Hadeloga

ON S. HADELOGA, VIRGIN, AT KITZINGEN IN FRANCONIA.

EIGHTH CENTURY.

S. Hadeloga, Virgin, at Kitzingen in Franconia.

By I. B.

§ I The rise and fall of the cenobium of Kitzingen.

[1] Kitzingen is a town of Franconia, under the dominion of the Margrave of Ansbach, or Onolzbach, of the house of Brandenburg; as Sebastian Schroter in the Historical Description of the World, the town of Kitzingen Pierre d'Avity in the General Description of Europe, and others testify. There was formerly a noble cenobium of Virgin nuns of the Benedictine institute: whose origin and site Kaspar Bruschius sets out thus in the Chronology of the monasteries of Germany: That of Kitzingen, of nuns, once a cenobium of noble Virgins, born only of illustrious station, that is, of Counts, Barons and noble parents, formerly a most powerful cenobium of the Order of St. Benedict, situated within the walls of the distinguished city of the same name among the East Franks, on the river Main, was founded, not by S. Boniface, or Wynfrith, first Archbishop of Mainz, but at his instance and prayers, in the year of the Lord 745, by the Lady Adelheid, or (as Trithemius calls her) Adeloga, daughter of Pepin, King of the Franks, namely of him who in the space of 32 years built the stone bridge, still very firm today, by which one goes from Kitzingen to Etwashausen, a suburb situated opposite the city on the other bank of the Main. given to the Bishop of Würzburg: That cenobium is of the diocese of Würzburg, made subject to Eberhard, Bishop of that place, by the Emperor Henry the Lame, in the year of the Lord 1007. In that royal diploma this cenobium is called the Abbey named Kitzingen, situated in the district of Gotsfeld: which is evidence that even at that time there was no city there, but only a district and estate; which we have learned from trustworthy inhabitants of the city was so named from Kiczius, a certain royal shepherd, whence was it named? who assert that the Fishermen's street was the beginning of the city or estate, and older even than the monastery itself: whence all the little houses of that street have always been, and are to this day, subject to tax and tribute to the nuns of the place.

[2] So far Bruschius. We cannot here, however, withdraw our credit from him, which he otherwise does not greatly deserve, being himself a deserter of the Catholic faith, since the old monuments of that cenobium are not available to us. Yet it must be admitted that it was built before the year of Christ 745, when was it built? if what is related in the Life of S. Hadeloga herself is true, that it was built before the death of Charles Martel, her father, which occurred in the year 741, and endowed with ample possessions by Charles himself. Although under Duke Carloman, or King Pepin, the sons of Charles and the brothers of Hadeloga, it may have been conformed to holiness by S. Boniface with some excellent statutes and steady discipline, a mistress of manners perhaps also being brought in from elsewhere, as we shall presently say. That Bruschius makes Hadeloga the daughter of Pepin, whether the King surnamed the Short, or Pepin of Herstal, the Major Domus, will presently be refuted, when we show that she was born of Charles Martel. Nor yet do we well perceive how the latter could have spent 32 years on the construction of the bridge, having administered the supreme prefecture of the Gauls from the year 714 to 741, 27 years in all. Nor did his father Pepin hold power for more years. Unless someone should show, what is not far from likelihood, famous for its ancient bridge, that they possessed some ample property in that tract, and that therefore one or the other of them began that substructure at his own private expense or that of his clients before he took up the helm of the State: or that the bridge which he had contracted to be made was at last completed after thirty-two years, he himself being already dead, as such public works, whose completion is not hastened by the presence of their masters, are wont to be drawn out at length. For otherwise it does not seem probable that so great a space of time was necessary for a structure of that kind. As for Bruschius' conjecture that Kitzingen was not a city in the age of S. Henry the Emperor, let it be so indeed; but it does not follow from the fact that the cenobium is said to have been situated in a pagus: for pagus does not always signify some village, or several houses built in the country, not enclosed round about by any common rampart and stockade; but a more widely spread multitude of men living by the same customs and institutions. The Bishop to whom Bruschius says the possession of Kitzingen was given by the Emperor was not Eberardus (if the catalogue of the Bishops of Würzburg which the same man published is not faulty), but Henry, surnamed Hezelinus; by what argument he affirmed him to be the brother of S. Heribert, Bishop of Cologne, we shall discuss elsewhere. It is less displeasing that the place is said to have taken its name from Kiczius, a royal shepherd, although one might wish for a more suitable author than the unskilled common people, especially of a thing so ancient and scarcely attested elsewhere. Otherwise, we reported on the 30th of January, in the Life of S. Thiathildis the Virgin, a similar name of the cenobium of Freckenhorst, derived from Fricco, a swineherd. He who is Kiczius to Bruschius is Kuccingus to the writer of the Life of S. Hadeloga.

