James the Greater: the Return of his Head

ON THE RETURN OF THE HEAD OF ST. JAMES THE APOSTLE TO THE MONASTERY OF ST. VEDAST.

A.D. 1187.

James the Apostle (St.), Return of the head to the monastery of St. Vedast

[1] Molanus, in his Additions to Usuard, on January 3: "Also the return of the head of St. James the Apostle, brother of St. John, to the monastery of St. Vedast of the town of Arras." The German Martyrology has the same.

[2] Arnold Raissius, in his Belgian Hierogazophylacium, writes the following about this pledge of the great Apostle, lent to our Belgium for its saving protection and as a kind of omen that the Catholic religion in Belgium would be defended by Spanish arms: Part of the head of St. James is preserved at Arras. "The monastery of St. Vedast in the city of Arras, the most celebrated of almost all Belgium, preserves and venerates with exceptional cult the back part of the head of St. James the Greater, Apostle and protector of the Spains; which the monks of St. Vedast transferred in the year 1336 into a silver reliquary overlaid with gold, of wonderful workmanship and value. Around its edge is read in Gothic characters:

Anno milleno C. ter, & totidem duodeno, Hoc vas patratur, caput ac in vase locatur.

[In the year one thousand, a hundred thrice, and as many times twelve, this vessel is made, and the head is placed in the vessel.]

[3] Concerning this part, Guiman, monk of St. Vedast and historian, a contemporary of St. Bernard, discourses thus: 'The Kings of the Franks have always embraced this monastery of St. Vedast with devotion one after another, and have exalted it with the relics of many Saints that they collected. Nevertheless, above gold and topaz, they added from their treasures to our Church this noble and precious gift, namely the head of St. James the Apostle, brother of St. John the Evangelist.'

[4] Given to them by Charles the Bald. Although Guiman does not state the name of the King by whom the monks of St. Vedast were enriched with so noble a treasure, yet from other, more ancient records of this monastery it is most clearly proved that Charles the Bald, King of France, gave them the head of St. James; as Martin, Abbot of this monastery and a contemporary of Guiman, expressly relates in a certain letter; The truth examined by Count Philip. and he adds that Philip, Count of Flanders, who had stealthily snatched from them the aforesaid pledge of St. James, protector of the Spains, set out for Compostela, in order to be made more certain whether it was truly the head of St. James, protector of the Spains: at length, having applied great and serious investigation, he learned that that sacred head had been carried into Flanders many years before." Thus far Raissius. An arm of the same glorious Apostle is preserved at Liège in the monastery of St. James, having been brought there in the year 1056, as Giles, monk of Orval, testifies in his Theoduin, in Chapeaville, volume 2, chapters 5 and 6; of which we shall treat on May 13.

[5] On this day, however, memory is kept of the return of the head, when it was carried back from Aire to Arras, to the monastery of St. Vedast. Concerning this translation Ferry de Locre writes as follows in the Belgian Chronicle: "In the year 1174 Prince Philip, The same man carries off those relics, then restores them. overcome at length by the admonitions of Alexander, the Roman Pontiff, and by the exhortations and prayers of Henry, Archbishop of Reims, and of various Princes, restored to its former place the head of Blessed James the Apostle, brother of John the Evangelist, which, out of eagerness to present it to the basilica of St. Peter at Aire, restored with new works, he had taken away from the monks of St. Vedast, and had steadfastly claimed for a whole six years.

