Dado

ON ST. DADO, OR OUEN, BISHOP

OF ROUEN IN NORMANDY,

In the year 683.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Dado or Ouen, bishop of Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 0753, 0754, 0759

BY G. C.

§ I. The ancient cult of the Saint from the old Martyrologies, and his various Acts and their writers.

Rouen, the chief city of Normandy in Gaul, formerly kept four festivals of this its holy Prelate, The ancient piety toward this Saint has cooled, of which some are now omitted, as François Pommeraye the Benedictine sets forth more distinctly in his French History of the Abbey of St. Ouen, book 1, chapter 23. And with how great veneration the Neustrians of old, and afterward the Normans, followed this holy Patron after his death, is plain from the forty sacred buildings which the aforesaid Pommeraye asserts to have been built in the diocese of Rouen in honor of St. Ouen. Whence in the same place he complains, in his own name and another's, that that ancient veneration is at this time diminished, and exhorts the inhabitants, after the example of their forefathers, to have recourse more often, with greater confidence and solemnity, to imploring the patronage of St. Ouen.

[2] That diminution of ancient piety perhaps has its origin in the loss of the sacred body, to the renewal of which we exhort the people of Rouen, which for the greater part perished in the very well-known rage of the recent iconoclasts, when in the year 1562 impious heretics stripped the monastery of St. Ouen at Rouen of all its goods, and consumed many relics of the Saints in the flames. Since, however, some bones of St. Ouen then escaped the sacrilegious hands of those saint-fighters, let the people of Rouen maturely weigh the judgment of the most learned Theodoret, who in the Greek-Latin edition of his Works, volume 4, discourse 8 On the Martyrs, page 593, writes thus to our purpose: When their bodies are divided (namely of the Saints or Martyrs), the grace remains whole and undivided; and those thin and tiny relics have a power equal to that of the martyr whole and cut into no parts: for the grace which is present distributes gifts, and measures its liberality by the faith of those who supplicate. If therefore the inhabitants and neighbors of the city of Rouen approach reverently the slender relics of St. Ouen, and after the manner of their forefathers piously invoke their holy Patron, they will doubtless experience his accustomed help.

[3] Moreover that the cult of this holy Prelate was most celebrated from time immemorial we easily gather from the ancient Martyrologies, and his immemorial cult among which the Hieronymian of Lucca in Florentinius has on this day thus: In Gaul, in the city of Rodomus, the deposition of St. Audenus, bishop and confessor. But in the Corbie copy the name of the Saint and of the city is more correctly expressed in this manner: In the city of Rouen, the deposition of St. Audoënus, bishop and confessor. In the Martyrology of Bede, which with the auctaria of Florus and others we published before the second volume of March, the same Saint is adorned with this elogium: On the same day, at Rouen, the deposition of St. Audoënus, bishop and confessor, who, shining with very many signs of miracles, obtained rain from heaven by holy prayer after the manner of Elias. Florus here alludes to the rain which our Saint obtained from heaven in Spain, as will afterward be narrated in the Acts.

[4] we prove from the ancient Martyrologies. Mosander ascribes the same Saint to Ado, as may be seen in his edition at this day. But our Rosweyde, according to his manuscript codices, thinks that he was added to the genuine text of Ado. Which of the two judged better is hitherto a problem, as Sollier observed in his remark on this day upon our illustrated Usuard. Besides, this controversy has little to do with our matter, since at least in the sincere Martyrology of Usuard that holy Prelate is today announced in these words: In the city of Rouen, St. Audoënus the confessor, who, healthfully despising the world, obtained by the merit of his sanctity the honor of the episcopate. Omitting the Usuardine auctaria and the verse of Wandelbert, I transcribe only the brief announcement of the present Roman Martyrology, which has thus: At Rouen, St. Audoënus, bishop and confessor. Let this be said, and more than enough, to demonstrate the ancient cult of our Saint. Now we proceed to investigate the Acts and their writers.

[5] We have four Legends of this Saint, The more ancient Acts of the Saint we have only from the Utrecht copy of St. Saviour's, which an anonymous author wrote, but one nearly contemporary with St. Ouen, as we gather from these words of the biographer: Let my discourse pass to his miracles, which I learned from his disciples, competent witnesses, relating them. Le Cointe, in his Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 610, number 7, mentions the same writer of the Life thus: The Life of St. Audoënus, which we shall for the most part cite from a manuscript codex, was written by an anonymous author nearly contemporary, who published many things related to him by the disciples of Audoënus himself and by eyewitnesses. This Life, which excels the rest by its antiquity, Fridegod greatly enlarged, and depraved by the manifold addition of chronological marks, in the year of Christ nine hundred and fifty-six. Whether Fridegod was the second writer of the Acts we shall presently examine below.

[6] Meanwhile, from the beginning and from other fragments of those old Acts among which the first is by a nearly contemporary writer, which Le Cointe from time to time exhibits, we clearly perceive that he had that same Life in hand, although he published from it only a few fragments in his Annals. We therefore shall print in the first place that older Life entire, which has hitherto been unpublished. But it is to be lamented that we could not collate those Acts, written in a dislocated style or perhaps corrupted by an unskilled copyist, with other codices, since we have only that single copy of them. Wherefore we have sometimes been compelled to fill certain gaps by conjecture, that the sense might be understood, and we have marked these off by brackets for honesty's sake.

[7] Surius, Le Cointe, and several others call the author of the second Life Fridegod, and the second seems wrongly attributed to a certain Fridegod, who was an English monk, and of whom Pits, among the Illustrious Writers of England, page 174, or at the year of Christ 959, relates the following: Fridegod, deacon, English by nation, a monk of the Order of St. Benedict at Canterbury at the shrine of the Saviour; a man, on the testimony of William of Malmesbury, learned in Greek and Latin, most approved also in piety and regular observance. He published various works, and those indeed not inelegant, being unpraiseworthy only in this, that, not knowing how to use his own knowledge, he so mixed Greek with Latin that one who has not mastered both tongues will by no means be able to understand most of his writings. When in the year of the Lord 956 Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, had caused the bodies of the holy Wilfrid and Audoënus to be translated to Canterbury, he asked this Fridegod to publish some writing on their praises. He published in heroic verse, and that both piously and learnedly, one book on the Life of St. Wilfrid, and one book on the Life of St. Audoënus the monk. Then he enumerates other works of his, and asserts that he was illustrious about the year 959 under Edgar, the most fortunate king of the English.

[8] Perhaps Pits by the name of Audoënus meant here to indicate St. Owin, an English monk, as we draw from the silence of William of Malmesbury whom Ferrari calls Odoënus, as our predecessors observed at the IV day of March, where in volume 1 of that month, page 312 and the following, they illustrated his Acts after a fashion with a historical Commentary. But whoever that St. Audoënus the monk may have been, whose Life Fridegod is said to have written in verse, William of Malmesbury makes no mention of him, when in the Deeds of the Pontiffs of the English, book 1 of the Frankfurt edition, page 200 in our copy, he writes thus concerning the translation of St. Wilfrid alone: Whence it came about that, when he (namely Odo, archbishop of Canterbury) sorrowfully beheld the church of the most excellent father Wilfrid at Ripon destroyed by the Danes, the ruins being cleared away from above the tomb, he reverently translated the relics to Canterbury; and that he might set forth the most illustrious light of the fatherland upon a watchtower, he ordered his Life to be woven in heroic meter. A certain Fridegod performed that office in verses not so much to be blamed, save that, hating Latinity, he loves Greek and frequently uses Greekish words, so that that saying of Plautus may deservedly be applied to his words: No one but the Sibyl will read this. You see here that William of Malmesbury is altogether silent about any Life of St. Audoënus which Fridegod ever wrote in verse or in prose. Whence we do not know why Surius, Le Cointe, and others attributed the Life of St. Audoënus, bishop of Rouen, to Fridegod; and against their opinion we shall now briefly set forth certain arguments.

[9] and from other reasons; First, the biographer of the second Life, which we shall publish in the second place after this Commentary, nowhere gives his own name, so that we do not know why Surius and Le Cointe called him Fridegod. Secondly, Fridegod is said by the more recent bibliographers to have woven the Life of St. Audoënus the monk in heroic verse. But on this hypothesis neither of those circumstances can suit St. Audoënus, prelate of Rouen: for our anonymous biographer wrote the second Life of our Saint in prose in the ninth or tenth century, and St. Audoënus the bishop never embraced the monastic institute; so that Fridegod the Englishman did not treat of the Prelate of Rouen, if ever he composed the Acts of St. Audoënus the monk in bound style. Thirdly, Malmesbury asserts of the style of his countryman Fridegod that he mixed Greek with Latin in his works and frequently used Greekish words. But that affectation of Greek words has no place in the Acts of St. Audoënus which we shall subjoin to the former, as will evidently appear to one who turns them over. These reasons have impelled us to prefer, in the title, to attribute that Life to an anonymous author rather than to Fridegod.

[10] but the third is metrical, written in the eleventh century, We have indeed among our literary furniture a metrical Life of St. Audoënus, bishop of Rouen, which our Henschen in his Diatribe on the Three Dagoberts, book 4, section 3, by an error ascribed to Fridegod: for this was composed in Leonine verses by a certain Theodoric, a monk of Rouen, and dedicated to Nicholas, abbot of the monastery of St. Ouen, as is plain from the prologue, which begins thus:

To a sincere father, serene in tranquil peace, To a father illustrious, blessed with the flower of virtues, To the holy abbot Nicholas, Theodoric wishes the care of the flock committed to him, as the rod gives the figure By which it draws the peaceable, driving far off the rebellious. Behold what thou hast commanded, and what thou hast asked to be written Of the holy life and merits of the blessed Saint

The prelate Audoënus, I have accomplished according to my own power.

Pommeraye, in his French History of the Monastery of St. Ouen, book 3, chapter 7, number 14 and following, shows that that Nicholas died in the year 1092, after he had governed the abbey for fifty years; and in the same book 3, chapter 31, he affirms that Theodoric the monk wrote this metrical Life in the year 1074 under that same abbot. With no show of truth, therefore, can this work be attributed to Fridegod. Further, it is not worth while to submit that metrical work of Theodoric's to the press, since he merely turned the prose of the second biographer into verse, so that he followed even the chronological errors of that writer.

[11] and the fourth, by a more recent anonymous author, We also received long ago at Trier, from the monastery of St. Maximin, a longer Life of St. Ouen, which a certain anonymous writer of a later age gathered from the older writers of the Acts, and, changing the style, enlarged verbosely, as he confesses in his prologue, which he begins with these words: You have entreated our humility to emend the Life of the blessed confessor and pontiff Audoënus, written by someone — I know not whom — that I should correct what had been faultily set forth, and should unfold what had been constricted by excessive brevity: which task, before the little book had been examined, seemed to demand neither much cost of labor nor much space of time. Whence the business, which was not thought very troublesome, had bred the security of a somewhat careless mind. But after I unrolled the volume, being about to perform what was asked, I unwittingly stumbled into a labyrinth of error and a whirlpool of confusion, so that where I rejoiced that I should walk upon the pleasant plain of the sea and through the flowery tracts of a delightful countryside, there I met with rugged valleys and a path made rough with stones. Then, after many windings, he says that he obeyed the commands of those who bade him, and set forth the order of the deeds in true faith according to the writings of his predecessors; and at last he thus concludes his prologue: But some things we have changed, not forswearing or correcting the truth of the facts, but serving more fitly the laws of expression.

[12] But how that compiler amplified the Acts of the old writers, is more verbosely enlarged, and how much he delights in hyperbolical and rhetorical phrases, will sufficiently appear from the single specimen which we shall here at once subjoin. After he had narrated at length from the ancient biographers how St. Ouen obtained necessary rain from heaven in Spain, to explain the celebrity of this miracle and to indicate the fame of that holy Man he uses this hyperbole: Amid these things blessed Audoënus began, by the report of his virtues and by his teaching, to be held admirable by all the peoples of the Gauls, and to be published far and wide by a praiseworthy fame: for the light could not be hidden which the Lord willed to shine through all nations; since a city set upon a hill cannot be hid, nor is a lamp lighted to be veiled under a bushel, but that, set upon a candlestick, it may give light to all that are in the house. Whence the light of heavenly grace which burned in the holy Man could not be confined within the bounds of the Spains or of the Gauls; but the brightness of his illustrious fame revealed itself to other parts of Europe, and at length, running through Italy and Illyria and Thrace, it penetrated Attica, so that she who had once flourished with the studies of the philosophers might be strong in the rich fame of the servants of Christ; and no less, crossing the streams of the Rhine, it filled the peoples of Germany; and rising thence it penetrated the waters of the Mæotis and the kingdoms of the Scythians, that it might soften barbaric fierceness with the sweetness of Christ, and that the milder breeze of the west wind might loosen to the warmth of the Holy Spirit those peoples whom the northern cold had frozen. Although that verbose amplifier of the Acts does not deserve to be printed, nevertheless we shall afterward inform the learned reader when he narrates certain deeds of St. Ouen which the two former biographers passed over or did not know.

[13] Vincent of Beauvais, in book 23 of the Speculum Historiale, chapter 91 and following, reduced the Acts and miracles of St. Ouen into a compendium, and probably received them from the second biographer. John Capgrave, with us at folio XXI and following, among the Saints of England abridged the Life of that Gallic Prelate, and probably placed him among the English on account of the miracles which occurred through his sacred relics in England, and of which we shall make mention below on another occasion. Finally Surius published the second writer of the Life under the name of Fridegod (we do not know on what ground, as we said above); but after his manner he changed the style, and from time to time interpolated those Acts, which we shall exhibit after this Commentary in their original style from various Burgundian codices transcribed or collated by our Chifflet. But before these we shall place the shorter and more ancient Life, drawn up by a nearly contemporary author, as we promised above. Since, however, both these biographers neglected chronology or wandered from it, we shall first discuss the chief deeds of the Saint in chronological order.

§ II. The Saint's native country, his brothers, his life at court, his election to the see of Rouen, and the time of his episcopal consecration.

The Saint, who had his birthplace at Sancy, Our Saint had Gaul for his native land, and Valois in the Notitia Galliarum, page 500, distinctly indicates his birthplace in these words: Sanciacum or Sanctiacum was the native place of Audoënus, surnamed Dado, first referendary of Dagobert, king of the Franks, then bishop of Rouen: for from his Life we learn that he was born in the village of Sanciacum at the fifth milestone from Augusta of the Suessiones, which village is to this day called Saucy, N being changed into U, as often elsewhere. Then he sets forth the origin of this name, and proves from charters that St. Ouen had an inheritance in that place, which he afterward gave to the church of St. Peter at Rouen. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, book 12, chapter 45, assigns the same place to the birth of our holy Prelate, and notes in the margin that that village is now commonly called in French Sancy.

[15] was brought up in the district of Ussy, The holy Boy seems to have been born there after the beginning of the seventh century, and afterward to have migrated with his parents to the villa of Vultiacum, as we gather from the Acts of St. Columbanus, in which Jonas, in Mabillon, Century 2 of the Benedictine Saints, page 25, writes thus: And going on thence (namely St. Columbanus) he came to a certain villa, Vultiacum, which is situated above the river Marne. There he was received by a certain man named Autharius, whose wife was called Aiga; and they had sons under ten years of infancy \, whom their mother offered to the man of God for blessing. Seeing the mother's faith, he consecrated the little ones with his blessing; who afterward, as soon as they began to grow up, were held most acceptable first to King Chlothar and then to Dagobert; and after they had been made illustrious with the glory of the world, they began to hasten that for the glory of the world they might not lack the eternal; of whom the elder-born, Ado by name, renounced himself to his own wills, after he had built a monastery within the fields of the Jura forest according to the rule of blessed Columbanus; and the younger, Dado by name, built within the forest of Brie above the little river Rebais a monastery according to the rule of the aforesaid man.* Since Le Cointe and others place this visitation of St. Columbanus in the year 610, and at that time the sons of the nobleman Autharius were still held within the years of infancy and were not yet ten years old, we gather by a probable conjecture that St. Ouen was brought into the light after the year 600.

[16] and to whom some assign a single brother, But from this narration of Jonas and from other testimonies of ancient writers there arises a controversy among learned men, who dispute with one another with plausible reasons on both sides, whether St. Ouen had two brothers or only one. Hadrian Valois in volume 3 of the Rerum Francicarum, page 140, writes thus affirmatively on this question: Audoënus had one brother, named Ado, who, after he had flourished at the court of Chlothar and Dagobert, built a monastery not far from the bank of the river Marne in the forest of Jouarre and on his own estate, called Jotrum, after the discipline of Columbanus, with Audoënus for his helper; where, renouncing all pleasures, he is said by Aimoin to have spent the remaining part of his life piously and religiously; which the ancient writers call a monastery of maidens. Valois in the Notitia Galliarum, page 632, assigns Vultiacum from old instruments, and on this occasion thus repeats the same opinion of his: This villa, then, belonged to the nobleman Autharius, whose two little sons, Ado and Dado, offered to him by their mother, Columbanus there consecrated with his blessing. Most interpret it as Eussy, which is a village on the river Marne not far from the city of Meaux, where St. Autharius, the father of Ado and Dado, is honored to this day, as also in the monastery of Rebais, which his son Audoënus Dado founded. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, book 12, chapter 45, defends the opinion of Valois and confirms it with many arguments.

[17] But Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 610, number 6, ascribes two full brothers to St. Ouen, others assign two, and endeavors to prove his opinion in these words: Fredegod (he is with us the anonymous author of the second Life) in the Life of St. Dado, who is also called Audoënus, writes that Aiga bore to Autharius not two sons only, Ado and Dado, but also a third, the youngest, named Rado, upon whom Columbanus the abbot bestowed his blessing equally with the two brothers. You will ask why Jonas passed over Rado. We think that Jonas in the place recited above made no mention of Rado because Rado had not yet been brought into the light when Columbanus came to the villa of Vulciacum. Certainly Jonas rightly calls Dado then an INFANT: for Dado or Audoënus himself, in the Life of St. Eligius published by Surius and by d'Achery, testifies that he was still a LITTLE BOY when Eligius had reached manhood.

[18] We omit Sigebert in his Chronicle, and Aimoin in his History, book 4, chapter 41, and other more recent writers, with which last opinion we agree. who expressly name the same three brothers: for to these is to be preferred the nearly contemporary writer of the first Life, who at the very outset of the Acts has this: From the town of Soissons there sprang three venerable men, born noble of one seed, illumined from heaven by the grace of God: Ado, Dado, and Rado. Then, relating summarily the deeds and virtues of each, he writes thus of Rado: But Rado, being made keeper of the treasures of the palace, having obtained the dignity of the world, girt with the fear of the Lord, generous in almsgiving, faithfully guarded all things and served in his offices. With these agrees also the nearly contemporary author who wrote the Life of St. Agilus, abbot of Rebais, where in Mabillon, among the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century 2, page 321, Ado and Rado are called the brothers of St. Ouen, and concerning Rado by name the following is reported: Rado, having under his care the treasures of the aforesaid king, had signally committed to the heavenly treasures the pearl of his soul, redeemed at an inestimable price; therefore upon the aforesaid river, on his own patrimony, he built a monastery, which from his own name he called Radolium. We know that Mabillon cites the authority of Jonas keeping silence, and raises certain difficulties against these testimonies; but we oppose to the silence of Jonas two clear assertions of nearly contemporary authors, and with more probability prefer two who speak to one who is silent.

[19] After he had lived piously at the court of the kings of the Franks, Further, St. Ouen from the year of Christ 620 lived piously at the court of the kings of the Franks with St. Eligius

and, while still a layman, founded the monastery of Rebais, as will be narrated in our Acts below. In the year of Christ 639 our Saint was elected bishop of Rouen, as Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks at the same year, number 5, proves from the very words of St. Ouen, who in the Life of St. Eligius writes thus of this election: They chose, for the merit of his sanctity, St. Eligius, endowed with all good works and already irradiated with the light of the Holy Spirit, for the priestly office, that he might preside over the church of Noyon: for in that same circuit of the year Acharius, bishop of the aforesaid city, had died. And they chose with him also his companion Audoënus, who was called Dado, that he might preside over the church of Rouen. Then Le Cointe there contends that this election was made in the year 639, and thus recounts its other circumstances: In the same year, therefore, in which the holy Romanus (he was the predecessor of our holy Prelate in the see of Rouen) and Acharius departed this life, Audoënus and Eligius were elected, to succeed to their bishoprics; but because they were then laymen, they did not allow themselves to be consecrated bishops before the following year, when the Rogations were being celebrated by all the people. Audoënus set out for Mâcon, that he might be ordained priest by Deodatus, bishop of that city. Eligius, before he became a priest, chose to spend some space of time under the rule of clerical life. Also to the year 639 is to be assigned St. Ouen's Spanish journey, of which both biographers make mention before his episcopal consecration. But concerning the year in which our Saint was consecrated bishop there occurs an intricate difficulty, which we shall now endeavor to solve.

[20] he was elected bishop of Rouen, Pierre-François Chifflet, in his Dissertation on the Years of Dagobert, chapter 17, fixes the episcopal consecration of St. Ouen in the year of Christ 635; but our Henschen in the Diatribe on the Three Dagoberts, book 1, section 9, defers the same to the year 646. Finally Le Cointe and Pagi more probably place that ordination in the year of Christ 640. This diversity of opinions arises from the differing understandings of the words of St. Ouen, who in volume 5 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, page 194, in the Life of St. Eligius, writes thus: But the blessed man (namely Eligius, of whom the discourse there is), since he could in no way shake himself free of the appointed office, yet lest he should seem in anything to deviate from the Catholic rule, would not allow himself to be consecrated priest until he had spent some courses of time under the rule of clerical life. When therefore the time of delay was past, and Audoënus had been brought back from the parts about the Loire, and had now been ordained priest by the lord Deodatus, bishop of the city of Mâcon, a council being held, both alike on the space of a single day received the apostolic blessing freely: for it was the season in which throughout the Gauls the Rogations were being celebrated by all the people. Coming together therefore into the city of Rouen on the fourteenth day of the third month (that is of May, since the year then began with the month of March) in the third year of Chlodovæus, still a stripling king, on the Lord's day before the Litanies, amid the crowds of the people, amid the ranks of the Clergy, amid the choirs of psalm-singers, we were consecrated freely by bishops, ourselves alike bishops: I at Rouen, he at Noyon.

[21] Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 640, number 20, reports from a manuscript codex a similar text of St. Ouen, but among learned authors where nevertheless he speaks of himself everywhere in the third person; and the aforesaid Annalist in the same place, at the following number, discourses thus of the closing clause of this testimony: This period has two parts. The former designates the year and day on which Audoënus and Eligius came to Rouen. The latter notes the day on which they were consecrated bishops. They entered Rouen on the FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE THIRD MONTH. But they were consecrated bishops on the Lord's day before the Litanies. That Lord's day before the Litanies was the twenty-first of the third month, or of May, because in this year, the third of King Chlodovæus, Easter was celebrated on the sixteenth day of April. Those who do not distinguish two parts in the period just recited affirm that Audoënus and Eligius were consecrated bishops on the FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE THIRD MONTH, and, that they may be able to make that day agree with the Lord's day, they are forced to refer the aforesaid ordination either to the year of Christ six hundred and thirty-five with Fridegod, or to the year of Christ six hundred and forty-six with André Duchesne, who caused various fragments of Fridegod to be printed, and, striking out the year of the Lord's Incarnation 635, in which he knew Dagobert to have been still alive, set down the year 646, in which, as also in the year of Christ six hundred and thirty-five, Easter was celebrated on the fifth Ides of April, and the Lord's day before the Litanies coincides with the fourteenth day of May.

[22] After Le Cointe had rightly asked in the same place what chronographer ever bound the third year of Chlodovæus the younger to the year of Christ six hundred and thirty-five, there is a chronological controversy he goes on to set forth the chief difficulty of the question in these words: The whole difficulty turns upon Dagobert, whom Fredegar writes to have been taken from the living in the sixteenth year of his reign: for some reckon the beginning of the sixteen years which he spent in the principate from the day on which he was declared king of Austrasia \ by his father; others from the day on which he succeeded his father in the kingdoms of Neustria and Burgundy. We have embraced the former opinion, and by that reckoning we compare the third year of Chlodovæus the younger, in whose month of May Audoënus and Eligius were ordained bishops, with this year of Christ six hundred and forty. The latter opinion several follow, and bind the same third year of Chlodovæus the younger, as was said above, to the year of Christ six hundred and forty-six. The argument on which they rely is drawn from the fourteenth day of May, and it falls to the ground if you divide the text of Audoënus cited above into two parts, and deny that the fourteenth day of May coincided with the Lord's day before the Litanies in that year in which Audoënus and Eligius were consecrated bishops.*

[23] Audoënus, when he speaks of his own and Eligius's ordination, concerning his episcopal consecration, assigns it to the third year of Chlodovæus, still a stripling king, on the Lord's day before the Litanies. He gives no other note of time. That you may know in what year after the birth of Christ fell the third year of Chlodovæus, the stripling king, and whether in that year the Lord's day before the Litanies fell in the month of April or in the month of May, one must investigate the year in which King Dagobert, the father of Chlodovæus, died. We have placed the death of Dagobert on the fourteenth Kalends of February in the year of Christ six hundred and thirty-eight, because we have not reckoned the sixteen years of reign which Fredegar attributes to him from the year of Christ six hundred and twenty-eight, in which he succeeded his father Chlothar in Neustria and Burgundy, but from the year of Christ six hundred and twenty-two, in which he first began to reign among the Austrasians. We have already brought forward many reasons in various places to illustrate and confirm our opinion.

[24] which we with Le Cointe Then Le Cointe in the same place, in some following numbers, shows that Eligius was called a bishop by Jonas, a contemporary writer, before the year of Christ 644; and at number 26, after all his arguments, thus concludes: Dagobert therefore died on the fourteenth Kalends of February in the sixteenth year of his reign, of Christ six hundred and thirty-eight. His son Chlodovæus succeeded to the kingdoms of Neustria and Burgundy, whose third year, in the month of May, is composed with the year of Christ six hundred and forty. And in that year, the third of King Chlodovæus, Audoënus and Eligius entered Rouen on the fourteenth day of May, and were consecrated bishops on the Lord's day before the Litanies, that is, on the twenty-first day of the same month of May. From Ordericus's reckoning we have already proved that blessed Romanus, prelate of Rouen, departed this life on the tenth Kalends of November in the year of Christ six hundred and thirty-nine, so that, on the testimony of the same author, the ordination of Audoënus belongs to the year of Christ six hundred and forty.

[25] and other writers Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, book 13, chapter 4, approves this solution of the intricate question, although he raises a certain doubt against it in this manner: But to this solution this stands in the way, that in the church of Noyon the ordination of St. Eligius was for eight hundred years celebrated on the day before the Ides of May, as I found in the most ancient Calendar of that church, and therefore the ordination of Eligius was then held to have been performed on the fourteenth day of May itself, and not on the following Sunday, according to the tradition of the church of Noyon. But, weighing the most invincible arguments on the other side from elsewhere, I see that this one thing can be replied: that although the deposition of St. Eligius was celebrated in the divine offices not long after his death, yet his ordination was not at once inscribed in the sacred calendars of his church and honored with a particular cult (which is also to be said of the consecration of Audoënus), but perhaps after a hundred years, nay even after two hundred. And that those who first inscribed this ordination in the Calendars of their church, from the passage of Audoënus — in its obvious sense indeed, but not rightly understood — set it on the day before the Ides, or the fourteenth day of the month of May, which ought to have been set on the twenty-first day. The aforesaid Mabillon, in the historical Dissertation written to the most learned abbot Galloys On the Year of the Death of Dagobert I and of Chlodovæus the Younger, treats this argument at greater length, where in volume 3 of the Vetera Analecta, pages 526 and 527, he appends this conclusion to his reasonings: Wherefore I meanwhile prefer our first solution; which if it please some not, I do not resist, provided they bring a better, or solve the foregoing arguments, by which I judge the years of the death of Dagobert and of Chlodovæus most certainly fixed — of the former indeed in the year 638, and of the latter in the year 656; both of which even the sole authority of Jonas establishes.

[26] more probably place in the year of Christ 640. Hence you see that Mabillon is still troubled by some scruple on account of the annual memory of that ordination, which is kept on the XIV day in the ancient Calendars. But Pagi wholly removes it from him in the Critica on Baronius at the year 640, number 14, when, after reporting Mabillon's words, he subjoins this: So that most learned man, and indeed solidly; who, if the rule laid down by us and so often inculcated had come into his mind, would have affirmed it with all assurance: for that the depositions of Saints, the translations of their relics, and the ordinations of holy bishops have often been inscribed in the Martyrologies on days other than those on which they occurred, I demonstrate by so many examples in this Work that it ought hereafter to be held as a principle of chronology. From all these things the learned reader will be able to judge which chronological opinion pleases him best. We meanwhile, with Le Cointe, Mabillon, Pagi, and our Longueval, more probably fix the episcopal consecration of St. Ouen in the year of Christ 640, and proceed to relate chronologically the rest of his deeds.

\ Surius: detenti*. \* that is, of Austrasia.

§ III. A chronological synopsis of the rest of his deeds, the time of his death, and certain gleanings of the Acts.

