, of Châlons in Champagne, had for six years past been vexed with a paralysis so great and extended over his whole body that he could help himself with none of his limbs. His parents, baffled of all the remedies of the medical art, offered him to St. Helena; and being brought thither and having discharged the offices of devotion, he was entirely restored to himself; as is narrated in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Nicole Mausart, born at Aulny aux Planches, was held by an unknown disease which brought her to such a pass that she could not go forward, nor support herself, nor even turn her head. Having thus spent a month, she commended herself to St. Helena, and after some time, fulfilling her vow, she took care to be carried thither in a cart; and as soon as she caught sight of Hautvillers, she threw herself down from the cart to the ground, accomplished the rest of the journey on foot without difficulty, to the great wonder of all who beheld her, and obtained entire health.

[148] In the same year Catherine Renard, born at Contreuve in the diocese of Reims, very many miseries deprived of the use of all her limbs and suffering great troubles of the mind, and having tried all manner of remedies without success, when she had vowed herself to St. Helena obtained the entire restoration of both the one and the other infirmity after the second novena which she performed here.

In the same year Claude Prioux, daughter of Antoine Prioux and of Marie Arnauld, of Châlons in Champagne, tormented with a certain disease which had so entirely crooked the toes of her foot that she could not use them for four years past, her malady being accounted by the physicians as incurable; offered herself to St. Helena, and at once felt herself better; and betaking herself hither to fulfill her vow, after she had confessed her sins and had communicated of the Body of the Lord, she felt great pains throughout her whole body; and while she takes courage, her toes stretched themselves out, and the girl returned to entire health in the presence of four hundred and more persons who had come hither with many supplications: concerning which a formal deposition was drawn up, which was subscribed among others by the lord Beaumont, parish priest at Marfaux, and by others of the magistracy of the said place of Marfaux, for the memory of posterity.

In the same year Anne Prouencher, of Château-Thierry, of the diocese of Soissons, reduced to the utmost straits by a paralysis which had swollen her in a wonderful manner, all the industry and remedies of the physicians having been tried in vain, and judgment having been given by them that her disease was not curable; she was endowed with entire health after the journey of her brother, whom she had sent hither for that end. The matter was committed to writing, and subscribed by witnesses of her disease and of her recovery after the vow was fulfilled.

[149] In the same year Nicole Maluaut, daughter of Richard Maluaut and of Jeanne Laurent, of Reims, nine years of age, taken away by the Saint's patronage. in the judgment of men possessed by a malignant spirit, who spat in the face of all the household, vomited insults contumeliously against her father and mother, and forced that little girl to thrust out her tongue to the length of six or seven inches, twisted her hands, arms, and legs, making them all crooked and distorted, and hindered her walking: often he deprived her of the use of speech, appeared to her now in the shape of a bull, now of a dog, and again of a man, and promised her money that he might induce her to deny God and to other wicked deeds. That wretchedly afflicted child, at the end of the novena which she was performing here (for she had been brought thither and offered to the service of St. Helena by her parents), cast forth six pins and an ear of corn. When the nine days' exercise of religion was over, her mother took the girl back much better indeed, but not entirely healed. Which moved the mother to bring her back a second time and to implore heavenly aid anew. And so, when an end had been put to the second novena, the girl cast forth besides a piece of vine-shoot, her body being wonderfully swollen; and after that time she felt no trouble; as is recorded in the document afterwards drawn up upon this matter.

In the same year Thomassa Jobar, born at Reims, for eight months past distorted in her limbs, so that she could by no means use them; she suffered from a nausea at food of every kind, often falling into such symptoms that she was accounted dead. And so, when she had used remedies of every sort but had been helped by none of them, she commended herself to St. Helena and performed a novena in her honor: in which she cast out from her mouth a cluster of grapes, a feather ^e, a coal, a stone, and very much other filth; and thereafter she rejoiced in the gift of perfect health: and that she might be grateful to God for the health which she had received by the patronage of St. Helena, she set out hither together with her father and her husband, who subscribed the acts as eyewitnesses.

ANNOTATIONS.

SIXTH CLASS

From the year MDCLV to the year MDCLXI.

Very many In the year MDCLV Sister Petronilla of St. Angela emerged from a certain unwonted infirmity; concerning which matter a formal deposition was drawn up; as is narrated in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Francis Navet, born at Ay, obtained health from a paralysis of his limbs; as is likewise narrated in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Jacoba Duboys of Reims was wholly healed of a paralysis, as is likewise contained in the same Life.

In the same year Petronilla Collart, wife of Augustine Idee, born at Dormans, of the diocese of Soissons, likewise recovered her health, St. Helena healing her, from an infirmity arising from sorcery, which took away her rest, made her inert in her limbs, and afflicted her with great pains of the head, an icteric fever being added thereto: as is contained in the document which she and her husband noted.

In the same year Jeanne Hutier, daughter of Nicolas Hutier and of Anne Brodier of Châlons, deprived of the use of her arms and afflicted with a sorcery which swelled her throat beyond measure; remedies of every kind having been tried without profit, she was vowed to St. Helena, whereupon entire and perfect health visited her again, as she declared to us by her own signature.

[151] In the same year Claude Fourquet, of Châlons in Champagne, others reckoning sixty years of age, afflicted with blindness and with other infirmities of the body, offered himself to St. Helena, and a little after perfectly recovered.

In the same year Jeanne Louis, born at St. Gly, of the diocese of Reims, twenty-five years of age, inert in her limbs for seven months and bereft of the use of her body, suffering also with the fingers of her hands and the toes of her feet wholly bent back, and deprived of her right eye, after all the remedies that could be conceived had been tried without fruit, vowed herself to the patronage of St. Helena, and at that same moment felt a relief of her malady; and moreover, eight days later, ordering herself to be brought hither, when she had come to the territory of Hautvillers she recovered her sight, the fingers of her hands and the toes of her feet returned to their natural state, and, entering the church, she supported herself upon her legs; and her novena had scarcely been finished when she enjoyed entire health; as the acts drawn up upon the subject of this fact and deposited with us declare.

In the same year John Rouyer, of Châlons in Champagne, came off safe from the falling sickness, as is contained in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Peter le Nain, son of Henry le Nain, born at Trezy, of the diocese of Soissons, six years of age, was held by a fever so violent and continual that it deprived him of the faculty of speech and brought him to extremities, with no hope of recovering health; but his parents had scarcely invoked St. Helena when he began to speak, and a little while after entire health was granted to him.

[152] In the year MDCLVI Marie Mauclerc, afflicted with no common sorcery, wonderful favors obtained the gift of entire and perfect health, after she had cast out from her mouth many horrible things in the presence of a numerous assembly of people; as is narrated in the Life of St. Helena and in the formal depositions upon this matter.

In the same year Nicole Mazure, wife of Martin Bodinot, of the diocese of Meaux, came off wholly free from a disease which had rendered her consumptive, as stands in the acts which she left us, betaking herself hither to St. Helena, by whose intercession she had been restored to herself.

In the same year James le Ruste, born at Morange, of the diocese of Soissons, vexed for five years past with a sorcery which had deprived him of all knowledge and was the cause that at every moon he was thrown down with epilepsy and sent forth foam from his mouth. Nor indeed could he drink or eat, nor take any share of rest. He enjoyed full restoration after fulfilling the vow by which he had bound himself to St. Helena; as is contained in the instrument drawn up upon this matter.

In the same year Nicole Lambin, of the suburb of Châlons called St. Menue, plainly recovered from the violent pains which she felt throughout her whole body, when she had vowed herself to St. Helena and had fulfilled her vow; as is narrated in the acts signed with her own hand.

[153] by the aid of St. Helena In the same year Maurice Charlon, born at Châlons, seized with the falling sickness, and suffering with his tongue and one shin swollen beyond measure, and so frenzied that many men labored to hold him; after very many medicines had been used to no purpose, he was offered to St. Helena; whereupon he wholly recovered in body and in mind.

In the same year Sébastienne Laurent, dwelling at Châlons, bereft of her judgment and of the use of her limbs through the magic art, obtained full health here, discharging the pledge of her vow at the end of the novena which she performed for that cause.

In the year MDCLVII Frances de Salus, daughter of the lord Louis de Salus and of Dame Jeanne de Herault, born at la Margury, of the diocese of Soissons, suffering for eighteen months from a fever which had brought her to extremities, the physicians judging her malady to be incurable, was vowed by her parents to St. Helena, by whose patronage she recovered her health, no trace of the disease being left; as her parents and she herself asserted when they came to give thanks to God for this benefit.

In the same year Claudine de Costes, wife of Claude Moriset, born at le Mesnil, of the diocese of Châlons, having been for two years and a half deprived of the use of her foot, three toes being shortened, and being unable to advance a step save leaning upon crutches, and that not without trouble: all the helps of the medical art having been applied in vain for her relief, she had scarcely vowed herself to St. Helena and ordered the sacrifice of the Mass to be celebrated in her honor when she enjoyed full health.

[154] most kindly granted In the same year John le Grand, born at Contreuve, of the diocese of Reims, afflicted with a sorcery so violent that it disturbed his mind, and being unable to drink, to eat, or to rest, was offered to St. Helena: and without delay he cast forth from his mouth a lizard, a toad, and other filth; and thereafter enjoyed a full restoration of body and mind; as is narrated in the document of the matter left with us.

In the same year Nicole Gourme of Reims came off in a prodigious manner from an incurable malady; as is related at greater length in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Marie Jarrat, wife of René Tarlan, of Lohan aux Bois, of the diocese of Soissons, had for three months past been afflicted with a wondrous swelling which had wholly taken from her the use of her limbs. And so, when she had been given over by the physicians, who could find no relief for her infirmity, she was committed to St. Helena by her husband, who betook himself thither and obtained that his vow should be ratified, the sick woman of whom we have spoken being wholly restored to herself.

In the year MDCLVIII James le Grand, a royal apparitor dwelling at Reims, suffered from a twisting and wrenching of his feet with a stretching of the sinews, so that he could not move without great trouble and the use of crutches. After he had at length tried all human helps, but with vain effort, he vowed himself to St. Helena, was carried thither on horseback, and, the exercises of devotion having been performed there, found himself so much better that he returned home on foot without difficulty: and thence he came back on foot to give thanks to God and to the Saint for so perfect a recovery, with which he acknowledged himself endowed by St. Helena, in the acts given to us upon this matter.

[155] show, In the same year Margaret Choppelet, born at Ronet, of the diocese of Reims, twelve years of age ^a, was afflicted with an unknown malady which tormented her with the sharpest pains in her knee, in which there was a huge swelling that forbade her to walk. After her parents had had recourse to all human helps and had consulted various most expert physicians, and among others the lords la Framboisière ^b and Compere, physicians of Reims, who had no remedy at hand for curing her malady, the aforesaid sick girl was vowed to St. Helena by her father and mother, and carried thither for the sake of performing a novena; which being completed, she returned hence on foot in full health. The matter was set down in writing for the memory of posterity.

In the year MDCLIX Jeanne Vathier, of Boncourt, of the diocese of Laon, hindered in the function of all her limbs, was wholly restored to herself, as the testimonies given by the parish priest of the said place, and other witnesses, attest; as is narrated in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Margaret Cousin, wife of Nicolas Herman, born at Châlons, infirm from a swelling which had befallen her after childbirth; being disappointed of the help of every kind of remedy, she recovered health by the patronage of St. Helena, when she had ordered herself to be brought hither for that end; as is declared in the document which she subscribed.

In the same year Jacoba Séjourné, wife of Nicolas Morel, a citizen of Châlons, afflicted with a terror which had arisen from a trembling of her whole body, likewise recovered when she had vowed herself to St. Helena; and she signed the account of the fact which was drawn up upon that matter, with other witnesses of her disease and of her healing.

In the same year MDCLIX Stephen Pilleron, born at Condé in Brie, of the diocese of Soissons, was tormented with so great and violent a languor that he was hastening to the end of his life. Being therefore fortified with all the sacraments of the Church, he commended himself to St. Helena, and sent a certain person thither; who had scarcely reached the territory when the sick man felt himself better, and a little after wholly healed.

[156] In the same year Anne Poncelet, born at Mondement, of the diocese of Troyes, rightly and deservedly wife of Nicolas Masson, suffering from lameness and so hindered that she could not go forward without crutches under her arms, having implored the aid of St. Helena and promised the journey to Hautvillers, a little while after found herself wholly healed and sound. She betook herself hither to discharge the obligation of her vow, and signed the acts which she deposited with us.

In the same year Peter Chevallier, born at Leraule, in the parish of Trellon ^c, of the diocese of Reims, vexed with so troublesome an arthritis that it fastened him to his bed for the space of seven weeks with the sharpest pains; having invoked the help of St. Helena and ordered a novena to be made in her honor, with a vow of making a pilgrimage thither if God should grant him strength, he enjoyed full health; and, having journeyed hither for the sake of giving thanks, he left with us a narrative of the matter subscribed by himself.

In the same year Noël Hainault, born at Champigneulle, of the diocese of Châlons, vexed for a year past with a certain most troublesome infirmity, unknown to the physicians; being unable to walk save supported by crutches, and that with great difficulty, all the remedies that could be devised having been applied without profit, he vowed himself to St. Helena; by whose intercession health was restored to him, as he attested to us before witnesses.

In the year MDCLX Dame Marie Dupuis, wife of Charles Julien, born at Château-Thierry, contracted a malady which extended itself throughout her whole body and deprived her of the use of all her limbs, while she suffered wonderful pains; and when (all remedies having been tried by the physicians to no purpose) she saw herself destitute of all hope of relief, she vowed herself to St. Helena, and straightway her pains ceased; as is contained in the instrument left with us upon this matter.

