Frodobert of Moûtier-la-Celle

ON ST. FRODOBERTUS, ABBOT, AT TROYES IN GAUL.

Frodobertus, Abbot of Celle at Troyes in Gaul (St.)

End of the Seventh Century.

[1] The monastery of Celle, of the Order of St. Benedict, is a celebrated institution — also called St. Peter of the Ile Germanique, or St. Peter de Cella, and the Cella of St. Bobinus — commonly known as Moustier-la-Celle; situated in the suburbs of the city of Troyes (Augustae Trecarum), The monastery of Celle built by St. Frodobertus. in the province of Champagne in Gaul. It was built nearly a thousand years ago, in the times of Clovis II and Clotaire III, by St. Frodobertus, whose sacred remains are reverently preserved there.

[2] St. Frodobertus died near the end of the seventh century, on the Kalends of January; His feast day, but his principal celebration is held on the sixth day before the Ides of the same month, on which day, in the year 872, the translation of his most holy body was made. And on the Kalends, the following is read about him in the manuscript calendar of Celle, translation: which Nicolaus Camuzaeus cites in his Antiquities of the Diocese of Troyes: "On this day, the passing of St. Frodobertus." But on January 8, the Cologne Carthusians and Molanus in the Additions to Usuard, and the German Martyrology: "At Troyes, of St. Frodobertus the Abbot." Hugo Menardus, Wion, Ferrarius, and the manuscript Florarium also mention him. More fully, the already cited Celle calendar: "In the territory of Troyes, on the Ile Germanique, the feast of the glorious Confessor of Christ, Frodobertus, who among his very many and outstanding virtues shone with such great grace of simplicity that his most blessed soul deserved to attain the purity of childlike innocence." Andreas Saussaius in the Gallican Martyrology: "At Troyes, the elevation of the body of the Blessed Frodobertus, Abbot and Confessor, whose anniversary feast is celebrated on the Kalends of January."

[3] The same Saussaius again celebrates him with a lengthy and elegant eulogy on December 31. But the Celle manuscript records on October 16: "On the same day, in the monastery of the Ile Germanique, the Translation of the most glorious Confessor of Christ, Frodobertus." The former translation is described below in the Life, chapters 8 and 9. What the later one was Another translation. has not yet been ascertained by us. Camuzaeus reports that in the year 1470, on April 23, a wooden casket was constructed, which still survives in the church of the same monastery, adorned with various paintings Transfer of relics into a new shrine. and distinguished with images, into which Ludovicus Raguier, the commendatory Abbot of that monastery and Bishop of Troyes, placed the relics of St. Frodobertus with the greatest veneration.

[4] Nicolaus Camuzaeus published the Life of St. Frodobertus from the Celle manuscript. By whom the Life was written, The author shows himself to have been a monk or abbot there, since in chapter 3, section 11, he writes: "which (privilege) is in the archives of our monastery." He appears to have lived in the times of Charles the Bald, when. or shortly after, near the end of the ninth century. For speaking of the stature of the Saint in chapter 6, section 23, he says: "As those also attest who confess that they have examined the bones of his most holy body." Moreover, he records nothing done after the translation made in the year 872 or 873. Andreas du Chesne cites this Life in volume 1 of the Frankish Writers.

[5] Another written by Lupellus and others. The first to commit to writing the notable features of the life and conduct of Frodobertus, as is declared in his own written account, although more briefly than was due, was Lupellus, his disciple, as is said in chapter 5, section 21. It seems, however, that someone else after him at least committed the miracles to writing. For in chapter 7, section 26, concerning St. Prudentius the Bishop, it is said: "Since he had neither learned his life, full of faith and miracles, by reading, nor found it to be available anywhere." And then: "When, having returned to the city, he had more carefully learned of the miracles wrought through the most holy Confessor, from the perusal of the records of his deeds," etc. Saussaius also encompassed the entire Life of the Saint in the eulogy already cited. Jacques Tigeou also briefly summarized it in French.

LIFE

By an anonymous monk of Celle. From the Antiquities of Troyes by Nicolaus Camuzaeus.

Frodobertus, Abbot of Celle at Troyes in Gaul (St.) BHL Number: 3178

By a Monk of Celle, from Nicolaus Camuzaeus.

CHAPTER I.

The holy infancy of St. Frodobertus.

[1] The homeland of St. Frodobertus, There was a man of a very venerable life and outstanding and precious memory, Frodobertus, whom the land of the city of Troyes brought forth — most holy in his singular faith and integrity, divinely enriched with a most happy citizen — born indeed of parents of moderate station, but most illustrious for the incomparable brilliance of his mind. For already amid the very beginnings of his tender age, most clearly designated as a vessel of election, his holy infancy, he conducted himself as a spiritual and most perfect man in the breast of an infant, compensating for the smallness of his years with the endowment of holiness and grace. His era. Indeed, when the sequence of time is carefully examined, this precious priest and distinguished abbot is found to have flourished under Clovis, King of the Franks, son of Dagobert, and likewise under Clotaire the Younger, son of the same Clovis, while the Bishop Ragnegisilus served the Apostolic office in the aforesaid city of Troyes. Ragnegisilus, Bishop of Troyes. This Ragnegisilus was of Aquitanian nationality, the seventeenth bishop of the said city: concerning whom it is reported, among other things, that he built the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Savina on his own land, appointing the Church over which he presided as his heir, and in which he lies honorably buried. The Blessed Frodobertus lived under five bishops of his city, up to Abbo, who is known to have been the twenty-first bishop of the same city.

[2] But to return to the order of events, as soon as his age permitted, he was committed by the zeal of his parents to the schools of the aforesaid Bishop Ragnegisilus. There, nourished in holy studies, it cannot be expressed what faith and what integrity he already displayed in himself. At length, burning ardently with love for the heavenly homeland, St. Frodobertus studies, and practices what he learns. whatever he could grasp by understanding in the divine readings, he immediately transferred to the accomplishment of holy work with the greatest earnestness. And so, with untiring zeal, frequenting the purest streams of the Scriptures, he composed the face of the inner man as if with a most splendid mirror, and counted it the greatest of crimes if he read even the least thing which he did not immediately fulfill effectively: turning over within himself, more frequently and more familiarly, the saying that not merely the hearers of the law are justified before God, but rather the doers. Rom. 2:13. Then indeed you might see him setting before himself in eager emulation the examples of the former Fathers, and you could scarcely discern in which kind of virtue he shone more perfectly. And in order to slay himself as a whole as a rational victim and spiritual holocaust to God, Devoted to prayer and fasting. he applied himself to the practice of continual prayer, and impatient of rest, he demanded more insistently of himself the Apostolic precept which teaches that one should pray without ceasing. 1 Thess. 5:17. The observance of fasting he practiced not so much frequently as continuously, having been taught by the Lord's authority that by this double manner of fighting, that most abominable kind of demons can be expelled. Matt. 17:20. Such was the armor that this new soldier of Christ had already assumed in the schools of the divine warfare, and having recently professed the heavenly service, he prepared himself more circumspectly to subdue spiritual wickedness.

