Neopista

ON ST. NEOPHYTA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

Neopiste, Virgin Martyr (St.)

[1] Our Rosweydus had formerly enrolled the name of the holy virgin Neophyta in his calendar, with no day assigned: "Neophyta, Virgin and Martyr, in the monastery of Limburg." The Carthusians of Cologne, in their supplement to Usuard, have this under January 4: "Likewise of Neophista, Virgin and Martyr." Birthday of St. Neophyta, A certain Neopistis is mentioned by Baronius in his Notes to the Roman Martyrology, October 28, under Cyrilla: "The bodies of Cyrilla, Memmia, Juliana, Neopistis, and Sophia, Virgins and Martyrs, were translated by Sergius the Younger to the Titulus of Equitius, as an ancient inscription carved in marble testifies there." But to what day that Neopistis, whom Anastasius Bibliothecarius calls Theopiste, should be assigned, name, or whether she is the same Neophyta of whom we treat here, is unknown to us. In any case, the names mean nearly the same: Neopistis, meaning one who recently received the faith, and Neophyta, meaning newly grafted, or recently born, or one who recently came to the faith.

[2] Of what country St. Neophyta was, or in what time she lived, is not sufficiently known to us. Acts; The Very Reverend Canons Regular of the monastery of Bödeken in the diocese of Paderborn, from their most excellent manuscripts, communicated her Life with the utmost courtesy to our Joannes Gamansius. However, there are some things in it that require correction. For the assertion that the mother of the holy virgin was a sister of St. Oswald, King and Martyr, contradicts the writers on English affairs. Even if we grant this, to whom and where was she married, she who bore a child from a line of Israelite stock? — to say nothing of the rest. Perhaps someone will clear up these errors when light is shed from another source.

[3] relics in the monastery of Limburg. Moreover, the origin of the Limburg monastery (to which the relics of St. Neophyta are said to have been transferred by the Emperor Conrad the Salic, successor of St. Henry) is described thus by Hermann Contractus under the year 1034: "Conrad, from his castle of Limburg, situated between Speyer and Worms, established a monastery, which he ordered to be dedicated in honor of the Holy Cross and of St. John the Evangelist." founded by the Emperor Conrad, The same is recorded from Hermann by Joannes Cuspinianus, our Christophorus Brauwerus, and other more recent writers. A fuller account is given by Everhelmus, who was then living, in his Life of St. Poppo, January 25, chapter 9, number 37, built by St. Poppo, where, after having narrated that the bishopric of Strasbourg was offered to Poppo by Conrad and ingeniously declined by him, he adds that the Emperor eagerly endeavored to entrust to him whatever abbeys had been left without rectors: "And first Limburg, situated in the Vosges, which had long since come into his hands by hereditary right, he had delegated to the blessed man with the attestation of credible witnesses, and had directed his prayers for the building there of a monastery in honor of St. John the Evangelist. Poppo, by the edict of royal prayers, cultivating that place, which was then a lair of wild beasts, with much labor, built not mean dwellings for communities of the servants of God, and imposed upon them the light yoke of Christ under monastic discipline; and he appointed his nephew John over both that place and over St. Maximin at Trier."

[4] What a certain author relates in Eysengreinius's History of Speyer — namely, that Conrad built from his castle of Limburg a magnificent monastery at the greatest cost and expense because he had recently lost his little son Conrad there in a fall from a precipice — let the credibility rest with the author, who lived 500 years after Conrad. Eysengreinius himself writes that Conrad lived in the castle of Limburg near the city of Speyer; on whose authority? Scarcely any traces of the monastery survive at present.

LIFE

from the manuscript of the Bödeken monastery, transcribed by Joannes Gamansius, Society of Jesus.

