Martyrs Blaithmacus the Priest

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS BLAITHMACUS THE PRIEST, AND OTHER MONKS OF IONA.

Eighth century.

Blaithmacus, Priest Martyr on the island of Iona (S.) Other monks, Martyrs on the island of Iona

The island of Iona, called Hy by Bede and Hu, donated to Scottish monks by the kings of the Picts, sent very many ascetics, long exercised in the religious arena, to heaven, and some even distinguished with the laurel of martyrdom. The family of S. Blaithmacus. Among these is Blaithmacus the Irishman, who no more bravely renounced the earthly kingdom than he more gloriously seized the heavenly. His deeds were celebrated in hexameter verse at the beginning of the ninth century from Christ by Walafridus Strabo, a monk of Fulda, himself of German birth, but, the Acts, as may be gathered from this, not ignorant of Scottish studies and language. Hugo Menardus assigned the feast of Blaithmacus to this day, the feast, whether he found it recorded by anyone, which he does not indicate, or rather, lest he who had once been celebrated both by heavenly signs and by the writings of holy Fathers should be nowhere read in the recent calendars of the Saints. David Camerarius placed it on 6 December. The era. Menardus conjectures that he was killed around the year 793.

ACTS FROM WALAFRIDUS.

Blaithmacus, Priest Martyr on the island of Iona (S.) Other monks, Martyrs on the island of Iona

BHL Number: 1368

By Walafridus Strabo

1 If they who bore the ways and deeds of villains to fame so great for their own song have merited, lifting them skyward with their praise, by demon's art, weaving frivolous memorials of wicked men; why should we not more freely sing the Saints' great deeds, whom miracles proclaim as pleasing unto God, which by the power of faith, through Christ's own gifts, they do? For Scripture sings, the Lord pledging to lowly ones: Open wide your mouth; I shall supply the words. Ps. 80:11. Therefore, revered Father, dearest Felix, These Acts written at the urging of Felix. prepared in heart to follow your commands, I, Strabus, whom the Alemannic land sent forth by birth, have resolved to write about the life and death of blessed Blaithmacus, whom rich Hibernia bore unto the world, and whom the ensuing perfection of martyrdom sent to heaven, that through his merits I may win pardon through the ages. 2 Sprung from royal stock, possessing the supreme glory of nobility, this royal heir flourished, this Saint of God, leading a chaste life: and what is rarely done and seldom seen, the greater he was, the more lowly he went, S. Blaithmacus: his homeland, royal lineage, upright character. the hope of his country, his father's fortune, he who would be king. Just in judgment, prudent, chaste in body, sober, distinguished, cheerful, cautious, honest, noble in his illustrious birth, more noble still in deed, rich in service, better yet enriched by virtues, as a layman he practiced what a cleric would accomplish. His honorable name, in the Latin tongue, means Fair-born: and deservedly was he worthy of that name, Flight to the monastery. for he chose the almighty Father, and sought God with a beautiful love. Earthly things were vile to a mind seeking the divine, and the secret lay hidden in his breast alone, until the holy will advanced to its effect. He sought a certain monastery secretly, without a witness, and he who had once been Prince over the realm's governance was made, for the name of Christ, a servant of a lesser one: he who once in the midst of his retinue had terrified all, now, all of them dismissed, serves himself without a soldier. 3 When fame perchance on wings reached his father's ears, amazement and grief encompassed the parent's mind: he grieves for his lost heir, and sends the Senate, armies, governors, the people, orders, companies: duke and count went, the bishop hastily arrived, The enticements of his father and the nobles were rebuffed. only this one striving by hand, if by any art they might make the fugitive mind, having avoided dangers, return and take upon itself another path. O how blind such a will! He had barely extricated himself from the whirlpool of storms; and in a harbor long sought, his anchor stood, still wavering: he had not yet been able to loose the ropes of his cares, nor fix his foot on land; when a breeze stirred up by winds drove from the sea a ship with arrows aimed at him; and by its force the wave would dissolve the trembling keel, did not He who governs all the ages steer the prow. 4 Soon embraced with wondrous love by all, he strove to be and be called minister of all; Religious virtues: humble in mind, guardian of his tongue, a rule for the good, eagerly receiving the words of God with thirsting heart, bearing in his breast an eagerness for learning from books, Studies of sacred scripture. he thoroughly learned divine teachings with a keen mind. And thus flourishing in the splendor of learning and of morals, he governed the venerable hosts of many men, proving his words by examples, and counting vain praises The headship of the monastery. as nothing, for whom Christ alone was praise and glory, Christ his speech, Christ his teaching, peace his shield, prayers his armor, patience his warfare, the word of God his sword, hope and love his all. He detracted from none, he cast reproaches upon none. Why must single things be spoken in single words? When whatever is read of virtues he rightly held, and whatever of vice the Scripture shows he shunned, becoming all things happily to all, that he might make all bring their gains back to Christ; who at the certain time distributing the measure of goodly grain to his fellow servants, shone everywhere faithful. 5 And that nothing of merit, nothing of goodness might be wanting, he sought the palm of martyrdom with a benign mind, often for this reason striving to visit foreign lands, Desire for martyrdom. but the people holding him back from his intent, he rested. Whence he resolved in his mind for a while by a furtive path to attempt the desired way, with a company of disciples not large, bearing within him the precious jewels of virtues beneath their weight: and breaking through the darkness, taking flight by night, he hastened to depart. But behold, a crowd of pursuers overtaking the fugitives, The gift of prophecy. drags the sheep back to the fold, their shepherd captured. Nor should I be silent, that the Holy Spirit to him, in the manner of the Prophets, revealed the secrets of things. For when fame far and wide reported that the father of the blessed one himself had flown to the heights above while living, he declared that it was not yet so, but would be after a short time, taught by the holy breath. 6 A certain island is shown on the shores of the Picts, suspended in the wave-tossed sea, by the name of Eo, where the Saint of the Lord, Columba, rests in the flesh. This he sought with the vow of suffering Christ's wounds: He goes to the island of Hy, beset by Danish raids. for there the pagan host of Danes is accustomed frequently to come, armed with malignant furies. But the Saint of the Lord, disposing in his mind to provoke such lions, stripped his mind of vain fear, and fortified with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, he did not shrink from the weapons of wicked men. Who could sing with the eloquent Prophet: God is my helper; let base fear be absent. Ps. 117:6. Already he had learned through public wars to scorn the ministers of demons, he who had rightly laid low the very tyrant, and alone had conquered all in arms. 7 The time had come, when the great mercy of God resolved to unite His servant with the shining sheaves above the stars and to confer the certain crown upon the good victor: when the holy man's mind, foreknowing things, perceived in deep understanding that wolves were hastening to come, to divide the limbs of the pious sheep. He said: You, O companions, with keen mind consider within yourselves, whether it be your will He foretells their coming to his own. to endure torments for the name of Christ. I pray that whoever of you can wait with me, arm your manly senses: but those whose faint hearts tremble within, let them hasten their flight, to avoid the perils that are near, arming their vows to better things. The certain trial of death stands close to us. Let firm faith keep watch, suspended over things to come; let cautious safety of flight protect the less strong. At these words the stricken company, what it saw it could, this it resolved in mind: some with firm heart to behold the sacrilegious hands, and beneath the raging sword to have placed their heads, they rejoiced with serene mind: but others, to whom the confidence of mind had not yet persuaded this, took flight through familiar places by the known path. 8 Golden Dawn, dispelling the dripping darkness, He celebrates Mass. shone bright, and the gleaming Sun glowed with its fair orb: when this sacred Teacher, celebrating the holy rites of the Mass, stood an unblemished victim before the sacred altar, The rest of the company lay prostrate, with tears and prayers commending their souls, about to depart from the weight of flesh, to the Thunderer. Behold, the raging accursed band rushed through the open buildings, threatening dire perils to the blessed men. And with the rest of his companions slain with savage ferocity, His companions killed. they came to the holy Father, forcing him to surrender the precious metals in which the holy bones He is ordered to reveal the reliquary of S. Columba's relics; of holy Columba lie, which chest indeed from its seat they had lifted from the tomb and placed in an excavated hollow, beneath the thick turf, already knowing of the wicked pestilence. This plunder the Danes desired: but the Saint with unarmed hand resisted ... with the firm effort of his mind, taught to stand against the battle line and to provoke the fight, unaccustomed to yield, he flung such words at the barbarian: I know not at all where the gold you seek is placed in the ground, or with what coverings it is hidden. But if it were permitted me, with Christ allowing, to know, never would my lips tell this to your ears. Barbarian, draw your swords, seize the hilt, and now slay me: Refusing, he is killed. I commend myself, humble, to Your aid, O gracious God. Hence the pious victim is torn apart, his limbs severed. And what the fierce soldier could not compensate with treasure, he began to search for through the wounds in the cold flesh. Nor is it strange, for there always were, and always shall arise, those whom evil fury against the Lord's servants rouses, so that what Christ's judgment accomplished for all, all may do this for Christ, though by an unequal deed. 9 He therefore, made a Martyr for the name of Christ, He is renowned for miracles. where many miracles are given for the Saints' merits, where the Lord is worshiped with worthy and honored respect, with the Saints, by whose merits I believe my sins are loosed, to whom I have sent suppliant offerings of praise. Christ denies nothing to these, to whom they brought the greatest gains, who with the loving Father and the holy Breath through the ages reigns, and flourishes in eternal beauty without end.

These three in Dunum are entombed in one tomb, Brigid, Patricius, and pious Columba.

ON S. WULSTANUS, BISHOP OF WORCESTER IN ENGLAND.

Year MXCV.

Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester in England (S.)

From various sources.

[1] The province of Britain which the Cornavii had anciently inhabited was held in part, in Bede's age, by the Wiccii; it is now called the County of Worcester: whose rivers and some towns we have recorded on 11 January, in the life of S. Egwinus. The capital of the people is Worcester, Worcester, an ancient city, called Branonium, or Branovium, by Antoninus, or, as some write, Brauonium; by Ptolemy Branogenium; by the Britons still Caer Wrangon, and by more ancient writers Caer Guorangon and Caer Guorcon; by the Saxons Weogare-ceaster, Wegeorna-ceaster, and Wire-ceaster, perhaps from the Wire, a wooded thicket adjacent to it; now commonly Worcester. Here S. Wulstanus was Bishop, Its Bishop S. Wulstanus. who is also called Wolstanus, Ulstanus, Ulnothus, Wlnodus; the twenty-third from S. Egwinus; the twenty-fifth from the foundation of the See; not the third, as Galesinius writes.