[3] Kitzingen, moreover, flourished with the fame of virtue and holiness: so that illustrious girls were sent there for that reason, to be instructed in piety and good morals. and famous for its excellent education of girls, Thus it is said of S. Hedwig in her Life on the 15th of October: For in her girlhood she learned sacred letters in the cloister of Lusingum; in the study of which she spent her time usefully in youth, and afterwards drew excellently, in the understanding of them, the grace of inward consolation and devotion. For Lusingum, among them S. Hedwig, Surius wrote Lutzingensi. But many years ago our Andreas Stredonius advised us in a letter given at Neisse, a city of Silesia, that it should be read Kitzingensi, or Kitzingo, in German Kitzingen or Kutzingen. And the manuscript of the Charterhouse of Lier has in the cloister of Kiczingum: and it is clear from what is presently said of the sister of the same S. Hedwig (Mechthild, I think): and her sister, afterwards Abbess: The third was Abbess of the nuns of the Order of St. Benedict in Luzingum, the aforesaid monastery of Franconia. The same codex of Lier: Kiczingum. Hieronymus Dungersheim of Ochsenfurt expressed it more clearly, on the 10th of February, in the Encomium of S. Scholastica, chapter 5, number 28: In the same monastery of Kitzingen too, after a lapse of time, Blessed Hedwig was taught letters; and S. Elisabeth, widow of Blessed Louis, Landgrave of the Thuringians, lived there for a time with her maternal aunt, the Abbess there, as is expressed in the histories of those Saints. In the Life of S. Elisabeth on the 19th of November, Theodoric of Thuringia writes these things, book 5, chapter 1, in the edition of Heinrich Canisius: After this a noble and religious woman, the Abbess of Kitzingen, maternal aunt of Blessed Elisabeth according to the flesh, pitying the excessive want of her poverty, brought her honorably and conveyed her to the Lord Bishop of Bamberg. He, the maternal uncle of the handmaid of God, receiving her kindly and reverently, treated her with all honor and charitably. Which Caesarius expressed in the Life of the same Saint: The Abbess of Kitzingen of the diocese of Würzburg, maternal aunt of Blessed Elisabeth, compassionating her miseries and want, led her to her maternal uncle, the Bishop of Bamberg, who kept her quite honorably.

[4] These were formerly the glories of holiness and most praiseworthy discipline at Kitzingen. But after it was pawned to the Margrave of Ansbach by some Bishop of Wurzburg, pawned to the Margrave of Ansbach, it could never be recovered, even though subsequent Bishops repeatedly offered the sum of money for which the city together with the monastery had been pledged, as Petrus Avitius testifies. Hence the ruin and decay of the most ancient monastery; which, through the Lutheranism of the Margrave of Ansbach, has now been transferred to other uses or abuses, dissipated, as our Nicolaus Serarius writes in Note 14 on the Life of S. Boniface, in his work on Mainz affairs, book 3. When this happened, Bruschius indicates in his cited Chronology of monasteries: The last governess, he says, of this monastery died in the year 1544. Afterward the entire monastery was occupied by the Margraves of Brandenburg and committed to the care of secular prefects.

§ II. S. Hadeloga is not the same as S. Thecla.

[5] Now we must inquire who this Hadeloga was, the first founder or inhabitant of the Kitzingen monastery, and from what father she was born. Hadeloga is variously named. She is commonly called Hadeloga by Trithemius and others, and according to Serarius in the note already cited, Hadelonga (as also in the manuscript Life) and Hadelloga; by Bruschius Adeloga and Adelheidis; by Dungersheim in the Encomium of S. Scholastica Adaloia; by Lazius Adalagia; in a manuscript Calendar Haldelogoda. Some also think that she was called Thecla. So Serarius, cited above, following Trithemius in the Compendium of the Annals, who writes thus: S. Boniface also built several cenobia of nuns: among which that monastery stands out in the town of Kitzingen beside the Main, of the diocese of Würzburg, S. Thecla the Virgin, over which he set a holy Virgin named Hadeloga, whom he named Thecla, a native of England. So too Hermann Greven, in the Additions to Usuard on this day: Of Hadeloga the Virgin, kinswoman of S. Boniface the Bishop.

[8] That this Thecla was moreover distinct from Hadeloga, the same Trithemius who had earlier written that they were one recognized in book 3 on the illustrious men of the Order of S. Benedict, chapter 172, writing thus of Thecla: Thecla, a nun, of the English nation, whom S. Boniface, on account of the scarcity of reapers of the spiritual wheat, having summoned from Britain into Alemannia, distinct from S. Hadeloga: appointed Abbess beside the Main in the place called Eizzingen, that she might shine there like a lamp in a dark place, and provoke others by her example to imitation of the monastic life. For down to these times few monasteries, especially of Virgins, were held in Alemannia. And the holy woman, gathering many souls to Christ in the same place, at length rested in peace. She flourished in the year of the Lord 730. Of Hadeloga, however, in chapter 280 of the same book, he has this: Hadeloga, nun and Abbess of the monastery of Rinckingen, a Virgin of holy and innocent life, and singularly distinguished for the virtue of humility, showed by frequent and most illustrious tokens how great is her merit with God. Her feast is kept on the fourth day before the Nones of February.

