ON ST. LETARD, BISHOP OF SENLIS IN GAUL, AT CANTERBURY IN ENGLAND
NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
Preliminary Commentary.
Letard, Bishop of Senlis, at Canterbury in England (St.)
By G. H.
[1] At the same time and place, St. Letard, a Frank, Bishop of Senlis, and St. Ethelbert, King of the Kentish among the Anglo-Saxons, lived for a long time. Saints Ethelbert the King and Letard lived together and are venerated together After their deaths, the bodies of both were buried in one and the same church, and later, on account of the sacred veneration shown to them, were placed upon one and the same altar. Therefore we also present their Acts on one and the same day, and we do not so much confer upon them as leave them as participants in sacred veneration. St. Ethelbert the King died in the year of Christ 616, on the twenty-fourth day of February; St. Letard the Bishop departed this life some years before him, though on what day we have not yet been able to ascertain. His name has been variously written: Luidhard, Ledbard, Lethard.
[2] William Thorne, in chapter 2 of his Chronicle, section 2, following Thomas Sprot, transmits the following about his episcopate: This Letard was Bishop of Senlis in Gaul, St. Letard, Bishop of Senlis whose metropolitan is the Archbishopric of Rheims. Harpsfield, in century 7 of his English History, chapter 4, calls it "Salvanortensis," misled by a scribal error. How many years he held that episcopate is not known. Among his predecessors he had Gonotigern, who subscribed to the Fifth Council of Orleans in the year of Christ 549. Whether Malulf was his predecessor or successor, or perhaps his vicar -- Malulf who buried Chilperic, King of Soissons, killed in the year of Christ 584, as Gregory of Tours writes in Book 6, chapter 46 -- is uncertain. Between Gonotigern and Malulf, Claude Robert in his Gallia Christiana places one Sanctinus, but he is known by name alone, if indeed the records are to be trusted. For the one whom we gave as Gonotigern from the Councils of
Gaul edited by our Sirmond is called by Claude Robert Hodiernus, or Frodigernus, or more correctly Frodigerius. Thus it is possible that the one whom Robert calls Sanctinus is our St. Letard, or else both Sanctinus and St. Letard could have governed that diocese as bishops between the aforesaid Gonotigern and Malulf. When Letard was about to depart for Kent, he either substituted a vicar bishop for himself, as is customary, to administer the diocese and perform sacred duties during his absence; or he abdicated his see, as many in that age who set out abroad in perpetuity or for an indefinite period for the conversion of the nations did, with the consent of the Roman Pontiff.
[3] The occasion of that journey, and of the life he subsequently led in Kent, sent as a companion to Bertha on account of religion Bede narrates briefly in Book 1, chapter 25: King Ethelbert of Kent had a Christian wife from the royal house of the Franks, named Bertha. He had received her from her parents on the condition that she should have leave to preserve inviolate the practice of her faith and religion, together with the bishop whom they had given her as an assistant in the faith, named Luidhard. Now the parents of Bertha were Charibert, King of Paris, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris son of Clothar I, grandson of Clovis I, who died about the year 570; and Ingoberga, who, as Gregory of Tours attests, in the fourteenth year of King Childebert, the year of Christ 589, departed from this world... leaving an only daughter, whom a son of a certain king in Kent joined in marriage. The same author, Book 4, chapter 26: Moreover, King Charibert took Ingoberga as his wife, by whom he had a daughter who was afterwards taken to Kent and given in marriage to a man there. He adds that Ingoberga was set aside by Charibert and Merofled was taken in her place. Ingoberga, therefore, once repudiated, gave her daughter in marriage; but the condition, according to Bede, was stipulated by the parents concerning the preservation of the faith and the bishop who would accompany her to Kent. By "parents," either the consent of her father Charibert, still living at that time, is understood, or else the royal uncles and other kinsmen approved the marriage by their assent and agreed-upon conditions, Bertha, or Aldiberga, married to St. Ethelbert, King of Kent which seems to us more likely. For St. Ethelbert the King (these are the words of Malmesbury, Book 1, On the Deeds of the Kings of England, chapter 1) in the first days of his budding reign was so much a laughingstock to neighboring kings that, defeated in one battle after another, he could scarcely defend his own borders. These events are referred to the year 568 in the ancient Saxon Chronology and in the Chronicles of Worcester and Westminster. Afterwards, Malmesbury continues, when to his more mature age a more prudent military skill had been added, having subdued most of the English to his glory he quickly brought all the English nations, except the Northumbrians, under the yoke by continual victories; and in order to gain the friendship of foreign nations as well, he won the kinship of the King of the Franks by his marriage to the King's daughter Bertha. Here it is implied that many years passed after the earlier defeats of the year 568, so that Charibert appears to have been long dead before his daughter's marriage.