There are reviewed in chronological order Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks records here and there in chronological order the rest of the deeds of St. Ouen, which we shall here reduce to a compendium in the same order of time. The holy Prelate in the year 642 baptized Amalbertus, the son of blessed Geremarus; and in the year 644 subscribed the third council of Chalon with his signature

confirmed it. In this same year 644 he consecrated St. Wandregisilus subdeacon, and in the following year deacon. In the year 651 he ordained priest blessed Geremarus, whose son he had previously baptized. About the year 672 St. Ouen wrote the Life of St. Eligius, as Le Cointe endeavors to show from that work itself. Our Saint, being deceived by the tyrant Ebroin and by false witnesses, in the year 674 committed St. Filibert the abbot to prison. In the year 676 he departs for Rome, and in the following year returns to Rouen.

[28] Moreover in the year 679 he translated the sacred relics of St. Marculf, certain deeds of the holy Prelate, concerning which in Mabillon, among the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, volume 1, page 133, at the end of the Life of Marculf, the following miracle is narrated: But the most blessed Audoënus asked the aforesaid abbot that, both in compensation for his labor and out of devotion to his sanctity, he would grant him something of the holy man's body; to which he most willingly consented. But when he was considering with himself to carry off the head, a little paper written with these words was sent from heaven and rested in his hand: "Of the other members of the most blessed Marculf take what thou wilt; but presume by no means to touch his head." The most holy Prelate therefore, recalled by such a divine prohibition set before him, laid the relics of the most blessed confessor with the utmost veneration in the coffer which had been prepared.

[29] Besides, in the year 681 he delivers Ragnobert from imminent slaughter, which are confusedly narrated in the Acts, and commutes into exile the sentence of death pronounced against him by Ebroin. In the same year 681 the Saint is said to have obtained a notable privilege from King Theodoric, and to have sent messengers to St. Filibert the abbot, with whom in the following year he was reconciled, or rather with whom, acknowledging his error, he renewed friendship. After in the year 682 he had rebuked Gislemar for plotting against his own father, and had foretold to him the divine vengeance that afterward followed, he sees a cross in the air, of which there will be treatment below in our Acts. When at length in the year 683 he had composed peace between the Austrasians and the Neustrians, he is said in the month of August of the same year to have died not far from Paris. But we must more accurately examine the year and day of his death, concerning which there is no sufficiently certain agreement.

[30] and his death The first writer of the Life only indicates that St. Ouen passed to the world above when Waratto was subregulus, that is, Mayor of the palace. But from the history of Gaul we know that Waratto in the year of Christ 681 succeeded in the place of Ebroin, the Mayor of the palace who had been slain; and that after the death of Gislemar his son, by whose plots he had been deposed, he recovered his lost dignity in the year 683. Hence it is plain that our second biographer blunders shamefully in chronology when he fixes the death of St. Ouen in the year of the Incarnation 677 or 678. The same interpolator of the old Acts heaps up several chronological marks of that death which fight with one another; which being at length refuted, Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 683, number 7, arranges the chronology in this manner: Audoënus was ordained bishop of Rouen on the twelfth Kalends of June, on the Lord's day before the Litanies, in the third year of King Chlodovæus, of Christ six hundred and forty; he sat forty-three years, three months, and as many days; he died, not yet eighty, at Clichy on the ninth Kalends of September, on the second feria, in the year of Christ six hundred and eighty-three, the tenth of King Theodoric, Waratto holding the Mayoralty of the royal house.

[31] is probably fixed in the year of Christ 683. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, book 17, number 36, embraces this opinion of Le Cointe's, and abridges his fuller discussion in these words: Concerning the year in which Audoënus died there is also no slight difficulty. The first anonymous writer of his Life only says that he died when Waratto was subregulus, or prefect of the palace, in the principate of King Theodoric. The reckoning was obscured by the second writer of his Life, Fridegod, when he wished to explain it too scrupulously, where he says that Audoënus ruled the church of Rouen forty-three years, three months, ten days; and that being ninety years old he passed to the Lord on the IX Kalends of September, on the Lord's day, and indeed in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred and seventy-seven, or according to others seventy-eight. But, to say nothing of the rest, in neither year did the Lord's day fall on the ninth Kalends of September. More certain is the epoch from the forty-three years of his rule with the three months which Fridegod assigns him. For if you take the beginning of Audoënus's pontificate from the month of May in the year six hundred and forty, you will easily place his death in this year eighty-three. Then he confirms this year of his death from other sources, and refers the reader for the lesser chronological tangles to Le Cointe, who in his Annals of the Franks at the year 683, number 7, also accurately investigated the months and days of his episcopate and the more probable age of St. Ouen. To these we subjoin certain gleanings of his deeds, which both our biographers passed over in silence, and concerning which we shall pass judgment as we go.

[32] To this chronology we subjoin gleanings. François Pommeraye in his French History of the Abbey of St. Ouen, book 1, chapter 2, mentions two things which both the biographers to be published by us below passed over, and which nevertheless are reported to have happened in the boyhood of our Saint: for on an old tapestry of the church St. Ouen is painted as still a boy, as though he had miraculously driven the cranes from his father's field. This miracle Pommeraye touches in passing, and in a certain note on the aforesaid second chapter of the first book observes that he omits it in his History, because he found no mention of it in the ancient manuscripts. But in the same place he judges the other prodigy (namely that the Saint, while still a boy, in a certain failure of water is said to have at once by his prayers drawn a spring out of the earth) more certain and worthier of credit, because that spring is still to this day pointed out by tradition in the native place of St. Ouen, and its wonderful origin is read in a certain old manuscript. At least the prodigious beginning of that spring is reported in the History of the translation of his relics, which we shall subjoin below to the Acts.

[33] From ignorance or confusion we think has arisen that found in various authors, which in the Treatise of Bernard Gui On the Saints who adorn the diocese of Limoges, in our Labbe, volume 1 of the New Library of Manuscript Books, page 634, is narrated in this manner: St. Audoënus or Audencius, bishop of Rouen, rests in a village named from himself, namely at Saint-Audoënus or Saint-Audencius. And the inhabitants say that he had visited the thresholds of blessed James at Compostella, and that on his return he died and was buried there. This Audoënus was first a recluse; and on a certain day, having dined well at the table of the archbishop of Rouen, on the following night, when he had given himself to sleep, he felt a demon handling his belly and repeatedly saying: "Now it is well, Audoënus; Audoënus, now it is well." Then the Saint: "But tomorrow ill" — that is, I shall eat ill, and I shall compensate for today's delicacies in the palace by tomorrow's diet. In the year of the Lord 1230 Guido, of holy memory, bishop of Limoges, laid the sacred body of St. Audoënus, raised from the wall, in a shrine. His feast is kept on the ninth Kalends of September.

[34] All these things seem to be attributed to our present St. Ouen, which both writers of the Acts because he who is recorded by Bernard Gui is called bishop of Rouen, and his feast is said to be celebrated yearly on the ninth Kalends of September, or the XXIV day of August. But with what show of likelihood are the journey to Compostella, the death on the return, and the decease and burial in the diocese of Limoges narrated of this our prelate of Rouen? And what is here reported of the demon who reproached him with his fullness, the same occurs in the Acts of St. Filibert the abbot at the XX day of this month, where in volume IV of August, page 76, a plainly similar story is read of St. Filibert. And finally, how could Guido, bishop of Limoges, in the year of Christ 1230 have laid the body of St. Ouen of Rouen, raised from the wall, in a shrine, when from older instruments it is established that it rested before and afterward in Normandy, as will appear from what is to be said below? Wherefore we judge that Bernard Gui wrote such things wrongly out of some confusion hitherto unknown to us, or out of a popular error.

[35] We hardly know of what age or of what credit are the gleanings is to be published after this preliminary Commentary, which Pommeraye in book 1 of the History cited above, chapter 19, sets forth in French. We find them in Latin in the Trier copy of the Acts, which we indicated in §1, and from which we transcribe the following: As the Bishop was walking through the same district of which we made mention above, he beheld at Constantinum a stone of pleasing appearance and of a seemly position according to the quality of its kind; which, considering more attentively, he said was fit for the use of riders, and wished that it were in a certain villa of his own jurisdiction, Brisniacum. When a certain man, powerful in worldly wealth and swelling with pride, had heard these words of the Pontiff, judging it worthy to be furnished rather to his own service than to the Pontiff's, presently, as the Pontiff departed, he sent servants with a wagon to bring it to him; who, performing their master's command, laid the stone upon the wagon, and, going prosperously along a straight road, were hastening to the place which had been commanded them.

[36] passed over or did not know, But when they came to a certain fork, where of two diverging roads the one led to the bishop's villa and the other to the house of that layman, forthwith the oxen that drew it stood still, fixed in their own tracks. The servants, bringing in more yokes of oxen, were unable to move the load. At length, their strength being exhausted and every effort frustrated, they returned home wearied with vain labor, leaving the wagon with the stone laid upon it and the oxen yoked. When the holy bishop learned this, being still resident in the villa of which we have spoken, he ordered a certain servant of that estate to be summoned to him, and commanded him to go and bring away the stone; and when he pleaded that he had nothing but two cows, whose weakness would by no means suffice for so great a weight, he exhorts him to go, and to hold no hesitation about the performance of the work to be accomplished. And he, obeying the Pontiff's command, hastens to the place, yokes the animals to the wagon, and returned home with such ease as if it carried no load laid upon it… But when the stone had been set to the uses for which the Man of God had wished, and several courses of days had rolled by, a certain woman, moved by levity of mind, presumed to sit upon it; and when her neighbors rebuked her, chiding her that she had dared to sit upon the stone of St. Audoënus, she answered insolently: "Audoënus was a man like myself." Which irreverence of speech a fitting vengeance at once followed and checked: for straightway the orbs of her eyes, driven from their own sockets, left her face covered with darkness.

[37] and among which some are of uncertain authority, At a certain time the uncouth noise of croaking frogs brought no small annoyance to the Saint's ears, and with importunate clamors wearied his mind intent upon heavenly desires, and confounded the contemplation of his spiritual longing. At length, being offended by the harshness of the uncouth sound, he commanded the broken murmurs of the frogs by the authority of his bidding to keep silence; and at his command, quicker than the word was spoken, that unlovely song was hushed, and, as though struck by an exceedingly great crash of thunder, it grew still: for that dumb flock feared the prelate's indignation, and dreaded that his displeasure would bring punishment upon them in the end. Pommeraye, in the place just cited, abridges these same miracles in French, and from SS. Paulinus and Ambrose

laboriously proves that they are not to be despised, although they were wrought in matters of slight moment. This we willingly and freely confess; but since we do not know in what age and by whom they were first committed to writing, we pronounce nothing certain concerning these three reported prodigies.

[38] some fabulous But more incredible is what Aimoin in the History of the Franks, book 4, chapter 44, writes of our holy Prelate in this manner: Ebroin therefore, letting his hair grow, and having gathered companions to his aid, going forth in hostile fashion from the monastery of Luxeuil, returns into France with an array of arms. And he sent to blessed Audoënus, to learn what counsel he would give him. But he, sending by messengers this writing only, says: "Let the memory of Fredegund be with thee." And he, ingenious as he was, understood; and rising by night, having set his army in motion, he came as far as the river Oise, and, the guards being slain, crossed the Oise at Saint-Maxence, and there slew those whom he found of his plotters. Aimoin, or the anonymous writer of Frankish affairs, by this narration hints that St. Ouen advised Ebroin, after the example of Queen Fredegund, suddenly and unexpectedly to crush a hostile army stronger than his own.

[39] But the anonymous continuator of Fredegar, after the Works of St. Gregory of Tours in Ruinart, column 666, makes no mention of St. Ouen, or incredible things, and, omitting any such answer of the holy Prelate, narrates the same expedition of Ebroin in these words: Ebroin, hearing of these dissensions, having taken counsel, the Franks being at variance among themselves, and having called to his aid very many persons with a great retinue of armies, going forth from the monastery of Luxeuil, returns into France, and coming as far as the river Oise, went on; he slew the sleeping guards at Sainte-Maxence, and crossing the river Oise, slew those of his plotters whom he found there. Whence Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 674, number 2, passes this judgment on the former narration: Audoënus, bishop of Rouen, was long before these times, and afterward also, in the friendship of Ebroin; yet the answer which he is said to have made him we reject among fables, because we do not think that so great a Pontiff bore before him the torch of civil war with so wicked a counsel. Further, Pommeraye in the History already often cited, book 1, chapter 15, explains in various ways the friendship between St. Ouen and Ebroin, and clears him of the charge.

[40] Greater credit is deserved by other gleanings of the Acts, others at length occur most probable. among which in Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century 3, part 1, page 21, we find the following concerning our holy Prelate and St. Bertila the virgin: When a certain most faithful man, Dado, surnamed Audoënus, asked her whether she wished to serve Christ, she answered with grateful mind that she had had from infancy that devotion, that she might deserve to obtain Christ the Son of God for her spouse. And how St. Ouen composed the dispute between St. Lantbert and St. Filibert may be read with us in the Acts of St. Lantbert at the XIV day of April, or volume 2 of that month, page 217. Finally, the miracle which happened to our Saint in the translation of the relics of St. Marculf is narrated in the same Work of ours at the first day of May, page 79. These are the chief things which are ascribed to the holy Prelate of Rouen and which both biographers omitted. Hence we pass to the posthumous glory which that holy Bishop obtained from his writings, from the repeated translations of his relics, and from various miracles.

§ IV. The Saint's posthumous glory from his writings and from the various translations of his relics.

We probably ascribe certain works to this holy Prelate; Sigebert of Gembloux in his little work On Illustrious Men, chapter 58, indicates the chief work of St. Ouen in these words: Audoënus, who is also Dado, bishop of Rouen, wrote to Robert, bishop of Paris, the Life of Eligius, bishop of Noyon, setting forth in two books the miracles which were wrought by him either in life or after his death, and in a third book recapitulating rhetorically and in short clauses his whole Life. Hence the bibliographers everywhere make him the author of that Life which Surius published at the first day of December with the style changed, and which afterward d'Achery published more faithfully in his Spicilegium from a double manuscript codex. Many, however, think that these Acts of St. Eligius are not original, but were afterward interpolated by someone; whose opinion may be more accurately examined in our Work at the first day of December. Meanwhile consult those Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Maur who have lately begun to publish the Literary History of France, where in volume 3, page 626, they have passed judgment on this very work of our Saint.

[42] but we deny him a certain charter, Miræus, following our Antonio Possevino, attributes to him also the Life of St. Remigius, which is said to be extant among the Swiss in the abbey of St. Gall. It is hardly worth while to mention the short letter of the same Saint which he wrote to St. Desiderius, bishop of Cahors, and which is found in Henry Canisius, volume 5 of the Antiqua Lectio, page 542. François Pommeraye, in his French History of the Archbishops of Rouen, page 87, number 8, recites three hexameter verses which are said to have been composed by this our holy Bishop, and which run thus:

These are the twin brothers, Gildardus and Medardus; One day saw them born from the womb and consecrated, Clothed in white, and loosed from this flesh.

Since these verses seem to be Leonine, one might not altogether rashly doubt whether they suit the age of the holy prelate Audoënus.

[43] suspected of forgery. The monk of Saint-Denis, among the deeds of Dagobert I, king of the Franks, which André Duchesne inserted in volume 1 of the Writers of Gaul, chapter 43, mentions a most ancient charter which, as was reported, blessed Audoënus the bishop had written; and from it he narrates the wonderful revelation of a certain hermit in Sicily concerning the salvation of King Dagobert, whom, namely, he had seen first dragged by demons to eternal punishments, and afterward snatched from the claws of the demons by St. Denis and other Saints. Aimoin, in book 4 On the Deeds of the Franks, chapter 34, attributes affirmatively and boldly to that same holy Prelate the charter which the elder monk of Saint-Denis, using the phrase as was reported, had timidly ascribed to St. Ouen, in these words: These things that venerable man John (that was the hermit's name) related to Ansoald that he had seen; which, returning into Gaul, he narrated to St. Audoënus, who left them written in a single charter to posterity to be arranged in the order of history.

[44] Without doubt the Magdeburg Centuriators allude to this charter, when in Century VII, chapter 10, page 274, they reckon among the writings of our holy Bishop a little book On the Soul of King Dagobert, as Cave, the heterodox Englishman, testifies in his Literary History of Ecclesiastical Writers, page 321 in our copy. Were those severe critics, then, who so easily explode the ancient traditions of the Catholic Church and the truest histories, ignorant that this very charter is disputed among Catholics, and that various learned men deny it to St. Ouen? First, Jean Besly in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Poitiers, page 18, in his notes on Ansoald, doubts the truth of that narration; and Hadrian Valois in book XIX, or volume 3 of the Rerum Francicarum, page 125, roundly reckons this history among fables. To these is added Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks, where at the year of Christ 638, number 3 and the following, he relates and refutes the same at greater length. Finally our Longueval, in the History of the Gallican Church, book 9, or volume 3, page 525, asserts that to have related this little fable is to have refuted it, and at the same time briefly overthrows its chief foundation in the same place. Hence we proceed to another posthumous glory which St. Ouen acquired from the various translations of his body and the honorable veneration of his relics.

[45] In the Acts of St. Ansbert, prelate of Rouen, who succeeded St. Ouen after his death, The Saint's body was honorably elevated in Mabillon, Benedictine century 2, page 1057, we read the following concerning the first elevation of his sacred body: But among the other works of his goodness which he performed in his episcopate, we undertake also to narrate how he translated, by Christ's favor, the venerable body of the holy bishop Audoënus into a more eminent place of the church of St. Peter, which is situated in the suburb of the city of Rouen (that place is now enclosed within the walls of the city, as Mabillon there notes). When therefore he had gathered many craftsmen from various provinces, he built over his sepulchre a shrine of wonderful size, adorned with the precious metals of gold and silver, and set with precious gems, as it appears to human sight even to the present. A day therefore being appointed, on the solemnity of the Ascension of Christ the Lord, a multitude of priests and monks and other clerics being assembled, he caused the sacred body itself to be raised with great reverence and with the praises of hymns, the clergy chanting, and laid it happily in the apse of the aforesaid church of St. Peter the apostle, with joy and great honor.

[46] And there was present in this holy assembly, among other venerable men, also the most illustrious Genardus the Vidame, who caused great banquets to be prepared, at Rouen four years after his death, because an innumerable people had come together from every side to the holy translation of so venerable a Prelate. And when the solemnities of the Masses were completed, the aforesaid Genardus sat down to feast with the nobles at the command of the holy pontiff. But the illustrious pontiff Ansbert, reclining after his wonted manner with pilgrims and the poor, rejoiced to feast with them: for on that day, performing the office of a servant, he humbly showed his service to the poor and needy at their refreshment… And at the aforesaid venerable translation of the holy prelate Audoënus, all the citizens of his own city of Rouen, and likewise the inhabitants of the neighboring monasteries, namely clerics and nuns, deserved to be plentifully refreshed by the venerable gift of that prelate; and thereafter, through succeeding times, this day was made solemnly famous for the citizens of that city in commemoration of the blessed pontiff Audoënus. Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks, volume 4, page 179 and following, scrupulously discusses this first translation or elevation of St. Ouen, and fixes it in the year of Christ 687, which was the fourth year from his death, as may there be seen.

[47] The sacred body was there honorably preserved until those times and there remained until the irruption of the Normans, in which the Normans began to lay waste Gaul: for then the monks in good time carried the relics of St. Ouen elsewhere, that they might be withdrawn from the fury of those heathens, as Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 841, number 32, or volume 2 of that Work, page 620, sets forth in these words: In this dissension of the kings the Normans, the northern peoples of Germany, break into Neustria under the leadership of Oscherius on the fourth Ides of May. On the day before the Ides of the same month the city of Rouen was burned by them, and likewise the monastery of St. Peter or St. Ouen, then in the suburb… From that disaster of Rouen the body of St. Ouen was rescued by Abbot Riculf, and carried by the monks to a certain estate named Vadiniacum, where it was kept for some years. Le Cointe in his Annals

of the Franks at the year of Christ 841, number 24, disputes at length concerning the time of this Norman irruption against other writers; but we have not leisure here to examine more laboriously these chronological minutiæ, which have nothing to do with the present matter.

[48] when it was translated to various places, The aforesaid Mabillon in the same Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 872, number 37, supplies us with another notice of the state of the sacred body, in this manner: In the place of Archbishop Adalard, whose death occurred on the VIII Ides of March of this year, Riculf was substituted, who was also abbot of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Ouen, which ONCE SHONE MORE AUGUSTLY IN THE SUBURB OF THE METROPOLITAN CITY. He, in the first year of his ordination, and indeed on the sixteenth of the Kalends of December, visited the thresholds of St. Audoënus, once bishop of that city, and of the blessed martyrs Nicasius, Quirinus, Scuviculus, and St. Pientia, to venerate their relics, which at that time were in exile at the villa of Vadiniacum in the district of the Vexin, which they call Norman, for fear of the Normans, though on their own soil. On the following day, taking with him certain brethren of the same congregation of the best religion, he religiously unsealed the sacred coffer of blessed Audoënus, to see whether his sacred body was laid in its case with due honor and reverence: which when he had ascertained, he gave to it two small holdings at Badolidum for the perpetual maintenance of its lights; beseeching his successors, the bishops, that this donation might remain inviolate among them. After Riculf there subscribe Sicbard the bishop, Germenteus the abbot, Gaduinus the archdeacon, Wanilo the abbot, Leutbrand the provost, again Wanilo the abbot, and others.

[49] and at last, the Normans being converted to the faith, John, the successor of Riculf, after three years caused the portion of goods assigned to the monks to be confirmed by Charles. The body of St. Audoënus remained for some time at Vadiniacum; the monastery being overthrown by the Normans, it was then carried to various places, and at last to Vallis Monachorum in the diocese of Trier; until at length, Rollo being converted to the faith, it was carried back to Rouen to its former place. Afterward Mabillon in the same Work at the year 911, number 64, writes thus of the peace made between the Franks and the Normans and of Rollo's conversion: Peace being sworn on these conditions in the village of Saint-Clair, and an oath having been made to the king, Rollo promised that he would receive our sacred rites. Rollo in the following year, being washed in the lustral waters by Franco, archbishop of Rouen, was given the name of Robert by Robert, Count of Paris, who received him from the sacred font and called him Robert. By his example the rest of the Normans embraced the Christian faith, and in the course of time amply repaired the damages they had inflicted upon holy places, raising churches and monasteries, some of which they raised up from the ashes, and others they founded new with great munificence. From them Lugdunensis Secunda was thereafter called Normandy. Not long after, the relics of St. Audoënus the bishop were carried back to his own church from Vallis Monachorum in the diocese of Trier, whither they had been carried for fear of the Normans, as we said above. How solemnly this bringing back of the sacred relics was accomplished, we shall relate from ancient monuments after this Commentary and both Lives.

[50] That bringing back having been magnificently accomplished, the sacred body seems to have rested in the same place until about the middle of the eleventh century, it was brought back to Rouen and afterward carried about through the provinces. when it was carried through various provinces, as Mabillon, so often already praised, testifies in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 1042, number 45, in these words: While these things are being done in the monastery of Bec, at Rouen at St. Ouen's died Abbot Herefastus; in whose place there was substituted in the government of the monastery a young monk of that place, Nicholas, son of Duke Richard III, who, having been brought up there from infancy and instructed in letters, had long since grown accustomed to the monastic yoke. He, during the time of his rule, which he held for fifty years, having undertaken the building of a new church, caused the body of St. Audoënus to be carried through divers provinces, in order to collect the alms of the faithful for this work. It was also carried to the council of Caen, in which the truce or Truce of God, which up to that time the Normans had been unwilling to admit, was decreed. That two councils were held at Caen at that time we learn from the chartulary of Préaux, in which mention is made of the former, which was held before the death of Gradulf, abbot of Fontenelle, as we shall see at the year 1047. The second was celebrated in the year 1061. Of the former council mention seems to be made by Fulbert, monk of St. Ouen's, in his book on the miracles of St. Audoënus, which at the request of the Brethren and of the aforesaid abbot Nicholas he added to the Life of that Saint; where he makes mention of the aforesaid carrying of St. Audoënus's body. The same author mentions a procession which was wont to be made yearly to the neighboring hill or cell of St. Michael with the body of St. Audoënus. Since we shall publish that little work of Fulbert's below, after the history of the translations, from a Rouen manuscript, we need not stick here longer.

[51] We also pass over the tumult that arose in the church of St. Ouen between the monks and the archbishop of Rouen, A difficulty is proposed concerning the Saint's head, because some suspected that the prelate wished to carry off the relics of St. Ouen, as Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 1073, number 40, relates from his Analecta, where also he convicts of falsehood Matthew Paris, who wrongly affirmed that John, archbishop of Rouen, was slain in that tumult. Further, we do not doubt that notable relics of St. Ouen remained at Rouen until the year 1562, in which the raging Calvinists plundered that monastery of Rouen and consumed most of the relics of the Saints with fire, as Pommeraye in the French History of that abbey, book 2, chapter 26, sets forth in a lamentable narrative. I should readily believe, however, that a few bones of St. Ouen escaped the sacrilegious hands of those saint-fighters, as the aforesaid author asserts in the following chapter of the cited book. Doubtless in ancient times certain relics of St. Ouen were shared with other monasteries or regions: for in Edmond Martène's Thesaurus Anecdotorum, volume 3, column [ ], from an old instrument it is said that in the monastery of Malmedy, among other remains of the Saints which Hildebald, prelate of Cologne, had obtained in the ninth century from the emperor Charles, there existed also the chasuble of St. Audoënus, likewise archbishop of Rouen. But an intricate difficulty occurs concerning the sacred head of St. Ouen, which several churches claim for themselves, as will appear from what follows.

[52] Concerning the visitation of the relics of St. Ouen, which was made under Richard I, Duke of Normandy, in the volume just cited of the Thesaurus Anecdotorum, column [ ], in the aforesaid Martène, we read the following in an ancient document: [which in the tenth century is said to have been inspected at Rouen together with the body,] This work at length being completed, having summoned the bishops and abbots, he (namely Richard, first of that name, Duke of Normandy) caused the limbs of the most holy Bishop to be uncovered by four religious monks of that monastery with great fear and reverence. And the whole body was found entire with the head, and without any diminution, just as it had been laid by the venerable archbishop Riculf. Then the ancient writer of that document thus concludes at the end: These things, most beloved, we have set forth compendiously, as we have learned them by the truthful relation of our elders, that it may be plainly and without ambiguity believed that the body of our most holy father Audoënus is held among us whole and undiminished in every part of its members, as we have said before.

[53] and which nevertheless Raissius assigns elsewhere. But Arnold Raissius in his Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, page 129, assigns the head of St. Ouen to a village called in the vernacular Boursy, which is situated between Cambrai and Arras, in this manner: There is to be seen in the parish church of this village the head, and that entire, save for the lower jaw, of St. Audoënus, archbishop of Rouen, disciple of St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, who died in the year of the Incarnate Word 677 (correct this chronological error from what has been said above) on the ninth Kalends of September. There is a great daily concourse of people to these sacred relics, especially of the deaf, who for the most part receive relief and assistance. Would that Raissius had indicated the time at which that notable sacred treasure was given to this village, or rather had brought forward the ancient records of that donation and possession! In default of that information, we cannot settle this dispute, which from what is to be said in the following paragraph will become more intricate.

§ V. The relics of this Saint carried over into England, and the miracles wrought by them.

William of Malmesbury relates The body of St. Ouen, together with the head, was carried over into England, if we believe William of Malmesbury, who in book 5 On the Pontiffs, among the Fifteen English Writers published at Oxford by Thomas Gale in the year 1691, page 371 and the following, narrates that translation in these words: That was the time in which the relics of the most blessed Audoënus, archbishop of Rouen, were carried over to our monastery. The cause of the removal was this. Queen Emma, King Æthelred being dead, had crossed over to Normandy to her brother, thinking nothing safe for herself among the Danes who had occupied England. Long therefore dwelling at Rouen, she had allured by gifts into friendship both other monks of St. Ouen's and the sacristan of the place, aiming chiefly at this, that she might purchase for herself the body of the blessed Prelate: for so did Christianity grow cheap, so did greed increase, that we make merchandise of the bodies of the Saints, offering their blessed remains for sale.

[55] that notable bones of St. Ouen were translated into England At first the monk shuddered at the monstrous crime; but afterward, being driven by the necessity of his nephew, who, taken captive in France, desired his ransom, he set forth the merchandise that was asked. The woman, having gained the rich booty, when at a calmer season she had returned to England, brought the rest of the body to Canterbury, and kept the head in her private keeping. But after many years, when her son Edward had taken the kingdom, the memory of past things stirred the royal heart against his mother: for because she had been little generous toward her offspring while he was passing his tender years, he ordered all his mother's furniture to be plundered; and it came about that a certain goldsmith, who had been her private servant, stole away the Saint's shrine with the head, while the rest were gaping after the treasures. He deposited it with his brother, a monk, whom he had at Malmesbury, judging that sacred things could be entrusted to none more fitly than to a monk. And not long after, satisfying his fate, he left a perpetual memory of himself to the place which he had ennobled with such treasures. These things I have received \ as scattered abroad by no doubtful authorities, but by men most eminent in age, in credit, and in knowledge. But that it is not part of our office to write of the miracles of Audoënus, he will judge who has read the great books published by the care of our elders concerning his deeds, and deservedly most famous.*

[56] From the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, which was printed among the aforesaid fifteen English writers, by Emma, queen of England, we gather approximately at what time that translation of St. Ouen into England could have taken place: for there at page 271, at the year 1002, the following is read: In this year King Æthelred married Emma, the gem of the Normans, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. Then at page 273, at the year 1014, this is added: The king, being dismayed,

sent his wife Emma with his two sons, together with the bishop of London, to Richard II, Count of Normandy, Emma's brother. Finally, in the same place the death of King Æthelred is fixed in the year of Christ 1017. From these things it follows that that English translation must have been made after the times of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, who in the tenth century ordered the body of St. Ouen to be uncovered whole with the head, as we related in the preceding paragraph.

