ON BL. RITZA, VIRGIN,
AT COBLENZ IN GERMANY.
Her cult and miracles.
Perhaps in the tenth or eleventh century.
CommentaryRitza, virgin, at Coblenz in Germany (Bl.)
BY J. P.
From the meeting of the Rhine and the Moselle the name Confluentes was made, commonly Confluentia, in German Coblentz, She is venerated at Coblenz: by Gelenius a very famous town of the diocese of Trier, midway between Mainz and Cologne Agrippina, as we said long ago in volume 2 of February, on the XIII day, page 662, in the account of St. Castor the priest, who is venerated there on that day, as also on this day is Bl. Ritza the virgin. Fr. Alexander Wiltheim of the Society of Jesus, writing to our Fr. Godfrey Henschen, says, whose feast or commemoration the canons of St. Castor keep on the XXX of August, as Fr. Theodore Iden writes to me. Gelenius, in his On the Greatness of Cologne Agrippina, book 4, in the sacred and pious Calendar, announces her on this day: Of Bl. Ritza, virgin of Coblenz, with a mark appended that she may be distinguished from those who are merely venerable or pious. The same author had premised in the same book, page 653: And in this book indeed I shall call Saints only such as canonical apotheosis has given the title of sanctity to in the Catholic Church, or such as the tradition of our elders and authentic writers have judged should be honored with that title. And this is the reason why I have wished this book to take its surname not from Saints alone but also from the pious, since to those who are without doubt Saints and Blessed I have mingled venerable, pious, and religious men…
[2] But these leaders and guides of ours of lesser name you will find distinguished from those excellent Saints both by title and by topographical mark…, She is called Blessed; but in an ancient document, Saint: the time of her life: because to the Saints I have appended marginal roses, which the venerable lack: for it is a matter of religion to add by one's own private authority the title or mark of beatitude to anyone; nay, in that matter I shall be so moderate that very many who are called Blessed by others I shall call only by the name of venerable and religious, and shall set them forth as pious men for imitation. From this it appears that this Virgin is numbered among the Blessed by Gelenius not without prudence and choice. Add that from the beginning of the thirteenth century her sacred body was made manifest, and afterward grew famous by various prodigies, proved by public testimony; likewise that she was then honored with the title of Saint; finally, that the frequent concourse to the Virgin's sepulcher not obscurely indicates that she had long been held in public veneration, as will be seen in the ancient document of miracles which I shall presently subjoin. More about Bl. Ritza's cult and Life I have not been able to find. Meanwhile the foregoing moved me to believe that this Blessed one may be reckoned among the other dwellers in heaven of this day, without offense to the decree of Pope Urban VIII. On the said XIII day of February, page 663, we related that the body of St. Castor was translated from Karden to Coblenz in the year 836 or 837, and that it was there laid up in a church consecrated under his name and that of all confessors. In the church of St. Castor the body of Bl. Ritza was buried and found, as will presently be said. Therefore she was not buried there before the ninth century. But whether, and how long after it, is in obscurity. If it be allowed to conjecture, perhaps she died and was buried there in the tenth or eleventh century; and so I wish what I set down above as the time of her death to be understood.
[3] [by her patronage a lame woman, a woman disabled in her limbs, a blind girl, are healed,] Further, Wiltheim, already mentioned, writes that he received at Coblenz miracles which, written in German, he sent hither; and rendered lately into Latin by another they run thus: Miracles of the holy virgin Ritza []. Be it known to all that in the year one thousand two hundred and four from the Nativity of Christ, when the sanctity of the holy virgin Ritza pleased God, the body of that same virgin, buried at Coblenz at St. Castor's, was made manifest to the world.*
First. On the day sacred to St. Stephen the proto-martyr there came a certain woman named Benigna to the sepulcher of holy Ritza to pray, where a solemn Mass was being celebrated. This woman had before been for a long time so lame that she walked with the help of a crutch under her armpit. But as she prayed at the said sepulcher, all who were present, of whom there was a great multitude, heard her leg put back into its place with a great crack; and afterward she always walked upright.
Secondly. In the previous year a certain woman called Wendelina Moydt, who for many years had been disabled in all her limbs, after she had daily prayed at the holy Virgin's sepulcher, was healed through the intercession of the holy Virgin.