[3] Meanwhile, amid these so holy and excellent studies, the envious temptations of the cunning enemy were not lacking: for the adversary of human salvation was already envying in his boyhood years the excellence of future holiness in him. Whence, He drives off the demon with the Sign of the Cross. as was later discovered from his own report, while he was going to school to learn the Psalter, the devil frequently thrust himself before his eyes, shaking his naturally timid spirits with an immense art of threats and terror. But the boy of divine genius, not ignorant of demonic fraud and cunning, armed both his forehead and his breast with the shield of the saving sign, and invoking God as his helper, he manfully trampled the cunning devices of the enemy.

[4] And now the time had come when the lamp, which had hitherto been hidden under the shelter of a bushel, might pour forth the light of its starry brightness upon the people. For in order that it might become known far and wide of what merit he was before God, the heavenly disposition deigned to declare by a miracle the purity of childlike innocence that was pleasing to it. He restores sight to his mother by the Sign of the Cross. It happened, therefore, that his mother, deprived of the service of her eyes, incurred the loss of light: and when, enduring a long night in blindness, she was wasting her life in sorrow, one day, caressing her son with embraces, she begged him to make the sign of the Cross with his hand over her eyes. When he refused, but his mother pressed him more insistently, at length moved by his mother's persistence, invoking the Lord, he made the saving sign over his mother's eyes: immediately the darkness yielded, the welcome light returned; and by the merit of a small son, a great benefit was bestowed upon the mother. This miracle, immediately spread abroad everywhere, struck all with astonishment, and even incited some more ardently to the imitation of the holy life.

a Clovis II succeeded his father Dagobert in the year of Christ 644. He died in 660.

b Clotaire III succeeded his father in the kingdom of Neustria in the year 660. He died in 664.

c Camuzaeus testifies that the stone coffin in which he was buried still survives. We shall treat of St. Sabina on January 29.

d These are enumerated by Camuzaeus and Claudius Robertus: Ragnegisilus, Leuconius or Leoconius, Bertoaldus, Wammirus or Vammirus, Abbo Felix. Flodoardus writes in book 2, chapter 6, that this Abbo exchanged certain properties with Leudegisilus, Archbishop of Reims. From this one may refute the catalogue of the Bishops of Reims published by Colvenerius, in which Leudegisilus is said to have died in the year 647, since Ragnegisilus survived at least until the reign of Clovis II, after whom the fifth bishop was Abbo, under whom St. Frodobertus died. More correctly, Camuzaeus says that Abbo held the see around the year 700.

CHAPTER II.

The religious life at Luxeuil and at Troyes.

[5] The aforementioned Bishop, then, having beheld the outstanding purity of mind in the youth He becomes a cleric. and the surpassing efficacy of his virtue, assigned him to the divine ministries by imposing the office of the clerical state. After this, animated by the solicitude of charity and the zeal for divine profit, he decided to send him to the monastery of Luxeuil for the sake of spiritual advancement, He is sent to Luxeuil. so that, drawn by the imitation of the religious, he might himself grow in virtues and afterward bring back to his own region the most luminous examples of holiness and perfection. At that time Abbot Walbert presided over that monastery, a man famous for his religion and renowned for his reputation of holiness. When Frodobertus arrived there by the Bishop's command, he was received by the holy Fathers of that place with joyful exultation, and was assigned to the fellowship of the congregation. He flourishes in virtue. The candor of his mind and his outstanding simplicity quickly became known to all. All marveled at the extraordinary humility in the young man, his incomparable abstinence, his singular patience, and the fact that, always intent upon heavenly desires, he displayed an angelic life among men. At that time the aforementioned monastery of Luxeuil was almost unique in the regions of Gaul, both in the height of its religious life and in the perfection of its teaching. For which reason very many, in whom the fervor of advancing in either direction burned, flocked to that place with competing zeal from all directions.

[6] At the time, therefore, when the Blessed Frodobertus was dwelling there, the apostolic man Bertoaldus, Bishop of the city of Langres, took care to send a certain abbot from the monastery of St. Sequanus, named Teudolenus, there for the sake of learning. Teudolenus examines the virtue of Frodobertus. The Blessed Frodobertus frequently visited his lodging, as youthful age is wont to attach itself more eagerly to the friendships of those of the same age. But when that man had perceived such great purity of mind in the man of God, impelled by a curious levity, he began zealously to examine whether that simplicity flowed from the font of inward purity, or whether, as is common with some, it concealed a deceitful mind under simulated innocence. For this reason he was frequently harassed with foolish mockeries, both by Teudolenus himself and by certain brethren of the place: yet he contradicted no one, injured no one, and did not return injury for injury. For he had so ordered his life that he overcame insults inflicted upon him with patience, more frequently turning over within himself the verse of David: "I have become as a beast before you." And so he always preferred unfeigned simplicity to worldly cunning, choosing to be made foolish to the world by mockeries, so that he might be wise in God.

[7] His wondrous patience and simplicity. On a certain day, therefore, when he had gone to the lodging of the aforesaid Teudolenus, the latter, for the sake of both mockery and testing, asked him to go to the cell of a certain brother in the monastery and bring back a compass, asserting that he needed it for writing. Frodobertus, more quickly than the word, sped on his way and reached the designated brother at a rapid pace: who, being aware of his simplicity and not ignorant of the mockery for which he had been sent, placed the center stone of a millstone on his neck and urgently commanded him to carry it to the lodging of Teudolenus as quickly as possible. He carries a millstone in place of a compass. Without any hesitation, he bore the received burden with equanimity, although he was so weighed down by the heaviness of the stone that he could scarcely advance his steps one after another. In the midst of this he met the most reverend Abbot Walbert, to whom this matter had already been reported by certain brethren. When the venerable Abbot, therefore, saw this most gentle sheep of Christ being burdened with an unjust load, he groaned deeply, sorrowing both at his affliction and at their levity. And immediately, rebuking him rather sharply, he ordered him to cast down the burden from his shoulders, and inquired more carefully the reason why he was fatiguing himself so greatly. But the man of supreme innocence asserted that the compass he was carrying was necessary for writing, saying that he was carrying it to the cell of a certain brother at the command of Teudolenus. For since he was entirely devoid of all cunning, he was utterly ignorant of what a compass was, thinking it to be nothing other than what he was carrying on his neck. At length the Abbot, having perceived the most simple mind of the man, burst into tears from motives of piety, and summoning those who had presumed to fatigue the holy man with such cruelty, he rebuked them more severely than usual and imposed upon them the penance of due satisfaction for their rash deed. When they had been thus corrected, the rest of the brethren thereafter refrained from injuring their brother. O man, sharer in angelic purity, and happy in the imitation of our Savior, who was led like a sheep to the slaughter and when he was badly treated did not open his mouth! I may confidently say that, obeying the evangelical precepts in a singular manner, he would not strike back at one who struck him; and if pressed into service for a thousand paces by anyone, he would willingly hasten two thousand more. Matt. 5:41. And to say more, if anyone had dragged him to execution and placed upon him a penal cross, he would have taken it up willingly, and bearing it gently on his shoulders, would have followed Christ the Lord.