[9] Of Thecla, then, we shall treat on the 15th of October. Here it can only be asked how she is said by Othlo, an old writer, and by others, to have presided over the cenobium of Kitzingen, whose parent and first superior was Hadeloga. Hadeloga came to that place how was each called Abbess of Kitzingen? to avoid the nets of marriage set for her: there, by a certain impulse of her own piety, and under the guidance of a religious Priest, far from the crowds and din of men, and above all from the allurements of the Court, she began to lead a holy life. Others soon followed her example, as virtue always betrays itself by its own light, at first her handmaids perhaps, then others from that tract. When Boniface came there, an outstanding master of the religious life, he ordered the whole institute of that household and directed everything to the Rule of S. Benedict, which flourished in the English cenobia of nuns. What if it was for that very reason that he set Thecla over that cenobium, Hadeloga yielding of her own accord? For her indeed, who was born of such birth and professed that she wished to imitate the humility of Christ, it was far more honorable to obey another, especially one who was more skilled in religious institutions. Thus, no doubt, Ethelburga, of whom we treated a little before, although the cenobium of Barking had been built for her by her brother, nevertheless either received S. Hildelitha as mistress by her brother's will or adopted her of her own accord. Among posterity, however, because Hadeloga herself had begun that monastery and endowed it with her own and her father's means, she was held to be the first Abbess, since she had truly been its mother and founder. And perhaps she herself ruled it to the end of her life, Thecla, who lived at Ochsenfurt not far from Kitzingen, coming there from time to time to form her with pious discourses and to review the order and discipline of the monastery, at Hadeloga's own request and with Boniface's approval. Or at length, after Hadeloga had died, Thecla was set over her cenobium, the charge at Ochsenfurt being given to another. The second Abbess of Kitzingen is called Heilga in Bruschius; if she was the same Thecla, she must have been double-named, as Lioba was too, or else this name was given her from her holiness; for Heyligh in German signifies Holy.

§ III The parents, Life and feast of S. Hadeloga.

[10] Now let us seek the father of Hadeloga. Bruschius writes thus: The Lady Adeloga, or Adelheidis, daughter of Pepin, King of the Franks, was the foundress and first Abbess of her cenobium, born and brought up on the Cygnaean mount, S. Hadeloga not daughter of Pepin of Herstal, a renowned castle, formerly the seat and residence of King Pepin, which is only one mile distant from Kitzingen. This Cygnaean mount the same Bruschius interprets as Schwanberg. We think that by Pepin Bruschius means not the father of Charles the Great, who was truly King, but Pepin of Herstal, or the Fat, who, being Major Domus, ruled the whole kingdom of the Franks and the Kings themselves, and on that account is often called King in the Lives of the Saints, as is his son Charles Martel too.

[11] The Writer of the Life of S. Hadeloga gives Pepin this title of King, and indicates her parents: For she was, he says, the daughter

[7] If the Lives of the rest were extant, as those of Walburga and Lioba are, it would be possible to draw greater light from them. In the Life of S. Lioba, which we shall give on the 28th of September, Rudolf, monk of Fulda, disciple of Rabanus, testifies that the few things he relates came to his knowledge from venerable men who, having learned them from the faithful report of four of her disciples, namely Agatha and Tecla, Nana and Eolioba, each according to the capacity of his own mind, as they had been handed down to him, endeavored to commit them to writing and to leave them as an example to posterity. But whether there were not two Theclas, one the elder, who is recorded as summoned from England together with Lioba, and seems to have been her equal, if not her superior, for she is named before her; the other the younger, a disciple of S. Lioba; may rightly be doubted. equal of S. Lioba, or older, Certainly Lioba, when she came into Germany, seems to have been more advanced in virtue than in age. For the cenobium of Wimborne was founded by Ina, the most holy King, of whom we shall treat on the 6th of February, for the sake of SS. Cuthburga and Cyneburga his sisters, as some will have it, in the year of Christ 713, as others, 720. Let us grant even that it was done somewhat earlier, since Ina held the kingdom, which he laid down of his own accord in the year 726, for 37 years. Now over the cenobium of Wimborne, after some Abbesses and spiritual Mothers, a religious Virgin named Tetta was set, to whom her mother handed over Trhutgeba, surnamed Lioba, a grown Virgin, to be imbued with divine studies, as is said in the Life of Lioba. But perhaps that Thecla, the helper of S. Boniface, was one of those Virgins who with S. Cuthburga, as we shall say on the 31st of August at her Life, migrated from the cenobium of Barking to Wimborne. earlier transferred from Barking to Wimborne, For S. Cuthburga was formed in the monastic disciplines at Barking (a cenobium which S. Erkenwald, Bishop of London, had built below London on the Thames for his sister S. Ethelburga) under S. Hildelitha, the Mistress of the same Ethelburga: then, when King Ina had built a cenobium for her in Dorset on the river Stour, in a place thought once to have been called Vindogladia, now commonly Winburri and Winburnminster, she migrated there with other Virgins. Someone might conjecture that Thecla was of their number, because at Barking there was a nun Thecla of especial name, and a little after some Thecla, conspicuous for holiness and for knowledge of religious institution, was sent from the cenobium of Wimborne into Germany. S. Aldhelm, who administered the Church of Sherborne from the year 704 to 709, lists Thecla of Barking with others to whom he dedicated his book on the praises of virginity. He writes thus: To the most reverend Virgins of Christ, [to whom and to other nuns of Barking the book on virginity was dedicated by S. Aldhelm;] to be venerated with every affection of devoted sisterhood, and to be celebrated not only for the praise of bodily chastity, which belongs to many, but to be glorified also for the grace of spiritual purity, which belongs to few; to Hyldilitha, Mistress of the regular discipline and of the monastic life; and at the same time to Justina and Cuthburga, joined to me by the bonds of kinship of the same tribe, to Altgida, and Scholastica, Hidburga, and Berngida, Eulalia and Tecla, adorning the Church harmoniously with the report of holiness, Aldhelm, the sluggish worshipper of the Cross of Christ and the suppliant home-born servant of the Church, wishes the desirable salvation of perpetual prosperity. That these were nuns of Barking is clear from William of Malmesbury, book 1 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 2. There was added zeal for sacred celibacy, and the reading of Aldhelm's books on virginity, dedicated indeed to the name of the nuns of Barking, but to be of avail to all who aspire to the same profession.

