Elizabeth

ON BL. ELIZABETH, OR ISABELLA, ROYAL VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE MONASTERY OF LONGCHAMP,

NEAR SAINT-CLOUD IN THE DISTRICT OF PARIS.

In the year MCCLXX.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Elizabeth or Isabella, royal virgin, near Saint-Cloud in the district of Paris (Bl.)

BY J. S.

§ I. The ancient Acts of the Blessed and more recent Lives: her birth, pious education, flight from marriage, foundation of the abbey of Longchamp.

The monastery of Longchamp, founded by Bl. Elizabeth, in which she is now honored with especial veneration, The ancient Life of the Blessed, which we shall publish in Latin, is situated in the territory of Paris near Nogent, or Saint-Cloud, as it is now everywhere called, commonly Saint Cloud. The Blessed was there in great veneration from the time of her death, on account of the fame of her holiness confirmed by many miracles. Nevertheless she was honored with a truly ecclesiastical cult only in the sixteenth century, as we shall more conveniently explain below. The Life of the Blessed was written in the French tongue by Agnes de Harcourt, who had been an honorary attendant of Elizabeth while she lived at court, and, entering among the first into the abbey of Longchamp, presided over that monastery as its third abbess. Hence she could very well know the manners and deeds of the Blessed, both at court and in the retirement of the monastery. And indeed it appears everywhere from the Life that she, using the utmost fidelity and sincerity in writing, narrated nothing but what she had seen or heard, or had learned from eye- and ear-witnesses. The little French composition of Agnes the most diligent Du Cange published among the ancient records pertaining to St. Louis, from page 169. That I shall try to render into Latin from Du Cange's edition in a simple style, and to set before the eyes of readers after this Commentary. The autograph is still preserved in the abbey of Longchamp, where in the year 1741 the Rev. Fr. Étienne Souciet of our Society saw it, who testifies that the character is certainly of the century of St. Louis, and that the Life is written on parchment, not bound into a book, but folded into a roll.

[2] The Life of Bl. Elizabeth was afterwards written by Sébastien Rouillard, more recent writers who have woven her Life. and published at Paris in the year 1619. This author professes that he follows the Life composed by the abbess Agnes, which he had in manuscript. Nevertheless in reporting the facts which the ancient Life contains he does not everywhere agree with it sufficiently, as the learned reader will perceive if he compares the two Lives. Rouillard adds at page 25 that he had gathered from other Charters and Chronicles those things which he reports of the Blessed besides what is narrated by Agnes. For this cause we too shall supply from him and from others what is wanting in the Life to be published. Now since the aforesaid Rouillard had made the Life of Bl. Elizabeth too prolix by continual digressions in no way pertaining to the Blessed, the Rev. Fr. Nicolas Caussin of our Society composed the same more briefly, omitting namely Rouillard's digressions; for otherwise he almost cleaves to him, and follows him very closely in reporting facts and miracles. Finally Adrien Baillet in the Lives of the Saints at the XXXI of August wrote the Life of that same Blessed in compendium, and recorded some things about her cult afterwards increased, which may be of use to us. The rest, who either inserted her Life in their collections or made mention of the Blessed, I here pass over, since each is to be recorded in his own place, where it shall seem worth while. I proceed therefore to weave a chronological order of some sort, and to supply the facts which are passed over in the Life.

[3] The year of her birth, her education: for love of virginity she flees marriage: Of the parents of Bl. Elizabeth — Louis VIII king of the Franks and Blanche of Castile — I have said various things at the XXV of August in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Louis, §4, where also her brothers and sister were briefly treated of. Elizabeth was born in the month of March in the year 1225. This we have from the Chronicle of St. Denis in D'Achery, volume 2 of the reprinted Spicilegium, page 496, where at the year 1224 this is read: In this year was born Isabel, daughter of King Louis, in March. For since the year 1224 among the French ran at that time until Easter, and she was born in the month of March, that is, before Easter, she was born in the year 1225 according to the present manner of beginning the year. Nor do the learned doubt of this matter. Louis VIII in the same year, in the month of June, made his testament, published by André du Chesne, volume 5 of the Writers of the History of the Franks, in which at page 325 he mentions Elizabeth thus: Likewise we give and bequeath to Elizabeth our dearest daughter twenty thousand pounds. Of her pious education by her mother Blanche the following is read in the second Life of St. Louis, volume V of August, page 575: The aforesaid lady (Blanche) ordered to be diligently guarded and educated … the lady Elizabeth her daughter, the holy king's sister, who was a Lady of holy life. As an infant she was betrothed to Hugh, son of Hugh count of La Marche. But when that marriage did not come to pass, on account of the wars which followed between St. Louis and the count of La Marche, she was again urged to enter upon a marriage with Conrad, son of the emperor Frederick II, the supreme Pontiff Innocent IV himself persuading that marriage, but in vain, because Elizabeth preferred virginity to any marriage, as is related in the Life, chapter 1, and confirmed in the annotations there, letters c and d.

[4] Although Innocent had at first persuaded the marriage of Elizabeth with Conrad, she asks for Friars Minor as directors of her conscience: yet he greatly approved her purpose of preserving virginity when he learned it from her own letters. The Blessed afterwards had recourse to the same Pontiff, that she might be allowed to have some Friars Minor as directors of her conscience. Innocent therefore, in favor of Elizabeth, sent these letters to the minister of the Friars Minor

in France, published in Wadding's Annals at the year 1254, number 34; by which he charges him to grant to her — who, as an especial imitator of honorable behavior and holiness, is said sometimes to dwell within the cloisters of nuns — some of the brethren of his Order … for the seemliness of her honorable state, and to confess to them the sins of her own weakness. These letters are read as given at Assisi on the VII of the Kalends of June, in the year XI, that is, of the Christian era 1254.

[5] She then founded the abbey of Longchamp, as is narrated in the Life, number 12. she founds the abbey of Longchamp, William of Nangis, a contemporary writer, in his Chronicle, in D'Achery, volume 3 of the second edition, page 39, refers that foundation to the year 1259, and writes thus of it: In the bishopric of Paris there was founded a monastery of Minoresses near Saint-Cloud upon the Seine , by the religious and illustrious virgin Isabella, sister of St. Louis king of France, the king himself assigning to that monastery possessions and revenues suitable for the maintenance of the Sisters.* Joinville in the Life of St. Louis, volume V of August, page 753, affirms that the abbey was founded by Bl. Elizabeth at the request of St. Louis. Rouillard in the Life, page 192, says that a cross was there planted by the bishop of Paris before the work was begun; then that the first stone was laid by St. Louis the king, the second by Queen Margaret, the third by Louis their son, and the fourth by Bl. Elizabeth. He adds that at that time three doves of wondrous whiteness were seen, such as were not wont to be there; and thence that the queen congratulated Bl. Elizabeth that the Holy Trinity seemed to preside over the work. This he from letters made on that matter by the queen's testimony. And the same is reported in the Epitaph, which we shall give in full in Latin in §3. The aforesaid Rouillard at page 194 testifies that the buildings of the abbey were finished in the month of June of the year 1260.

[6] Francesco Gonzaga, On the Origin of the Seraphic Order, part 3, which afterwards flourished excellently, page 576, writes the following of this monastery: Within the bounds of this venerable Custody of Paris there are two famous chief monasteries of the sisters of St. Clare of the Urbanists: one, which is called Our Lady of Humility of Longchamp, of the diocese of Paris, and built about four miles from Paris in the year of eternal Redemption MCCLX, its author being St. Louis, the most unconquered king of the Franks, at the urging, however, of the most serene and most holy blessed Isabella, only sister of the said holy king Louis: whose sepulcher, conspicuous for countless miracles, is in the middle of the church (dedicated under the patronage of Our Lady of Humility) toward the left. In this famous chief monastery there once flourished nuns surpassing the highest nobility of birth by their holiness of life: the sisters Blanche, daughter of the king of Navarre; Magdalen, sister of the most noble prince Francis duke of Brittany; Joan and Margaret, daughters of the most powerful Godfrey of Brabant. There live there today, serving God in fear and rejoicing before him with trembling, sisters to the number of forty, glad to die with Christ the Savior in the utmost humility: to whom, for the dispensing of heavenly and divine things, there are three Fathers, of whom two are preachers.

[7] for which she has a Rule written and confirmed: While the buildings of the monastery were rising little by little, Elizabeth at the same time took care that a Rule should be composed, as is related in the Life, number 13, and informed the supreme Pontiff of her purpose by certain Religious of the Order of Minors. And the Pontiff approved the matter by letters given in the 2nd year of his Pontificate, on Rouillard's testimony in the Life, page 164, where he says that those letters are preserved in the archive of the abbey. The same writer adds that the Rule was confirmed in the following year on the IV of the Kalends of March by the same Pontiff at the request of St. Louis. But when he combines the 2nd year of the Pontificate with the year of Christ 1257, and the following with 1258, he errs by one year from true chronology: for Alexander IV was created Pontiff on the XXI of December in the year 1254, and therefore the 2nd year of his Pontificate coincides with 1256, and the following with 1257, in which the Rule must have been confirmed, if Alexander's bull be dated in the 3rd year of his Pontificate. This confirmation of the Rule is related also in the bull of Urban IV to be cited below, from which we learn that the name of the Humility of Blessed Mary was given by Alexander IV to the rising abbey.

[8] nuns enter the new monastery: The Rule being confirmed and the monastery finished, twenty Sisters received the habit of the new congregation, whom St. Louis with Bl. Elizabeth brought into the new house and instructed with pious counsels, that with great and lofty mind they should aspire to a perfect life. That this was done in the year 1260 on the vigil of St. John the Baptist, Rouillard affirms at page 194. Among those who first entered were four nuns from the monastery of Rheims of the Order of St. Damian, or of St. Clare, who were chosen to imbue the rest with the regular discipline. The aforesaid Rouillard at page 196, and Marlot in the History of the Metropolis of Rheims, volume 2, page 504, affirm that Urban IV in the first year of his Pontificate, at the prayers of St. Louis, commanded the said four nuns of the monastery of Rheims — namely Isabella of Venice, Odona of Rheims, Stephana of Rheims, and Aegidia also of Rheims — to betake themselves to the abbey of Longchamp and to instruct the rest. But since these letters were given on the XII of the Kalends of December, in the I year of Urban's Pontificate, that is, of Christ 1261, not 1259, as Rouillard wrongly says, this command of the Pontiff does not seem rightly to cohere with the first entry referred to the year 1260. Yet it may be said that the aforesaid nuns probably came first by episcopal authority to establish the new congregation, and were afterwards ordered by Urban to remain in the abbey of Longchamp, and thus all will rightly cohere. However that may be, the first of them, Isabella of Venice, was meanwhile appointed abbess.

[9] The Rule first approved, which appeared too rigid, is corrected, Under this abbess, then, that Religious family began to observe the Rule confirmed by Alexander IV. But it was found by use and experience that that Rule was more rigid than suited the aforesaid congregation, or at any rate that it could in some things be corrected and mitigated. Hence blessed Elizabeth again had recourse to St. Louis her brother, that by his intercessory prayers it might be corrected by the supreme Pontiff, and, when corrected, confirmed. Urban IV assented, and approved the corrected Rule by a bull given on the VI of the Kalends of August, in the 2nd year of his Pontificate, that is, of the Christian era 1263. This bull Wadding published in the Papal Register after volume 2 of the Annals of the Minors, from page 89, whose beginning I subjoin for the confirmation of what has been said: We the more gladly procure the increase of religion in proportion as thereby the worship of the divine name is more widely spread and the salvation of souls advances. Now Pope Alexander of happy memory, our predecessor, yielding to the supplications of our dearest son in Christ the illustrious king of France, granted to all the handmaids of Christ fleeing from the world and making profession in your monastery marked with the name of the Humility of Blessed Mary — in which, then newly built, no one, as is said, yet dwelt — the Rule written below, to be observed in that monastery for perpetual times, to be called by the name of the ENCLOSED SISTERS.

[10] Now on the part of the said king humble supplication was made to us, and being corrected is confirmed by Urban IV: that, causing the said Rule to be corrected in some chapters, we would deign of our Apostolic kindness to add to its title the word "Minors." We therefore, inclining to the prayers of the same king, and causing the Rule itself to be corrected by our beloved son Simon, Cardinal of the title of St. Cecilia; and, that as in fact so also in name — especially since that same monastery, as is premised, has ascribed to itself the title of the Humility of Blessed Mary — it may be marked by the advances of that same humility, adding to the title of that same Rule the said word "Minors," we have thought fit to decree that that Rule be henceforth named of the Enclosed Sisters Minor, and be observed for ever in the aforesaid monastery, and in other monasteries henceforth to be founded or planted, in which the sisters shall happen to profess the same Rule, thus corrected. Which Rule indeed, and the manner of life of those same Enclosed Sisters Minor, we have caused to be noted below, and it is as follows. After these things the Rule itself is subjoined, which may be seen there.

[11] Hippolyte Helyot, in the History of the Religious Orders, volume 7, hence our Blessed may be called foundress of the Urbanists. page 195, calls Bl. Elizabeth the foundress of the Minoress nuns, who are called Urbanists from Pope Urban, who mitigated and approved their Rule. The reason is that the Rule of St. Francis was first mitigated at the prayers of Bl. Elizabeth, and first observed in the monastery founded by her. Helyot thinks indeed that the Rule was prescribed to all the Urbanists by Urban only in the year 1264, that is, one year later than the nuns of Longchamp had received theirs; and that the name of Urbanists was derived only from that second Rule, which is extant in Cherubinus's Bullarium, volume 1, from page 100; but that writer is mistaken in the date of the second bull, which, like the first, was given in the year 1263, on the XV of the Kalends of November, that is, not three whole months after the first. Then, as Helyot rightly reasons, even if the name flowed from the second bull, the title of foundress is nevertheless due to Bl. Elizabeth, since the Rule prescribed in Urban's second bull differs nothing, or at any rate little, from the Rule which, by Bl. Elizabeth's care, Urban prescribed to the nuns of Longchamp.