Thirdly. There was a woman of Ehrenbreitstein a who had a blind daughter. She betook herself to the sepulcher of holy Ritza, and, some offerings being made, prayed the holy virgin that her daughter might recover her sight. Her prayers being duly performed, the woman returned home and found her daughter endowed with sight. And so she took her daughter with her on the following Sunday and led her to St. Castor's, where the daughter went to the sepulcher led by no one, and gave thanks both to God and to the holy virgin Ritza. And this miracle happened in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and five about the Purification.
[4] a feeble woman, a woman possessed, Fourthly. In the same year, in Rogation week, there came a woman from Lahnstein b to St. Castor's, so feeble in breast, arms, and all her limbs that she could not even lift one of them from the ground. She came and prayed before the blessed virgin's sepulcher on the Sunday after the Lord's Ascension, and was healed, so that afterward she went wherever she wished.
Fifthly. In the same year, on the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul, there came a woman from Virneburg c, Christina by name, who was being led to the sepulcher in the church of St. Castor; and she was possessed by the devil, who was to be driven out of her. There he cried out with a loud voice and cursed the holy virgin Ritza, and said that he had been bound and set on fire by her. Which evil demon was driven out of her on the following Friday in the presence of very many priests, students, and other men, and she praised God. But when they went out of the church, so great a murmur and so great a noise was heard in the air that very many were terrified and went back into the church.
[5] Sixthly. In the same year, on the fourth day after the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul, there came a woman called Elizabeth of Ochtendung, another lame woman, who for six years had been lame and could not raise herself up. She was carried therefore, and came before the sepulcher of holy Ritza, and lay in prayer until the eighth day
after the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul: and so on that day, at the time of the solemn Mass, she was healed, so that she rose and went to all the altars which are in the church of St. Castor, praying. She publicly attested before all the lord Canons of the collegiate church that on that Saturday on which she had first come to the sepulcher, in the presence of a great crowd of people, after compline she had seen the sepulcher of St. Ritza open, and a great brightness in it, like the splendor of the sun; and the same splendor was seen by a certain woman of Horchheim.
[6] Seventhly. There was a young man called Winric, who had once been the servant of the provost Bruner; a young man's broken leg, another blind woman, whose leg a beam had broken in the building of a certain house, so that he could neither lift nor move it. The physicians refused to help him and abandoned him. He on the octave day of the Apostles came to the sepulcher of St. Ritza with other sick persons, and began to be better; on the fifth Sunday he took a taper of white wax and measured it according to the length of his foot, and so obtained health by his prayers; and rising he cast away the crutches with which hitherto he had walked. And he walked upright, praising God and the holy Virgin Ritza.
Eighthly. In the same year a certain woman named Agnes, who had been blind for ten years, came to the sepulcher, and there for four weeks poured out prayers, and recovered her sight, and praised God and the holy virgin Ritza.
[7] Ninthly. In those same days a certain man called Gerlac of Bleide with his wife Susanna brought to the sepulcher of holy Ritza their five-year-old son, a lame boy, a boy wounded by a wolf, healed: she helps in things lost. Conrad by name, who from his birth for five years had been maimed and lame, so that he could nowhere show himself. This boy his father and mother carried to the sepulcher of holy Ritza on the eve of the Division of the Apostles; whom his parents every year with a tithe to St. Ritza, and they gave every year a certain offering d.
Tenthly. There was the wife of the sacristan at Ostenbergh, who had a son of four years, Henry by name, whom a wolf had grievously wounded. The mother, following her son with great lamentation, implored the help of the holy virgin Ritza, and found her son lying wounded in a field. Everyone said that he could not be healed: the mother made for the sepulcher of holy Ritza, and on the way the boy was healed by the invocation of the holy virgin Ritza; and every year she offered something for her son, who was four years old.
Eleventhly. We see daily that all those who with devotion invoke her, when they lose anything and offer something by vow, are helped. The same Peter Koch of Zell, vice-juror in Revenach, born at Zell of Hamm e.
Likewise, that all the miracles may be seen to be true, each miracle in its time was published abroad, and the testimony of those who had been present at the miracles was taken down; and for an everlasting memorial of the matter these miracles were committed to writing and fortified with the seal of the city of Coblenz: which letters are preserved by the lordship of the present church f.
ANNOTATIONS.
. In the German manuscript, here and elsewhere, Ritzheim*.