[2] His feast is recorded on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February by Molanus and the Cologne Carthusians in their Additions to Usuardus, Galesinius, Wion, Menardus, his feast, Dorganius, Ferrarius, the English and German Martyrologies, the Sarum Breviary, in which it is celebrated with a nine-lesson office; and finally by Constantius Felicius, who however errs when he makes him Bishop of Warwick, and dead in 1067.

[3] Balaeus, Pitseus, Vossius, and others say that the life of S. Wulstanus was written by Senatus Brauonius, Archimandrite of Worcester. The life. An epitome of that life appears to be the one published by Capgravius and Surius. We shall first give what Florentius of Worcester, his contemporary, who died in the year 1118, wrote about him: then what William of Malmesbury wrote: and finally the life found in Surius, written or abridged a hundred years after the death of Wulstanus, as is evident from chapter 4, no. 24.

[4] Other writers of English affairs also treat of his notable deeds: Other writings about him. Eadmerus the monk in his history of recent events, Henry of Huntingdon, Matthew of Westminster, Matthew Paris, Roger of Hoveden, Ingulph of Croyland, Ranulph of Chester, Polydore Virgil, Nicholas Harpsfield, and Francis Godwin in his catalogue of the Bishops of England. Francis Haraeus and Zacharias Lippelous abridged his life from Surius.

[5] S. Wolstanus was a most intimate friend of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, He assists at the consecration of the Bishop of the Orkneys. after the controversy in which King William I or his adherents had unjustly attempted to deprive him of his bishopric; and afterwards of S. Anselm. There exists a letter of Lanfranc to him, published by Ioannes Seldenus in his Spicilegium and notes on Eadmerus, in which he orders him and Peter, Bishop of Chester, to go to York and assist Archbishop Thomas in the consecration of Ralph, Bishop of the Orkneys, which by ancient custom was to be done by the Archbishop of York.

[6] S. Anselm, as the eyewitness Eadmerus testifies in book 1 of his History of Recent Events, having dedicated at his estate called Herga a church which Lanfranc had indeed built but, prevented by death, had been unable to consecrate, despite the objections of the Bishop of London that the place was in his diocese (for the custom and practice of the Archbishops of Canterbury from antiquity was and is, says Eadmerus, that in their own lands wherever they may be throughout England, no Bishop has any right except himself, but all things both human and divine, as in his own diocese, are under his disposition. He is consulted by S. Anselm. Anselm, however, not wishing to do injury to anyone as if exercising unrestricted power, afterwards studied with diligent inquiry to investigate the certainty of this custom; so that if it should be found not to have been established, he might henceforth abstain from it. There still survived the blessed Wulstanus, Bishop of blessed memory, the one and only one of the ancient English Fathers, a man conspicuous in every form of religion, and excellently learned in the knowledge of England's ancient customs. Anselm consulted him about the matter, and requested that he make the simple truth known to him. He, having received it, wrote to him as follows:

[7] To the most Reverend and most Blessed Prelate Anselm, Archbishop, preeminent in holiness of life and in the dignity of the supreme See, Wolstanus, the least of the servants of God, His letter to S. Anselm, Bishop of the Church of Worcester, undeservedly, offers the service of his prayers and faithful services from charity. Your prudence knows the daily labors and oppressions of holy Church, with evil men oppressing it, and those who ought to have protected it acting as its authors. To repel these, and to defend holy Church against such men, your Holiness has been placed in the supreme citadel. Let it not therefore hesitate; let not the fear of secular power humble it, nor favor bend it, but let it bravely begin, and with God's help complete what it has begun, resist those who rise up, repress those who oppress, and defend our holy Mother against such men. Concerning those matters about which your dignity has deigned to write to us and to ask the counsel of our smallness, we do not omit to say what we can remember. We have never heard this cause, about which you have consulted, being contested, because no one ever existed who wished to take this power from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and would forbid him from publicly performing the dedication of his own churches. There exist indeed in our diocese altars, and even some churches, in those estates which Stigand, the predecessor of your Excellency, possessed not by right of ecclesiastical inheritance but by the gift of secular power, dedicated by him in the times of our predecessor and ourselves, without consulting us, with neither ourselves nor our predecessor raising complaint about it either before or after, knowing as we did that this spiritual power belonged to the same Metropolitan Bishop. However, we have never heard a case argued about this, or that it was ever adjudicated as belonging to him by right; but what we have acknowledged him to have freely done in our diocese, we believe he can do also in those of others. Behold, we have conveyed to your prudence whatever we could recall or know; let your prudence now consider what ought to be done. May your paternity be well, and pray for us.

[8] S. Anselm acquiesces in his counsel. Anselm, therefore, strengthened by these things, and by the testimonies of many others, whom it would be tedious to enumerate, henceforward securely emulated the custom of his predecessors, not only consecrating churches without consulting the Bishops, but also dispensing all divine offices in all his lands through himself or his deputies.

[9] The body of S. Wolstanus was translated in the one hundred and twenty-third year after his death, the year of Christ 1218, on Thursday after Pentecost. The occasion for this was provided by the frequency of miracles and the dedication of a new church. Matthew of Westminster mentions the miracles at the year 1201: In this year also, The miracles of S. Wolstanus, he says, S. Ulstanus and S. Modwenna were resplendent with frequent miracles. We shall treat of S. Modwenna on 5 July. The Translation of S. Wolstanus is inscribed in the English Martyrology, that of Wion, Menardus, Dorganius, and Ferrarius, on 7 June. Matthew of Westminster narrates it thus at the year 1218: In the same year the church of S. Mary at Worcester was dedicated, and the body of the glorious Bishop and Confessor Ulstanus, the Translation, in the presence of the Magnates of the realm, both soldiers and Prelates, was translated on one and the same day, the seventh day before the Ides of June, Dominical Letter G, namely on Thursday in Pentecost week, with Silvester the Bishop presiding over the Church, who had formerly been a monk and Prior of that same Church, magnificently managing and completing all these things. And when that Saint was honored more splendidly, his relics were divided and distributed to various places and given to Prelates; relics given to various persons, of which one rib was given to Abbot William of S. Alban's, which was joyfully received by the convent in a solemn procession in festal choir copes, and soon after was set in gold with fine workmanship; and it was decided that both his feasts, namely of his deposition and of his translation, should be solemnly celebrated. And after a few lines: In those very days Silvester, Bishop of Worcester, of pious memory, died at Ramsey, after he had solemnly completed all things concerning his patron S. Ulstanus, except the feretory, according to his long-preconceived desire.

LIFE

from Florentius of Worcester.

Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester in England (S.)

From Florentius of Worcester.

CHAPTER I.

The monastic life and episcopate of S. Wulstanus.

[1] In the year 1062, Wulstanus, a venerable man, was appointed Bishop of the Church of Worcester. This man, beloved of God, was born in the region of the Mercians, in the province of Warwick, of religious parents, The birthplace of S. Wulstanus, namely his father Eastanus and his mother Wulgeoua. In the noble monastery called Burgh, he was excellently trained in letters and ecclesiastical offices. He is trained in letters. Both his parents were indeed so devoted to religion that long before the end of their lives, having professed chastity, they separated from each other, and rejoiced to end their lives in the habit of holy conversion. Incited by their example, the young man himself, he becomes a monk, his mother especially persuading him, left the world, and in the same monastery of Worcester, where his father before him had served God, he received the monastic habit and order from the venerable Brichtheagus, Bishop of that Church, by whom he was also ordained to the rank of both deacon and priest.

[2] Immediately at the very beginning, undertaking an arduous life full of all religiousness, in vigils, fastings, prayers, and every kind of virtue, he administers various offices, he suddenly appeared admirable. Hence, on account of his moral discipline, he was first appointed for some time as master and guardian of the children, then on account of his skill in the ecclesiastical office, by the command of the elders he was made both Cantor and Treasurer of the Church. Having obtained the opportunity to serve God more freely from the custody of the church committed to him, he lived holily, he gave himself entirely to the contemplative life; day and night either attending to prayer or divine reading; constantly mortifying his body with two or three days' fasting; so given to sacred vigils that not only the night, but also often a day with its night, sometimes (which would scarcely be believed by us, devoted to vigils, if we had not heard this from his own mouth) four days with nights spent without sleep, he nearly incurred the danger of a desiccated brain, had he not hastened to satisfy nature by tasting sleep. And indeed even when compelled by the force of nature to sleep, he did not rest his limbs on a bed or bedding for sleep, he sleeps on a bench, but reclining slightly on some bench of the church, resting his head on the book in which he was praying or reading.

[3] After some time, when Agelwinus the Prior of the monastery died, he becomes Prior of the monastery, he himself, the venerable man, was appointed Prior and Father of the congregation by Bishop Aldredus. Fulfilling this office most laudably, he by no means abandoned the austerity of his former manner of life, but rather greatly increased it, in order to give others an example of living well.

[4] Then after the course of some years, when Aldredus himself, Bishop of the Church of Worcester, was elected to the Archbishopric of the Church of York, there was a unanimous consent of both the clergy he is elected Bishop, and the entire people in his election, with the King moreover consenting that they should choose whomever they wished as their Bishop. It happened at that time that Legates of the Apostolic See were present at his election, namely Armenfred, Bishop of Sion, and another, who had been sent from the Lord Pope Alexander to the King of England, Edward, for matters of ecclesiastical business, and by royal command were staying at Worcester through almost the entire period of Lent, with the Legates of the Pope supporting him, waiting for the reply to their legation until the next royal Easter court. These, seeing his praiseworthy manner of life while they stayed there, not only consented to his election, but greatly urged both the clergy and people to this, and confirmed his election with their authority.