\ la Seine*

§ II. Whether the Blessed professed the Religious life? The letters of Clement IV to her: her death and burial.

Some think Bl. Elizabeth was a Religious, others deny it, Rouillard in the Life, chapter 10, page 242, affirms that the Blessed passed the rest of her life piously and holily in a separate lodging of the monastery she had founded: For, he says, they were not well informed who wrote that she embraced the Religious life there. Not a few others have followed this guide, among whom Helyot in the History of the Orders, volume 7, page 200. Nevertheless the said Rouillard at page 257 writes that vows had already been made by the Blessed, before the monastery was founded, in the hands of Alexander IV, who, at the procurement of the Friars Minor, received them and approved them by a bull given in the year 1257. These things, as they are written by Rouillard, do not seem sufficiently to cohere. But I suspect that certain simple vows were then made, not of Religious profession, although that writer's words sound otherwise. For she could have made a vow of perpetual virginity, of founding a monastery and afterwards dwelling in it, or others of this kind. But whatever be the case as to these vows, many with Rouillard deny that Elizabeth was enrolled in a Religious family, and judge that this came about because she was not of such bodily strength as to be able to keep the Rule. On the contrary, various writers, especially of the Order of Minors, contend that she was a Religious; nor do I see their opinion so destitute of reasons that we ought to neglect them.

[13] the former opinion has the authority of William of Nangis William of Nangis, a contemporary writer, in his Chronicle at the year 1259, wrote this: Who

Isabella, receiving there the habit of the sisters, by living religiously ended her life with a praiseworthy close. This is the chief foundation of that opinion, nor is it altogether invalid. It could be added that the Saint was buried in the habit of nuns, as we shall see below. Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1254, number 33, in order to claim Bl. Elizabeth for his Order, adduces various more recent writers, whose authority in this matter cannot be great. Arthur du Monstier in the Franciscan Martyrology at the XXXI of August adds a rescript of the supreme Pontiff Leo X, in which she is said to have professed the Order. But the learned as well as canonists know that from the rescripts of Pontiffs who lived long afterwards no effective argument is drawn, when in them some things are reported which are taken from the words of the petitioners. The chief argument, therefore, for this opinion is the authority of William of Nangis, who lived at that same time in the abbey of St. Denis near Longchamp, and that alone would suffice, if weightier reasons did not fight on the contrary side.

[14] the other rests on the silence of other ancient writers. Gérard du Bois in the History of the Church of Paris, volume 2, page 445, argues to the contrary in this manner: Agnes (de Harcourt), who lived with her until her death, and who afterwards (nay, from the beginning of the founded monastery) joined herself to the family of Longchamp and was the third abbess of that monastery, in the Life of Isabella which she wrote does not utter so much as a word about that matter; nor would you find anything in that Life which pertains to it — nay, several things persuade the contrary. For how could she have admitted into her house a crowd of poor people, if she had kept herself within the cloister? How, as one who had professed poverty, could several dishes have been served at table, from which she is said always to have abstained, eating only the meanest? But, not to pursue these things further, I am not averse from the opinion of Du Breul, who says that houses were built by her beside the monastery, where she dwelt, and that when about to die she was clothed in the habit of nuns. So he. But to what he says about the poor admitted and the several dishes set before the Blessed it may be answered that these are narrated in the Life before the monastery was built, and therefore happened while she was living at court. As regards Agnes's silence about the religious life, it will perhaps be answered not ineptly that it is not even reported in the Life that she dwelt in the abbey or in a house near it, although this is abundantly gathered from various things narrated in chapter 3. Nevertheless, since other negative arguments can be added from the silence of Thomas of Cantimpré, of the anonymous author of the Order of Minors, whose words from the second Life of St. Louis I gave at number 3, and of Clement IV in the address of the letter presently to be cited — all of whom had occasion to record her religious profession; and since not even the nuns of Longchamp themselves ever seem to have attributed the Blessed to their Order — the authority of William of Nangis will be able to avail little for this. Certainly, if the nuns of Longchamp had believed that Bl. Elizabeth was enrolled in their Order, that would no doubt have been inserted in the Epitaph to be recited below, which is said to have been written in the fifteenth century. Yet there, the foundation of the monastery and the introduction of the nuns being related, only this is subjoined: The holy lady Elizabeth wished all her life to remain, to live, and to die in this abbey; and not a word is added from which it might be gathered that she was a Religious; but rather various things are narrated about her garments, her care of the poor, and her other virtues, which suggest that she was not bound by the laws of Religion, at least before her last sickness.

[15] That Bl. Elizabeth eagerly sought the sacred relics of the Saints [She thinks she has the head of St. Paul the apostle, of which Clement IV undeceives her:] is abundantly gathered from the letters of Clement IV, which Rinaldi recites in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 1268, number 50, and Edmund Martène in volume 2 of the Anecdota, column 588: Know, daughter, that the heads of the Apostles are without doubt at Rome, which Pope Gregory the ninth of happy memory, our predecessor, drawing them forth with his own hands from the Holy of Holies, openly exhibited to the Roman people, and restored to their place with due reverence, all being present and knowing it. But if perchance you think that the head of Bl. Paul the Apostle is with you, lay aside that persuasion, lest you be deceived, and lest you set a scandal before your mother the Roman church, which could not with equanimity endure a deception of this kind. But if the Greeks at any time said that they had it, do not wonder: for, hating the Latins, they easily framed a lie for themselves, who by no means hesitated to lie about the Catholic faith, which is a greater thing. You will do well, therefore, if what you have you deliver in our name to our beloved son Simon, Cardinal priest of St. Cecilia, legate of the apostolic See, to be sent to us by him; lest, if it should come into other hands, a scandal might thence be raised with the danger of error. Given at Viterbo on the XIV of the Kalends of May in the year IV, of the Christian era 1268. In Rinaldi this address is prefixed: To Isabella, sister of the king of the Franks. In Martène: To our beloved daughter in Christ, the noble lady Isabella, sister of our dearest son in Christ the illustrious king of France. The former, as I conjecture, was prefixed to the copy which was kept at Rome; the latter to the letter as it was sent to the Blessed. But neither makes mention of a Religious profession, as I observed before. Moreover, as regards the head of St. Paul, Baronius at the year 381, number 79, suspects that it was the head of St. Paul, bishop of Constantinople, whose relics he proves from Sozomen were held by some at Constantinople for the relics of St. Paul the apostle.

[16] the Blessed's long sickness before her death: Two years before her death a most grievous infirmity seized the Blessed, in which her unconquered patience wonderfully shone forth, as the Life testifies at number 17. While she was languishing with this sickness, whether she learned by divine revelation that her life would not be long, as Rouillard will have it in the Life, page 374, or conjectured this from the gravity and character of the disease, she asked the supreme Pontiff Clement IV that by his authority her kinsfolk might be allowed to be present at her burial in the monastery. Clement assented to the Blessed's prayers, and granted the license asked for by a rescript given on the IV of the Ides of September in the year 1268, as Rouillard testifies at page 375, and Le Chaise in the History of St. Louis, volume 2, page 614, citing a manuscript. Nevertheless she did not die about five months after obtaining this faculty, as Rouillard writes, who not seldom slips in the order of times; but she survived until the year 1270, as we shall presently prove. Moreover Rouillard afterwards records many things about her last admonitions; but I have preferred to pass them over, as I have omitted many other things related by the same writer. For when some things are reported by him whose sources he does not assign, I cannot be certain whether they were not rather devised by himself, or drawn from uncertain conjectures, than received from the ancients.

[17] the time of her death, and her age. The Blessed died about midnight on the XXIII of February, on the vigil of St. Matthias, and in the year of the old style MCCLXIX (that is, 1270 of the present style), as is noted in the Martyrology of Longchamp, says Rouillard at page 401. This writer, since he did not distinguish the custom of the ancient French, who began the year at Easter, from the beginning of the year in use today, thought that she really died in the year 1269, even as the years are now reckoned; which error some have followed, among them Gérard du Bois in the History of the Church of Paris, volume 2, page 445, where he moreover wrongly says that she died on the V of the Kalends of March. Le Chaise, already praised, at page 614, and other learned men with Rouillard place her death on the XXIII of February in the year 1270; nor ought the least doubt to remain about the year. But as regards the day, Castellanus in the notes on the enlarged Roman Martyrology, page 712, proves from the Necrology of Longchamp that she died on the XXII of February, on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, although her anniversary Office was wont to be celebrated on the following day. And I should think this more to be trusted than Rouillard, who often goes astray, whom others have followed. This day of her death will also be confirmed below. Moreover, since she was born in the month of March in the year 1225, as we said at number 3, she was shortly to complete the forty-fifth year of her age. Rouillard therefore again went astray in attributing to her nearly 50 years of age. The wonders which happened at the time of her blessed death are related in the Life, chapter 3.

[18] Her burial and elevation: Hearing of the death of his Blessed Sister, St. Louis presently came to the abbey of Longchamp to be present at her burial and funeral rites. The holy body had already been carried to the church, clothed, Rouillard says, in the habit of nuns, when the holy king arrived there. And since there was a wonderful multitude of people, and not all had obtained leave to enter the cloister, Louis himself kept watch lest anyone should creep in to whom leave to enter had not been given, on the testimony of Rouillard and of Le Chaise, page 614, from a manuscript. The same add that the king, when the funeral rites were performed, consoled the nuns with a short discourse for the death of their blessed Mother, as is also narrated in the Epitaph of the Blessed already praised. She was buried within the cloister, that is, in the choir of the nuns, and nine days afterwards was again raised and placed in a more honorable sepulcher. This elevation the Life records at numbers 24 and 25, where may be seen what then happened; as also in the Epitaph in §3.

[19] After some months, if we believe Rouillard, the Blessed's sepulcher was erected in that place her sepulcher where the choir is separated from the church appointed for the people, so that her head with the upper part of her body is within the choir, but the rest of the body in the other part of the church. This place was chosen, as the epitaph also testifies, that the sepulcher might be approached by the pilgrims flocking thither, and seen outside the choir. He adds that the sepulcher was raised about three feet, and that upon it was set an effigy of the Blessed, clothed in the habit of the Religious of St. Francis, with a royal mantle marked with lilies laid over it. Moreover, that the sepulcher of the blessed Princess is still to be seen in the same place our Souciet, praised before, taught me by his letters, who examined all things diligently, and for a more convenient understanding of the matter briefly observed of the church itself that it is divided into two parts by a partition raised about fifteen or twenty feet, of which one is left to the people, the other serves the nuns alone, whose choir it is. Nay, he even delineated the plan of the whole church from sight in the manner which I subjoin.

[20] You see that the altar is in the part appointed for the people, and that that part of the church is divided from the choir of the nuns by the aforesaid partition: as is still seen, In this partition, says Souciet, on the Gospel side is the Blessed's sepulcher. It rises about three feet and a half, or four feet. Upon it is set a marble statue of the Princess, which is said to have been made by the order of St. Louis. It is clothed in a monastic garment

of chestnut color, and girded with a cord girdle. It lies on its back after the usual manner, the head turned toward the nuns' part, the feet stretched toward the altar. Hence one must stand in the choir of the Religious to be able to look upon the head and the face, which is very like the Blessed, the Religious told me, and represents a beautiful princess. She is of tall stature. And at the feet of the statue, where commonly two lions are seen at the feet of men, or a dog or two dogs at the feet of women, here there are set before the eyes two small figures of Religious women, weeping and holding a book in their hands. Thus far the most diligent Souciet, whose French words I have rendered into Latin.

Shining beyond the stars was this life of Isabel, Who gladly was made the mother of this cell. So great in birth, she remained truly most humble: Speaking rarely, sternly mastering her tender flesh. Be all you sisters mindful of her, Whom, so great a lady, she planted like flowers as Minoresses.

Besides this Latin inscription, there is moreover this in French, says Rouillard at page 408. That I render from him into Latin: This is St. Isabella of France, daughter of Louis king of the Franks, and sister of St. Louis, who preferred her virginity to any lily or royal scepter, since she would not stain her body, that she might keep her soul the more shining. Born rich also, she wished to live and to die with the poor; forgetful of the honors of the world, that she might be humble and little before God. Hence in place of worldly greatness she gained for herself an immortal crown in heaven. Here below lies the body of the lady Isabella of France. Above, on the wall, is written in Latin: In peace is his place made. Below at the side are images of St. Louis and of Bl. Elizabeth, with a French inscription which I subjoin in Latin: This is the lord Louis king of France and the Lady St. Isabella his sister, who founded this monastery in the year of grace MCCLX to the honor of God and of his most holy Mother.

[22] The opening of the sepulcher and a miracle. The aforesaid Rouillard then reports that in the year 1461 the Blessed's sepulcher was opened, the countess of Étampes, mother of Francis duke of Brittany, asking it and being present, when she was bringing her daughter Magdalen of Brittany into the monastery of Longchamp. The sepulcher being opened with great solemnity, a sweet and aromatic odor was perceived by those present, and the bones appeared shining in a wonderful manner, if we believe Rouillard, who describes these things somewhat more fully. He adds also a miracle of this kind. Jacqueline de Longueil, a pious Religious of Longchamp, who for twenty years had been deprived of the use of the middle part of her body, and had an arm useless and rotting, being carried from the bed in which she lay to the Blessed's sepulcher, asked that her arm might be laid upon the coffin. When the arm had hung there some time, she drew it back, being wholly healed not only in the arm but in her whole body. And to the tips of her fingers there clung something of miraculous oil, which Rouillard affirms at page 409 sometimes distills from the sepulcher.