Neopiste, Virgin Martyr (St.) — BHL Number: 6051

By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

[1] The distinguished Virgin and Martyr of Christ, Neophyta, was noble and glorious in the dignity of the world, being descended from royal stock; but she shone forth much more nobly by the praiseworthy composition of her character and by the renowned reputation of her virtues. Ever attending to the meaning of her name, she surpassed her tender years by the maturity of her senses — which is proved by the continual newness of her holy manner of life, for her name means "newly born." Although ancient forgetfulness has taken away the names of her parents, St. Neophyta born of noble family, it is truly certain that her father drew his origin from the most noble Israelite people, such that he was descended from the same tribe and kinship from which Christ the Lord came. Her mother, moreover, was a full sister of * blessed Oswald, King and Martyr.

[2] From the illustrious stock of these parents this flourishing offspring grew, whom she was able to equal in the cultivation of the Christian religion with no less devotion, and who shone forth more fruitfully by the rich fruit of both virginity and martyrdom. While in her earliest years she surpassed all her female peers in elegant beauty, beautiful and pious, and in her conscience grew day by day by the increase of heavenly grace, a certain tyrant from the regions of Spain, not unequal to her in noble birth but entirely unlike her in intention, desired to unite her to himself in marriage, she is sought in marriage: and sent faithful envoys to obtain this. But almighty God, who was pleased both by the merits of the parents and by the daughter's desire, gave them a far different mind: that they should prefer to dedicate their daughter to an immortal spouse, and that the daughter's vows should accord with the parents' will, and that they should desire by all means to bring this to effect. The envoys therefore delivered their lord's message to the maiden's parents and hoped to return with joy, if they might obtain that for which they had come. But their hope was turned to the contrary. she refuses to marry: For neither did the parents give their consent, nor did the daughter wish to receive the sorrowful message, declaring that there was no other cause for refusal than that they had chosen the immortal Spouse, the King of Kings.

[3] Therefore, having labored in vain, they returned home sadly, reported the parents' refusal, the maiden's steadfastness, and their own rejection, explaining what cause had intervened that the desired result could not follow his wishes. lest she be seized by the raging suitor, Exceedingly disturbed by this report, he bore his rejection most impatiently, and feared lest his honor suffer harm if he should not fulfill his long-cherished desire for the most beautiful maiden. Therefore, not fearing the wrath of the Supreme Judge on account of the greatness of his love, he thought this the only remedy for his great grief: that the perfect virgin might, if possible by some means, be violently seized, and that he might thus gain her in marriage. When rumor had brought it to the ears of the parents that his mind was irrevocable from this undertaking, they devoutly commended their little lamb to the care of the Good Shepherd, and placed her in a certain monastery of holy virgins she is enclosed in a monastery; situated in a neighboring city, dedicated in honor of * St. Martin and the blessed Martyrs Fabian and Sebastian, to be instructed in heavenly disciplines. When she had dwelt there for some time, and lived worthily and laudably before God in all matters pertaining to the pursuit of holy living, there was no one in the entire congregation whom she did not surpass in the footsteps of good works, where she lives holily: gathering in the storehouse of her heart the splendid oil of charity, about to go out to meet the heavenly Spouse, and to enter the royal wedding feast adorned with the lamp of conscience.

[4] What more? By flying rumor it was reported to that tyrant of whom we spoke above that the virgin dedicated to God had taken refuge in the port of salvation; and for this reason he hoped he could more easily attain what he ardently desired, considering that she was absent from the watchful care of her parents and household. Having therefore taken imprudent counsel with his intimates, the suitor lays his ambush. he chose to use the help of certain wicked men for this business, so that if ever the aforesaid virgin should go out from the monastery beyond the city, she would immediately be seized and delivered to him. And so it was done. For when that pearl of Christ's diadem had been most perfectly polished on every side by the file of discipline, and the time of the reward for her labors was now at hand — the time at which she was to be set by the hand of the supreme Artificer in the place prepared before all ages for the virginal seed — on a certain day, that is, she goes out with eight companions on a Friday, at first light, having obtained permission, she went out with eight of her fellow virgins and turned aside for prayer to the church of St. Bartholomew outside the city. When she had done this with devout intention, and that wicked man had learned of it through his traitors, he called together his accomplices, lay hidden in ambush treacherously along the path of the handmaids of God, and like a ravening wolf fiercely seized the lambs as they walked in simplicity. But they cried out and called upon the Lord, she is seized, that they might not be forsaken by him, that their lamps kindled with divine fire might not be extinguished, that their virgin bodies might not be defiled by foul embraces. That impious marauder, enemy of modesty, pirate of chastity, first began to entice the fearless minds of the maidens by smooth words and a copious promise of riches to consent to his own and his men's pleasure; scorning threats and blandishments then to terrify them by threatening a dire death. But the precious stones of the heavenly sanctuary could not be moved by any force from the position of their uprightness, neither to be elated by prosperity nor cast down by adversity.

