ON ST. ABLEBERTUS, OR EMEBERTUS, BISHOP OF CAMBRAI AND ARRAS.
BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY.
CommentaryAblebertus or Emebertus, Bishop of Cambrai in Belgium (St.)
From various sources.
Section I. The celebrated memory of St. Emebertus.
[1] The seventh century from the birth of Christ was in our Belgium most flourishing in the multitude of holy men, in the glory of religion, and in the illustrious foundations of monasteries. You can scarcely find a single day in our native calendar that does not bear some name from that golden age. At that time, Bishops endowed with the Apostolic spirit propagated the Church far and wide: Amandus, Autbertus, Eligius, Lambertus, and others.
[2] The Feast of St. Emebertus on January 15. Those same times also produced Emebertus, or Ablebertus, whose memory is celebrated by various churches on the 15th of January. Concerning him, Molanus in his Additions to Usuardus writes: On the same day at Maubeuge, the deposition of Blessed Ablebertus, or Emebertus, Bishop of Cambrai, who preceded St. Autbertus in the episcopate of Cambrai. The Belgian Martyrology of Henricus Adrianus, and the Gallic one printed at Liege: At Maubeuge, the deposition of St. Emebertus, or Ablebertus, Bishop of Cambrai, brother of the holy Virgins Rainildis and Gudila. Constantinus Ghinius in his Natales of the Holy Canons, Philippus Ferrarius in his general catalogue of Saints, Molanus in his Index and Natales of the Saints of Belgium, Autbertus Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti, Guilielmus Gazaeus in his Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, both in compiling his index of Saints who are venerated in the diocese of Cambrai and again in his catalogue of the Bishops of the same city, Ferreolus Locrius in his Belgian Chronicle, where he writes the following about his relics: Maubeuge is a town of the Aduatici (he would have said more correctly of the Nervii, since it is only three leagues distant from Bavay of the Nervii) in which there is a Church of Canonesses, which even today rejoices in the sacred relic of St. Ablebertus and celebrates his solemnity annually. Andreas Saussaius also mentions him in the Gallic Martyrology on this day, as do Heribertus Rosweydus of our Society in his vernacular history of Belgium, Christianus Massaeus in book 12 of his Chronicle, Aegidius Wauldaeus in his French History of the Saints of Binche, book 8, chapter 6, and various calendars.
[3] and on March 13: Concerning him, in a certain manuscript of the Charterhouse of Brussels, the following is written under March 13: On the same day, of St. Emebertus, Bishop of Cambrai, cousin of Lady Waldetrudis. In the same manuscript, under May 19, the following is found: and May 19. Likewise of Blessed Embertus (elsewhere Hildebertus), Bishop of Cambrai, full brother of the Blessed Gudila and Pharaildis, who, with St. Vindicianus as intermediary, succeeded St. Autbertus in the episcopate. On the same day, the manuscript Florarium: At the monastery of Maubeuge, of St. Emobertus, brother of St. Gudila by both father and mother, of the stock of the Carolingians, who by another name was called Ablembertus, and was Bishop of Cambrai.
[4] formerly also on October 18. His Feast, as Molanus attests, was formerly so celebrated at Maubeuge that, of the nine Lessons, the middle three were about St. Maurus the Abbot, and the rest about Ablebertus. And again, on the Feast of St. Luke, October 18, he had a commemoration. But now, in the Breviary of Maubeuge conformed to the Roman standard, on January 15 a semi-double office is celebrated for St. Ablebertus, with the ninth Lesson about St. Maurus, the Feast of St. Paul the Hermit being deferred to another unimpeded day. But on October 18, the commemoration is of St. Aldegondis the Virgin, not of Ablebertus. It is likely that the elevation or translation of both, or some consecration of altars, was formerly made on that day. Perhaps on those two days, March 13 and May 19, some translation of the relics of St. Ablebertus was made.
Section II. The parents and sisters of St. Emebertus.