[5] When he most obstinately refused, proclaiming himself unworthy, and even affirming with an oath that he would much more willingly submit to decapitation than to so lofty an ordination; since he could by no means be persuaded to consent, though often and frequently assailed by many religious men and venerable persons; at last, sharply rebuked for his disobedience and obstinacy by the man of God Wulsius, an enclosed anchorite who was then known to have led the solitary life for more than forty years, he is compelled to assent to the election, and terrified by a divine oracle, he was compelled to consent with the greatest grief of heart: and on the day of the decollation of S. John the Baptist, with his election canonically confirmed and the episcopate received, he was consecrated on the Lord's Day on which the nativity of S. Mary is celebrated by the Church, and shone forth as Bishop of the Church of Worcester, distinguished in life and virtues. He was therefore consecrated Bishop by the venerable Aldredus, Archbishop of York, because Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury was at that time prohibited from the episcopal office by the Lord Apostolic, since he had presumed to take the Archbishopric while Archbishop Robert was still alive: the canonical profession, however, was made to the aforesaid Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, not to his ordainer Aldredus. Moreover, the Archbishop of York himself, his ordainer, was commanded to profess before the King and the chief men of the realm, with Stigand himself insisting, on account of subsequent claims, that he wished to claim no right of ecclesiastical or secular subjection over him thenceforward, neither because he was consecrated by him, nor because he became a monk before his consecration. This ordination of his was made in the fiftieth year of his age, and the twentieth year of the reign of King Edward, in the fifteenth Indiction.

p The Dominical Letter F agrees with that year, Indiction 15.

q Concerning Stigand we treated on 5 January, chapter 10 of the life of S. Edward, and here we shall treat of him again below.

r S. Edward received the kingdom in the year 1043, on 3 April, Easter Day.

CHAPTER II.

The rights of the Church defended.

[6] When Harold, who had seized the kingdom of England after the death of S. Edward his brother-in-law, was killed; and when Edgar, nephew of Edmund Ironside, the legitimate heir of the kingdom, was deserted by his own people; William, Count of Normandy, was devastating South Saxony, Kent, the province of Southampton, Surrey, Middlesex, and the province of Hereford, and did not cease to burn villages and kill men; With other leaders he accepts William as King. until he came to the village called Berkhamsted: where Archbishop Aldredus, Bishop Wulstanus of Worcester, the atheling Edgar, Earls Edwin and Morcar, and the noblest men from London, with many others, came to him, and giving hostages, submitted to him, and swore loyalty. With whom he also made a treaty, and nonetheless allowed his army to burn villages and conduct plunder.

[7] In the year 1070, a great Council was celebrated at Winchester in the Octave of Easter, by the command and in the presence of King William, with the consent of Pope Alexander, In a public council, and his authority being exercised through his Legates, Earmenfred, Bishop of Sion, and the Presbyters John and Peter, Cardinals of the Apostolic See. In which Council Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, was degraded for three reasons: namely, because he unjustly held the bishopric of Winchester together with the archbishopric; In which Stigand the Pseudo-archbishop was reduced to rank. and because while Archbishop Robert was still living he not only took the archbishopric, but also used his pallium, which remained at Canterbury when he was unjustly expelled from England by force, in the celebration of the Mass for some time; and afterwards received the pallium from Benedict, whom the holy Roman Church excommunicated because he had invaded the Apostolic See by bribery. His brother Agelmarus, Bishop of the East Anglians, was also degraded. And other bishops. Certain Abbots also were degraded there, with the King taking pains that as many English as possible should be deprived of their honor, and that persons of his own nation might be substituted in their places, for the confirmation of his newly acquired kingdom. Here he also deprived certain Bishops as well as Abbots of their honors, whom neither Councils nor the laws of the age condemned for any evident cause, and kept them confined in custody until the end of their lives, motivated only, as we have said, by the suspicion of a new kingdom. In this council, therefore, while the rest were fearful, knowing the King's disposition, lest they be deprived of their honors, the venerable man Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester, he claims back properties taken from his bishopric, constantly claimed many possessions of his bishopric which had been retained by Archbishop Aldredus through his own power when he was being transferred from the Church of Worcester to that of York, and which, now that Aldredus was dead, had come into the royal power; and he demanded justice concerning this from both those who presided over the Council and from the King. But because the Church of York, not having a Pastor to speak for it, was mute, it was judged that the complaint should remain as it was, until, when an Archbishop had been appointed there who could defend the Church, there would be someone to respond to his complaint, so that from the charges and responses a more evident and just judgment might be made. And so the complaint was for the time being deferred.

[8] On the day of Pentecost the King at Windsor gave to the venerable Thomas, a Canon of Bayeux, the Archbishopric of the Church of York, and to Walcelinus, his Chaplain, the Bishopric of the Church of Winchester. ... Afterwards the King, having summoned Lanfranc, Abbot of Caen, from Normandy, with Lanfranc created Archbishop of Canterbury, a Lombard by nation, a man most learned in every respect, most skilled in the knowledge of all liberal arts, and of divine as well as secular letters, and equally most prudent in counsel and in the management of worldly affairs, on the day of the Assumption of S. Mary he appointed him Archbishop of the Church of Canterbury, and on the feast of S. John the Baptist, a Sunday, he had him consecrated Archbishop at Canterbury. He was consecrated by Bishops Giso of Wells and Walter of Hereford, who had both been ordained at Rome by Pope Nicholas, when Aldredus, Archbishop of York, received the pallium: for they avoided being ordained by Stigand, who was then presiding over the Archbishopric of Canterbury, because they knew he had not canonically received the pallium. And Thomas at York. Hermannus, Bishop of Salisbury, with certain others was also present at his consecration. Then Lanfranc consecrated Thomas as Archbishop of York.

[9] When these things had been done, the complaint of the Reverend Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester, was again raised, He again claims the same and obtains them, now that Archbishop Thomas had been consecrated, who could speak for the Church of York, and in the council celebrated at a place called Pedreda, before the King and Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and chief men of all England, by the grace of God assisting, it was settled. For when all the machinations, not supported by truth, by which Thomas and his supporters strove by every means to repress and subject the Church of Worcester to the Church of York, and to make it a servant, had been, by the just judgment of God and by the most evident written proofs, worn away and utterly annihilated, the man of God Wulstanus not only recovered the proclaimed and requested possessions, but also received his Church (God proclaiming and the King conceding) with that liberty with which its first founders, the holy King Æthelred, Osher the sub-king of the Wiccii, and the other Kings of Mercia, Kenred, Æthelbald, Offa, Kenulph, and their successors Edward the Elder, Æthelstan, Edmund, Ædred, and Edgar, had freed it.

CHAPTER III.

The arms of the rebels suppressed.

[10] In the year 1074, Roger, Count of Hereford, son of William, Count of the same district, gave his sister in marriage to Ralph, Count of the East Anglians, against the command of King William, and celebrating the most magnificent wedding feast with a very great multitude of nobles in the province of Cambridge, in a place called Exning, they formed a great conspiracy there, When certain Princes rebel against the King, with very many supporting them, against King William, and compelled Count Waltheof, having been ensnared by their plots, to conspire with them. Who, as soon as he could, went to Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and received penance from him for the deed, though done unwillingly, and by his counsel went to King William, who was residing in Normandy, and laying the whole matter before him in order, voluntarily surrendered himself to his mercy. But those aforesaid leaders of the conspiracy, intending to carry on their designs, returned to their castles, and began with all their might to prepare rebellion with their supporters. But to the Count of Hereford, lest he cross the Severn and meet Count Ralph with his army at the appointed place, he resists with his own forces, Bishop Wulstanus of Worcester resisted with a great military force, and Abbot Agelwius of Evesham with his men, having taken to their aid Urso the Sheriff of Worcester, and Walter de Lacy with his troops and the rest of the multitude of the people.

[11] In the year 1088, a great discord arose among the chief men of England: for part of the Norman nobles favored King William, but the smaller part; while the other part favored Robert, Count of Normandy, and the larger part, wishing to make him their king, Others rebel again against William II, either to hand over the brother to his brother alive, or to kill him and deprive him of the kingdom. The leaders of this abominable affair were Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who was also Count of Kent, and Robert his brother, Count of Mortain, both of whom were brothers of the elder King William, but only on the mother's side.

[12] King William Rufus immediately attacked the rebels with arms, before Robert could arrive from Normandy with a larger army. Savage fighting occurred on both sides with killings, plunder, and burnings. While meanwhile these evils were being perpetrated all around, Beornardus de Neufmarche, Roger de Lacy, They plan to invade Worcester, who had already seized Hereford against the King, Ralph de Mortimer, associates of the conspiracy, along with the men of Count Roger of Shrewsbury, having assembled a great army of English, Normans, and Welsh, broke into the province of Worcester, declaring that they would burn the city of Worcester itself, despoil the church of God and S. Mary, and take great vengeance on the King's faithful inhabitants.

[13] When these things were heard, the man of great piety and dove-like simplicity, beloved of God and of the people he governed in all things, faithful to the King as to his earthly Lord in everything, the reverend Father Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester, was greatly troubled; but breathing in God's mercy, now in a certain manner like another Moses, he prepared to stand manfully for his people and city. S. Wolstanus withdraws into the fortress. The enemy prepares arms for rebellion: he pours forth prayers for the impending danger, exhorting his subjects not to despair of God, who does not fight with sword or spear. Meanwhile the Normans, taking counsel, asked the Bishop himself to cross from the church into the castle; affirming that they would be safer from his presence if a greater danger should threaten, for they loved him greatly. He, as he was of wonderful gentleness, both out of loyalty to the King and love for them, agreed to their request.

[14] Meanwhile the episcopal household boldly prepared for arms: the castellans gathered, and the entire crowd of citizens, declaring they would go to meet the enemy on the other side of the River Severn, if the Bishop's permission would allow them. Ready therefore and equipped with arms, he blesses his own and predicts victory, they met him going to the castle, and sought the permission they desired. To whom he willingly assented: Go, sons, he said, go in peace; go securely with the blessing of God and of ourselves. Trusting therefore in the Lord, I pledge to you that today the sword shall not harm you, nor any misfortune, nor any adversary. Stand fast in loyalty to the King, acting manfully for the safety of the people and the city.

[15] At these words they cheerfully crossed the repaired bridge, and saw the enemy hastening from afar; among whom the great madness of war was already raging: for contemptuously despising the Bishop's commands, they had set fires on his own land. When the Bishop heard this, he was shaken with enormous grief, seeing the property of the Church being damaged: and having taken counsel from this, he excommunicates the enemy, he struck them (compelled by all who were around him) with a solemn anathema. What a wonderful thing, and the power of God and the goodness of the man greatly to be proclaimed in this! For immediately the enemy, as they were scattered wandering through the fields, were struck with such weakness of their limbs, such external dimness of their eyes, that they could scarcely carry their weapons; they could neither recognize their companions, nor distinguish those who opposed them from the other side. They are miraculously defeated. Ignorance of blindness deceived them; confidence in God and the episcopal blessing strengthened ours. Thus those senseless ones neither knew how to take flight, nor sought any means of defense, but by God's will, given over to a reprobate mind, they easily yielded to the hands of their enemies. The foot soldiers were slain: the knights were captured, both English and Welsh along with the Normans. The rest barely escaped in feeble flight, while the King's faithful with the Bishop's household returned joyfully to their homes without any loss of their own: giving thanks to God for the safety of the Church's property; giving thanks to the Bishop for the salutary nature of his counsel.

l That is, Worcester.