[5] Seeing therefore their unanimous constancy and their unflagging perseverance in holy profession, he first exercised the cruelty of his fury upon the blessed Virgin Neophyta, so that, having pierced her with swords, having cut off her hands and arms and feet one by one, he ordered her beheaded; then he commanded each of the others to be slaughtered by the sword. she is slain with her companions: Such is the triumph of the soldiers of Christ, that they prefer, by dying well in the flesh, to live in the soul, rather than by living wickedly in the flesh, to die in the soul by sinning. This is clearly shown in the aforesaid virgins, who, having completed the race of this world, were made worthy of the prize of heavenly reward: for, received by Angels and led to the company of the virginal college, they received double crowns from the just rewarder of merits — one indeed for the perseverance of virginity, the other for the palm of martyrdom. Blessed Neophyta, because she was afflicted more than the others by the savagery of her passion, the Lord enlarged her measure of reward, so that annually on her feast day, by her intercession, ** thirty souls are redeemed; and whoever worthily celebrates her memory shall be rewarded with heavenly recompense.

[6] When the fury of the wicked slayer was sated, and the bodies of the holy women were left in the field to the teeth of wild beasts, there was not lacking someone to bring this news to the parents of St. Neophyta, she is buried by her parents: who, upon learning what had happened, rendered devout thanksgivings to God, because they had begotten such a daughter whom neither blandishments nor terrors could separate from the love of the immortal Spouse. Having hastened their departure, they found the limbs sprinkled with rosy blood, which they placed in a vessel suitable for this purpose; and carrying them to a certain monastery dedicated to St. Stephen the Protomartyr outside the city, they buried them after the funeral rites were secretly completed. But the immense mercy of the Lord did not allow the treasure of so sacred a body to lie hidden in perpetuity, for miracles revealed the degree of her merit. she is renowned for miracles: And since the day of the passion of this most holy virgin was unknown, it was revealed by the Holy Spirit to a certain Confessor of Christ — namely, that she entered the gate of the heavenly sanctuary on the day before the Nones of January, where in the sight of God and the Lamb she sings the new song that is singular to the holy virgins, on account of the merit of her chastity and her angelic manner of life.

[7] When therefore the most holy relics were taken from the earth and translated to Rome by blessed * Pope Gregory, long afterwards, during the reign of the glorious Emperor Conrad, translated to Rome, then to the Limburg monastery. and at the request of the pious Empress Augusta Gisela, they were translated to where the Lord willed — that is, to the monastery of Limburg built by those very founders. Through her intercession and merits, may almighty God grant us to live so soberly, so justly, and so piously in this world that we may arrive immaculate at the heavenly mansions. Amen.

* Who were these Israelites, where and when did they live in an already Christianized world, who would enter into royal marriages?

** St. Oswald, King of Northumbria, was killed in the year of Christ 643 and is venerated on August 5. But we have nowhere read anything of any sister of his being married to a foreign prince.

* Therefore, if the church was already dedicated to St. Martin, St. Neophyta lived after the year 400; even later if she was born of a sister of St. Oswald the King.

** Whether the author conjectures that so many souls are freed from Purgatory by some indulgence granted by the Pontiff, or by the prayers of the Limburg monks and other pious persons, is uncertain.

* If she was a niece of St. Oswald, this Gregory must have been Gregory II or III, who lived at the beginning of the eighth century; for Gregory I died easily forty years before St. Oswald.