[157] to belong to her In the same year Thomas Haste, born at Dormans, of the diocese of Soissons, seventeen years of age, was during supper so seized with a certain malady in his throat that it deprived him of speech for fourteen hours; which was accompanied by pains and convulsions so great that he was reckoned about to die shortly. His mother, seeing him reduced to this state, vowed him to St. Helena, and presently that youth began to look upon the bystanders, to speak, and to render thanks to the Saint for the health which he had obtained through her intercession. He came hither expressly with his mother

for the sake of a grateful mind, and the lord parish priest of Dormans was present at that youth's restoration through the intercession of St. Helena.

In the same year Abraham Caignard, of Glaine near Fismes, of the diocese of Laon, declared to us before witnesses that for the space of eighteen years he had been full of ulcers over his whole body, even in his very mouth and on the soles of his feet, which hindered him from being able to walk. The said Abraham, disappointed of all the experiments of the medical art, when he had vowed himself to St. Helena and had made the journey, was brought back to full health, as is related in the instrument left with us.

[158] the title In the same year Simone Trousset, wife of James Trousset, dwelling at Ormes near Reims, having experienced great pains for eight months in her shins and thighs, after a novena rejoiced in entire health; as she herself deposed, and also other witnesses of her sickness and of her healing.

In the same year John Istas, son of James Istas and of Margaret Mayon, a citizen of Rethel, feeling the sharpest pains in his body, which for six years had rendered him as it were consumptive, was committed to St. Helena by his parents, who brought him hither: whence, returning on foot after a second novena — since he had not been able to come hither save carried — he sent forth a great quantity of blood from his nostrils and from his mouth, and thus plainly recovered: as the same Istas confessed and signed, and his parents also, for the memory of posterity.

In the same year Stephen Prin, born at Dormans and dwelling at Gland near Château-Thierry, touched with an ulcer in his body for four months, given over by the physicians and adjudged to death, offered himself to St. Helena and promised the journey; and without delay he felt that he was better, and a little after was perfectly restored to himself, the pus coming out through his mouth, as is related in the acts drawn up upon this matter.

[159] In the same year Jeanne Drouet, of Watry near Bussy-Lestrée, of the great worker of wonders among the people of Hautvillers. sixty-three years of age or thereabouts, deprived of the use of her limbs for seven or eight years, and so ill affected in her shins that she could scarcely move, received entire health after she had come hither a second time and had piously passed nine days; as is narrated in the writing which she left us.

In the same year James Basse, of Arbessee in the county of Burgundy, of the diocese of Besançon, came hither to St. Helena with his wife Gabrielle Brion, fortified with the testimony of his parish priest Sébastien Guillaume; which recorded that the said Gabrielle Brion, afflicted for very many years with a sickness unknown to the physicians, had had recourse to God and to St. Helena that she might obtain the restoration of her infirmities. When therefore she felt no relief in human remedies applied without fruit, she betook herself hither and completed nine days in performing the exercises of devotion, as is customary; and on the sixth day of the novena, which fell upon the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, a violent blast issued from her nostrils, which also returned with violence to her face; after which the said sick woman declared that she had felt no trouble, although her malady had before taken away the use of her limbs. Concerning which an instrument was drawn up, which was subscribed by witnesses of the same sickness and of her health after her journey. In the margin here Dom Rupert Reginald, often mentioned above, writes: Of this I am an eyewitness, and I wrote back to the parish priest how these things were done.

ANNOTATIONS.

SEVENTH CLASS.

From the year MDCLXI to the year MDCLXV.

Swellings, fever, infirmity, inertness of the limbs In the year MDCLXI Antoinette Laurent recovered from a swelling which had deprived her of the use of her limbs; as is contained in the formal depositions drawn up upon this matter, and in the Life of St. Helena.

In the same year Hippolyte Choppart, royal prefect of civil affairs at Verneuil, and scribe in the tribunal of Bugniaut in the said Verneuil, of the diocese of Soissons, was seized for fifteen days with an unremitting fever, and in these straits was fortified with all the Sacraments of the Church; but having vowed himself to St. Helena, ordered a novena to be performed, and promised a journey thither, he came off safe; as is related in the acts which he left with us when he visited this church in fulfillment of his vow.

In the same year Jeanne Liance, of Mont near Courville, suffering from a singular infirmity, was recalled to her former health; as is related in the Life of St. Helena, and also in the formal depositions drawn up upon this subject and signed by her lord pastor and by other witnesses of the sickness and of the healing. Dom Rupert Reginald writes in the margin: Of this too I am an eyewitness. For I saw this girl greatly agitated, and within a novena made perfectly whole.

In the same year Frances Courtaillier, wife of James Priollet, royal notary, dwelling at Verneuil, of the diocese of Soissons; when she had been afflicted for the space of two months with a wondrous swelling over her whole body, vowing herself to St. Helena to obtain health in the failure of human remedies, which brought her no relief thereto, she at once recovered after a novena, according to the document which she deposited with us, subscribed by witnesses of her sickness and of her perfect health.

[161] In the same year Louis Guinot, son of Charles Guinot and of Anne Simon, a merchant dwelling at Orbais, from the tenth month of his age until fully five years was deprived of the use of his limbs and most grievously affected in his body by smallpox; are healed; likewise violent agitations, after which time his father and mother vowed him to St. Helena, whereupon he recovered health complete in every respect.

In the same year Petronilla Chaudart, wife of John Picard, a butcher, dwelling at Châlons, after she had been inert in her limbs for five months and had been given over by the physicians, obtained entire health at the time of the novena of prayers which she caused to be performed in honor of St. Helena.

The miracle which happened in this same year in the person of the lady Claude de Buade de Frontenac, abbess of Argensolles ^a, is no less memorable. This abbess, excelling in virtue, had always been devoted with a certain singular affection of piety toward the great St. Helena, because by her merits she had obtained health in her youth. And so she held it fixed in her mind that if she should go to Hautvillers to implore her aid with God, she would this time also be favorable to her. Thither, therefore, she betook herself to fulfill her vow: and having with great confidence discharged the office of pious religion, it seemed to her, as she was going out of the church, that she was covered with a cold linen cloth moistening her body (which was an evident token of the present health which she was receiving). And indeed from that same day she found herself perfectly healed of those sad symptoms and violent agitations which she had experienced for two months, to the great wonder of her whole convent. This moved the same abbess, as a token of a grateful mind, to have the event recorded, to remain among posterity; which she willed to subscribe, along with Religious of both sexes, eyewitnesses of her restored health.

[162] a malady of the hip, an affliction of mind, faintings, convulsions; In the year MDCLXII Antoinette Coquet, daughter of Julian Coquet and of Anne Tellier, dwelling at Ormes, of the diocese of Reims, received health through the intercession of St. Helena from a malady of the hip which had held her for three months; as the document deposited with us relates, which her parents signed, and witnesses of the sickness and of the recovery.

In this same year Margaret Perignon, wife of John Baille, dwelling at Florent, of the diocese of Châlons, recovered from a certain weakness and affliction of mind under which she had labored for three months and more, returning with sound sense from the pilgrimage which for that cause she made to St. Helena of Hautvillers.

In this same year Marie Paul, of the district of Oigny, of the diocese of Reims, not without a miracle became better through the merits of St. Helena, recovering from the weaknesses and faintings of spirit into which she very often fell, although in the judgment of the physicians her malady was incurable. Dom Rupert Reginald says: Of this too I am a witness, and with me many others, together with the parish priest of the said Marie.

In the year MDCLXIII Margaret Laguier, thirteen years of age, daughter of Nicolas Laguier, dwelling in the village of Avenay ^b, was ill for a year from convulsions and swoonings which left her no sign of life; she returned to health by the merits of St. Helena, after she had cast forth very many objects of sorcery, which are seen exposed in the church of the same Saint.

[163] and several In this same year Louis Longuet, twenty-one years of age, son of John Longuet, dwelling in the place called la Veufve, of the diocese of Châlons, when he had been touched with a swelling of his shins and of his face, and had experienced convulsions and agitations in his whole body, and moreover was afflicted with blindness, recovered his sight and entire health, after he had been commended and vowed by his parents to the illustrious St. Helena.

In this same year Madeleine Jacob, wife of Peter Chatelain, an inhabitant of the place called Chézy-l'Abbaye, near Château-Thierry, after she had used all the ordinary remedies, vowing herself to St. Helena, likewise recovered at the time of the novena of prayers the sight of which she had been deprived for three years.

In this same year Francis Raportebled, born in the village of Lizy-sur-Ourcq, of the diocese of Meaux, seeing himself despaired of by the physicians on account of a dropsy formed two years before, for which all remedies had profited nothing, was brought to St. Helena of Hautvillers; where, beginning to feel himself better from the first day of his novena, and going on to take care that nine Masses should be celebrated in her honor, he felt himself wholly freed and restored at the end of the nine days, that incomparable Princess giving her patronage and interposing her aid.

In the year MDCLXIV Martin Coquart, born at Vertus, received the use of his left arm and shin, which nature had denied him, through the intercession of this illustrious Empress.

[164] In this same year Peter Bidaut, of the city of Châlons, most wretched persons was endowed also with a greater benefit by our great Saint: for besides that he was deprived of the use of his limbs and dumb, his almost continual convulsions and contortions gave as much labor to the physicians and moved to compassion those who saw him in this pitiable state, as he himself now brings wonder to one and another. Dom Rupert Reginald says in the margin: Of this too I am a witness. For I saw him laboring under so great a disease, and shortly after the pilgrimage made wholly whole.

In this same year Jeanne Peron, nine years of age, born at Blacy, of the diocese of Châlons, very ill affected for nearly two years with a malady unknown to the physicians, which brought her the greatest pains, with pitiable cries from the violence of the malady

accompanying them; and which at last bereft her of the function of all her limbs: she was miraculously healed as soon as her parents had vowed her to the illustrious St. Helena.

In this same year Louis Deschamps, nine years of age, son of Louis Deschamps, prefect of the tribunal of the same place of Blacy, suffering from a failure of all his limbs for four months and despaired of by the physicians, obtained entire health after a pilgrimage and a novena of prayers performed in honor of St. Helena; as is contained in the formal deposition signed by the lord parish priest and by the officers of the tribunal of the same place.

[165] In this same year Madeleine Rousin, wife of Bertrand Peltier, calamities. an inhabitant of Crécy ^c in Brie, of the diocese of Meaux, returned to a sound mind and came off wholly safe from the restless and afflicted spirit under which she had labored for four years, as soon as she vowed herself to St. Helena, sending that the task of the novena of prayers might be discharged there in her honor.

In this same year Antoine Couvreur, three years old, son of Henry Couvreur, an inhabitant of the place called Lagery, of the diocese of Reims, being unable to raise himself on account of a certain flux which had fallen into his shins two years before, which for that cause were wholly twisted and deformed, his malady being, as the surgeons said, naturally incurable; he was brought to St. Helena: where at the time of Mass he began to raise himself in the church of Hautvillers, to the great wonder of the bystanders and the comfort of his parents.

In this same year Anne Colet, twelve years of age, born at the town of Vitry-le-François ^d, had been bereft of the function of all her limbs for two years, and afflicted, as the surgeons said, with a certain hunching of the vertebrae of the back, which created a great deformity of the whole body and a difficulty in the motions of the limbs, so that she could not even support her own head; to which the ordinary remedies, by their own account, could bring no healing; yet from the fourth day of her novena, performed at Hautvillers, she was better; and departed thence endowed with the gift of entire health, to the great comfort of her parents, but to the greater wonder of the physicians and surgeons, and of many others astonished at so prodigious a healing.

ANNOTATIONS.

EIGHTH CLASS

From the year MDCLXV to the year MDCLXVII.

Other In the year MDCLXV Peter Henry, son of John Henry, dwelling at Dormans, who had been disturbed in mind for nine years, was plainly restored to himself and returned to a better mind, after he had been brought to St. Helena of Hautvillers.

In this same year Nathalie Mathieu, twelve years of age, daughter of Noël Mathieu and of Madeleine Hubert her parents, dwelling in the village of Fère-Champenoise ^a, after she had been brought by her parents to St. Helena, illustrious in glory, returned thence having obtained the healing of the trembling of nearly all her limbs, which for the space of three months had created in her an inertness of the same and had made her incapable of helping herself; as her lord parish priest related, and witnesses of the sickness and of the recovery.

In this same year Marie Derviot, a girl of Château-Thierry, twelve years of age, possessed as it were by a malignant spirit — that is, truly tormented five or six times, and agitated by some hidden cause which produced singular effects in her, speaking beside her wherever that girl was, and pronouncing with articulate voice blasphemies, imprecations, scurrilous jests, and follies, to the great wonder of the chief men of Château-Thierry, both ecclesiastics and seculars. Her parents, not daring to let her out of their sight, since that malignant cause sometimes carried the girl off, casting her in a single instant before them now into the fire, now into a chest, now into other places of the house, at last determined (after they had presented her to the lord bishop of Soissons, who confirmed her, and to the lord parish priest of Château-Thierry, who ordered her hair to be cut, believing that it might be that some sorcery clung to her hair) to bring her to Hautvillers to St. Helena for the sake of imploring her aid with God. Before her journey she vomited from her mouth the upper and lower part of a box, a fine and crimped cloth of cotton of black color, comprising a length of half an ell and a breadth of two fingers; a piece of red cloth of woolen or cotton threads crossed transversely, two fingers and a half broad and seven fingers long; very many pins, straws, herbs, and other filth; as many witnesses of unsuspected credit affirmed, according to the declaration of the lord parish priest in the said Château-Thierry.