[6] But Thecla was distinct from Hadeloga. Othlo mentions her in chapter 30 of the Life of S. Boniface in these words: The holy Bishop Boniface, then, preaching and baptizing in the regions of the Thuringians and the Hessians, who was summoned from England by S. Boniface perceived that the harvest there was indeed great, but the laborers few for instructing the abundant multitude of believers. Wherefore, sending into his own province and fatherland, he caused many to come from there, women as well as religious men, imbued with various knowledge, and divided the burden of his labor among them. Among these the chief men were Burchard and Lull, Willibald and Wunnibald his brother, Witta and Gregory; and the religious women were the maternal aunt of S. Lull, named Chunihilt, and her daughter Berathgit, with other religious women: Chunidrut and Thecla, Lioba and Walpurgis, sister of Willibald and Wunibald. But Chunihilt and her daughter Berathgit, very learned in liberal knowledge, were appointed Mistresses in the region of the Thuringians. Chunitrud was destined for Bavaria, to scatter the seeds of the Divine word there. Thecla he placed by the river Main, in the places called Kihhingen and Ochsnofrutt. Lioba too he appointed at Biscofesheim, to preside there over a multitude of Virgins.

of Charles, the son of King Pippin, father of S. Gertrudis the Virgin; and his mother was called Kunehildis. When you hear of Gertrudis, the daughter of Pippin, do not suspect the Nivelles Gertrudis, born of Pippin of Landen and Iduberga or Itta. (He too is sometimes called King; whose daughter S. Gertrudis, There was another Gertrudis, the daughter of Pippin of Herstal, who with the Presbyter Adalongus, lest she be given in marriage against her will by her father, fled into Franconia, where the traces of her monastery on a hill near Neustadt are still visible. Josephus Geldolphus Ryckelius and a certain anonymous writer, not very ancient, of the Life of the Nivelles Gertrudis, would have this to be the same as the daughter of Pippin of Landen: which we shall show on the seventeenth of March can in no way be said, since the latter was only fourteen years old when Pippin died in the year 646. How then can it seem credible another from the one of Nivelles, that she had already gone away to so distant a region, still bristling with idolatry, as is evident from the Life of S. Kilian, who was crowned with martyrdom forty years after that Pippin's death? Moreover, the relics of the same S. Kilian and his companions were revealed to the Presbyter Adalongus in the time of S. Boniface: how advanced in age must he have been, if he had come to Franconia about the year of Christ 644, already a Presbyter and by no means very young, appointed by a wise woman as guardian of her young daughter? And how is he believed, in the time of Boniface, not to have known Kilian, whom he could have seen, and indeed must have seen, preaching the Gospel? But surely he most truly did not know him, because he had come into those parts many years after his death. Thus of that second Gertrudis the author of the Life of S. Kilian, which we shall give on the 8th of July, writes: lest she be forced to marry, The venerable Virgin Gertrudis, daughter of Pippin, King of the Franks, since she would not take the husband with whom her father wished to join her, lay hidden in her father's realms with her mother's help as long as she could. But when she could no longer lie hidden, she came into the parts of the aforesaid Eastern Francia, to the place which is now corruptly called Carleburg, and there from her own means built a monastery in honor of the most blessed Virgin Mary, fled into Franconia) which remains to the present day; where she established the Presbyter Atalongus and the Deacon Bernard, whom she had brought with her. She herself thereafter returned to her own land, because she learned that the suitor for her marriage had died; and remaining in virginity to the end of her life, she pleased God by the uprightness both of her virginity and of her morals. But the aforesaid Atalongus did not know Kilian, perhaps so that he had scarcely heard his fame, which had gradually faded away through ignorance.