[57] But François Pommeraye implicitly denies the narrative of William of Malmesbury reported above, which narrative Pommeraye implicitly denies. although perhaps he never knew it, when in the often-praised French History of the Abbey of Rouen, book 2, chapter 7, number 8, he asserts that the whole body of St. Ouen was honorably shut up by Hugh, prelate of Rouen, at the command of Duke Richard I, and that from that time it remained at Rouen, together with the head, until the year 1562, in which the sacrilegious Calvinists consumed most of the relics of the monastery of Rouen in the flames, as we noted above. Hence Pommeraye in the same place at the following number says that he doubts the genuineness of the head of St. Ouen which Raissius assigns to a place between Cambrai and Arras. We can reconcile the narrative of William of Malmesbury, who flourished before the middle of the twelfth century, neither with Raissius nor with Pommeraye, and therefore we leave this dispute undecided until fuller and more certain information comes from elsewhere. If therefore the people of Rouen contend that the whole body of St. Ouen together with the head rested among them until the year of Christ 1562, they will have to set aside the testimonies of William of Malmesbury and Raissius, and to bring forward older documents of their continuous possession.

[58] But whatever those bones of St. Ouen may have been which Queen Emma is said to have carried over from Normandy into England, that the feast of this holy Prelate was of old wont to be celebrated in England, and that his sacred relics were honored there, we learn from the ancient Acts, or rather miracles, of St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, Although this Saint had an ancient cult in England, in which, with us at the XIX day of May, or volume IV of that month, page 378, the following is reported from an old writer: A certain virgin devoted to God came into the city for the sake of prayer, wretched in this, that from her birth she had not seen the light of this world, but blessed in this, that with ever-burning desire she had sought the eternal light. And when it chanced that the birthday of the holy confessor of Christ, Audoënus the bishop, was at hand, on which likewise the memory of all the others whose relics are contained in the church of the Saviour was celebrated with special veneration, she besought the keepers of the church that she might be allowed to keep vigils there on that night. Then it is set forth how that blind virgin obtained sight by the intercession of St. Dunstan. Of the relics of this our Saint, unless I am mistaken, there is mention in Gervase, the English monk, who among the Ten English Writers published at London in the year 1652, column 1457, in his Chronicle at the year of Christ 1180 narrates a miracle wrought by them in this manner: On the eleventh Kalends of June, when the city of Canterbury was being laid waste by fire, and, many houses being already consumed, danger threatened the church of the Holy Trinity, the monks bore the shrine of St. Audoënus against the fire, and straightway the flame, hissing as if turned back upon itself by the wind — nay rather by the power of God — did not presume to advance further.

[59] and there, on Capgrave's testimony, John Capgrave the Augustinian, in the New Legend of England, folio XXI, published a compendious Life of the holy Prelate of Rouen, to which he subjoins the ancient translation of his relics and some miracles in this manner: About the year of the Lord nine hundred and fifty-six, in the time of King Edgar, there came into England four clerics, and presenting themselves at the royal court, they were brought into the sight and converse of the king. And when they judged that they had found a fit time, they in familiar address brought to the king's ears that they had brought the relics of St. Audoënus into his kingdom. But the king, hearing the name of St. Audoënus, was astonished, and answered that he could by no means believe it. But they, asserting that nothing was truer, added: "Prove it in whatever way shall please thee most, by fire or by trials of any miracles: and if it appear, the miracles being silent, that it is not the body of the aforesaid Father, thou shalt banish us from thy kingdom, punished by whatever law shall be just, as guilty of so great a lie." And the king said: "This ought to be determined not by a secular but by an ecclesiastical examination. Wait therefore until the archbishop come, and hear what you say, and having heard, examine and judge it, and pass sentence as to what is to be held in so great a matter."

[60] through his sacred relics But when the holy archbishop Odo had come, and the Clerics, being questioned, had persevered in their assertion, and had earnestly besought with great prayers that the matter might be investigated by the trial of a divine showing, the bishop said: "Let some leper be brought, that from the issue with him we may know what we are to hold with sure faith concerning these relics. For we believe St. Audoënus to be of such piety, of such power, and of such merits, that, if he indeed is he of whom we treat, he will not in his goodness deny us those things which we humbly ask for the glory of God and for his own manifestation." There was therefore brought into the midst a man corrupted with the horrid foulness of his body; whom the pontiff Odo, signing thrice with one of the bones that had been brought in the manner of a cross, at the invocation of the name of St. Audoënus straightway so healed, every horror of corruption being wiped away, that no trace at all of so great an evil remained in the man. There was brought also upon a bed another sick man, dissolved in his whole body by the disease of palsy, presenting in himself by his face, his voice, and the numbness of all his limbs an image of death rather than of life. The pontiff therefore, taking up the head of those relics, laid it upon the body now almost lifeless, and on bended knees prayed prostrate that for the merits and intercessions of blessed Audoënus the paralytic might be restored to his former health, if indeed that were his head while he lived in this transitory life. Wonderful is the mercy of God, and truly to be admired his power! Straightway at the touch of the sacred head the man is raised up whole, and rejoicing and exulting in a voice of praise and with jubilation of heart returns to his own. There were wrought also by these same relics at that time not a few other miracles, which for brevity's sake we have passed over, being unwilling to burden anyone with prolixity.

[61] These things being so done, the king, the bishops, and those who were present, being greatly gladdened, glorified God in his Saint. many miracles Then the king, having taken counsel with the pontiff, meets the clerics, and diligently inquires what he ought to do for them in return for the obtaining of the sacred things which they had brought. They report this and that according to their own wish. Then the king's munificence extended the abundance of his bounty beyond what they asked, and he said to the pontiff: "Since the regard of God's grace has exalted us and the kingdom of the English by the presence of so great a Friend of his, it seems fitting that we too should procure to bestow upon the Saint himself, who has deigned to come to us, a perpetual dwelling in the greatest and worthiest place of the whole kingdom. Wherefore, reverend father, translate these holy relics with fitting reverence to the church over which by God's authority thou dost preside, and commend that church and whatever belongs to it to his patronage and protection." And when the bishop had done this, those Clerics, considering the dignity of the place and the religion of the monks, became monks among them, and continued unceasingly in the service of God and of blessed Audoënus until the end of their lives. And a precious shrine was made, in which the sacred bones, wrapped in various coverings, were laid with honor.

[62] When a certain monk of the church of Canterbury was vexed by a demon, were wrought, the Brethren, having taken counsel, took the relics of St. Audoënus and carried them to the sick Brother. They had not yet entered the door of the house in which he was held bound with iron; and behold, he within was crying out with a loud voice, saying: "What is this? Whither are you going? Know that I have nothing in common with St. Audoënus, nor think that I shall be brought before him by any force or art. Wherefore depart as you came, and be not willing to weary yourselves in vain." Yet they undaunted bring the struggling demoniac violently with them, as he ceaselessly cried out that force and injury were done him, but that he in all ways detested the presence of St. Audoënus. And so, one of the bones of St. Audoënus being laid upon him, he at once grew quiet, freed from his madness, nor was he thereafter wearied with any such frenzy.

[63] From this chronology of Capgrave and the narrative of William of Malmesbury it follows nevertheless concerning the time of this translation that various relics of St. Ouen were brought into England at different times: for the relics of St. Ouen which the aforesaid Clerics in the year 956 offered to King Edgar and to Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, are without doubt, according to the order of time, different from those which Queen Emma, the mother of St. Edward, carried over from Normandy into England in the eleventh century, as is gathered from what has been said above. But we greatly wonder that in the narratives both of Capgrave and of William of Malmesbury mention is made of the sacred head of St. Ouen (add the head of the same Saint assigned by Raissius above), which we can by no means combine, unless a part of the head be taken for the whole head, or another St. Audoënus the bishop be assigned to whom those relics belong. Wherefore we ask the learned English not to think it a burden to untie that intricate knot and to reconcile these things with one another.

[64] there occur intricate difficulties for us, It cannot be answered that the relics recorded by Capgrave and William of Malmesbury are perhaps the same as those of which Fulbert, among the miracles, will write below at the end as follows: In the time of the illustrious king William, of whom we have made mention above, the above-entitled Nicholas, abbot of the monastery of blessed Audoënus, relying on divine comfort, began to build a church with laudable adornment and workmanship, worthy of the honor of so great a Father; for the cost of which building he took care to send some men beyond the sea with a little casket of sacred relics, who should suggest this to the devotion of the faithful, that of their own free will they might offer some gifts for the fabric of the temple. And so, the sea being crossed, when the envoys had entered the borders of the English, straightway the glory of the most holy Confessor became known to all, not so much by their words as by the evident tokens of signs.

[65] which we set before the English and the people of Rouen. In the first place it may be doubted whether that casket of relics of St. Ouen, which the envoys of Rouen carried into England to collect alms, was not afterward carried back by them into Normandy. If it was brought back from England into Normandy, certainly these relics differ from those which remained in the church of Canterbury. Moreover this translation of relics happened under Abbot Nicholas the Norman, and so is later than the other translations recorded by Capgrave and William of Malmesbury, since that abbot Nicholas first began to preside over the monastery of St. Ouen in the year of Christ 1042, as Pommeraye in the History of that abbey, book 3, chapter 7, number 17, proves. Unless therefore Capgrave and William of Malmesbury wrongly altered times and persons,

several and various relics of St. Ouen were translated into England at different times. Further, in this darkness we shall await fuller light; and after the twofold Life of St. Ouen and the history of the translation we shall submit to the press also those miracles which occurred through his sacred remains at Rouen or elsewhere.

\ perhaps accepi*.

THE FIRST LIFE,

by a nearly contemporary anonymous author,

From a manuscript of St. Saviour's at Utrecht, never before published.

Dado or Ouen, bishop of Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 0750

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

PROLOGUE.

An obscure The life of holy men, although it be glorious in its examples, is for the most part hard to arise to the telling. While the dull mind of man in no wise shines with oracles, it stands sluggish and useless for setting them forth, and a pious will exhorts [it] ^a; devotion indeed draws his mind, but a too-slow understanding weighs down the judgment of the will. It is necessary, therefore, that we seek help from our Redeemer, who gives wisdom without upbraiding. May he, the bountiful, minister upon the tablets of the heart, who articulated in syllables the speech of the ass; and may he strongly strengthen my lips to relate the life of the venerable Audoënus, that hereby Christ may be praised among the nations, while the Saints are venerated in their excellent virtues.

[2] The odor of the field which the Lord hath blessed breathes forth its fragrance, and shines in many: and metaphorical prologue of the author. and therefore mother Church greatly exults, while some glitter with glorious works, some glow red as roses among thorns, some are white as lilies upon their stems, some breathe fragrance after the manner of wine, which holds nectar and the balsams of spices; and so it comes to pass that Almighty God is delighted with the odors of his field, is fed with its virtues, is glorified in its works, is adored as Lord: so that he who in the height of heaven delights in the angelic song, sustaining human poverty, purchases heavenly things from earthly ones; so that the Church may follow her head, Christ her author, and may reign without end through the ages ^b. Therefore, by the Lord's favor, I will set forth what I have purposed to relate.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's native country, his brothers, his life at court, his virtues, and his passage from the court to the episcopate.

The Saint, born in Gaul, In the times of Lothar, the glorious prince, and likewise ^a of King Hilderic, in the province of the Gauls, in the town of Soissons, there sprang three venerable men, born noble of one seed, illumined from heaven by the grace of God: Ado, Dado, and Rado ^b. Their father was Audechairus ^c, and their mother by name Aiga ^d: both adorned with the crown of Christianity; who from the first rudiments of infancy were formed in the keenness of letters, beloved by the prince himself, and most prudently instructed by illustrious men. The firstborn, Ado ^e, flourished in the monastic order, and, seeking the religious life, trampled upon the malice of this world; but Rado ^f, being made keeper of the treasures of the palace, having obtained the dignity of the world, girt with the fear of the Lord, generous in almsgiving, faithfully guarded all things and served in his offices. The venerable Audoënus, then, surnamed Dado, exalted as pontiff to the episcopal chair, having obtained together with honor the favor of the king, discharged \* his office for long seasons.

[4] After the death of Lothar ^g, his son Dagobert ^h was set up as prince in his father's place, a man exceedingly shrewd and crafty in wit, terrible in his kingdom. at the court of the kings of the Franks He, holding the royal scepters, like a fiery lion pressing down the necks of his subjects, triumphed over the fierceness of the nations with a hedging strength: under whose imperial dominion the aforesaid Man of the Lord served at that time, having obtained the king's ring ⁱ, beloved by very many, and administered subtly the honor entrusted to him. What more? Being beloved by the prince himself for the love of his service, and greatly trusted by the king among the other attendants, he shone in his time for the oracle of his wisdom.

[5] lived piously, Thereafter the Servant of Christ, esteeming the honors of the world of little worth, most devoutly panting for the heavenly kingdoms, frequent in fastings, spending the night in vigils, assiduous in prayers, generous in alms, cheerfully honoring the poor for the name of Christ, was most ready in the commandments of God: for very often beneath a belt hedged with the gleam of gems, and beneath purple woven with shining gold, out of ardor of faith he pressed the very frame of his body with a rough hair shirt. And so, being constant in the warfare of the world, while he was strong as a fit soldier, and did not depart from the divine commands, fulfilling the Lord's precept where he says: Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's, the Lord so formed his soldier that he should minister to earthly dignities in such wise as not to derogate from heavenly ones. Oh, how great a love and zeal he had toward religious men and the servants of God! Whatever divine grace conferred upon others he reckoned as his own gain.

[6] and being raised to the episcopate, Hence he joined to himself in the charity of faith blessed Eligius ^k, bishop of Noyon, approved in virtues: so that like two most rich olive trees, or two golden candlesticks shining, both alike, illumined by the Sun of righteousness, shone in the hall of the palace. Whom the Lord, seeing him acceptable and careful concerning his commandments, rescued from the shipwrecking earthly world and adorned with the pontifical chair. Placing his see in the city of Radonium ^l, the excellent Priest discharged his office. Wherefore, being chosen shepherd by the Lord, and made an excellent preacher, forming the Lord's flock both by words and by works: so, by the Lord's protection, being strengthened in the religion of the faith, he turned the most savage fierceness of the Franks into meekness, and from the sacred font tempered it with the sweetness of honey, and consecrated his parishes to divine worship; so that, the rite of the heathen being abandoned, they of their own accord bowed their necks to the yoke and service of Christ.

[7] he exercises various virtues, How many churches, and how many monasteries of both sexes, were founded by this Pontiff, if anyone wishes clearly to know, let him range through his parishes, and he will see that he might marvel as at Egypt for its throng of monks. Therefore the Man of God himself, both by words and by examples, guarded the Lord's sheep and the folds of the faithful from the bites of wolves. Who can ever imitate his life and the strait and narrow way of the Redeemer, by which he went to the heavenly kingdoms? Who could say that he was ever sated either with food or with drink? Whom hunger of body had so wasted that his flesh was worn away and suffused with the pallor of leanness, his cheeks moistened with the shower of tears, his neck pressed down by the compass of an iron circle, his arms, together with the rest of his limbs, were bound by the gift of rings.

[8] and chastises his body. The soldier of Christ, as though chained for the love of the Lord, had bound himself in such custody; and had condemned the desires of the world, and hastened to the heavenly country; and just as in the time of persecution the martyrs of Christ, at the hands of tyrants, condemned to the dungeon of prison and thrust into the mines, poured out their precious blood for the name of Christ, so this man also in a time of peace, when persecution had ceased, pressed upon himself as a fervent soldier, and, illustrious in confession, by pursuit deserved the palm of martyrdom. And afterward, what sort of bed he fitted for himself, and what rest he furnished to his poor body, let it not irk us to relate. He made the rest of his pallet not of the softness of feathers but of a heap of wood; and, as though wearing out his body in a dungeon, he spat upon the flattering trappings of the world, agreeing with the saying of the Apostle, where he says: That the tribulations of this world are not to be esteemed in comparison with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in the Saints. O virtue of abstinence and mortification of the flesh, which sendest the soldiers of Christ to the heavens! O fervor of charity, which so burnest in the breast that, despising fleeting things, thou dost penetrate the kingdoms of the heavens! Thus did the Lord work in his servant Audoënus, and nobly exalted him in this life, and adorned him with the ornament of his virtues, and after so great a labor gave him rest. These few things must be briefly concluded, lest an unpolished discourse weary ^m.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ for functus est*, as below.

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's pious pilgrimages, and the miracles wrought in them.

The Saint frees Spain from drought, Let my discourse pass to his miracles, which I learned from his disciples ^a, competent witnesses, relating them, and I have taken care to append a few out of many. When the Saint of God himself had ascended from the lay estate to the pontifical burden by royal command, he feared

according to the saying of the Apostle, where he forbade that a neophyte should be ordained, lest he should by any means fall into the snare of the devil. Having undertaken penance, he becomes an exile from his country, while a year revolved in its season, that through degrees and orders he might deservedly become a learned scribe in the Church: thence he went forth into the parts of Spain, where the Lord wrought a great miracle. Nearly seven years were already being completed in which that region labored under drought, and the earth being turned to dryness, barrenness and famine and the disease of pestilence threatened destruction on every side. At length the merciful God, seeing the affliction of his people, having pity upon human labors, at the entrance of his servant Audoënus straightway granted rain, and tempered a wondrous shower upon the thirsting earth. Whence a happy report penetrated the lands of the Goths ^b. Not undeservedly is St. Ouen compared to the virtues of Elias: since among the people of Israel, for their wickedness, the heavens were shut three years and six months; whence, at Elias's prayer, an abundance of rains poured upon the parched earth. So at last our Lord Jesus Christ, through his Servant, his grace being invoked, filled Spain with waters.

[10] enjoys angelic company, And so the Man of the Lord, being greatly strengthened by this miracle, grew strenuously in fervor of charity, and, shuddering at worldly honor, forsook that land and more earnestly sought the contemplative life. He gave himself wholly, and wholly bestowed himself upon God. Hence, being hedged about with angelic protection and having obtained a certain attendance, he often conversed with the Saints. And so it is certain that his disciples, often beholding it visibly, perceived a very great light shining about his pallet. And the Servant of Christ Jesus, enjoying the converse of the Saints, exulted in the Lord; and thence the Man of the Lord, with the Apostle forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forward to those before, made the sanctuary of his heart a temple of the Holy Spirit, and deserved to see the Lord, as it is written: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Thence proceeded virtue out of virtue, purity out of a clean heart, the possession of things out of patience. From the working of virtues the Servant of the Lord grew upon earth; and as his works followed him, he took up the heavenly kingdom, and deserved it.

[11] works a miracle in Gaul, Almighty God glorified his Servant by manifesting him among very many nations, and adorned him with Apostolic signs. It happened once that, as he was making a journey through the district of Anjou ^c, a certain poor man on the Lord's day was working at the mill and making flour. But his hand was fastened to the handle by which the mill was turned, so that his thumb, passing almost through the framework of sinews and veins, and from the upper part cold blood flowed out; and the guilty man, paying for his offense, held the handle fast in his hand and was by no means able to cast it away. Whence terror and very great amazement had fallen upon the people. And so, when the holy man was going to those places, the poor man himself, rolling at his feet and declaring his guilt, says that he had suffered this because on the day of the holy Resurrection he had worked against the Lord's command. But when the Man of the Lord saw him, being moved with mercy, he imprinted the sign of the holy cross upon the withered hand, and recalled it to its former health; and admonishing him, he gives him wholesome counsel that he should never again do servile work on the Lord's day, lest afterward through contempt worse things should befall him than the former, saying that the Jews by the Lord's precept observed the sabbath by reason of the law of the commandment; how much more ought Christians, who are redeemed by his blood, to venerate the Lord's day.

[12] And so the holy man scattered through divers parishes the seeds of virtues and the keen points of his words. and returning from a Roman pilgrimage, For since his mind, for love of the Holy Trinity, ever panted after heavenly things, he burned with the desire that he should hasten to Rome to adore the thresholds of the holy Apostles; which also he did, although wearied with long and lengthy age, wasted with abstinence of body, and almost dissolved in the frame of his limbs. The eager Soldier, overcoming the height of the Alps and the ridges of the Pyrenees ^d with their exceedingly ancient masses, for the love of the Lord and of his disciples gave himself over to peril, fulfilling his vows, satisfying his desire, visiting the monuments of the Saints, and prostrate in body upon their pavements imprinting kisses; and what he had long desired, he devoutly fulfilled. And so the Man of God, supported by the suffrages of the Saints, traversing the places of the Saints, gaining the profits of prayers, bearing with him relics of many Saints, and with an angel of the Lord accompanying him, returning to the parts of Gaul, by the obtaining of his prayer ministered the health of souls and of bodies.

[13] But when he had come to the border of his diocese, is received with great joy of his diocese, the citizens of the suburbs and the common people, exulting for joy and at the same time weeping, throw themselves in crowds to meet him, and go forth to meet their loving Shepherd with crosses and lamps, giving thanks to the Lord, who had restored to them their shepherd and bishop unharmed. Thence a happy messenger made known his coming to the royal court; and both king and queen together with the nobles of the palace came rejoicing to meet him, clapping their hands together and blessing Christ, who had caused such a man and so great a shepherd to return into their kingdom. Certain of the priests and bands of monks, and many nuns, came to meet him, who, lifting their voices to heaven, sang praises to the Lord, saying: "We give thee thanks, Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who hast heard the voices of those who cry to thee, and hast given us back the shepherd of our souls and likewise the provider for our bodies." Meanwhile the poor exulted, crying out that God had sent back to them their benefactor.

[14] Thereafter, when blessed Audoënus had returned in peace to his own, and fosters peace among his people. he found that in the peaceful kingdom of the Franks scandals had arisen among the princes of the palace, at the instigation of the devil, the sower of discord. Then the Man of the Lord, taking up the arms of righteousness, spending the night in vigils and excessive fastings and assiduous prayers, labored mightily for their concord. To many it is not unknown how many and how heavy sighs flowed from his breast, and how many tribulations his blessed old age endured, that he might render those men peaceable whose souls divisions had defiled. And that slaughters might not be committed by the shedding of human blood, he labored piously and faithfully almost to the very limit of death, fulfilling the evangelical precept, fulfilling the true command of the Shepherd, and willingly laying down his life for the sheep. What shall I first relate of the miracles which the Lord wrought through him in Spain, in Italy, or in the parishes of Gaul? To recount them is a very long task; but the places are witnesses where the miracles were wrought; yet I have taken care to append a few out of very many to this work.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's journey to reconcile peace, his death, the honorable translation of his body, his burial, and a miracle.

The Saint, having set out for Cologne, Therefore, while St. Ouen seemed ever to strive for the concord of peace, as time went on discord arose anew between the nation of the Franks and the Austrasians ^a. And so the Man of God, going forth and taking up holy counsels, relying on the help of God, came as a son of peace to the city of Cologne ^b. Thence he enters the city for the sake of exploring the churches, taking with him relics from the multitude of the martyrs, which he laid up with the greatest honor in his own city. Now in that city there was a certain man who for eleven years had not been able to utter a word from his mouth, dumb the whole time, until the Lord reserved that miracle for the honor of his servant Audoënus, that at his coming he might restore speech to the dumb man, and that the tongue long foul might sound forth the praises of God: upon whose head the Man of the Lord, imprinting the sign of the holy cross, commands him by a word to speak; and he straightway began to speak and to render praises to the Lord.

[16] peace being composed between the Austrasians and the Neustrians, Thence returning to Neustria ^c, peace being restored and confirmed, he came to the city of Verdun ^d. And as he entered the church, a certain woman began to be violently vexed by an unclean spirit, who with rapid course attempted to attack the Man of God. And so the Pontiff grasped her head with his hand, and by the invocation of the Lord Jesus Christ violently cast out the demon, and restored her whole to her parents. Thence he came prosperously to the palace, and declared all that he had done; and the true priest announced the kingdoms united and the peace of the people united. And so between both parties, by God's help, a united peace endured for some little time.

[17] Now let my unpolished discourse rest, lest it beget weariness, and let my speech tend to the death of the holy Man. When, by the Lord's protection, on his return he dies not far from Paris, he had come to the villa of Clichy ^e for the need of the king and the peoples, Theodoric ^f and Queen Rotild ^g reigning, and Waratto ^h administering as subregulus, the time came that by the divine will the soul of the holy Man should depart from the world. And when sickness of body had come upon him, he began to burn with heavy fevers; but the holy Man often besought the Lord that he would now free him from the body; and the Lord, hearkening to the prayers of his Servant, permitted the burden of the flesh to be laid down and the glory of paradise to be enjoyed. Therefore the true Israel, returning out of Egypt, his holy soul, borne by angels, flew to the Lord. There is great lamentation; all the royal dignity is shaken, all loftiness is humbled, all joy is turned into mourning, all laughter is stilled, great bitterness came on, the royal house bewails its most prudent counsellor; but plainly the whole people rise up in lamentation, because they saw him dead who had ever procured peace for the people, and had manfully labored that human blood should not be shed.

[18] At length all the doors of the palace were stirred. and with great funeral pomp Therefore the king with the queen and the assembly of bishops, and the mayors of the palace, or the chief men of the palace, all gathered together, bearing the holy Man upon a bier, celebrated the holy obsequies with mourning. Each rejoiced and counted it the greatest gain who might deserve to bear the body of the blessed Man upon his shoulders. And as he was borne with the greatest honor as far as the bridge of the Oise ⁱ, with worthy funeral adornment, both king and queen and all the people, keeping vigils, spent the whole night in the praises of God. Thence the royal dignity returned to its own with great sadness.

[19] But when, at the gathering to him of very many bishops together with their abbots or priests, and a multitude of Clerics with the rest of the people, they had entered with great fervor the town of the Vexin ^k, translated to Rouen bearing the bier upon their shoulders, others came together with lamps and singing hymns to God and awaiting the bier at each several place; and, as we said, mingled with sadness, they bore the blessed body, and buried it with great honor in their own city of Rouen in the basilica of St. Peter the Apostle; where the Lord Jesus Christ, by the aid of his merits, wrought signs

deigned to work many mighty works. And not only in that place, but also throughout many provinces where the holy Man himself, living in the body, had rested. Yet in that very place where he is now seen to rest, many miracles shine forth at the present time, where the blind are given light, lepers are cleansed, the lame receive the restoration of their steps, demoniacs are cured, and divers diseases are healed by his merits.

[20] It is long to relate such great miracles as the Lord deigned to show there through the merits of blessed Audoënus. is honorably buried, It is enough to have said a few things out of very many: yet whoever wishes to know this clearly, let him range through Gaul, Aquitaine, Spain, or Italy, and he will find that it is true as we have narrated, and will nowhere prove it \* false. But the blessed body rested about three years and nine months in the place which he had built for himself. After this it seemed good to the bishop his successor that it should be translated to a more excellent place behind the altar of St. Peter the Apostle; and so the bishop called together very many bands of monks and all the clergy of the church and the people of the suburb and of that province and city; and as they came from every side for love of him, they kept the whole night in the festival of vigils. The morning praises being ended, they translated that holy body with great trembling from the place above mentioned, on the day of the Lord's Ascension, the fortieth day after the glorious resurrection of the Lord, which Christian peoples venerate with great honor.

[21] and there is illustrious for miracles. Now let it not irk us to make known the miracle which was wrought on that same day when they translated the holy body. There had befallen the aforesaid bishop a violent bodily sickness, which the common people declare to be the tertian fever ^l: it shook him violently, and, seized with fever, death drew nearer more sharply through his heavy gasping. And while the festival of the Masses was being celebrated by the priests, the Clergy standing by with all the people, the fever being wiped away, the bishop straightway received health, and, whole and sound, hastened to his lodging. And when the pontiff himself with his own hand and with faith took up the napkin which lay upon the head of Audoënus for the sake of the relics, he obtained by the Lord's bounty both health for himself and for very many others out of that same infirmity. A joyful banquet of the poor is held on the day of his deposition, and all being gathered into one, they praised the Lord and rendered unspeakable thanks abundantly for their shepherd, namely the lord Audoënus, in that he who had fed them abundantly in this present life prepared for them so great a feast after his departure ^m.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ that is, comprobabit*.

THE SECOND LIFE,

By an anonymous author, whom nevertheless some name Fridegod.

From the manuscript codices of the monastery of Corneux, of Val-des-Choux, and of the Charterhouse of Dijon.

Dado or Ouen, bishop of Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 0751

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

This author seems to have drawn his prologue The Creator of the world, Almighty God, as he adorned the heavenly sphere with many but diverse stars, so ceases not to make the Church, still a pilgrim upon earth, shine as it were with certain lights. Of whom some flash with miracles, others water the hearts of the pious with saving doctrine, like rain. Some are ruddy as the rose with the glory of martyrdom; some are white as the lily with the integrity of virginity ^a. Prudence makes these prudent, justice makes those just, fortitude makes others brave, temperance makes some temperate. Yet one bond of charity joins all both to one another and to their Creator, whereby the particular things of all become the universal things of each; and as a garden planted with divers kinds of spices or herbs diffuses far and wide a most sweet odor, so these men, fragrant to God and to men with their virtues, say: We are the good odor of Christ unto God. And that: To some indeed we are the odor of life unto life, to others the odor of death unto death. In which most holy Church of God blessed Audoënus the bishop shone forth as a most splendid star, or a most solid pillar, or even a most white lily; since he illumined the peoples with his teaching as with the rays of a star; against all the assaults of diabolical or heretical wickedness he stood as an immovable pillar; as a lily he shone with the virtue of chastity: for he was distinguished by the honor of virtue, praiseworthy for the admiration of his modesty, lofty in illustrious dignity, and lowly in most shining humility.