[167] But when she had arrived at Hautvillers, at the time of her novena she also cast out from her mouth many wisps of straw, of those healed and tiny fragments of earth, and also, besides those which are named in the French text, other instruments of sorcery: whence she felt much relief. But some time later, being agitated with new vexations, her parents determined to undertake a new journey to the aforesaid sanctuary of Hautvillers; where that girl, on the fifth day of her novena being tormented beyond measure by that malignant cause, which strove to carry her off from the arms of two persons holding her firmly, and which also uttered many trifles and follies and revealed hidden actions of those who were present there, at last that wretched girl found herself freed and wholly healed by the merits of the notable St. Helena; as nine priests and deacons of the said Château-Thierry related, with many others worthy of credit, who were eyewitnesses both of her agitations before the pilgrimage to St. Helena, and of her deliverance and perfect health after the journey was made. Dom Reginald writes in the margin of the said narrative: This girl I saw perfectly healed; agitated I did not see her, because I was not then in the monastery.

[168] In this same year John Goberdelet, fifty-two years of age, born in the district of Longueval, through St. Helena of the diocese of Soissons, suffering for two years and more from a paralysis of all his limbs, so that he could not even move the tip of one finger, recovered entire health some time after his return from St. Helena of Hautvillers, to the great wonder of all who had seen him in so pitiable a state, and chiefly of the inhabitants of the said place of Longueval, according to their testimonies and the informations taken before notaries, by the effort and care of Dom Gilles Chasteloux, most worthy parish priest of the said place.

In the year MDCLXVI John Oudart, eleven years of age, born at Arnicourt in the diocese of Reims, for seven months afflicted with a weakness of the stomach which provoked him every week to fluxes of the bowels, ordinarily beginning with a dimness of sight and a weakness of the whole body, as though bereft of sense, pale and half-dead, the physicians being able to bring no remedy thereto; after he had been vowed by his parents to St. Helena of Hautvillers, illustrious in the praise of glory, and had cast out from his mouth a great quantity of tiny creatures of red and white color, which were rolled into a ball as thick as a fist, he felt himself wholly delivered and free from all his weaknesses.

[169] examples are brought forward. In this same year Frances Gros, reckoning twenty-five years of age, born in the district of Janthe, of the diocese of Laon, when she had been disappointed of the success of natural remedies, vowing herself to St. Helena, at once recovered from a troublesome disease which had afflicted her with intolerable torments throughout her whole body together with horrifying cries.

In this same year John Guiton, twelve years of age, son of John Guiton, a merchant dwelling at Châlons, began to raise himself and to walk at the time of the novena which he performed in honor of St. Helena: and a little after the journey he enjoyed entire health, finding himself wholly free from the pain extended over his whole body which stirred him to great cries as soon as he was touched or moved, and which had rendered him inert in his limbs and deprived of all their use for three months. Thus far the miracles printed in French; to which Dom Rupert Reginald — of whom often above, an excellent and plainly diligent helper in procuring and sending hither the Helenian documents — subscribed the following in Latin.

"There are," he says, "certain other events also of the year MDCLXVII and MDCLXVIII, whose depositions are in the hands of the most eminent Cardinal Antonio Barberini, our archbishop, to be examined. When he shall have returned them and permitted them to be published, I shall certainly transmit them to you." Thus he. See below.

[170] The dead appear, "Nor do I think it should be passed over in silence" (so Reginald continues) "that I have found it to have happened many times that the dead have shown themselves to their kinsfolk or even to their friends, and have asked that for the remedy of their soul they would undertake a pilgrimage to the church of Blessed Helena. A certain miller" (it is written in the margin that this happened in the year MDCLXVII in the month of November) "of the town upon the Marne commonly called Vraux, Peter Poillard by name, appeared to his son, now thirty years old and given in marriage, and to his son's wife, holding in one hand a lighted wax candle and in the other a book of prayers; and he bade them restore as soon as possible the debt with which he was burdened, and go on foot for him to the church of Blessed Helena: which they devoutly performed. Now the aforesaid town of Vraux is five leagues distant from the monastery of Hautvillers."

[171] and admonish their own of the pilgrimage to Hautvillers "But wonderful is what happened in the year MDCLXVII in the city of Épernay, distant only one league from the monastery of Hautvillers. In the season of Advent, that is in the month of December, Claude Collange, being of most sound mind (according to what many citizens of Épernay also have testified), lying in her bed felt something cold, I know not what, clinging to her. And when this had befallen her a second and a third time, her master (for she was a maidservant) ordered her to lie down within his own chamber: and when she obeyed him and lay down within her master's chamber, the very same thing happened."

"This maidservant, more and more terrified by this matter, her master ordered to lie down beside his wife in the same bed; but, wonderful to say, not only did she feel that cold thing joined to her, but on the following day she found her clothes in the middle of the courtyard under the cold air (although the chamber had been fastened with a bolt), God, as it seems to me, thus reproving that impropriety, that a maidservant may not lie in the same bed with her master, even though the wife be between."

[172] "Therefore the aforesaid maidservant, more and more terrified, goes to a confessor of the Order of Minims, for the remedy of her soul. who advised her that, confession being first made, she should be refreshed with the sacred food and await what this might mean. And when after communion she was giving thanks to God, she saw sitting near her, in the full light of day, her aunt named Margaret Soulliers, who had been dead not a month, and whom she had served for many years, and especially in her last illness, under which she had long lain languishing. And when she was scarcely mistress of herself, the dead woman bade her niece be undismayed; but bade her fulfill the vow by which she knew that both she and herself were bound, and go to blessed Helena, and said that she would be with her throughout the whole journey. Which also was done. For the aforesaid Claude Collange, coming daily from Épernay to the church of the monastery of Hautvillers for the sake of fulfilling her vow and her novena, for the first three days not only felt her aunt leaning upon her, as she had been wont to do when suffering from her disease, but even saw her. At last on the very day of the Lord's Nativity she showed herself to her for the last time in the church; she gave thanks for all these things, and said that, being led forth from a dark place, she would shortly enjoy the light and blessedness she desired."

ANNOTATION.

NINTH CLASS

Certain other wonders among the people of Hautvillers in the year MDCLXVII; Litanies with antiphons and prayers composed in the Saint's honor.

Various girls I have in my hands a little book published in print with this title, which from the French runs thus in Latin: A faithful relation of what took place in the church of the abbey of Hautvillers concerning the girls of the royal manufactory of Reims; who were not without a miracle healed through the intercession of St. Helena in the year MDCLXVII. I translate the history of the event thus into Latin. The King, for the good of the kingdom, had established various manufactories in France, so that whatever could be desired or sought elsewhere might be had there. One among others he had established in the city of Reims for the practice of the embroiderer's art (in the French it is pour travailler a la broderie) of fine linen weaving, in French work (commonly du point de France), the lord Mignot directing the business, who had been summoned from Paris to exercise the superintendence of the works and the government of that house. But the demon and his followers, envying the public good and the good discipline of that community, in which a great number of girls of every condition were honorably maintained and brought up in Christian fashion, stirred up there an evil of no common sort. Very many girls of that house were afflicted in a horrible manner; and indeed with convulsions so violent, often in the daytime, that three very strong persons labored much to hold a single one of them in order to prevent injury.

[174] dwelling together at Reims Their arms and shins were repeatedly quite twisted, and that with such violence that, whatever effort was applied, it could by no means be brought about that they should be restored to their natural state. They also not seldom sweated profusely from the violence of their malady; and experience taught that when they were pricked with needles, or their arms beaten with rods quite severely, there was no feeling in them while they remained in this state; nay more, that they did not see even with open eyes, since, when the pupil of the same was touched, they did not close them. In the beginning it was believed that this disease was natural, and that it might be an evil familiar to the female sex. Nothing was omitted that was judged necessary to their healing. Very many consultations of the most famous physicians were held; who, when they saw that after their remedies, even the most singular, the evil was obstinate and grew worse, were forced to confess that their art did not extend so far as to prescribe remedies for a malady so unwonted.

[175] are tormented with the dreadful arts and illusions of the evil spirit; In the failure of human remedies, which had been applied to no purpose, it was determined to bring those wretched afflicted girls to Hautvillers, four leagues distant from the city of Reims, to implore the aid of God through the intercession of St. Helena, mother of Constantine, whose sacred relics rest there. First, therefore, four were brought thither at the end of the month of July of that same year MDCLXVII; where some days after their arrival they began to cast out through their mouths a great quantity of horrible things, namely balls of hair and of feathers pierced with pins, stones, pieces of glass which were sometimes quite full of blood; nails, iron handles, lime, coal, bundles of straw twisted after the manner of the manes of horses tended by goblins [*], which could not have been put together by the hand of any man, and other such things; and that in the presence of an innumerable multitude of men of every age, of every estate, and of every condition — men and women, ecclesiastics, seculars, and Regulars — of whom very many came expressly to see these wonders. The names of those four girls were: Jeanne, called the Philistine, being about the twenty-sixth year of her age, daughter of a merchant of necklaces or precious vessels, or a jeweler, of Constantinople, who from the Turkish and Mahometan sect had given in her name to the Christian faith, being brought to it by the Mathurin Religious ^a, and washed in sacred baptism at Dijon ^b in the presence of the lord Marquis de Trichateau and the lady Marchioness de Tavannes as sponsors. She had been placed in the manufactory by the most illustrious lord bishop of Châlons in Champagne, whose ardent zeal is sufficiently shown by the care which he takes to bring help to those persons recently converted. The name of the second was Marie Dubois, twenty-eight years of age, born at Sedan ^c, of the diocese of Reims, who from the sect of the Huguenots ^d was enrolled in the Catholic religion, and abjured her heresy in the church of the abbey of Hautvillers. The third was Nicole Oudart, of the parish of St. Peter in the city of Reims. The fourth was called Denise Guimbert, thirteen years of age, of the parish of St. Hilary in the same city of Reims.

[176] On the sixth day of the following month of August, of the same year MDCLXVII, are tormented; six other girls of the same manufactory or company, afflicted with a wholly similar malady, were also brought to Hautvillers, in the conceived hope that St. Helena would favor these no less than the four preceding, who had already begun to feel the efficacy of her patronage, very much filth being cast out through the mouth. Four of those last six were Parisians: Carola Ragot, eighteen years of age, of the parish of St. John, called commonly de Grève, in Grève ^e. The second, Frances Champagne, fourteen years of age, of the parish of St. Bartholomew, in the Île du Palais ^f. The third, Henriette Care, sixteen years of age, of the suburb of St. Germain and of the parish of St. Sulpice. The fourth, Margaret Carette, eleven years of age, of the same suburb and parish. This girl, who was the youngest of all in age and the smallest in body, cast forth a very thick piece of iron, and a pin through her throat, which pierced the skin. The two others were Marie Savard, daughter of an apothecary of Fère-en-Tardenois ^g, and Marie François, daughter of a maker of lime, who dwelt at Châlons in Champagne, in the parish of the Mother of God in the Rue du Veau.

[177] These last six had scarcely reached the territory of Hautvillers but find in the patronage of St. Helena of Hautvillers when the horses tore themselves away from the cart in which they were being carried, their harness being broken; the cart went on alone for three or four turns of its wheels (as the driver related, and two other persons who accompanied them), with no help from men or horses; although this happened in a place where greater strength was needed, at an ascent. And those wretched girls straightway suffered a swoon of the spirit, and all testified that during their swoon they had seen the cart surrounded by dreadful specters, like demons, striving with every effort to hinder the journey from going forward; and that they had likewise seen a venerable lady clothed in white, wearing a golden crown upon her head, her countenance aflame, who resisted them.

[178] As they entered the church, having taken holy water, a remedy they all fell into their convulsions, and cast forth from mouth, nose, and ears a great quantity of such things as the others had cast out. And so long as they dwelt at Hautvillers, they were daily present at the sacred Offices, after the accustomed manner of the sick who give themselves to nine days' exercises of devotion: and as the others, so these too fell several times a day into their convulsions; often up to ten times; and one convulsion sometimes lasted half an hour, or three quarters of an hour; sometimes only a quarter of an hour, and at times not even so long. The state of those poor girls was pitiable to see. When they cast forth the objects of sorcery, they seemed to belch them up from the bottom of the stomach; which was not done without wondrous struggles: whence there arose in them afterwards so great a weakness of the body that they could not stand. At last, while they continued the acts of devotion with fervor and with full confidence in God and in the power of the cross, whose efficacy was to be applied to them through the patronage of St. Helena, they obtained entire health, being freed from their miseries, nor did they relapse into their convulsions from the fourteenth day of September, sacred to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, to the glory of Jesus Christ crucified, the conqueror of death and hell, who is wonderful in his Saints: to whom be honor and praise for ever and ever. Amen.

[179] Thus far that account. But before we depart hence, those things must by all means be noted salutary for themselves, which Dom Rupert Reginald wrote in Latin with his own hand upon these wonders: "Besides these ten girls," he says, "of whom we have treated, three others also of the same house or company, suffering under a like sorcery, were likewise brought to the church of the monastery of Hautvillers. Of those three, two were sisters, Marie Brunet and Madeleine, of Antenacum, commonly Antenay, of the diocese of Soissons, who also, after prayers were poured out to God and to blessed Helena, were within nine days restored to perfect health; but they vomited forth nothing. Of all these things I am a witness, as also of the vomitings of the others, and with me more than two thousand men: for these bewitched girls, from the fifth of August to the thirteenth of September of the year MDCLXVII, vomited forth something almost daily, and several times in a day: to visit whom there came running from every side, both out of curiosity and out of devotion, persons of every kind from the neighboring regions."