[5] Baldricus, Bishop of Tournai, writes the following about St. Ablebertus in his Chronicle of Cambrai: After Bertoaldus, Blessed Ablebertus succeeded, who was so named in the catalogue of Bishops, but was called Emebertus by the inhabitants and their neighbors. He was a native of the district of Brabant; his homeland, parents, sisters: born of parents most distinguished in both the dignity of their life and their lineage, namely of his father Count Witgerus, a holy man, and his mother Amulberga. He also had four sisters: Reinildis, Sarachildis, Ermenlindis, and the most blessed Gudila, younger in age but no less outstanding in holiness. She indeed, before she was born, was announced by an Angel to her most blessed mother, and she strove to surpass her days with good works, and shone with many virtues and miracles, as the book of her Life indicates. the holiness of his life: Which book also declares that Bishop Ablebertus was illustrious for wondrous holiness and conspicuous for the nobility of his character: which is not to be doubted, especially since he was born of such holy and magnificent parentage. He indeed, hearing that the tomb of the aforesaid sister, namely Gudila, already buried for three days, had been violated by a pestilential thief, groaned deeply and bound the thief with the chain of anathema: indeed, by the imprecation he uttered, he obtained that, so that at least posterity might not be unaware, as confessing signs attested: miracles: in this manner certainly, that if the offender were a man, he would become lame or disabled in whatever way; if a woman, she would never be free from the disease which we commonly call gutteria. And this is a wondrous thing to tell: for the book itself declares that all that progeny subsequently had these afflictions. Whence it is to be understood that he was a man of the highest merit.
[6] sacred donations Moreover, he had, as they say, an estate called Martinas, most wealthy in households and resources; of which he had made the Church of the Mother of God his heir: but we do not know for what reason, unless by the invasion of pagans, he lost it. When the day of his calling arrived, he died in the same district, death: in the village which the local inhabitants call Ham, and departed from the world, and was buried there. translation: He was then transported to Martinas: but afterwards translated to Maubeuge; and there he now rests, awaiting the day of the resurrection. Thus far Baldricus. Whether St. Ablebertus succeeded Bertoaldus or rather St. Vindicianus, we shall examine in section 4.
[7] Concerning Blessed Witgerus and St. Amalberga, his parents, we shall treat on the 10th of July. We shall give the Life of St. Reinildis, Virgin and Martyr, on the 16th of the same month of July, in which mention is also made of St. Emebertus. Was St. Pharaildis his sister? All commonly believe that Sarachildis is Pharaildis, whose Life we gave on the 4th of January. But she is said to have been the daughter of King Theodoricus of Austrasia: unless Witgerus was binomial, and is here called King because he was an opulent and illustrious man. For it is not likely that St. Amalberga was married twice, since she had to be compelled by her parents to marry, as we shall say in its proper place. Massaeus in his Chronicle, book 12, near the end, writes that Pharaildis was born of Theodoricus, son of Childebertus, King of Burgundy and then of Austrasia. But since this man died in the year 613, and had no legitimate wife, that Pharaildis could not be called the daughter of St. Amalberga, a most chaste matron. Nevertheless, Hubertus in his Life of Gudila, on the 8th of January, states that Pharaildis was a sister of Gudila, in these words: She had sisters famous for their holiness, namely Reinildis and Pharaeldis, and a full brother, St. Emebertus, Bishop of Cambrai. When the sisters of St. Reinildis are listed on the 16th of July, in some copies the name of St. Pharaildis has been expunged.
[8] If some Ermelindis, who is here called Ermenlindis, was a sister of Saints Emebertus, Reinildis, and Gudila, Was St. Hermelindis his sister? she must have been different from the one who is venerated at Meldert between Louvain and Hoegaarden on the 29th of October. For that one was elevated 48 years after her death by Blessed Duke Pippin: whence it is clearly evident that she died before the year 600, since Pippin himself died in the year 646, as we shall say on the 21st of February. Therefore Hermelindis was about 80 years older than Gudila: and consequently no one would readily believe that they were born of the same mother. The Breviary of Maubeuge has Ermentrudis as a sister of St. Emebertus instead of Ermelindis, of whom more in the following section.