CHAPTER IV.

Death. Miracles.

[16] S. Wulstanus dies. The venerable and greatly admirable man of life, Bishop Wulstanus of the holy Church of Worcester, devoted to divine services from his youth, after many contests of holy labor, by which with great devotion and humility of mind he most attentively served God in his efforts to obtain the glory of the heavenly kingdom, departed from this world on the 18th day of January, at about the seventh hour of the night of the Sabbath of the seventh week, in the year from the first day of the world, by the certain reckoning of divine Scripture, 5299; of the ninth great year 529; of the ninth great year from the beginning of the world 476; from the Passion of the Lord according to the Gospel 1084; according to the Chronicle of Bede 1066; according to Dionysius 1061; from the arrival of the Angles in Britain 745; from the coming of S. Augustine 498; from the death of S. Oswald the Archbishop 103; of the eleventh great Paschal Cycle 32; of the tenth from the beginning of the world 510; of the second solar Cycle 4; of the Leap Year Cycle the third; of the second nineteen-year Cycle 13; of the second lunar Cycle 10; of the Hendecad the fifth; of the Indictional Cycle the third; of the lustre of his age the 18th; and of his pontificate in the third year of the seventh lustre.

[17] And in a wonderful manner, at the very hour of his passing, he appeared in a vision to his beloved friend Robert, Bishop of Hereford, he appears to Bishop Robert, in the town called Cricklade, and commanded him to hasten to Worcester for his burial. God also did not permit anyone to extract the ring from his finger, with which he had received his pontifical blessing, lest the holy man should seem to deceive after death those to whom he had very frequently predicted, he is buried with his ring, that he would not part with it during his life, nor even on the day of his burial.

[18] Robert, Bishop of Hereford, a man of great religion, died on the sixth day before the Kalends of July, on a Wednesday. To him the aforesaid Bishop Wulstanus of Worcester appeared again in a vision thirty days after he had departed from this world, and sharply rebuked him for his negligence and sloth, and admonished him to be as vigilant as possible both about the amendment of his own life [he appears again to Robert, and warns him of his faults, and predicts he will die soon,] and of those subject to him. If he did this, he said he could quickly merit forgiveness of all sins from God: and he added that he would not long retain his seat in the chair in which he then sat; but that he ought to feast with him before God, if he would be more vigilant. For these two Fathers had been joined by excessive charity in the love of God and toward one another: and therefore it is right to believe that the one who first departed from this world to God exercised solicitude for his most beloved friend whom he left in this world; and strove that they might as quickly as possible rejoice together before God.

ANOTHER LIFE

from William of Malmesbury.

Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester in England (S.)

BHL Number: 8756

From William of Malmesbury.

CHAPTER I.

His life before the episcopate.

[1] Wulstanus, most celebrated for holiness in our age (about whom, if the discourse extends more amply, I ask that no one be wearied), Wulstanus, educated honorably from boyhood among disciplined men and amid the study of letters, such as it was then in England, S. Wulstanus as a priest celebrates Mass slowly: grew to manhood. When he was of the age to receive the priesthood, he did not degenerate from the rank by moral vices. For he did not, as some then and now do, having quickly sung Mass in the morning, gape all day afterwards at gluttony or gain; but completing his duty with more careful attention, he added daily and prolonged prayers: content with the offerings of the faithful, he sustained his life with these. Of singular modesty, he presented to heaven the preserved seal of virginity after a life of chastity. He lives holily. Thus, while still living in the world, he was esteemed greater than any monk.

[2] Free from excessive drinking, he indulged in the eating of meats: which, however, as soon as he could, seizing the opportunity, he spurned. The reason was that on a certain day he had to go out to a certain court on business; the necessity of the matter had rejected all excuse. Nevertheless it seemed good that before singing his Mass he should attend to his hunger. His servants hurried, lest their master depart unfed: a goose was set on the fire. The Priest stood at the altar, distracted by the smell of a roasting bird, and was engaged with the devotion that was his custom: when during the secret parts of the Mass, because the church was near the house, the odor of the burning meat filled his nostrils; the smell summoned his mind, so that he was ensnared by the allurement of pleasure: and immediately recollecting himself and recognizing his fault, he struggled mightily to turn his thought elsewhere. But since this was in vain, angry with himself he made an oath upon the Sacraments he vows henceforth to abstain from meats, which he was touching, that he would by no means eat that kind of food ever again. Therefore, having sung Mass, empty of food, he departed to his business, since the lateness of the hour was pressing. That occasion brought it about that, having followed a wholly arduous example, he abstained from all flesh and even richer food in perpetuity: yet not suspending his brow with rigid disapproval of those who ate, he affirmed that he was held by no desire for any of those foods; but if there were any meat that was enjoyable, he supposed that larks gave greater pleasure to those who ate them.

[3] He becomes a monk. As the devotion of his purpose grew, having been made a monk at Worcester, he ascended through all the offices to the Priorate. In which, while he shone with the lofty praise of virtues, he experienced the temptation of the devil, envious, I believe, of his good qualities: who assailed him one night while he was praying before the altar, to wrestle with him. He wrestles three times with the devil. He, the stronger, attacked the challenger with dire knots of his arms and threw him down. The same thing happened a second and a third time; except that the third time he indicated with sighs, his innards burning from that collision, that he had nearly failed. But the merciful Divinity was at hand, which drove away the raging monster. When it vanished into the air, Wulstanus realized it was the devil, whereas before he had thought it was a certain servant whose form it had assumed. And the proof of this was not deceptive: that however it came about that he saw that servant, immediately his limbs would be penetrated by trembling and he would turn entirely pale: otherwise entirely free from all fear, fearless by nature, so that he affirmed he did not know what terror was, who had never dismounted from his horse for a broken bridge, who had walked securely along the narrowest beams at the top of buildings, so that it is rightly said of him: The righteous man is as confident as a lion.

CHAPTER II.

Various virtues in the episcopate.

[4] Meanwhile the reason arose which I mentioned above, by which Aldredus the Archbishop, coming from Rome, along with the Cardinals who followed, was urged to consecrate a Bishop for the city of Worcester. He, having brought the matter into deliberation, He is made Bishop of Worcester, and looking out for his own affairs in the future, chose Wulstanus, thinking him ineffectual, planning to use his simplicity and holiness to cloak his own plundering, intending to seize from the properties of the bishopric whatever he pleased. Wulstanus therefore, approved by the Cardinals' favor and examined with severity, received the divine gift, and a beautiful and venerable presage presented itself as a prognostic: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Nothing at all could be more true. For neither was there in him the semblance of feigned sanctity for good, nor of crafty fraud if anything were otherwise.

[5] He recovers properties taken from his Church. But neither did Aldredus find him so sluggish as he had thought. For Wulstanus craftily recovered from him the greater part of the properties which he unjustly detained, at the time alleging his own need. Thus he exercised the duty entrusted to him, relying more on the innate love of virtues than on learning. Although he was not so dull in letters (as was thought) as one who knew other matters; beyond the fables of the poets and the tortuous syllogisms of the dialecticians, which he neither knew nor deigned to know. For the rest, well enough taught to be able to make an extempore sermon however elegant, effective in preaching, an artisan at moving the tears of his hearers by presenting the joys of heaven and the pains of hell, at persuading whatever opinion he wished, so long as his life matched his teaching, and he did not live otherwise than he taught one should live. And therefore God furnished him with an eloquence that served both to increase His praises and to profit his hearers. In food and drink (as I said before) he was abstinent, although in his hall, according to the English custom, people drank for the entire afternoon, sparing in drink, among whom he himself sat, chewing psalms, yet pretending in his own turn to drink: others drained foaming cups, while he, holding a very small vessel, invited them to cheerfulness, satisfying the custom of his country rather than the judgment of his mind. For he did not omit the customs of the Normans either, leading a retinue of soldiers with him, who consumed an enormous amount in their annual wages and daily food.

[6] Concerning his religious practices we have received the following. Daily singing Mass, he added the psalter, much given to prayer, and the commemorations of all the Saints, whose individual feasts succeed throughout the whole year, each divided into seven, he did not omit at the seven hours. Whenever he was at Worcester, he energetically sang the principal Mass, saying he was repaying the weekly officer's duty, from which he would not allow himself to be excused on account of his bishopric. He also frequently attended Collation, and going with the rest into the church, having made confession and given the blessing, he retired to the dining hall. Even on horseback he sings psalms while traveling. Wherever he went on horseback he frequented the psalter, often repeating to the point of tedium for his companion singer the prayerful verses that occurred. Never, on account of any person, not even when stationed in the King's court and seated at his table, did he omit the blessings he always blesses his drink, which the English used to make over their drink. Whenever necessity pressed him to attend the County court, first of all he pronounced a curse on the unjust and a blessing on the upright judges. He does not attend to vain things. Then sitting down, if any divine matter were being discussed, he vigilantly applied the keenness of his mind; if a secular one, which was more frequent, he would drowse off wearily with boredom; although if anyone thought something should be said against him, he would find in his responses that Wulstanus was not of dull knowledge.

[7] A Priest named Egelricus, summoned by the fame of his religious life, had come to him, from whose sparkling example he had caught much tinder of holiness in himself. For that man was given to continuous prayers, he profits from the company of the pious, even amid crowds, to the amazement of onlookers, who daily after Mass completed the psalter with prayers of no fewer in number; so sharp in correcting that he would immediately, even the Bishop himself, if at any time he was more lax in speaking (as happens), either reprove with words or rebuke with his eyes. For the Bishop corrected the transgressions of his charges from the right path, but more often, as far as decency permitted, tolerated them; by no means enduring sluggishness in the divine service: if any of the servants, he punishes negligence of his people in divine matters, overcome by drunkenness or drowsiness, had not been present at matins, he would avenge it with the sharp blow of a rod upon him. Finally, he would rouse the more honorable persons himself and sing matins for them.

[8] He used cheaper garments indifferently, driving away the cold more with lambskins than with pelts of any other kind. He disregards the adornment of clothing. But if he were told to at least put on catskin pelts, he would reply with a humorous courtesy: Believe me (for this manner of swearing had become habitual to the Bishop), I never heard "Catus Dei" being sung, but "Agnus Dei"; and therefore I wish to be warmed not by a cat, but by a lamb: so had the fear of God settled in his mind, that what others twisted into pomp, he transferred into material for compunction.