[2] from the prologue of the first Life and to have illustrated it. Finally he trampled by the virtue of patience upon the vices with which human frailty is vexed. Vain cares he drove far away; the motions of his soul he wonderfully restrained with the strong reins of constancy, like an illustrious master of the games. For he strove in a twofold contest, while he both abundantly imparted to his people the word of immortality and ceased not unceasingly to take thought for the salvation of his own soul; and therefore, the braver he was in the struggle, the more illustrious, and now indeed the more gloriously, is he praised by the Lord. That we may be able to set down with our pen something worthy of his excellent life, we must invoke the supreme majesty of the holy and undivided Trinity, that he who once granted human speech to a dumb she-ass ^b may deign to bestow upon us understanding and abundance of words for the narrating of divine things.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's native country, parents, boyhood, brothers, and pious life at the court of the kings of the Franks.

The Saint in boyhood In the times of Lothar, the glorious prince, son of King Chilperic \, about the twentieth year ^a from his holding the scepters of the kingdom of the Franks, in the town of Soissons — five miles distant from that city, in a place called Sanciacum ^b — there sprang venerable men, born noble of one seed and illumined by the grace of God: Ado, Dado, and Rado. And they were born of a father Autharius and a mother Aiga. Although they were most noble in origin of the flesh, yet they were most zealous in the devotion of the Christian religion. All that they possessed, whether in lands or in riches, they bestowed with the utmost zeal upon the needs of guests, pilgrims, poor men, and monks, working, according to the Apostle, good toward all, but especially toward the household of the faith. Both were pure in integrity of faith, eminent in the hope of long-suffering, unfeigned in charity. To receive with the ear the word of life, and to keep it in the heart, from such as were commended by doctrine and purity of faith and holiness of manners, they were busy without weariness. In whose house there sounded, not as is wont in the banquets of certain worldly men the foul songs of mimes and \ players, but the oracles of the Gospel, or of the Apostles, or of the Prophets. That day they held holy, that day they accounted truly solemn, when they had deserved to entertain some preacher of the divine word.

[2] Now it happened at that time that a man beloved of God, Columbanus ^c by name, a Scot by race, the founder of the monasteries of Luxeuil in Gaul and of Bobbio in Italy, had come from the island of Ireland into the Gauls. receives a blessing from St. Columbanus Who, leaving his native soil, his parents' house, and all those things which the lovers of the world use as great, took up voluntary poverty and a most healthful pilgrimage for the love of Christ and of the heavenly kingdom. What the doctrine or the life of this man was, he who desires to know may learn from the book which sets forth his life and manners in polished speech. And it happened at those same times that blessed Columbanus, the notable worshipper of God, had returned from the house of Hagnericus ^d, the chief counsellor of King Lothar, and had come to a certain villa situated on the bank of the river Marne ^e, Vulciatum ^f by name, and there had found the aforesaid illustrious man Autharius with his noble wife Aiga. And when they had received the man of God, exulting with great joy, and were busy to please him with venerable services, amid the other saving conversations of the blessed men, the religious mother of the aforesaid three boys offered the little ones to the man of God, his worshipper, for blessing, beseeching that he would bless them with his holy blessing. And that holy man indeed, foreknowing things to come, seeing the faith of the pious mother, began to bless the little ones, and foretold in the spirit of prophecy that these would be

eminent in the virtues of the Christian religion, illustrious in honors and secular dignity, and glorious even in the court of kings.

[3] Nor could the blessing of so great a man be esteemed in any way empty or fortuitous. together with his full brothers, For as soon as they began to grow up, they were found most acceptable in all things, first to King Lothar and then to Dagobert. Therefore, tending to heavenly things amid the pestilent business of this world, they ever loved the fellowship of the saints; and although in a different order, yet the effect follows the promise. For the firstborn, Ado, despising all the obstacles of this world, denying himself and renouncing his own wills, chose to serve perpetually by divine favor in the camps of the eternal king; and, seeking the monastic life, he trampled upon the deadly sweetness of this world: he manfully founded the monastery of Jouarre upon the river Marne, on his own soil, according to the rule of the often-named kindly Columbanus ^g, with the help of his most blessed brother Audoënus, endowing it with goods and with all ecclesiastical benefits.

[4] But Rado, to hold the excellent order of his birth, was made chief steward of the royal treasures. and afterward at the court of King Dagobert, Which, dispensing them in just order, he guarded faithfully and in Christian wise; being nonetheless, amid the dignities of the world, subject also to holy religion; just and God-fearing in the precepts of the Lord, lovable in loving, generous in almsgiving, provident in his service; and living justly and piously, he ministered manfully and faithfully in the palace offices committed to him. St. Ouen therefore, surnamed Dado, having obtained the place of auricularius ^h at the king's court, himself also kept the seal or ring of the king for sealing the royal writings or edicts, of which he himself was the composer. And he was profound in understanding, copious in speech, provident in counsel, just in judgment, tall in stature of body, comely in countenance, and above all grounded in the charity of Christ; hence he was beloved of the king, and venerable to all the nobles and princes. At his nod all the business of the palace was carried on; his counsel all the nobles, and King Dagobert himself, regarded as a divine oracle. For his counsel was nothing else than what should bring advantage to the king and to the people.

[5] whom by pious admonitions Finally he constantly exhorted the king that he should piously worship Christ the King of all, his creator and redeemer, without whom no man reigns or rules justly, by loving him, fearing him, and obeying all the Lord's commandments; that he should consider himself rather the companion than the lord of the peoples subject to him; that he should spare the subject and war down the proud; that he should strenuously defend the bounds of his empire, lest they be broken through by the enemy, and should strive to enlarge those bounds unto the more abundant peace of the Church of Christ; and moreover that he should thrust out of the kingdom shameful persons, such as thieves and robbers, murderers, heretics, and other infamous persons. He admonishes him finally to have care above all things for churches and holy places, to devote himself to the zeal of renewing or building monasteries, and piously to succor the poor, pilgrims, widows, orphans, and all who suffer need; saying that this is just, that he ought to have compassion on the need of all who lie under his dominion.

[6] he stirred to virtue, And the aforesaid king himself willingly lent his ear to the Man of God in all things which he counselled. Wherefore he was both stronger than all his enemies and more fortunate than all the kings of the Franks who reigned before him. For at that time the renowned region of the Franks brought forth most noble swarms of holy men after the manner of bees, out of whose honey-flowing college the man of the Lord, Audoënus, the king's apocrisiarius ⁱ, already shone forth like a most splendid star, a great soldier of Christ, destined to profit the Church. Whence it is no wonder if that same king, the assault of evils being removed, already prospered in enjoying on every side the safeguard of peace, who was content with so prudent a counsellor.

[7] together with St. Eligius For there shone also his companion, admirable in the holiness of his virtues, at the king's court, Eligius ^k by name, whom he loved as his own soul. These had one love, one heart, and one soul. These with equal intent, still under a secular habit, served the eternal King; both most strong in the Christian faith, both filled with evangelical doctrine. From these all the nobles of the Franks took examples of the Christian religion; from these they drew the admonitions of saving doctrine. These knew how to preach the salvation of souls and the sweetness of the heavenly country. These, like two most valiant soldiers, with equal arms of faith, served the Church of Christ; whose armor the darts of heretical wickedness could assail, but could not pierce.

[8] he dwells piously, He also, although he seemed to remain in the king's palace under a military garb, was known by almost all to be rather a monk than a layman. For very often he shone outwardly in precious garments girt with a golden belt, and beneath, his flesh was covered with a hair shirt. He persevered untiringly in prayers, in fastings, in vigils, in divine reading, in the reception of guests; he was almost always given to the service of the poor and the sick. His earthly country he loved as a foreign land, the heavenly as his own. This he used as an exile; toward that he tended as a bird. Finally he, looking out in the recesses of the forest of Brie ^l, on the little river Rebais, the workshops necessary for all dwellings of the servants of God, and adorning a monastery upon his own patrimony, effectually built it under the same aforesaid rule, called Jerusalem ^m; where he happily procured for the true worshippers of Christ not only the present peace of quiet, but also the sure rest of the heavenly vision for his imitators, present and to come; and devoutly filled it with rich possessions, ecclesiastical ornaments, books, and other divers things pertaining to the service of God; and there he established a multitude of holy monks, and set over them as abbot a man exceedingly learned in regular discipline, from among the disciples of the kindly Columbanus, named Agilus ⁿ.

[9] And now he was meditating how, all the dignities of the world being cast off, he might submit himself to serve God alone without hindrance within the cloisters of a monastery. and aspires to greater perfection. But both the king and all the nobles resisted his pious will at that time, saying that he ought rather to take counsel for the advantage of very many than to make a deliberation for his own singularity alone. But the Man beloved of God, seeing himself bound alike by reason and by authority (for he knew it written: Be subject to all higher powers, and render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's), withdrew for a time his burning soul from that intention.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ elsewhere Hilperici*. \ elsewhere vel*.

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's zeal for the Catholic faith, his Spanish journey, and certain miracles.

The Saint, the heresy Meanwhile, King Dagobert, the most Christian, being dead, his son succeeded to the kingdom, Chlodovæus ^a by name; at the beginning of whose reign an abominable heresy defiled almost the whole East; so far that it perverted with its perverse dogma the patriarch Paul ^b himself, who presided over the city of Constantinople, and also the bishop of Alexandria ^c. For that plague asserted that our Lord Jesus Christ did not take true flesh ^d from the Virgin Mary. And when writings on this matter were sent by that Paul and by the other assertors of the ill-omened dogma, with the authority also of the emperor Constantine III ^e, grandson of Heraclius, to blessed Martin ^f, the Roman pontiff, that he too should consent to them and subscribe, he rejected with the utmost execration the taste of that deadly persuasion, saying that if the whole world had chosen to follow foreign dogmas and such as are alien from the faith, he

could by no means, either by threats or by blandishments, or by death itself, be torn away from evangelical and apostolic doctrine.

[11] which had crept from the East into Gaul, Without delay, sending forthwith an embassy to the king of the Franks, he asks that he would deign to send him with all speed men grounded in purity of faith and provident in word and wisdom, that with them and with all the prelates of Italy he might attempt, with the Lord's help, to offer some antidote against the poison of so great a wickedness. But the king, having gathered all the priests of his kingdom into one, declares what the legates of so great a pontiff assert, and orders that they should choose from among themselves such men as they did not doubt to be fit, by purity of faith and wisdom of word, to carry through the business of so great a matter. And they with one consent choose blessed Audoënus with St. Eligius to be appointed to this. And so great was the wisdom in the Man of God that, though he had not yet the priestly order, he was in wisdom preferred to almost all the priests then in France or Gaul — or, to speak more indulgently, made their equal. Yet a certain cause hindered their being sent thither at that time.

[12] Not long after, one assertor of that depraved dogma, driven out of Asia, he strongly refutes, came, a perfidious apostate, into the Gallic city of Ædua, which is now called Autun. And when it had been reported at the court of the king of the Franks that a tortuous serpent had already darted his horrible venom in the aforesaid city, and had infected many there, he straightway caused a synodal assembly of priests to be gathered at the city of Orléans. Where then blessed Audoënus with St. Eligius withstood the cunning devices and most powerful objections of that heretic; and, all his arguments being detected, in which as in certain pits he strove to hide himself, he persuaded all who were present, by manifest reason and by divine authority, that his deadly dogma was to be shunned and execrated; yet out of humility he yielded the palm of that victory to blessed Salvius, bishop and martyr ^g. The heretic, being thus convicted, was also expelled from the borders of the kingdom of the Franks. This he was wont to do not only against this man, but against all heretics, so that whomsoever he overcame in conflict he straightway compelled to flee into distant regions.

[13] Then, at the king's command, and at the persuasion of many religious men, but chiefly of the most blessed Eligius and he drives simony also out of it, whom he singularly loved above all, he received the tonsure of clerical life, the man of God Eligius laying aside his hair at one and the same time. And he pressed on daily more and more, that the faith of the church might remain undefiled, and might not deviate from the right path by any wickedness. But seeing that the simoniacal heresy had exceedingly prevailed in the kingdom of the Franks, which from the time of the impious Brunhilde ^h had polluted almost all the churches of the Franks, he began to urge upon the king and all the nobles that they should free with a saving medicine their country corrupted by such a plague. And he exhorted them by no means to consent that anyone should buy or sell holy orders; saying that such traffic was devised by diabolical fraud, and therefore must be utterly banished from the purity of ecclesiastical faith; that those rather were to be chosen for the heights of sacred ordinations whom not gold but sincerity of faith, sweetness of doctrine, and uprightness of manners commended.

[14] Meanwhile, the bishop of the city of Rouen, worthy of veneration, named Romanus ⁱ, being dead, and being elected bishop of Rouen, blessed Audoënus by the consent of all is compelled to take up the burden of the pontificate of that church. Both king and nobles, and likewise the clergy and people, testified with one voice that he alone was worthy of this, whose faith and doctrine and manners were suited to the receiving of so great a see. But he, though out of humility he refused, yet knowing how great a good obedience is, set the command of very many before his own will. And having received the pontifical see, he did not at once presume hastily to take the sacred order, knowing indeed amid what a flood and peril a neophyte would be ordained, lest perhaps, being lifted up, he should fall into the judgment and the snare of the devil. Although therefore all pride was utterly foreign to the holy Man, yet, that he might leave to posterity examples of humility, he refused, as has been said, to undertake improvidently the grade of so great a dignity, and with a certain trembling.

[15] before his ordination he preaches to the Spaniards, Nevertheless straightway, wholly leaving the palaces of the court, and leaving also his own see, he becomes an exile for the preaching of the word of God to nations set afar off. For crossing the Seine, and crossing also the Loire, he irradiated like a sun all who dwelt in those regions with the light of the saving word; in some he laid the foundations of faith, some he strengthened in the faith; some also, deceived by heretical wickedness, he converted to the standard of ecclesiastical faith. But when he had come to the Spains, he found that the peoples dwelling there had long labored under an excessive drought. For seven years had already passed since even a small drop of rain had touched those regions. And the Man full of God, seeing that if such distemper of the air were prolonged longer it portended not only peril but destruction, strove to turn aside the sword, as it were, hanging over them and ready to strike.

[16] and frees their fields from long drought, Prostrating himself therefore in prayer, he beseeches Almighty God that he who once, on account of idolatry and of the most impious Jezebel, had shut heaven for three years and six months against the people of Israel, and who at the prayer of the most blessed Elias had unlocked it with copious rain, would now also deign to bestow the gifts of his compassion upon a people justly afflicted for its own sins, and would not delay to water with a wholesome rain the earth parched with drought; that by a miracle shown outwardly the hearts of the peoples, torpid in faith, might burn more strongly to the praise of the Creator. Without delay, so great an abundance of rain followed the prayer of the Man of God that it seemed to recompense the former scarcity. You might see, I say, the heavens dropping dew there, showers rushing down, the air distilling in most plentiful drops, the fields filled with the bounties of the heavens, springs gushing forth, the fields growing rich, the trees laden with fruits, the plantations rising, the plains everywhere clothed with crops, the vineyards overflowing on the hills, the olives coming forth purpling, the odor of roses and lilies breathing more sweetly, and the husbandmen too, their strength restored, wearying the backs of their bullocks.

[17] after the example of the prophet Elias, Nor is it wonderful that the Man beloved of God was able, after the manner of Elias, to unlock the shut heaven with holy prayers, whom it is agreed to have been an imitator of the virtues of Elias in many things. For he flourished with the privilege of virginity, like Elias; he sharply rebuked offending kings and powers, like Elias; and no man's terrors or blandishments could lead him away from the path of rectitude, as neither could they lead Elias. He often used rough garments too, like Elias; and so the virtues of the most blessed Man are related in very many places, and the merit of his faith is commended far and wide throughout the world.

[18] and on his return to the city of Rouen The people of the Spains therefore being strengthened by his faith, his word, and his miracle, he at length arranged to go to his own see. And as on his return he was journeying through the region of Anjou, he met a certain poor man. Who, when on the Lord's day, contrary to ecclesiastical usage, he was performing a servile task, and was making flour at the mill, suddenly found the hand with which he turned the stone about withered and useless to him. For the thumb of that hand was so tightly bound to the upper part of the hand that blood came forth at the very fastening of the thumb; and the very piece of wood by which the mill was turned was held so tightly between thumb and palm that it could by no means be torn away thence. Falling therefore at the feet of St. Ouen, that poor man tearfully bewailed his misery, and at the same time confessed his guilt and his negligence.

[19] But blessed Audoënus imprinted the sign of the holy cross upon the contracted hand, he works another miracle. and commanded it to serve its former custom and to exercise its natural motion; admonishing then that poor man that on Lord's days and feast days he should remember rather to come to church and to hear the word of God, to fulfill it in deed, and to receive holy communion, than to turn a mill or to perform any servile work at all without the utmost necessity, saying: "If the Jews keep with such diligence the decrees of the law given through Moses, much more does it befit Christians ardently to hear and to keep the decrees of the Gospel given through Christ. And as the Jews perform no servile work on the sabbath, so Christians on the day of the Lord's resurrection ought to come together to church, to receive the word of God by hearing, to keep it in mind, and therefore to cease from servile work."

ANNOTATIONS.

his Annals of the Franks at the year 602 and following defends her reputation.

CHAPTER III.

His episcopal consecration, his virtues in that office, his austere manner of life, and his munificent building of monasteries.

The Saint, raised to the see of Rouen, Coming therefore to Rouen, he received the pontifical order according to ecclesiastical and canonical teaching, together with the most blessed Eligius. For on one day at Rouen both were ordained together: St. Ouen archbishop of that city, and Eligius bishop of Noyon, in the year of the Lord's incarnation six hundred and thirty-five ^a, in the second year ^b of the pontificate of the most blessed Pope Martin, supreme prelate of the Roman church, and in the third year ^c of Chlodovæus the king, son of Dagobert, who then held the summit of the kingdom of the Franks, on the day before the Ides of May, on the Lord's day before the Rogations ^d. Having therefore received the episcopate, what manner of man he afterward showed himself, who could worthily set forth? Or who is furnished with such abundance of words, or what discourse overflowing with such affluence of richness, could attain, as is fitting, to all his good qualities?

[21] in humility, Ever the same and robust, exercising himself in the pursuit of virtue, he persevered most constantly in his undertaken purpose: the same humility was in his heart, the same gravity in his countenance; he bore the same care for the poor, the same solicitude as before; the same brotherly love, the same constancy of mind remained in him — save that episcopal ambition, which to others is wont to furnish fuel for pomp, showed in him the greater zeal for self-abasement; and whence others seem for a time to be exalted, thence he strove the more to be humbled. He was therefore ever subject to Christ and armed with devotion, eminent in doctrine, worthy of the pontificate; humble in refusing honor, submissive in receiving it; a voluntary exile, most full of faith; obedient in God's precepts, believing in his promises; wealthy abroad, skillful in industry, teachable in work, long-suffering in hope, wise in converse, prudent in counsel, vehement in correcting, ardent in loving; patient in adversities, brave in perils, gentle in discipline, generous in almsgiving; assiduous in studies, watchful with the fear of death, eminent in the fear of God, magnificent in religion; devout at funerals, glorious in mercy; strenuous in discipline, endowed with excellent genius, distinguished in justice, terrible in severity; prompt to rebuke, ready to forgive; supreme in humility, eminent in hospitality.

[22] A most loving nourisher of the flock, a provident shepherd of the church, in mercy toward the poor a faithful steward, a distinguished ruler; guarding against his own offense, lamenting another's as his own; giving admonitions to the people and teaching the precepts of Christ; overcoming the insolent not with arms but with patience; subjecting the proud to the most sweet yoke of Christ: for he continued untiringly always in service to the poor and in diligence toward pilgrims. And he so bestowed his service upon them that, unless a man had a mind grounded in Christ, he would without doubt count it contemptible to offer even to his equals such things as this man continually showed to the wan and the despicable. Finally, all episcopal pomp being laid aside, the throng of peoples despised, the resort of princes spurned, the services of attendants left behind, he was ever delighted with the company of the poor and of captives. But why do I linger longer in narrating these things? I confess that never was anyone anywhere in the Gauls more zealous in good beginnings, never more persevering. For one might now and then take up a thing, but scarcely or with difficulty hold it perpetually. But this man held perpetually what he once purposed; what he first vowed to God he bound with no worldly business; what he took up in the beginning he carried through to the end.

[23] Finally, his pale face showed the rigor of his excessive abstinence: in austerity of life, his cheeks moist with tears indicated the contrition of his heart. Iron circles pressed his milk-white neck: iron equally bound his belly and his arms. Bearing about such marks in his body, the soldier of Christ, by the Lord's mercy, easily despised the enticements of pleasures and the persuasions of the devil. For he knew that the Lord Jesus Christ, to free us from eternal punishments, had endured far heavier things, and that many thousands of martyrs in the time of persecution had undergone for Christ bonds, prisons, fires, beasts, and innumerable kinds of torments. The very heap of his bed was made not of soft feathers or of embroidered coverlets, but of rough twigs. There he laid his poor body, wearied with fastings and vigils, as an acceptable victim to God, presenting, according to the apostolic precept, his body a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; chanting that saying of the Apostle: The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us: for very often in the chamber of his little bed a light of immense brightness sent forth from heaven was seen by his disciples, and angelic voices conversing with him were heard.

[24] Meanwhile he burned with the greatest zeal to build monasteries and holy places throughout all the provinces of the Franks, and shines with other virtues, but chiefly in his own diocese, where he caused several great and noble monasteries to be built from the foundations. And several which had been neglected through the sloth of former bishops and abbots he restored. Yet first of all he enriched the mother church itself, above all who were before him, with rich goods and very many treasures. And among other ornaments he made there a bed enclosed in gold \ for the love of the holy Mother of God, Mary. Finally he gathered a very numerous clergy, whom he wonderfully imbued with ecclesiastical discipline. In food and in what was necessary he showed himself a generous provider. He founded hospices and registers of the poor, and bestowed sufficient sustenance upon those dwelling there. With the same care and diligence he founded or restored public villages and parish churches. And no diocese in all the provinces of the Gauls could in his time surpass, or even equal, the diocese of Rouen in the devotion of the Christian religion. For so great was there the number of monasteries of either sex, namely of monks and of nuns, which at his institution suddenly shone forth as a harvest of divine sowing, that it seemed to equal in number and likewise in religion the monasteries of the Egyptians once begun by Antony. And he himself without intermission preached the word of God, being instant, according to the Apostle, in season and out of season, reproving, entreating, rebuking with all patience and doctrine*.

[25] and a rich man, Among the other miracles of virtue which that kindly prelate wrought, this by no means must be passed over, that by the power of his prayer he restored to the health he desired a certain illustrious man named Wanning. For that Wanning was preeminent in abundance of wealth and in secular dignity, who, by the most well-ordered and most merciful judgment of God, being smitten with a bitter disease, is carried off in an ecstasy of mind, being now almost dead, and beholds many torments of infernal punishment. Which is believed to have been wholly done by the dispensation of divine providence, both that the aforesaid man himself might thereafter be found more religious toward the worship of God, and that it might be published far and wide of how great merit with God he was who could by prayer free this man from that calamity and from the whirlpool of hell. And while he was still held bound by that disease under which he labored, he is visited by the blessed pontiff Audoënus. Which venerable pontiff, pouring forth prayer, gave a blessing over him, and restored him to his former health; giving this especially in charge, that he should consecrate to God the very place in which he lay.

[26] whom he had wonderfully freed from disease, And lest the admonition of so great a Pontiff should be void, he is again admonished by blessed Eulalia that, according to the command of that Pontiff, he should cause a monastery to be built on that same estate, which is called Fécamp ^e, where he had lately lain. And he deserved to hear that he should yet live twenty years in this world; who, being restored to life and having recovered the soundness of his senses, prays that same most illustrious Audoënus to come to him, and together with him Wandregisilus ^f, the priest of Christ. And when the recovery of that man was published abroad, as the fame of nobles spreads far and wide, very many flocked to him to congratulate him, chiefly for this reason, that they heard that he had been restored to life and health by the prayer and blessing of the kindly Pontiff. At which spectacle was present also the young king Chlothar ^g, son of King Chlodovæus, and likewise all the nobles and the people who could be with him. Who, learning by their eyes what they had heard, began to praise the clemency of Almighty God, and to reverence and venerate blessed Audoënus the more attentively.

[27] he induces to build a monastery of nuns, And so, building a monastery on the aforesaid estate, Wanning, namely, and the venerable Audoënus established there a multitude of nuns living in monastic observance under the abbess Childemarcha ^h; and by deliberate counsel they set over them the holy man Wandregisilus, whom that same venerable Pontiff had formerly adorned with sacred orders, and for whom he had obtained from King Chlodovæus, for the building of a monastery, the place which is called Fontenelle ⁱ; that by his words and most chaste life the wantonness of the frailer sex might be governed, and the standard of religion instilled. But the venerable pontiff Audoënus, strenuously performing the ministries of the episcopate committed to him from heaven, and founding and fortifying far and wide such monasteries of monks of the supreme Emperor, and applying most fitting medicines by miracles and by words to the diseases of divers infirmities, was not proudly inflamed unto a fall, but most modestly humbled unto the increase of his height. Nor, being not ignorant how to yield to labor, was he wearied with such business; rather, traversing towns, country places, cottages, villages, and castles, he offered to all by preaching the wide riches of the wisdom divinely granted him, pouring into the wounds of the injured wine and oil, that is, setting before all the torments of the wicked and the rewards of the just. But whenever he ceased from preaching, he did not at once provide for his own rest, but continued all night in prayers and vigils, and, loosed from earthly business, clung in mind to heavenly things.

[28] But since we have mentioned monasteries, it is fitting and he himself, taught from heaven, that we should here record how the place which is now called the Cross of St. Ouen ^k was first shown to him: for when at a certain time he was traversing his diocese in preaching, and was making his journey through that place sitting in a carriage (for, worn out with extreme old age, he could no longer ride on horseback), the mules that drew the carriage suddenly stood still. And when the driver, striking them with a whip, tried to compel them to pursue the journey begun, he could by no means drag them from that place. But the Man of God, perceiving that the animals remained immovable at God's nod, straightway turned his eyes to heaven, and beheld the standard of the cross flashing with ample splendor.

[29] And when he understood, by the Spirit revealing it to him, that the Lord had chosen that place for his service, certain other monasteries turning suddenly he saw a certain man plowing, whose goad he took and formed the figure of the holy Cross; and having fixed it in the earth and laid relics of the Saints beneath it, he departed. And when, as evening came on, the sun left the lands, a pillar of fire was seen in that place through the whole night with such splendor that it seemed to surpass the brightness of the sun. Nor was it seen by one man only, but by the men of the whole province. Thereafter a multitude of peoples flocked thither, offering their vows to the Lord; and there those held by divers infirmities received their former health, the blind sight, the deaf hearing, the lame their step, the dumb the office of the tongue, lepers their cleansing. In which place blessed Leufredus ^l built a church, which was dedicated in honor of the holy Cross and of the most reverend pontiff Audoënus, and there a multitude of monks

serves God according to rule unto this present day.

[30] This too must not be covered in the cave of silence, which we hold for certain concerning him. and founds churches. For as on one of those days he was taking a needful journey through the diocese of Rouen, it happened that he passed through a certain place situated not far from the channel of the Seine, near the island whose name is Belcionaca ^m. And when he had come thither, being admonished indeed by a divine oracle, he said that he would rest a little in that place. And while he lay oppressed with holy slumber, he enjoys angelic converse, and is taught to build in that same place in which he was resting a basilica in honor of the protomartyr Stephen. Then, having summoned Ansbert ⁿ, who at that time presided by right of abbot over the monastery of Fontenelle, in whose territory that place is seen to be, he enjoined upon him this work to be performed. And he, favoring the wishes of the most illustrious Prelate, built that sacred chapel, small indeed, as the situation of the place allowed, yet of elegant workmanship. Where the same eminent shepherd and glorious Pontiff Audoënus founded a hospice for the poor, for the eternal memory of his own name, and out of gratuitous goodness bestowed a certain patrimony, whose name is Childriacus, situated in the district of Dunum ^o, upon the same poor dwelling there; knowing it written that that inheritance is well laid up which is kept with God for its guardian.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ elsewhere insculptum*.

CHAPTER IV.

His Roman pilgrimage, his zeal for reconciling peace, a prophecy, and his happy death.

He sets out for Rome, After this — after the church of the faith had been founded, after the streams of doctrine, after so many monasteries of monks had been built, after the whole empire of the Franks had been pacified — he at length resolved to visit the city of Rome, the head of the world and of the Christian religion, which the princes of the Apostles adorn with their bodies and troops of martyrs deck with their sacred bones, Pope Deodatus ^a at that time occupying the see of that church in the fourth year of his pontificate. And when report published this far and wide, from every side innumerable multitudes of Religious come together to the Man of God, bringing copious weights of gold and silver, beseeching that he would order them to be carried to the bodies of the holy Apostles and martyrs for the redemption of their souls; and partly also that he would bestow them there with his own sacred hands upon the poor, and would likewise commend them in his prayers to the Lord.