[4] What afterwards transpired in Kent, Malmesbury continues thus: Then indeed, through association with the Franks, the nation, hitherto barbarous, bound to a common way of life, his holy and chaste life leads the King to the knowledge of Christ began daily to put off its savage dispositions and incline toward gentler customs. To these was added the most celibate life of Bishop Letard, who had come with the Queen, by which he invited the King, even without speaking, to the knowledge of Christ the Lord. Hence it came about that when Blessed Augustine afterwards preached, the King's mind, already softened, easily yielded, and he was the first among his forefathers to renounce profane rites. And Bede, Book 1, chapter 26, indicates the church in which Letard performed sacred worship in these words: he performs divine offices in the church of St. Martin There was near the city of Canterbury itself, to the east, a church built in ancient times in honor of St. Martin, in which the Queen, whom we said was a Christian, had been accustomed to pray. In this church, therefore, just as St. Letard before them, they -- namely St. Augustine and his companions -- first began to assemble, to sing psalms, to pray, to celebrate Mass, to preach, and to baptize. Thorne, in chapter 2 of his Chronicle, section 2, confirms these things briefly: Letard, he says, as bishop, administered the mysteries of worship to the Queen herself in the church of St. Martin, where Augustine also with his companions devoted themselves to divine services, while King Ethelbert himself still clung to pagan rites. Nor is there any doubt, says Harpsfield in century 7, chapter 4, that the presence of Bertha and Letard greatly promoted the work of the Gospel with Ethelbert after Augustine's time. Certainly it was counted among Letard's chief merits he assists in the conversion of the King that, having left Gaul, he was willing to follow the Queen to a barbarous and infidel people, not without suspicion of danger; and his sanctity is commended by these and other things, as well as by signs performed after his death, so that not without cause did our ancestors enroll him in the catalogue of heavenly citizens many centuries ago.
[5] Concerning the death and burial of St. Letard and Queen Bertha, the same Thorne narrates: In the year of our Lord's Incarnation six hundred and thirteen, Blessed Lawrence the Archbishop, successor of St. Augustine, consecrated this church of Saints Peter and Paul, he is buried in the church of Saints Peter and Paul, together with Queen Bertha in the presence of King Ethelbert with gathered throngs, and brought the holy body of Augustine into the consecrated church and buried it in the north portico. The body of St. Letard and Queen Bertha he buried in the portico of St. Martin. For these two bodies had first been buried outside the church, because in their time the church had not been consecrated. So he writes, from which it may be conjectured that both, namely St. Letard and Queen Bertha, had departed this life not many years before the consecration of the church. St. Augustine died in the year 605, on the seventh day before the Kalends of June, on which day his Life will be published. We treated of his successor St. Lawrence on February 2. King Ethelbert also died, and then with St. Ethelbert the King according to Bede, Book 2, chapter 5, in the year 616, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of February, and was buried in the portico of St. Martin within the church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, where Queen Bertha is also interred and, as we have said, St. Letard the Bishop with her.
[6] There exists in the Monasticon Anglicanum a plan or figure of the high altar of this church of Saints Peter and Paul (which became better known to later ages under the name of St. Augustine, together with its adjoining monastery), with the reliquary shrines placed upon or around it, and inscriptions inserted in its old manuscript copy. Two inscriptions are appended with these words: at the altar, which was repeatedly renewed "In the year of the Lord 1240, this altar was dedicated in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul and of St. Augustine, on the fifth day before the Kalends of November." And then: "In the year of the Lord 1325, this altar was dedicated in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul, of St. Augustine, Apostle of the English, and of St. Ethelbert the King, on the Kalends of March, by Peter, Bishop of Corbeil." So far the inscriptions, from which the dates are determined when that altar was restored and consecrated anew. In the middle of the reredos erected above the altar, and wrought with singular craftsmanship, is seen a mausoleum with this inscription: "St. Ethelbert," the bodies of Saints Ethelbert and in which his body was interred. Above this mausoleum, in the upper part of the reredos, is seen a splendid statue of Christ rising, toward which two angels placed on either side look; and between these and Christ are two mausolea, like small oratories, on one of which is inscribed: "St. Letard," on the other "Relics." On both sides near the altar there are doors through which access is given to the bodies of the Saints. Letard There are also the bodies of eleven Archbishops of Canterbury, each enclosed in its own chapel, namely Saints Augustine, Lawrence, Mellitus, and thirteen others Justus, Honorius, Deusdedit, Theodore, Britwold, Tatwine, Nothhelm, and Jambertus. Furthermore, there are the bodies of St. Mildred the Virgin and of St. Adrian the Abbot. To each of these two a separate altar is adjoined, as also a third to St. Augustine and his first successors. So far that plan or carved figure, published, as I said, with the Monasticon Anglicanum, from which certain traces of the ancient veneration of St. Letard and of the said Archbishops are established.
[7] Some Acts of both St. Ethelbert and St. Letard exist in the new Legend of the Saints of England collected by John Capgrave and printed at London in the year 1516. Acts of Saints Ethelbert and Letard That the author of both Acts is one and the same, the style easily persuades. Miracles of St. Letard are added, which, the author says, are multiplying in our times after so many centuries since his death. And then in number 4 he mentions Queen Edith, whom we judge to have been the daughter of Godwin, wife of St. Edward the King and Confessor around the year 1050, who is also called by others Edgitha, Eadgitha, Edgida, Goditha, and Editha. By that time more than four centuries had already elapsed since St. Letard's death. written in the eleventh century
LIFE
by an anonymous author, from the Legend of John Capgrave.