[9] When the work of the greater church, which he himself had begun from the foundations, had progressed to such a stage that the monks were now moving into it, it was ordered that the old church, which B. Oswald also had built, be unroofed and demolished. Standing in the open air at this spectacle, Wulstanus could not hold back his tears. He builds a greater basilica, and seizes from it material for humility. When he was modestly reproached for this by his household, who said he ought rather to rejoice that in his lifetime such honor had come to his Church, so that the multiplied number of monks required larger quarters, he replied: I understand it far otherwise, that we wretched sinners destroy the works of the Saints in order to gain praise for ourselves. That blessed age of happy men did not know how to build pompous churches, but under whatever kind of roof to sacrifice themselves to God, and to draw their subjects to follow their example; we on the contrary strive, neglecting the care of souls, to pile up stones. He said much more in this vein, undermining with his allegations the objections that were raised.

[10] Now the discourse will add that he was not devoid of miracles: for what has been said about his character will keep to this limit. At the dedication of a certain church he had preached a sermon to the people, in which he had said much about other things, but more about peace; moved by which, several who had been at daggers drawn in lethal discord pardoned offenses on both sides. [An obstinate man who would not forgive his enemy, therefore three times seized by a demon, three times healed by his prayers.] There was one who by no admonitions, no persuasions, could be induced to pardon his brother's murder to the enemy: to this man, brought into the midst and after much speech most obstinately refusing, the Bishop spoke these very words: The Lord said in the Gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. It is therefore evident that if the peaceful are blessed and sons of God, the discordant are wretched and sons of the devil. Matt. 5:9. Therefore I commend you to him whose son you are, and I hand you over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, according to the precept of the Apostle, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Cor. 5:5. The saint had scarcely finished his speech, when that wretched man, having become a slave of the enemy, in the sight of all the people began to gnash his teeth, to cast foam, to whirl his hair: finally, dashed to the ground, he rolled about raging. When Wulstanus was implored to have mercy, he delayed: but finally pressed and overcome by tears, he commanded the enemy to depart: he departed with the same ease with which he had come. The man, restored to his senses, and urged to yield forgiveness for the offense, with amazing imprudence refused to make peace: he was therefore commanded to be vexed again, and again to be healed; he persisted in his refusal. A third time, when his limbs were nearly all weakened by the shaking of the demon and he was almost gasping out his soul, he made peace, and was thereafter always healthy and whole until his death.

CHAPTER III.

Adversaries overcome from heaven. Numerous prophecies.

[11] Under the elder William, a complaint was raised against Wulstanus by Lanfranc concerning his ignorance of letters; He is cited to a Synod. and by Thomas, Archbishop of York, that he ought to be subject to him by ancient right. When he was commanded to respond to both objections in the council, he went out to compose his reply with more focused deliberation. Then, when the minds of the monks who were with him were astonished at the gravity of the matter, he interjected: Believe me, we have not yet sung None: let us therefore sing it. When his companions replied that they should first attend to the matters for which they had come, that there would be more than enough time for singing; and that the King and the nobles, if they heard this, would think themselves the object of ridicule, and not without reason: First, believe me, he said, we shall do God's service, he neglects to prepare his response, and afterwards we shall attend to men's litigation. Having therefore sung the Hour, with no false evasion devised and no splendor of truth contrived, he proceeded to enter the hall of the council: when his companions tried to hold him back, he could not be persuaded. Indeed, saying to those who feared for his case: Know for certain that I visibly see here the blessed Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald, he is aided by SS. Dunstan and Oswald, who today, protecting me with their prayers, will blunt the sharpness of the false speakers. Thus, having given his blessing to a monk of very little eloquence but with some knowledge of the Norman tongue, he won his case, so that he who had before been thought unworthy of governing the diocese was humbly begged by the Archbishop of York to deign to visit his diocese, which he himself feared to approach because of the hostility or his ignorance of the language. And he wins the case. And not only this, but he also recovered all the remaining estates of the bishopric which Archbishop Aldredus had retained, with Archbishop Lanfranc steadfastly supporting his case, pressing his rival in primacy and power.

[12] Under the younger William, Count Roger de Montgomery, plotting treason against the Prince, with his fellow conspirators took up arms in hostility: He excommunicates the rebels. and from Shrewsbury all the way to the colony of Worcester he devastated everything, and was approaching the city itself: when the royal soldiers who were in the vanguard presented the danger to the Bishop: he hurled the thunderbolt of excommunication against the traitors who did not keep faith with their Lord, and commanded the soldiers to hasten, to avenge the injuries of God and the Church. Who would call what follows a miracle, but credit must be given to the authority of truthful narrators. For some of the enemy, when they saw the royal forces, who are soon conquered by a few, struck by feeble fear, and some even blinded, yielded a full and such a victory as they could not have hoped for to the townspeople. For many were routed by a few; some were slain, some wounded and carried off.

[13] He shines with the gift of prophecy. How is it that he did not lack prophecy? There was a certain Aldwinus whom he had made a monk, and who was thus exercising the eremitical life in that vast forest called Malvern, with his companion Guido. It seemed to Guido, after long struggles, a shorter route to glory, to go to Jerusalem, where by the labor of the journey he might either see the Lord's sepulchre, or happily anticipate death at the hand of the Saracens. Aldwinus, induced to adopt the same plan, nevertheless sought counsel with Father Wulstanus. He predicts the founding of the monastery of Malvern. The Bishop dissuaded him, and cooled his ardor, saying: By no means go anywhere, Aldwinus, but remain in your place. Believe me, you would marvel if you knew what I know, how much God will accomplish through you in that place. The monk departed at this word, and now stood firm in his purpose, and the hope of the prophecy lightened every kind of hardship. Nor did the prophecy long delay its fulfillment: for one after another came to Aldwinus, a third after the second, and so on up to the number of thirty; and food was supplied to them in abundance at first, the neighbors judging themselves blessed who could share something with the servants of God; what they lacked, they supplied by faith, counting it a small thing if they did without bodily food, since they grew fat on spiritual joy.

[14] A certain merchant named Sewulfus was accustomed to come to him annually, to seek by his counsel a cure for the diseases of his soul: to whom once, after absolution had been given, he said: You frequently repeat the sins you have confessed; because, as is said, opportunity makes the thief. Therefore I advise you to become a monk: if you do this, you will lack the opportunity for these sins. He predicts to one that he will eventually become a monk. When the man replied that he could not become a monk because of the rigor of the life, the Bishop, somewhat irritated, said: Go, you will become a monk whether you wish it or not, but only when the implements of your vices have grown old in you. Which we afterwards saw, because in our monastery he was converted, already broken by old age and admonished by illness. But however many times he repented, whenever someone reminded him of the Bishop's saying, he would check his impulse and soften his resolve.

[15] Nicolaus, his special protégé, who afterwards was Prior of the Church of Worcester, sat at his feet. The Bishop meanwhile, giving way to cheerfulness, gently stroked the young man's head, to another he predicts baldness, which for a time he prevents by his prayers, with his hair already falling out and approaching the reproach of baldness; and said: I think you will become bald. And the young man, already grieving in his youth that he was growing old in that respect, complained of the fate of his falling hair, and said: Why do you not hold them fast? The Bishop, smiling in return, said: Believe me, as long as I live, those that remain will never fail. And so it happened as he said. But in the very week in which he departed this life, they all vanished, I know not where, so completely as to leave the bare skin.

CHAPTER IV.

Illness. Death. Miracles.

[16] He predicts his own death. He manifested his own death by no obscure signs, often indeed, but here more openly. When news was brought to him of the death of his sister, whom he had as his only one, he replied: Now the plough has reached my furrow, and the brother will follow the sister, not many days hence. He therefore took to his bed with the fevers for half a year before his death, and was being prepared for the entrance to heavenly life. He bore the illness magnanimously, and consoled those weeping before him he suffers from fevers for half a year, and fearing the tyranny of the future Bishop, saying: Let groans cease, let tears desist; for this is not the loss of life, but the exchange of life; nor shall I ever be wanting to you, but the more I am freed from the clay of my body and made more present to God, the swifter I shall be in giving aid: he comforts his own. through my obtaining, prosperity will come to you; through my repelling, adversity will depart. Happy tongue, which from the abundant store of conscience dared to pour such confident words into the ears of men. Others manage with sighs and sobs to have others pray for them; he promised that he would pray for others. What kind of miracle is this? Was he conscious of no sin? Rather holy simplicity was speaking, a simplicity that knew not how to distrust the mercy of God.

[17] He dies in holiness. Taken away therefore amid the great wailing of laity and monks present, he was carried into the church and kept above ground for three days. For the very appearance and form of the lifeless body seemed to display the grace of the living Bishop, and soothed the eyes and lessened the grief. And the body lay in the bier before the altar, adorned with pontifical insignia, without covering; and people streaming in from all sides, having given their offerings and worshiped the body, departed with sorrow.

[18] He is buried. On the fourth day he was committed to the earth by Robert, Bishop of Hereford, long joined to him by holy friendship. He lies between two pyramids, with a stone arch beautifully arched above; a beam projects above, which has iron lattices, called "Cobwebs," attached. I have mentioned these things because they cohere with the miracle to be appended. Not a few years after his death, a fire coming from the city through carelessness entirely consumed the roof of the church: His tomb is untouched while the church burns. the lead having melted, the boards changed to charcoal while the fire raged; beams, as large as whole trees, fell to the ground in flames. Whatever could escape the fire inside the church was shattered and cracked by the collapse of such a mass. The tomb of the Saint amid all this was not only immune from the fury of the flame, but was neither stained with soot nor covered with ash. And to increase the miracle, a mat on which those praying before the mausoleum used to recline was found unharmed. The beam which, as I said, projects above, was found intact as far as it extended beyond the stones; what the stone had enclosed, the stone itself being ruined, had dissolved to ashes.

[19] Many other miracles performed there. And this miracle was not the first, but more famous than others, because it was public. For who could enumerate those daily ones which people experience in their domestic necessities, since no one who comes in faith to the tomb departs without his prayers being answered? These surpass the ability of the most eloquent speaker, since they can neither be gathered in number nor received in writing. And indeed, if the openness of people of old helped, the Saint would long since have been celebrated and proclaimed on high. But the incredulity of our contemporaries, which adorns itself with the cloak of caution, refuses to believe in miracles, even if they see with their eyes, even if they touch with their fingers. I feared that I would be guilty of silence, if I consigned to silence what I had learned from certain authors, and defrauded the studious of their knowledge. For who would I be to take it upon myself that even the lazy should read either for love of the Saint or for our own sake, who disdain the holy Gospels?