[32] Many venerable men also, devoted to God, rejoiced to go with him; with many accompanying him, among whom was St. Sidonius ^b, a Scot by race, the builder of the monastery which is now by metonymy called Saint-Saëns. Accompanied therefore by a throng of saints, and adorned with the blessings of alms, the Man beloved of God came joyfully to the thresholds of the holy Apostles (as once the Vessel of election, when he carried the blessings of divers churches to Jerusalem for the ministry of the saints). And prostrating himself at each memorial of the Apostles and martyrs, he offered the vows of his supplication both for himself and for the peace of the whole Catholic Church; yet he poured forth tears rather than words. Wherever he lay prostrate in prayer, rivers of tears watered the pavement; and at last at the confession of Peter the Apostle, when he began this verse: The saints shall exult in glory, there was answered from heaven: They shall rejoice in their beds. For who could tell with how great abundance he distributed through the Roman churches and the memorials of the saints the money committed to him? The altars of the saints were heaped with gold and silver, the hands of the poor were filled. The whole city rejoiced that he had come to them who was known in the whole world. And (to conclude briefly) they so rejoiced at his coming and his bounty as if they beheld the founders of their faith bodily with bodily eyes.

[33] But his prayers being finished at the holy places, and the divine answers long desired being received, and returning to his diocese he is received with great joy. with the suffrages of many relics the venerable Old Man at length, having crossed the loftiest ridges of the Alps, returned to the soil of the Gauls. And when he had come to the border of his diocese, all, both citizens and dwellers in the suburbs, exulting with the greatest joy, run in crowds to meet the Pontiff with crosses and lamps, giving thanks to the Lord who had restored to them their own shepherd and bishop unharmed. And now happy report, flying, reached the royal court. Then king and queen together, and all the nobles of the palace, praised the Creator, who had made so great a pontiff and guardian of the kingdom return unharmed to them. What shall I say of the priests and of the bands of monks? For all unanimously, with hands and voices lifted to heaven, sang: "We give thee thanks, Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who hast heard the voices of those who cry to thee, and hast given us back the shepherd of our souls and likewise the provider for our bodies."

[34] Returning, he strives to reconcile the disagreeing princes, And now, coming to his own see, he heard that the princes of the palace, whom by God's authorship he had left at concord when he went to Rome, were now defiled by the plague of discord, at the instigation of the devil. Then the Soldier of Christ, taking up spiritual arms — namely vigils, prayers, fastings — sought to drive the spiritual enemy from the palace and to restore their former concord to the disturbed princes. How many and how heavy sighs, how many tribulations his blessed old age endured, that he might render peaceable those whom the envy of the devil had separated by discord! And that there might be no shedding of blood among Christians, he was himself ready first to submit to death, heeding that evangelical lesson: The good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep. Nor could the labor of so great a man be void; for the princes, discord being put to flight, gladly received the peace they had lost.

[35] warns in a prophetic spirit a son plotting against his father, At that time Theodoric was held distinguished in the height of royal dignity. Who, loving the venerable pontiff Audoënus no less than the former kings had done, granted him among other benefits this, that no bishop or abbot in his diocese, or Count, or any other of judiciary power, should be appointed unless either he himself should choose him from among his own, or should give his assent to his appointment for the merits of his life ^c. Then in the palace of the aforesaid king an illustrious man named Waratto held the chief authority, who had a son, capable and industrious, but fierce of soul, harsh in manners, and a plotter against his father, named Gislemar \*. Whom the man of the Lord, Audoënus, restrained with frequent admonition, that he should cease from the persecution of his father. But he, despising his wholesome admonitions, did not restrain himself from the plots of his malice, until he deprived his father of his own honor. Whence not long after, as had been foretold him by the Man of God, being struck by God, he ended a most unworthy life by a worthy death.

[36] on a journey to Cologne he works miracles, Meanwhile blessed Audoënus, discord having arisen between the nation of the Franks and the Austrasians, came to the city of Cologne for the sake of peace. And when, entering the city, he was traversing the monuments of the martyrs, and was carrying away with him with great honor relics taken after his manner from their monuments, he met a certain dumb man who for the courses of eleven years had lost the use of speech. Whom the Lord kept dumb so long for the honor of his servant, that at his coming he might restore speech to the dumb, and that the long-silent tongue might break forth into the praises of Christ. He therefore imprinted the sign of the cross upon his head, and at once made the silent tongue to speak. Thence, the peoples formerly severed by discord being joined in a covenant of peace, returning thence to Neustria he came to the city of Verdun. And when he was entering the church of that city, behold, a certain woman having an unclean spirit began to be marvelously vexed, and gnashing her teeth strove to attack the man of God at a rapid run. St. Ouen grasped her head with his hand, and straightway cast out the demon, and restored her whole to her parents. Thence coming to the palace, he declared all the prosperous things concerning peace, as he had done them.

[37] It is now time that our pen should worthily set down something concerning the death of that most precious Man. In the sixteenth year ^d, therefore, of the reign of Theodoric, and returning into Gaul dies piously and of Queen Chlodochild \*, Waratto ^e the subregulus administering the affairs of the palace, at the villa of Clichy, where the blessed man himself had then announced the peace restored between the Franks and the Austrasians, bodily sickness straightway befell him, already worn out with the old age of his years. And so the longed-for day drew near, on which he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ, to leave the earth, and to see now face to face what he had long beheld in a riddle. And when with fevers

his body was wasted, and he perceived that his death was now at hand, he besought the Lord that he would deign to commit his sheep to a worthy shepherd; exhorting the king at last that he should make a certain abbot named Ansbert his successor, as also he did. He therefore, finishing his prayer, and devoutly commending the flock entrusted to him to Christ the Lord, so committed his spirit into the hands of the Creator, to be joined to the heavenly choirs, and to possess the everlasting glory of paradise. Now he ruled the church of Rouen forty-three years, three months, and ten days. Being ninety years old he passed to the Lord, on the ninth day of the Kalends of September, on the Lord's day; which was the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ six hundred and seventy-eight ^f.

[38] Meanwhile the royal house is filled with the greatest mourning; with the utmost grief of nobles all the dignity of the palace is shaken, all loftiness is humbled, all joy is turned into lamentation, all laughter is stilled. They bewail their most prudent counsellor, who ever sought peace for the people of God, and most earnestly labored that human blood should not be shed; the excellent preacher, the founder of monasteries, the consoler of the poor, the father of monks, the shepherd of Clerics, the persecutor of heretics, the defender of the Church, the guardian of the kingdom. Amid these things the palaces of the heavens now lie open to blessed Audoënus; the secrets of hidden things are unsealed. His merits transcend the summits of the earth; the dignity of his priesthood flies beyond the heights of the stars; joined now to the choirs of the saints and to the legions of angels, he is glorified among the apostolic citadels, placed among the patriarchs and the companies of the prophets, and numbered among the shining camps of the saints.

[39] Finally the whole people bewails its loving shepherd, and the soldier of Christ exults with confidence in Christ, and of the people. because of his rewarder. King, queen, and the nobles of the palace cease not to weep; and he, to whom he diligently rendered the services of his ministry, trusting without any hesitation, hastens to see his face. The citizens and neighbors are saddened, and Audoënus the bishop, receiving the reward of his labor, rejoices without trembling. Breasts are beaten with pious lamentations; the athlete of the Lord gives thanks, loosed from the bands of the world. They seek their guardian of the kingdom, whom the streets of Jerusalem have already received helmeted. Oh, how great is the gladness of the applauding angels! How much more pious it is to weep for Audoënus, who led a heavenly life in the world, and now, robed, rejoices in heaven! In the tabernacles of the Saints he rests with great tranquillity, guarded by the protection of angels.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ elsewhere Gillemarus*. \ elsewhere Chlodohilde*. \ perhaps quam*.

CHAPTER V.

The funeral pomp, the first place of burial, the honorable elevation of the sacred body, and the miracle which occurred at it.

The Saint's body is honorably translated to Rouen, After therefore the lamentation had subsided, the assembly of bishops, the king and queen, the Mayor of the Palace, and all the princes come together into one, and bearing the body of the blessed Man upon a bier, they celebrate the holy obsequies. Each rejoiced and counted it the greatest gain if he had deserved to take the body of the blessed Man upon his shoulders and to bear it on his back. And when with the greatest honor they had come as far as the bridge of the Oise with worthy funeral adornment, celebrating hymns and praises, they spent the whole night in the praises of the Lord. And thence the royal dignity returned to its own with great sadness, seeing the Lord's pearl taken from it. But when, an assembly having been made of very many bishops, together with a multitude of venerable abbots and priests, monks and clerics, and of illustrious men and a throng of peoples, with crosses and lamps and censers, they had entered the province of the Vexin, bearing the blessed body upon their shoulders with the utmost honor, they sang praises and hymns to God; and beholding with great weeping the bier of their shepherd, at each several place, as we said, sorrowful, they bore the body of the blessed Man to the city of Rouen, and buried it most seemly, with great honor, in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle, in the place which he himself had prepared.

[41] where, being buried in the church of St. Peter, Now that church, in which the holy limbs rest in peace, was long ago nobly built with wonderful workmanship of squared stones, by Gothic handiwork, by Lothar I, king of the Franks, about the twenty-fourth year of his reign ^a, while Flavius ^b the bishop occupied the see of that church of Rouen, which was in the year of the Lord's incarnation five hundred ^c; in which church rest the two wives of the said Lothar, Haldetrudis and Bertetrudis, and also Dagobert, son of King Sigebert, whom Grimoald tonsured; and also King Hilderic and his wife Bihildis with her son, whom the holy Man himself long ago buried there, where the Lord Jesus Christ, by the aid of the merits of the blessed prelate Audoënus, ceases not to this present day to work many signs of virtues. There the blind are given light, lepers are cleansed, the steps of the lame are made firm, demoniacs are cured, and divers diseases are healed.

[42] And not only in the place of his burial, but through several provinces and shining with miracles, which the Man of the Lord traversed in teaching. Which if anyone wish to know more fully, let him range through Gaul, Aquitaine, Spain, and Italy; let him traverse, by reading and inquiring, the deeds of the Franks, the Life and acts of the kindly Eligius, which he himself by dictating and writing left to posterity; the Lives also of venerable abbots and holy confessors; and the archives of that city, and likewise of the monasteries which kings and queens, or very many other Religious men, at his exhortation caused to be built in his time. In which Almighty God, to the honor of his name, through the merits of St. Ouen, deigns to this day to show many great and wonderful things; to all which the places bear witness where the miracles are done. Fathers and mothers teach their children, masters their disciples, old men the young, that the memory may be handed down to posterity.

[43] The body of the blessed Man therefore rested in that place three years and nine months. after three years is more seemly elevated, After this it seemed good to the bishop his successor to translate the most sacred body to a higher place, at the eastern side of the altar of St. Peter the Apostle. Having therefore called together a company of very many monks, and all the church and the people of that city and of the whole province, he passed the whole night in vigil with praises and hymns; and the morning praises being ended, with choirs of chanters, whose song and honey-sweet sound resounded, he translated that holy body with great veneration from the place where it had been buried, on the very day of the Lord's Ascension, on the third of the Nones of May ^d, into the aforesaid place, where until now it is adored with the highest honor. Which most sacred body was found as free from all corruption as when living it was first adorned with virginity. He made over his sepulchre a shrine ^e wonderfully constructed, in which he put silver of the greatest weight, very much gold, and the finest gems. Within it he laid the bed which St. Ouen, kindled with most burning ardor, had ordered to be made and marvelously enclosed within and without with gold, to be carried in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ to the holy resurrection at Jerusalem. But the various turn of events prevented its being sent thither at that time, against that holy intention.

[44] But of the miracle which was wrought on the very day of his translation a few words must be said. when he freed the prelate of Rouen from a fever, For there had befallen the aforesaid bishop a violent bodily sickness, which the common people called the tertian fever. And when he was violently tormented by the fever, and feared that present death was already at hand, suddenly, amid the solemnities of the Masses, in the presence of the priests and of the clergy and people standing by, all fever being wiped away, he received his former health. He also with his own hand and with faith took up, for the sake of relics, the napkin from the head of blessed Audoënus, whereby he obtained by the Lord's bounty both health for himself and for very many others. He caused great banquets to be prepared for all out of love for the kindly Man, and, as though attending upon Christ, walking about and taking the food of his own refreshment, he fulfilled his service to them, and distributed to the poor not only in food but also an innumerable abundance of coins ^f.

[45] and bestowed benefits upon others, With how great honor is to be venerated today the most sacred day of our bishop Audoënus, on which, joined to Christ, he enjoys the angelic delights of paradise, and, buried, is honored by us with great honor and the utmost devotion! The voices of the poor, gathered into one on the day of his deposition, praised the Lord and gave him unceasing thanks for their shepherd, the lord Audoënus, who in the present life had furnished them a twofold nourishment, and after his departure prepared such great banquets. Aided by his prayers, let us strive with all our strength to imitate his life both in faith and in manners, that we may deserve to attain to the crown of glory which he obtained; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the eternal Father liveth and reigneth, God in perfect Trinity, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[46] and there long rested. He rested therefore in that place to which he had been translated one hundred and sixty-two years ^g, until the Normans laid waste Rouen and burned his monastery on the Ides of May, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and forty-two, in the first year of Lothar and Charles reigning after the death of the emperor Louis.

ANNOTATIONS.

d. Almost

always unfortunate is this biographer when he reckons days or years, as is plain from Le Cointe at the year 687, number 11, where he thus refutes this day of the translation: But there is a manifest error in this reckoning, because the feast of the Ascension does not agree with the third of the Nones of May from the year of Christ six hundred and twenty-eight until the year of Christ seven hundred and seven.

THE VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS OF THE SACRED BODY

From the Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum in Edmond Martène, volume 3, column 1669 and following, which edition we have collated with a mutilated Rouen manuscript.

Dado or Ouen, bishop of Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 0756, 0757

FROM THE PRINTED SOURCES.

CHAPTER I.

The honorable bringing back of the sacred relics under the Normans now Christian, and the miracle which the Saint is said to have wrought in his boyhood.

The Saint's body, which on account of the irruptions of the Normans Although, most beloved, we ought to rejoice on the festival of all the saints, yet especially on the feast of our most holy and most excellent patron and bishop Audoënus, as often as it comes round, it altogether befits us to exult and to glorify with worthy proclamations of praise God, who provided such a shepherd for his people and a most loving intercessor in all things. This day, therefore, we keep with yearly devotion, on which his most sacred body, brought back from the Gauls, poured into our whole nation the exultation of a new joy. For when Almighty God permitted the people of Gaul, adopted to himself by faith, on account of their sins to be mercifully scourged by their enemies for some courses of years — as once the people of Israel, his own peculiar people, by the Chaldeans — that he might not punish them eternally with strict animadversion, an army of the faithless and most cruel nation of the Danes, banded together for plunder after barbarian fashion, practicing piracy, occupied with a great fleet the shores of the Ocean, and consumed by depopulating and burning all the neighboring places of our habitation.

[2] At length therefore, making an irruption up the vast river Seine ^a, had been carried elsewhere, it burned with fire the monastery of Jumièges ^b with all its buildings, and then resolved to attack Rouen the metropolis. Which when the citizens learned, fearing the rage of the heathen, they determine to carry away thence the bodies of the saints. The monks therefore, taking up the body of blessed Audoënus, carried it to an estate of their own jurisdiction named Condé ^c; and the relics of St. Nicasius ^d the martyr with his companions they laid at Wanbasium. Finally, for many rolls of years, that is until the times of Rollo ^e, the pledges of the saints rested there. He, then, relying on warlike valor and an expedition of armed men, breaking into the borders of Gaul like a lightning-flash, overthrew the walls of divers cities and towns, and razed to the ground, burned, and plundered very many towns and country places together with the very churches of the saints. Entering also upon most bitter wars with the princes of the Franks, he made numerous slaughters of the Christians, and could be overcome by none.

[3] At length the propitiation of the divine majesty looked upon the prayer of the humble, the duke of the Normans being converted to the Christian faith, and restrained the fury of the raging heathen. Finally Charles ^f, king of the Franks, made a covenant of peace with Rollo, and promised that he would give him his daughter, Gisla by name, in lawful marriage if he would receive the title of Christianity; and liberally granted him by royal gift the whole province of Normandy, which that Rollo had subdued to himself by warfare. In the year therefore of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and twelve Rollo with his army is baptized in the faith of the Holy Trinity by Franco ^g, bishop of Rouen, and is named Robert in baptism. There is joy in holy Church for the conversion of so great a duke and the salvation of the heathen. There is exultation for the holy angels in heaven and for men of good will on earth. There is gladness for all for the restored peace of the kingdom and the tranquillity of the time. The land, long stripped of its tiller, is inhabited, is worked with plows and oxen, the vineyards are pruned, and France is renewed with an abundance of revived fertility. And the new prince, like Constantine, repenting of his past evils, gave himself wholly to the restoration of the churches of God which he had destroyed, to the defense of the needy, to the observance of the divine law, and to the due veneration of the saints.

[4] whom the people of Rouen had asked through their bishop, Meanwhile the people of Rouen complain of the bodily absence of their most loving shepherd Audoënus, and of the excessive drought of the air; keeping in memory that notable act of virtue — how that same Herald of the divine teaching, and beaten trumpet in the house of God, obtained rain from heaven like Elias for the peoples of Spain, afflicted for the circuits of seven years with continual drought, whom he sprinkled with the word of salvation and the dew of faith. By such murmuring of the people and by their tearful complaint the ears of the bishop of that city, namely Franco, are struck, and his mind is spurred to accomplish the business of so great a matter. Without delay he went to the prince's palace, and humbly and opportunely sets forth his own petition and desire and that of all the people.

[5] and had instructed him concerning the merits of the holy Man, The new Christian asks of how great dignity and of how great excellence that Man had been, for whose relics the whole community labored so greatly and so vehemently longed to have restored to them. Then the bishop, taught by this oracle, undertakes with eloquent lips to set forth in order the life of the holy Bishop in the sight of the prince and of the nobles of the whole court: namely, how from the first rudiments of infancy Audoënus had grown old in uprightness, how he had been illustrious in the advance of holy virtues, how mightily he had shone in the working of miracles, with how happy a departure he had adorned the close of the present life, and how glorious he now is in that senate of the heavenly court before Christ the supreme emperor. Hearing these things most attentively, the prince, dissolved in tears, for the merits of so great a Man broke forth into the praise of our Saviour, the giver of all graces.

[6] at the duke's own request, Finally Rollo, who is also Robert, sends from his side vigorous legates to King Charles, imploring in friendly words that he would command his ancient priest Audoënus, most worthy of God, to be given back to him, and cause him to be speedily restored to his own metropolitan see, so that the rights of the present covenant might be kept mutually unbroken, lest — which God forbid — they be violated by some stumbling-block of dissension. To this the renowned king gives thanks to the King of kings for the faith and devotion of so Christian a duke; and then commands the keepers of the sacred treasure at the town of Condé to satisfy the duke of the Normans and to send back the remains of blessed Audoënus to their own place.

[7] Without delay the accomplishment is hastened of the business which had been divinely provided with great joy or commanded by the king. Also throughout the places of the churches through which the relics were to be translated, it is commanded by royal authority to the clerics and monks that in festal manner, with crosses and books, with candlesticks ^h and various apparatus of procession, they should come to meet the sacred body, and with worthy praises of obsequies conduct it to the very soil of Normandy. All these proceed with eager devotion, seemly and in order, and bless God, glorious in his saints, with hymns and confessions. On every side sounded the choirs of psalm-singers, namely of clerics, of monks, and of virgins, chanting divers strains with ringing voices and resounding songs. There were not lacking, as we believe, heavenly obsequies also, and the phalanxes of the angelic host, at the translation of so holy a Pontiff, who while still living often enjoyed the converse of angels, and now in the heavens rejoices in their perpetual fellowship. And it is most certain that the whole space of that honey-sweet journey shone with miracles, although they have fallen into obscurity through the age of the time and through the neglect and remissness of those who were present at them.

[8] The nobles of the Franks with an innumerable people follow the bier, glad for his glory, and with a company exceedingly sad at the event of their own irrecoverable loss. Gaul laments, despoiled of a treasure of incomparable price, and of a gem of all beauty brought forth from the womb of her own stock. The mind of his countrymen is stricken with excessive grief, sorrowing that he was torn from the body from which he burned with most ardent love. And so, the singing multitude following with hymns the remains of the blessed Confessor, they come to the boundary where the limit of the two provinces divides them. Thence the Gallic people return to their own with mourning; but the maritime people with joy accompany the steps of their shepherd. Coming at last to a place which is one mile distant from the city, the most sacred body stood still as if fixed immovably to the ground, nor could it be moved by anyone.

[9] Then, all being amazed with astonishment, some are sent ahead to the walls of the city by those who were of sounder counsel, is brought back into Normandy. being warned as by a token of divine power: the coming of the sacred body is announced to the duke and to the bishop. Presently the multitude of citizens is called together by the bishop, and is wholesomely admonished that with contrite and humble heart, with bare feet, and with the utmost devotion they should go to meet the sacred body. All things therefore being arranged which pertain to the observance and adornment of a festal procession, the whole order, both ecclesiastical and monastic, with a mighty people, goes forth from the city, proceeding to meet their great Shepherd, as once the Hebrew people went to meet our Redeemer. So the triumphal army of the white-robed, whose contest, according to the Apostle, in the arena of faith as it strives manfully against the invisible powers of this air is unfailing, comes to meet its illustrious Bishop with a mighty proclamation of praises.

[10] Then the most Christian prince said: "This place, The Duke himself goes to meet the sacred relics, to which, having gone forth a little way from the city, we have come thus far on foot, I decree shall henceforth be called Longpaon ⁱ; and from this place as far as the walls of the city I liberally grant to blessed Audoënus all the land that lies between, that it may be a protection for me and my heirs with God. And whatever is known to have belonged of old in lands and possessions to his jurisdiction, I command to be restored to him; and I authoritatively establish by our authority that his venerable monastery, with all things pertaining to the use of the monks, according to the privileges of the ancient kings, shall remain immune and free from all judiciary exaction. But if anyone shall attempt to bring any calumny or question against this venerable place, let him first seek me — me, I say, under the hand of the Lord the shield of protection and the staff of defense of that church."

[11] and devoutly bears them, These things being thus set forth and confirmed by princely authority and edict, prostrate upon the ground before the most sacred body, and bathed in tears, he prayed, repenting of the evils which he had committed against the saints of God, and grievously groaning for his past guilt. Then he came close, and with wondrous devotion submitted to the bier his neck, once proud and stiff with heathen arrogance, now tamed by the yoke of Christ; and first of all, bearing the treasure now friendly to him, he rejoiced to carry him through whom he in no wise doubted that he should obtain from God the pardon of his crimes.

[12] accompanied by the Normans now converted to the faith of Christ, There were present there also the Danes, now made lambs out of wolves, no longer gaping as of old for plunder with bloody jaws;

but venerating together with the others the precious relics of the Saint, according to what the prophet says: The lion and the ox shall eat straw together. For no longer with beastly rage do they thirst for human blood, nor after the manner of heathen soothsayers do they search out divination in the entrails of cattle; but they embrace from their heart the twofold love, and, execrating foolish sports and the dirges of idols, they earnestly seek the intercession of the saints. On every side the crossways of the roads resounded with the sweet-sounding voices of those who sang by turns, and with an abundance of divers harmonies. And when they came to the suburbs of the city, that devout and solemn HOSANNA, which the children of the Hebrews sang to the Lord as he entered Jerusalem with a harmony of concordant voice, is chanted to blessed Audoënus, and Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord is sung by all with one accord. For they in no wise doubted that at his happy return they should obtain a remedy for the squalid trouble of the drought. Moreover, from the corrupted air a wasting plague, breaking forth, was everywhere infecting human bodies and destroying very many by unforeseen death. From this deadly taint therefore they desired to be delivered by his prayer, who rescued many from the whirlpool of hell.

[13] and with a great multitude of the dwellers round about, And so his most holy body, thronged about by a crowd of innumerable people, with the offices of hymns and praises and with the fragrance of incense, is carried back into the church of blessed Peter the apostle, and is there most seemly placed on the Kalends of February in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and eighteen ^k. Where until now it is honored with the highest veneration, to the praise of Almighty God and to his eternal memorial. But when the people had departed to their own, by the merit of the glorious Confessor, clouds being gathered in the air, suddenly a violent flood of rain broke out and abundantly watered the thirsting earth. That notable act of virtue is renewed which befell the peoples of the Hebrews at the coming of that excellent preacher, when, applying himself to prayer after the manner of Elias, he opened the barriers of the sky and the obstacles of the storm-clouds. Finally he flourished, like Elias, in the constancy of a singular zeal and in the grace of virginal integrity. He tamed his body with the harshness of a hair shirt, and bound his neck and arms and belly with iron; that, being worn down with a long contest, he might be crowned with the martyrs; that, a virgin, he might chant the new song with the virgins; that he might dance with the angels, and reign victorious with Christ.

[14] who rejoiced because of the miracles, All Neustria, a little before worn out with mourning, rejoiced over the abundance of the divine bounty and the presence of blessed Audoënus. The bodies of innumerable sick are carried to his sacred pledges, and are restored to their former soundness. Foul diseases, by his healing, are cured, and the country is delivered from heaven from the imminent calamity. O wondrous kindness of our Saviour! O surpassing glory of the most holy Confessor! By his prayers heaven is unlocked; by his merits the deadly plague is put to flight; in his presence the world breathes again, which in his absence groaned, worn out with wars. By these tokens of signs, then, it is clear, and by the arguments of facts it is gathered, that no one ever existed in all Gaul more excellent than Audoënus in the glory of merits, more powerful in the efficacy of virtues.

[15] For how pleasing he was to God from the very cradle of his infancy among which one is narrated, is proved by the attestation of one miracle out of many. For by a wondrous omen the venerable providence of God already foreshowed what he would be in the pontifical office. For when the lamp of Christ still lay hidden among his paternal hearths, and his pious mother Aiga was nursing the boy, on a certain day, not without divine prompting as I judge, he admonishes his mother more urgently than usual to prepare him a bath more quickly. To whom she says: "I cannot so quickly, my son, because there is at present no water from which it can be made. For the spring is on the estate of the nuns of Mary the Mother of God, whence we must draw. All must wait until they have first drawn for their own use, on whose ground it flows by God's will." To this the excellent Boy, endowed with the faith of Peter, said: "The Lord, in all things most mighty and overflowing with charity, will be with us, and will furnish an abundance of water to us and to the tillers of our land — he who gave drink to a thirsting people from a dry rock."

[16] Saying this, he struck the rock in the name of the Holy Trinity with the rod which he carried in his hand; which the Saint is said to have wrought in his boyhood. and straightway a living spring burst forth, which extended the stream of its course as far as the boundary of that estate, and there, making a chasm, went under the earth ^m. For he plainly showed that the Lord drew forth new waters for the uses of his Servant from the cleft flint, who was to water the parched hearts of his servants with the streams of divine teachings. Such a beginning of infancy, therefore, befitted this Man, whom he took to himself as a priest for the expiation of many, who is daily offered in the manner ⁿ of Melchizedek under the form of bread and wine in the oblation of the altar. He too, after the likeness of Moses — who with arms spread aloft, presenting the form of the cross, prayed on the mountain for the Hebrews as they fought with Amalek — bearing the Lord's cross in his heart, and on the loftier mountain of virtues, unceasingly besought the King of glory for all the people. Now also, being most present with the Father of spirits and a most clear beholder of the divine majesty, he ceases not to be in heaven the loving intercessor of those to whom he left on earth so precious a pledge of his love.

ANNOTATIONS.

Franco arose, the good helper of the people, He washed Rollo in the sacred baptism of Christ.

[m.] In our Rouen copy the following is added to the glory of St. Ouen concerning that spring: And it is the custom of the dwellers of that place, when they labor under the trouble of a fever, to ascend the ridge of the mountain and to draw of the water of the clear spring flowing from the rock for the sake of recovering health: for it both affords a remedy to those in fever and unfailingly gives to all the nourishment of drink.

O what a physician, the friend of the heavenly King, Who contrary to nature pours forth liquid from a rock, As Moses once drew water from the stones. The dry flint drips, and at his bidding gives waters to drink; Which heap up the sign, while they cure diseased bodies. These things thou, O Christ, dost; these wonders thou workest mightily, O father Audoënus, who Note: perhaps qui ever joyfully beholdest The Sun of righteousness, the fount from the fount of wisdom.

CHAPTER II.

After divers translations of the sacred body an attempt to steal it is made in vain, and it is afterward found whole and incorrupt.

The Saint's body, which had been buried at Rouen, The most blessed Audoënus therefore, after the course of this praiseworthy life happily passing to the Lord, and the illustrious lamp of all Gaul being suddenly taken from the eyes of mortals, his most holy body was reverently and honorably given to burial by the bishops and abbots and by a religious assembly of both orders, and by the nobles also and an innumerable people, in the church of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, in the place which he had prepared for himself, in a sarcophagus seemly built of Parian marble, where it rested three years and nine months. Which blessed Confessor, as much gladness as he poured into the dwellers in heaven by his coming, so much sorrow did he leave to the dwellers on earth by his departure.

[18] After this his holy body was translated by blessed Ansbert his successor, after three years is honorably elevated, and placed at the eastern side of the altar of St. Peter the apostle on the day of the Lord's Ascension, with great honor and the exultation of all; and it was found so free from all corruption as if it had been buried that very day. And the aforesaid pontiff made over him a mausoleum of gold and silver and precious gems, where it rested one hundred and sixty-five years ^a, namely until the times of the Normans, who, raging with heathen fury, laid waste Rouen and burned his monastery on the Ides of May in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and forty-two, Charles reigning as king of the Franks. Then by Riculf ^b, archbishop of Rouen, and by the bishops and abbots of the whole kingdom the most sacred body is raised, and, whole and entire without any diminution of itself, is placed with worthy honor in a bier precious with gold and gems.