[180] and honorable to the Saint: "The most reverend and most illustrious bishop of Châlons, known to all France for his singular piety and learning, wrote to me while these things were taking place, and charged me to write back to him and report how these things were done; which I also faithfully did. But I long hesitated in anxiety whether I should transmit this narrative to you, or even

suppress it, though already given to the press, because I have learned that two of those girls have fallen back into their former state of infirmity, or suffer the same symptoms, or are convulsed and agitated in the same manner as before. For although I reckon these vomitings prodigies not to be kept silent from posterity, yet I should not dare to ascribe it to miracles unless a perfect and complete health follow, such as followed in the other girls." These are the things which the praised Dom Reginald notes after the French booklet which I rendered into Latin a little before. But whether those three girls were healed by a miracle, or rather by a benefit, since they were healed only for a time, there is no need to dispute at length. Let Reginald's words here avail and suffice, by which he has religiously proved his candor and sincerity. Let me be allowed to sew something devout upon the foregoing narrative.

[181] whose praises from the printed litanies. By way of a coping-stone, therefore, I subjoin that, after the said booklet published in print in which the history of the ten girls of the royal manufactory of Reims is narrated, there are found litanies composed in praise of St. Helena and printed in the Latin tongue, and wholly suited to the Saint's glory and to the devotion of those who implore her patronage. It will be useful to excerpt from them the praises which are given her, and they are these:

St. Helena, most Christian empress, most powerful empress, most holy empress, mother and spouse of emperors, glory of empires, illustrious mirror of princes, most humble amid honors, ever lifted up to God, prevented by the grace of God, led by the Holy Spirit, most loving of the cross of Christ, most given to contemplation, most fervent in prayer, most zealous for the glory of God, burning furnace of divine love, mistress of the spiritual life, mirror of contemplatives, ruin of idols, propagator of the Catholic faith, vanquisher of heresies, illustrious dweller upon Calvary, devout pilgrim of the holy places, munificent foundress of temples, restorer of the peace and liberty of the Church, finder of the holy Cross, exalter of the glory of the Cross, dearest bride of the Crucified, aflame with burning love toward Christ, most given to fasting and prayer, help of Christians, relief of the poor, guardian of widows, mother of orphans, refuge of the afflicted, foundress of hospitals, terror of demons, hammer of sorceries, health of all the sick, worker of prodigies, treasure and safeguard of France.

[182] Antiphon: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, are set forth together with the antiphons and prayers. and I unto the world. ℣. I have despised the kingdom of the world and all the ornament of this age. ℞. For the love of my Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray: O God, who didst strengthen blessed Helena the empress with the virtue of constancy in her desire of finding the saving Cross, and by the finding of the same didst wonderfully enlarge the bounds of thy Church; by the imitation of her pour into our hearts the love of thy Cross, that, loving thee in all things and above all things, we may obtain the rewards promised to those who bear the cross. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, etc. And presently there is subjoined this other prayer for the sick: O God, who through blessed Helena, the most Christian empress, didst deign to uncover the wood of the Cross; grant, we beseech thee, that by her intercession for us we may be able, through the power of thy Cross, to be snatched from all the assaults of the demons which press upon us, and to be freed from all infirmities of mind and body. Who livest, etc. These exercises of devotion toward the Saint being given on the occasion of the said booklet, let us return to the other prodigies of Hautvillers.

ANNOTATIONS.

. In the French it is par des follets*, that is, by sprites.

TENTH CLASS

Continuation of the miracles from the year MDCLXVI to MDCLXVIII.

An epileptic, and persons powerless in their limbs Dom Rupert Reginald, most often and most deservedly praised by us above, wrote hither from the monastery of Hautvillers in the month of February of the year 1669 as follows: "The most eminent Cardinal our archbishop of Reims, or his vicar-general, who had given us the faculty of drawing up a report of the miracles of Blessed Helena, has examined the instruments presented to him by us, and has permitted the miracles which I send to be made public." Now the instrument in which the little letter from which I received these words was inserted runs thus, and was written by Dom Reginald: Continuation of the miracles: In the year MDCLXVI Servatius Vallidire, of a certain district of the diocese of Reims which is called Cormoyeux, and is one league distant from the monastery of Hautvillers, being seized with an epileptic affection, or suffering from the falling sickness, betook himself for three times nine days to the aforesaid monastery out of a certain confidence in Blessed Helena, to make supplication: and from that time he felt no trouble.

In the year MDCLXVII John Mulet, a native of Fismes, a city of the diocese of Reims, wholly powerless in his limbs; when the remedies applied by the physicians had profited nothing, was carried in a carriage to Blessed Helena and came as a pilgrim, and from that time was made whole, as the instruments drawn up and subscribed by the judges of that city attest.

[184] are restored to health. In the same year Peter Delrois, of the district of Saint-Sernin of the diocese of Troyes, for three years likewise powerless in his limbs, was carried in a carriage to Blessed Helena, where for nine days and more he gave himself to prayers: and on the fifteenth day after his return to his own country he was made whole and sound, as appears from the instrument drawn up for this, attesting the fact, and subscribed by witnesses worthy of credit, most of them inhabitants both of the town of Hautvillers and of Saint-Sernin. In the margin, concerning this Peter Delrois, Dom Reginald affirms: This man I saw powerless in his limbs, and afterwards healed, at which I could not sufficiently marvel.

There stands in our transcript another event, headed with this title: A narrative worthy of memory, written in the hand of Dom Reginald; which runs thus:

[185] A wondrous history In the year of the Lord MDCLXVIII, in the month of May, a truly wonderful thing happened in a certain city of the diocese of Laon which is commonly called Vervins; in an inn of which the hanging sign is of St. Martin: not only was a horrible noise and crashing heard, but all the furniture of this house seemed to be going to ruin. There seemed, in the full light of day, to be hurled and cast about stones, sometimes very large ones, fire-irons, tables, candlesticks, dishes; yet by whom these things were thrown did not appear; by all which the inhabitants of that house were terrified not a little, who also were sometimes bruised with blows, from which above all the mistress was so grievously struck upon the head that it was necessary, at great peril of her life, to remove with a surgeon's trepan a piece of her fractured skull.

[186] of a certain house What were the household to do in so great a calamity, sorcerers and witches doubtless dwelling there and infesting this house? That this was performed by sorcerers and workers of evil, and not by demons whom they call sprites, the master did not call in doubt, when he noticed in a mirror the reflection of someone, although there was no one there; when he saw with the other members of the household and with his friends flagons as though suspended in the air going down of themselves into the underground wine cellar, and after some space of time coming up again thence; when he found the food prepared on the previous day consumed on the following, with the scraps or leavings left behind — nay (by your leave I would say it, for the mind shudders to relate it) human excrements; when he moreover perceived furniture, clothes, and other such things carried off, although the clothes chest was shut: and in all these things the chamber was closed and fastened with bolt and lock, nor did any entrance seem to lie open to anyone.

[187] The parish priest of this city, therefore, and the dean of the neighborhood, Dom Bourgeois, in wondrous ways a man of no mean learning, informed the most reverend and most illustrious bishop of Laon of these things, who ordered prayers to be made and the house to be blessed. Meanwhile Religious men, and especially Capuchins, are asked to pass the night there and to give themselves to prayer; nevertheless the crashing and noise is heard. The aforesaid most reverend bishop permits the Holy Sacrifice to be offered there upon what they call a portable altar, in a chamber becomingly adorned and prepared for this. Thereupon for five days nothing at all was heard, so that all was thought to be tranquil. But after five days the house was troubled again, again the furniture goes to ruin, and no less is the evil crashing either felt or heard: at length the inhabitants of this place were advised to arm themselves with clubs and weapons, with which to repel force by force, and undaunted to strike out on every side.

[188] infested Meanwhile, to those thus girded and ready to strike, there shows itself a certain animal (if such it was), although the chamber was closed, not unlike a cat, or rather a serpent — a kind midway between the two (if it be lawful so to speak), although those animals are exceedingly different from each other; for it was without ears, tail, and feet, like a serpent; yet it was seen to be wholly of a cat's skin. Undaunted, therefore, they attack it, pursue it as it flees, and strike it with a drawn sword; but when struck it did not stop. On the contrary the edge of the sword is blunted, and at last through the gutter

or water conduit the ill-omened beast withdraws itself and flees, all marveling that it had been able to withdraw itself through so tiny a hole and thus escape.

[189] But not even for that was any more quiet had in the house — nay, rather less; so that the inhabitants of it were now ready to abandon the house. When, from the fame of the miracles of blessed Helena, which extended itself through all the neighborhood, and at last healed through St. Helena. the mistress plans a pilgrimage to Hautvillers to make supplication, although it is twenty leagues and more distant thence. She moreover makes a vow and sets out with confidence that, if perchance this were done by the malice or savagery of workers of evil, they would be restrained by the power of the cross and the intercession of blessed Helena. On the very day on which the mistress set out on her journey, all the things stolen were restored, and the clothes and other furniture found in the clothes chest: the noise is silent for eleven days; all things therefore are thought safe and sound. But after eleven days the crashing again, although they refrained from striking: nor did it cease until the master himself also, whose name is Nicolas Desmiots, likewise vowed a pilgrimage to blessed Helena, and performed it on foot about the end of the month of October of that same year MDCLXVIII: for from that time no trouble was brought upon this house. Concerning the word fatulos at number 186, observe that I rendered it into Latin at number 175 as lemures. The French-Latin Dictionnaire de Trévoux, published in the year 1704, may be consulted under the word Follet.

[190] Another certain grace To this wondrous history I append another singular favor of our great Worker of Wonders, which was extracted by me from a letter of the praised and most worthy Dom Bourgeois, parish priest and dean at Vervins, given on the XVII day of October in the year 1668 to Dom Reginald, as appears from what is to be said. In it that dean relates that a certain honest woman, his parishioner, set out on the said XVII day of that month to present herself in the church of Hautvillers by a repeated pilgrimage, and to render thanks to God because by his mercy he had taken away the vexation with which a certain most cruel and most hostile spirit had tormented her, her husband, and her household day and night for six months. Prayers, exorcisms, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and other good works he says had been employed. The writer of the aforesaid letter also makes mention of the fatherly cares which "our most reverend and most illustrious bishop," he says, was pleased to undertake in this matter through two Canons, whom he names, of the cathedral church of Laon, and also through the Reverend Father Guardian of the Capuchins of the said place. But Bourgeois adds that God did not will that that affliction should cease save on the Friday which was the fifth, he says, "of this current month"; and that at the eleventh hour of the evening. He signifies that the circumstances of the event will be set forth to him by the said parishioner or by her husband.

[191] obtained through St. Helena. For the elucidation of this narrative and letter serve those things which Dom Rupert Reginald wrote in the little letter cited above in these words: "There happened also something out of the common in a city of the diocese of Laon which is commonly called Vervins; whose narrative I have thought it not amiss to send you: and that you may perceive it the better, I send also the letter which the parish priest of this place wrote to me, that its truth may be the better established." And presently the same Dom Reginald subjoins this: "I have found besides that within a year two or three have been freed from the sorcery by which they were hindered from using their wives." Thus far concerning the miracles wrought among the people of Hautvillers up to the year 1668.

ELEVENTH CLASS.

Wonders long interrupted or not recorded; but in the year MDCCXXI again begun or committed to writing; and continued in the year MDCCXXII.

The most recent documents of the people of Hautvillers diligently sent hither. The prodigies of the great Worker of Wonders of Hautvillers having been brought down to the year of Christ 1668, I judged that inquiry should be made there whether, and what sort of, wonders had happened from that term onward, of which account could here be taken. My letters, therefore, upon this matter the Reverend Father Louis de Laguille, Rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Reims, second emeritus president of the province of Champagne among our people, etc., and very well known to the republic of letters by his History of Alsace published in the year 1727, took care to have sent to the Reverend Father Dom Prior of the monastery of Hautvillers, and communicated to me the answer which he had received thence for my purpose, together with certain more recent wonders obtained by the Saint's patronage. And although these are very few, yet they were welcome to me on account of the obliging diligence of the people of Hautvillers, and their ready will to communicate more, if they had been able to obtain them; as appears from the letter of the Reverend Father Dom Romuald Leupot, given on the IX day of August of this current year 1736, in which I write this, to the praised Reverend Father Laguille, and transmitted by him to me. And since that letter contains not a few things which belong here, I excerpt the following from it and render them from the French into Latin.

[193] He signifies, therefore, that he had very lately received two letters from his Father Prior, Of the wonders of St. Helena whom the affairs of the house had called to Paris; and that in the first of them he had given him this charge, that he should search out the documents which could be found in that same house concerning the miracles wrought through the intercession of St. Helena. But in the second he affirms that the same matter was commended to him by him, and that my letters were sent to him, in which I had asked for new documents upon the present subject, beginning from the year 1668, at which Dom Rupert Reginald had left off — never sufficiently to be praised for the unwearied labor by which he sent hither the miracles wrought up to that time, so that they might afterwards be inserted in our Work. Being about to begin, therefore, a new collection from that epoch, Leupot indicates in the said letter that the store of them is very scanty, either because the instruments drawn up concerning them have perished, or because it was neglected to record them in their own time: and he adds that the reason why he so thinks lies in this, that those five or six wonders which are at hand, and the extracts of which he says he will send to the aforesaid reverend father Rector, are testimonies of healings which happened within two years only, and those immediately following one another.