[9] When St. Gudila died. St. Gudila, or Gudula, or, as she is called here, Guodila, is venerated on January 8 at Brussels, where a magnificent basilica is dedicated to her. She appears to have died around the year 712, as Autbertus Miraeus states in his Belgian Chronicle, and as we said on January 8; or perhaps somewhat earlier or later. The punishment inflicted by St. Emebertus upon the sacrilegious violators of the virgin's sepulcher is related somewhat differently from the account given here, in the Life of St. Gudila, chapter 11. He is said to have pronounced, by a formal sentence of ecclesiastical excommunication, that not only the men but also the women who were accomplices in that crime, and their descendants, should be lame in one knee, and the women should moreover suffer from gutteria. Gutteria, as Colvenerius noted on this chapter of Baldricus, is what elsewhere is called gutturnositas, a disease of the throat.
[10] Was St. Gangulfus his brother? Some say that St. Gangulfus, or Gengulfus, the Martyr, of whom we shall treat on the 11th of May, was a brother of St. Emebertus. He was a Burgundian by nation and served under Pippin; if under Pippin the Short, as is commonly asserted, he lived long after the time of Emebertus; but if under Pippin the Fat, he was indeed a contemporary of Emebertus, but we have seen no ancient writer who calls them brothers. Perhaps the error arose from common speech, because the Belgians call Gangulfus "Gengoul" and Gudila "Goul" or "saincte Goul": so that those who heard that Emebertus was the brother of "saincte Goul" (which often happens to unlearned folk, like those soldiers who thought that Christ on the Cross was invoking Elijah when He said "Eli") believed him to be the brother of St. Gengoul.
[11] Was St. Venantius his brother? It is even further from all semblance of truth that Emebertus is said to have been the brother of St. Venantius (who, during the reign of Pippin, was murdered by a robber not far from Aire, a city of Artois, at the place where now stands the town of St. Venantius). Whether Venantius and Gengulfus were brothers is not clear. For neither has this been handed down by our forebears, nor, as I said, is the exact era of Gangulfus certain.
Section III. The life of St. Emebertus from the Breviary of Maubeuge.
[12] The Breviary of Maubeuge presents the following Lessons about St. Emebertus in the second nocturn, compiled from the Chronicle of Cambrai by Baldricus and from manuscripts of the Church of Maubeuge: St. Ablebertus, who is also called Emebertus, from the territory of Brabant, from the village called Ham, born of parents most distinguished in the dignity of their life and lineage, namely of his father Count Witgerus, a holy man, and his mother St. Amulberga. He also had four holy sisters: Reinildis, Sarachildis, who by another name is called Pharaildis, Ermentrudis, and Gudila. The virtues of St. Emebertus in adolescence: After the years of his childhood had passed in the fear of the Lord, he became a young man, distinguished in appearance, pleasant in speech, kind in spirit, simple, humble, obedient, devout, and conspicuous for every uprightness of character, ascending daily from virtue to virtue and raising himself more and more to the service of God.
[13] in his manhood. After this, loving seclusion and avoiding the company of secular men, exercising himself in compunction of heart, prayers, vigils, fasts, and tears, he commended himself to God. It happened meanwhile that Bertoaldus, the worthy Bishop of the Church of Cambrai, directed his soul, adorned with the flowers of good deeds, to heaven: after whose death Ablebertus, by God's disposing, was raised to the same Pontifical See. Having attained this summit of dignity, it cannot be said how much he then grew in the height of holiness, like a lamp placed upon a lampstand, excellently corresponding to the holy and most illustrious parentage from which he had sprung.
[14] When he was making the rounds of his diocese in visitation, sowing the seeds of the divine word and storing up the gains of souls for God, in order to devote himself more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things, His death and translation. he withdrew somewhat to the place of his birth: where, when God had now decreed to reward him for his labors, his limbs began to be shaken by a mild fever. When the day of his calling arrived, in the aforesaid district of Ham, he died and departed from the world, and was buried there. He was then transported to Martinas, and afterwards translated to Maubeuge: and there he now rests in the church of the Mother of God, Mary, and of St. Aldegondis the Virgin, awaiting the day of the resurrection.
[15] Thus far the Breviary of Maubeuge. Besides the merits of the holy man commemorated here, Aegidius Wauldaeus records that he was endowed with no ordinary erudition. Ham is not a town, as the same Wauldaeus supposed, but a village not far from Vilvoorde, a town of Brabant. Was Ermentrudis his sister? Who this Ermentrudis is who is here called a sister of Emebertus, we cannot quite determine. For Ermentrudis, or Irmtrudis, a kinswoman of St. Irmgardis of Zutphen, is several centuries younger than Emebertus. Erentrudis the Virgin, niece or sister of St. Rupertus, Bishop of Salzburg, who is venerated on the 30th of June, is reported to have come from the royal blood of the Franks, and is not far distant from the era of Emebertus, unless she is perhaps somewhat older, since she was brought into Bavaria around the year 623 by St. Rupertus, who is said to have died in the year 628.