[8] After many years had passed, he returned to the city of Troyes for the sake of his Bishop's desire and to visit his parents, together with certain brethren. Having stayed for some days with the aforesaid Bishop of his city, he requested leave to return whence he had come. He is retained at Troyes by the Bishop. But the Bishop, using wiser counsel, judging that it would not be right for him to send away so great and such a man, retained him by forceful authority. When therefore the holy season of Lent approached, hiding himself in a more secluded cell, with the earnestness of prayer and vigils, he began to constrain himself with the most rigorous fasts. His abstinence: For although he always excelled in the incomparable virtue of abstinence, in these days, however, the enemy of his body had imposed upon himself a more austere mortification of the flesh, to such a degree that he would pass many continuous days without any support of food. At length, as the cycle of years recurred, when he had worn himself down with this manner of cruelty for two or three Lenten seasons, this manner of life was reported to the Bishop; nor were malevolent persons lacking who, carping at his holiness with an envious tooth, said that he either ate secretly or wished to destroy his body by starvation. Therefore, when the next Lent was imminent, the Bishop, curious about such things, assigned him a cell within the portico of the church, in which he might complete the times of abstinence with his customary devotion. examined by the Bishop. For the Bishop frequently entered the cell unexpectedly, wishing to ascertain more certainly with what zeal of holiness he burned, and how much grace heavenly piety bestowed upon him in the virtue of abstinence. And soon the falsehood of the accusers was laid bare, and the sincerity of his holy way of life, tested by the Bishop's curiosity, shone forth. And what had formerly been attributed to pretense passed into an increase of divine praise.

[9] From that time the fame of his blessedness resounded far and wide, to such a degree that from more remote places also, crowds of the infirm flocked to him, demanding the benefits of health by the merit of his holiness. But the man worthy of God, desiring to persist in the citadel of humility, never allowed himself to presume anything of himself, or to assign anything to his own powers. Only blessing oil, He heals diseases with blessed oil. he more earnestly invoked the name of Christ over the sick: who, anointed with it and having recovered their strength, returned to their homes with their wishes fulfilled. Indeed, in driving out demons he was so preeminent in the excellence of his power that whenever he impressed the sign of the Cross on the forehead or breast of any demoniac, He drives out demons with the sign of the Cross. immediately the malign spirit, compelled by his command, was put to flight and departed. For rightly did such great power in the expulsion of demons attend him, so that he might confidently command them, who had submitted himself wholly to the obedience of divine commandments.

[10] He narrates his own virtues for edification. It was the custom of the most holy man, that whenever he engaged in familiar conversation with his disciples, he would narrate to them for the sake of edification or example the things which he had done in secret — not arrogantly displaying his own good works, but wisely and humbly manifesting them, so that divine praise might grow through him, indeed in him, and might form the minds of his hearers to the zeal of holy imitation. For how much he was a fugitive from favor or vainglory, his cultivation of the solitary life declared.

a We shall treat of this most noble monastery in the Life of St. Columban on November 21, of St. Eustasius on March 29, and elsewhere. Viellius says he became a monk at Lution; but it was at Luxeuil, not Lution, that St. Walbert was Abbot.

b We shall give the Life of St. Walbert, or Waldebertus, on May 2.

c Bertoaldus was present at the Council of Chalon held around the year 650: his predecessor Modoaldus was present at the Council of Reims under Archbishop Sonnatius around the year 630.

d We shall treat of St. Sequanus the Abbot and his monastery, which is situated in the diocese of Langres not far from the source of the Seine, on September 19.

e Claudius Robertus calls him Tendolinus.

CHAPTER III.

The monastery built at Troyes.

[11] At length, burning to avoid the assemblies of human society, he frequently revolved in his anxious mind in what place he might establish a dwelling suitable for his profession and purpose. And although very many of the nobles of the region were most intimately attached to his holiness, he nevertheless judged it improper to ask from any of them a portion of a field or estate, providing not only for himself but also for posterity, lest the religious brotherhood which he wished to gather in the sacred habit should suffer any disturbance or trouble from any secular person on account of the place of their habitation. Wherefore, by divine counsel inspiring him, setting out for the royal court, Clovis II grants him a place for building a monastery. by the munificence of Clovis, the illustrious former King of the Franks, he obtained a certain marshy place in the suburb of the city of Troyes, which was called by the ancient custom the Ile Germanique. Afterward, however, after the death of Clovis, Clotaire III confirms. he approached his son Clotaire in the second year of his reign, and with the consent of the venerable Queen Bathild, mother of the same Clotaire, he again deserved to obtain a privilege of royal authority for the aforesaid place: which, because it is contained in the archives of our monastery to this day, we have judged it superfluous to insert here, since we confess it is readily available for anyone who wishes to read it.

[12] The place itself, moreover, although belonging to the fisc, was, as has been said, overflowing with marshes and bubbling with frequent eruptions of pools, and filled with wild shrubs — more suited to the habitation of beasts and serpents than to the company of men. He cultivates the formerly marshy place. Armed therefore with the authority of these kings, and, what is most important, strengthened by heavenly aid, he sought out the horrible desolation of the place, and, applying himself to the primary task, having uprooted the thickets and drained the pools, he prepared a space suitable for habitation. There, having built a cell and an oratory, Frodobertus at first lived a solitary life with a few brethren, devoted to divine contemplation and always occupied with angelic actions.