CHAPTER V.

Deeds after death.

[20] Samson, a Canon of Bayeux, succeeded Wulstanus, a man of no small learning The successor of S. Wulstanus, and not contemptible eloquence, of the old-fashioned manners: generous in his own feasting and liberal in lavishing on others: harmless to the monks, except that he took from them Westbury, where Wulstanus had placed monks, and had fortified it with the privilege of his holiness. Samson broke this, and not many years later he died in the very estate where he had committed the offense.

[21] Robert, Bishop of Hereford, was above all contemporary Bishops devoted to the most holy Wulstanus's friendship, connected to him also by the proximity of their bishoprics. Therefore very often, setting aside outside business, he afforded him domestic companionship, S. Wulstanus, while ill, appears to Bishop Robert, delighted by the purity and innocence of his life; whom although he outlived, the bond of comradely love was not corrupted by his prolonged death. Wulstanus was lying sick at Worcester, already near his blessed end; Robert was at court, unwillingly managing only the royal business. Wulstanus stood before him in a vision, speaking entirely intelligibly: If you wish to see me alive, hasten to come to Worcester before I die. At which vision, having sought permission from the King, he hastened to come swiftly, indulging in no rest either by day or night. For pious fear had instilled a presentiment, which the event confirmed, that he would not find him alive: for the court had been rather far away.

[22] And now, surrendering himself to sleep in the lodge nearest to Worcester, he appears again after death, and announces coming events, he sees Wulstanus again, saying: You have done nothing less than what loving devotion requires: but you have been frustrated in your desire: for I have already departed. Now, dear companion, take care of your life, provide for your salvation, because you will not long remain in this light after me. And lest you think you are being deluded by a phantasmal vision, receive a sign: After you have tomorrow committed to the earth the body which has now been waiting three days for your arrival, a gift will be given to you on my behalf, which you will recognize as mine. And so the Bishop, waking up, completed his journey, came to Worcester, performed the office of burial, having related the matter to all.

[23] And now, having said farewell to the monks, he was contemplating departure, and his horse, already spurred, Robert is given his cloak as a gift, was waiting, when the Prior of the place reverently fell at his knees and presented the gift, saying: Accept, my Lord, if it please you, the cloak of your beloved, lined with lambskin, which he used to wear when riding; which may both attest your long love and merit the protection of our Lord's holiness. When he heard this and recognized the gift, he turned pale, and an icy tremor ran through his bones: and immediately deferring his departure, he summoned the community of monks to the Chapter house, recounting with tears and sighs, as the matter required, how truly the dream and the fact had corresponded. And so, having commended his death to all, he departed, joyful indeed at the admonition, but always anxious with holy fear. Wulstanus departed in the middle of January, nor did Robert survive beyond June.

ANOTHER LIFE

By an anonymous author, published by Io. Capgravius and Surius.

Wulstanus, Bishop of Worcester in England (S.)

BHL Number: 8759

From Capgravius.

CHAPTER I.

His life before the episcopate.

[1] Wolstanus was pious. Wolstanus, beloved of God, born in the province of Warwick, and instructed in letters and ecclesiastical offices in the monastery of Burgh, sang Mass slowly, and adding other prayers, was content with the offerings of the faithful alone. A virgin, always free from excessive drink, he indulged in the eating of meats: chaste, the occasion for spurning which was as follows: On a certain day, when he was about to go out to a certain court and had resolved, after singing Mass, to take food, a goose having been set on the fire, the odor of the burning meat filled the nostrils of the celebrant, and the smell diverted his mind. But when, struggling for a long time, he could not avert his thought, he made an oath upon the Sacraments which he was handling, that he would by no means eat that kind of food ever again. He abstains from the eating of meat. When Mass was completed, he departed unfed to his business.

[2] He becomes a monk. Having at length left the world, he was made a monk in the monastery of Worcester, in which his father had served, and advancing through nearly all the offices of the house, he rose to the Priorate. He continually gave himself to fasting, vigils, and prayers: he lives austerely. He was accustomed to sleep on a bench in the church, with the book in which he was praying placed under his head. He wrestles with a demon. On a certain night, praying before the altar in the church, the demon impudently provoking him to wrestle, though fatigued by the struggle, he three times seized and threw him. He appeared to him in the form of a certain servant from the court, whom Wulstanus thereafter always turned pale upon seeing, fearless in spirit, but for everything else was always free from fear. For he affirmed that he did not know what fear was, who had never dismounted from his horse because of a broken bridge; indeed he even walked securely along the narrowest beams at the top of buildings.

[3] He repels a lustful woman. When a certain very beautiful, noble, and wealthy matron, deceived by an insane and illicit love, was so tormented by lustful desire for him that she could not resist the temptation, she revealed her desire to him, sighing and begging and praying that he deign to enter her bedchamber, his rigor being set aside for a little while. He, unable to endure the deadly voice any longer, interrupting the speaker's words, and making the sign of the cross on his forehead, said: Begone, you fuel of lust, daughter of death, vessel of Satan: and he struck the woman such a blow that the crack of the slapped palm was heard all around. And so, like another Joseph, spurning feminine lust in his soul, he checked it with his hand.

[4] He preaches. He was accustomed to preach the word of God to the people with diligent devotion every Sunday: a certain Brother, reproving him, asserted that it belongs to a Bishop alone to preach, and that silence and the cloister befit a monk. To whom the Saint replied: The word of God is not bound; nothing is more pleasing to God than to proclaim Christ and to call back the people from the error of their way; and therefore he would not desist. The following night that Brother, led in a vision to the tribunal of an unknown Judge, having been punished from heaven for reproving this, he heals him, was rebuked for why he had reproached His servant, and was ordered to be cast upon the pavement and beaten. Tears on his cheeks and bruises were clearly visible on the shoulders of the one who had awakened. Moved by his calamity, the man of God gave him his blessing, and immediately health returned to him, and every trace of pain subsided.

[5] He saves a falling man by the sign of the Cross. When a certain man was falling headlong from a bell tower, Wolstanus, standing at a distance and seeing it, grieved and opposed the sign of the cross: and the fall of the one tumbling down not only did not injure his body, but did not even dull his mind with the chill of blood, as usually happens. He rose unharmed, attributing to his own rashness the fact that he fell, devoted to abstinence, and to Wolstanus's holiness the fact that he escaped. Three days a week abstaining from all food, he perpetually restrained his tongue in silence: on the other three days he ate boiled leeks or cabbages and barley bread.

CHAPTER II.

The episcopate miraculously asserted.

[6] ... When he could by no means be bent to consent to the election made of himself, He is made Bishop. he was sharply rebuked for his obstinacy by the man of God Wulsinius, who had been enclosed for forty years, and terrified by a divine oracle, he consented to the election.

[7] For when King William, alleging insufficiency of learning and ignorance of the French language, endeavored to deprive Wolstanus of his office, a council having been convened, Archbishop Lanfranc ordered the venerable man to resign his staff with his ring. The man of God, with neither his countenance nor his spirit changed, raised himself and, holding his pastoral staff in his hand, In a Synod he is ordered to resign the episcopate. said: Truly, Lord Archbishop, I know well that I am neither worthy of this honor, nor suited for this burden, nor sufficient for this labor. I knew this when the clergy elected me, when the Bishops compelled me, when my Lord invited me to this office. He himself, by the authority of the Apostolic See, laid this burden on my shoulders, and through this staff he commanded me to be invested with the episcopal rank. Now you demand the pastoral staff which you did not bestow: you take away the office which you did not confer. And indeed I, not ignorant of my own insufficiency, and yielding to the judgment of this holy Synod, shall indeed resign the staff, but not to you; rather to him by whose authority I received it. Having said this, approaching the tomb of S. Edward and standing before the sepulchre, he said: You know, my Lord, how unwillingly I undertook this work, how often I tried to escape, how often when I was sought I absented myself. I confess, I was made a fool: but you compelled me. For although there was no lack of the election of the Brothers, the petition of the people, the will of the Bishops, the favor of the nobles; yet your authority outweighed all these, your will pressed more urgently. And behold, a new King, a new law, a new Pontiff, new laws are being made, new sentences are being proclaimed. They accuse you of error, who gave the command; me of presumption, who consented. And at that time you could indeed have been mistaken, as a man; but can you now, joined to God? Therefore not to them, who demand what they did not give, who being men can both deceive and be deceived; but to you, who gave it, and now led into truth itself, have escaped the darkness of ignorance or error, he fixes the pastoral staff in the stone of S. Edward's tomb, to you I resign my staff: to you I entrust the care of those whom you commended to me: to you I securely commit them, whose merits I know well. When he had said this, raising his hand slightly, he fixed the staff in the stone which covered the holy body, saying: Receive, my Lord and King, and to whomever you please, hand it over. And divested of his pontifical vestments, he sat down among the monks, now himself simply a monk.

[8] All marveled, seeing the staff immersed in the stone, and, as if it had roots, not moving. When those attempting the staff could by no means pull it out, the matter was reported to the Synod, which cannot be pulled out. and Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, sent by Lanfranc, approaching the sepulchre, when he could not in any way move the staff, Lanfranc, stupefied by the novelty of the miracle, together with the Bishops and the King, hastening to the tomb and having offered prayer, put his hand in vain to extract the staff. The King cries out, the Pontiff prays, and says to the Saint: Truly the Lord is just, and walks with the simple, and His speech is with the humble. Your holy simplicity has been mocked by us, brother: but He has brought forth your justice as a light. Our judgment erred concerning you, and has revealed your simplicity, pleasing to God, to all. By the authority therefore which we exercise, or rather by the divine judgment by which we are convicted, we again commit to you and impose upon you the care of which we too hastily divested you. He, however, alleging his own impossibility and a burden beyond his strength, asserts that a holy minister should be placed in the holy place. At last overcome by the insistence of prayers, he then takes it up again, he approached the sepulchre before all, touched the staff with his hand, and immediately following his hand, as if it had been pressed into soft clay, it sprang loose. Lanfranc therefore, prostrating himself at his feet, confesses his fault, implores pardon, saying that his simplicity was accepted and well-pleasing to God, who makes foolish the wisdom of this world, to confound the strong and to pour grace upon the humble.

CHAPTER III.

Virtues and miracles.