[14] The feast of S. Hadeloga, moreover, as we reported above from Trithemius the anniversary festival. and the Carthusians' Additions to Usuard, is kept on the fourth day before the Nones of February. On which day Benedict Dorgan in the Benedictine Calendar: Of S. Hadeloga, Abbess, illustrious for holiness. A manuscript Calendar of the Saints of the same order: On the same day, of S. Haldelogoda, Virgin and Abbess of the monastery of Rynkyngen. Hugues Ménard: In Germany, of S. Hadeloga, Abbess, conspicuous for innocence and holiness. Wion has the same, and notes in the Notes that she was Abbess of the cenobium of Rinckingen. Philippus Ferrarius: At Kitzingen in Germany, of S. Adeloga, Abbess. But as for his citing Canisius in the Notes, we do not know where he got it, since in neither edition of Canisius that we have, of the years 1573 and 1599, does the name of Hadeloga appear. Our Lahier also records her in the great Menology of Virgins.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR, from the manuscripts of the Canons Regular of Böddeken,

transcribed by Johannes Gamans of the Society of Jesus.

S. Hadeloga, Virgin, at Kitzingen in Franconia.

BHL Number: 3734

By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

CHAPTER I

The lineage, virginity and flight of S. Hadeloga.

[1] To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and King of Virgins, the Son of a Virgin, Prologue. whom the Lamb without spot follows... the king clothed about with a white robe,... let the Virgin mother Church devoutly take up the praise of this Virgin, and make worthy memory of her. For it is worthy and to be commended to blessed memory that we too should celebrate with great veneration those whom Christ has crowned for virginity and raised to the heights by the fruit of good works, and in celebrating should imitate their virtues, so that we may merit to follow them to the highest summits of the heavens.

[2] The Blessed Virgin Hadelonga, then, sprung from the lofty blood of Kings and Emperors, S. Hadeloga, most noble by birth, adorned the birth of her nobility with the holy manners of the virtues, and distinguished it with upright deeds. For she was the daughter ^a of Charles, son of King Pippin, father of S. Gertrudis the Virgin; and her mother was called Kunehildis. And since she was very beautiful and exceedingly virtuous, and much beloved both by God and by men, no small multitude of suitors came to seek her; namely Kings and the sons of Kings from ^b Britain, from Hungary, and from Greece, and from the other provinces and nations of Kings. marriage spurned, Dukes too and Margraves desired her to be joined to them in matrimony, on account of the elegant form of her beauty and on account of the wonderful sweetness of her virtue and uprightness. But she, because she had devoted herself wholly to our Lord Jesus Christ, spurning all the powers of the world, clung to God alone, whom she desired to please with a pure heart within her conscience, and she said daily in her prayers: Let my heart, Lord Jesus Christ, be made undefiled, that it may not be confounded. And again, praying, she said: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the highest King, if the unpolluted virginity of my body pleases you, send your Angel to guard me, that I may preserve for you the virginity of my body; and change the heart of my father, lest he hand me over to this wicked world and to the sons of darkness to be defiled: for I believe that if I am joined to carnal concupiscence for love of the filth of my earthly beauty, you will forget me, and so I shall be handed over to eternal perdition. Saying these things daily in her prayers the blessed Virgin wept exceedingly, she vows chastity, cutting off one hair: and clung diligently to the footsteps of Blessed Mary ever Virgin; and sending, she called her friend in secret, and cutting off one of the hairs of her head, she devoted herself inwardly wholly to chastity for love of the heavenly kingdom, frequently invoking the Mother of God and saying: she invokes the help of the Holy Virgin: Holy Mary, Mother of God, Virgin of virgins, mother and Queen of chaste minds, guard me in my virginity, which I have vowed to you; help me lest I be handed over to this world, and lest I be separated from your Virgins, who, having followed you away from the corruption of this world, merit to be joined without any contagion to the embraces of the eternal bridegroom, Christ your Son. By these and similar affections of the highest devotion the devout handmaid of Christ merited, in the secret of her heart, to have the Holy Spirit as Advocate and Protector; who, cleansing her body from every filth of pollution, prepared a temple for Himself.