[13] The illustrious Frodobertus therefore then began to enlarge the place of habitation granted to himself and his followers, contributing entirely to the common stock whatever estates and possessions had been his patrimony, and most earnestly acquiring a plentiful gain of servants, handmaids, fields, and moreover vineyards, He variously endows the monastery. for a price, under testaments which survive to this day. But soon also the parents of that blessed man donated to him most generous portions of their goods and treasures, with legal instruments duly completed. In the course of time, the same place, strengthened in robust growth by the attendance of religious, and enriched by the generosity of nobles who flocked there, extended the boundaries of its properties and possessions. And the number of the monastic congregation, increasing copiously day by day, rendered the monastery noble and famous everywhere. Nor should it be passed over that from the monks of the same place who followed the life and rule of the Blessed Frodobertus, Distinguished men educated there. very many afterward became bishops in the city of Troyes, among whom Aldobertus, a man of the highest genius and outstanding holiness; and likewise Bobinus, of Aquitanian nationality: both of whom conferred immense benefits upon that place, enlarging it within and without by whatever means were possible, and thus completing the last day in the fullness of good works, they obtained noble burial within the enclosure of the basilica of the same monastery. Having thus set forth these matters, let us return to the order of events.

a Therefore the year of Christ 661 or 662.

b We shall give the Life of St. Bathild on January 26.

c From this it is evident that the author was a monk in the same Ile Germanique, or Celle of St. Frodobertus.

d Camuzaeus recites this: but his interpretation that the words in the privilege bono crea decem should be read as bonas acras decem, because the Normans still call a measure of land an acre, does not satisfy. For why would he call them "good acres" in such marshy soil, more suited, as is said here, to the habitation of serpents than of men? I have no doubt that bonaria decem should be read.

e Aldobertus, or Aldebertus, is recorded by Camuzaeus and Claudius Robertus as the twenty-fourth Bishop of the Church of Troyes.

f He was the twenty-ninth bishop. The day of his Translation is celebrated (for his feast day is unknown) on April 22. From him the Celle monastery is called the Cella of Bobinus. Camuzaeus.

CHAPTER IV.

The virtues, revelations, and miracles of St. Frodobertus.

[14] St. Frodobertus is famous for miracles. The unfailing grace of spiritual progress flourished in the holy man, commended not only by his examples and character but also by the solemn splendor of miracles. How great his generosity was, and how great the abundance of his charity, will be evident from one simple account. It happened that at a certain time, in the convent of nuns which was consecrated in the name of the Blessed Martyr Quintinus and situated within the city, he deposited two casks of wine capable of holding approximately thirty modii, because that same place was most familiar to him and joined to him by a special bond of charity, and especially committed to his instruction and governance. For since, on account of the merit of his holiness, he was venerated by all with preeminent reverence, each person counted it the highest good if he had deserved to be joined even moderately to his friendship; and that in all things and with all persons he should act more affectionately, and should presume unhesitatingly concerning all, was most welcome and desirable to everyone. Wine overflows from the vessel by his merits. And when he often invited many there in the service of charity to partake of a cup, on a certain day he entered the storeroom cell as usual and found the surface of the floor flooded with an overflow of wine, and fearing lest perhaps the loss of liquid had come from a leak in the cask, he ordered a brother who happened to have come with him to inspect the mouth of the upper opening: when this was done (marvelous to say), the wine was seen overflowing from above. And it was established clearly enough that the more freely charity drew, the more abundantly the benign generosity of the Creator restored what had been drawn. This is believed to have been done by the piety of him who, when he commands us to be merciful and to give to the needy so that many things may be given to us in return, nonetheless promises that in whatever measure we give, in the same it will be measured back to us. For the divine hand is not only generous, but also rich and overflowing. Luke 6:38. Nor is it to be feared that poverty might follow generosity, since, as the Apostle says, "He who sows in blessings," etc., "and he who supplies seed to the sower will also furnish bread for eating and will multiply the increase of the fruits of our justice." 2 Cor. 9:6, 10.

[15] It was moreover customary for the man of God, who thirsted insatiably for the heavenly homeland, to visit sacred places with greater devotion, and to celebrate with due veneration the feasts of the holy Martyrs or Confessors whenever they returned with the revolving cycle of the year. He visits holy places: he devoutly observes feast days. For he had especially prescribed for himself that he should observe the holidays of sacred days with a certain particular attention, so that you would think he was dying together with the Martyrs themselves, and was no longer detained by the uses of the earthly mass.

[16] Thus on one occasion, when the most splendid solemnity of the Blessed Quintinus, the precious Martyr, arrived, he was invited by the Abbess of that monastery, named Rocula, and the other nuns, as a courtesy of religion, so that the most holy man might be present at the offices of the divine celebration, and might illuminate the joys of so great a feast with the lamp of his holiness and sublime merits. For apart from his incomparable devotion toward the Saints, that also compelled him to frequent sacred places on feast days: that he provided spiritual governance for them. Nor did he delay in coming, judging that the desires of nuns devoted to God ought not to be frustrated. He prays in the church at night. When the evening office of the sacred vigils was completed, therefore, and the multitude of the common people had returned to their accustomed lodgings, the holy man remained in the church, and devoting himself to secret prayers, he kept spiritual watch. But the aforesaid Abbess, not overly curious about what the holy man was doing, concealing herself in the basilica with certain nuns, marveled attentively with the sisters at his outstanding earnestness in prayer and the most abundant richness of his compunction. Soon the enemy, hostile to human salvation and most jealous of blessed works, was present, who, even if he could not entirely remove the most pure holocaust of God, nevertheless attempted to defile it with the poison of suspected fraud. The demon overturns the candlestick. For he overturned the candlestick on which a candle had been placed, and by extinguishing the light, clearly showed that he was a lover of night and darkness. Yet the man of the Lord persisted in his study of prayer: nor could he be darkened by earthly shadows, for whom Christ, the author and font of light, was most present; whose outer eye, though dimmed by the nocturnal darkness, yet whose inmost mind, always pure for contemplating God, gleamed with the lamp of true light.

[17] Meanwhile, after a course of a few days had passed, the servant of Christ was going as usual, in his honor, to the basilica of the Blessed Confessor Aventinus: and when he was already entering the doors of the church, it happened that a certain demoniac was being tormented by the agitation of a demon; who, captive with rabid plague, when he had loosened his wretched mouth to words of madness, The demon reproaches him about the demoniac. among other utterances of his frenzied breast, repeatedly calling upon the name of the Blessed Frodobertus, he insulted the holy man with insolent words, saying that while Frodobertus was keeping his sacred vigils, the demon had taken away the comfort of the light. But the most vigorous soldier of Christ, conscious of the diabolical fraud, could be shaken by no art of the enemy and terrified by no threat, for whom Christ was the protection and an impregnable fortress against hostile machinations. Indeed, the more he recognized the fiercer the struggles of the demons against him were, the more robustly he prepared himself for the spiritual fight against the invisible powers of wickedness.