[19] Thence also, for fear of the abominable heathen, it is carried by the monks to Vadiniacum, and thence for fear of the Normans is translated elsewhere. where for some years it rested, shining with miracles. After this, the cruelty of the pagans growing strong and the army of the enemy increasing daily, when almost every province of the western region was being depopulated with frequent irruptions and with fire, the aforesaid monks translated the bodies of St. Ouen and of the holy martyrs Nicasius, Quirinus, and Scuviculus to their villa of Condé. Rollo therefore

or Robert, being made a Christian by God's inspiration, and the whirlwind of wars being lulled and a calm season of peace restored, by the clemency of the supreme Emperor the limbs of our most holy Father, brought back from the Gauls, were restored with great glory to their own church of Rouen.

[20] But in the time of Richard ^c the First, surnamed the Old, Two monks in vain attempt the excellent count of the Normans, who built the church of the blessed Trinity at Fécamp from the foundations, two monks came from France having a purpose and a plan that, if it should be permitted them by God, in the secret silence of night they would break open the coffer and steal away by stealth the remains of our most holy Father and carry them off with them. Beginning therefore with a fast of three days, with vigils and instancy of prayers, on the third night in the still hour, the keepers of the sacred things being sunk in deep slumber, they secretly approach the bier, that they might carry off thence the most precious treasure, and inflict upon us an irreparable loss and intolerable grief — nay rather, a public mourning upon the whole nation of Normandy.

[21] to steal it, when it had been brought back, But that typical Samaritan who keeps Israel and slumbers not forever, whom Audoënus, after the manner of a seraph, loves with a special ardor, struck the invaders of the sacred temple with the punishment of blindness ^d, and deprived them also of the power of all their limbs. Then they, perceiving the token of divine vengeance, ask pardon for their sacrilegious guilt, and prostrate on the ground beseech the clemency of our Saviour and of the holy Prelate for the disablement of their limbs. Straightway the loving Lord, by the merits of his Servant, mercifully pardoned them, and, the darkness of their eyes being dispelled, restored their sight and gave back to their limbs their former vigor. And at dawn they mounted their horses and departed in flight, nor did they appear again in these parts.

[22] The Saint appears to Richard, On the same night on which these things happened, to the aforesaid duke Richard, who was staying at Bayeux ^e and building there a palace and a citadel for himself, Audoënus, girt with pontifical insignia, appeared in his sleep, and twice admonished him that, rising more quickly, he should hasten to Rouen and command Hildebert ^f the abbot to use more diligent care and watch over his church, and to be at pains to rouse the brethren earlier before daylight. And when he still lingered in the sloth of sleep and made delays in rising, the illustrious Pontiff a third time stood by him with threatening and terrible countenance, bearing in his hand a staff, not a pastoral one, but as it were the part of some lopped-off spear, and rebuked him thus with a kind of invective: "Thou," he said, "buildest palaces and citadels for thyself and thy heirs, and aboundest in the riches of the world, and goest forth in varied adornment of garments; but thy predecessors, bursting forth from foreign and barbarous nations, by plundering and burning took away the estates and possessions which by the help of divine grace I had given to those who serve God and me.

[23] and reproaches him with the neglect of his relics, "Moreover, my monks, compelled by the hunger of famine, stripped off my golden vestment, and, carrying me with them in their pilgrimage and flight for fear of the rapacity of the cruel pagans, endured the discomforts of many wants." Adding blows also to words, the blessed Confessor went on: "See," he said, "see that thou cover me with a fitting tunic, and that thou honor my church and those of the other saints with humble devotion, lest perchance — which God forbid — being lifted up with the form of pride, thou undergo the torments of eternal hell." He also recounted the plots of the monks who were attempting by night to carry off his remains secretly from the keepers. Having thus spoken, he left the staff and disappeared. Then the prince, astonished at such a vision and at the same time terrified with fear, straightway relates what he had seen to the chief men of his court, and, as a token of the truth, shows the staff.

[23] who, terrified by this vision, Thence, when the first dawn had put the stars to flight from the sky, mounting horses swiftly, he came fasting to Rouen that very day. And as soon as he saw the monastery from afar, leaping from his horse and walking humbly with bare feet, bearing in his hand the staff of which we spoke, attended by a company of his nobles, he humbly approached the altar of the holy Pontiff, poured forth prayers with tears prostrate on the ground, laid the wood before the bier, and offered many gifts there. Then, having summoned the venerable abbot named above, he set forth in order the vision which he had seen, and asked concerning the monks what he had heard from the blessed prelate; and he found that it had truly so happened.

[25] Wherefore he commanded the aforesaid father with threats offered many gifts at the Saint's tomb, that in that church two lights should always burn, both by day and by night: one, namely, before the altar of blessed Peter the apostle, and the other before the altar of blessed Audoënus the pontiff, who are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks shining before the Lord with eternal brightness. Fit sacristans and keepers being therefore appointed, who should keep watch there and diligently guard the precious treasures of the relics and all the other ornaments, the renowned prince himself gave to St. Ouen a villa called by the name of St. Martin, and the tithe of the villa which is called Ros. Then, summoning skilled goldsmiths, he delivered to them an abundance of gold and precious gems to gild and adorn the bier of the holy Prelate.

[26] This work at length being completed, having summoned the bishops and abbots and his nobles, and ordering it to be opened before many, he caused the limbs of the most holy Bishop to be uncovered by four religious monks of that monastery, with great fear and reverence. And the whole body was found entire with the head ^g, and without any diminution, just as it had been laid by the venerable archbishop Riculf. Then, with great proclamations of praise, being wrapped in a very precious pall and covered with a clean linen cloth, just as it had been found, it was laid back most entire in a shrine with the iron circles with which, while living, he had afflicted himself by binding, for the love of him who redeemed us on the cross by his own passion. And that shrine was laid up in the bier, adorned with gold and gems. There therefore the most sacred body of blessed Audoënus awaits the day of the blessed resurrection, that it may receive from Christ the twofold robe of incorruption and the perpetual crown of glory.

[27] There were present at this so happy service and worthy spectacle the excellent duke Richard himself with his wife, Albereda by name, he finds his body whole and incorrupt. and his son Robert, surnamed the Dane, who, dying, was buried at St. Peter's at Chartres ^h, and with his other sons and daughters by the same wife. There were present also the lord Hugh, archbishop of that see ⁱ, Richard bishop of Bayeux ^k, Roger bishop of Lisieux ^l, Gerard bishop of Évreux [m], Hildebert abbot of that monastery, Mainard abbot of St. Michael of the Mount, Frotmund abbot of St. Taurinus of Évreux, and many other venerable bishops and abbots. There came together also an innumerable multitude of monks, clerics, and nobles of the whole kingdom, and a copious body of other people. But the four monks who uncovered the most holy body, as has been said, by the hidden disposition of God passed to the Lord in that same year. These things, most beloved, we have set forth compendiously, as we have learned them by the truthful relation of our elders, that it may be plainly and without ambiguity believed that the body of our most holy father Audoënus is held among us whole and undiminished in every part of its members, as we have said before.

ANNOTATIONS.

[i.] Orderic Vitalis expresses the nobility and the vices of this bishop of Rouen, in Pommeraye's History of the Prelates of Rouen, page 241, in this couplet:

Hugh succeeded, a violator of the Lord's law, Sprung of an illustrious stock, but void of the light of Christ.

MIRACLES WHICH OCCURRED AFTER THE SAINT'S DEATH,

By Fulbert the monk, and for the most part a contemporary witness.

From a manuscript codex of the Rouen monastery of St. Ouen, a copy of which Father Frederick Flouet sent to our predecessors in the year 1644.

Dado or Ouen, bishop of Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 0760

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

PROLOGUE.

The author indicates Being lately asked by the Brethren, but chiefly by Father Nicholas ^b himself, to add to the history of blessed Audoënus the miracles which through him shone forth to the world after he had overcome the world and completed in a happy contest the warfare of this present life, or those which we see wrought even in our own times at his sepulchre with our own eyes, since I was unequal in strength, I had long shrunk from attempting a Work to be dreaded by the most skilled men, lest a precious matter, written down in a rustic style, should seem sordid to cultivated ears: for indeed I judged that there was example enough for the minds of the faithful unto the blessed life and the heavenly warfare in that text in which his life and conversation are commemorated. Considering therefore the slow difficulty of my wit, I judged that I should altogether keep silence from

the office enjoined upon me, when, as I was dissolved in sleep ^c, in the deep silence of the night, there seemed to stand by me a certain comely person with venerable hoariness, whose worthier countenance was graced with pontifical insignia.

[2] This person, as though moved with indignation, with the staff which he chanced to carry that he was admonished in a dream or vision, struck my side, and in the guise of one terrifying rebuked me in this manner, saying: "Why dost thou, given over so long a time to empty idleness and rendering nothing useful, occupy the place without fruit like the barren fig tree, and press down by the shadow of sloth that which another could have exercised by the zeal of good work? Why dost thou contemptuously esteem the admonitions of thy brethren? Or dost thou think that an account of the buried talent will never be exacted? Be it so; tremble for thy wit; but he knows not how to be absent from faithful endeavors who says: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Here I, dismayed by the blow of the staff and by the terror of the voice, while I strove to discuss more attentively the ambiguous voice of my rebuker, perceived that the guilt of disobedience for contempt of a brotherly admonition was condemned in me.

[3] Judging therefore that nothing was further to be dissembled, though trembling, that he should write down these miracles. I obediently undertook what before I had refused with a humble obstinacy; and because our Lawgiver says, Thou shalt not appear empty in my sight, I feared that I should be ungrateful if, while others offer the phials of spiritual doctrine, I should not offer even the cups of rustic simplicity in the tabernacle of God; since certainly we know that by the judgment of truth the little gift of the poor widow outweighs the great donations of the rich. This I have said for this reason, that when the prudent reader shall inspect the page of my uncultivated speech, he may weigh not the confidence of a bold deed, but the vows of obedience.

ANNOTATIONS.

TITLES OF THE OLD CHAPTERS.

Chapter I. How at the tomb of St. Ouen a certain Roman obtained the remedies of health after a long sickness.

II. Another paralytic came from Gargano and carried back entire health.

III. The not dissimilar cure of a certain man of Auvergne coming from Tours.

IV. The attestation of a deed done concerning a certain priest's sister, how the merit of the Saint shone forth even upon absent sick persons.

V. How he refused to be brought into the church of St. Michael on account of certain sacrilegious men.

VI. Of a certain captive freed by the merit of the Saint.

VII. The author relates how by the shadow of the sacred bier a boy of seven years, dumb from birth, was restored to speech.

VIII. Of a certain man struck by lightning for contempt of the blessed Man, and again restored to health.

IX. Of a certain crippled woman made straight.

X. Of a dumb boy of twelve years, restored to the use of his tongue.

XI. Of a young man healed, who was dead in the lower part of his limbs.

XII. How a certain thief, having committed sacrilege, fell down crippled within the Saint's dwelling; but, having confessed his guilt, deserved to be healed.

XIII. Of another thief hindered by God from escaping.

XIV. Of a blind boy of seven years, restored to his own sight.

XV. Of two dumb men, restored to the use of the tongue.

XVI. How a thief, feigning himself a traveler, stole away a fur garment from a certain matron, and how, being hindered in flight, he was afterward caught.

CHAPTER I.

The marvelous history of a certain citizen of Rome, who, afflicted with various diseases, is said to have wonderfully obtained perfect health at the sepulchre of St. Ouen in Normandy.

Chapter I.

At Rome a certain householder, wasted with long bodily infirmity, A certain paralytic at Rome when he felt the last day of his life to be at hand, left his son, whom he had as his only one, indeed the heir of his patrimony, but not the heir of health: for he, deaf and dumb from his mother's womb, lived with no office of his limbs for human uses. And the dying father had set over him, as the guardian of his body and of all his substance, that servant whom he had observed to be the more prudent of all his household. He had a house not far from the church of blessed Mary ad Martyres ^a, to which the aforesaid servant was accustomed to lead the son set upon an ass to pray solemnly, and thence to bring him back to the house, since in mounting and dismounting the disabled master always needed another's help. But because he was mindful ever to impute that infirmity of body not to God but to his own deserts, the regard of the heavenly mercy was not altogether absent from him, which willed that his patience should not remain without an example of reward.

[2] Now while in the aforesaid church he was awaiting the sacred solemnities with the rest, is admonished by the Mother of God, being seized indeed with a light but not an empty sleep, he began to slumber during the very celebration of the sacred mystery, when behold, a certain maiden seemed to stand by him, beautiful in virginal grace and habit, who, touching the man lightly on the head with the hem of her garment, forewarned him: "Why," she said, "unhappy young man, dost thou sleep idly amid the sacred mysteries? Or dost thou seek the medicinal help of thy disabled limbs?" And when with a kind of moaning he expressed, as far as he could, the affection of his desire, then for the first time hearing, though with difficulty, he who had never heard, she answered: "If thou seekest the medicine of body and soul, fear not to undergo every toil, however great, but seek out the western region of the land of Normandy, and strive to come to the sepulchre of blessed Audoënus, which is known to be very near the neighboring walls of the city of Rouen: for there, if thou comest believing, thou shalt be renewed in the use of ears and tongue, and shalt be given the desired health of all thy limbs."

[3] Here the unhappy young man, troubled by the unaccustomed novelty of the voice, that he should go into Normandy to the tomb of St. Ouen, but desirous of health, began to moan to his familiar attendant; who presently running up — supposing, namely, that he wished to return to his familiar dwelling ^b — embraced the wretched body, set it upon the ass, and began to go before on the road, expecting that the saddled beast would follow in his track as usual. A wonderful thing! The ass began to take a far different road, that very highway ^c which our countrymen returning to Normandy were wont to keep. That servant had already gone forward a little, when, looking back from time to time, he sees the rider going elsewhere with the ass; and thinking him deceived by mistaking the road, he says: "Whither, wretch, unhappy man, whither goest thou? Hast thou lost thine eyes, who now for the thirtieth time canst not recognize a road always familiar? This I might always have expected of thee, that thou wouldst fall from day to day worse, and that, as thy limbs failed, thy senses too would fail."

[4] and, though his servant is indignant, Thus, out of his mind, he ran hastily to meet him, and, beating the poor animal with cudgels, tried to force it to the accustomed path; but neither by force nor by blows could the animal be turned from what it had begun. And no less could the sick rider, however harshly he was upbraided with words, be turned at all from his purpose. Overcome at last, the servant, willing or unwilling, ceases to resist any further; but with dire enough imprecations he let them go, thinking that they would not go far, judging nothing less likely than that they would reach a region of a foreign land. Leaving them therefore, he says: "Go where you are going. Certainly you shall not have me today as the companion or helper of your folly. I will rather set about at home what is necessary. Would that a messenger might meet me today who should announce that you both had fallen headlong into some sewer! Who, unhappy man, if there be need, shall take thee down from thy ugly ass, or lift thee up, or even minister to thee for the needs of nature? Unless my mind deceive me, thou shalt not see me today until thou pay me the penalties of this wandering."

[5] and two heavenly ones aid him on the way, Having said this, he leaves his master and returns home in confusion; and behold, there meet the sick man two elders reverend in countenance and habit, one on the right and the other on the left, who with cheerful faces gently smoothed the road before him with their hands. These companions of the journey, serving or ministering to him over plains and steeps, never suffered themselves to be absent from him. An example truly fitting to crush the nausea of execrable pride: that living fellow citizens of heaven did not refuse to serve a mortal sick man even in the humble needs of nature — which certainly I would say was done for our judgment, who, if chance offers us one ulcerous in flesh or filthy in garment, presently do not fear to despise our own nature in him. Attended by such forerunners, that man came all the way to Normandy, so that neither in villages nor in cities nor in places of hospitality did anything at all seem lacking that might be useful for his needs; nay, he found all his hosts so agreed in benevolence that whatever need demanded they furnished him superabundantly. Or should we keep silence about this, that when he was brought into a lodging he suddenly lost them from his eyes, and at his going out in the morning always saw them standing by him? With such company, as we have said, and with such attendance supported, he entered within our walls.

[6] being wonderfully brought thither, There was a certain servant, Norbert by name, who was always rendering service in the uses of the monastery: into his lodging on a Saturday at evening the sick man unexpectedly entered with his ass. That servant chanced to be intent on other business, when his wife, seeing an unknown man within the house, cried out in terror: "Who," she said, "O my husband, brought in this man?" Then turning to the man, she said: "Truly thou deservest, O man, to be driven hence with great buffets, who hast presumed to enter another's lodging unbidden." He answered nothing: for what should he answer who, deaf and dumb, neither understood the voice of the scolder nor was able to utter a word from his mouth? Yet, sitting on his ass, he stands motionless, waiting for someone to take pity and set him down from the ass. At the woman's voice, however, the husband, roused, runs up and asks the man what, or whence, or why he had come in. And when he returned not a word but a moan, the man, of sounder judgment, understood that he had sought the patronage of blessed Audoënus for his own restoration; and, being more inclined to clemency, he set the sick man down in his arms and refreshed him with food and drink, and no less brought the beast ^d into the stable and refreshed it with hay.

[7] Afterward, having supped, the sick man asked that wax be bought for him to make a candle, a wax candle, since he could not with his voice, by a sign — since he could not more expressly — that is, by fitting his hands together; and for this purpose he indicated that a coin which he carried bound in a knot and hanging from his neck should be sent

to his host: concerning which wax this is known to be worthy of memory, that whereas the whole of it could scarcely have sufficed for even one candle, it in fact grew into twelve tapers, each of such size as that portion of it that had been bought could have sufficed for one only — all being astonished, and especially that hostess, who felt the waxen substance growing between her hands. The husband said: "What does this mean, wife, that one piece of wax is divided into twelve? Whence so many tapers? Whence, when this man bought for one silver piece?"

[8] "Be mindful to speak more sparingly," said the woman, "O my husband, which was multiplied by a miracle in her hands and do not rashly find fault with this deed. A thousand times have I made candles to be carried to the altar of our father Audoënus: the like of this I have never been able to know either by sight or by hearing. Wherefore, did not the appearance of his infirmity move me, I would boldly confess that the Lord dwells in this man. Whence I both blame myself and do penance that I, wretched woman, spoke something harsh against him. Truly, by my reckoning, I first drew out the material of the wax, twisting it about a wick; and when I judged that I had entirely used it all up in the completing of one taper, in a wondrous manner I saw the substance grow again between my hands; and although I was silently afraid, it seemed to me that I should make another also out of God's hidden gift; and when I had done this, I felt the waxen substance born anew in my hands with like increases, into twelve, out of the price of one coin — or, what is more truly the case, out of a heavenly gift; as thou seest, tapers not phantastic but material, as one may handle."

[9] The householder, marveling at the miracle of the present deed, orders the man to be treated more religiously. he offers at the altar of St. Ouen, And now by such sign as he could he begged to be brought to the monastery with one of the tapers: which as soon as the aforesaid Norbert could understand, taking his servants he urges that the man be carried to the church; and he himself rejoices, and each of them too, to lend a hand. The sick man being carried even to the altar itself, laid the taper beneath it, and kissing it with a most abundant flow of tears, scarcely suffered himself to be removed. Then, laid upon the pavement, he applied himself at greater length to prayer.

[10] There stood by chance at the right side of the altar a certain Martin, sacristan of the church, who diligently observed all these things; and marvelously passing from his lodging into the church, and Norbert, when his sick man lingered too long, orders him to be carried back to the lodging, because night coming on had shut in the day; whom the servants, embracing him, carried back in their arms to the lodging, and laid him upon a most soft bed to be cherished; and the householder himself likewise, and all his household together, the doors being shut and firmly fastened with bolts and bars, all went to bed. And behold, while all slept, the two aforesaid elders, again standing before the sick man's little bed, roused him with a most gentle touch; and lifting him, they carried him out of the house as far as the courtyard where is the cemetery of the dead, the Virgin going before — by a truly astounding miracle of God, that a bodily man could be led out with the doors shut and the bolts untouched — save that it is certain the Lord can grant to mortals what he himself had already done when he had resumed immortality. For indeed, what obstacles of enclosures withstood his sacred Mother, who had learned to bring forth the Only-Begotten of the most high Father with closed womb? And now indeed what wonder if closed thresholds cannot withstand Peter and Paul, to one of whom the gate of heaven was entrusted, and to the other the secrets of the third heaven lay open? Or certainly who would doubt that this was granted by the great power of God to our blessed Father, who was the fourth of the three — to whom alone three excellent persons, not earthly but now heavenly, brought a man from distant lands to be restored? On which deed we must not linger longer, since he who conferred the gift alone can examine on whom he had conferred also the gift.

[11] after divers revelations The sick man therefore being carried, as we said before, into the cemetery, they set forth to him one by one the tombs of the buried and likewise their names. "Here," they said, "here within lies such a one, and such another; for these, defiled with murders, these with adulteries and other crimes, ended an unworthy life; and because, deceived by the hope of a longer life, they had put off repentance, being taken away by sudden death they are miserably tormented with infernal punishments. This one, on the contrary, would be worthy of a more honorable burial, because he fulfilled righteousness, so far as he could, not negligently; he had care of the poor and the sick; he took pains to redeem his sins by alms and good works; for which, having obtained the fellowship of the just, he enjoys joys that shall abide without end." Having thus spoken, they carried the man in like manner to the cemetery of the inner court, in which the bodies of the monks are buried, in which also they set forth both the life and the rewards of these, and likewise the names of each, in this manner: "O unhappy, O wretched man! How much better had it been for thee to be buried with the burial of an ass, than to defile the place of the saints with a shameful body: for thou hast no communion with the elect, but with the hypocrites a wretched damnation. What did the feigned title of religion and the cowled habit avail thee, who, guilty of disobedience, greedy of money, swollen with pride, didst thirst with impatient appetite after ecclesiastical preferments?"

[12] and visions Then, turning to another, they say: "This man entered the path of an innocent life, and for a time could be tripped up by the cunning of the hidden enemy. Yet that was venial which he committed in ignorance; and therefore, if the adversary exulted for an hour over his offense, he by no means exulted over his perdition, because, repenting with tearful confession, he expiated what he had imprudently committed. But this man, who is covered with the meanest sod of dusty soil, had deserved to be honored with a far loftier burial, for whom to live with those is a welcome fellowship who were always prompt to obedience, submissive to patience, strong for continence, upright against temptation, humble in prosperity, patient in tribulation, strangers to the covetousness of the world, to whom Christ was life and to die was gain." Leaving these, carrying him into the dormitory where the Brethren were resting, they in like manner showed him beforehand the names of the superiors in order and their offices. Then the cell of the sick, the cell of the novices; then the chapter-house, in which the causes of each are discussed; the place also in which the Brethren are refreshed, in which the boys are instructed, where guests are received, where the poor are cherished, where is the bakehouse, where the kitchen. Not one place at all was left over into which he was not carried.

[13] and other prodigies, Last of all, bringing him into the monastery church, the doors being rigidly closed, they laid him in that place over which, upon a raised bell-frame ^e, the brazen bells hang. There they bid the man rest for a while; and it was not long before one of the keepers of the sacred things, hastening to ring the signals in order to warn the Brethren to the offices of matins, all but stumbled upon the man lying there; who, being disturbed by the unexpected thing, when from the shadow he supposed that he was being assailed by the art of a demon, began to hesitate, and, going backward, not without the sign of the cross, roused with a trembling stroke another Brother whom he had with him as keeper, that he might come. Then both, taking a lamp and water fortified with sacred exorcisms, come together to the place, address the man, handle him with their hands, bid him speak. He answers nothing. They wonder, whoever he is, how he had been brought in. They discuss between themselves whether they had remembered to shut the doors last night; whether a sacrilegious thief had loosed the bolts and doors with false keys or by some art; whether perhaps he had violated the sacred place by breaking the windows, and now, being caught with his fraud unaccomplished, since he had no place of escape, was deceiving the simple monks with a feigned sickness, so that, while he was thought to have sought health as it were, he might be allowed to go free as innocent: and striving to test this matter, they run hastily to the doors, and find them shut and secured with bolts. Then to the caskets in which the treasure of the church was kept, then to the cupboards, then to the cases of the ornaments; they find all things nonetheless safe. Now less suspicious of the man, they ring the signals, ^f… The Brethren celebrate together the nightly offices after their manner.

[14] But when they came to the twelfth responsory, behold, the aforesaid elders come up, reverently attending the Virgin in their midst. which seem almost incredible, They stretched out the sick body and the contracted limbs; she, dipping her little finger in the saliva of her virginal mouth, moistened his mouth and tongue, his ears and eyes, and his nostrils also. And when, his sinews being stretched and his flesh laid open, he began to be in anguish, he sent forth a great cry like a woman in travail, at which all the Brethren were turned to amazement. The sick man was silent for an hour; and without delay, when the Brethren, chanting the hymn We praise thee, O God, lifted their voices on high, behold, the Virgin and the aforesaid elders began a second time to handle the man as before. Then indeed, driven by sharp pains, uttering the noise of a dreadful cry, he cried out so that the Brethren, struck with amazement, kept silence from their begun praises for the space of an hour. The abbot gave a sign; some of the Brethren run to seek the cause; they see the man stretched out, his sinews loosed, his flesh torn away, and the pavement drenched with foul blood. They see likewise streams of blood flowing from his eyes, from his ears, from his mouth and nostrils. Thence they return to Lauds; which being finished after the accustomed manner, the abbot, having summoned the keepers, commanded that care be taken of the man more diligently; and the aforesaid Martin, approaching the man at first light, began to ask of what country he was born, or how he had come in. He, though imperfectly, yet stammering in the Roman tongue, sets forth his race and country, and by whose sending or for what cause he had come.

[15] Martin, considering whether this were perhaps the man whom Norbert had brought the day before, and with dramatic episodes went to the man's lodging, and calls from outside whether he has yesterday's guest with him. And he answered from within that he had him with him. Martin demands that he be shown to him; the woman runs to rouse the new guest: she sees the bed empty and the man gone. Then indeed, clapping her hands, she sent up a cry to heaven, at which the neighbors, struck far off, run hastily up. She cries out that nothing was left her within the inner rooms, that everything had been secretly carried off. With womanish complaint she upbraids her husband because he had received a robber for a pilgrim, ill forgetful of the recent miracle which she herself had beheld the day before concerning the tapers. But the husband, believing nothing rashly, orders the chamber, the chests, and the cases to be searched, in case perchance, the bolts being broken, the man had fraudulently taken anything; all which were found safe and untouched. But seeing also the man's ass standing there, they wonder whither and how that man had escaped through the doors, whom the day before they had seen unable to be moved even from his place without another's help.

[16] like things appear, Meanwhile Brother Martin is vexed that he is kept outside the closed doors, that he is not admitted within more quickly. The servants run, they open the doors; and he, being let in, finds the household troubled at the man's absence; and at first he too wonders. Afterward he consoles them, saying that he has the man with him in the church, and how he found him let in though the doors were not open. They in turn relate how they had shut the man up in an inner chamber, and how they had lost him as he went away though the doors were not open. They show also the tapers, how a hidden power had worked in them with visible increases. So on both sides, concerning an event of this kind,

conferring together, they both go to the church. There Norbert, as soon as he recognized his guest, pressed him more attentively to ask how in passing he had eluded his bolts. He, on the contrary, struggles to give an answer; but he was not yet able to relate anything that could be understood, especially since he stammered the Roman tongue rather barbarously than in due form.

[17] there in the presence of the monks But Martin reports to the abbot what he had heard; who orders the man to be moved from the place and to be kept meanwhile beside the sepulchre of St. Ouen; which also was done. Finally, the Sunday offices being performed after the accustomed manner, while the Brethren were taking refreshment, the father of the monastery orders food and drink to be given to the man. Presently two of the Brethren, fulfilling the command, found the man standing and praying, and praising the Lord with an exultant voice; and he renders thanks to the Brethren that they deigned to visit an unknown man; and so he received the dinner brought to him. Meanwhile the Brethren ask how he had been made better, since they see nothing sick, nothing weak left in him; or certainly what this was, that in the morning he uttered the Roman tongue, and that not intelligibly, but now expressed the Norman tongue, and that perfectly, as though born and bred in it. "It is no wonder," he says, "if you marvel in this matter, since I myself am much more amazed at myself. But that it may not be a delay to you to have this explained: during the night praises, when you were astonished that I cried out vehemently, at that very hour those two elders standing by me, and the beautiful Virgin, taking offense at your noise, withdrew and left me imperfectly cured.

[18] perfect health "But now, a little before you came hither, behold, from the eastern side of this sepulchre a certain man, bearing, so to speak, a heavenly countenance, came forth in snowy raiment, adorned with pontifical insignia, from whom an inestimable fragrance of odor so cherished me that no pleasantness of paradise would seem preferable. He, coming forward to me, passed over with a most gentle touch all the lineaments of my body from the top downward. Then, handling my eyes and ears, my tongue and nostrils with a healing finger, he perfectly restored his servant, as you see. From that moment I now hear clearly and speak distinctly — in the morning indeed in Roman, from now on in Norman. From that moment I walk manfully and recline in health, in the morning indeed feeble in the whole body, but now stronger than the strong: a Roman by race, a Roman also by name; in infirmity a citizen of Rome, in the health obtained an everlasting servant of blessed Audoënus."