§ III. The lengthy Epitaph of the Blessed, rendered into Latin from the French.

The Blessed's Epitaph, in which are narrated In the abbey of Longchamp there is preserved an ancient writing which is entitled The Epitaph of St. Elizabeth, and is said to have been written in the fifteenth century, partly from the Life of the Blessed to be published below, partly from certain letters preserved in the abbey. The whole of it the most kindly Souciet transcribed with his own hand and sent to me, adding this observation: The Epitaph is written in three columns on parchment, and enclosed in wood. It is exposed on the Blessed's feast day and throughout the whole Octave near her sepulcher. It is written in Gothic letters; and because the people at this time would not know how to read those letters, it has been copied out in an elegant modern character on a like parchment, and the copy laid over the original. Many things indeed are reported in this Epitaph which are more fully narrated in the Life; yet since certain other things are also added which are there passed over, I have determined to render the whole from the French into Latin, and to insert it in this place, because it was composed at that time to which the order of events has led us. Receive therefore a faithful and simple version of the Epitaph, into which for clearness' sake I shall insert a very few words in different type.

[24] Beneath this tomb lies the body of the most exalted and excellent Lady of good memory, her birth, the endowments of her body and soul, the lady Elizabeth of France, sister of the good king of France St. Louis, and of the king of Sicily (Charles), and daughter of Louis (VIII) king of France and of his wife queen Blanche, daughter of the king of Spain. This illustrious lady, called the lady Elizabeth of France, began from her infancy to despise and flee the glory of the great estates of the world and the vain joys of the present age, that she might please our Lord Jesus Christ. For as she was an only daughter, and most tenderly loved by the aforesaid king and queen of France, and as she excelled before the world in wonderful beauty of body, in wisdom and grace, so she was much fairer, better, more pleasing and more gracious before God by holiness of life, upright manners, and the illustrious endowments befitting virtue in which she was eminent, and which she preserved to the end of her life. She was a mirror of innocence, a pattern of penitence, a rose of patience, a lily of chastity and virginity, a fountain of mercy and piety, a school of all good manners, as is clear from the course of her life.

[25] For in the time of her childhood and youth she did not care to clothe herself in precious garments, nor to adorn her body with elegant attire: her virtues and pious exercises, she cared not for games nor for the delights of the world; but she loved solitude, and spoke little. She gave herself most diligently to study, and strove with the greatest effort to learn letters and to know the sacred Scriptures and to hold them in memory. After she had been well imbued and instructed in these, she very often applied herself to long and pious prayers and orisons before our Lord Jesus Christ. Then she spent her time in making ornaments of silk for churches, which she had caused herself to be taught, that she might spend all her time and all her labors upon our Lord. She was very much inclined to compassion, and generous in relieving the want of the poor; sober and abstinent toward her own body in food and drink. Three times every week she fasted, and at her mealtime took so little food that a human body could not have been sustained by it, unless God's grace had cooperated.

[26] her flight from marriage, When the queen her mother and her illustrious kinsfolk wished to give her in marriage (as they had already promised and granted her) to the son of the Roman emperor (Conrad, son of Frederick II), who after his father was to be heir of the empire, and who greatly desired, labored, and strove with all his might to take the aforesaid Lady to wife, she would never consent. Wherefore Innocent IV, considering the great advantages and benefits which might arise thence, wrote her letters to induce her to the said marriage, and his letters are kept in this present abbey of Longchamp. But she would never consent to a bodily marriage, neither to the aforesaid son of the emperor nor to any other mortal man, on account of the great love, desire, and will to give and consecrate herself wholly to God, as in fact she did; for she grew and increased more and more in holy virtues on the way of the perfect life.

[27] her holy distribution of money, the foundation of the abbey of Longchamp, The temporal riches which she possessed, and which she was to receive for her portion and dowry, and the other great sums of money and treasures which the king her father left her after his death, she distributed and bestowed in works of mercy, in giving alms to the poor and conferring aid upon want. She spent all to the glory of God and for love of him — namely by relieving the need of the wretched and indigent, by providing a manner of life for poor orphans and for a great multitude of men: for she enrolled some in Religion; she sent ten knights overseas to fight for the faith of Jesus Christ against the infidels; and in particular with her own money she founded and caused to be built this present church and abbey of Longchamp for sixty enclosed nuns of the Order of St. Francis and St. Clare. King St. Louis, who aided her undertakings, laid the first stone of the church; queen Margaret his wife laid the second; the lord Louis their eldest son set the third; and the said lady Elizabeth placed the fourth. At the same hour in which these things were being done, three white doves settled in that place, all who were present seeing them. At once queen Margaret said to the lady Elizabeth: Dear sister , these three doves show and signify that the most holy Trinity breathes upon the beginnings of our work.*

[28] The aforesaid lady Elizabeth, when her building was finished, of her own counsel gave it a name, [to which she gives a name, and procures a Rule: the introduction of nuns into the abbey,] and called it the church and abbey of the Humility of Blessed Mary of Longchamp; and she said that she greatly marveled that by no one had a church or abbey been marked with this name. Nevertheless, she said, it is a most lofty name and the best that can be taken, and that by which our Lord Jesus Christ chose the most glorious and most humble Virgin Mary to be his mother. This was the reason, she said, why she had chosen the said name to give it to her house and abbey. After these things this holy Lady labored with very great solicitude and anxiety of heart and mind to have a Rule for the nuns composed and ordained. And when it had been composed, approved, and confirmed by the supreme Pontiff, and the buildings of the abbey finished, king St. Louis and the said Lady his sister on the birthday of St. John the Baptist brought into this abbey, and there placed and enclosed, the nuns whom the prelate of the said Order had appointed thither to begin the monastic institute there. The aforesaid St. Louis blessed them, and in chapter exhorted them with holy words and fitting instruction, sitting in a place no higher than theirs. After these things had been so piously and holily ordained and accomplished, the said lady Elizabeth wished all her life to remain, to live, and to die in this abbey, perseveringly advancing from good to better, and to a more perfect holiness of life and of all the virtues.

[29] She was of such wonderful abstinence in taking drink and food the austerity of her life, her humility, her mercy toward the poor, that she would not even eat bread to satiety, nor taste dainty or savory foods, adding no seasoning to her food but salt. When she had fasted until evening, she took no food but a little porridge of peas … . She often ordered herself to be beaten and scourged even to blood with rods of butcher's broom ; and with many other austerities she afflicted her body. At all times she most diligently guarded and restrained herself from speaking, both with her noble attendants and with other persons, nor would she speak save very slowly, very little, and for a just and reasonable cause. She was of such perfect humility that she would not suffer any service to be rendered her by her attendants except what she could not do herself. Every day, before she took food, she ordered a great multitude of poor to dine in her chamber, whom she herself served: those also who served her she often

bade dine before her. When she was about to receive the precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, she most humbly confessed her fault on bended knees before her handmaids. In dress she was most modest; for she used garments of a cloth of coarse and thick wool, and wore them until they were worn out and torn. She abounded in charity, love, and very great compassion toward the poor and toward those whom she knew to be afflicted and sick. These she most diligently visited, and consoled with sweet and holy words and with alms; she served them with her own hands, and did this with great labor and weariness. So great an abundance of other alms and works of mercy did she perform that they can hardly be enumerated or told.

[30] She was endowed with such grace and fervor of prayer that for the greater part of the night and almost the whole day she applied herself to pious prayers and to pouring forth entreaties to God with a great abundance of tears. her assiduity and fervor of prayer, Every day she confessed her sins, and often received the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ with the utmost sense of devotion. It happened once, when she had continued almost the whole night in prayer, that she was so drawn and rapt into God by contemplation that she perceived nothing of this mortal life, understood nothing: for whatever was done to her, whatever words were spoken to her, she neither moved nor spoke, save only these words: "To him alone be honor and glory." She was also of countenance and flesh so spiritual, and so wonderfully sweet, beautiful, and bright, that it was a thing most marvelous to see. In this state she was from early morning until late evening, and these things many persons worthy of credit saw.

[31] When this venerable Lady left this mortal life, wonders at her death, St. Louis's care at her burial, at that very midnight hour in which she gave back her spirit to God, above the chamber in which she was, there was heard in the air by several persons worthy of credit, who were in different places, a singing and melody so wonderful and sweet, and continued so long in one breath, that no human voice can be compared with it. At the same hour there was heard by other persons a voice which said (in Latin), "In peace is his place made." When king St. Louis saw her body clothed in the habit of Religion, with great devotion he fell upon his knees. And when the body was being brought to be buried within the cloister of the nuns, he himself wished to be present, to keep watch at the gate lest anyone should enter to whom entrance was forbidden. He likewise sweetly and kindly consoled the Religious in the grief with which they were afflicted at the death of their holy Lady. Moreover, as often as he entered the cloister, he visited the sick nuns and looked to see what was set before the convent of the nuns at dinner. When he was preparing to cross the sea against the Saracens for the faith of Jesus Christ, he came to the nuns in their chapter, and on bended knees asked their prayers and orisons.

[32] the elevation of the body buried for nine days, After the body of the said holy Lady had been committed to the earth for the space of nine days, it was raised from the earth, that it might be laid more reverently than it had been and in a more honorable sepulcher. Then the body was found and the limbs of the aforesaid Lady seen as pliant and flexible as they had been at the very hour of her death. Her face was fair and bright, her eyes sweet and beautiful without any injury, nor did they seem to have been quenched by death; nor did the body breathe forth any ill odor. These things the illustrious ladies of France then living saw, being present, and so great a multitude of other persons, both secular and Religious, that they cannot be numbered. All who were present labored with great devotion to touch the body with rings, girdles, and other like things, that they might keep them as sacred relics.

[33] miracles At that time one of the sisters of this abbey, who for the space of twenty years had had one finger of her hand deformed by the bite of a sow, took some of the earth which was around the body of this venerable Lady, and bound it to her finger, and left it there for the space of several days: afterwards she unbound the finger, and found it so clean and sound that it seemed there had never been any wound.

[34] Another person, who long before this Lady's death had been out of her mind, three, and was much deranged and furious, was brought and kept for the space of one night upon the sepulcher of this venerable Lady; and on that same night the Religious of the monastery watched and prayed with great devotion for the said sick person. And in proportion as the night passed and the day drew near, her senses returned to her and her frenzy was calmed; and when day dawned she was so perfectly restored to herself that she never afterwards experienced the said infirmity.

A woman who had lost all use of her eyes vowed herself to this holy Lady, and caused herself to be brought to her sepulcher, where she offered two waxen eyes. The offering being made, she was presently wholly healed and enlightened.

[35] the translation of the body. Many other miracles, and those great and notable, this venerable Lady wrought for a great multitude of sick persons, who came both from far and from near regions to implore her help, and who obtained entire health, being healed of diseases by their nature incurable. These miracles are contained written in the History of the holy life of the aforesaid Lady. From this History of her life, and from certain letters of good repute which are kept in this abbey, this writing has been taken and briefly gathered. Moreover, because the pilgrims who flocked to implore the help of this holy Lady and to offer their gifts to her could not see her sepulcher, since her body lay buried in the middle of this church within the cloister of the nuns, the body was raised from the said place, translated, and placed in that place and manner in which it can be seen, partly within the choir of the nuns and partly without. And although this venerable Lady has not been canonized, it may nevertheless piously be believed that she is enrolled in the number of the holy virgins in heavenly glory, where she lives and reigns without end through all ages of ages; whither may our Lord Jesus Christ grant that we too may come, through her glorious prayers and holy merits. Amen. Thus far the Epitaph, to which some things were afterwards added pertaining to the Blessed's cult, which we shall recite in their place.

\ In French belle sœur, which may be translated sister-in-law*.

\* See the annotations on chapter 1, letter h.

\* The word is obscure.

§ IV. More recent miracles.

The Blessed being invoked, a dead arm is restored: Rouillard, after narrating the miracles written in the Acts by Agnes, and the other one just given from him, subjoins certain other more recent ones from page 449, which from him I render into Latin: Another Religious of the same monastery, called sister Marguerite de Soreille, had an arm deprived of use, dead and without feeling, which hung from a sling. The sinews of her hand were so contracted, and that hand so firmly closed, that the nails pierced the flesh of the palm, and a ball made by art had to be inserted lest the nails should pierce through the rest. That sister was of a very upright life, and had conceived confidence in God and at the same time in the Saint's merits. Now on the day on which the anniversary office was performed for her, the sister wished to go to the church, and placed herself near enough to the sepulcher, intent on prayer. Meanwhile she fell asleep, and in a short slumber saw a woman of notable grace of countenance, who gently took her arm, drew it from the sling and stretched it out at length, and opened her hand, so that the ball which was in it fell out and rolled into the middle of the choir. This being done, the sisters, who were occupied with the divine office, were greatly astonished; and while the report of the matter passed modestly among them, this sister awoke and felt her arm wholly relieved and sound. She rises, and, that she might make the miracle more manifest, goes to ring the bell, which was heavy enough. By this miracle, therefore, she signified that the Saint had been endowed with the glory of blessedness, and that she so far did not need the suffrages of the dead that she should rather be invoked, that she might bestow her grace and favor.

