ON BL. RICHILDIS VIRGIN AND RECLUSE AT HOHENWART NEAR INNSBRUCK,
In the year 1100.
A collection on her manner of life, cult, wonderful deeds, and age.
Richildis, virgin recluse of Hohenwart near Innsbruck (Bl.)
BY J. P.
Summontorium, or Hohenwart, which with Rader, whom we cite, we place near Innsbruck, She lived as a solitary in the convent of Hohenwart: has been described among us at greater length in volume 1 of February, on the first day of the same month, page 247, on the occasion of Bl. Wolfhold the presbyter. Thither therefore, lest I do what has been done, I send the reader for further notice of this place. Among the Passed Over on yesterday's day this blessed Richildis was announced from Castellanus; but she was deferred by us from thence to today, on which she is marked elsewhere, we meaning to examine whether her true and lawful cult be sufficiently established. Arthur du Monstier in his Gynaeceum thus records her on this day: At Hohenwart in the upper part of Bavaria, of blessed Richildis the virgin, famous for her solitude, prayer, and admirable signs. But these things, and others which pertain to her public veneration, must be illustrated and confirmed. Our Matthew Rader in the second volume of Holy Bavaria, various things about the convent of Hohenwart having been premised, collected the following notices about our Blessed: But let us, he says, come to our Richildis, who in this sisterhood of virgins lived outside the sisterhood, shut up in a modest little dwelling, just as at that time they were commonly wont either to be hidden away in cells, or shut up in towers, or hidden in cages, or concealed in caves, as I have shown more copiously in another place (namely in the Pleasure-Garden of the Saints, part 3, chapter 5). Thus Rader on the manner of life of Bl. Richildis.
[2] And at once he subjoins various things about her public cult, writing thus: it is proved Let us hear what the monuments of Hohenwart say about Richildis. Now they say these things which he brings forward: "It must be known that the body of Bl. Richildis is buried entire beneath the altar of SS. Peter and Paul the Apostles, who by a virginal life earned eternal life. For she too in her days kept the eremitical life in her enclosure []. And Bl. Richildis died on the tenth of the Kalends of September. For worthily is she turned [] into the memory of men, who passed over to the joy of the angels. Likewise in her sepulcher there rests half of the body of St. Juliana, virgin and martyr, of the company of the holy eleven thousand [] virgins."* We have a manuscript in which stand notices concerning the foundress of the monastery at Hohenwart, from a manuscript codex of SS. Ulrich and Afra
in quarto, in the white codex, letter Z, number 29, with the title History of SS. Narcissus, Ulrich, and William; after which notices, and the epitaph of Wolfhold, there is found in nearly the same words the passage Sciendum est &c., cited just now by Rader from the Summonterian monuments. Nevertheless three variant readings of the Ulrician codex, which I read in our transcript, I have set in the margin; where in place of vectitare, which was faultily written in the said apograph, I have put victitare.
[3] his public cult. Let us return to Rader, who pursues other indications of public veneration: To these, he says, others are subjoined in the vernacular tongue, written out to this effect; which he expresses thus: Richildis: almost her whole body is today preserved and venerated in a chapel (which he turned from the little cell, that she once inhabited alive and enclosed, into a sacred oratory), raised upon a loftier tomb: nor are few benefits extended through the Virgin to the people who make supplication, when in throngs and full of reverence they fall down before her ashes, discharge their vows, and hang up their votive offerings. The sick who have been cured are recorded, and every kind of bodily defect corrected, which are inscribed in a single volume at the dictation and testimony of those very persons who felt the help. The abbess added in her letters that Richildis seemed most worthy to have heavenly honors decreed her; but that it was not in her power nor in that of her companions to lay so great a matter before the Prince of the Christian world, or to see to it. Finally the praised Rader sets this coping-stone upon the narration of Bl. Richildis, which seems to us sufficient, that we may give place to the remaining Heavenly Ones of this day. Here are Rader's words for you: For the rest, since so many wonders through so many ages of centuries have celebrated her, and celebrate her daily; it seems by no means necessary that it be called into question, so that her sanctity and blessedness should be doubted. Antiquity itself, and a never-interrupted custom of veneration, has consecrated many. Do thou, O holy one, noble ornament of virgins, since to thee, enclosed and covered by perpetual straitness, heaven always lay open, obtain with the supreme Emperor of the world that heaven be not closed to us, who wander in mind through all lands. Thus far Rader. To which may be added, from the same author, her apparition, together with that of Wolfhold and Juliana, made to a certain man who suffered from the stone; concerning which consult the first day of February, previously designated, page 248. Above we noted it at the year 1100 with Rader, whom we have followed in other things also. Would that it were ready to hand for us to gather further notices concerning her, if more lie hidden anywhere! Among these, certainly, account would be taken of the volume, if a transcript of the same had come to us, in which, as Rader reported, the healings wrought by the Blessed one are recorded.
Annotations\ al. in inclusa*
\ al. in memoria victitare hominum*
\ al. millium*