[6] Letter of Martin, Abbot of St. Vedast, to him. Abbot Martin did not fail in his part; he even wrote to the Prince in these words: 'To Philip, Count of the Flanders, illustrious and magnificent man, Martin, unworthy Minister of the Church of Blessed Vedast, and the Chapter of Blessed Vedast: to bring forth fruits worthy of penance. You sent to us from your side the venerable Abbot of St. Amand and certain men powerful in your counsels, beseeching us on your part to bear patiently the injury which you have inflicted on God and on our Church, and to make no complaint about it either in the Court of the Lord Pope or in that of the Lord Archbishop; and moreover to grant to you what you seized from our church, not so much by the prompting of reason as by the violence of power. And how patiently we have borne the injury is well enough known to you, namely how, without any protest of Ecclesiastical censure, we have awaited the goodness of your Clemency. And now too, as hitherto, though with much heaviness and vexation of spirit, we shall for a time maintain our regard for your Nobility. And moreover we shall pray that God may bring you back safe and sound, with the glory of triumph, your enemies humbled, from the expedition you are about to undertake, and may grant you a penitent heart for the honor of holy Church. But to grant you that same treasure is not in our power, since it was bestowed on God and on St. Vedast by the magnificent liberality of Kings. If, therefore, you are planning to confer those relics on another Church, The Abbot refuses to hand those relics over to him. or by means of them to restore a Church, as it were under the pretext of religion, know most certainly and without doubt that there will be no peace by any agreement either between us and you, or between us and the Church which is going to retain them against God. The Spirit of counsel be with you.'

[7] On this day they are brought back to Arras. This sacred pledge, then, was brought back to the monastery of Blessed Vedast on the third day before the Nones of January, precisely on the Octave of Blessed John the Evangelist. Whether it is indeed that of Blessed James the Greater or of another, Prince Philip himself, having afterward traveled through the Spains, gave faithful testimony to the truth. Whence he earnestly asked Martin and the monks to give him at least a part of the sacred head; nor did they refuse. And so, revisiting the people of Aire, he affected them wonderfully, imparting it to them as a new gift, which they hold in the greatest veneration, and the inhabitants venerate with frequent vows. Martin, moreover, ordered a new and very rich vessel to be prepared, A part is given to the Count, and by him to the Church of Aire. into which Peter, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Chrysogonus, Legate a latere of Pope Alexander in Gaul, in the presence of Frumold, Bishop of Arras, and Eustace, Abbot of Mont-Saint-Éloi, with a countless multitude of all Orders, most piously transferred the sacred relics on the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, in the Octave of Easter.

[8] Miracles wrought in that translation: The prodigies which both accompanied and followed the Translation (at which Prince Philip was present) are very many and are read in the ancient codices of the sanctuary of St. Vedast; there is no need to bring them forward here. Thus far from a very ancient manuscript book, which is preserved with great care among the more excellent records of that Monastery; from which I have drawn at greater length for this reason, that the people of Toulouse in Gaul proclaim that they possess this sacred pledge."

[9] By whom they were written. The miracles passed over here by Locrius were sent to me from an old manuscript of the monastery of St. Vedast by our John Vallon, a most courteous man, and you have them here. The author was some monk of St. Vedast who lived in those times, as is clear from the first and third miracle.

MIRACLES

Which occurred at the return of the head of St. James the Apostle from Aire to the monastery of St. Vedast.

James the Apostle (St.), Return of the head to the monastery of St. Vedast. BHL Number: 4080, 4081

From various authors.

Of a certain boy.

The little son of a certain woman became rigid with a paralytic disease, all his limbs drawn together into a ball; but when the mother, mourning and crying out, with the whole neighborhood following, had gone to St. Michael's, where the sanctuary was still being kept, and at the very doors of the church had tearfully called upon the patronage of God and of St. James, the boy suddenly recovered. Let no one doubt that this miracle was wrought by the merits of the blessed Apostle, since the great faith of the woman obtained it with God and His Saints, and the innocence of little ones, of whom is the kingdom of heaven, avails very much in the sight of the Lord. We afterward frequently saw the boy in our church, and we beheld many embracing and kissing him as a witness and the matter of the miracle.

Of Frumald the Bishop.

[11] Being sick, he recovers. Frumald *, Canon of St. Mary's at Arras and Archdeacon of Ostrevant, afterward Bishop, a man of great gravity and prudence, fell upon the bed of sickness, and was so afflicted that he despaired of his life. When the water in which the head of St. James had been dipped was offered him to drink, and he had drunk it, he was better, and within a few days, his health having been entirely restored, he declared in our presence that he had recovered through the merits of the blessed Apostle, and he vowed a vow to him, which we saw him keep all his life.