[37] Often too she has shown by various signs that it was granted her by God in a singular way to preserve this her house free from all adversity, she protects the monastery of Longchamp against fire, and that it was set under her protection. It happened once that a fire so burning and violent seized the barn and stables of the abbey, which at that time were outside the enclosure of the monastery, near enough and at the entrance of the Wood of Boulogne (a neighboring village), that both the wood and all the neighborhood seemed likely to be set ablaze; so that the inhabitants of Boulogne and Suresnes (likewise neighboring villages) laid wetted cloths upon their houses, thatched with straw, to protect them against the fire, which with wind and storm flew about them. They seemed to see the whole monastery and church seized by the fire. Wherefore, moved with compassion and with the veneration in which they held the nuns on account of their holy life, and because they obtained much help from them in their necessities, they ran to the monastery to see what remedy they could bring. On the way many of them perceived a beautiful lady in the air, who placed herself between the fire and the monastery, and stretched her mantle over it, whereby the flame was quenched; so that when they came to the monastery they found no damage in it. These good men related their vision to the sisters, who consigned it to writing.

[38] and hinders a thief in it; Another token of her protection also manifest. Among several workmen appointed for certain business of the abbey, one was of unfaithful mind, and in fact a thief. He had noticed that near the dormitory there were various chests in which certain necessary bundles were placed. He determined to go thither by night and to open the chests with a hook; and indeed he came to the dormitory by the stairs near the cloister. But when he wished to set about the matter, he found a noble Lady, clothed in a great mantle marked with golden lilies, who hindered him from attempting anything. He thought it was a spirit, and, seized with terror, went down into the church to search whether he might find anything there to be carried off by theft. There likewise he met the same Lady, who struck him with great terror and dread; and, wherever he turned, she showed herself before him, until he was compelled to depart without doing any damage. Being afterwards seized by the judges and condemned to death for some other crime, he related this very thing as the chief deed whereby he had provoked the divine vengeance against himself. Who then could fear in that place which this holy Virgin has shown to be so safe a refuge?

[39] a novice, to be dismissed on account of a grave bodily malady, If antiquity can procure credit for the miracles related above, because they were written at a time when there was more simplicity and less feigning, these new ones will be the more credible because those men and women before whose eyes they passed lived not so long ago. In the year of grace MDXVI, on the day

IX of March, sister Jeanne Carphaude, a young novice, fifteen or sixteen years old, who was still in her year of probation, and even then gave tokens of great purity of manners, holiness of life, and other perfections befitting her state, having climbed upon an ill-piled heap of faggots, fell heavily upon the stick of one of the bundles, by which she was hurt in the more private parts; and from this wound she suffered the gravest pain. Nevertheless for a good fifteen days she endured the pain and that martyrdom before she dared to disclose anything, on account of the place in which the hurt was. At length the sharpness of the pain compelled her to disclose what she could no longer conceal. All the sisters were moved with great compassion for her, and for four whole months took care that all necessary remedies should be applied to the malady, by whose help the wound was closed and in some measure cleansed. Yet her sinews remained contracted, one leg without feeling and stiff, and shorter than the other; so that when she wished to lift anything from the ground she had to stoop and bend her whole body. Hence, when the year of probation was completed, the sisters, because they saw that she would be a burden to the monastery and useless for her office, determined, though very unwillingly, to ask her parents to take her back. This young novice, after she had heard something of this matter, grieved more at it than at her own malady; and she feared it more than death itself, being unwilling in any way to draw back from the vows made to God.

[40] She therefore placed all her hope in God the Blessed being invoked, she suddenly recovers; and in the merits of the Saint, whom she prayed with all her heart that she would receive her as a daughter and keep her in her house as a lowly servant. In these thoughts she fell asleep; and then there appeared to her the lady St. Elizabeth, covered with a precious mantle of an unknown and unusual color, marked all over with golden lilies. On her right was St. Louis her brother, on the other side queen Blanche, notable in royal garb; and all three seemed to give her hope of speedy health. The vision being over, in the morning, when the messenger was to depart to make known the sad news to her parents — namely that they should come to receive her and take her home — she urged with fervent prayer upon her holy Mother, asking her that she might not be compelled to leave the house. Her prayer being ended, when she wished to take her crutch to return to her chamber, she heard a sounding voice which said to her: Go; as if it would signify to her that she could walk alone and on her own feet, without the help of that staff. Presently she came down from the dormitory and ran to the church to give thanks to God. It was but the sixth hour of the morning, when the sisters were preparing to sing the prayers of Prime. They, seeing her brisk and nimble, and not knowing whether it was a phantom or a real thing, were at first greatly astonished. But when it appeared for certain that the Saint had miraculously wrought in this matter by God's help, the bells were rung for joy, the Te Deum was sung, and the whole day was passed in songs of rejoicing and praise. The report of the matter being carried to Paris and elsewhere, everyone ran to the monastery of Longchamp to behold the miracle with their eyes; and by the certainty of it the glory of mother St. Elizabeth so shone forth that everyone strove to bring tapers to be lighted around her sepulcher; which is observed even now every year when her festival comes round.

[41] Receive a miracle which will surpass the prodigy of the ship drawn to the bank by the single thread of a Vestal virgin. another freed from a most grave peril: In the year MDXXX, when the number of the Religious, limited to sixty, as we have said, had, a faculty being received, increased to eighty, and it had been decreed to build a new dormitory, it happened on a certain feast day, on which the workmen were not working, that three young Religious, whether from youthful curiosity or for recreation's sake, wished to go and inspect the building, and to recreate themselves by climbing to the topmost summit of the ceiling, among the rafters and beams. Then the ceiling, which was frail and weak, fell in; and the whole body of one of them passed between two beams, hanging there by nothing but the tips of her fingers, which barely supported her. Then she cried out: Holy Mother, save me; and she began in part as it were to faint. At this noise there came out of her chamber a certain Religious named Georgette Cœur, who afterwards was abbess, with a Religious kinswoman of hers. These, when they raised their eyes and perceived the poor girl hanging thus, whom they thought would presently fall, with head bowed for terror, and lest they should see it, quickly withdrew to their chamber, commending her soul to God, because they expected only the hour in which she should fall and crush her body. For the height was at the least six perches, as it was afterwards measured. The two other sisters who had remained above the ceiling knew not what to say or think: they only wept, and implored the help of their venerable Mother, who quickly made manifest how great were her merits and how great her power.

[42] she is freed: For one of those young women, called sister Valentine Prévost, doubtless by the inspiration of the holy Mother, dared to set her foot upon one of the aforesaid beams. She bent down little by little, that with one hand she might take hold of the edge of the veil which was upon the poor girl's head. When she had touched the veil, she drew it, and pulled her up as easily as if there had been no weight of body. Thus she rescued her from the peril and herself also, and all three alike, when they had so happily escaped, came down below. Now, according to the common course of nature, in what way could it come about that by the edge of a veil, or a small linen cloth, which was fastened only by pins, a girl already fairly grown should be lifted, whose body was suited to her age? Then whence that force and power in that other girl, who was herself exposed to the peril, and who had trouble enough to save herself, even if she did not perish with the other? Add that that sex is by its nature more timid and weaker, and that the danger was great by reason of the height of the place. There was therefore something beyond the order of nature; and this is confirmed by the fact that, when those three novices had come down, she who had been delivered said to the others: What had you to fear? I was so well supported under the shoulders that I could not fall. But she who supported her was the holy Mother whom she had invoked. The report of the matter spreading through the monastery, a glad thanksgiving followed. For to hold a body hanging in the air, and to cause it to be drawn up by a veil fastened only with small pins — is it not a thing unusual and surpassing nature?

[43] another is restored from a fever: About the same time a young Religious, by name sister Jeanne Massieux, being troubled with a long fever, the physicians' art failing, fled to the holy Mother, whom she constantly prayed to bestow her favor upon her. While these things were being done, the holy Virgin seemed to appear to her, covered with a mantle adorned with golden lilies; and in that vision she gave her hope of health. In the morning a rather bitter medicine was offered her, which she nevertheless refused, saying that she had no more need of it, and that she was healed. Experience taught this, to the great wonder of everyone. Whether this vision was presented to her sleeping or waking I do not determine. But this is plain, that she was in fact and truly restored to entire health.

[44] another benefit of the Blessed: To these the aforesaid writer subjoins another benefit, which he asserts was always held for a miracle. Receive the matter in brief. Henry III, king of France, had summoned the Feuillant Fathers from Toulouse to bring them into the monastery of Longchamp, the nuns being sent elsewhere. And that he might carry this out the more promptly and rightly, he had obtained letters of the supreme Pontiff. The king therefore goes himself to the aforesaid abbey, and by Pontifical and royal authority orders the nuns to depart from Longchamp to another place to be assigned them, declaring that he would not go away until his command had begun to be fulfilled. When the nuns lamented exceedingly, certain persons persuaded the king to let the first heat of their grief cool, that the Religious might be gently led to comply with his command. The king therefore departs, the departure of the nuns being deferred. They presently betake themselves to the church, and urge with fervent prayers upon blessed Elizabeth that she would not suffer them to be expelled. At length, their prayers being continued day and night, they receive word that the king's will was changed, and that they were allowed to remain in the monastery, and that the Feuillants would dwell in another place.

[45] Another miracle, wrought a few years before he wrote, a nun freed from a long vomiting. Caussin reports in the Life from page 215. There was a Religious of the monastery of Haute-Bruyère, named Madeleine le Roy, in the Order of St. Bonaventure, who by the invocation of the Blessed was freed from a wretched and long-continued vomiting. Caussin recites the letters of the abbess of the said place, and of the Religious herself who was healed, from which I briefly report the matter. The aforesaid Madeleine for nine or ten years had labored under a grave and frequent vomiting, yet in such a way that, medicines being applied, the malady sometimes intermitted and was not continual. She had been free for ten whole months, when the malady seized her so violently that for three months and a half her stomach admitted no food at all which it did not cast up, and all medicines brought no relief whatever. Since therefore she despaired of obtaining health by human remedies, she fled to the Blessed's help and began a novena of prayers in her honor. The first nine days passed without any relief, as also the following nine. Then, kindled with a desire of performing spiritual exercises, she earnestly asks the Blessed to obtain from God strength for undertaking them. A few days afterwards, on the III of March in the year 1638, she begins to be tortured with sudden pains of the stomach beyond her wont, and on that same day was entirely healed and freed from all vomiting, so that after eight days she began her spiritual exercises. Her letter, in which she relates these things more at length, is dated the XVII of May of that same year 1638.

§ V. Elizabeth enrolled among the Blessed: the extension of her cult, the translation of her body, her Office.

[On occasion of the miracle related above, the matter of her beatification was begun,] Although Elizabeth was conspicuous both for holiness of life and for the glory of miracles, yet I find that nothing was done about inserting her in the catalogue of the Blessed or of the Saints before the sixteenth century. Rouillard at page 480 affirms that the miracle wrought in the year 1516, as we narrated at number 39, was the first occasion of attempting the matter, because among others who came to Longchamp on account of the fame of the miracle there was present a certain nobleman of Lucca dwelling at Paris (he names him Lanfranco Spinola), who, being informed of her Life and miracles, undertook to promote her beatification at the Roman court. Setting out therefore for Rome, he there promoted the matter so diligently that he obtained from Leo X the bull presently to be mentioned, which was given on the III of the Ides of January in the year 1521. He says that the bull was sent to a certain Italian living at Paris, whose name was Fristobaldi, in whose hands it long remained on account of certain difficulties, until through the confessor of the Religious, Robert Messier of the Order of Minors, it was received and brought to the abbey on the XXIII of August of that same year, where it was received with the greatest alacrity and joy. These things

in substance Rouillard; but whence he received them he does not set forth.

[47] But however this may be, it is certain that the bull of Leo X was given to Cardinal Boissy, and the examination is committed by Leo X the Pontifical legate in France, and that he was charged to inquire diligently into all things, and, the truth of what had been alleged before the Pontiff on behalf of the nuns being found, to grant the faculty of composing an ecclesiastical Office of Bl. Elizabeth; then to examine and approve the Office, and finally to permit it to be recited on the more convenient day. All these things the bull of Leo contains, as it is rendered into French by Rouillard at page 485. Part of the same bull Arthur du Monstier published in the Franciscan Martyrology at the XXXI of August, to which this address is prefixed: Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son Adrian, Cardinal priest of St. Sabina, our legate a Latere and that of the apostolic See in the kingdom of France, health and Apostolic benediction.

[48] to Cardinal Boissy, legate in France, Receive also part of the bull, by which the foregoing is confirmed: To the pious desires of all persons, especially of the devout female sex serving the Most High under the sweet yoke of Religion — and especially to those by which, as the Prophet teaches, God may be praised in his Saints, and divine worship, with the spiritual consolation of those same persons, may receive increase — we gladly assent, and bestow thereon the offices of our solicitude. For a petition lately presented to us on behalf of our beloved daughters in Christ, the present abbess and convent of the monastery of nuns of Longchamp of the Order of St. Clare, of the diocese of Paris, set forth that, whereas in the church of the said monastery the body of blessed Elizabeth, sister of the most glorious St. Louis, formerly king of France (who also, while she lived among men, as a lover of eternal blessedness, and having rejected the bed of frail man and cast away worldly enticements, desiring to pay her vows to the Most High himself in the pleasantness of peace, entered the monastery and expressly professed this Order, and ceased not unweariedly to render service there under the yoke of Religion and to lead the life of nuns until, as it pleased the Most High, she should enter upon the way of all flesh) is honorably laid up; and of that same Bl. Elizabeth, after whose passing from this light a voice sent forth from heaven, as is piously believed, etc. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, in the year of our Lord's Incarnation MDXX, on the third of the Ides of January, in the eighth year of our Pontificate. For the year of the Lord 1520 must be substituted 1521, as all other writers have it, and as is certain from the eighth year of his Pontificate, which ran until the month of March of the year 1521.