[18] It is worthwhile also to convey to the ears of the faithful Divine things are revealed to him. that often, with the Lord benignly granting, the secrets of the heavenly court were opened to him: and since he always dwelt in mind in heavenly things, divine piety more frequently offered him a draught of supernatural joy, so that he might run toward this the more ardently, the more eagerly he had tasted the sweetness of its delight. For on a certain day the venerable Theudecarius, Abbot of the same suburb, had come to him for the sake of both visitation and instruction, as it was the custom of all religious persons in the surrounding area to frequently seek out this same holy man, so that they might be instructed by his exhortation and strengthened by his most holy blessing. And so, at about the third hour, while Frodobertus, full of the Holy Spirit, was engaged in fruitful and spiritual conversation with the aforesaid most Christian man, Abbot Theudecarius, he heard the choirs of angels singing heavenly hymns to the glory of the holy and undivided Trinity He hears the singing of angels. with harmonious sweetness and ineffable melody. After he had drunk in this sweetness of song for some time with astonished ears, he called the aforesaid Theudecarius as a witness to this miracle. From whose subsequent report also, so wonderful a thing came to the knowledge of very many. O the singular merit of this blessed man! who, although he still dwelt as a pilgrim in the world, yet recognized the angelic voices in heaven, our Redeemer divinely bestowing this upon him, who sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to his disciples at the third hour.

[19] A certain woman of the same region, called Bertha by her parents, having lost the soundness of her senses, had fallen into the alienation of pitiable madness, and fleeing the fellowship of human cohabitation, He restores a madwoman to her senses. she was always carried about, wandering and unstable, to uncertain abodes. Her anxious parents brought her to the presence of the blessed man. But he, moved in his inmost bowels of piety, grieved at the lot of the unhappy woman; and immediately casting himself upon prayer, he poured forth tears to gain the commerce of another's health. Nor were the copious gifts of heavenly clemency long delayed: for as soon as he rose from prayer and placed the sign of the life-giving Cross upon her head, immediately the pitiable madness yielded, and she received the fullness of her senses with integrity of health, and living a long time afterward, she carried about with her the joys of her restoration as a testimony to his holiness. By these and similar virtues, divine excellence was advancing a soldier most pleasing to itself: and the one whom it had decreed to place most eminently at the summit of the heavenly kingdom, it did not cease to render distinguished and celebrated also in the course of this world through frequent miracles.

a The church of St. Quintinus at Troyes, says Camuzaeus, was formerly a convent of nuns; but now it is a priory dependent on Molesme of the Benedictine order, and is customarily held and served by a monk of the same order.

b That is, 480 sextarii, equivalent to 10 Roman amphorae or metretae.

c October 31.

d We shall give his Life on February 4.

CHAPTER V.

Illness and death.

[20] For the time was now approaching when Christ would withdraw his athlete from the perilous arena of this world and establish him as a most peaceful victor in the station of the heavenly camp. The time, I say, had come when, in return for the sweat of many contests, for the torments of singular abstinence, for all his works of piety, he would receive the warrior, now weary in body, unto himself, and, having placed him in the paternal mansions, would adorn him with the crown of glory and honor, and, clothed with the garment of eternity and immortality, would set him among the angels and associate him with the apostles. He is seized by illness. And so he was seized with a mild bodily illness: yet strong in unfailing spirit, he strove to pursue the prize of eternal recompense. For he had long desired to be released from the prison of his bodily mass, that he might be with Christ; He predicts the day of his death. although for the instruction of the faithful he was proved to be necessary in the flesh: and to this, for the consolation of the highest security, the divine Majesty added this gift as well, that it revealed to him the day of his sacred passing from this world. When at length this revelation was received, he immediately devoted himself entirely to the divinity, neither fearing death nor dreading the loss of bodily dissolution: but frequently revolving within himself that if the earthly structure of our habitation is dissolved, a far better one is restored in the heavens. Indeed, the conscience of his past life also brought him very little terror and very much confidence, because he had lived not for the present age but for God; because he had always preferred the divine will to his own; because, sighing unceasingly for heavenly rewards, he had set God before his eyes as present. Therefore, as his illness grew worse, he called together his disciples and declared to them the day of his passing, which he had learned from divine revelation. And when the most gentle flock was saddened at the departure and absence of their most vigilant shepherd, conceiving a deeper sermon of exhortation, he restrained all from weeping; affirming that they ought rather to rejoice for him than to grieve, because he who had hitherto lived in exile was now, returned to his homeland, being called to the banquet of his King. He consoles his own. Attesting especially and frequently this: that they should preserve with inviolable constancy until the end of their lives the norm of holy instruction which they had both learned from his teaching and observed from his practice.

[21] Meanwhile, the day of the Lord's Nativity, most festive in heaven and on earth and to be celebrated throughout the whole world, had dawned. Having summoned two disciples by name — Leo, a most holy man, who was then the most gentle Abbot in the same suburb, He asks that the church be consecrated on the feast of the Nativity. and likewise Lupellus, who committed to writing the notable features of his life and conduct, as is declared in his own written account, although more briefly than was due — he sent them with the greatest speed to Abbo, the most reverend Bishop of that city at the time, humbly beseeching that the oratory which he himself had built in honor of the Prince of the Apostles in the marsh described above be consecrated on the day of the Lord's birth. For the congregation of monks had grown with God's help, and he had built a second, larger church than the first. When the Bishop declines, his life is extended by eight days. The Bishop, having received this supplication and having reasonably weighed the matter within himself, excused himself with prudent moderation, asserting that what was asked could by no means be accomplished on the day requested; because both the demands of the feast's offices occupied him more fully with his clergy, and ecclesiastical custom in no way permitted it to be done on that day. The disciples returned more hastily and brought the Bishop's response to the holy Father: who, considering it more carefully and perceiving it to be reasonable, raising his hands to heaven and his face bathed in tears, said: "May the Lord pardon me, and you, my sons, forgive me, that thinking less circumspectly about this matter, I have compelled your brotherhood to useless labor in going and returning." Lest, however, the holy mind should be utterly frustrated in its desires, it was provided for by divine piety. For having received a delay of his sacred death, he extended the span of his life to the eighth day from the Lord's Nativity, the Lord so furthering his most holy wishes that on one and the same day, through the hands of the aforesaid Bishop, both the basilica received its consecration and the earth received the burial of his sacred body.