[194] And that this indeed could be so he admits; but, no writing is found "is it likely," he says, "that nothing happened either before or after those two years, and that the good Saint, to whom public fame attributes so many wonders, wrought none from the year 1668 to the year 1721, and from the year 1722 to this present time?" And presently, going on to reason upon that great interval in which no miracle is found, Dom Romuald says: "As regards myself, I know that during the space of fifty years and more in which I have dwelt in other houses, a great number of Religious were heard by me relating many extraordinary things of which they said they had been witnesses when they were staying at Hautvillers. And so the matter has fallen out thus, either because nothing was written, or because, if anything was written, it has perished." Besides this, "our changes," he says, "which are frequent enough, are perhaps in part the cause that things fall out so." Whatever it be, he writes that if by making a new investigation other documents should be found, it will be reckoned a pleasure and a bounden duty to communicate them to us through the aforesaid Father Rector.

[195] Meanwhile the few documents which on the XVI day of August of the aforesaid year 1736 the same reverend Father Rector sent me from Reims before the year 1721, and after the year 1722: but those are extracts from testimonies and from written records of events (in French procès verbaux), of which this is the order of the narrative, running thus in Latin from the French tongue: The first instrument is a formal deposition, as they call it, concerning the healing of one whose name is Margaret Brasseur, wife of John Courtant, a vine-dresser dwelling at Quincy in Brie, of the diocese of Meaux. Which Margaret, when she had fallen into a madness which stirred up in her such excesses of agitation that four men could scarcely restrain her, was brought to Hautvillers, where she recovered perfect health on the XXII day of July MDCCXXI.

The second is a formal deposition concerning the healing of Marie Renauld, daughter of John Renauld, dwelling in the place called Baalon near Mézières. This girl, who had long been ill affected and afflicted with continual pains, for which all remedies had brought no relief, being brought to Hautvillers obtained health on the V day of November MDCCXXI, after a novena performed before the relics of St. Helena.

[196] which were written in these said years, The third is a formal deposition concerning the healing of John Perot, dwelling in the place called Ville-au-Bois, of the diocese of Laon: who, being possessed by a demon, as the parish priest of the same place attests, who says that he saw him in this state, together with more than five hundred persons, for three whole weeks, uttering horrible cries and howlings; the said Perot, after he had been brought to Hautvillers to invoke St. Helena there, felt himself freed on the XI day of February MDCCXXII, and returned healed of his other ills, save that a certain stiffness remained in his arms, which was a hindrance to him in plying his craft of turner.

The fourth is a testimony, signed on the XIV day of May MDCCXXII, of Simon la Joye, who attests that he came to Hautvillers together with Jeanne la Joye his daughter, to render thanks to God for the healing of his said daughter, who had long been seized with a certain sad trouble; and had been healed of the same through the intercession of St. Helena, to whose merits both he himself and his aforesaid daughter had had recourse.

[197] are here brought forward. The fifth is a formal deposition concerning the healing of John Richarmet, son of Balthasar Richarmet, a merchant dwelling at Rocroi. That young man was suffering from a very grievous disease which the physicians called soporose, and which cast him into a certain state of lethargic stupor such that he was often believed to be dead. His mother brought him to Hautvillers; he took refuge in the merits of St. Helena, and her son felt himself restored to perfect health on the XI day of July MDCCXXII. The royal prefect of Rocroi and the dean and parish priest of the said town signed the formal deposition.

The sixth is also a formal deposition, signed by the judge and by the parish priest of the same town of Rocroi, in which testimony is given that a certain young boy named Charmet (who was in a pitiable state, wholly unknown to the physicians, uttering continual and horrible cries) was in the year MDCCXXII brought to the abbey of Hautvillers, that he might there invoke St. Helena, and returned thence wholly healed and sound. Now Rupes Regia (commonly Rocroy) is a fortified town of Gaul in the province of Champagne, and in the district of Rethel, near the forest of Ardennes on the border of Hainaut, memorable for the victory won by the French over the Spaniards in the year 1643. And above, where mention is made of Quincy, it is rightly added "in Brie," for distinction from other places of the same name existing in France. Adrien de Valois may be consulted

in the Notitia Galliarum under the word Quintiacum.

APPENDIX

To the miracles of Hautvillers; heavenly favors obtained in the territory of Luxembourg by the Saint's patronage.

Helena, widow, empress, and mother of Constantine the Great, at Rome (St.)

BHL Number: 3787

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

To a woman I have related above in the Saint's Posthumous Glory, §5, various miracles which happened when they were wrought at the solemn translation of St. Helena in the eleventh century; but two others which were done after it I did indeed there assign at number 51, but I indicated that they would be spoken of afterwards. Lest, therefore, anyone should miss them, and lest I should fail of the promise I gave, I here relate the event to you, reader, at greater length: When the space of four months had rolled by after the translation of the illustrious empress Helena, a blind woman named Dia, sprung from the district of Porcien, came to Hautvillers. She, being asked how and how long ago it had befallen her to be deprived of sight, answered: "I recall that the course of half a year has now gone by since I incurred the mark of so great a night. For when, being feverish after excessive burnings, I had at last with difficulty relaxed my weary limbs in sleep, there seemed to me in my dreams … the appearance of a man, whose face was foul with horrid soot, and whose most wretched garment was dark with the rust of iron. When such a one, I say, troublesome with much talk, wished to carry me off with him, being terrified by the sign of the cross with which I fortified myself, he vanished into the empty air like smoke. I, my mind shaken with the dread of that horrible vision, from that time have had the keenness of my eyes blunted, and, mindful of the joyous air, have groaned for every day … until now." This woman, then, had entered the hospice of the church in the fourth week of the Lenten fast, on the sixth day of the week before the Sunday on which the Lord's Passion is wont to be commemorated: and when she slept there on the following night, she saw in her dreams the remains of food brought to her by the Brethren, and that she was abundantly refreshed by them as though by a blessing.

[199] But after the morrow had dawned, she went forth to the church to make her petition for the obtaining of her health. to a blind woman, Then, when she had sat down after pouring forth her prayer, and with the pious whispering of her heart was sighing more devoutly to the Lord, she sees standing beside her a man of reverend white hair, of joyous countenance, with gravity preserved, and robed in the glassy garment of the whitest fine linen. And when he had asked for what cause she had come, or what she was so earnestly seeking, she answered: "Because, sir, I have long lacked the natural sight of things, I have come to suggest to the loving-kindness of the most blessed Helena that by her patronage the omnipotence of God may enlighten my darkened orbs with the sun's radiance." But he, touching each eye with his fingers, all the darkness being dispelled, brought her to see the day she had lost. O how astonishing and joyous a day, and one not to be worthily set forth by any! For who grows rich in the treasure of so pure an understanding as thence to render a reason to those who ask, why God permitted an angel of Satan to buffet her, and, when it pleased him, again through an angel of his grace applied to her the care of his mercy? Certainly no one is skilled in the mastery of so great a perception, unless he utterly fail in the consideration of the judgments of God … Since therefore the human mind is so blunted with the darkness of ignorance that it cannot behold with worthy reverence the clear light of so great a purity, let us so marvel at the order of the divine disposition that both in adversities, brought upon us for our correction, we may humble ourselves by giving thanks, and in prosperities, assigned to us out of mercy, we may honor God, the bestower of all benefits, with pure hearts and worthy praises.

[200] and also to an infant Therefore, when the celebration of the following Easter was completed, the solemn day of Pentecost dawned upon the Kalends of June. On the third day of the week a numerous throng of the people of Gaul was holding its accustomed assembly at Hautvillers, for the sake of earning the intercessions of the Saints, which on the fourth day of Pentecost, when the solemnity is proclaimed, are wont to be carried out every year. Among the rest, a nurse had brought in her arms the daughter of a certain soldier of a well-esteemed family of Neufchâtel, situated upon the river Aisne, who had not yet passed the first year of her birth. She, by the most just ordinance of God, had been blind from the beginning of the past Lent until now, and had made her first attempts at wailing unhappy with this mark of bereavement in this manner. By a certain glue the upper eyelids, clinging to the lower, had for no small time hidden the eyes, the one being drawn over the other, and so, darkness being spread over them, they had extinguished the native fire of her sight. Nevertheless, after the interval of many days had passed, the eyelids parting, her lashes had opened again, and none the less the extinguished light had baffled the office of seeing. When the nurse was carrying this child, sucking at the breast, around the memorial of the holy empress Helena after the Offices of evening praise, with an unexpected glance … she marvels to see her smiling at her, and at once perceives the little infant [*] with such a nod as it could straining the orbs of its eyes.

[201] sight is restored, Thereupon she perceives that the presence of the divine power was with the child, and straightway with all her strength cries out the miracle of her sight. Then, moved by the greatness of her wonder, the nurse triumphs here and there with a new kind of narrative: and when she has now disclosed it to almost all, she repeats it thus over and over to each one she meets, as though she had told no one before: for she cannot be satisfied with her unlooked-for joy: so is she carried away by the impulse of an ungovernable gesture: the people throng in a glad assembly at the proof of the miracle; and with thanksgiving and with more frequent gifts they salute the queen Helena for her bestowal of sight: tears of joy the clergy and the common people of both sexes shed together for the abundance of gladness. Nowhere, I think, is there a wit so keen in sharp eloquence as would suffice to describe one by one the benefits which almighty God, to the glory of his name, deigns to work at Hautvillers for the merit of holy Helena. Wherefore the writer's pen ever restrains itself, with a chastened limit to its narrative, according to its own slightness, and, so far as it can, appends in turn a few things out of the innumerable, for the profit of a later age.

[202] In the territory But now the territory of Luxembourg, made illustrious also by more recent favors of the Saint, calls me. I have before me a paper in which our Father Bolland on the XII day of November in the year 1655 left this written to the reverend Father Alexander Wiltheim, inquiring of him thus: "There is said to be in those parts" (the parts of Luxembourg) "a village Charency-Vezin, where St. Helena Augusta is honored, and in whose church so many miracles are said to be wrought that scarcely any pilgrim is not either wholly or in part freed of the sickness by which he is held. Is that place known to your Reverence? Are there relics of St. Helena there? Or for what other cause has her cult prevailed there? Have the miracles not been recorded from of old? Why is not the pastor at least urged to note them down, with witnesses? I hear that the place is under the bishop of Metz." Those questions, proposed by Bolland to Father Alexander Wiltheim, are elucidated by Father Christopher Wiltheim, as appears from a fragment of his letter which he gave to Bolland from Luxembourg on the XXII of September in the year MDCLVII, in these words: "Last year I visited the famous church of the lady Helena Augusta at Carum not far from Marville, situated in the village of Charency and Vezin. There is preserved there a fragment of bone, of the size of a small bean. I saw astonishing things which those afflicted by sorcery, being purged by exorcisms, vomited up: chains a cubit and a half long, and thick horseshoes," etc. I have in my possession the descriptions of those wonders.

[203] First let us set forth that place a little more distinctly. Marvilla of Luxembourg and Martis-villa (Marville), a town of Gaul, partly in the duchy of Bar and partly in the duchy of Luxembourg, today under the dominion of the French, two leagues distant from Montmédy to the south, six toward Verdun; as Baudrand has it. Secondly, I suppose those descriptions of wonders to have been sent to us, and to be the same which we keep under this title, which from the French runs thus: Extract of the miracles which were wrought in the church of the lady St. Helena, a land dependent upon Marville, at Charency and Vezin. That French extract we shall somewhat abridge for brevity's sake. In the year 1652, then, a boy of about seven months, named John Warin, was swollen in his whole body, and so inert in his limbs that until the third year of his age he was unable to stand upon his shins. Human remedies proving vain, Margaret the boy's mother betook herself to St. Helena; where she performed a novena, and took care that a Mass should be celebrated in honor of the Saint; which being done, the boy began to walk: and it was moreover observed that, in proportion as the novena went on, the boy's feet, which were wholly twisted, were little by little brought back to a better form, and the hump which was upon his back likewise diminished day by day, so that today he has wholly recovered by the grace of God and the merits of St. Helena. And there are subscribed the names of those who assert this to be true, because they saw it and acknowledged the fact: and the XVI day of August of the year 1655 is set down.

[204] Stephen Hole, dwelling at Mariee, in the prefecture commonly called Sancy, by the patronage of St. Helena on the ninth day of April 1631 brought his daughter Margaret Hole to the church of St. Helena: who, after she had vowed a pilgrimage to St. Helena, both before and after it cast forth through her mouth various objects of sorcery, which are set forth in the French copy.

On the XVI day of June in the year 1631 a certain girl of Warenne, named Frances Drouelle, cast forth through her mouth a chain. On the XXI day of April 1631 Stephen le Loup at Mariee, in the provostship of the aforesaid place of Sancy, made a pilgrimage to St. Helena to pay the vow for his sick daughter, named Catherine; who had been suffering for three weeks and was so disturbed that she was believed to be possessed by a demon; as soon as the aforesaid le Loup had made his vow to St. Helena, on that same day she cast forth a kind of cord or linen; which, when it had been thrown into the fire and burned, there was found in it a wire of brass or of iron.

A certain youth named Didier Mengin, twelve years of age, dwelling at Muzere, accompanied by his father and mother in the month of May in the year 1631, on the XXV day of that month vomited forth from his mouth certain objects of sorcery; which he had also done two days before.