[19] The Brethren, amazed at the novelty of the miracle, run to announce to the elders the mighty works of God which they had heard, is said to have been obtained. and they too ordered the man to be brought before them; who, being at once brought, set forth in order to their questioning how at Rome he had been forewarned by the Virgin, how he had been accompanied by the aforesaid guides, how he had passed the bars of his lodging, how he had heard the sentences upon the dead, how also he had entered the monastery with the doors shut, and the rest, up to the place of his recovered health ^g.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Two other paralytic pilgrims are wonderfully healed through the intercession of the same Saint.

II.

There is on the side of Mount Gargano ^a a church built in honor of the blessed archangel Michael not by human workmanship: A paralytic on Mount Gargano is admonished beside the vestibule of this church a certain sick man was for long times awaiting the help of bodily medicine, whom a dire palsy, with his legs and arms twisted inward, had deprived of the use of all his limbs. To him his own brother supplied all things necessary; who, being wearied with the weariness of the long waiting, and despairing of health, when he was on the point of carrying his sick brother back to their own country, on that very night on which he was planning to return to his native soil on the following day, the aforesaid sick man is admonished by a voice sent from heaven to go to the western parts of the Gauls and to seek the patronage of blessed Audoënus the confessor; at whose sepulchre he should believingly await the loosing of his bound body; nor should he be moved by the hardship of the toilsome journey, because the Lord, among the power of many signs, had also granted to this his Beloved the health of this man.

[21] that he should go to the sepulchre of St. Ouen, The sick man, awaking, having called to him his attendant, discloses the secret of the vision. Both were dismayed at the road into an unknown region; but conferring together that they ought not to decline heavenly commands, especially for the restoration of his health, they resolve to go to the walls of the city of Rome, because it is reported that men from all regions come together there, through whom they might learn the region of the country divinely appointed. Without delay, their little bundles being taken up, that sick man is placed upon the ass that carried him, and so, with difficulty indeed, he goes on to the church of blessed Peter. It chanced that there men of our nation had come to the thresholds of the Apostles for the sake of prayer, where the wretched man, lying before the doors of the sacred building, began to ask of the passers-by in what parts of the world he should seek the desirable sepulchre of St. Ouen: which our men hearing, they lay hold of the man and press him in turn to say why he sought the sacred house of blessed Audoënus with so fervent a mind.

[22] and at Rome, having consulted certain Normans, He sets forth to their questioning the course of the divine command, and how by divine permission he had received that the help for his knotted body should be restored to him at his sepulchre. "That blessed Audoënus," they say, "is, if thou believest, our most loving shepherd, our most faithful guardian, and our most serene father: for that we are cherished with divine benefits, that we enjoy a temperate air, that we enjoy the fruitful shoot of the fields and the sweetness of the woods, that we abound in milk and cattle, and that, living in the utmost peace, we fear no foreign inroads — we truly confess to have been granted from heaven by his merits. We, sprung from the mingled blood of Franks and Normans, inhabit the city of Rouen, which city is the head and chief of the whole region of Neustria ^b: in this city there is a church, and in it the venerable sepulchre which thou seekest, of the glorious Confessor, where divine benefits are ceaselessly granted to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. If it is divinely granted thee to come hither, thou too shalt see broken companies of the sick, their strength restored, returning to their own and glorifying the Lord. Therefore, if thou eagerly desirest to go so far, thou must first surmount the rugged ridges of the Alps; and when, coming to the borders of western Gaul, thou hast reached the neighboring haven of the Seine, on its northern shore the famous walls of the city of Rouen will appear, whose northeastern quarter, outside the walls, raises up a church built in honor of blessed Audoënus, in which, as has been said, thou shalt see companies of the sick from many parts of the earth awaiting the event of health."

[23] he sets out for Rouen, Hearing this, that wretched man, by a toilsome journey indeed, having crossed the Alps, borne on a slow ass, came as far as the Gauls; and so that wretched man, following the signs he had traced out, while he was anxiously making for the city of Paris, was set upon by robbers in a certain forest and miserably shaken off his ass; and when the wretched man cried out in the name of blessed Audoënus that it should be given back to him, they, moved by no pity, went off, driving away, not without impiety, another's booty. But travelers coming up, pitying his case, carried him as best they could all the way to the city. Here our merchants, having exchanged their wares and then chancing to be lading their ships, were hastening to return home; who, having questioned the man, put him on board ship for the love of Christ and carried him to Rouen; and thence carried him to the entrance of the church of the blessed Confessor.

[24] Here a multitude of monks under the venerable father Hildebert ^d led the arduous warfare of the regular life. and having set forth to the abbot the cause of his journey, While that excellent father, having after his custom the care of the sick, was going forth to visit them, when he beheld the man of an unknown region, he began to accost him with kindly words of this sort: "Why hast thou, my Brother, passing by the patronage of so many Saints, sought blessed Audoënus, so to speak, from the rising of the sun ^e?" To whom the sick man said: "No idle cause, holy father, nor false pretense of pilgrimage, brought me from the parts of the East to this your place. Now for a long time I had lain beside the vestibule of the basilica of the blessed Archangel, awaiting from heaven the medicine of my broken body, as thou seest, when at the dead of night a certain man of inestimable brightness appeared to me in sleep, saying: 'Why art thou, unhappy young man, tormented here so many years by lying? ' And when I had answered that I was awaiting the help of health, he said to me: 'The medicine for this thy sickness must be sought elsewhere. If thou hast heard the name of the precious confessor of Christ, Audoënus, there is laid up for him with the supreme Redeemer a manifold grace of virtues, so that, unless a man be unbelieving, none carries back empty vows from him. Now to him the gift of thy cure has been granted — doubt not; and therefore, however burdensome it may seem to thee, thou must go to his sepulchre, which is honored by the faithful to the praise of Christ in the territory outside the walls of the city of Rouen. This city which thou hast heard of is the head and mistress of all Neustria, which the Norman nation, having wearied it with frequent inroads and driven out the inhabitants, subjugated to itself, and chose to call from its own name Normandy. Coming thither, by the Lord's authorship thou shalt find what thou hast so long awaited here in vain.' Following the commands of this oracle, if it is of the Lord, venerable father, I have come by a toilsome pilgrimage to this place, on which journey, having suffered the ambush of robbers, I lost my familiar mount ^f; which loss indeed I bear with an even mind, if, my strength being restored, father Audoënus himself shall grant me to return home — whom, having traversed so great a compass of lands, I have sought out even hither."

[25] Here the venerable father said: "If it is so, by the Saint's help he recovers his health my son, as thy speech declares to us, fear not: it is at hand that thou shalt carry back, by God's authorship, the health thou hast sought." Without delay, having called his servants, he ordered the sick man to be carried to the place of the presbytery. There the sick man, being shaken from his litter ^g to the ground, his sinews unchained and his flesh torn, began to be more tightly straitened, and to cry out with dreadful voices: "St. Ouen, St. Ouen, help me!" And when he touched the base of the altar, his arms being loosed,

which he had brought contracted, he stretched them out to the edge of the altar. Then presently, his legs being loosed, he raised himself upon his feet. Thereafter, with a faltering effort, as a novice he attempted to walk about the spaces of the inner court; and not long after he walked manfully with other men. And he also fitted his arms to the fitting use of work.

[26] It happened after three days that no small crowd of the Gallic nation flocked to pray at the sepulchre of blessed Audoënus. and the ass of which he had been robbed on the way. At that very hour the aforesaid man was walking about the threshold of the outer court, when, simply turning his gaze to their horses, he catches sight of his own little ass standing among their beasts of burden, which he had lost when he was seized by the robbers. But looking more keenly, lest, deceived by a resemblance, he should be branded by the public laws for laying claim to another's property, he began to coax it by its own private name; which as soon as the animal recognized, eagerly pricking up its ears and lifting its tail, by running and leaping it testified that it recognized its old owner. Receiving therefore what was his own (for there was nothing that could be gainsaid), being endowed with a twofold gift, he returned to his native soil, everywhere protesting with public voice that Rome indeed was happy, but Normandy not less happy, since the one has Peter, the other has Audoënus.

III.

[27] I relate another miracle, on which, because it is not far unlike this one, we need not linger longer. Another paralytic, coming from Auvergne, A certain nobleman of the region of Auvergne ^h, rich indeed in substance, but, besides his maimed limbs, had utterly lost his hearing. He, being carried to Tours to the sepulchre of blessed Martin, for some time kept sad vigils; when a most splendid man appearing to him by night bade him go quickly to Rouen, the city of Normandy, to the sepulchre of blessed Audoënus: let him not delay, if he had faith, since there he should receive his hearing and the strength of his weakened limbs. The man wonders that Martin, an apostolic man mighty in signs and virtues, being now unable to work his familiar powers, should bid another's patronage be sought: ill understanding this, that although the Saints never lack the merits of virtues, yet the grace of workings is not always present; but by the hidden dispensation of the Giver the turns and times of healing are alternated among the Saints.

[28] obtains there a like benefit of health. But having called his servants to him and taken the things necessary for the road, he came eagerly to the aforesaid sepulchre of our Father. It chanced that there the Brethren of the monastery, being about to offer the hosts amid the sacred offices of the Mass, were standing about with the utmost reverence, when that sick man, being himself about to make an offering, had asked to be carried by his bearing servants to the sacred altar. As soon as he was laid on the pavement out of the chair in which he was carried, before the sacred altar, straightway, the bonds of his sinews being broken, he is stretched out, not without a great cry. Without delay, his hearing being received and his limbs restored, raising himself upon his feet, he walks with none carrying him to the altar to offer his gift; and thus, being restored to himself, with his servants rejoicing, he returned to his own ⁱ.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The enlightening of a blind woman, the Saint's body immovable on account of the presence of the wicked, and the wonderful deliverance of a certain captive.

IV.

Since our pen, having left Tours, has made its passage to blessed Audoënus, A certain priest relates what the venerable Father, present not in body but in power, wrought in that city must not be suppressed in silence: for it contains in itself an illustrious proof of apostolic virtue for the instruction of the faithful, that in adverse chances, however far removed he be, he ceases not to come with swift help to those who invoke him. We, because it is agreed that it was done far from us, did not behold it with our own eyes; but we learned it by the faithful relation of a certain priest who was present, which fact indeed removed the scandal of incredulity from certain persons who with mad mind grunted against our Father, that Audoënus was mighty within his own domestic walls, but in more remote parts was powerless and unknown. These had claimed to themselves, in proof of their erroneous opinion, that he had by no means been able to cure in their own land those three sick men of whom we spoke a little before, until, weighed down by the weariness of a long pilgrimage, they had come all the way to his sepulchre. Truly these might have said, with the ruler who asked the Saviour concerning his son, they might, I say, have said: Come down before my son die; since they judged the Saviour either not everywhere present, or, unless present in body, powerless in virtue.

[30] Whence I would say that it was not chance, but truly a testimony divinely administered, how his blind sister that, while certain Brethren were disputing about such matters, a certain venerable priest, coming to the sepulchre of our Father, rendered thanks at length to the Lord and to St. Ouen. When we, not knowing the cause, pressed to ask, he answered: "No idle cause, Brethren and lords, has made me a debtor for the rendering of thanks, if I were fit for it. I had, and still have, a sister born of the same parents, who, having lost her sight, was for many years smitten with blindness, whom I had brought to the sepulchre of blessed Martin, because we dwell within his diocese. Doing this very often, when I profited nothing, I understood that the benefit was denied by reason of our own faults. But when, despairing of her health, I was bringing my sister back to our father's home, past midnight I heard her cry out in her sleep and say: 'St. Ouen, thou art my helper, thou my enlightener'; and when I at once roused her and asked why she had so cried out, she began to relate that she had seen blessed Audoënus lay his hand upon her, and presently, the darkness of blindness being dispelled, restore sight to her.

[31] was enlightened by the patronage of St. Ouen, "She therefore added with much entreaty that I should conduct her to St. Ouen; to whom, when I had answered that this could by no means be done without great danger to us, since the kingdom was in peril on every side from civil wars, here from pestilence and famine, and there all the roads were beset by the ambushes of robbers and the inroads of brigands, she, kindled with the ardor of an impatient desire, answered that she cared nothing for these things, provided she might deserve to receive her sight. To whom I said: 'Do not, my sister, push me into so dangerous a business: for I am certain that, if all those things are true which a very celebrated report spreads through the world concerning so great a Father, he will be no less present to us though set far off than to those who stand more closely by, if indeed by the presence of faith we ask his indulgence. It seems to me therefore, if thou acquiesce in my counsels (for it is not toilsome to go once even to the church of blessed Martin), to ask that aforesaid Patron there with suppliant vows, that what thou didst confess he had done for thee in a dream he may render effectual in manifest truth' — which also was done.

[32] and, coming to Rouen, gives thanks to the Saint for her. "Then, the solemn day of his deposition, which was at hand, being awaited, when in the church of blessed Martin she had fallen asleep a little, being wearied with too long vigils, behold, the venerable father Audoënus came, with starry eyes, with flourishing hoariness and shining in snowy habit, and with his finger poured a most brilliant light into her blind eyes. This is that, Fathers and Lords, this is the singular cause which compels me, removed from my native borders, to render thanks to our lord and restorer, the blessed father Audoënus, for the benefit conferred."

[33] But I judge it a sin that this too be covered in silence, which formerly shone forth as done in the sight of many, The author, an eyewitness, sets forth, which indeed struck terror and admiration into very many who, the world being now changed for them, have departed this life, and also into ourselves who by God's mercy still remain. Let murderers hear, let robbers hear, let the sacrilegious hear; they have from this, if they wish to persist in their crimes — they have, I say, from this wherewith to be terrified; they have from this, if they desire to live, wherewith to be corrected. Now at about the second milestone from the city toward the equinoctial sunrise a hill rises, from which the city lying below and its suburban strongholds can be beheld with unhindered sight: on the top of this stands a church dedicated to the memory of the blessed archangel Michael, to which it is the custom for no small crowd from the adjacent region to come together on the feast day. To us on the other hand it seemed pleasing to carry the venerable body of our Father to the aforesaid place, whether for the gladness of the day or to cheer the people; which also, a few years ago, when the old observance had given notice that it should be done on the coming day, when we surmount the hill by ascent, we found the very courts of the sacred building, within and without, so filled up by the crowding people that neither was free egress open to those set within, nor entrance to those set without. While these and those thus contended with one another, the day had for the most part passed. We, hindered by such an obstacle, wait meanwhile outside until, the crowd having slipped away, the enclosures of the church should lie open to us.

[34] how the body of St. Ouen There is on the very brow of the hill a pleasant, though narrow, level place. There, a pall being spread beneath, setting down the Saint's bier, we girt it about in the manner of a crown. What more? When we were at last troubled by the long waiting, a messenger runs to us testifying that the people had for the most part slipped away and had left the thresholds passable for us. Presently, the Antiphon being begun, when two excellent Brethren, whose office this was, laying their hands to it, endeavor to lift the bier — a wonderful and astonishing thing! — the Saint's body held itself with so great a weight of hidden power that no strength could prevail to move it. Others rise up, chiding the sloth of the former, who, likewise laying on their hands, when they had long and much struggled and had prevailed nothing, were dismayed that the vigor of their robust youth had failed them. Whence these too, being overcome, withdrew not without confusion and amazement; which indeed the other Brethren beholding, they too, constrained, applied themselves together with the utmost effort to lift the sacred burden; but, as though assaulting a towered mass, their strength being exhausted, they failed. Then indeed, confounded with incredible amazement, each of us silently examined his own conscience, lest by our own

crime — that of any one of us — the reverend Father, being offended, had perchance shrunk from the services of the whole household, transferring the offense of one upon the whole flock.

[35] And so, being uncertain of the matter, we determined to attempt nothing further, carried to a certain church but to keep watch in the present place as long as it pleased him, until, his indignation being removed, the kindly Father should reveal his will by whatever signs pleased him. An hour had already passed; the people melt away and leave the house of the church empty for us, when suddenly a certain old man, venerable in face and habit, mingled himself with the Brethren standing about, bearing indeed a moderate severity in his face and authority in his voice, and said: "Why, my sons, why do I see you failing thus with troubled minds? Why do the hidden causes of things frighten you? These things do not concern you; but, if you consider, they proclaim the hateful presence, far to be execrated, of certain men, who, given over to crimes, while they care not to consider their wicked life, have not feared, not without pride, to enter this present house of the Lord on this sacred day, and to offend the eyes of the supreme majesty, as though God, ignorant of their crimes, either did not see what was committed or left it unpunished: of whom some have never withheld their sacrilegious hands from the churches of God, but, breaking into Christ's sanctuary and shattering it as though it were a vile pigsty ^a, and dragging harmless men from its very inner parts, as sons from a mother's womb, in the Lord's sight, have polluted the sanctuary of God with a most cruel heart.

[36] "But if despair of life or fear of captivity had driven any to defend themselves in a sacred building, because of the presence of sinners these they sacrificed as pitiable victims, either setting fire beneath them or burning them in a conflagration; or, having forced them to surrender, they constrained them by hunger and dire torment to a price of ransom. And that these have a portion with the faithful in the kingdom of holy mother Church, unless they wash away what they have committed, who but an unbeliever would think? Others, defiled with the frequent shedding of human blood, behold, entering this present hall assigned to divine worship and to angelic powers, have not feared to draw heavenly wrath upon themselves. Others out of the plunder of the poor have today brought bloody gifts to the sacred altars, whose offering is as pleasing in the divine sight as a banquet prepared from the corpse of a son is in a father's sight. Wretched men, for whom an irremediable damnation remains, in proportion as their impenitent madness against God's patience ever grows fiercer, whose penal damnation could indeed have been the lighter by this very thing, if, considering their wicked conscience, they had at least blushed at a holy place and at the fellowship of the just.

[37] "But now, because the author of righteousness spurns their sacrilegious communion, it ought not to be a wonder to you if the Saints also, whose mind is not at variance with the will of the inward judge, remained immovable. abominate their assemblies. Know that hence it came about that this your Father, as in his lifetime he had once taught that the company of the wicked must be shunned, so now also, reprobating their assembly, was unwilling to be carried to any sacred place whatever which the authors of crime and the ministers of Satan were defiling with their hateful presence. You therefore, since the impious party has departed — you, I say, my sons, be not faint; take up quickly the sacred coffer of your Father. Behold, he stands by you ready to help, who, unmoved, was detaining you in unwelcome idleness." Presently at the elder's word the Brethren, being cheered, hastily lay on their hands, and, taking up the holy body with the utmost lightness, carried it into the church with praises and set it down. Meanwhile a question arises among the Brethren concerning the aforesaid old man, whither he had betaken himself, who unknown had thus and at such a time come to us, and had so suddenly disappeared; and when, runners being sent to search, they had learned that he had nowhere turned aside and had appeared to none, at last — which is not incredible — they judge that this same person, whose sacred body's urn they had carried, had truly been blessed Audoënus himself.

VI.

[38] I am about to tell a thing which we have learned to have happened in the county of Exmes ^b in modern times, by the relation indeed of many, but more certainly from the mouth of him concerning whom it is agreed to have been done. A certain soldier A certain soldier in the aforesaid district, seeing the kingdom, changed by youthful counsel from its ancient state, to be shaken by the constant inroads of brigands and by civil wars, and that no man was left who should seek a remedy for human affairs out of the public discord, took counsel with himself that, since he alone could not settle so many civil commotions, and since he himself, standing amid hostile arms, could not protect his household property from mutual inroad — he took counsel, I say, in this manner: that, approaching each one of them, he should at whatever price bind their friendship to himself, so that with whatever violence the hostile lines might clash together, he might render his home, his fields, and his possessions immune from hostile inroad: for in this he had counselled himself prudently, if only avarice had ever known how to keep faith and friendship.

[39] being treacherously seized by greedy enemies, But what mortal has ever found in it constancy of faith? For indeed it arms brothers of one mind for battles; it dyes parricidal swords with kindred blood; it certainly makes venal the priestly fillets and the doves of the church. What more? It compels men to break holy friendships and sworn oaths; which anyone may see from the present example: for one of them, in whom the aforesaid soldier trusted that there would be for him a greater constancy of friendship, taking his brigands, coming by night, set watches about the man's dwelling lest any should escape; and by engines brought up, a certain most abandoned robber being let in, who by some magic power unlocked with enchanted bars the bolts and the iron defenses of the fastenings, he had the gates opened to him, none resisting from within, since presumed faith in friendship had removed the care of watching.

[40] and delivered to a close prison, And so, doing violence to men unwary and asleep, they burst into the inner thresholds of the house, drag the master himself from his inner chambers, and, taking the spoils, went off leaving the household astounded. Then, betaking themselves within their stronghold, they shut up the wretched man in the harsh dungeon of a prison, keepers being set over him. There he remains for some time, as one for whom, his treasures having been taken away, no money was at hand for ransom. Being supplied only on the fourth day with hard and scanty food, he bewailed the hard exile of his captivity. At length his adversaries, resenting his long custody, withdrew food altogether from the wretched man. And now, wasted with hunger, he is led away in mind into various thoughts. Then the mention of our blessed father Audoënus entered his mind, who ceases not to come with help to those who invoke him in perils and necessity; and, as the poet says, sighing and drawing his voice from the depth of his breast, he speaks thus: "O venerable father Audoënus, O consolation of the sorrowful and redemption of captives, whom it is certain that no man ever invoked in vain in perils, be present to this most wretched sinner, whom the hard weights of iron, hunger, and the squalor of a prison torment without cause."

[41] At the man's voice a light poured in drove away the darkness of the prison, and having implored the help of St. Ouen, and behold, a certain venerable person of priestly rank, with fiery countenance and snowy habit, stood by the man with one minister of the same order, saying: "Why, pitiable man, hast thou thus called upon brother Audoënus?" To whom he said: "Art thou then father Audoënus, who hast deigned to hear this wretched captive within the enclosure of a prison? Who am I, or which of my parents is known to have deserved this, that thou shouldst visit a wretched son amid the miseries of this exile? If thou thyself art he, holy Father, have mercy on thy suppliant, and, leading me out of this present dungeon, restore me to my children and to my desolate household, for which no supports of hope of ransom present themselves in such adverse circumstances." To whom the Hero said: "Behold, if thou hesitate not, behold, thy chains, behold, thy iron handcuffs and fetters are loosed for thee, and the door of the prison, being open, offers thee no obstacle to the liberty of escape. Behold, thou hast me for companion and guide of the journey." So he said; but the other, fearing all things even when safe, said: "I hear thee, Father; but I greatly fear from these whom thou seest keeping their hateful watch about me, lest they too, roused by the sound of my voice, should exact from me with avenging punishments the loosed engine of iron."

[42] Thus the Hero, resenting the man's distrust, betook himself into the thin air. he is freed from prison, And he, fearing lest he should be accused of having committed such a fraud out of eagerness for flight, forestalls the accusation, calls the keepers, and shows the bonds and the doors unbarred. The jailers, being roused, rise up with a rush. Some run hastily to the doors; others seize the man and bind him with iron more harshly. Finally, on the following night, while, pressed by hunger and iron, he called upon his Patron, behold, again the most indulgent Father, standing by in the same likeness, chides the man for yesterday's distrust, encourages him again to flight, and opens his bonds, as at first, and the doors unbarred. But what did the way of liberty, so often shown, profit a brute animal? For, his going forth being delayed, the Saint again withdrew. The keepers, being roused no less, accusing the man as guilty of an attempted fraud, bind him with a threefold weight of iron.

[43] But on the third day, when the sun with noonday heat held the mid center, is freed from prison, and the keepers before the door, intent upon a game of dice, were watching the now despairing captive, behold, a third time the holy Father, who, though offended, is yet always ready to pardon — behold, I say, standing by, he terrified the man with a somewhat threatening brow, shattered all the iron, and, the doors being broken, took him and led him out of the prison, the keepers looking on but understanding nothing at all of what was being done. And now the Saint, departing, left the man alone; who, coming to the bank of a river, while he hesitates to cross, behold, on the further bank he sees the aforesaid disciple of the Father standing and forewarning him not to dread the wave of the deeper channel: at whose nod being encouraged, he who had never learned to swim gave himself to the river; whom, borne up by the serving wave, the aforesaid attendant, standing on the shore, took by the hand and drew out of the water to himself, and addresses him with words of this sort: "Behold, the soldiers of that castle are about to hear that their captive has escaped, and presently, pursuing thee on thy track, they will press on to seize thee, if it be lawful. But do thou fear not: there will meet thee a certain man at the next mile, sitting on a horse and girt with military arms. Do thou remember to do whatever he shall urge: for he, after the manner of military discipline, will deliver himself up to thee with joined hands; the new-made soldier will add horse and arms, secure for his own life, solicitous for thine. Do not ask who he is or whence he comes to thee: fear not those whom I called thy pursuers; for they shall hear a message at whose terror, their faces turned back in flight, they shall cease to pursue thee."

[44] and wonderfully escapes the hands of his pursuing enemies. Thus having spoken, he sent the man on his way; and as he went, his flight resumed, girls standing on the bank of the channel washing clothes, seeing him now stopping, now looking back, perceive that a man had escaped and was hastening to the hiding-places of flight; who straightway with chattering voices began to shout to the men of the castle, saying that their captive, the keepers being corrupted, had escaped, and that unless they pursued more swiftly he would never be taken again ^c… Presently, mounting their horses, the soldiers pursue the man at a rapid course, now with hope and eagerness

of dragging him back again to the penal prison; when behold, a man of unknown race, with a foaming horse and arms, armed as for single combat, meets the fugitive, and thus says to him: "Behold, I come to thee for help. If thou receive me, thou hast a man excellently trained in the disciplines of the old warfare, and one who, when perils press, knows not how to desert his lord. Although, as far as I see, perils press hard upon thy heels ^d, yet do thou not tremble: behold, here are horse and arms for thee. Supported by these, thou shalt rejoice today to have escaped all hostile arms." Without delay, having received the man and taken the arms, he eagerly mounted the horse, which, driven by the spurs, made a bound as far as the place. Then, taking up a run, he so eluded the sight of his pursuers that they knew not at all whither he had gone or where he had betaken himself. But hearing news of an ambush lying hidden in the next forest, and fearing a dangerous passage for themselves, taking up a backward course, they who were contriving perils for another rejoice to have escaped their own.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Speech obtained for a dumb boy, health restored to a paralytic woman, and the punishment of two who did injury to the Saint.

VII.

When I hear that from the shadow of the sacred bier, in which the relics of our most holy Father are kept shut up, virtue was poured into sick bodies, A dumb boy obtains speech, then indeed I seem to myself to see the infirm in the streets drawing from the shadow of Peter the Apostle the desired help of health. A boy of seven years, dumb from birth, his parents once by chance were bringing to the oratory of blessed Audoënus. It chanced to be the days of the Rogations ^a, on which, by divine oracles, the whole Gallican church is accustomed to go forth to the places of prayer with crosses and the Lord's standards. We, according to ancient observance, were going on the fourth feria which precedes the Lord's day of the Ascension, with the venerable body of our Father, to the church of blessed Michael, which stands on the top of the neighboring hill. We had not yet completed half the space of the journey, and behold, the aforesaid boy, as soon as he touched the shadow of the sacred bier, the bonds of his tongue being loosed, sent his voice on high with a prayer of this sort: "St. Ouen, have mercy on me." But his parents, dismayed with joy and wonder at the benefit of unhoped-for health, upon our questioning them protested with an oath that before that very day they had never heard a word from his mouth.

VIII.

[46] A certain young man had been born in the district of Coutances ^b, and a peasant, in whom what a generous nobility of blood had not acquired, the calamity of a pitiable event acquired, so that he who was known only among his neighbors became most well known among strangers. Of him it was reported in recent memory that, being struck by a stroke of lightning, he had been subjected to a perilous suffering, because he alone had scorned to observe the feast day of St. Ouen, which by the priest's edict the whole parish was reverently celebrating: which indeed we, judging it to have been made up by the empty invention of the common people, no one could persuade us to believe until we beheld with our own eyes the marks of scorched flesh upon the man's body: in which deed indeed, so far as it is given a man to conjecture concerning the hidden dispensation of the Lord, we recognized a twofold cause of God's mercy, namely, that the guilty man, being preserved unto life, might by repentance expiate the guilt of his offense, and that this kind of burning might strike fear into others, lest, despising the words of the priests, they should be punished by a like judgment, as often as the priests themselves lay before them wholesome admonitions concerning peace and the safety of the common country, and also concerning the honor of the Saints and of the elect of God (which is truly the glory of the Lord). Now this custom has ever been and will be among the people of the Christian religion, that they should be zealous to observe solemnly the feast days of the Saints, namely that on these they should abstain from servile work and from the occupation of secular business, that they may both more freely frequent the church of the Lord, and by instancy of prayers may be able to obtain the patronage of those Saints whose memory is kept.

[47] The matter of which we treat is thus. For, time rolling on, there was at hand that most famous day on which the true Israel and apostolic man Audoënus had sent forth his holy soul from the dungeon of the flesh to the heavenly Jerusalem, the angels rejoicing. There is in the aforesaid district a villa which they commonly call ^c…, in which there stands a church dedicated in honor of the Saint. In this, on the fifth day before the feast, which was a Sunday, while the priest was admonishing the people gathered there to anticipate the coming day with worthy observance and to celebrate it heartily when at hand, behold, among others that aforesaid young man was standing by: he had a little before by chance spread hay lately cut through a field to the sun; and the ground, somewhat bare, showed him the loss done to him by night; and the day had now dawned on which the priest had commanded men to rest from the exercise of labor.