[22] And so, when according to the custom of Christian observance, the celebration of the Lord's Circumcision was imminent on the Kalends of January, the holy soul was being summoned to its happy passage as the illness pressed more urgently. Yet even so, the service of his tongue did not refrain from holy admonitions, as he tirelessly exhorted the disciples who stood by him, that they should guard among themselves the indissoluble bond of charity, and persisting in the practice of saving obedience, should always call the fear of God back before their eyes. One reading the Gospel before him is freed from headache. And now, as the sun was declining to the lowest parts of the earth, he commanded the aforesaid Lupellus, who had been accustomed to serve him more intimately, to be summoned more quickly. When he was brought into his presence, Frodobertus commanded him to read the sacred Gospel before him. But Lupellus was being more sharply tormented by a headache. And when, as he himself afterward related, he had applied his mind — though with difficulty — to obeying the holy commands, at the very beginning of the reading, all the pain departed so completely that nothing of pain and nothing of the former trouble remained. Frodobertus dies. Meanwhile, throughout the entire course of the night, always intent upon God, as hour succeeded hour amid spiritual conversations, and when the full measure of psalmody and prayers had been solemnly completed by the brethren in the church, he again ordered all the disciples to be present, and while the text of the Lord's Passion was being read before him, the holy soul, stripped of the veil of flesh, under the eyes of all penetrated the heavens with a blessed departure.

CHAPTER VI.

Burial and miracles.

[23] When he had thus been taken from the assemblies of mortals, immediately his most reverend nephew Waldinus, who afterward succeeded his uncle as Abbot in the same monastery, hastening in a rapid pace to the convent of St. Quintinus, came to the memorable Abbess Gibitrudis and announced the death of the holy man. Immediately a certain new and almost intolerable grief rushed into the hearts of all, and it was thought that a part of their salvation had been taken away, so great an absence of their father having come upon them. When therefore the entire company of nuns burst into tears and weeping, the venerable Abbess, moved with deep-felt piety, hastened with rapid pace to the funeral rites of the holy man as quickly as possible. And when they were deliberating about the care of the funeral, she inquired whether a coffin had been prepared for the burial of the body; the reply was that a stone monument had indeed been purchased from a certain illustrious man named Walbertus, He was of tall stature. but that it was in no way suitable for the height of his body. For the most holy man there was not only splendid in soul, but also handsome and stately in his fair and tall body, as those also attest who confess that they have beheld the bones of his most sacred body. A sarcophagus is miraculously made to fit him. Servants were therefore sent in haste to bring it, and soon it became wondrously evident by a miracle that he for whom the funeral rites were being prepared was of the highest merit. For when the same Walbertus had sent certain members of his household to assign the purchased sarcophagus to those who had come to carry it, by the disposition of heavenly clemency, such a confusion of mind eluded them that instead of the smaller vessel which had been purchased, they designated another that was more spacious and capacious, which the same Walbertus had prepared for himself. Placing this on a vehicle, they carried it as quickly as possible to the place where the holy man had decreed he should be buried. Thus almighty God, who has care for all, did not permit even the ashes of his chosen servant to lack anything suitable.

[24] When therefore all things pertaining to the needs of burial had been most elegantly prepared, the above-mentioned most reverend Bishop, He is buried, the church having been dedicated. surrounded by a company of suburban abbots, clergy, and people, hastened to the funeral rites of the Blessed Frodobertus, while his sacred body still lay composed in the Christian manner in his cell. He first girded himself, as the occasion demanded, to carry out the dedication of the aforesaid basilica: when he had completed this with solemn rite, raising the sacred body with reverence, he brought it into the church, and on the day of the same dedication — namely the Kalends of January — with hymns and praises and the entire apparatus of the ecclesiastical office, he solemnly committed it to burial in the very basilica which Frodobertus himself had built. Thus the man of the Lord, most dutifully commended to the bowels of the earth, celebrates in his soul the seventh sabbath with Christ, and awaits without fear — indeed confident of glory — the eighth day, which is universally promised for the resurrection of us all, though dead in body, yet forever glorious in his living merits.

[25] He rested therefore in the same basilica through very many cycles of years, He is famous for miracles. frequented by a great multitude of people flowing together from all sides, and zealously made manifest by almost continual successes of miracles. For who came to his holy memorial to pray faithfully whom the effect of devout prayer did not immediately assist? Various remedies for both souls and bodies were bestowed there, as both the longed-for health came to the weak and a happy indulgence to those oppressed by the enormity of their crimes. And if anyone, detained by any capital affliction, betook himself to the protection of the Saint, consoled by his beneficence, he soon found swift relief. Thus the benign Creator accomplished many and wonderful things through the most choice Confessor of his name: and the one whom he had enriched while living with copious rewards of good works, he also exalted when dead with unwearied titles of miracles. Much is donated to the monastery. Wherefore a wondrous fervor toward the Saint had kindled the hearts of all, so that very many of the neighboring nobles, and also religious women, enriched that place with no small quantity of estates — both for obtaining burial, which all there most eagerly sought, and also so that those who served the sacred body should not lack suitable sustenance, and that those whom the fame of the Saint zealously drew from remote regions might be aided by the duty of generous hospitality.

a It is probable that this was done at the translation, in the time of Charles the Bald, in whose era this Life appears to have been written, as we said above.

CHAPTER VII.

The cult neglected and restored.

[26] The cult grows more negligent: miracles cease. Meanwhile, in the gliding course of passing times, when iniquity abounded and the charity of many had begun to grow cold, all that former fervor toward the Saint's service grew lukewarm, and as the worship of religion ceased and that former attendance grew scarce, the miracles also cooled for a time. The pernicious negligence of this lukewarmness or torpor came about in this manner. The structure of his church, which he himself, as was established above, had built, and in which his sacred body had long been attended and preserved with due reverence, gradually collapsed through the antiquity of the work, and with no one to support it, it fell utterly into ruin. While another church was being built in its place, the venerable body of the blessed Confessor remained unmoved and untouched in the crypt of the former basilica. There was at that time the Bishop of the aforesaid see, A new church is dedicated, with the Saint's body removed. Prudentius by name, a Spaniard by nationality, most illustrious for his institution of pontifical life, and not moderately learned in divine things from every source. When he was summoned by the brethren for the consecration of the aforesaid basilica, he inquired more carefully whether any buried corpses were covered between the walls to be consecrated. And when he had found that there were very many, he ordered that all should first be removed from the temple, attesting that he would not otherwise undertake the office of consecration: for the aforesaid Bishop was still ignorant of the outstanding renown of the merits of the Blessed Frodobertus, which had been obscured by the negligence of the times — since he had neither learned by reading his life, full of faith and miracles, nor found it to be available anywhere until then.

[27] He orders the body to be brought back. When the dedication of the temple was completed, and having returned to the city, he had more carefully learned of the miracles wrought through the most holy Confessor from the perusal of the records of his deeds, he first rebuked himself most vehemently for his past ignorance, and bitterly reproached himself that he had treated the cause of so great a Father less honorably, and thereafter he sent the Archdeacon of his see with the entire apparatus of clerics, earnestly commanding that the body of this most preeminent man be brought back into the church with great reverence. At the same time he appointed a date and a day on which he himself would come and place it with fitting honor, and, celebrating the feast of his sacred Translation with public ceremony, would decree it to be observed in perpetual rite by posterity. But the burden of an intervening illness thwarted the accomplishment of this holy desire. For overtaken by imminent death, he was unable to carry out what he had piously planned.