[13] It has pleased us to recite these things at greater length, because the writer, born in a neighboring town, received from the monuments of Kitzingen, while religion still flourished there, things which confirm the Life Whence was her Life here edited? which we give from old codices of the monastery of Böddeken of the Order of Canons Regular of the diocese of Paderborn in Westphalia. Someone will perhaps wonder why no mention is made either of this Gertrudis or of Hadeloga in the genealogy of Pippin and of Martel. But neither are the daughters of very many other Dukes or Kings recorded, especially those who spent their life in some remote cenobium: and perhaps some of these were not born of a lawful bed. Although Wolfgang Lazius (whose authority, however, is not always the highest, Her mother, because he does not confirm what he puts forward by sure testimonies of the ancients), he nevertheless, in book 3 on the Migrations of the nations, having listed the children of Charles Martel, adds: There are those who attribute to him also a daughter, S. Adalagia. Whether Cunhildis, the mother of S. Hadeloga, was the wife of Martel, the mother of Pippin and Carloman, Suanichildis, daughter of Odilo the Bavarian, or a concubine, may be asked. Hieronymus Henninges does not indicate who was the wife of Martel and the mother of Pippin and Carloman; he says that Grifo was born of Suinhildis, or Schundahildis, or Nachildis, daughter of Theodo the Bavarian, Martel's concubine: but he ought to have proved these things by testimonies of the ancients. The Sainte-Marthe brothers, most illustrious men, affirm that Suanichildis, mother of Pippin, Carloman and Grifo, daughter of Odilo, Duke of Bavaria, was the lawful wife of Martel. Lazius calls her Schwynhildis.

[12] Hieronymus Dungersheim of Ochsenfurt also mentions this Gertrudis in the Encomium of S. Scholastica, which we shall give on the 10th of February, and expressly calls her the daughter of the other Pippin, although he afterwards confuses her with the elder Gertrudis. but the daughter of Charles Martel, He likewise proclaims Adaloga thus: Of this holy Virgin a niece, by her full brother, was the blessed Virgin Adaloia, first Abbess of the monastery of Kitzingen in Eastern Francia, likewise situated in the diocese of Würzburg on this side of the Main; which place was so increased through her in estates and persons in a short time avoiding marriage, that it was held among the first monasteries of Germany. She was, moreover, as is written of her, very beautiful and exceedingly virtuous, much beloved by God and men: but, setting aside Kings and the sons of Kings from Britain, Pannonia and Greece who pressed their suit for her, she had devoted herself wholly to Christ; her father Charles, King of the Franks, though at first greatly indignant, she founded the cenobium of Kitzingen, yet afterwards, admonished by a vision, cooperating with her sufficiently: she established in the aforesaid monastery a great multitude, not only of Virgins, as has been touched on, but also of Clerics performing the Divine offices for them. She was most generous toward the poor and very compassionate, ministering to them in person with such piety that she was called the Mother of the poor. She too, besides her other endowments of virtues illustrious for miracles, had the greatest solicitude in life and in death for the flock which (as her history asserts) she had dedicated to the religion of S. Scholastica, and had fed with the word of doctrine and the example of perfect virtue; so much so that she even appeared in sleep to a certain Sister who was nearly going astray, and reformed her for the better by a holy admonition. At length, after many labors in the way of God, being about to pass over by a holy end, she confidently made a prayer of this kind to her bridegroom: Lord Jesus Christ, for love of whom I have despised earthly nuptials, and have borne many labors and sufferings, grant that when I depart I may merit to be received by you into the choir of Virgins. That this was so done the signs wrought soon after her death made certain. died holily. And the multitude of the poor whom she had fed grieved vehemently for so great a Mother: and the whole region fled to her as Patroness by devout prayers.

[3] God therefore gave her this prerogative of His gift and grace, that she was pleasing in the eyes of all: and although her father was filled against her with an excessive fury of anger, because she did not wish to take a husband, nevertheless, she endures much from her father on this account: terrified and dismayed by her angelic countenance, he respected her for some time, and did not dare to grieve her in anything. But the devil, who is envious of all good things, cunningly set the snares of his deceit against her, wishing to extinguish her charity, since he could not conquer her chastity; so that she whom he could not overcome by the enticements of the flesh, he might try to vanquish through the impatience of fury. On the other hand, almighty God, who leaves no guilt unpunished, wished to punish the King for a certain sin committed against his sister. The devil therefore incites the father's spirit to this: that he should rage entirely against his daughter who refuses to marry.

[4] She, however, bearing her father's wrath gently, conquered with the meekness of her spirit the dart of impatience which the devil had suggested to her. For the Lord conferred upon her such great grace that, on account of her father's harshness, which she bore modestly, she is expelled from the Court together with the Chaplain: all the servants of the court, without the King's knowledge, most devoutly served this most chaste maiden. Among whom especially a certain Cleric, the King's Chaplain, pitying the injury which the daughter suffered from her father, ministered to her as to his lady and the bride of Christ his Lord. When the King learned of this from certain envious informers, he began to hold both his daughter and the Cleric in the greatest hatred, and said: Behold, my daughter, who refused to marry Kings, Dukes, and Princes, now to my disgrace has taken whom she would as her lover, and commits fornication with him publicly in my court. And calling one of the soldiers who stood by him, he said: Go and tell that Cleric to depart from my court without delay together with the fornicatress; otherwise tomorrow I will cast them both out with their disgrace.

CHAPTER II

The monastery enriched. Miracles.