Section IV. The era and see of St. Emebertus.
[16] Baldricus, already cited, Fulbertus in the Life of Autbertus on the 13th of December, Molanus in his Index of the Saints of Belgium, Autbertus Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti, Ferreolus Locrius, Guilielmus Gazaeus, Heribertus Rosweydus of our Society, Demochares in book 2 on the divine sacrifice of the Mass, chapter 15, Claudius Robertus in his Gallia Christiana, Saussaius, and others, all following Fulbertus and Baldricus, record that St. Emebertus was the predecessor of Autbertus.
[17] But that St. Emebertus survived his sister St. Gudila, both Baldricus himself admits, as we have already seen, and it is evident from the Life of St. Gudila. Now Gudila was received at the sacred font by St. Gertrude and was instructed in letters and piety in her company. When St. Gertrude died. But Gertrude is said to have died in the 33rd year of her age, on the 16th day before the Kalends of April, on a Sunday, either in the year 659, as Bucherus of our Society and Miraeus hold, or rather, as Sigebertus says, in 664, in which year that same date, March 17, fell on a Sunday. For if in the year 659, then she survived her mother Itta, or Iduberga (who lived 12 years after her husband's death), by only 10 months; but the contrary is implied in the Life. Then, after the account of the parent's plan to betroth her to a certain Duke of Austrasia, it is said that her father died 14 years later: which seems to be understood as meaning 14 years of Gertrude's own age; so that this would have been in the year of Christ 646, the third year of Clovis II, in which year Pippin died, when she was 14 years old. It does not mean that 14 years elapsed from that solicitation. For if we add to those 14 years another 13 years, the number that elapsed from the death of Pippin to the year 659, we arrive at 27 years, and it would be necessary to admit that Gertrude was only six years old when the Duke sought her as his bride, which no one, I think, would say, since she is reported to have fled at that time to Eastern Francia and to have done other things that would persuade us that she was more advanced in age, at least 10 or 11 years old. But according to our calculation all things agree. She would have been 14 years old in the year 646. If we add 18 years and a bit more up to March 17 of the year 664, we obtain the 33rd year begun.
[18] But whichever computation you follow, since Gertrude received and instructed Gudila, When did St. Gudila die? Gudila cannot be said to have died before the year 645; yet many of the authors cited above assign the death of St. Emebertus to that year. Add that, as we said in her Life, when the body of St. Gudila was translated from the district of Ham to Morzela, in the time of Charlemagne, who began to reign in the year 768, there was present a certain man who had known her as a youth. Furthermore, St. Amalberga was veiled by St. Autbertus, whom they claim succeeded Emebertus, while Gudila was still alive, and she, together with her sister Reinildis, as is related in the latter's Life, went to Lobbes to offer to God and St. Peter the properties left to them by their parents: whereas those who think otherwise must admit that Gudila died before the episcopate of St. Autbertus.
[19] Finally, from this it seems to be established, as we said before, that Gudila lived beyond the year 700; and, as the codex cited above has it, Emebertus succeeded not Bertoaldus but St. Vindicianus. And perhaps he is the same as the one called Hildebertus by the same Baldricus and others. For the name does not differ very much, since different people express it differently: The name of Emebertus variously expressed. for besides those who call him Emebertus, Emibertus, Emobertus, or Embertus, Surius in the Life of St. Rainildis and Saussaius call him Adelbertus; the manuscript cited in section 2, Hildebertus; Claudius Robertus, Adelbertus, Albertus, Emelbertus; Demochares, Ablebertus and Adebertus.