[48] who had violated the feast of St. Ouen by working, But the peasant, made savage with immoderate grief at the loss done him, having called together his household, wretched man, began to press on with the labor; and, taking no account of the holy day, he persisted so vehemently until he had set out in two heaps the hay which remained, gathered from every side; and he himself lay down closely the next night to keep watch over his hay, when at the third watch of the night a sudden horror of malignant spirits assailed him, with a like roaring of most hideous horses, which with flaming eyes and teeth gnashing with horrible noise, making an onset, attack him, whom, beating him with the hard thrust of their breasts as with an iron boss, they miserably afflict; then, having seized him with their teeth, they leave him rolled among the straw, and, as though their fury were sated, withdrawing they seemed to mingle themselves with the open air.

[49] and therefore had been struck by lightning, Scarcely had the monstrous troop departed, when behold, an immense flashing of the riven air followed, with which, a thunderbolt being sent down from above, a pitiable punishment seized the man, from which a flaming torch, bursting forth, caught the dry straw. But the neighbors, dismayed at such a time by an unwonted brightness of light and by the noise, seeing the fire, leaving their beds, hasten swiftly to the place; and while they struggle to put out the fire, one of them by chance recognized the man, lying already amid the licking flames, whom, the crowd being called, having found him he drags half alive from the burning fire; and calling him more urgently by name, and asking whether he felt himself alive, they heard from him no more answer than from a dead man; only from the seat of his breast they perceive by touch the beating of a struggling soul.

[50] repenting of the deed, is healed. His wretched wife stood among the rest of the crowd, and with the bitterness of womanly grief wearied the harmless ears of the man; at whose cries, when the young man could scarcely lift his heavy eyes, by such sign as he could he admonished his wife to cease from weeping. Then, being carried home, when he had lain some days upon a bed of sickness, he bound himself by a vow of this sort: that if, his vigor being restored, he should be able to go in health to the monastery of blessed Audoënus, he would, for the amendment of the fault he had committed, undergo a voluntary punishment of bodily discipline; and also would pay him a head-tax so long as he lived. A wondrous thing, but pleasant to tell! Scarcely had he fulfilled the vow in word, when, the pain of his whole bruised body being allayed, he grew strong enough to perform the necessary offices. Presently, being restored to himself for the paying of his promise, he came all the way to us with two priests of good testimony and with his neighbors; through whom we learned these very things that have been told; and, the man's body being uncovered, we beheld the burning of the thunder-struck flesh.

IX.

[51] There were causes at hand for which a provincial assembly of bishops and abbots was being held. A woman is freed from palsy, The place appointed for it was in the territory of Caen ^d, on account of the convenience of the place and the abundance of its produce. Hither it had been decreed by the counsel of all that the bodies of the Saints and their sacred relics should be brought, among which our venerable father Audoënus had been carried. There arose from the whole region an infinite multitude of peoples flocking together; there for two days various counsels were held concerning the peace of the kingdom and the state of the commonwealth, very many resisting to whom the hope of plunder had promised a living out of the public discord. But the counsels of the good prevailed, to whom peace and public quiet were pleasing. There is therefore made in the midst an oath concerning peace. All rejoice, and especially the husbandmen. Each returns to his own camp, carrying back the bodies of the Saints within their tents. And it came to pass that, when the venerable father Audoënus was being carried back to his tabernacle, behold, a certain woman, to whom for many years a dire palsy, her limbs being contracted, had denied the power of walking, being carried on the conveyance of a poor ass, is set down amid the throng before the Saint's bier by the men who bore her; where, when she had applied herself a little to prayer, presently, the knot of her limbs being loosed, the poor woman is raised upon her feet; and although at the first effort she tottered, presently she goes back with firm step, not without the wonder of many, praising the Lord and blessed Audoënus her restorer. There is a shout and an exultation of all the people ^e.

XII.

[52] A certain thief, ever bent upon new frauds, when he saw frequent crowds flocking from every quarter of the neighboring region to the aforesaid place, and a thief with his familiar art of doing harm joined himself as a companion to the traveling crowds. There was in the company no small multitude of common people, among whom in the midst went a priest, carrying with him some little bundles of goods, and such things as seemed necessary for his uses during the days of the council. Perceiving that this man was by no means keen to guard against frauds, that most wicked thief began craftily to assail him, saying that it was unworthy that so great a priest should be weighed down alone with a bundle of goods in the heat of the day, especially amid so many crowds; and offering himself as a companion and servant to carry his little bundles, if he would, as far as the boundary of the place; but the priest, trusting him not at all, was unwilling to lay down his burden for the moment. But when a space of two miles had been passed, he again pleads with the priest that he was being wearied in vain by the trouble of the burden, when he himself was ready to undertake the burden of a shared labor.

[53] At length the priest, coaxed by his persuasive importunity, who had stolen a bundle from a priest, laid upon the man a linen cloth which he was bringing for sale to the fair, together with other things. He, while he was still some little distance from the place to which he was going, feigning himself a faithful beast of burden ^f, dared not part from the priest. But when they came to the place, he suddenly mingled himself with the common crowds, bundles and all, and so by a swift flight eluded the priest, who ran hither and thither. Finally, entering a certain lodging to hide, he sold at a very low price the gear ^g of another's labor, taking for it, as he himself afterward confessed, three shillings; with these the unhappy man hastily approaches the oratory of the Saint, not considering how great an injury he does to the Saints of God who fears not to disturb those who seek their patronage. Let those hear the dreadful example of the crime committed who fear not to disturb pilgrims and those coming to the church

of God, or strive to attack or despoil them.

[54] But presently, as soon as he touched the threshold of the tabernacle with sacrilegious feet, is punished by the contraction of his limbs, suddenly, his arms and legs being contracted, that wretched man fell to the ground, all being amazed at the miracle of an unheard-of thing, and especially the monks being troubled at such a portent, since they remembered that nothing like it had ever happened, seeing it had always been familiar to blessed Audoënus to grant health to the sick, but never to inflict sickness upon the sound. Over this there was no small trembling in them, that they had heard the man come a little before in health, and now behold him within the tabernacle of father Audoënus stricken with a sudden calamity. Here one of the Brethren, moved with fear and indignation at the adverse event, when he saw the people standing about dismayed with various murmuring, turning to the bier in which the relics of the sacred body were kept, poured forth prayers with tears.

[55] and, having confessed his sin, is restored to health. Then, rebuking the man with such words, he says: "What, pitiable young man, does the punishment of thy present disease accuse thee of having done? Conscious of what crime hadst thou presumed to enter the tabernacle of our Father? Behold, thy feet and legs, behold, thy hands and arms, stiff with contracted sinews, accuse the capital crime of a hidden wickedness. If thou askest healing for thy broken body, if thou askest pardon for thy offense, blush not to confess what thy guilty conscience hides: for a pure confession of guilt becomes a saving portion of restored vigor. It is easy for Audoënus to grant this, if the greatness of the hidden plague be laid open." So the unhappy man, confounded with pain and shame, willing or unwilling, brings into the midst how he had defrauded a priest coming to the oratory of the holy Father of the goods entrusted to him, and that he still has the price of his iniquity upon him; adding also that he had come with this intent also, that, if he could, he might cut away the purses of unwary men with a thievish knife while they were praying. Having thus confessed, he promises that he will cease from this art of wickedness. Presently, the Brethren being prostrate in prayer, in a wondrous manner that wretched man, his limbs being loosed, rises to his feet safe and sound.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Thieves are detected by the Saint's help, a blind man is enlightened, and two dumb men obtain the use of speech.

XIII.

A certain man of Bayeux ^a of no ignoble family, Coins stolen by a thief being about to seek the patronage of our holy Father, when he had come to the oratory in which the blessed confessor of Christ rested, having taken two silver pieces out of his wallet, laid them upon the table of the altar; then he applied himself to prayer. There stood by chance there a most abandoned robber, watching whether he might find any place fit for his frauds (since the aforesaid man had left his wallet carelessly covered); this craftsman of deceit cut with a biting knife the purse in which twice ten shillings of coins were kept, and, keeping them hidden in his boots, stole himself away secretly from the place. Then, betaking himself to his feet, while, rejoicing in his theft, he tried in vain to escape, being held back by a certain judgment of God, with wandering steps he turned aside unknowingly to the lodging of that man. But perceiving that he had turned aside wrongly, resuming his flight, he tried to withdraw elsewhere: again, when he thought that he had withdrawn further, he found that he had returned once more to the man's lodging. A third time likewise his flight being renewed, while he thought that he had escaped far enough from the suspected neighborhood, he perceived that he was likewise shut in within the enclosures of the aforesaid lodging — unhappy man, not knowing that he was being hemmed in by divine judgment.

[57] Meanwhile that man before the bier of St. Ouen was uttering a loud complaint of his recent loss. are wonderfully recovered, When he had found no trace of the stolen money, despairing of finding it, he returns indignant to his lodging, not without some disparagement of our Father, that he suffered men seeking his patronage to be assailed by thieves. Entering therefore the hospitable lodging, he sees a solitary man standing idly; yet he does not perceive that he is the agent of the fraud committed. But his servant, angry that strangers were admitted to stay within the lodging (as one who knew not how to distinguish the good from the bad), turning to the man, inquires the reason of his standing there. And when with trembling mouth and pale face he scarcely gave an answer, he perceived that he was not honest. But when he persisted in questioning him more closely, and the other, guilty in conscience, hesitated, laying hold of the man and chiding him he began to push him: in which act that memorable thing happened, that with that very right hand with which he had offered the silver pieces at the Father's table, with that same hand, as he handled him, he felt the purse with the money, and, drawing the treasure from his bosom, recognized what he had lost; with which he ran rejoicing to the oratory, giving thanks to God and to father Audoënus.

XIV.

[58] There is a place within the diocese of Bayeux, four miles distant from Caen, a blind boy is enlightened, which for certain reasons the old settlers chose to call Ros. In this a church long since built had not yet received the chrismal seal of consecration. Setting out therefore for this grace of consecration, we move camp with many a halt. We had not yet completed half the space of the village of Caen, and behold, a messenger sent by Count William ^b, who at that time held the monarchy of that realm, sitting on a horse, called out in his lord's words that we should halt, while the Count himself, the affairs by which he was occupied being hastened, should hurry to meet us, wishing namely to carry the holy body, if it were lawful, in his own arms to the boundary of the place. And while we supposed that he wished to honor the Saint with some gifts, and were delaying for this cause, a certain blind boy of seven years, as was thought, is brought thither, whom the whole neighborhood held that they knew to have been blind from infancy. Bringing him in, while they urged him to pray more earnestly ^c… and that he should be quiet, presently, the cloud of blindness being dispelled, the boy began to look about upon the people standing by, and, breaking forth into the praise of the Saint, proclaimed that he saw clearly, the people congratulating and praising. Presently he who had come led by another returned to his own without a guide.

XV.

[59] Coming at length to the aforesaid village, in which namely the church was to be dedicated, and two dumb men since not much of the day remained, we each according to his office diligently saw only to those things which were necessary for refreshing our bodies. These at last being finished which the order and reckoning of the day's task required, our limbs being restored by a quieter sleep, we present ourselves for the morrow's offices. But in the course of this a certain pitiable man, honorable among his own, coming to the dedication of the place, had brought with him a dumb man whom he had brought up among his household servants for a future reward, if perchance blessed Audoënus should deign to loose the silence of his dumb tongue. What more? The dumb man, awaiting with us amid the sacred offices the event of health, suffered not himself to be separated from us even for an hour. The offertory came, and behold, the people, of whom an innumerable multitude had come together thither from every side to make offering, pressed hard upon us, so that no place of standing was left us in the whole basilica, the crowd pressing in: on which account we found in the rear part of the altar a seat narrow enough with the aforesaid dumb man. Here, while we exhorted the dumb man to pray, he strained within himself with much effort; but the hour of his loosing had not yet come.

[60] obtain speech. Meanwhile it happened that a woman brought thither her only son, likewise dumb; who, while she prayed earnestly for her son's health, the boy, beholding from the bier the splendor of glowing gold, turning to his mother, with words however childish and with hand stretched out, urged her to look; those who were present congratulating and crying out that the boy was forming childish words. While the whole church resounded in the praises of God and of father Audoënus, behold, he who had come first, the dumb man, struggling through the crowded people, is prostrated with tears before the holy body. What more? Presently, the office of tongue and mouth being restored, he too with the rest magnified God and our father Audoënus with exulting words.

XVI.

[61] A matron who had visited the patronage of our blessed Father to pray was returning with her company; A cunning thief, and when a hotter heat had forced her to change her garb, behold, a certain thief skilled in the art of deceit, suddenly snatching the fur cloak which the woman had taken off, her companions being intent on other things, hid it under his cloak, and so, accompanying them as they went, walked on in simple guise. She, suspecting no deceit, thought she had with her what the craftsman of wickedness was carrying off. She had gone forward some little way, recalling the signs and marvels which the excellent Confessor of Christ had lately shown, when the woman first perceived that her fur cloak had been cut away from her; who presently, raising a womanly cry on high, began with public voice to accuse her companions as being privy to the fraud committed: which they on the other hand denying, and professing with an oath that they were guiltless of the fraud alleged, they resolve among themselves to hasten back to the oratory for the sake of making protest. There the woman accused blessed Audoënus with querulous words and womanly wailing, that he had permitted fraud to be done to those coming to him. There her companions, confounded with shame and modesty, say: "Why, venerable Father, why do we say that thy signs and virtues shall profit us, when thus from the place of thy holy memory we return confounded and despoiled? Was it not far more expedient for each of us to keep within our own huts and to attend to necessary things, than today to visit these solemn spectacles, where a harmless crowd lay open to the ambushes of robbers? O Father, where are thy virtues, where indeed the mighty works of thy virtues, if thus a treacherous robber shall today have mocked us with impunity?"

[62] There stood among the rest of those to whom the guarding of the camps had been entrusted who had stolen something from a woman visiting the relics of St. Ouen, a certain young man, who, while he strove to console the woman, rather aggravated than soothed her lamentable complaint, saying: "What dost thou think it will profit thee, mother, to weary the harmless air with importunate cries, since without doubt the most abandoned thief has by now betaken himself to more distant hiding-places, or perhaps delays not to hasten the road of an irrevocable flight already taken, while you here with clamorous words repeat empty causes?" Another standing nearer said: "If my mind forebodes me anything of truth, the fugitive plunderer shall not long rejoice in the fraud he has committed: for I hope that, whithersoever he turn, the earth will not today endure that one guilty of an offense against father Audoënus should so escape, but will bring forth to public spectacle the author of the sacrilegious theft."

[63] These things being said, the woman, taking up her company again, began to return to her own not without tearful complaint. had stolen something, But meanwhile the fraudulent man, avoiding the other crowds,

who were hastening to make for their lodgings, mingled himself with those going ahead, and went on with them some little way. He now thought that he had escaped all perils, when, as they recited to one another the recent signs of divine works, they came to a certain crossroads, at which, while the rest passed freely on, the wretched man felt himself held by the divine will, and, as though fixed deeper in the earth, willing or unwilling was forced to stand motionless; and although he struggled long and much, he could not go further. He tried also to escape by a backward course, yet profited nothing more. His companions, delaying and asking what hindered him, he with much dissembling hid what had befallen him, saying: "Go, brethren, with good fortune; for I acknowledge that I have acted imprudently in leaving behind me my neighbors and companions with whom I had come, to whom I had given my word that I would not leave them without company."

[64] This was easily believed by them. But as they went away, the thief is left alone, conscious he sticks fast motionless on the road that he was hemmed in by an avenging punishment for his bold crime. Yet he resumes the vain contest of struggling. He pants, he turns himself now to the right, now to the left, if perchance free power of going away be granted him; but none the less could the wretched man prevail to move from the place. Travelers coming up ask one after another the cause of his standing. He, craftsman of deceit, lied that his neighbors were delaying and that he was keeping his purpose of a shared journey. And now, casting his eyes far back behind him, he saw the woman coming with her company; and, uncertain what to do or whither to turn, at last, drawing his hood over his eyes and veiling his face, he planned to lie down on the ground, that thus at least, as one asleep from weariness, he might be disregarded by the passers-by. But what, wretched man, could fraud and thousand-shaped cunning avail thee? Didst thou never remember what was said, that there is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord?

[65] and is forced to confess his fault. Thus the wretched man, having long struggled, when by no art of dissembling he could bend or turn aside (since, stiff as a stake, he lay open to the sight of all), behold, the woman came up with her company, and they wondered to behold a man standing fast and idle, and straightway began to ask the cause; and when they perceived that with pale face, trembling mouth, and cold sweat from within, he stuck fast at every word with a shaking sob, they cry out that it was not for nothing that he thus grew pale, that he could give no answer save with trembling words; but that by these tokens he was proved conscious of a great crime and liable to avenging punishments. One of them, laying hold of him, felt hidden under his stolen cloak the garment which, now despairing, they had ceased to seek. The robber, seeing that he could no longer conceal the guilt of his hidden fraud, asks pardon for his wandering, confesses his fault, and so restores to the woman what was hers: which the woman regarding, since she recognized that her familiar loss had been restored to her by God's gift and by the power of St. Ouen, permitted the robber to go away unpunished for the honor of God.

ANNOTATIONS.

OTHER MIRACLES

by an anonymous author,

From the same Rouen copy which Father Flouet sent to our predecessors in the year 1644.

Dado or Ouen, bishop of Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 0761

A grievously wounded woman is straightway healed, Once when a certain bishop of Laon ^a was warring against the defender of that place, discord having arisen between them, a military force violently attacked the town of Condé, and takes from it innumerable booty. At that time a certain one of our elders, Henry by name, was staying there; whose courtyard the soldiers savagely entering, they drag off all the animals which they find there. But the aforesaid monk, so far as he could, with a band of his servants withstood their wicked rapacity. Then one, bolder than the rest, sought to slay him with the sword which he held; and he fled swiftly to the church of blessed Audoënus. That man, urged on by demonic fury, pursues the monk swiftly even to the oratory. And when he saw him before the altar, snatching up a lance in his hand he hurled it violently, and pierced through the arm of a certain woman who chanced to be standing there; but he could not strike the monk. She, having received a grievous wound, at the very drawing out of the iron indeed shed much blood; but by the wonderful power of the blessed Confessor she suffered thereafter no pain: for after a little while, the enemy withdrawing, she returned to the weaving-work which she had a little before left off, and began to perform her former task just as if she had received no injury in her body.

[2] In the same villa a certain widow had an only son, and a widow receives back her captive son, whom, when by flying report she had learned that he had been taken by the enemy on an expedition and bound with chains, wounded with the most vehement grief of heart, with hands clasped and hair disheveled she ran quickly to the church of blessed Audoënus which is situated there, and, as though mocking a living man, began to reproach him thus: "O St. Ouen, what hast thou done? O old man, why hast thou thus fallen asleep? Why hast thou permitted the only pledge of my womb to be led away into captivity? Give me back, I beseech thee, give me back my son, the staff of my old age, the only solace of this present life." Resounding with these and such-like complaints and with womanly wailing, she beat the altar with brooms and cudgels, and with all her efforts entreated the clemency of the blessed Pontiff. Without delay, the most loving Confessor, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb in truth to all who call upon him, taking pity on the grief of the wretched woman, loosed her son, who had been committed to prison, from the fetters and shackles with which he had been most harshly bound, and restored him safe and sound to his mother; and she, knowing that he had been redeemed from captivity by divine power through blessed Audoënus without price or any bargain, straightway went to the aforesaid monastery, paying innumerable offices of thanks.

[3] In Eastern France, which is called Lorraine, there is a domain and two men who did insult to the Saint which blessed Audoënus, while still in this light, bestowed upon the place where by God's disposing he rests: spacious in soil, rich in meadows and pastures for cattle, watered also by a pleasant spring, and distinguished with the name of that same holy Prelate. This a certain man holding the chief place of that region, kindled with the crooked zeal of envy, claimed for himself in tyrannical fashion, and brought violence upon the dwellers of that land. Then a monk, who by the command of the venerable abbot Henry ^b presided over that place, went to the man of so great presumption; and modestly asked why he acted so proudly, and brought a calumny against the goods of the servants of God; especially since it was most well known, without the scruple of any question, to all the elders dwelling there, that from ancient times that possession had been St. Ouen's, and that the spring itself had always been called by his name. At this he, driven by the goads of greater wrath and puffed up with the swelling of pride, said: "What concern is my possession of yours, O monks? By this head I swear, and by this eye, that henceforth the domain or the spring shall not be called St. Ouen's, but Herluin's" (for so he was called). Scarcely had the proud man uttered the word, when behold, the eye of the perjurer, struck out of his head, leapt far away; and so, confounded, he returned home, bearing the mark of his perjury. This dart of divine vengeance being known, neither he nor anyone else thereafter presumed to invade that inheritance; but it remained free and undisturbed.

[4] At the city of Constantinople, when a certain man of our nation was reciting the miracles of blessed Audoënus, with which all Neustria shines, in the sight of the emperor ^c and his nobles, and was often repeating his honey-sweet name, are punished from heaven. a certain native of that land, stirred by the envy of the devil, began to prate with rash mouth, and thus with dog's tooth to reproach him blasphemously, saying: "This which thou sayest is futile and empty, nor is it the name of any Saint." And when with these and such-like words he tore the fame of the blessed Pontiff, being not long awaited by the judge, he straightway underwent a horrible penalty of vengeance: for in the sight of all who were present, by the terrible judgment of Almighty God, in whose love Audoënus delights in a special manner, straightway the wretched and unhappy man burst asunder in the midst, and all the bowels of the contumacious man were rent open, to the terror of those present and the warning of those to come; and so he deservedly received the sentence of an Arian vengeance, who feared not to follow the blasphemy of that faithless man against a Saint of God.

[5] Others in divers places In the province of Apulia, in the city which is called Andria [d], a certain one of the citizens, worn out by a long sickness, lay upon his bed, who had lost the vigor of almost all his limbs, so that he could neither take food nor turn himself from one side to the other except by the hands of others and with a sheet and with heavy labor. He had received, not with careless hearing, from the Normans, who happily inhabit that same country subdued to them by the prosperous issue of wars, the tokens of the miracles of blessed Audoënus. Whence on a certain day, when all who were with him had gone out, being wearied by the sick man's so tedious lying abed, remembering our patron he breathed a little, and silently poured forth to himself this prayer: "O St. Ouen, if the things are true which I have heard of thee, obtain for me from God a remedy of health, that, recovering from this sickness, I may be able to go to the hall of thy glorification and to render due thanks to the heavenly physician."

[6] and at divers times O glory of the blessed Confessor, and bountiful munificence toward all! For straightway the sick man, being improved, turned himself to the other side, and, when the servants of the house came in as usual and wondered at this very thing, he ordered them to bring him food, and, disclosing the cause of his health, declared that he was better. Finally, his limbs being renewed and the strength of his whole body restored, he is perfectly repaired to his former soundness. Thence, mindful of his promise, taking the road to the western region and crossing the Alps, he came to Rouen, the metropolis of Normandy, and went to the church of blessed Audoënus; where, prostrate on the ground, he poured forth prayers so much the more earnestly and paid his vows of thanks, as, having measured out the space of a longer journey, he had deserved to obtain the effect of his desire. And being charitably detained by the abbot of the place and by the Brethren, he there somewhat relieved the labor of his long journey, and so returned with joy to his own. And indeed he often reproached the Normans with levity and insolence, why, namely, forsaking their own and special patron, blessed Audoënus, they should inhabit a foreign land, and, removed from the bosom of so great a Father, should wander farther afield.

[7] in various diseases In the same metropolitan city in which the body of the most holy pontiff Audoënus rests, there was a girl bent from the beginning of her life, and so utterly contracted in her limbs that, being as it were dead in the lower part, she crept along the ground with the help of little stools, and could not look upward or raise herself at all. She was fed by the alms of a certain matron, Adelaide by name, and was supported after a fashion by the solace of an only brother. But when, by the regard of divine mercy, the time had come for her

healing, when the feast day was at hand, most famous to all the people of the western region for the most holy deposition of the most blessed Audoënus, she mingled herself with the crowds of the faithful at the vigils of that solemnity, and with such effort as she could, crawling, dragged herself to the threshold of the blessed Confessor. And when she touched the doors of the sacred temple, devoutly imprinted kisses, and called upon the name of the glorious Bishop with a tearful voice, straightway she felt the power of God within her: for, the knots of her sinews being loosed and strength being received in her whole body, raising herself little by little from the pavement she stood upon her feet, and, all the crowd looking on, entered the church with sound step, paid her gifts of thanks before the altar of the most holy Confessor, and so returned with joy to her own. And because she was known to almost every one of the citizens on account of the event of her former calamity, there are as many witnesses of this miracle as there are inhabitants of that city.

[8] A certain man had three sons, of whom the first had passed the age of youth; and in perils the second was completing the years of boyhood; but the third still wailed in the cradle. And it happened that on a certain day their father and mother went some distance for the sake of trade, and laid upon the two children the care of the youngest. But the elder-born withdrew a little for some need of household business, and charged the younger brother to keep the little one; who, after the manner of boys, out of love of play, leaping out of doors with his companions, left the infant alone at home. But straightway, by a pitiable event, swine burst into the inner parts of the house, and suffocating the little one killed him. After a short interval of time both brothers, returning home, find the little one bloodied and suffocated by the swine, and, stricken with excessive grief, groan heavily.

[9] Finally, being turned by their parents' counsel to the remedies of penance, experience the help of St. Ouen, they were commanded by the priests to hasten to Rome for prayer to the thresholds of the blessed Apostles, and to be at pains to blot out by public satisfaction the guilt of so great a negligence. Having set out therefore, they fall into the ambushes of robbers in a certain forest, by whom, being despoiled, they were beaten with such slaughter that one of them, who was the elder, shortly ended his life; but the other, being violently beaten on the head with fists and stakes, lost alike the power of hearing and of speaking; who at length, his journey being finished, returned to his own, and after a few days, for the recovery of his senses, fled to the clemency of blessed Audoënus. And when he had remained for some days in a neighboring place, on a certain night the glorious Prelate, girt with the pontifical mitre, appeared to him in a vision, and, touching him with the pastoral staff which he carried in his hand, said: "Rise, and entering the sacred house of prayer, ask that blessed water be given thee by the sacristan of the temple: for drinking of this with faith thou shalt receive the health thou desirest." Then he, gladdened by so illustrious a vision ^e, goes in the morning to the church, and, having summoned the keeper of the temple, by such sign as he could asked for the medicinal water and received it; and straightway, his ears being unstopped, his long dumb tongue broke forth into the praise of the Saviour and of his most glorious Confessor.

[10] In the time of the illustrious king William ^f, of whom we made mention above, and through his relics, the above-entitled Nicholas, abbot of the monastery of blessed Audoënus, relying on divine comfort, began to build a church with laudable adornment and workmanship, worthy of the honor of so great a Father; for the cost of which building he took care to send some men beyond the sea with a little casket of sacred relics, who should suggest this to the devotion of the faithful, that of their own free will they might offer some gifts for the fabric of the temple. And so, the sea being crossed, when the envoys had entered the borders of the English, straightway the glory of the most holy Confessor became known to all, not so much by their words as by the evident tokens of signs: for in the city which in English is called Colchester ^g, a certain man named Lensius, of the possession of blessed Edmund the martyr, whose legs were contracted from birth, following the sacred pledges step by step, was suddenly made whole by divine power; at the novelty of which miracle, when the crowds of the populous city flocked together as to a spectacle, a certain boy named Godulph, brought by his parents, through the merit of blessed Audoënus, the bonds of his tongue being loosed, received the power of speech.

[11] translated into England, A certain woman, Godena by name, of the villa which is called Colonia ^h, deprived of the sight of one eye, and lame in the right foot from the womb, by the intercession of the illustrious Bishop deserved to obtain at once the benefits of sight and of walking.

Another woman also, Ebdina by name, who was tortured with an inward torment of the bowels and grievously afflicted with constant pain, was restored to perfect soundness by the merits of that same glorious Patron of ours.

When the envoys came to the city of Lincoln [i], while one of them, more effective in speech, was setting saving things before the citizens, and among the rest was reciting particularly the tokens of our wondrous Shepherd, a certain young man, chamberlain of the bishop of that see, Remigius by name, having for seven years both feet so weak that he could not go anywhere save leaning on two staves and with labor, came to them with right faith and lay down under the coffer of the relics; then with cries and sighs and with bitter groans he called upon the name of the blessed Bishop, and importunately besought that he would be present to his infirmity; who, because he persisted in asking, obtained the effect of his prayer: for, being made whole at that same hour in the sight of all, he began to walk and to glorify God, wonderful in his Saints. Whence the proclamation of our Saviour and of his beloved Audoënus thundered forth in as many tongues and as many voices as was the number of the faithful present there.

[12] there many obtain benefits. A certain demoniac also was on that same day freed from the malignant enemy through the same most loving Confessor.

At the castle which is called Clare ^k, when a certain man, wholly crippled, who was always carried in a wagon, was offering a gift to the sacred relics, he was straightway raised up by the power of Almighty God in the sight of all the people.

Meanwhile, when the bearers of the sacred things had turned aside to a certain villa, whose name has escaped me, the sun now setting, and sought lodging in it and could not obtain it, a certain man of Flemish race, taking pity on their need and toil, kindly received them into his house and showed them ample humanity, which he afterward did not repent of having done; but it pleased him that in them he had received Christ the Lord, who for us became poor and sometimes a guest: for as they departed, by the judgment of Almighty God that whole villa was consumed by a divine conflagration. But near the dwellings of the Fleming's houses the fire touched nothing at all, because he had charitably shown hospitality to the servants of blessed Audoënus.

ANNOTATIONS.