[49] who after mature examination orders the festival to be celebrated on 31 August: This rescript of the Pontiff was presented to the Cardinal legate on the XXVII day of September, as he himself testifies in Arthur. Meanwhile an Office was composed by Fr. Robert Messier, confessor of the nuns, and presented to the legate together with the bull, says Rouillard at page 486. And the legate sent to the abbey Antoine Chabannier, canon of Albi and of Clermont, his vicar, who accurately discussed and examined everything, various doctors and Religious being called into counsel; and at last reported all things sealed to the legate. Finally the legate, all things having been seen and discussed with mature counsel, granted a decree of approbation, and ordered the Blessed's festival to be celebrated on the XXXI of August. Thus Rouillard, adding that the decree was given on the XI of December of that same year 1521, and brought to the abbey on the XXI of the same month, where it was received with the greatest joy by Catherine Picard, then abbess, and by all the nuns. From that time, therefore, the Blessed's feast began to be celebrated every year. André Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology at the XI of December briefly narrates the matter in these words: The veneration of the virgin Isabella, beloved of God, sister of St. Louis the king, and foundress of the virginal monastery of Longchamp on the Seine near the noble city of Paris, was approved by Apostolic authority on this day, in the year MDXXI, by virtue of the Pontifical rescript of Pope Leo X, through Adrian de Boissy, Cardinal of St. Sabina, legate of the apostolic See in France. The same other writers record. After the epitaph recited before, the following was noted in French about these matters: After this time (of the writing of the Epitaph) St. Elizabeth was enrolled among the Blessed by Pope Leo X in the year MDXX, in the month of January, and her feast was transferred from the XXII of February, the day of her death, to the XXXI of August. But these things must be corrected from what has been said.

[50] In the year 1637 the body was solemnly raised by the archbishop of Paris, her body, license being received from the supreme Pontiff, and translated to a more honorable place, the faculty having been obtained in the preceding year from the supreme Pontiff Urban VIII. Hear on that matter Arthur, who lived at that same time, in the place already assigned: Again, he says, in the year MDCXXXVI a pious supplication was carried to the Apostolic see by the abbess and convent of nuns of that same monastery, in which they humbly and urgently ask faculty for themselves to remove that very sepulcher of blessed Elizabeth from its place, and to transfer it from an inconvenient and unseemly position to a fitter and more honorable one; and to place the ashes and bones of that same Blessed Virgin, there where it should seem best, with fitting reverence, etc. The supreme Pontiff Urban VIII, kindly assenting to their pious desires, commits the whole matter to the ordinary of the place by an Apostolic brief, dated at Rome at St. Mary Major on the X of the Kalends of September, in the XIV year of his Pontificate. That charter therefore being received, supplication was made by them to the most illustrious archbishop of Paris, who, the parties being heard, appoints his commissaries, Masters de Contes, chancellor of the church and university of Paris, and Du Saussay, doctor of both laws, pastor of the parish church of SS. Leu and Gilles in that same city, and also Apostolic protonotary, together with the promoter and secretary of the archbishopric, dated at Paris on the XXX day of January in the year MDCXXXVII.

[51] Supported therefore by this authority of the metropolitan, they betake themselves to the aforesaid monastery of Longchamp, raised by the archbishop of Paris: accurately examine all things in order, and duly execute the office committed to them, on Tuesday the VII of April in the year MDCXXXVII, as appears from their verbal process drawn up upon these matters. Then, the matter being reported to the archbishop, he decrees his own journey thither, and orders the same commissaries to be present at the opening of the sepulcher and the translation of the relics, and commands all things to be prepared, by his letters of the XXII of May of the same year. All which were accomplished on Thursday the IV of June of the following month, in the presence of the most reverend archbishop himself, together with the aforesaid Master Saussay, Nicolas Rousseau Apostolic protonotary, and the promoter general, etc.; the abbess being present with the nuns of the whole convent, and the reverend Fathers confessors and other religious men, as is more fully contained in the public instrument written, signed, and sealed upon that matter. And these things I gladly inspected and read in the possession of the aforesaid Master Saussay, an eyewitness of the whole affair, and depositary of the bulls and letters of that business, a man indeed adorned with learning, piety, and diligence.

[52] Caussin in the Life, page 227, asserts that the Apostolic indult for the translation was obtained by the aforesaid Saussay, and that by him the following inscription was set up: In this reliquary are laid up the bones with the ashes of the body of blessed Elizabeth, the inscription then set up: otherwise Isabella, virgin, sister of the holy king Louis, foundress of this monastery; which, by the order and command of our most holy lord, Pope Urban VIII, the most illustrious and most reverend father in Christ, Master Jean François de Gondi, first archbishop of Paris, raised from the tomb of that venerable Virgin (long since shining with the tokens of her merited beatitude), and transferred into this shrine. In the year of the Virgin's childbearing MDCXXXVII, on the day before the Nones of June, Louis the Just, most Christian king of France and Navarre, reigning. In the notes after the Epitaph already praised, but little accurate, as it seems, as to time, the year is set down as 1639; and the body is said to have been placed in a case of gilded silver.

[53] the extension of the cult: In the year 1688, on the XXIV of January, at the petition of the most eminent Cardinal de Laurea on behalf of the nuns, the sacred Congregation of Rites granted that the feast of Bl. Elizabeth should be celebrated with an octave. And in the year 1696, at the prayers of the most eminent Cardinal de Janson, the Blessed's cult was extended to the whole Order of Minors. Both Baillet reports in the Lives of the Saints at the XXXI of August in his account of Elizabeth. The latter the most eminent Lambertini also noted, who now most happily governs the universal Church under the name of Benedict XIV, who in volume 4, part 2, On the Beatification of the Servants of God, page 3, has the following: In the year MDCXCVI the sacred congregation, the supreme Pontiff assenting, granted to the Order of Minors of St. Francis the faculty of celebrating Masses and reciting Offices from the common in honor of blessed Elizabeth, sister of St. Louis king of France. With these agree the notes subjoined to the Epitaph, which run thus: The festival of this Saint is celebrated with an octave (in the abbey of Longchamp), and is celebrated with a semidouble rite in the whole Order of St. Francis, by the permission of Pope Innocent XI in the year MDCLXXXVIII (for the first part) and of Pope Innocent XII in the year MDCXCVI (for the other part).

[54] her name in the sacred calendars. Since all these things show the Blessed's lawful cult, it is not necessary to heap up the eulogies of more recent martyrologists. Castellanus announced Bl. Elizabeth in the Roman Martyrology rendered into French and enlarged at the XXII of February, on which he proves in his notes that she died. Others made mention of her at the XXIII of February, as our predecessors noted in the Praetermissi at that day. But several others assigned the Blessed to the XXXI of August, among whom André Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, whose words I subjoin: In the district of Paris, in the nunnery of Longchamp, the deposition of blessed Isabella, virgin, sister of St. Louis the king, and foundress of that same virginal sisterhood: whose exalted virtue in the utmost contempt of worldly glory, in the most fervent worship of God, and in the perfect denial of herself, as also her exceeding piety in all the exercises of religion, being proved by the tokens of divine testimony, has, by the decree also of the apostolic See, through the oracle of Pope Leo the tenth, claimed the honor proper to the Blessed and a perpetual sacred memory; a day being appointed for her on which the glory of her beatitude is celebrated with the divine Sacrifice and a solemn Office.

[55] The present Office of the Blessed, Finally, that the reader may not want anything of those things which have come to our hands concerning Bl. Elizabeth, from the Office which is today recited in the abbey of Longchamp I shall subjoin those things which pertain to the elucidation of the Blessed's deeds, namely the Prayer and the lessons of the second nocturn. These the most obliging Souciet transcribed, never sufficiently to be praised for his services to our Museum. The Prayer is this: O God, who by the royal piety of Bl. Isabella thy virgin didst consecrate this house to thee under the patronage of thy most humble Mother, grant that by her prayers and imitation we may please thee with a pure and humble heart. Who livest, etc. But the lessons of the second nocturn exhibit a brief compendium of her life, in which the year of her death seems to need correction, and the years of her age to be shortened, according to what we discussed about them at number 17.

[56] Lesson IV. Isabella, sprung of royal stock, had as father Louis king of France, from which are recited and as mother

queen Blanche; being singularly beloved by them, because she was the only surviving daughter of the royal stock, she yielded to none in elegance and beauty of body, but, setting the endowments and ornaments of the soul far before these, she strove to please God alone. Hence from her tender years she utterly loathed the blandishments of the royal court, being wonderfully given to solitude, continually intent upon the reading of sacred books and upon prayer. She never ceased to practice fasting and abstinence, even against the will and protest of her mother. Toward the poor she was so beneficent that she would not take food before she had relieved the want of the needy with most effectual alms; but toward herself so sparing that she scarcely took wherewith to sustain her life. Nor did she consult only the body of the poor, but also their soul, diligently visiting them after she had taken her dinner, teaching and exhorting them, that she might further their salvation as much as she could.

[57] Lesson V. A princely daughter conspicuous and notable for so many endowments was quickly sought in marriage by many, the three lessons and chiefly by Conrad, son of Frederick the second, emperor of the Romans. This marriage Innocent the fourth and Louis king of France, her brother, greatly desired, as most useful to the Christian world. But neither king nor Pontiff could ever move the holy Virgin from her purpose. Innocent, marveling at this constancy of soul and firmness of holy purpose, afterwards praised and approved Isabella's pious resolve. She therefore chose the place which is called Longchamp, that there she might accomplish what she had so holily determined with herself. In that place, therefore, she caused to be built a monastery of Urbanist nuns of St. Clare in honor of the Humility of the most holy Virgin Mary, in which for nine years and more she shone with admirable holiness, inviting all by her singular example to the love of retirement and of penance.

[58] Lesson VI. A little before her death there is said to have been heard in the monastery a voice as of angels singing: of the second nocturn. "His place is made in peace." Which several of the Sisters who were present afterwards confirmed by their testimony. And when this angelic harmony was ended, she gave back her blessed soul to God, namely in the year one thousand two hundred and sixty-nine, in about the fiftieth year of her age. Her body, committed to the earth, straightway shone with miracles and signs which it would be too long to enumerate. And when Leo the tenth had ascertained and examined the knowledge of these miracles, he willed that the most holy Isabella should be enrolled in the number of the blessed virgins, and that her office should be celebrated with solemn rite on the last day of the month of August in the royal monastery where her body is preserved with fitting honor. A word in this last lesson was omitted in the transcribing, I think. Hence I have added the word shone, enclosed in brackets.

LIFE

Written in French by Agnes de Harcourt, abbess of Longchamp,

And rendered into Latin, translated by J. S.

Elizabeth or Isabella, royal virgin, near Saint-Cloud in the district of Paris (Bl.)

BY AGNES DE HARCOURT.

CHAPTER I.

The Blessed's parents and childhood; marriage refused; her sickness; her assiduity in prayer, her rigor of penance, and her other virtues.

The cause of writing: the Blessed's royal stock: The Life of our holy and venerable lady and mother, the lady Elizabeth of France, we have determined to write at the request of the lord king ^a of Sicily her own brother, according to the grace which God shall bestow upon us, to the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ and of this venerable Saint, and for a notable example to holy Church. First we shall set forth who she was and of what parents born; then we shall speak of her infancy, of her manners, and what sort of life she led. Our holy mother and lady, the lady Elizabeth, was sprung of royal stock, and was the daughter of the most noble Louis king of France ^b, son of King Philip, and of the most noble queen of France, the lady queen Blanche, who was daughter of the king of Spain. Her father and mother had at that time no other daughter, and followed her with wonderful love and held her dear; she also was reckoned the noblest lady in the world.

[2] a brief eulogy of her virtues: In her tender age she was very comely and of wondrous beauty; and although she was of so noble a lineage, she was even nobler and more illustrious in her manners. She knew well that this alone is true nobility which, by the virtues of the soul and by a holy life, is the adornment of the soul, as will afterwards appear. She was a daughter, and spouse, and singular friend of our Lord Jesus Christ, and directed all her desires, all her mind, and all her labors to the destroying of sins and the implanting of virtues in herself and in others. She was a mirror of innocence, a pattern of penance, a rose of patience, a lily of chastity, a fountain of mercy. She was a school of all upright manners; for she was a singular disciple in the school of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to his disciples: Come, learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. This lesson our venerable, holy, and noble lady and mother, the lady Elizabeth of France, most excellently retained: for in all her works there appeared nothing but humility and meekness of heart, as Solomon teaches: The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things.

[3] her contempt of worldly things: This venerable and excellent Lady in her youth most gladly remained in her chamber, and strove to understand the sacred Scripture; nor did she desire, for the relaxation of her mind, to go where the wives of her brothers and other ladies went. After she had been abundantly imbued with letters, she learned to make certain things of silk, and made stoles and other ornaments of holy Church. When images of our Lord or of the blessed Virgin were brought her, she received them with wonderful joy, and showed sufficiently that she preferred them and that they were dearer to her than any gifts of other ornaments which anyone could have offered her. In the time of her youth, when the lady queen Blanche her mother lived, who loved her with wonderful tenderness and ordered her to be clothed in very seemly, splendid, and rich attire, she herself testified to me with her own mouth that her heart was as tender and pious toward our Lord when those splendid ornaments surrounded her head and body as it would have been if she had worn more religious garments: I believe there are others also who will altogether testify to this, if it be necessary. Hence it is sufficiently shown that her mind was always very attentive to loving our Lord, and was not given to the ornaments or the glory of this wretched world.