Various things also were sent forth from her mouth by Frances Bresseur, residing in the place called St. Mardi, who, being vexed by sorcery, came hither on the IV day of July in the year 1655 to implore the mercy of God through the patronage of St. Helena. And thereafter, after other vomitings for four days, she plainly recovered. And it is added that this is set forth at greater length in the document which was drawn up in that place on the XVII day of July 1655. It is subscribed F. Mengin, parish priest at Charency and Vezin.

[205] various also But wholly wonderful and very often repeated are the vomitings of objects of sorcery which are related to have happened to Ponce Sandras, born at Vrigne-aux-Bois, of the diocese of Reims, who for fourteen years or thereabouts had been vexed with an evil of magic. Those ejections are related one by one in our manuscript. All which miracles are said in it to have been collected by Dom Francis Mengin, parish priest at Charency and Vezin, in the presence of a numerous people. In witness of which Dom Reginald de Saint-Gaugeric (de Saint-Géry), parish priest of the place Vrigne-aux-Bois, together with the aforesaid Dom Francis Mengin, signed these things on the XVII day of July 1655.

On the V day of the month of April in the year 1656 there came thither a certain lieutenant (in the French it is lieutenant) of Lorraine, named Bonvouloir, suffering from a most grievous disease. But about the fifth or sixth day

of his novena of devotion toward St. Helena, he began to vomit up a great quantity of green humors, and continued so for one day or another; at the end of which he found himself wholly healed; and when the novena was performed he returned thence so brisk and vigorous as though he had never had any ailment. In witness of the fact we have it from the manuscript that the greater part of the village of Vezin would attest it.

[206] favors About the month of July of the same year 1656 a certain man of the district of la Chaussée, in the prefecture of Brienne, deprived of the use of all his limbs for seven months, was carried on horseback to the said place and brought to the image of St. Helena; where, having confessed his sins to the parish priest and been refreshed by him with the sacred banquet, about an hour after the Mass he betook himself on foot to the house of the said lord parish priest, which was very far distant from the church, certain of the inhabitants accompanying him; and he declared to the same parish priest that by the grace of God and the intercession of St. Helena, in proportion to the time during which he prayed, he had found all his limbs strengthened, and that so indeed that, before he went out of the chapel, he found himself as vigorous and sound as ever before. He refused to be carried back on horseback when he departed thence, in confirmation of this matter; which the inhabitants of the said place of la Chaussée, etc., are recorded in the copy from which we give these things as ready to attest.

[207] are said to have been granted In the month of August in the year 1656 the lord de Hennemont, lord of the place Sorbey, and brother of the lord de Tavigny, high prefect of Luxembourg, had a little child of about four years, who was most grievously afflicted with a swelling and hardness in the abdomen and in the male member, and that so much so that not even by the very efforts of the physicians could he pass water. His father and mother, reduced to the utmost straits of grief by the most afflicted state of their son, vowed a pilgrimage to St. Helena; and without delay they send thither that a Holy Sacrifice may be caused to be celebrated. The vow had scarcely been made when the boy began to pass urine, and the swelling to be dispersed, so that on the same day, or at the most on the next, the boy did not seem to have been ill: and four or five days later the lord de Hennemont and his lady wife came with their child to the said place with great gladness and applause, to pay the due thanks to God and to St. Helena. And it is subscribed F. Mengin, the same parish priest as above.

[208] to wretched men. But what does this mean, that contrary to custom, after the end of the present narratives which we have already produced from our aforesaid copy, there is set down in another hand an admonition concerning feigned or new miracles not to be published by a parish priest unless they have first been examined and approved by the bishop, etc.? But whether that admonisher wished to take precaution lest those wonders which I have related above from number 203 should be made public without the approval of the Ordinary, or whether he intended something else, we nevertheless have not accounted it a scruple of conscience to transcribe them hither; to which we wish no more credit to be given than the prudent reader shall judge should be given to human narratives and to our transcript in which the same are recorded; and that after the manner used in innumerable places in this our work, with the famous decrees of Pope Urban VIII saved in all things, according to what we repeatedly profess before our volumes. And these indeed are the things which we have thought good to gather thus far concerning the prodigies of St. Helena. Let this, then, be the end.

. Read infantili*.

POSTHUMOUS GLORY FROM THE SACRED OFFICES, ETC.

Helena, widow, empress, and mother of Constantine the Great, at Rome (St.)

BHL Number: 3785

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

§ I. Proper Offices among the people of Hautvillers and of Reims; the daily commemoration of St. Helena.

Certain preliminary notions. That the Office which I shall presently produce belongs to the monks of Hautvillers I gather, first, from the hymn at Matins, in which this is read:

No number of years shall keep silence of The glory of Hautvillers, and pious fame Shall carry forth Helena's reborn name To all the world.

Secondly, in the eighth lesson it is said that her sacred body, translated to the diocese of Reims and placed in the monastery of Hautvillers, is honored with veneration. Thirdly, after the Octave of the Office which is celebrated on the XVIII day of August, there is immediately subjoined in our copy the Office of the translation on the VII day of February, and the history is narrated of the manner in which the body of St. Helena was conveyed from Rome to the monastery of Hautvillers, etc. See what has been set forth by us at greater length above in the Saint's Posthumous Glory, §§2 and 3. I gather it, fourthly, thus: Dom Rupert Reginald, a monk of Hautvillers, who with his own hand transcribed these Offices for us, subjoins this to his copy: Among the daily suffrages of the Saints which are wont to be made in the monastery of Hautvillers, there is made ALSO one of St. Helena in its place, as I shall relate below from him. These conjectures moved me to conclude that those Offices are proper to the people of Hautvillers, although I do not find this indicated by the praised Dom Reginald either after or before the said copy which he sent to us. The Office, therefore, which is set down in the first place in our copy, and at the XVIII day of August, runs thus:

[210] At Vespers, the Antiphons of Lauds: Blessed Helena, Vespers, with the rest. Psalms: Dixit Dominus. Laudate pueri. Lætatus sum. Nisi Dominus ædificaverit. Little chapter: Mulierem fortem, etc. Short Responsory: Adjuvabit eam.

Hymn.

The bright-making beams of heaven, with reflected light, Thou, Helena, dost put forth as rays of virtues; These temples are lit by thy sun, And through thee they triumph, dear to those above.

Wife of him who holds the scepters of empire, Holy Mother of the supreme lord; But brighter with the splendor of the cross, thou treadest down Gold and gems and the pedigrees of race.

Thee Rome crowns as the mistress of the world, Humble amid the highest, not knowing how to be conquered; For many years with tears thou seekest The hidden pledges of the Christ-bearing wood.

Fortified beforehand with the strong arms of the Cross, Thou dost reconcile the lands in one covenant To Christ, who, dying, a conqueror by his death, Subdued the world by wood and not by sword.

Jordan, Jerusalem, Tabor, and kindly Bethlehem, and Mount Sion, once the noble Delight of the Psalmist, the dwellings of Nazareth, Let them render the tribute of praises to holy Helena.

Let the temples built throughout the world At magnificent cost applaud with countless trophies; Let the lilies applaud with especial honor, Worthy above the rest of so great a pledge.

To the holy Trinity be the glory of praise, By whose everlasting power earth And heaven are ruled, and whom the whole blessed Assembly of the heavenly ones praises together. Amen.

℣. In thy comeliness. Antiphon at the Magnificat: Glory be to almighty God, by whose foreknowledge the venerable Helena was made mistress of the world, and through her the hidden wood of the holy cross was revealed. Prayer: O God, who among the other gifts of thy grace didst adorn blessed Helena, the most Christian empress, with the finding of the saving cross: grant, we beseech thee, that by her example we may deserve, by thy favor, continually to search out and to obtain the things that are Christ's: who liveth with thee, etc.

[211] the invitatory, a proper hymn At Matins the Invitatory: Let us praise our God in the confession of blessed Helena. Psalm: Venite exultemus.

Hymn.

Enough is it to have heaped the heavens hitherto With long lamenting and with plaintive voice: Behold, Helena shall make heaven appeased Throughout the world.

The mother, joined in zeal with her son, Shall lay low the hosts hostile to the faith; The sacred temples, renewed with heavenly light, Shall shine.

There shall be no land inhabited within the bounds Of Reims where the vows of pious clients Of Helena shall not rise, celebrated In her own temple.

While fame grew and grew old for many years With famous applause of Helena, Her spirit in triumph mounted to the lofty Citadels of heaven.

Let her, with heaven's mediation, present for us Three hundred vows, by which she bends the stars, And grant to the servants of heaven to climb The everlasting seats.

May this be granted us by the blessed Godhead Of the Father and the Son, and likewise of the Holy Spirit, whose glory resounds through all The world. Amen.

[212] In the first Nocturn, Antiphon: Wonderful is thy name, O Lord, antiphons, in all the holy land, in which thou hast crowned Helena with glory and honor. Psalm: Domine, dominus noster. Antiphon: Into all the earth is her sound gone forth, because she found the cross of the Lord, more desirable than gold and precious stone. Psalm: Cæli enarrant. Antiphon: She went up into the mountain of the Lord, and stood in his holy place. Psalm: Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus. Antiphon: Grace is poured abroad in thy lips: for thou didst stand, a queen, at the right hand of the Lord, in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. Psalm: Eructavit. Antiphon: The nations were troubled, and the kingdoms were bowed down, when the cross of the Lord was exalted in the earth through Helena. Psalm: Deus noster refugium. Antiphon: The mystical Sion, the Church, is founded with the exultation of the whole earth, and God is known in her houses through Helena. Psalm: Magnus Dominus. ℣. In thy comeliness, etc.

[213] Lessons from the Proverbs of Solomon: Who shall find a valiant woman? lessons First Responsory: The holy church venerates the glorious memory of Helena, through whom is disclosed the triumphal wood of the cross, in which our Redeemer found the path of our salvation. ℣. The cross, shining with surpassing beauty, which Helena, the mother of Constantine, sought out with longing soul, in which, etc. Second Responsory: Blessed Helena called Constantius and Constantine to the faith, cleansed the Roman empire from every contagion of errors, and stirred up all to the zeal of piety and to divine love, because her heart burned with heavenly water. ℣. Amid the heights of honors she was most humble in mind, because her heart, etc. Third Responsory: Helena entered into the tabernacle of the Lord, she adored in the place where his feet stood. ℣. She made known among the peoples the discoveries of God, and God approved the power of the cross for her sake. She adored in.

[214] Fourth Responsory: When blessed Helena beheld the sacred pledge uncovered, and the responsories of the first Nocturn, adoring upon bended knees she cried out and said: O blessed cross, which alone wast worthy to bear the King and Lord of the heavens. ℣. O glorious and admirable Cross; O venerable cross, which alone. Glory be to the Father, etc. which alone wast.*

[215] In the second Nocturn, Antiphon: The glory of the Lord dwelt in the earth likewise when the cross was found through Helena, and justice looked down from heaven. Psalm: Benedixisti. Antiphon: Glorious things are said of thee, O blessed Helena, who lovest the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. Psalm: Fundamenta. Antiphon: She entered into the courts of the Lord, she adored the Lord in his holy court. Psalm: Cantate I. Antiphon: All were confounded who adored graven things, and who gloried in their idols. Psalm: Dominus regnavit. Antiphon: When the sacred wood of the cross is exalted through Helena, the faith of Christ is strengthened, and the Church rejoices in tranquil devotion. Psalm: Cantate II. Antiphon: She exalted the cross of the Lord, and adored in his holy mountain. Psalm: Dominus regnavit, irascantur, etc. ℣. Adjuvabit eam.

Lessons. The fifth. Helena, daughter of Coel ^a, king of the English, being joined in marriage to Constantius, legate of the Roman empire, bore Constantine the Great, the Catholic emperor ^b. But when Constantius was bidden to succeed to the empire on this condition, that, being about to espouse Theodora, he should put away Helena, she bore this change of fortune with an even mind, and complained neither of that repudiation nor of the faith broken by Constantius. Scepters were more a fear to her than a love. Meanwhile, however, withdrawing and giving herself to God, she was steeping her Constantine in holy teachings ^c. But Constantius, being made certain of the empire, passing over the other children whom he had had by Theodora, when near to death chose Constantine as his successor; who, after the notable victory which by the sign of the Lord's cross received from heaven he won over Maxentius, mindful of his Mother's instructions, thereafter gave to other princes an example of defending and enlarging the Church.

[216] of the Nocturn Responsory: Grace is poured abroad in thy lips, for thou didst stand, a queen, at the right hand of the Lord in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. ℣. In thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, go forth prosperously and reign. For thou didst stand, a queen, at the right hand, etc.

VI. Helena also, emulating the piety of her son Constantine, and above all imitating the emperor's munificence in building basilicas at the tombs of the Saints, sparing no expense, ordered many churches to be built in divers places. For this woman, incomparable in faith and zeal, kindled day by day with a greater love of piety and devotion, made a pilgrimage into Palestine in the year following the Council of Nicæa ^d. And when she came to Jerusalem and had piously venerated the holy places, being divinely inspired with the zeal of seeking out the Lord's cross, she went to Golgotha, where she caused to be overthrown the marble statue of Venus which had been set up by the heathen in the place of the cross. And so, the place being cleansed, three crosses, buried deep, were dug up, and the title of the Lord's cross was found apart from them. And when it did not appear which of the three was the Lord's, by the counsel of Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, the crosses themselves being applied one by one to a woman suffering from a grievous disease, by that woman's sudden recovery and by the raising of a dead man it was most plainly proved which was the Lord's.