[28] And so until the year of the Incarnate Word 872, which is the thirty-first year of the Emperor and King of France Charles, the matter remained unfinished. When the most religious and venerable Bishop Otulphus, who flourished as the third after Prudentius, was governing the helm of the Church of Troyes, the body, placed merely within the enclosure of the basilica, was venerated by the brethren of the place with cautious diligence; attended by no gatherings of the people, celebrated by no solemn preeminence. Various portents at his sepulcher: Yet the heavenly benignity did not suffer that brilliant star to be hidden any longer in murky shadows, but willed that both his merits should become manifest to the world, and his efficacious intercession should come to the aid of the people. At that time, therefore, the greatness of the divine presence began to show itself to very many of the brethren around the place, and to urge the hearts of the servants of God with the portents of frequent visions. For some, occupied with more secret vigils in the church at night, singing, heard honeyed voices above his sepulcher, as if of clerics singing together; lights, others saw, as it were, certain most splendid lights arranged around the sepulcher: so that it was plainly established that where human services were less present, divine and angelic offices supplied them. Moreover, a dove of milky whiteness was seen to have descended from the heavens, and after it had circled about for some time, to have penetrated the hidden recesses of the sepulcher. During the repose of sleep as well, it appeared to many as though the same most holy Father, emerging from the sacred tomb, conducted himself before the altar of the Prince of the Apostles white dove. Apparition of the Saint, and gave himself to the study of prayer. By these and similar wondrous portents, it was eminently clear, brighter than the sun, that the precious Confessor of the Lord, indignantly bearing the listless worship, decreed that a worthier burial should be prepared for him and that the reverence of service should be more diligently established. A sense of piety at his tomb. That also brought no small authority to this matter, that to all who prostrated themselves at the sacred sepulcher, a richer feeling of prayer and abundance of compunction flowed: and in order that what the most evident visions concerning him suggested might be consummated by the zeal of the clergy, the mind of all burned insatiably — the hidden inspiration of God doubtless inflaming the hearts of each, and urging them with the spurs of holy desire toward the accomplishment of so great an undertaking.

a St. Prudentius, Bishop of Troyes, is venerated on April 6. He is counted as the thirty-seventh Bishop of Troyes. He was present at the Council of Paris in the year 846, the Fourth Council of Tours in 849, and the Second Council of Soissons in 853.

b Here the author seems to count the years of Charles from the division of the kingdom made among the brothers; otherwise from the death of Louis the Pious it was the thirty-second or thirty-third year.

c For after St. Prudentius, Fulcricus held the see, who was present at the Council of Soissons in 866. Otulphus, or Ottulfus, succeeded him, who subscribed to the Council of Ponthion in 876.

CHAPTER VIII.

The discovery of the body and miracles.

[29] Encouraged by such and such conspicuous prodigies, they approached the venerable Bishop Otulfus, bringing before him the deeds of so great a Father, and most earnestly besought him to become the cooperator and promoter of the divine will regarding the Saint. A translation is decreed. And as you might see the divinity in all things favoring the wishes of the faithful servants, the Bishop, immediately animated by the fires of inward inspiration, undertook the matter with such ardor that he himself afterward urged the Abbot and brethren, by whom he had been petitioned, with frequent admonitions to hasten the efficacy of the work begun, exhorting them to persist with untiring prayers, so that the divine piety which had made them conscious of its will might also grant them the fulfillment of their beneficial wishes.

[30] And so for the beginning of so great a work they chose the first day of Lenten abstinence, on which the ineffable condescension of divine piety first declared this miracle to human perception. The stone of the tomb rolls away of its own accord. When the Abbot approached with the brethren to roll back the stones of the pavement, the stone which had been placed over the sacred monument slid aside without anyone pushing it, so that, while the others remained immovable, you would have thought this one had been forced to yield more violently by the greatest effort of those pushing. It was understood by all that it had been pushed back by the power of the sacred body, because it seemed to present itself of its own accord to those who piously sought. Grains of gold appear on a bone. Persisting therefore more tenaciously in their work, they at length reached the container of the venerable body, and when they examined its interior with the caution of due reverence, as an increase to the miracle, drops of the purest gold shone forth on a certain bone of the most holy Confessor's body — I believe most evidently showing that this was a most wealthy treasure, which, revealed by the generosity of the divine gift, was being handled with the pious diligence of the faithful. And that night the sacred relic remained in the same state, more sincerely honored with continuous praises and vigils. When the morrow came, the Bishop took care to be present early, and having offered a solemn prayer, he reverently approached the sacred tomb, while the brethren attentively persisted in psalmody and litanies. He himself, with the Abbot and priests, reverently elevating the holy bones and covering them with precious linens, duly arranged them in a most clean place, which he sealed more carefully with the episcopal ring, and having completed the sacred rites as was customary, returned to his own home.

[31] Thereafter, with watchful diligence, the arrangement and decoration of the sacred sepulcher was more carefully prepared, and during the interval of this delay, we believe it should by no means be omitted what miracle heavenly dispensation deigned to declare through the preeminent Confessor. A certain man who beat his mother is horribly punished. A certain man named Rathertus, a native of the district of Laon, was quarreling with his mother about dividing food from the harvest: and when, separating the larger sheaves for his own portion, he left the smaller ones also for his mother, she, unable to tolerate the fraud, diligently warned her son not to provoke God against himself by doing such things. Then the wretch, inflamed in his furious breast, raged against his mother, and, having wound her hair around his left arm, he shamelessly dashed the poor woman at his feet. Divine vengeance immediately overtook him: for on the following night he was punished with blindness of the left eye, and his same arm was afflicted with such a loss that, always agitating it with a restless movement backward and forward, he testified to the consciousness of his crime even by the distress of his outward limb. Moreover, as an increase of vengeance, his senses were taken away and he was punished with unhappy madness. But his mother, worn out by this kind of bitterness, ended her life on the third day with a pitiable death. For this most abominable crime, he was brought by the priest of the place to Vigil, Archbishop of the city of Sens: by whose command he was consigned to prison and endured the filth of the dungeon for three years: afterward, as famine grew worse, he was released lest he should die of want.