[4] She was urged by the united prayers of her friends to enter into marriage with the son of the Roman emperor ^c, her flight from marriage: her hairs kept for relics: who was to be heir of the empire; but she would never consent to a bodily marriage; for she had chosen as her perpetual Spouse our Lord Jesus Christ in perfect virginity. The lord Pope Innocent IV ^d wrote to her, and tried by many arguments to induce her to contract marriage, on account of the advantages which arise from the marriage of such a lady. His letters we still keep in our abbey. But after he perceived that she could not be moved from her good purpose, he sent her other letters, in which he tried as much as he could to praise her good purpose and the state of virginity. These very letters also we have in our abbey. Her head was very beautiful, and shining without any cause. And when her hair was combed, her attendants gathered up the hairs which fell, and kept them with great care; so that one day she asked them why they did this, and they answered: "Lady, we keep them, that when you shall have been enrolled among the Saints we may have them for relics." She laughed, and counted the whole as nothing, and set it down to folly. I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, received this from the mouth of her attendants who served her, and I still have some of the hairs which fell from her in her youth.

[5] While she was young she was seized with a very violent and acute sickness; her grave sickness in youth, and her contempt of the world increased thereby: but at the beginning of the sickness the lady queen Blanche had to make a journey of a day or two on the business of the kingdom: she left her, therefore, in the town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye ^e, and with her the lady queen Margaret ^f; meanwhile the sickness increased so violently that almost no hope was left of her life, and with great haste her lady mother and the lord king her brother were summoned. After she arrived there, she found her grievously sick and in peril of death; whence, as a mother, she was affected with great grief of soul. She sent anxiously in every direction to ask for prayers, and namely into England ^g to a certain person very religious and notable for contemplation, to whom she most surely expressed the anguish of her soul, that that person might with greater attention urge prayers to our Lord for the Lady her daughter. This person made known to her by letters written that her Daughter would be restored from that sickness; but that she might be certain that her mind would never cleave to the world or to worldly things. This plainly appeared: for thereafter she never adorned her body with her precious ornaments; but day by day she applied herself more and more wholly to prayer and to the works of a perfect and religious life; and she despised all bodily riches of garments, ornaments, and all other things which pertained to the adornment of the body, that she might add to her soul the adornment of virtue and humility.

[6] her hatred of detraction and lying: frequent prayer: This venerable and excellent Lady from her infancy burned with so great a love of purity and innocence that it can scarcely be expressed, as could be plainly known from all her works. She could not endure that anything evil should be said of anyone before her, or anything false, of which she was seized with such horror that her whole countenance was moved. If it ever happened that some persons came to her to ask alms or on business, before they came to her she sent to them those who should tell them to take heed to utter nothing but the truth, and that she would the more gladly do what they asked if she saw that true things were said. I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, am a witness of this matter, who several times carried these messages. In the time of her childhood she was so accustomed to prayer that, with her face placed under the coverlet of the bed, she was at prayer resting on her elbows and knees; so that it happened on a certain morning, when they had to move, that he whose task it was to gather and pack up the beds and coverings embraced the coverlet and the covering, thinking that that covering was so folded up in the bed; but it was our venerable Lady and holy mother, there resting on elbows and knees in prayer, who cried out so loudly when he took hold of the covering that the ladies ran thither, and he was wholly astonished and terrified. I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, heard this from the mouth of the lord king St. Louis, who related it to us; and Mathilda de Godarville, who was appointed to her service, heard the same from the mouth of the lady Helwig de Buisemont, who had lived with the Lady from her infancy.

[7] her sparingness of food and of words, her austere fasts: This same lady Helwig affirmed that for nineteen years she had seen that this venerable Lady never ate bread to satiety;

and that lady Helwig remembered that the lady queen Blanche her mother once said to her that she would give her forty pence to be distributed to the poor if she would eat but one morsel; moreover, if she would address her lord the king her brother with but a word, she promised her forty pence to be bestowed upon the needy; and often she would not do it even for the sake of the thing promised, out of love of abstinence and of silence. In her youth she fasted three days in the week; and when the hour of eating came, she ate so little that no human body could have been sustained by it, had not the divine grace been present. Often, after she had fasted the whole day, her food was a little porridge of peas … ^h. Sufficient dishes indeed were set before her, and dainty foods, as befitted such a Lady; but she sent all to the poor and to the infirmaries of the Religious, and ate of the meanest and most sparingly, so that for one morsel which she ate she sent ten to the poor for the love of God. Almost all the time that she sat at table she was intent upon prayer and in silence. And she sat but a very short time; so that she often rose before the women who served her. She gave thanks most piously and with admirable attention.

[8] She took care that the divine Office should be performed with great devotion and attention. She rose to recite Matins long before daylight, nor did she return to her bed; but she was continually in prayer until full noon. Often too, that she might be able to cleave the longer to prayer, her long-continued custom of praying and reading: she ordered those who served her to eat before her. She did not speak while she recited the Hours, nor before Prime, nor after she had said Compline, unless she were sick. She applied herself wonderfully to prayer in the time of Lent, and more than at other times, and was sometimes bathed in a copious abundance of tears, so that when she came out of her chapel she had eyes so swollen and so red that it plainly appeared that she had poured forth a wonderful abundance of tears. She was wont to continue prayer in her chapel until the hour of full noon; then she came out of the chapel and entered her chamber, where until None she was occupied with the study of the holy Scriptures, namely of the Bible, of the holy Gospels, and of the other Lives of the Saints: for she knew the Latin tongue excellently, and understood it so exactly that when her chaplains had written the letters which she ordered to be written in Latin and had brought them to her, she corrected them when some unfitting word occurred; which I, sister Agnes, often saw, and other persons saw.

[9] She most gladly heard the Word of the Lord, and often ordered it to be preached before her. [her care to hear the word of God and to confess often: the chastisement of her body.] Her conscience was most tender and excellent. She confessed very gladly and frequently, almost every day, and with much devotion. She was wont to have as directors of her conscience men of great uprightness, of advanced age, and masters of theology, and honored them with great respect. When she confessed, she did it in her chapel, and wished the confessor to sit before her with great reverence, that she might see whether he was well attentive to hear her confession, and lest he should be intent on other things or drowsy. This she asserted to me with her own mouth; nor would her conscience have been quiet unless she had been certain that her sins had been well understood by the confessor. She was with the utmost humility before her confessor when she confessed her sins, and also at any other time; and she was much obedient to him, as if she had been a Religious. When she confessed, it was her custom that some lady and damsel should always be present, placed at some little distance so that they could see both the confessor and herself confessing. She often chastised her body with harsh scourgings: these the lady Helwig, of whom we treated above, who had long been with her and in whom she much trusted, inflicted upon her very secretly. This lady Helwig, when she saw her stripped of her garments, said before many ladies: "Your scourgings were not like others; they were continued even to blood." Moreover she raged against her body not only with common rods, but with those of fracon ⁱ, whence her garment was often stained with blood.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Her mercy toward the poor: the foundation of the abbey of Longchamp: various virtues, a two years' sickness, and her pious death.

Comforts bestowed on the poor, the sick, and the afflicted, This venerable Lady humbly and mercifully visited the sick herself, consoled them with holy words, admonished them concerning the salvation of their souls, ministered to them with her own hands, sent liberally of her goods, sat by them a very long while, and felt the beat of their pulse. She was touched with a very violent compassion for the afflicted, and desired with the utmost zeal the salvation of souls. For the sake of the whole world she would not knowingly have spoken a false word. No oath was ever heard from her mouth. When she had given her word, she never recalled it ^a: for nothing would she have done contrary to it. She strove greatly to fulfill the words of the Gospel, especially through the works of mercy which our Lord said he would praise at the universal judgment. After she had been present at the Office, before she dined she ordered a great multitude of the poor to come to her for a long time, so that her whole chamber was beset by them, and with her own hands she served them bread, wine, pottage, and meat, and spent much labor in doing these things. The multitude of private alms which she bestowed both upon Religious and upon seculars is so great that it cannot be set forth. A certain damsel of a well noble family, who was called the damsel de Meru, was in a certain infirmary near her, and was wonderfully exhausted in strength: the Lady was moved with the utmost compassion for her, and was most diligent in providing what was necessary for her; she sent her food from her own table, and chose with her own hands what she thought better and daintier for her, with such diligence that she could not have used greater had she been her daughter; and such things she often did.

[11] She spun with her own hands a head-covering, which the holy king Louis her brother asked of her, and her generous alms. and very graciously begged her to give it him, that he might cover his head at night. She would not give it him, as I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, who was present, received with my own ears from her mouth. She answered the king and said to him: "I purpose to give this to our Lord; for it is the first that I ever spun." But he asked her and said: "Sister, I pray you to spin another which I may take." She answered: "I should be very willing, if I spin more." And she sent that head-covering secretly to a certain poor woman who lay in great weakness, and to whom with great care she daily imparted generous benefits from her own table, and singular foods of great price. The lady Joan and the lady Petronilla de Montfort learned this about the head-covering, and went secretly to that poor woman and bought it, giving her as much as she was willing to take. It is now with the nuns of St. Anthony, who keep it for a relic. The lord king Louis her father, when he died, left her a great quantity of money; but she distributed it all for the love of God, and in particular sent ten knights ^b overseas. She placed so many persons in Religion that we do not know their number. Much good and alms she bestowed upon widow women and orphans, and she was borne with wonderful mercy toward men afflicted with sadness and grief.

[12] It was her custom on Maundy Thursday to receive thirteen poor men, With mature counsel she founds the abbey of Longchamp to wash their feet, to set before them with her own hands four dishes, to give them shoes, and to offer each thirty Paris pence in memory of the price for which our Lord was sold. She desired with great zeal to do something which should please the Lord, and with vehement desire longed to build a hospital; but she did not know which she ought rather to do: to erect a house of our Order, or an infirmary. She sent to the chancellor of Paris,

and ordered him to be asked secretly whether he thought it more pleasing to God that she should found a public house for the poor, or a house of the Sisters Minor. The chancellor Aymeric ^c, who was a very upright man and a master of theology, and who was then her confessor, answered that there was no comparison between a hospital and the foundation of a Religious house, and especially of that Order: for the divine praise of our Lord is there performed and celebrated, virginity is there preserved and multiplied; and moreover works of mercy are there done, for the sisters serve one another. He said besides to the messenger: Tell her not to consult me further on that matter, but to found a house of Religion. After this she straightway founded our abbey, which cost her fully thirty thousand Paris pounds.

[13] for which she has the Rule tempered. She used the most diligent care that the Rule should be good and safe, and had it examined by Friars Minor, who were upright and approved men and masters of theology, such as were brother Bonaventure ^d, brother William of Middleton ^e, brother Odo de Roni ^f, brother Godfrey of Vierzon, and brother William of Harcombour; and she ordered to be inserted into the Rule what was contained in the privileges, and what was doubtful in the rule and perilous she ordered to be struck out; and she applied herself to this with such zeal that she was thereby awake a great part of nights and days: she spent so much zeal and labor that it can scarcely be related. Several persons were in her chamber, of whom some read the privileges, others took notes; and there were always there Friars Minor, masters of theology, to examine matters before her; and she was so anxious lest anything should pass which might be perilous to souls that it was a wonder; and she applied so much care and zeal to this matter that she could scarcely rest: she burned also with a wonderful desire that this matter should be confirmed by the Pope.

[14] and which she desires to be named from humility: Above all she wished that the sisters of the abbey should be called Sisters Minor, nor could the Rule by any means satisfy her unless that name were inserted in it. Her blessed heart was also to give to the abbey that blessed name for which our Lord Jesus Christ chose our Lady to be his Mother; that is, the name of the Humility of Blessed Mary, which she gave to her abbey, and by which she willed it to be named. I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, asked her: "Lady, tell me, if it please you, for the love of God, why you have given that name to our abbey?" She answered me: "Because I have never heard it taken by any person, at which I marvel; for they seem to me to have passed over the most lofty and best name which they could take: and it is that very name for which our Lord chose the blessed Virgin as his Mother ^g: for this cause I chose it to be given to my abbey." She labored under a grave sickness before the Rule was confirmed, because through her vehement affection she was as it were faint of soul until that matter should be accomplished.

[15] she makes her brother the procurator of all her business: Out of her notable humility she would ask nothing of the Pontiff herself, nor write to him about matters pertaining to the Rule or the abbey; nor did she herself transact the weighty business which had to be done; but all these things she took care to have asked through the lord king her brother, whom she made the procurator of all her business. And he most kindly did these things, and sent both letters and his own messengers. She was wont also, when her holy brother king Louis came to the place where she lived, to go to salute him. Then, out of the notable reverence with which she honored him, she bent her knees before him; but he raised her with his hand and chid her, because it much displeased him, as appeared; but she would not omit it.

[16] She both spoke wonderfully little and loved silence; her love of silence; her fear of God: and when she spoke, she did it very privately and with great consideration. Brother Odo de Roni, her confessor, once said to her: "Lady, it is altogether needful that you go out and relax your mind. It would not displease our Lord if you took some recreation." He asked her why she was so silent. She answered that, because she had sometimes spoken too much and had uttered idle words, it was fitting that she should expiate that by penance. She often discoursed with the director of her conscience about the goods of eternal life and about the sacred Scriptures. She had the utmost reverence toward God, and greatly feared him, as she once told me secretly: for when she had come out of her chapel from prayer and was leaning on her bed, she began to weigh the judgments of our Lord, and, as she affirmed to me, trembled so much that the covering and the straw were violently shaken beneath her.