[9] He heals a woman possessed by a demon. A certain woman tormented by a demon, wandering through the open country by the impulse of the spirit, he restored to her former health by his blessing, and commanded her not to bless Wolstanus but God, to love the virtues, not to lose her chastity, lest something worse befall her. The woman, following his counsels, led a life pleasing to God in the habit of a religious woman.

[10] Another. A certain demoniac, bound with iron chains to a post, spoke with such a confusion of various voices that you would think an army was speaking from one mouth. But at the sight of the Bishop, trembling in all his limbs, he gnashed his teeth; vomiting spittle with gaping mouth, he began to make a great noise. The Priest, dismayed by so great a disturbance, extended his hands to heaven and prayed, and the sick man was immediately restored to health.

[11] A leper. A certain leper, horrible to look at, spotted in flesh, washed himself in a bath with the water from the washing of the holy man's hands, and immediately the swelling of the pustules subsided, the deadly poison flowed out, and all his flesh shortly blossomed again to the purity of a child; and with the scab and scaliness of his head abolished, his hair was restored by the growing of new locks.

[12] A woman with failing eyesight. Gunnhild, a nun, daughter of King Harold, was attacked by a troublesome swelling of her eyes, and a mass of flesh filling and covering her eyelids blocked her sight: but having received the blessing of the holy Bishop, with her eyelids lowered and raised, the Virgin regained clear light.

[13] Elsinus, formerly a servant of King Edward, entreated the Bishop with prayers to come and consecrate a church. Now in the churchyard there was a walnut tree, shady with spreading branches, He withers a tree by a curse, which by the luxuriant extent of its branches blocked the light of the church. That man was accustomed to play at dice and feast under the same tree: and when the Bishop ordered it to be cut down, he preferred that the church not be dedicated rather than that the tree be removed from there. The holy man therefore, offended, hurled the javelin of his curse at the tree, and it, as if wounded, gradually becoming barren, withered from the roots and bore no fruit. The owner, embittered at this, ordered it cut down and said: Nothing bitterer than Wolstanus's curse, nothing sweeter than his blessing, can be found.

[14] He saves some from the peril of shipwreck while absent. When certain people were sailing from England toward Ireland, the mildness of the sky having changed, a gust of storm blew, the crash of winds grew louder, and a violent tempest arose. With the ropes torn and the mast broken, having invoked the assistance of S. Wulstanus, someone appearing in his likeness mended the rigging, restored the ropes, and exhorting them to take heart and raise the masts, said that the Lord would give them calm weather. And immediately, with serenity restored, the sea became tranquil.

[15] He disdains the adornment of clothing. He used cheaper furs indifferently, but more often drove away the cold with lambskins. Whence to someone suggesting that he at least wear catskin furs, he said: Believe me, I have not heard "Catus Dei" being sung, but "Agnus Dei": therefore I wish to be warmed by the lamb. Books of edification were read at his table, with all meanwhile observing the deepest silence. Sparing in drink. When quiet had been given after the meal, so that he might impart heavenly nourishment to those to whom he had served the bodily, he would explain the reading in the native tongue. When after dinner drink was offered according to the custom, he himself was accustomed to take pure water, with only his servant knowing. In his first years he drank unmixed water; worn out by old age, he mixed it with wine or beer.

[16] He oversees the discipline of his household. Exercising the most strict discipline of his household both among the laity and the clergy, he established a rule that all should be present at both Mass and all the Hours. He appointed custodians for this purpose, to allow no one to laugh with impunity: otherwise either he went without drink for that day, or his palm received the blow of a rod. He sent no layman of his household anywhere without enjoining upon him prayers to be said seven times a day, asserting this, that just as the clergy observed seven Hours, so the laity should offer seven prayers to God. If anyone swore before him, the vengeance of the rod immediately followed. He bore it ill if anyone in his presence attacked the life of others or criticized their morals; for he considered this the height of malice.

[17] He prays at night. At night, rising after a short sleep, he would say the psalter; sometimes alone, lest he disturb the rest of others; sometimes with a companion, whom he found more wakeful than the rest. And when he would reprove the drowsiness of a certain Brother by a nod one night, and the latter, yawning and unwilling, remained seated, when he gave his body to rest, he was shaken with great violence in a vision, beaten with scourges, and endured the punishment of his thoughtless presumption. He gave his word at last that he would never again presume to hinder the man of God from a good work.

[18] And while traveling. He was accustomed to hear at least two Masses daily, and to sing a third one himself. Once mounted on his horse, he would begin the psalter and make no pause until the end. His chamberlain carried alms at the ready, denied to no one in need. Always intent on piety. Wherever he lay, stood, or walked, always a psalm was on his lips, always Christ in his heart. In each of his estates he had small chapels, in which he enclosed himself from morning after Mass, until a cleric announced the time for dinner or the Hours by knocking at the door. When he was at Worcester, he sang the principal Mass almost daily in place of the weekly officer, from which duty, as I said, he would not consent to be released on account of his bishopric. He attended the Collation of the monks, and having said the confession and given the blessing, he returned to his quarters.

[19] He builds a new Church. Once, when his monks were moving to the larger church which he himself had built, and he saw the ancient church, which S. Oswald had built, being destroyed, he shed tears. When modestly reproved for this, that he ought rather to rejoice that in his own lifetime such honor had come to his Church, that with the monks multiplied the buildings needed to be enlarged, he said: I understand it far otherwise, that we sinners and wretches destroy the works of the Saints in order to gain praise for ourselves. That age knew not how to build pompous structures, but under whatever kind of roof to sacrifice themselves to God, and to draw their subjects to follow their example. We on the contrary strive, neglecting the care of souls, to pile up stones.

[20] Once when S. Wulstanus was preaching a sermon about peace, and many were returning to harmony, [A man unwilling to forgive his enemy, three times seized by the devil, three times healed.] one among them could not be induced by any persuasion, not even the Bishop's request, to grant pardon to the one who had murdered his brother and was now seeking forgiveness. To this man, brought into the middle, the Bishop said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. For it is clear that if the peaceful are blessed and sons of God, the discordant are wretched and sons of the devil. Therefore I commit you to him whose son you are, and hand over your flesh to Satan. Immediately that man, made a slave of the enemy, began to gnash his teeth, cast foam, and whirl his head. At last healed by Wulstanus, when he still rejected peace, he was seized a second and a third time, until he forgave the injury and offense from his heart.

CHAPTER III.

Prophecies. Death. Miracles.

[21] A certain Ailwinus, living as an anchorite at the forest of Malvern, He predicts the future to one man. was often inspired with the desire for a journey to Jerusalem. When he disclosed this to Wulstanus, the Bishop, dissuading him, said: Desist, Ailwinus, I beg you: believe me, you would marvel if you knew what God is going to do through you. He acquiesced, and in that place gathered monks to the number of thirty, and founded the monastery of Malvern.

[22] When a certain man named Fewulfus repeatedly confessed the same sins to the Bishop, the Bishop said: Opportunity, to another, that he will become a monk. as I see, makes the thief; therefore I advise you to become a monk: and so you will lack the importunity of your vices. When he refused this because of the rigor of the order, the Bishop said: Go, you will become a monk whether you wish it or not. At last growing old, and having been tonsured at Malmesbury, whenever he recalled Wulstanus's saying, he behaved more gently.

[23] While he was stroking the head of his protégé Nicolaus, who as a young man had already begun to go bald, he said to him: I think, son, that you will soon be bald. And the boy said: To a boy he predicts baldness, which he delays for a time. Why, Father, do you not keep my hair? To whom the Bishop replied: Believe me, son, as long as I live, the remaining ones will not fail. And so it happened. For in the very week in which the Bishop died, all his hairs vanished so completely that they left the skin as if bare.

[24] In the year of our Lord one thousand and sixty-seven, in the thirty-fourth year of his episcopate, the eighty-seventh of his age, He dies. on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February, having died to this world, he began to live in Christ. The ring which he had received at his consecration for many years could not stay on his finger, and though it frequently fell off, it was never lost. For the flesh of his fingers was so wasted that scarcely a little skin adhered to the bones. The ring cannot be removed from the dead man. For he is said to have frequently declared: The ring which I received without seeking it, I shall carry inseparably with me into the ground. After his death certain persons tried in vain to remove the ring from his finger: for the skin appeared so full, the joints so protruding, the integrity of the tendons so restored to the dead man, which had been wasted by abstinence in the living. After one hundred years had elapsed since his death, when his body was translated and placed in a precious shrine, it was found, together with the pontifical vestments, whole and uncorrupted. The body uncorrupted after 100 years.

[25] Among the many miracles performed by God for His servant, he cured a woman who had been bent and bowed for five years, Miracles. clinging to the ground; he repaired the tongue of a boy cut out by a stepmother: he gave sight to five blind people; he healed five demoniacs: he restored speech to four mute persons: he raised three dead: he cleansed two lepers: and he gave health to two people with dropsy. On one occasion, within three days, thirty-five persons oppressed by various diseases, having received health, gave thanks to God and His Saint.

[26] He healed the eyes of a certain youth, dug out by rivals and thrown into a field. He did not, however, restore his original eyes, And other miracles. but placed new and small pupils, as it were two little plums, in the depth of the sockets, and those which he had by nature of various colors, he received back from grace as black. And day by day they grew to a fitting size. The testicles of the same youth, torn from their sacs by the same rivals, cut off and thrown far away, were restored to him; and all the wounds received in various parts of his body were healed in a moment. This youth, named Thomas, having gathered much money, a certain lady received a loan of money from him, and at length enticed him to fornication with her. When at last he was moved to contrition and had worthily made satisfaction for his sin, she, grieving that she was despised and ashamed at being rejected, took a wicked and criminal man as her husband, and by her instigation urged him to the aforesaid wicked deed.

ON S. HENRICUS, MARTYR, BISHOP OF UPPSALA IN SWEDEN.

Around the year MCL.

Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala in Sweden, Martyr (S.)

From various sources.

[1] The holy Henricus was the seventh Bishop of the Church of Uppsala, and the Apostle and Patron of all Finland; whose extraordinary piety was consecrated by public veneration. So Ioannes Magnus the Goth, book 1, on the lives of the Bishops of Uppsala, who was himself also Bishop of that See. Uppsala is the metropolis of the Swedes, S. Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala, formerly the residence of the Kings, who now live at Stockholm, not far from there. Finland, called Finningia by others and by Pliny himself (although most copies read Einingia), is a vast peninsula, encircled by the Baltic Sea where it faces Livonia to the south and Sweden to the west; inhabited by the Finns, or Fenni, a warlike people.

