Hippolytus

ON SAINT HIPPOLYTUS, ROMAN MARTYR, AT CAMBRAI.

Hippolytus, Roman Martyr, at Cambrai in Belgium (Saint)

Author: I. B.

[1] At Cambrai, an archiepiscopal city of Belgica Secunda, there is a monastery of the Holy Sepulchre, of the Benedictine Order, which the Blessed Bishop Lietbert (as Balderic, Bishop of Noyon, relates in book 3, chapter 77 of the Chronicle of Cambrai) built from its very foundations and placed there an Abbot with monks ... and endowed it fittingly with possessions and suitable resources. To Cambrai, to the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre, George Colvenerius writes in his notes on Balderic that it was dedicated in the year 1064, on October 28, in the presence of twenty-two bodies of Saints -- so that it should seem not at all surprising if the most devout monks of that same monastery still possess an extraordinary piety toward the relics of Saints, or if the Saints themselves, by a certain hidden prompting of the Divinity, should arrange for their relics to be transferred to them.

[2] In the year 1650, the body of Saint Hippolytus the Martyr was certainly brought there from Rome, [The body of Saint Hippolytus the Martyr was brought in 1650 and approved by the Vicariate;] sent to the venerable Abbot Philip Surhonius by the Reverend Father Florentius of Montmorency, Vicar General of the Society of Jesus. The chief Canons, to whom the matter pertained since the See was then vacant, carefully weighed the testimonies and documents legitimately drawn up at Rome, and judged that the sacred relic could be exposed to the veneration of the people.

[3] It was therefore enclosed in a precious reliquary, most skillfully made, which was deposited in the Cathedral basilica on February 11, 1651; on the following day (it was Sexagesima Sunday) it was carried to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in a solemn procession. A numerous body of young people, Transferred on February 12, 1651, with a distinguished procession, who frequented the schools of the Society of Jesus, together with boys and girls who were being instructed in catechetical doctrine in various churches and chapels, all in remarkable splendor and with other apparatus suited to piety, bearing the characters of various Saints -- some were carried in magnificently adorned carriages, others sat upon horses, others proceeded on foot; some bore banners and other instruments either of martyrdom or symbols of victory, others dragged bound tyrants in triumph, others at certain intervals along the route sang melodies suited to devotion. These were followed by various confraternities of pious men, Accompanied by the Religious, then several families of Religious, and then from the very monastery of the Holy Sepulchre monks clad in splendid and precious copes, holding torches in their hands; in their midst a bier was carried by priests, also clad in distinguished vestments, upon which rested the body of Saint Hippolytus, enclosed in the most elegant casket as we have described. After these came the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, likewise those of Saint Gaugericus and of the Holy Cross, The Canons, and finally the Regular Canons of Saint Autbert. Then the entire city Magistrates, very many noblemen, and military commanders, The Magistrates, and at last a very great multitude of citizens of every sex, age, and condition. I pass over the discharges of artillery, both great and small, at certain places and times, to augment the celebration of the sacred triumph.

[4] Nor was the solemnity confined to a single day: for eight days the clergy of various churches in the city, and communities of Religious, assembled to continue the celebration and perform the sacred rites. The solemnity continued for eight days: On the fifth day after, a learned tragedy was performed in the gymnasium of the Society of Jesus, dedicated to the Abbot of the Holy Sepulchre, concerning Saint George the Martyr, since the acts of this Saint Hippolytus are unknown. For of the three Hippolytuses inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, the bodies of the others are preserved elsewhere. And there were, besides these, many other Martyrs of the same name, both at Rome and elsewhere, of whom we treat in their proper places.

[5] Thenceforward the annual celebration of this Hippolytus is observed It is thereafter celebrated on February 12 with a perpetual Indulgence. in the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre, on the same twelfth day of February. And, as was written to us from Cambrai, to inflame the piety of the Religious and the people, a plenary Indulgence, as they call it, was granted by Innocent X, Supreme Pontiff, for that day, valid not only for that year alone, but for perpetuity.