[17] I once saw that, being displeased at certain things, she sharply rebuked certain persons before me, sister Agnes de Harcourt: [her humility in asking pardon for offenses: her patience in a long sickness, and her blessed death.] and she reproved them because they had not done certain good works which she had charged them with; and because it seemed to her that she had spoken too harshly, with wonderful humility she confessed her fault to them before me, and much accused herself, and repeated the words which she had said, heaping them one upon another. It profited me much to hear these things, and the memory of the matter was afterwards often useful to me. I think there is no sinner on earth, though he had committed many deadly sins, who, if he only humbled himself before God and repented as much as she repented when she had said anything in which she feared there might be some fault — though there was in truth no sin at all — and asked pardon of God with such effort, would not obtain abundant mercy. So much did she fear to offend our Lord, and so much did she guard herself and others from all occasions. At the end of her life, two years before her death, she was afflicted with most grievous sicknesses, which she most sweetly accepted from her beloved Spouse and bore with notable patience; and she ended her life ^h most piously in perfect virginity, with the utmost humility and charity.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Various miracles, wrought partly in her life, partly at the time of her death: the elevation of the body.

Various persons by her prayers When our most reverend and holy Lady and mother was living, one of the servants of the lord king Louis had a boy who fell into a grave sickness. This man with many tears, on bended knees and with joined hands, piously asked the holy Lady to pray to God for his boy, who was afflicted with so cruel a disease. She assented by a sign that she would intercede with prayers to our Lord. The father returned to his lodging, and found his child healed and free from that sickness. Then he went back to the Lady, and bent his knees before her, and said: "Kind Lady, do you remember what I asked of you for the love of God? Tell me whether you prayed God for him." She answered him, "Certainly." Then he said to her: "Kind Lady, I give thanks to God and to you that my child is healed, and I firmly believe that this was obtained by your prayers." She replied to him: "No, do not believe that it was obtained through me: I am not one for whose sake God does such things." But he still kept saying that he believed that this was obtained by her merits and prayers. After she perceived that he could not be induced not to believe that it was done through her, she forbade him to say anything about

that matter as long as she lived, and ordered him to promise this. The great lady queen Margaret related this to us, and said that the man who was the child's father had truly reported the matter to her.

[19] Moreover, when the Lady was living, sister Alice de Mucedent was greatly troubled with a tertian fever, and by the merits of the Blessed and she was piously affected toward the Lady, and persuaded herself that she would be healed if the Lady would pray for her. This sister Alice asked sister Agnes d'Anery, who was then abbess, to go to her. She could not bring herself to go, out of reverence. Sister Alice asked sister Agnes de Harcourt to do this, who went to her and set forth how great confidence the sick woman had in her. The holy Lady looked at sister Agnes de Harcourt and smiled very kindly; and forthwith the sick woman was wholly restored from her fever. I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, who proposed the matter, am a witness of this; and sister Agnes d'Anery also saw all these things.

[20] Sister Sarah de Houpelines was afflicted with a very dangerous disease, while yet living which is called the sty ^a. Her whole body was filled with swellings and spots, and thence it was believed she would die. The holy Lady our mother came to us, and looked upon her with compassion, and touched the sick woman with her blessed hands; and presently the sister was restored to entire health. Of this matter many sisters are witnesses, who beheld her sick and healed.

[21] Brother Denis d'Estampes, of the Order of Friars Minor, restored from various diseases who lived in this abbey to administer the Sacraments to the sisters, had long labored under a quartan fever. He was present with other Friars Minor when our holy Lady and mother was strengthened with extreme Unction, and that was the very day on which he suffered the access of the fever. He was restored from his fever by the merits of the holy Lady; nor did he ever afterwards suffer from a quartan fever, and he lived long thereafter. This he himself related to many sisters, and affirmed to be true; the convent also saw him sick and healed.

[22] Sister Ermemburg de Cerceles affirmed for a truth At the Blessed's death, voices that on that night on which the venerable Lady died, before Matins she heard a voice which said to her: In peace is his place made. Presently that sister Ermemburg went to the abbess and told her that she had so heard. It was found that the holy Lady had died or was on the borders of death at that same hour, and that the matter was true concerning her death. Likewise at that hour sister Joan de Louvetaines perceived such a voice.

[23] Sister Clemence d'Argas asserted for a truth that on that night on which our holy and venerable Lady and mother died, a little before Matins she opened the window and singing were heard: which was near her bed, to find out whether she heard anyone in the courtyard, because she knew that the Lady was near death; and that she looked at the air, which was very pleasant and very serene. She then heard a most sweet and very tuneful voice above the house in which she lay, and heard it so long that it truly seemed to her that she had never heard so long a breath in this mortal life. This sister Clemence put out her head through the iron bars of the window, that she might better perceive what it was; and then the bell was rung for Matins, and word was brought to us that the holy Lady our mother had died. Moreover sister Aveline de Hennaut at that hour heard measured voices very sweet and very tuneful, and raised herself to sit up in bed; but she does not know what it was. We firmly believe that it was the harmony of the holy angels, who accompanied her blessed soul to the heavenly glory: for she had faithfully honored God and served him in her life.

[24] her body after nine days of burial whole and comely After our holy Lady had been buried nine days, on the ninth day she was raised from the sepulcher, that she might be placed in another coffin more suitable than that in which she lay. She gave forth no evil odor, but seemed as if asleep. Her limbs were as comely, as smooth, and as soft and pliant as those of a tender infant; and her face wonderfully shone, so that all those things were wonderful to see. Moreover, when she was but slightly moved, her eyes opened, which were so beautiful, without pallor or change, that they did not seem to have been quenched by death. We stripped her of the garment in which she had been clothed for nine days under the earth: this was so beautiful and clean that it seemed never to have been put about a body. Since we desired to have this garment for relics, we clothed her in a new garment, and handled her entirely as we desired.

[25] is raised, with the utmost devotion of those present in touching the chest. These things the Religious of the convent saw, and the lady Margaret ^b countess of Flanders, the lady Mary ^c her daughter, who is a nun, the lady d'Audenarde ^d, the lady Huloys * a widow, and many other persons, citizens of Paris; and Master William de Guise, canon of Vernon, who was her chaplain, and two stonecutters who were there to place the coffin; and all those persons were within the enclosure. Outside at the window there were so many men who beheld her, both Religious and secular, that we cannot tell the number. Among them were brother Odo de Roni, master of theology, who was her confessor; brother Peter de Ville, brother Thomas du Plessis, brother Giles de Salli, and several other Friars Minor. There was there also the lady daughter of the count of Flanders, who was duchess of Brabant ^e, and several other ladies, knights, citizens, and common people. We opened the window of the church ^f, and lifted the chest, and showed them the holy Lady, like an infant in a cradle. They out of great devotion strove, as far as each could, to hand in their head-coverings, rings, brooches ^g, hats, girdles, and their purses ^h, that they might touch the holy body; and whatever had touched it was held for relics.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ Elsewhere Helois*.

CHAPTER IV.

Many miracles wrought after her death.

Benefits bestowed upon one in peril, Brother Denis, of whom we made mention above, affirmed with his own mouth that eight days after the death of this holy Lady and our mother, when he was covering the altars of our church in Lent, a panel of huge size, which was at the altar of the lord St. Peter, fell upon him. He was so weak that he could not raise himself by his own strength, and was under that weight for a long space of time. In that peril and distress he invoked the help of our holy Lady, and at once easily lifted himself from that huge burden without any wound, and performed his office vigorously as he had done before. This he himself related to many sisters, who are witnesses of the matter.

[27] upon one seized with fever, Brother Giles de Salli, who was long with brother Odo de Roni, had the head-covering which this holy Lady had upon her head in her last sickness, and in which she sweated the sweat of death. Being afflicted with a tertian fever, out of devotion to the Saint he placed that head-covering upon his own head, and at once began to sweat, and recovered. Sister Agnes d'Anery, sister Mary de Cambrai, and sister Mary de Tremblay learned that matter from the mouth of this brother Giles, and attest it.

[28] upon one with an injured finger, Sister Ada de Rains affirmed for a truth that one of the fingers of her hand had been so bitten by a sow that that finger was without a nail for twenty years and more. When our reverend and holy Lady and mother was buried, this sister Ada took of the earth lying about the body, and bound that earth upon that finger, and left it for nine days; and on the ninth day she unbound it. The finger was so entirely healed that it seemed never to have been afflicted with any harm; and the nail, which it before lacked, she had all her life fair, whole, and sound. The convent saw the finger afflicted and healed.

[29] upon one afflicted with headache and fear, Sister Ermesende de Paris on a certain occasion remained alone in the church ^a, without leave, while the convent was supping, when our venerable Lady and mother had lately died. There seized her a most violent pain of the head, which she felt

joined with excessive burning; and in that pain she was affected with great fear, because she had remained without leave. She was thinking of going to the refectory with the sisters, when there was poured into her heart a great desire, as if some creature had spoken with her heart and said to her: "Do not endure it ^b, but go to your holy Lady and implore her help." She betook herself thither, cast herself beneath the seat ^c which was over the body, and touched with her head and her cheek the earth laid upon the body. Then she prayed to her with great diligence, with vehement effort, and with many tears, and at last there fell asleep. When she rose, she found herself wholly healed. I, sister Agnes de Harcourt, who then discharged the office of abbess, am a witness of this matter: for this sister Ermesende came to me at once as if wholly terrified, and said that she had almost lost her senses from the pain of the head which she had suffered, and from the fear with which she had been terrified, had not God and the Lady healed her. Sister Mathilda d'Escosse, sister Mary de Cambrai, and several others confirm this by their testimony.

[30] Another of our sisters was so violently deprived of her senses, upon one frenzied, and became so frenzied, that, when she could escape from those who watched her, she climbed upon benches and chests, and broke the walls to take spiders, and, when she could catch them, she ate them; she thrust herself also under the tables, and sought spiders and hatched insects ^d, and wherever she could find them, she ate them, and devoured many other foul things which it is not pleasant to name, because of the enormous madness in which she was. Her, thus vexed with this evil, the venerable Lady our mother, who was then living, visited with great humility and the utmost affection of compassion; and that sickness of this sister lasted three months and a half after the death of our holy Lady. On a certain night she was brought to the tomb of the Saint, where she watched the whole night, and with her the sisters, who, persevering in prayers, prayed the Lady for her that she would deign to free her from this disease. As soon as the night was departing, her mind returned to her; and, when day dawned, she was as sound in mind as she had ever been; nor did that evil ever afterwards return. The convent saw this thing and is witness of it.

[31] Sister Juliana affirmed for a truth that she had been affected with a violent burning of fever, again upon one sick of a fever, and that in that heat she burned with a great desire to drink piously from the cup out of which our holy Lady drank in her life. Presently, when she had drunk from it, she felt herself refreshed from the burning of the fever, and quickly enough recovered entirely; and for more than ten years she did not experience a fever.

[32] This same sister Juliana had a book which she greatly valued out of piety, who also, having invoked the Blessed, found a lost book. because it had belonged to our holy Lady. This book was lost through negligence, which grieved her exceedingly. She went to her tomb, and with many tears prayed her much to restore it to her: for it was the dearer because it had been hers. Our kind and holy Mother appeared to her as she slept, and said that the book was lost; she should ask it of the lord king, St. Louis, her brother. When the sister awoke, she poured forth prayers to the Saint, and promised them both that with the abbess's leave she would offer to the Saint a waxen book. Then, as soon as they began to seek the book, it was found: whereas before it could not be found for several days, though it had been much sought.

[33] Sister Ermengard de Chartres labored under a very violent tertian fever. Other benefits bestowed Hence she wished out of devotion to offer to the Lady a candle of her own height, and appealed to her with prayers. She was most completely restored from her fever, so that she never afterwards labored under it. She went to the sepulcher, and offered her candle as soon as she could.

The great lady queen Margaret, mother of the king of France, ordered the lord Philip, the king's son, who was vexed with a fever, to be brought, hoping that he would be healed. She wished him to rest near the tomb of our holy Lady, his venerable great-aunt ^e. He was healed, as he himself afterwards related before several sisters, that he had been healed by her, and said that he well remembered it.

Sister Margaret de Guise had a mote in one eye, and was in such distress that she could not open the eye. She prayed the Lady to succor her, and laid upon her eye something of the venerable Saint's garments; and forthwith she was healed.

[34] Sister Mary de Cambrai was so deprived of hearing partly upon those praying at the sepulcher, that she perceived almost nothing with her ears, and did not know how to answer what was said to her; so that for this cause she not seldom wept abundantly and was much saddened. Piety impelled her to persist in prayers before our holy Lady, and she prayed at her sepulcher for nine days. She grew better day by day, and on the ninth day was perfectly restored.

Sister Elizabeth de Crécy truly said that she had labored under a most grievous malady and had been exposed to the peril of death by a swelling which was about her sides, pressing so violently that she could not raise herself. Whatever remedy was applied could not relieve her. The sisters brought her a cushion which had been over the Lady's sepulcher for nine days. As soon as she laid it upon her breast, she began to be better, and was restored from the disease. Sister Agnes de Harcourt, sister Agnes d'Anery, sister Margaret de Guise, and several other sisters remember this matter very well. At another time this same sister Elizabeth was vexed with an excessive pain of the throat, and sister Ada de Rains, then living, whose finger the Lady had healed, said to her: "Go to the Lady's sepulcher, and take some of the earth which is upon the tomb, and lay it upon your throat, and you will be wholly healed." This sister Elizabeth affirmed for a truth that she was entirely healed in the same hour in which she laid some of that earth upon her throat.