Letard, Bishop of Senlis, at Canterbury in England (St.)
BHL Number: 4893
[1] Letard, a worthy Bishop of God, the forerunner and doorkeeper of the coming Augustine, appeared in England. He preceded him as the morning star precedes the sun; St. Letard, forerunner of St. Augustine, attended Queen Bertha he prepared for him a way, an entrance, and a place, so that Augustine might prepare the way for the Lord. Prodigal of his great soul, he did not fear the savage barbarism of the Gentiles, terrible to the princes of the world. He himself, to Bertha, the handmaid of God, when she was sent as a Christian from the paternal kingdom of the Franks to King Ethelbert, still a pagan, served as guide, companion, teacher, protector, and instigator of all piety: a monument against their monstrous rites, a sanctuary against idolatry, a bulwark against the snares of the devil, and in every adversity a father's consolation. pious and devoted to the virtues She merited to be buried together with the same holy Father and with the King, now consecrated to Christ. Nor do we consider her unworthy of praise or lacking in piety toward God -- that is, abounding in religion, almsgiving, and other virtuous habits -- she who, born of Christian kings and peoples, had so great an instructor. Among the profane she bore the reproach of Christ, in the church she endured ridicule, and in the worship of her God she suffered mockery. In the most ancient church of the holy Bishop Martin, situated outside the city, he performs divine offices in the church of St. Martin with Blessed Bishop Letard presiding, the Queen frequented the sacraments of the Mass and prayers together with the Christian household of her retinue. As for the most holy Letard, who can worthily estimate how many miracles he performed in life through so many merits, renowned for miracles after death whose miracles multiply so abundantly in our times after so many centuries since his death, concerning which it would be an injustice to memory not to record some?
[2] A certain maiden, blind from birth, approaching his tomb, a blind woman is healed by the merits of St. Letard, with the darkness banished from her eyes, received her sight.
[3] A certain cripple, with his heels loosened and his legs extended, and a cripple immediately raised his feet and began to walk.
[4] The Abbot of Abingdon, having accidentally lost a ring of Queen Edith, sought it everywhere but could not find it. At length with tears and prayers he implored the mercy of Letard, and immediately the ring gleamed where he was praying. a lost ring is recovered
[5] A certain matron, unable to give birth, nearly killed by the anguish of labor, was snatched, as it seemed to her in spirit, to the brow of a steep mountain, a woman in labor and terrified by the foul darkness of demons, was tormented with dire punishments by the most savage torturers seizing her. And so they attempted to stretch and drag her through the narrow opening of a wheel and to hurl her into the sulphurous abysses of their pit. To her, as she continually cried out to the Savior in such fear and trembling, against the assaults of demons a star of inestimable brightness appeared from afar, which the nearer it came, the more brightly it shed its rays. And behold, in the midst of that flashing light Blessed Letard shone forth, defended by the appearing of St. Letard who, banishing the ministers of perdition by his pontifical authority, said: "Depart, damned spirits, to your hells. What have you to do with the handmaid of God, that you seize her?" "Falsely," they said, "by name only, not by the practice of faith, do we claim this Christian as ours by right. She is our attendant; she shall inherit our torments." "I forbid you," said the Bishop, "all power over her: depart immediately from her to the prison of your perdition." At his command, with the captive released, all the demons' threats and all their devices vanished utterly. The woman, having recovered her spirit, she gives birth gladdened by the face and patronage of Blessed Letard, gave birth to her child.
[6] A certain paralytic, imploring help at his tomb with tears, a paralytic is healed on one side of his body as he lay pressed down in sleep, the holy Father appeared to him, asking what he wished and what he so importunately sought. The sick man answered that he sought health. And Letard said: "When you suffer the punishments you deserve, then you come as suppliants; but when you have obtained what you desired, you quickly turn your backs, forgetful and ungrateful for divine benefits." When the man persisted all the more earnestly, promising amendment, the merciful Father added: "You shall depart healed in one leg, but with the other still afflicted, so that the healthy part may remind you of gratitude for divine goodness, and the infirm part may convict you of ungrateful negligence. And since you so greatly desire the health that has been taken away, learn not to despise the health that has been bestowed." He therefore rose half-healed, with one leg straightened and the other left as it was. For from the loins downward he had been entirely paralytic before the Saint's cure.
[7] In the annual procession of the Rogation Days, or Litanies, the wonder-working body of Blessed Letard is customarily carried forth in a golden shrine for the blessing of the fields and the people's harvests. when the body of St. Letard is carried in procession Once, when his holy body was being carried through the fields by two brothers, a certain woman seized with madness touched the bier with force, and was restored to full intellect and reason. madness is removed