[6] After some time, the aforesaid King, hearing her father reconciled to her, that his daughter, namely the blessed Virgin of Christ Hadelonga, was living a good life, was pricked in heart because he had shown her such great ill will, and came there, and conferred many gifts and estates on the monastery over which she presided. In those days the venerable Cleric whom we mentioned before, going to Jerusalem, died in the confession of Christ. And while the King was still in that same place, the Cleric appeared to him in a vision, saying: The eternal King, whose empire is without end, has sent me that you may accept the excuse of my innocence warned by a vision of the dead Chaplain, concerning the infamy put upon me by you: and if you do not do so, know that I am ready before the tribunal of Christ to judge concerning you. Believe me therefore in the truth, which is Christ, that I and my lady your daughter, the bride of my Lord Jesus Christ, are free from every such sin. And this shall be a sign to you: In ^a this year you will die, and your son Pippin will reign in your stead. And if you had not repented of the evil which you did against us, the sentence of damnation would already have been given concerning you. The King, awakening, called his daughter to him and said to her: My daughter and my dearest lady, pray for me, he gives much. that God may not require of me the sin which I committed against you. And again he offered her gifts more than the former ones, and departed from her. But she prayed without ceasing for her father, that the Lord might save him.

[7] In those days that place increased and was greatly enriched, so that many Virgins consecrated to God were in that same monastery; and moreover a congregation, not small, of religious ^b Clerics living canonically served God there, A nun snatched from the danger of sin, and S. Mary, and the sacred Virgins established with it. It happened at about the same time that a certain young and pampered Cleric, wishing to sin with a nun, enticed her to come out to him at night. When she had agreed to this and, rising in the night, wished to go out through the monastery, that venerable Cleric, whose sepulchre at Jerusalem was in the very doors of the basilica, stood at the door of the church and said to her: the same Priest appearing: Where do you wish to go, Lady Sister? At his question she blushed, and for shame could not answer, and the Cleric added and said: Go back, go back, Sister, to your order, for Christ has committed these doors to me to guard. Truly I say to you that you will die very soon unless you are converted. But he who enticed you to sin is already truly dead. Pricked at heart by words of this kind, she went back very quickly, and falling into a grievous infirmity, she was sick for many days; and by her example the other Sisters, to whom she confessed her guilt with sobs, began to make progress for the better and to persevere much more ardently in the resolve of chastity.

[8] At another time too, when a certain Sister had taken the way of a slippery intention, another warned by Hadeloga in sleep. and, enticed by the love of a certain young man, had resolved to leave the monastery, she heard in her sleep her lady Abbess Hadelonga saying to her: Dearest Sister, behold, Christ is coming, prepare yourself to meet Him. Behold the bridegroom comes: let us go out to meet him. That Sister, then, awakening, was pricked to the heart with her whole heart, and from that time suffered no temptation of the flesh, as she herself testified.

[9] There was a certain ministerial of the same Church, rich enough and well born, who, being young, delighted in hounds and good horses, and sometimes eagerly applied himself to hunting. He had, in short, many hounds; among which he loved most of all one little one, The body of a nobleman slain in the forest which was so inseparable a companion to him that it could not be separated from him either sleeping or waking. One day, when this knight was going alone on horseback through the forest, having only his beloved hound as companion, he fell among enemies, who at once killed him, taking the booty, namely his horse and clothes, hidden, and whatever else they could tear away; and covering over the body itself in the thickness of the grove, they went away. The hound, however, guarded the body of its master for three days. And when it was now failing with hunger, it returned and came to its Lady the Abbess, into whose service it had often come before with its master, as though about to make complaint of the cruel death of its master. When she saw it, she wondered greatly about the man, what had happened to him; by the leading of the hound knowing that it was not without cause that she saw the hound alone and sad. Go, she said, in the name of the Lord, and if your master is dead, lead my messengers, that they may seek and find his body, that it may be buried. found, Hadeloga buries it: And at once, as it went before them, the body of the said slain Knight was found by the servants of the monastery, and, carried back into the city, was buried venerably near the monastery; and there was great mourning and lamentation over him.

[5] Hearing this, the Cleric groaned and said: God of heaven and earth, searcher of hearts and of all thoughts, you know how innocent I am of this thing; nevertheless, although my lord the King is disposed to exercise his harshness toward me, with him as companion she comes into Franconia, yet I will not desert my lady; but for the love of Christ I will most willingly serve her, until I see what the Lord deigns to do with her. For the same Chaplain Cleric was very rich in gold and silver, because he was Confessor of the whole army of the King and of the Princes, who had all conferred many offerings upon him. Taking all his means, then, he departed from the King's court together with his lady: and coming to a certain grove, and there she becomes Abbess, having rooted out the forest, he built a monastery there; and having bought estates, he gathered in that place a few nuns, among whom, ordaining his lady as Abbess, he established that they should keep the rule of S. Benedict and of S. ^e Scholastica, and lead a chaste life in the praise of God. He himself also, with other Clerics, for whom he established a prebend there, ministered most devoutly to God day and night, and celebrated Masses daily for the Virgins of Christ. While that place was still rough and of new planting, and had not yet been entitled in common speech by any name, a certain shepherd named Kuccingus, the cenobium being built at Kitzingen. while he was pasturing there the flocks and herds of the country people living round about, snatched one little she-goat of his flock from the mouth of a wolf by invoking S. Mary, whose patronage was venerated there, and at once carried it there to the altar of S. Mary to show the miracle: and on account of this first miracle wrought there, the name Kuccingen was given to that place.