[32] From there he hastened to the church of St. Michael, in the place which is called from ancient times Ad Duas Tumbas: thence departing, he sought Rome, where Pope Adrian then governed the Apostolic See. He visits many holy places. When the Pope beheld him proceeding to the church of St. John, which is called the Lateran, astonished by the wondrous portent which the wretch carried about because of his crime, he ordered him to be summoned, and having more carefully inquired into his case, kindly exhorted him to penance, and ordered him to go again to the church of the Blessed Michael, and likewise to return to him. When dismissed, having by chance arrived in the district of Troyes, he was admonished in a dream one night to bring a candle of his own length to the basilica of the holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary situated in the estate whose name is Falcariae: but since, worn out with both labor and illness, he could not go there, he took care to send it through an intermediary. Then he chanced to come to the monastery of St. Peter, where the precious relics of the Blessed Frodobertus are venerated: and when on the Sunday that followed the Lord's Ascension, the priest was engaged in public sacred rites as was customary, and Rathertus was applying himself to prayer at the door of the church, he saw, as he himself afterward related, a certain cleric of youthful beauty approach him, He is cured by the help of St. Frodobertus. and having most sharply constricted his loins, shake him most violently with his whole body. Dashed to the ground by this blow, he lay motionless for a long time, so that he was almost thought to be dead; during which interval he received both the rest of his arm and the soundness of his senses and head: and rising from there, having taken a draught of water, when he had fallen asleep again from great weariness, he beheld the same cleric as before, pressing these words upon him more familiarly: "This garment," he said, "with which you are clothed, hang it at the threshold of Frodobertus" — for he was clad only in a hairshirt, in the manner of penitents. And when, anxious about this speech, he confessed that he did not know the house of Frodobertus and pleaded that he had no other garment, amid these things he was roused by one of the guardians. Then, anxiously relating what he had seen, he zealously inquired in what direction the house of Frodobertus was situated. And when he had found it to be the very church before whose doors, prostrate, he had been restored to health, flooded with inexpressible joy, he leaped into the temple, magnifying and giving thanks to him by whose benefit he had both recovered his health and rejoiced that he had obtained relief from his most grievous crime: and having deposited his hairshirt there, he hastened to the church of the holy Archangel Michael at the Apostolic command. A truly wondrous thing, to be recounted as usual to the praise of divine piety, that he was saved through the intercession of one whose very name he had not previously known, Various persons freed from fevers. whose name, as soon as he divinely learned it, he perceived that he had recovered the health of both soul and body by his merit. Many other benefits, moreover, came to the ailing through his merit during those days in which the arrangement of the sacred body was being prepared, and especially for those who, afflicted with various conditions of fevers, more humbly betook themselves to the aid of the Blessed Frodobertus.

a Camuzaeus thinks it should be read as Egil. For at that time Egil held the see (Claudius Robertus calls him St. Egilus), to whom there survives a letter of Pope Nicholas in volume 3 of the Councils of Gaul.

b Otherwise called De Periculo Maris Of the Peril of the Sea, in the diocese of Avranches: as we shall say on October 16.

c This is Adrian II, who held the see from the year 867 until November 1, 872.

d Perhaps Foucheres, says Camuzaeus.

CHAPTER IX.

Translation and annual feast.

[33] Meanwhile, as the sequence of time passed, the day of the Kalends of January dawned, on which we said he had been removed from worldly labors and had soared to the heights of the heavenly city. But since that day, specially assigned to the Lord's Circumcision, January 8, the Translation of St. Frodobertus. does not allow another celebration to be obscured by its occurrence, the dignity of the Blessed Frodobertus, received on those same Kalends, appeared to be less celebrated and less solemn; because the people, occupied with the ceremonies of the Lord's feast, did not have the freedom to gather as they wished for the joys of the blessed Confessor. The venerable and aforementioned Bishop of the city of Troyes, therefore, having shared counsel with the Abbot and brethren, judged it fitting to reason that the aforesaid celebration should be deferred to the eighth day from that point, so that they might both provide for the dignity of the feast and more wisely provide for the desire of the people, who were already burning insatiably for the glory of the Blessed Frodobertus. And so, when the sixth day before the Ides of January arrived, having completed the function of the nocturnal office, they raised the sacred body on devout shoulders and carried it to the neighboring church of the Blessed Michael. They chose to do this so that both a more copious attendance of the people might gather, and the effect of the translation might be rendered more celebrated on the following day. There, therefore, when the morning hymns had been more solemnly celebrated, the Bishop was invited by messengers sent from the Abbot, and he, kindled with the fervor which has been described, with a hastily gathered company of clergy and people, took care to be present promptly.

[34] What miracle also occurred then will be evident from a brief account. The weather was inclement, and, as is the case in winter, disturbed by overflowing marshes. On the preceding night, therefore, when the Abbot and brethren were preparing those things which pertained to the service of the future translation, considering the watery condition of the weather, Frost and snow obtained from heaven for the convenience of those gathering. they were anxiously pondering among themselves about the inconvenience for the arriving people. "Would that," said the Abbot to the brethren, "heavenly piety, by the merit of this blessed Father, would bind the softness of the marsh with frost, and temper the difficulty of the road with a fall of snow." Soon the clemency of the Creator received their devout desires, and the rigors of frost most powerfully bound the whole night. Around cockcrow, indeed, the earth was covered with such an accumulation of snow that it was clear to all that by the patronage of the Blessed Frodobertus, the convenience of a suitable road had been prepared for the people to attend his translation.

[35] And so, when all things that the ceremony of so great a day demanded had been duly arranged, the precious body of earth was raised by the Bishop from the basilica of the Blessed Michael, and with the melodies of hymns lifted on high, it was carried into the church of the Prince of the Apostles, with such a pageant of joy and such exultation of the people that it shone brighter than the sun that this man was of the most preeminent merit before God, whose glory so great and so immense was shining forth among men. In the prepared place, therefore, that incomparable treasure of the most holy body was deposited, and when all the adornments of the sepulcher had been suitably arranged, at the head an altar was consecrated in honor of the Holy Innocents and Martyrs; the worship of the sacred rites was also duly performed with solemn offices, and the privilege of his feast, to be immutably observed in all future ages, was sanctioned by pontifical authority. The annual feast of the Translation. The whole day was spent in every manner of joy, and by these first ceremonies it was designated with what zeal it ought to be celebrated by posterity.

[36] Enriched, therefore, by such great benefits through the merits of the Blessed Frodobertus, we both render and hold insatiable thanks and blessings and gratitude to almighty God: who has deigned to prepare for us who serve him a special patron of our people and our order — one who would be the founder of this place from its very foundations, and would advance it by his habitation, illuminate it by his most blessed examples, consecrate it by his most holy death, and who, having shone while living with the gift of signs, when dead — or rather, happily immortal — would gladden his place with his presence, protect it with his patronage, and adorn it with unfailing miracles: the author, patron, and cooperator of all these being the immortal God, to whom be everlasting glory, infinite victory, majesty, and eternal dignity, from then and now and unto all ages of ages. Amen.