[217] of the second Responsory: This is she that is beautiful among the daughters of Jerusalem, full of charity and love, who in all the places in which the footsteps of the Savior are imprinted left the memorials of her piety. ℣. Her soul longed and fainted for the courts of the Lord, who in all the places in which.

VII. Helena, moreover, when the saving cross was found, built there ^e a most magnificent church, in which she left part of the cross, enclosed in silver caskets, and part she brought to her son Constantine with the Lord's nails, that by these sacred relics he might be taught to subject himself to Christ, and to set the sovereignty of empire below the glory of the cross. In other places also, in which the footsteps of the Savior had been imprinted, when she had duly venerated them, she straightway set about building in them the memorials of her piety. Hence that cave of Bethlehem, the place in which the angel brought the glad [] tidings to the shepherds; the Mount of Olives, Bethany, the Jordan about the hiding place of John the Baptist, the plain of Tiberias in which Christ fed so many men, Mount Tabor, and Nazareth, and other places grew famous by the rich estates assigned by Helena, which she also adorned with her own churches and monasteries, so that she and her son Constantine seem to have contended with each other in raising churches, in adorning them with royal ornaments, and finally in enlarging their revenues. Responsory: Blessed art thou in the holy temple of thy glory, which was built by Helena to the praise and glory of thy name, O Lord. ℣. All her walls are precious stones. Which by Helena.*

[218] are produced VIII. She was borne fervently toward the divine ministry, desiring above all to join herself to her heavenly Spouse and to enjoy his chaste embraces for ever; for him she thirsted with her voice, with her mind, with all her inmost being. When with these great virtues Helena had grown old in building churches and endowing them with royal munificence, and had received from her son free power of using and dispensing the imperial treasure; when she had distributed with full hand to the poor and to the rest of the needy, and at Jerusalem had served the sacred virgins in the place of a handmaid; at last, being more than eighty years old ^f, when she had given her son very many precepts concerning a pious manner of living, she departed to the Lord, and her sacred body, translated to the diocese of Reims and placed in the monastery of Hautvillers, is honored with veneration. Responsory: From the time when blessed Helena laid up in silver caskets the holy Cross, sought out and found with ardent zeal, and set it forth adorned with gems for the faithful to adore, the faith of Christ shines everywhere and the glory of the cross flashes forth. ℣. O finder of the holy cross and its exalter, through thee the temples of the idols are destroyed, the faith of Christ, etc. ℣. Glory be to the Father. The faith of Christ*, etc.

[219] In the third Nocturn, Antiphon: The manger of Christ at his birth, the footsteps of his reigning, and the mysteries of his dying, Helena made illustrious with most ample basilicas. and of the third Nocturn. Canticle: Obaudite me. ℣. God chose her, etc.

Homily on the Gospel The kingdom of heaven is like unto a hidden treasure, from the Common of the elect women.

Ninth Responsory: Blessed art thou, Helena, because God through thee made light to shine out of darkness, unto the enlightening of the brightness of God, in the cross of Jesus Christ: a light is risen in the darkness, when Constantine, admonished from heaven, was made a Christian. Unto the enlightening.*

Tenth Responsory: I have despised the kingdom of the world and all the ornament of this age for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, and whose cross I have sought out with longing soul. ℣. My heart hath uttered a good word, I speak my works to the King, whom I have seen, whom.

Eleventh Responsory: The cradle of Jesus Christ, the mysteries of his rising again, the footsteps of his ascending, Helena enriches with lavish gifts. ℣. Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the dwelling of thy glory, the mysteries of his rising again, etc.

Twelfth Responsory: Blessed Helena, rendering to God an unspotted spirit, is borne to heaven by angelic hands, and is honored with heavenly hymns. ℣. O blessed soul, which loved Christ the King with all her inmost being, and set the sovereignty of empire below the glory of the cross, by angelic hands. ℣. Glory be to the Father, etc. By angelic hands.*

[220] At Lauds and through the Hours, Antiphon: Blessed Helena, subjecting the Roman empire, purged of every contagion of errors, to the sweet yoke of Christ, Antiphons, hymn, etc. taught it to worship the true God. Psalm: Dominus regnavit. Antiphon: Helena, the handmaid of Christ, crowned with the imperial diadem, adorned the supreme dignity of the world more by the glory of the cross she found than by the height of an earthly empire. Psalm: Jubilate. Antiphon: When blessed Helena beheld the sacred pledge uncovered, she cried out and said: O blessed cross, which alone wast worthy to bear the King and Lord of the heavens. Psalm: Deus, Deus meus. Antiphon at the canticle Benedicite: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Benedicite omnia. Antiphon: Helena found the cross of the Lord, and set it forth, adorned with gems, for the faithful to adore. Psalm: Laudate Dominum. Little chapter: Mulierem fortem, etc. SHORT Responsory: Specie tua, etc.

Hymn.

221. As light born of light, at Lauds and Vespers. So Constantine, by blood Come forth as a sun from Helena, Was made a light to the Church.

Among the lights above Nothing brighter is sent forth Than these two stars shining For earth and heaven.

O blessed pair, the hidden Radiance of the true light, Through you it returned in splendor, Driving back the night of minds.

The manger of God's rising, The footsteps of his sacred death, The mysteries of his rising again, Helena enriches with lavish gifts.

Splendid with gems and gold The mother builds churches, While the son with mighty scepter, Triumphing in the faith, protects them.

Hail, cross and lance, Which after so many sighs, Through the intercessions of Helena, Were given back to Christians.

May the blessed Trinity grant To us, through kindly Helena, Whom glory now crowns, The joys of the life above. Amen.

℣. Grace is poured abroad. Antiphon at the Benedictus: The golden crown of empire upon Helena's head, marked with the sign of her holiness, sanctifies the Church, crowns it with glory and honor, and strengthens it with the fortitude of the cross she found. Prayer: O God, who among the other gifts of thy grace. At the Hours, the antiphons from Lauds. The little chapters and versicles from the Common of the elect women. Prayer: O God, who among the other.

At second Vespers all as at the first. ℣. Grace is poured abroad. Antiphon at the Magnificat: We honor holy Helena, adorned with three distinctions, in this sacred solemnity: for she is the splendor and glory of the sacred empire; she is most zealous in defending and enlarging the faith; she is most commended by the finding of the cross; may she render the clemency of God propitious to us, who by so many signs rendered her glorious.

[222] The Office ON THE OCTAVE, DOUBLE. All as on the day, except the Lessons of the second Nocturn. Lessons of the SECOND NOCTURN, from a sermon of St. Ambrose the bishop. V. Helena came to Jerusalem, and began to revisit the holy places; the Spirit poured it into her to seek out the wood of the cross: she came to Golgotha, and said: "Behold the place of the battle; where is the victory? I seek the standard of salvation, and I do not find it. Am I," she says, "in kingdoms, and the cross of the Lord in the dust? Am I in palaces, and Christ's triumph among ruins? Does he still lie hidden, and lies hidden the palm of eternal life? How shall I think myself redeemed, if the redemption itself is not seen? I see what thou hast done, devil, that the sword by which thou wast slain might be buried: but Isaac dug out the wells stopped up by strangers, and did not suffer the water to lie hid." Responsory: Grace is poured abroad, as on the day.

VI. "Let the ruin, then, be taken away, that life may appear; let the sword be brought forth by which the head of the true Goliath was cut off; let the ground be opened, that salvation may shine forth. What hast thou done, devil, in hiding the wood, save that thou mightest be conquered again? Mary conquered thee, who bore the conqueror, who without diminution of her virginity brought forth him who by being crucified should conquer thee, and by dying should subdue thee. Thou art conquered today also, that a woman may detect thy snares. She, as holy, bore the Lord; I will search out his cross. She caused God to be seen among men; I, for the remedy of sins, will raise the divine standard from the ruins." But thou. Responsory: This is she that is beautiful.

[223] VII. And so she opens the ground, shakes off the dust, and finds three gibbets jumbled together, on the Octave, which the ruin had covered and the enemy had hidden; but Christ's triumph could not be blotted out. She hesitates in uncertainty, as a woman; but the Holy Spirit inspires a sure search, in that two thieves had been crucified with the Lord. She seeks, therefore, the middle wood; but it might have been that the ruin had confused the gibbets among themselves, and that their fall had changed and inverted them. But thou. Responsory: Blessed art thou in the temple.

VIII. She found it, and was made certain, because upon the middle gibbet the title was set forth, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. Hence ^g the sequence of the truth was gathered, and by the title the saving cross lay open. This is what Pilate answered to the Jews when they asked: What I have written, I have written: that is, "I have not written those things which would please you, but which the age

to come might know: I have not written for you, but for posterity" — as though he were saying, "Let Helena have something to read, whereby she may recognize the cross of the Lord." She found, therefore, the title, and adored the King, not indeed the wood ^h, for this is the error of the heathen and the vanity of the impious; but she adored him who hung upon the wood, whose name was written in the title. But thou, O Lord. Responsory: From the time when the holy, etc.

[224] On the translation of St. Helena the Empress, VII February, DOUBLE. and on the translation, All as on the feast day of XVIII August, except the Lessons of the second Nocturn. V. When much time had rolled by from the day of blessed Helena's death, in the year eight hundred and forty of the Lord's Incarnation, when according to the good pleasure of the divine dispensation it had pleased the Lord God to ennoble and distinguish the monastery of Hautvillers with the relics of so precious a body, it came to pass that by divine inspiration a certain priest of the parish of Reims, named Teutgisus, went to Rome for the sake of his salvation to the thresholds of the Apostles; and when he had been kindled from heaven with such an impulse, he was so far animated that, visiting the thresholds of the Apostles, he sought also the intercessions of the holy empress Helena for himself. At length, therefore, coming to the City, and visiting many basilicas of the Saints with much careful searching, he began to seek out, for the sake of prayer, in the church of Saints Peter and Marcellinus, the tomb of St. Helena, where her body was then buried in royal dignity, to see whether perchance he might find an approach by which he could fulfill his desire. But thou. Responsory: Grace is poured abroad, as on the principal feast of XVIII August.

[225] VI. Therefore, conducting himself in this manner, and disclosing the secrets of his heart to none, which is celebrated but committing them to God alone for the gift of efficacy, according to the good pleasure of his goodness, by the divine clemency's concession he found his opportunity; and so, the body being taken up, through the secret silences of the night he hastened to return to his lodging. And when morning came he began the journey of returning to his own country. And by many signs and miracles upon the way it was shown that not only was the body truly that of blessed Helena, but also that this priest's devotion was most acceptable to God and to blessed Helena, and much more so when they came to the monastery of Hautvillers. For it grew clear that so most holy a body was there present: for from neighboring and distant regions people of every sex and age received the remedy of complete health, by whatever infirmity they were held. But thou, O Lord. Responsory: This is she that is beautiful.

[226] VII. But lest the proof should be less than could suffice for the greater assurance and complete certainty of the whole people, on the 7th day by the edict of the whole church of Reims and of the vidame named Pardulus, who was afterwards bishop of Laon (for the see of Reims was then vacant), and also by the consent of the community, there are sent to the City from that same monastery of Villare three monks of proven fidelity, that in the mouth of three witnesses this word also might stand; who should more diligently inquire into all those things concerning blessed Helena in which there had been occasion of doubt, and should report to them as soon as possible. Not many months after, therefore, the aforesaid priests returning from Rome brought back the search of the truth. Moreover they brought back also the sacred body of blessed Polycarp the priest, who in the fellowship of St. Sebastian had by preaching, baptism, and example been a guide to many toward the faith, together with the relics of the holy martyrs Sebastian, Urban, and Quirinus. But thou. Responsory: Blessed art thou in the temple.

[227] of February. VIII. Yet not long after, when the chief men and palatines of Gaul scarcely gave credit to this matter, and when Charles the Third had heard the report that the body of blessed Helena, the finder of the cross, had been carried and laid in the monastery of Hautvillers, summoning Hincmar, bishop of the city of Reims, with the abbots and religious men, he willed that a public judgment should be made in that very monastery, whether the monks were putting forth true things or false. The truth of this matter is sought by judicial examination, and by the grace of God it is made plain to all. Whence, faith being established and fortified on every side, the truth triumphs. Thus it pleased almighty God mercifully to visit and to distinguish the monastery of Hautvillers, which, built by St. Nivard at an angelic revelation, he willed to assign to the gaining of souls: where to those who ask and who seek in good faith and devotion the helps of salvation are given, and the benefits of health are bestowed, by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for us: to whom be honor with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. But thou. Responsory: From the time when the holy cross ⁱ.

[228] The daily commemoration of the Saint among the people of Hautvillers. Thus far concerning the Offices: to which Dom Reginald subjoins this: Among the daily suffrages of the Saints which are wont to be made in the monastery of Hautvillers, there is made one also of St. Helena in its place, in this manner: Antiphon AT MATINS: Blessed Helena, as she was appointed to this, that through her the hidden wood of the holy Cross might be revealed, etc. Antiphon AT Vespers: She laid up in silver caskets the wood of the holy cross which had been found, and set it forth, adorned with gems, for the faithful to adore. ℣. I have despised the kingdom of the world and all the ornament of this age. ℞. For the love of my Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray: Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that, as we recall the memory of blessed Helena the queen, we may be protected by her merits and prayers. But now let us pass on to the people of Reims.

[229] The Office among the people of Reims, etc. In the Breviary of the metropolitan church of Reims, which was published in the year 1630, our Saint is honored on the VII day of February with an Office from the Common with three proper lessons, which in some places deserve correction, as I shall presently say in the Annotations. At the XVIII day of August I find nothing there concerning her. Of another copy besides Dom Rupert Reginald makes mention, when to the Offices just now produced by us from his transcription he subjoins this: I could have wished to have the Office which is used in the church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which is proper, that I might communicate it to you.