[10] Moreover, the Lady Abbess, wishing to know who was the author of this crime, summoned all her servants, as well as her neighbors both poor and rich, showing sufficiently the grief of soul which she felt over the loss of her servant. When therefore all stood before her, the murderers unknown and obstinate, among the others stood also those who were the authors of this crime, confident that no one knew of the evil they had committed. Then the Abbess, setting forth to all the grief of her heart, with many words urged them that if anyone were conscious of this deed, having given them opportunity, he should repent in this world, lest he perish in the next. But when no one was willing to confess himself guilty of such an act, she at last turned to the Lord with deep sighs and said: O God, who know hidden things, who know all things before they happen, show by some sign of Your power the guilty ones, that they may recognize themselves, so that, if this is pleasing before You, they may perish by Your judgment, and the others who are of that kind may have fear on this account. And she said to the hound, which stood by: Go in the name of the Lord, the hounds tear them to pieces. and betray the guilty of this crime, for you alone were present at their most wicked deeds. When she had said this, the hound at once rushed upon them, and strangled one by biting through his throat, and the other, who had made booty of his master's clothes, it so tore apart by mangling that it left nothing of either clothes or flesh together on him. By an evident judgment of God, in short, it came about that all the hounds that were present followed this hound, and all alike attacked those whom it attacked. So manifest a trial of this matter so terrified all the robbers, of whom there was a very great multitude in that grove at that time, that for a long time no robbery was committed in those parts. It would be a great deal if I wished to run through all the deeds of this blessed Virgin: wherefore, since every reader delights in brevity, let us say a few things succinctly about her passing.

CHAPTER III

The sickness, death and burial of S. Hadeloga.

[11] When the blessed Virgin Hadelonga had afflicted her body with vigils, fasts and prayers for many days, and with much labor of heart and body had prepared a sacrifice to God in a contrite Spirit, knowing by Divine forewarning that the day of her passing was at hand, she prayed to the Lord and said: Lord Jesus Christ, Hadeloga foreknows the day of her death: for love of whom I have despised earthly nuptials and incurred the intolerable hatred of my father, and have borne many labors and sufferings, have mercy on me, and grant that before the day of my departure I may merit to be purified by true confession and pure compunction, so that when I depart from this light I may merit to be received by you into the choir of your Virgins. These and similar things she begged daily with tears, and although she labored under a grievous infirmity, she did not in any way cease from her accustomed almsgiving and care of the poor, so that with her own hands she ministered food to the poor, provided drink and clothing, and grieved with each in his infirmities. she falls sick, the poor feeling it greatly: And when the poor who lived nearby heard of her sickness, they came with tears, and lamented with weeping voice that they were about to lose their lady and mother. Some of whom were healed of various ailments and weakness of limbs, by the Lord's bounty, through the merits of the blessed Virgin Hadelonga.

[12] 2 February. On the Sunday night, then, when it was the Purification of S. Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Queen of Virgins, whom she had chosen for herself as Mother and Patroness, beginning to grow weaker, she addressed all the Sisters thus: Behold, I am setting out to Christ: take care, dearest ones, lest the devil steal away any of the sheep which, with the Lord's cooperation, I have gathered in this place by my sweat. Be careful too lest this place be polluted by the instigation of the devil or by any carnal pollution. having received the Eucharist, Keep before your eyes how I have gone before you with good examples, so that you may thus follow, with Christ's help. And receiving the Lord's body with a most excellent confession, she commended her sheep to Christ the good Shepherd, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, having prayed well for her own, best Shepherd of all Shepherds, guard these sheep, which you have redeemed with your precious blood, and do not suffer them to be torn by diabolical invasion. And I also commend my soul into the hands of your most merciful lovingkindness, you who, placed on the cross, commended your soul into the hands of God the Father almighty. Saying this she gave up her spirit, to abide with all the Saints without end. she dies:

[13] The body of the most sacred Virgin, most carefully embalmed with spices, with devout and worthy obsequies, was placed with diligent care before the altar of S. Mary ever Virgin, she is buried in the sanctuary. There is no need to say how many tears of the Brothers, the Sisters, the lay people, with great mourning of all. and also of the innumerable poor, how great a mourning and what cries were heard, not only in that place but in that whole province, of all of whom there was one sentiment in this prayer: We pray you, O most holy and most sweet Mother, she is invoked. that as in this life you cherished us with good examples and works of virtues, so you may deign to help us with God in eternal life; and as we rejoice in your commemoration on earth, so too we may merit to be defended by your intercession in heaven, through the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the reward, glory, joy and crown of all the Saints, through all ages of ages. Amen.