[35] partly upon those piously using the things left by the Blessed, Sister Ermemburg de Cerceles truly asserted that she had been most grievously sick, and that she had such a pain beneath the breast that she could not draw breath. She conceived confidence in our holy and blessed Lady and mother, and prayed her, and applied to the affected place something which had belonged to the holy Lady. Straightway she was refreshed and healed. Many sisters saw this and bear witness.

Sister Alice de Mucedent had her mouth twisted, and likewise her eye, her face, and her nose, as happens from palsy: her speech was so impeded that it could scarcely be understood. In such a state she was for three weeks, or one month. No medicine which was applied to her could avail anything. Then piety suggested to her that she should take those things which she had of the objects that had belonged to our holy Lady and mother, and wear them hung about her neck, and invoke her and visit her sepulcher. She went thither for eight days to pray, and on the eighth day offered a candle ^f of the thickness of her head and the length of her face. Immediately after these things she was wholly healed; nor did she ever afterwards fall sick, as is manifestly plain. Sister Agnes d'Anery, who watched over her, gives testimony of this matter, and many other sisters, who saw her restored to entire health.

[36] partly upon those imploring her aid Sister Mary de Tremblay affirmed for a truth that for the sake of relaxing her mind she had gone to the fishpond which is in our house, and had sat down upon the squared stones which are above the fishpond. She stayed there a good while to take the air, because she was much wearied with the duties she had had to discharge. While she was there, the stone on which she sat broke asunder beneath her, and, falling into the fishpond, broke the ice, and together with it the sister fell into the fishpond, and was plunged in above her girdle. She was sinking to the bottom, when the memory of our holy Lady came upon her, whom she invoked with great affection of soul, saying: "Kind Lady, so save me, as I am truly your daughter." Presently our Lord delivered her in a wonderful manner, since she was in present peril of death; and she came out of the water at once easily. She rightly affirmed that she had never been affected with such distress and such terror of death, and that she had then conceived in her mind a purpose of living better. Many sisters saw the disturbance in which she was, after she had escaped that grave peril. This she herself related to several sisters, and the stone was found broken, as she had said.

[37] This same sister Mary de Tremblay kept watch over sister Desiderata, who was sick, in peril. and who had been committed to her care. The sick woman told her to go and draw water for her from the spring of the fishpond. Sister Mary answered her that she was affected with too great fear and too great dread, because it was night, and the time of the first sleep; nevertheless, being altogether ready to fulfill the sick woman's will, she took a candle and a cup, and betook herself thither. As she was going there, the enemy met her in the shape of a green dog, which had eyes red and sparkling, and so great and wide that they seemed the eyes of a cow. So great a terror seized her that her whole body seemed to be shaken, and her hairs to be drawn upward. He met her face continually, and hindered her from being able to go forward, so that she could never get as far as the water, but had to return. On her return she signed herself with the cross, and thrust him back with her arm, and said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit": then he departed from her, so that she did not know whither he went. She went round about, that she might come to the spring of the washing-place; and while she was there at the spring, he set himself above it and the vault ^g, and leaped upon her shoulders, and would have strangled her. When she was returning thence to go away, she signed herself with the cross, and said: "O kind Lady, defend me from this devil, as I am your daughter, and I promise God, the blessed Virgin, and you, that I will confess the sins of my whole life, and will amend my life." And when she would have entered the house where the sick woman was, she fell as if wholly fainting in soul, nor had she strength to shut the door: the cup also which she held in her hand fell and was broken. The sick woman, who could not move herself, well enough perceived the cries which sister Mary uttered, and said to her: "Sign yourself, sign yourself." Sister Desiderata would be a witness of this matter, if she were living. Sister Joan de Louvetaines, who ministered to the sick woman long enough, and sister Juliana bear witness that sister Desiderata often related it to them in her lifetime.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Other miracles wrought after her death.

A woman sick of a grave disease, after previous apparitions, Sister Joan de Louvetaines affirmed for a truth that, in the grave sickness under which she labored for three months, she had made vows to the holy Lady our mother, and had asked her from her heart that she would pray the Lord for her healing, addressing her thus: "My kind Lady, my sweet mother, I beseech you, give me health: for I firmly believe that your merits are greater than my need." Thus she prayed, bathed in many tears, and often. It happened that on a certain night she labored most grievously, so that it seemed to her that she could bear it no longer. She called sister Mathilda d'Escosse, who served her, and said to her: "Sign me with the cross, and commend me to the blessed Lady our mother": and presently she fell asleep. While sleeping, she seemed to behold the Lady, and to strive on bended knees before her, and to pour forth prayers to her with joined hands, as before, and the Lady seemed to answer her: "Go to my brother." Then she thought she saw many men as pilgrims coming to the tomb of the lord king, and she persuaded herself that she could not go thither. For this cause she thus invoked the king: "Lord king, I implore your mercy, heal me." She imagined also that she was carried to the tomb of the lord king, and that the Lady was there present: and the king seemed to hold his hand raised above the tomb, and the Lady to say to him: "Lord king, sign or heal this sister." He, as it appeared, signed her, and said: "You shall be healed within eight days." As soon as she awoke, she related this to sister Mathilda, who watched over her, and said to her: "I am healed." And it is true that she was healed forthwith. The convent saw her sick, and health restored to her.

[39] twice restored: This same sister Joan de Louvetaines labored under a most grievous disease, which lasted altogether three years, and she had little hope of ever recovering her health because of the force of the malady. She made vows to the holy Lady our mother, and promised that she would fast for three weeks content with bread and water alone. After she had fasted in that manner, she thus addressed our holy Lady: "O my kind Lady, I have now fasted for three weeks, sustaining life on bread and water, which has cost me great discomfort, and I am not yet relieved." She was seized with sleep, and imagined that she was carried upon the Lady's tomb, and that the Lady was sitting upon the tomb; whence the sick woman was a little terrified, and pondered and said to herself: "This is she whose help you implore." The sister imagined also that the Lady came to meet her, and that she said to the Lady: "Lady, I pray you to be my help with our Lord": and that the Lady held her hand and said to her: "Go to my brother." Then in her imagination she saw a train of suppliant kings, who were splendidly adorned and all crowned, at the end of which train was the lord St. Louis. The Lady took hold of the sister, and placed her before him, and told him to sign her. The lord king signed the sister, and said to her: "You shall be wholly healed." And certainly the sister was entirely healed, as afterwards appeared, when all beheld her to be sound: nor did any trace of the disease appear in her thereafter.

[40] It befell sister Sarah de Houpelines that a very fierce dog of our house, another delivered from a fierce dog by invoking the Blessed: which had done many injuries to the sisters, escaped and leaped at her face. She put her hand between, and the dog seized her hand, and hurt her hand and arm with nine wounds. Then it attacked her thigh near the knee, and inflicted many and huge gashes. Many sisters were present who tried to help her; but they could not remove the dog from her. Then sister Sarah implored our Lord, and the blessed Virgin, and our holy mother, the lady Elizabeth, to whom she said thus: "My kind Mother, will you suffer me to be devoured by dogs?" And presently the dog went away of its own accord and left her: and she remained most grievously hurt. Afterwards the sister's thigh swelled, and the evil grew so violently that it was believed she would die of it. Then with leave she remained alone at the Lady's sepulcher, as long as the convent was eating, and prayed God, and the blessed Virgin, and the holy Lady our mother, that she would afford her help: and straightway, before the convent had eaten, she felt herself relieved of that huge evil of swelling; and she was restored to entire health. Sister Elizabeth de Tremblay, who ministered to her, saw it, and several other sisters; and we see that she is wholly healed.

[41] Several sisters have often seen a great brightness about the tomb of the holy Lady our mother about the time of Matins, a light seen about the sepulcher: other benefits and other pious things which it would be long to relate.

The breviary of sister Agnes de Paris fell open into water, and was so soaked within and without that it seemed it would never be fit for its characters to be read. It was piously laid upon the tomb of our holy Lady, and left there about three hours. It was restored to its former brightness, and is fair and legible, as it was before it was plunged in the water.

This same sister Agnes was so ill affected in the passage of her throat that she was violently frightened. Presently, when she had applied to the evil something of those things which had touched the holy body of the Lady, she cast up through her mouth as it were a marsh ^a, and was entirely healed.

We could relate in a few words the spiritual goods and consolations which she has bestowed upon persons who have piously implored her aid. For whatever tribulation and sadness she is invoked, she helps and consoles the one who prays with a sincere heart.

[42] A woman of Paris, whose name was Agnes la Coffrière, upon various persons, had an infant most grievously sick, whose death was expected without hope of recovery. She loved him vehemently, for she had no other infants: and she with other persons had watched by the infant, because the end of life seemed at hand. She was bidden to take rest. She fell asleep. While sleeping she seemed to hear a voice saying to her: "Agnes, vow your infant to the lady Elizabeth near Saint-Cloud, and offer her the cup which your father gave you, and the infant will be healed." The next day she made a pilgrimage to our house and offered the cup; and the infant was healed.

A woman of Suresnes ^b, Agnes by name, lost her sight through the force of disease. She had herself brought to our abbey, and made vows to our holy Lady, to whom she promised two eyes of wax. As soon as she had uttered the vow and finished her prayer in the monastery, she saw, and recovered her sight entire that same day.

[43] and upon pilgrims, A girl who lived two leagues from our church was in peril of losing her virginity: and by night, before she was delivered over, our holy Lady appeared to her as she slept, and said to her: "Arise, go to my abbey which is near Saint-Cloud, and you shall be delivered." The girl rose most swiftly; and though she did not know in what quarter the abbey was, she ran straight on the road, and came so wet with sweat and wearied with running that she could scarcely breathe: and out of a great desire to save herself she left her upper garment in the wood ^c, that she might run the more swiftly, and that garment was found, as it pleased the Lord. This girl thereafter persevered in virginity, and led a good and honorable life, as those persons testify with whom she lived.

[44] in divers necessities Two men came from Tournai ^d to our abbey, and brought as an offering two candles of their own height, and asked that the tomb of our holy Lady might be shown them. They kept saying that they had been in prison, and in peril of losing their life by the noose, when a certain voice said to them: "Make vows to the lady Elizabeth near Saint-Cloud, and you shall be delivered." Further, because they had come and asked with great zeal that they might be allowed to see the tomb of the blessed Lady, it was answered them that it was not the custom to open the window often. Their candles were lighted about the tomb, and they went away free ^e.

[45] conferred by the Blessed's intercession. The watchman ^f of our house was cleaning the church, and was near the vaulted roof in a basket drawn up by ropes with a machine: the rope broke, and he fell upon the benches of the church and was most grievously injured. From the fall he had a wound in the head; and it was a wonder that his whole brain was not scattered; and it was feared that he would die of it, and the friars had to come in great haste to hear his confession. The sisters were affected with great compassion for him, and made vows for him to the holy Lady our mother; and within a short time he was perfectly healed, nor did any hurt remain to him from the wound.

[46] When the lady queen was dwelling in our house, her servant, who was charged with distributing her alms, fell sick and fell into a violent frenzy. Kind men had pity on him, and made vows for him to the holy Lady our mother, and offered her a candle of the same length as the sick man. Presently the sick man was brought back to his mind, and restored from his frenzy, and made his confession and prepared himself. A friar of our house saw this, and many others.

Philip, the procurator of our abbey, labored under a tertian fever so violent that there was fear lest he should be deprived of his mind. He could not sweat, whatever remedy was applied: as soon as he was laid upon the cushion which the holy Lady our mother had had placed beneath her head, he began at once to sweat, and recovered entire health.

The son Richard, when earth taken from about the sepulcher of the holy Lady had been laid upon him, was delivered from the tertian fever under which he had labored for a long space [g].

ANNOTATIONS.

Rouillard

in the Life written by him passed over certain of the miracles just related; certain others he narrated in a manner different from that in which they were here narrated; and finally from page 446 he added a few, as though drawn from the manuscript Life of Agnes. Receive these rendered into Latin, reader:

The lady Mary of Saint-Denis had for nearly fourteen years labored under a catarrh in the head, so that she could not raise herself, and for the greater part of the time lay in bed. Her sight moreover was darkened, so that she could scarcely see or recognize persons. She ordered herself to be led to Longchamp, when the holy Mother was translated from one sepulcher to another: then, after she had commended herself to her with great affection, her catarrh was dried up, her eyes were enlightened, and all who stood by praised God with her for so happy an event.

A young woman named Petronilla, daughter of the lord Anselm of Pontoise, was grievously sick of a fever, and labored besides with childbirth, although this had not been brought to its term, because the force of the malady had anticipated the time. She asked the Saint to be willing to succor her and her fruit. Then she asked for some of the water with which the holy body had been washed; for she had not long been buried. She drank of it, and presently was healed and delivered of her infant, who lived and was washed in the saving waters of baptism. The wife of this Petronilla's brother, who had long been barren, conceived an infant by the aid of the Saint's prayers.

Another woman of Paris, who had long labored in childbirth, when she had caused some of the earth gathered about the Saint's sepulcher to be laid upon her body, brought forth with as much joy as her labor of childbirth had been great and difficult and wearisome.

The lady Aloysia du Port de Nully was violently afflicted with a pleuritic fever, so that she was as it were suffocated, without power of breathing or drawing breath. As soon as vows were made for her to the holy Mother, and her cushion was given her to touch, she was entirely delivered of her malady.

Three other persons were suddenly restored to health by the mere invocation of the Saint's name: five were preserved from blindness which seemed to threaten them; and six were entirely delivered from fevers.