ANNOTATIONS.

. Perhaps gratum*.

§ II. A rhythmical eulogy, by an uncertain author; epic meter; praises of doubtful credit.

A preliminary notice concerning this rhythm: Dom Rupert Reginald, that most zealous and most laborious collector of Helenian matters, himself transcribed this rhythmical eulogy and directed it hither; concerning which this is found in a paper written in his own hand: I long hesitated in anxiety whether I ought to send it to you, because we do not know who its author was, and because in certain places it is mutilated and defective. Such as it is, we communicate it. But neither reason ought to have hindered that rhythm from being sent hither; nor does either hinder its publication by us. Not the first: for how many documents have been given, and will further be given, in our Work, whose author is uncertain? Not the second: for how many mutilated or defective documents would otherwise have to be excluded and suppressed by us? We shall give, therefore, that rhythmical eulogy, which will avail at least to feed the reader's pious affection toward the Saint. There is added to this that it pertains to the glory of St. Helena of Hautvillers, as is clear from the last verses of the same document. There are in it some things which need the sponge; of which I shall treat in the Annotations.

[231] Give your brush, And be favorable, ye Powers above: in which the poet Let the Spirit poured into my breast Breathe upon us and make us fruitful; That we may paint and celebrate The praises of holy Helena: Who while she lived, celebrated Christ with her whole heart.

Who could fully match Her deeds with his own words, Unless the power of the Holy Spirit Should favor and be present?

She shone forth more than all The matrons of old; Who in virtue and in beauty Pleased God more.

For she surpassed in gifts Eve, the first mother: That one loses what this one gives back To us more abundantly.

She plucks the apple, and hence Eve becomes The mother of the dying; She seeks the wood, and hence Helena becomes The mother of Christ's people.

The Council of Nicæa gives her; And calls her mistress, By the voice of the Holy Spirit ^a; Rachel is fairer than Leah, But Leah more fruitful, Yet than either woman Helena is higher.

Far does she surpass Leah her type In her offspring: She brings forth one Constantine, Who surpasses all.

Who ever saw of old a woman Braver than Judith, Who swiftly cut off the head Of Holofernes the captain?

Helena herself is brave Beyond that brave woman; She goes before, and at once surpasses Rachel in beauty.

Who would not call her Glorious and comely, Whom Christ, the true Jacob, Loved with his gift?

Beauty adorned her without, Grace within: The one makes her most pleasing to the world, The other most pleasing to Christ.

Chlorus Loved her, and desired To have her for his wife.

Though she was joined in marriage To so great a man, Yet ambition never Held her mind.

She spurns scepters, spurns kingdoms And the lordship of the world; Pleasures and honors She counts as a dunghill.

Her one care was Her husband Constantius, Offering fervent prayers to God ^b That his mind might grow gentle ^c.

As soon as she brought forth Constantine into this world, Grateful, she straightway offered Her son to God, her son ^d.

Dom Reginald notes that verses are wanting here, on account of a torn leaf; then he goes on thus:

She first takes away the image, The ensigns of the demon: She orders the ground to be dug Where the cross was hidden.

[234] Then three crosses were seen: What could Helena do, and the finding Unless she had straightway had recourse To Christ her spouse?

She has recourse to him, and then Christ Comes running; for by a miracle The rising again of a dead man proved Which was the cross.

At last, being itself applied To a sick woman,

It healed her, and showed That it was the cross of the Lord.

Then running up, then embracing This bundle of myrrh, She sees, she prays, and adores, Melted into sighing.

Prostrate, rolling it within, She clasps it in her arms; She breathes its fragrance and adores, Planting a thousand kisses.

Then, embracing it, with unperplexed Mind she believed God Jesus Christ, who by that wood Subdued the whole world.

Thus her former griefs Are changed into sweetness, When the cross of the Lord, set apart [*] From the others, is discerned.

She holds a rod, though dry, Which with sudden flowers Shall bloom, and shall shine With splendors of its own.

[235] This treasure, so immense, Stands as the price of the age; of the holy cross; For without it This world would go down to hell.

The cross is the saving rainbow Confirming the sacred covenants; Without it the world assuredly Would fall into the pit.

It is also the bow through which Christ With most mighty strength Shot his arrows and pierced, Healing the world of its sore.

Beneath this bow, which she also holds In her hand, Helena sits, All gleaming and resplendent Like the sun among the stars.

She is crowned and adorned With the splendors of the bow, And thus she shines with lights Both borrowed and inborn:

So adorned, so set in order As an army in battle array, Wholly strong, a lofty tower, She terrifies all demons.

[236] Now, now acknowledge Helena Brave above her lot, whose Who subjected the world To the sweet empire of Christ.

The cross is Jacob's lofty ladder Reaching to the dwellers in heaven, Upon which God leans, Calling men to himself.

God sits at the top, but at the foot Of the ladder sits Helena; If thou wouldst go thither, have Her intercessions.

For thither without her None is suffered to climb. So he acts with wisdom who readily Walks toward Helena.

For whoever reverently Draws near to that ladder, The Empress, his guide, Brings him forward to the top.

The cross is the rod of Moses which shone With divers wonders, And by which Christ, the new Lawgiver, Subdued the world.

Adorned with these arms, the Queen Shows herself terrible To hell, but renders herself Wonderful to heaven.

The rod of Moses, which flashes With divers miracles, Opening the promised heaven To Christian peoples.

The brazen serpent, Healing all who look upon it From the bites of serpents.

Let us, therefore, stand assiduously By the cross of Jesus Christ; Let us contemplate, let us meditate upon The death of the Son of God.

Far off, without, is the fear of death; Here he lives who dies, And he is free who willingly Is crucified with it.

By her this cross is set forth For all to adore, By which the foul head of the thrice-harmful Serpent is crushed.

How comely, how blessed, How rich is Helena, Who holds such immense treasures In her arms.

O Blessed one, how enriched, O how happy again, Who possesses and who holds So great a price of the world.

What she sought, this she found Upon the mount of Calvary: The wood on which Christ of his own will Hung, the King of glory.

Is blessed, While she bears the olive branch By which peace is promised.

More pleasing and more welcome To this empire of the world Is the scepter of Christ, by which he subjected This world to his dominion.

With such great ensigns the holy Princess, Noble as she was, Thus fortified, shone forth With such great virtues.

How great her power, how astonishing, How much she shall be able, By which she tramples down the insolent Enemies of the holy cross.

She does not permit her suppliants To be oppressed by the tyrant's force; She lifts the fallen, strengthens the slack, And cherishes the unharmed.

The blind see, the lame rise, And walk more swiftly: For she stretches out a kindly right hand To all suppliants.

Light is restored by her to these, Walking to those; In both, in walking and in light, Christ is blessed.

[239] The waves of the murmuring sea She quells with the nail of Christ, The Saint calms the sea with the Lord's nail; she builds a temple; And thus makes the way smooth For all pilgrims.

While he crosses and traverses The Adriatic Sea ^e, The pilgrim praises and sings Her merit.

Among the places sacred to Christ Which Helena traverses, None there seemed more worthy Than Calvary:

Because there the pearl Was covered in the bowels of the earth, For which she stripped herself Of all things,

There ^f she built an ample temple Which gleams more augustly Than the temple of Solomon, Which he had built at such great cost.

Come then, temple of Helena, Which by her munificence Shinest with gold and blazest with gems, Tell forth her praises:

Let all Palestine sing The Roman empire; Let the whole world sing The merit of her who rules it.

[240] O who could know, or who could Comprehend in mind The thoughts and the utterances and with the highest affection of devotion Of the rapt mind of Helena;

Which, whether praying or contemplating, She turns over upon Calvary, And the sweetnesses and the ardors That are in her soul:

What devout vows she utters With all her heart?

In this holy land, bedewed With the blood of Christ, The fervent heart of Helena Is an altar smoking with incense.

Borne aloft with much prayer It is carried to the empyrean: Thus she led a devout life, Raised toward the lofty seat

Of the dwellers in heaven, that she might breathe A continual ardor.

While she sighs, she breathes upward, Burning with the glory of God; While she breathes in or breathes out, She breathes the joys of God.

Christ alone has savor for her, All the world is tasteless,

[241] Him alone she breathes, him alone she loves, To whom she entrusted herself. she venerates the holy places.

A heart kindled and generous, Vowed to the Godhead alone, Given to Christ, to God alone, Denied to any other.

With firm faith, with robust hope, With fervent charity Inflamed and made steadfast, She exchanges the lowest for the highest.

The Mount of Olives is for her The paradise of the Lord. She was often here, and prays For the safety of her son:

Here she tastes the living olive, Which by its richness Comforts and sustains her With inborn sweetness.

Here, freed from the care of things, She is carried to the empyrean; Her mind ascends, takes wings To the joys of the heavenly ones.

Come then, sing with lofty voice, Thou too, rustic Bethlehem, And to thy builder and endower Sing the songs of thy citizens.

Often she enters to the manger, The resting-place of Christ, That she may adore and sing The angelic canticle.

Here Dom Reginald notes that three stanzas are wanting and cannot be read.

Heavenly things in safety, Thou didst despise and lay aside All earthly things.

Now art thou content, for, intent Upon the divine sight, Thou embracest and possessest That which thou didst long to enjoy.

Him with thy mouth, him with thy mind, And him with thine inmost being Thou didst thirst for, and to enjoy His embraces.

For ever heaven cannot Snatch from thee Now him in whom thou rejoicest, Whom in the light of glory.

O queen crowned With a threefold diadem, Thou shinest with every garland Of graces and of virtues.

For all thou shinest, for all thou burnest, Because the cross is thy taper, From which a wondrous ardor And a wondrous splendor blaze forth.

Pour back radiance upon the blind Eyes of Christians; Lighten, O queen, the citizens of the world Of their sorrows.

[243] Suffer none to be oppressed By the tyrant's force, O Helena, heavenly glory. Break the thongs by which hearts Are bound to earthly things.

Splendor of the just, brightness of the true, Mirror of piety, Ornament, firmament, Miracle of grace.

Standard of laws, pattern of kings, And rule of princes, Honor of earth, glory of heaven, Glory of the empire.

O queen worthy of God, Mistress of the universe, Our advocate, when invoked Bring all things propitious.

Make us quickly to be joined to Christ By thine intercessions; Make us to enjoy and to possess The divine embraces.

O Villare, truly high And nigh to the powers above, Thou rejoicest in a Saint, thou holdest a Saint Illustrious for miracles.

[244] Verses in praise of the Saint honored among the people of Hautvillers. Let me be allowed, by way of an epiphonema, to subjoin to these certain verses composed in epic meter, which are contained in the same manuscript of ours from which above, in §5, I related the miracles of the translation made, as was there said, in the year of Christ 1095; after which I read that metrical eulogy, wholly suited to the immortal glory of St. Helena among the people of Hautvillers:

France, while the Franks doubted, by marking Her annals notable with undoubted signs, has brought them back To thee, Hautvillers: rise up, rejoice to be guarded By the members of Helena, the finder of the hidden cross. Let honor be to the Church; the impious denier falls, And with broken neck bends back his head in envy. Behold, the Palatines, and the Counts and Dukes of the Sicambri Come to Hautvillers with incense upon their dromedaries To stuff gold, their gifts, into thy purses. Chariots, litters, coaches, wagons ^g, carriages Bear mothers and matrons to bow their necks to thee, And to give tribute, whereby the tribunal Of the notable Helena may thence shine, to be wrought with gems and gold.

Now let us speak briefly of praises of no or of suspect credit, which nevertheless some would have to belong to her.

[245] From those things which in my Preliminary Commentary and in the Posthumous Glory I have thus far gathered at sufficient length concerning this illustrious Saint out of various documents, The Saint is praised without sufficient foundation it is most clearly established that the divine goodness heaped upon her with a most munificent hand so many and so great endowments of nature and of grace, the most famous ornaments of a public veneration spread far and wide through Europe, and also the adornments of almost innumerable miracles, and loaded her with so many true praises, that false or wholly suspect ones ought by no means to be mingled with them — such as those altogether seem to me to be which are attributed to her on account of the little works she is said to have composed, by bibliographers far too modern to be able to give sufficiently suitable credit in this matter.

[246] In the Supplement to the Epitome of the Gesnerian Library this is said: on account of writings ascribed to her. "Helena Flavia Augusta … wrote one book On the Providence of God. One book On the Immortality of the Soul. One book On the Rule of Right Living. One book of Admonitions of Piety. Greek poems, and most learned letters to divers persons." Eisengrein afterwards inscribed like things in his Catalogue of the Witnesses of the Truth, folio 20 verso: "Helena … composed a notable volume On the Providence of God. She left also a commentary On the Immortality of the Soul: and another likewise On the Rule of Right Living. She wrote besides Admonitions of Piety: Greek poems, and most learned letters to divers persons." Pits adds more to these in his Catalogue of Writers, number 26; all which seem to be mere apocryphal inventions, until it shall be clearly established concerning them from most ancient testimonies.

ANNOTATIONS.

Chariots hasten, coaches, wagons, ships.

Upon which place our Father Joseph Jouvancy, in his edition of Horace printed at Tours in the year 1688, page 447, notes thus: "Esseda were a kind of chariot which the Gauls chiefly used; PILENTA, the carriages of matrons; PETORRITA were in use among the Belgians." Consult the lexicons.

. Perhaps sacrata*.