* Cl. Robert has Fruinaldus, from the Thuanus codex; others have Frumoldus.

Vision of the Abbot of St. Vindicianus of Mont-Saint-Éloi.

[12] Eustace, Abbot of St. Vindicianus of Mont-Saint-Éloi, a man mighty in the scriptures and in the art of medicine, was coming to us, having been invited, on the day on which the sanctuary was received; and as he was making his way beside the waters of Anpanium, seeing a light of wonderful brightness shining above the church of St. Michael, he pointed it out to his Canons. When he related this to us, we found that it had been the very hour at which our Seniors had come to meet the Abbot in the church of St. Michael, A light above the church where the relics were. and, being about to bring the holy relics to us, had reverently sent them forth from that same church. All marveled at this; especially since the sun so begrudged its radiance to mortals that, buried the whole of that day in murky clouds, no trace of its rays appeared in the air. There this too was held in great wonder, that, according to the prayers and wishes of many, on that day, as if in service to the people who were to go in procession, the face of the earth was stiffened with an unwonted frost from morning until the tenth hour; A frost sent by God. whereas both before and afterward throughout that whole winter we felt either no frost or very rare frost, and we had never experienced the winter season so contrary to custom stripped of the law of its natural cold.

Vision of a matron.

[13] This return is foreshown before it happens. A certain matron dwelling in the Castle of St. Vedast, about eight days before any mention was made of restoring the head, saw a dream which plainly and openly portended the good of our Church and of the whole city. She saw, namely, the monastery of St. Vedast entirely decorated with its insignia, and the Lord Abbot standing in a lofty place, and showing to the peoples a column of exceptional splendor, which he held in his hands. All of which we afterward saw fulfilled to the letter: the church adorned, a wooden structure erected before the altar of the holy Cross, and upon it, while the herald thundered mightily, the returned head presented to the people. By these, then, and by other testimonies of miracles, which we omit for the sake of brevity, A concourse to the relics takes place. the devotion of the peoples grew accustomed to the honor and reverence of the holy head: and from that day it began to be honored with a now crowded concourse and abundance of offerings.

[14] In the same year also in which the aforesaid noble Count of the Flanders restored that venerable head of Blessed James, The Count of Flanders goes to the Spains: kindled by the desire of prayer and of inquiring into the truth about the head itself, he went to the Spains, to St. James. On arriving there, the pious explorer began to inquire rather carefully whether the most sacred head of the same was kept there; so that he might be made more certain whether it was most truly kept with us or there. When inquiry had been made, a certain silver object was brought to him, in which some said there was a head; but it was said to be the head, not of James himself, the brother of John, but of James the Less, laid up there. But when the Count had most urgently demanded that it be opened for him, He inquires into the truth of these relics. and could in no way obtain it, he was informed by certain elders that it was not kept there at all, but had long ago been translated into the Flanders. Hearing this, he returned home with joy, and coming to Arras on the very night of the festival of Blessed James, he made us more certain and more cheerful about these things.

[15] They are enclosed in a precious reliquary, April 20, 1175. Not negligent, therefore, the Venerable Abbot, for the honor of God, who had honored his times with so great a treasure, ordered with a generous hand and liberal expense a splendid vessel to be made, into which, not long afterward, the Lord Peter, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Chrysogonus, who at that time, sent into Gaul from the side of the Lord Pope Alexander, was discharging the Apostolic legation in the kingdom of the Franks, solemnly and devoutly laid those relics, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, in the Octave of Easter, in the presence and sight of a countless multitude of peoples, Frumold, Bishop of Arras, also standing by, who had come there at the Abbot's summons; and having given to all a blessing and an indulgence of sins, he confirmed by Apostolic authority that they were to be honored perpetually in the church of St. Vedast. There, to this present day, many with powerful faith and eager devotion visit the memorial of the blessed Apostle, and by his merits, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, receive remission of sins; by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the same Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.