[2] His feast. S. Henricus is venerated with a double office on 19 January, as is evident from the old Swedish Missal in our possession, in which a proper Mass exists, and in it before the Gospel a rhythmic hymn about him, which they call a sequence. Molanus in his Additions to Usuardus writes of him: In Sweden, B. Henricus, Archbishop of Uppsala and Martyr, in the year 1151, who converted the Finns. He is also mentioned by the Cologne Carthusians in their Additions to Usuardus, the English Martyrology, Canisius, Ferrarius, and Galesinius; but an enormous error in the latter must be corrected: At Uppsala in Sweden, he says, S. Henricus, Bishop and Martyr. Galesinius corrected. He was English, made Bishop of the Church of Uppsala, and having set out with Henricus, King of Sweden, a most holy man, into Belgium for the purpose of propagating the faith, he was murdered on that account by a certain wicked man. What region of Europe was then more flourishing in the praise of Christian piety than our Belgium, whose various dynasts were carrying victorious arms through Syria and other provinces of the East? Galesinius meant to write Finns, and S. Ericus the King, not Henricus.

[3] The MS. Florarium marks the feast of S. Henricus on 20 January: The birthday of S. Henricus, Archbishop and Martyr of Uppsala. And again on 13 December: In Sweden, the deposition of S. Henricus, Bishop. But on 18 June in the aforesaid Swedish Missal his Translation is observed with a double office. The Translation of S. Henricus. He was buried, says Ioannes Vastonius in his Vita Aquilonia, in a place in Finland called Nousis, whose cenotaph Bishop Ioannes Petri of Abo had greatly adorned around the year of our Lord 1370. Relics. The head and arms, however, are displayed at Abo, now enclosed in iron, formerly also in silver, by Bishop Olaus Tunasa of Abo. He was enrolled among the Saints by Adrian IV in the year 1158, at which time an episcopal See was established by the same Pontiff, whereas before, the Church of Revelamici had been the principal one. Abo, or Aboa, commonly called Abo, is an episcopal city of Finland on its southern coast, where it turns toward the west. Nousis is on the same western side, but more to the north.

[4] Ioannes Magnus complains, in the aforesaid book on the Bishops of Uppsala, that the tomb of S. Henricus, in which his most sacred relics had been deposited, violated by heretics, was removed and profaned in his time, with the most holy Martyr's ashes most indecently cast out, in which the Holy Spirit had deigned to dwell; from which divine eloquence had flowed into that province; from which so many virtues and miracles had been performed. He inveighs at length against the ingratitude and impiety of the Finns.

[5] The Life. Our Rosweydus had transcribed the life of S. Henricus from a manuscript of the monastery of S. Paulus in the forest of Sonia, or of Rougeval, of Canons Regular; from which Ioannes Vastonius had received and published it in his Vita Aquilonia. The author was not a contemporary of Henricus, since in no. 10 he mentions the Order of Friars Minor. Baronius treats of S. Henricus in volume 12, year 1148. Thomas Bosius, On the Signs of the Church, book 4, chapter 1. Olaus Magnus, book 4, chapter 18. Ioannes Magnus, History of the Goths, book 19, chapter 3.

LIFE

From the manuscript of the monastery of Rougeval.

Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala in Sweden, Martyr (S.)

BHL Number: 3818

From manuscripts.

[1] During the reign of the most illustrious King S. Ericus in Sweden, the venerable Bishop B. Henricus, a native of England, S. Henricus, Bishop of Uppsala, conspicuous for the holiness of his life and distinguished for the integrity of his morals, was governing the Church of Uppsala. By these two, as by two great luminaries, the people of that land were continually being more and more illuminated and instructed in the true knowledge and worship of God. S. Ericus the King. The holy King embraced the distinguished Bishop, preeminent in life and morals and in the summit of ecclesiastical dignity, with the affection of true love, and honored him greatly with a special grace of intimacy.

[2] Happy the country which the Divine Majesty had granted to be governed at that time by the guidance of such and so great rulers. There was then no need to fear that a kingdom divided against itself would be ruined by its own division; since the heads of the people so harmoniously agreed for the glory of God and the just and peaceful governance of their subjects. The Church was being built at that time, growing into a temple of God: useful to the kingdom. Laws were being corrected which the simple antiquity had either not quite rightly enacted, or which the perversity of the wicked had distorted: peace and justice for the subjects were being cultivated: rapacious wolves did not dare to sharpen their venomous teeth against the innocent, when the King, sitting on his throne, by his gaze dispelled all evil, and the good shepherd manfully kept watch over the care of his flock.

[3] He preaches to the Finns, conquered by S. Ericus. When the people of Finland, then a blind and cruel pagan nation, were inflicting grave harm on the inhabitants of Sweden, the holy King Ericus, taking with him from the Church of Uppsala the Blessed Bishop Henricus, gathered an army and directed an expedition against the enemies of the name of Christ. Having powerfully subjected them to the faith and his own dominion, and having baptized very many, and having founded churches in those parts, he returned to Sweden with a glorious victory. The Blessed Henricus, however, considering that he had been divinely appointed as cultivator and guardian of the Lord's vineyard, boldly remained behind to irrigate the new plantings of the neophytes with the rain of heavenly doctrine, and to strengthen the worship of God in those parts; not regarding the fact that he was exposing himself to every kind of adversity, so that he might extend the glory of God. O how great a fervor of faith, how great an ardor of divine love had set aflame the golden altar of the most devout Bishop; who, having set aside the wealth of possessions and the consolation of friends, and the lofty seat of the Archbishopric of Uppsala, for the salvation of a few poor sheep exposed himself to many dangers of death; imitating, of course, that shepherd who, leaving the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, diligently sought the one that was lost, and having found it, carried it back to the fold upon his own shoulders.

[4] While he was prudently and faithfully laboring at the edification and confirmation of the Church of Finland, He is killed because of ecclesiastical censure directed against a murderer, it happened that he wished to correct a certain murderer with ecclesiastical discipline on account of the enormity of that crime, lest excessive ease of pardon should provide incentive for sinning. This remedy of salvation the man of blood despised, and turned it into the increase of his own damnation, hating the one who salutarily rebuked him. Against the minister of justice therefore, and the zealot of his own salvation, the wicked man sprang, and cruelly murdered him. And so the Priest of the Lord, an acceptable victim offered to the divine sight, falling for the sake of justice, entered the temple of the heavenly Jerusalem, happily crowned with the glorious palm of triumph.

[5] Afterwards that criminal, the murderer of the man of God, taking from the head of the holy Bishop the biretta which he had been accustomed to wear, placed it on his own head: His death divinely avenged. and returning home, and boasting presumptuously about the crime he had committed, that he had laid low a bear (by which he meant the killing of the blessed man), he rejoiced that he had done evil, and exulted in the worst things. But when he tried to remove the biretta which he had placed on his head, the skin and flesh adhered to the biretta, and he was removing them together from the skull of his head. A fitting vengeance of divine retribution indeed; that he should be miserably tormented by such a punishment, who had not feared to savagely attack the Lord's anointed, and to despoil the slain.

[6] Relics discovered. The ring finger was missing from the holy body, wickedly amputated by that criminal while inflicting random wounds: nor could it easily be found because of the abundance of snow (for he had committed the crime in the winter season), even when effort was made. But in the spring, when the snow and ice had melted all around, by the indication of a croaking crow, a bird otherwise most eager for carrion, so that the power of this miracle might shine more brightly, it was discovered and reverently raised from the earth and preserved.

[7] A dead person raised by his merits. In the village of Kaysalum, when a father and mother brought forth a dead son, and were preparing to wrap him, they invoked the patronage of B. Henricus. And when they had made a vow to the Saint on his behalf, the one who lay dead immediately came back to life.

[8] Also other miracles. Lucia, the daughter of Anthon de Banio, when she was being mourned by her parents as dead, at the invocation of B. Henricus was suddenly restored to life and health.

[9] An illness dispelled. A certain woman, held for three years by a grave illness, invoked S. Henricus: and without delay she fully recovered.

[10] A certain Brother of the Order of Friars Minor, a Priest and Preacher by office, A headache. for six years suffered a severe headache. On the day before the feast of B. Henricus he made a vow that if he were freed from that affliction, he would hang a head made of wax before the body of the Saint as a sign of the grace done to him, and would always hold the Martyr in greater reverence: and he was immediately freed from his long illness.

[11] A crippled woman healed. A certain woman who had one foot grievously contracted made a vow to visit the relics of B. Henricus on foot, if she might obtain the benefit of a cure through his merits. She was immediately mercifully healed of that contraction.

[12] A blind woman given sight. A certain woman who had suffered a grave blindness for a year vowed a pilgrimage: and invoking S. Henricus, she received her sight.

[13] A dead girl raised. When the firstborn daughter of a certain servant of the Church was suffering from a fatal illness, the grieving father made a vow to various Saints for the cure of his daughter: but no remedy was present. When he had placed his daughter on the ground dead, a certain distinguished person said to him in a vision, as he was falling asleep from weariness and grief: Why do you not invoke S. Henricus? A certain woman of advanced age, who was standing by him as he awoke, said: Make a vow to S. Henricus, for he himself wishes to have your vow. He vowed that his daughter would always fast on the vigil of the same Martyr every year, and would visit the body of S. Henricus with offerings; and he and the mother of the girl would fulfill the vow on her behalf until the years of her discretion. When this vow had been made, the girl arose, restored to full health.

[14] Certain men engaged in the capture of seals in the middle of the sea, battered by a severe storm, The sea calmed. fearing the destruction of their persons and the loss of their goods, invoked S. Henricus. And immediately calm was restored on the sea, and they escaped the danger of death.

[15] A blasphemer punished, then healed. Gudmundus, a servant of the Lord of Alnensis, when he had come to Westgothia to visit a certain Priest, and had drunk the memory of S. Henricus late after supper, the Priest hearing this mocked, and said: If he is a Saint, let him be angry with me, if he can. On the following night, lying in bed, he began to be cruelly tortured by an excessive swelling of the body and pain: and understanding that the wrath he had wished for had come on account of his mockery, he called the aforesaid Gudmundus, and made a vow that he would celebrate his vigil all the days of his life. And he was immediately freed through the merits of S. Henricus, the man of God.

[16] By these and very many other signs and prodigies the Lord made His Saint wonderful, and displayed him to all as one to be venerated and honored.

e That is, a skullcap.