[20] And indeed near Tournai, as Molanus writes in his Natales, there is a village of St. Aldebertus, which is commonly called the Mount of the Holy Trinity. The village of St. Adelbertus. Pastor asserts that the village is so called because St. Aldebertus, Bishop of Cambrai, is believed to have lived there. He also asserted that his Feast was celebrated in his church. This is perhaps the Aldebertus the Abbot who is recorded as having subscribed to the testament of St. Amandus in the second year of King Theodoricus; who was either consecrated Bishop for the preaching of the Gospel, as others were at the same time, or was raised to the See of Cambrai and Arras upon the death of St. Vindicianus. In a certain manuscript calendar of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, under the 17th of March, we read the following: On the same day, of St. Adelbertus the Abbot. This is perhaps the very one of whom we are treating.
[21] The most learned Molanus observed that the chronology here is entangled, and he did not have readily at hand enough to pronounce on the episcopate of St. Emebertus. For he writes thus: As for the episcopate, in the catalogue of Bishops of Cambrai he is placed as the predecessor of St. Autbertus; but in the history of Rainildis and elsewhere, certain things are read about Autbertus from which it seems to follow that Ablebertus either succeeded him, or at least was his equal, that is, a Co-bishop, as many then were for the propagation of the faith. Let whoever wishes consider this more closely.
Section V. The death, relics, and cult of St. Emebertus.
[22] Emebertus died, as we said in sections 2 and 3, in the village of Ham, and was buried there. His body was then translated to Martinas, or Marcinas, a village which he had donated to the Church of Cambrai. Colvenerius confesses that he inquired from the Canons of Cambrai and Maubeuge where this village is situated, Where the village of Martinas is. but obtained no information. Molanus likewise writes that he found nothing about it. Aegidius Wauldaeus and other learned men suspect that the reading should be Marpinas. For there exists a village called Marpen near the Sambre, one league from Maubeuge, where some memory of him seems to survive. The church there is dedicated to St. Mary, perhaps because, as Wauldaeus conjectures, the village had been given along with the estate to the Church of St. Mary of Cambrai. It seems more probable to us that Martinas was situated in the territory of Brabant. Baldricus indicates this, implying that the estate of Martinas and the village of Ham were in the same district, or territory. From the Life of St. Gudila, chapter 2, we learn that the home of her parents was about two miles distant from Morzela. The municipality of Merchten in the territory of Aalst is about the same distance from Morzela: and one might not unreasonably conjecture that this is Martinas.
[23] From Martinas thereafter (it is uncertain for what reason, whether because of hostile incursions, for safer keeping, or for greater veneration), his relics were brought to Maubeuge, The relics of St. Emebertus. and buried in the ground (whether immediately upon their arrival, or later on another occasion, is not clear). But, as the Capuchin Basilides of Ath, who wrote the Life of St. Aldegondis in French, testifies, an altar in the old Church was dedicated to the name and honor of Saints Aldegondis and Emebertus. That holy Abbot of the monks of Liessies, Antonius Winghius, at my particular urging, some years ago had the relics of St. Emebertus searched for, with the entire pavement of the choir of the Church of Maubeuge being dug up deep. Nothing, however, was found; the Saint no doubt deferring the manifestation of his body to another time, so that people, taught by the many adversities they have suffered in the meantime, might become more fitted for the heavenly gifts which are customarily bestowed in abundance when the relics of Saints are found. Mention is made of the body of St. Ablebertus on the 30th of January, in the third Life of St. Aldegundis the Virgin, number 12.
[24] These few things about St. Emebertus we have gathered from various sources, since we could nowhere obtain his Life, which Baldricus also does not appear to have seen, as is easy to conclude from his words. The Life of St. Emebertus was formerly written. That one was formerly written, however, is evident from the Life of his sister St. Rainildis, where in chapter 1 the following is found: From her therefore (Amalberga), God gave to him (Witgerus) a most holy offspring, Emebertus, afterwards the most blessed Pastor of the holy Church of Cambrai; whose deeds, full of virtues and miracles, flourish in the same Church to this day: and three (certain manuscripts read: and two) daughters, of whom one was called Gudila, the other Rainildis, and the third Pharaildis, as is found in the Life of Blessed Gudila. These last words, "And the third," etc., are absent from some manuscripts. And indeed only Rainildis and Gudila are mentioned thereafter. Finally, what seems to contribute to the glory of the Saint is that not a few people in Belgium, especially in the Teutonic lands, are called by the name Embertus, or Emebertus.