CONCERNING S. IRMUNDUS OF MUNDA IN THE TERRITORY OF JUELICH.
PrefaceIrmundus, in the territory of Juelich (S.)
[1] Juelich is a town and a very well fortified castle between Maastricht and Cologne, mentioned by Antoninus and in the Itinerary Table, founded perhaps by Julia Agrippina, the mother of Nero, born among the Ubii, as certain learned men judge: In Julia, certainly its name indicates a Roman origin. The Lords who held that castle, after the death of King Zwentibold, gradually increased in wealth and power, like many other nobles from the Ripuarian region, and were called Counts, then Marquises, and afterwards Dukes, and they named the province widely extending between the Meuse and the Rhine, subjected to themselves at various times and in various ways, Juliacensian, or Julia.
[2] In the village of Munda, In this province, not far from Juelich, between the rivers Rur and Erwat, or Erwetum, lies Munda, a not undistinguished village: where S. Irmundus the shepherd is venerated on the 28th of January, The feast day of S. Irmundus; with a frequent concourse of people paying their vows. He is said to have lived in the time of S. Severinus, Bishop of Cologne, that is, at the beginning of the fifth Christian century, when that region of Belgium which was called Germania Secunda his age not sufficiently certain; was being excellently cultivated in the mysteries of our religion under the Bishops of Cologne and Tongres; before the barbarian hordes from beyond the Rhine poured into those lands and then into the rest of Gaul. But for the age of S. Irmundus no other argument is available besides the tradition of the common people. Unless someone should consider the drought, of which mention is made below, to be the same one on account of which the relics of S. Severinus the Bishop were translated from Bordeaux to Cologne; the question of how long after his death this occurred we shall examine on 23 October, in his life.
[3] The deeds of S. Irmundus are almost entirely unknown, because Batavian soldiers (who, as a rule, make no distinction between friends and enemies The Acts, unknown, were destroyed by heretics; when an occasion for plunder presents itself), around the year 1602, while ravaging the territory of Luxembourg and returning home by that route, plundered all the ornaments of the church of Munda, consigned all the documents and other records, and the statues of the Saints themselves, to the flames. Nevertheless, by the public authority of the priests and magistrates of Munda, attested through the zeal and good will of our Theodorus Ray, we have obtained what could be found concerning S. Irmundus.
[4] The same man, in a letter written to us from Cologne on the third before the Kalends of December in the year 1639, writes as follows: When at the beginning of October I visited his sacred spring, a health-giving spring, I noticed about eight peasants drawing water with their jugs: I asked in a friendly way whether they had come from very remote places to that spring. They answered unanimously that the water, given to drink to men and beasts, preserves or restores health. I was pleased by the testimony of simple folk about their simple and innocent shepherd. I found the water of that spring, preserved for eleven or twelve months for the healing of cattle, in various villages so clear and pure that in color, taste, and odor it differed in nothing from the freshest.
LETTER OF THE PEOPLE OF MUNDA
concerning the cult and miracles of S. Irmundus.
From various sources.
Irmundus, in the territory of Juelich (S.)
[1] We the undersigned Pastors, and we Godschalcus Brinen, Rutgerus Iseeberg, Jacobus a Wirdt, Magistrates of Mundt in the Satrapy of Juelich, hereby attest, publish, and make known that by order of their Superiors, the most Reverend and very learned Fathers Theodorus Ray, Henricus Offerman, and M. Joannes Aldenhouen, sent from the Jesuit College of Cologne, came to us to diligently inquire into the life, character, deeds, and miracles of our holy Patron Irmundus: who, executing their orders in the best possible manner and requesting a public document of our Magistracy, we willingly and gladly acceded to their holy petition, and to that end caused the principal elders of this Community to be summoned before us, who under oath reported S. Irmundus, a keeper of cattle, that they had learned from the most ancient account of their forebears that the aforesaid S. Irmundus, most renowned for his innocent life and his public care of the cattle, had inhabited the wilderness or small forest, part of which within living memory is still visible between Mundt, Beckeradt, Keskorb, and Kirchberde; and that the same man, during a certain extremely dry and utterly arid summer, he draws forth a spring by divine power, when both men and beasts were suffering from want of water and extreme thirst, not without danger of death, with firm faith in God struck the earth with his pastoral staff and drew forth a most copious spring; which even to this day of ours, retaining his name, is called S. IRMUNDUS'S WELL, commonly Sanct Irmuntz pfutz.
[2] Not far from it are visible the vestiges of a church and the cemetery called Der alte Kirchoff Zue Mundt: His relics; which we believe our most praiseworthy forebears erected in memory of the aforesaid Saint, and then transferred here to Mundt for the more convenient use of the inhabitants and for the increase of piety, so that his sacred relics might be preserved, as is still done, with due veneration.
[3] The aforesaid spring is even today, by the gift of God, of such efficacy and virtue the spring water healthful against diseases; that, after the due veneration and cult of the most holy relics, water drawn from it, given to drink to sick persons or beasts, restores them to health in the shortest time. On account of which and very many other miracles, the statue of S. Irmundus was customarily removed in solemn procession from its place at the altar, where it had been exposed for the public veneration of people flocking from everywhere, the statue carried in procession, and carried through the parish in sacred pomp. In the year of the Virgin birth one thousand six hundred and two, when the Dutch soldier, having devastated the Duchy of Luxembourg, was returning through Juelich to his own country, burned by the heretical Dutch, among other sacrileges he plundered the church of Munda with barbarous fury, cast down the images placed on the altars, clothed himself in the sacred vestments of the priests, gave the signal for funerals with the customary ringing of bells, and having carried the statues around in mockery of the Saints in the manner of a funeral, they consumed them with flames in the middle of the church (the traces still remaining): together with the tomb, the relics being saved; among which the statue of S. Irmundus and his tomb, in which he rested, were melted in the fire: yet by the power of God all his bones were preserved from the fire, as was the very linen cloth covering them, remaining whole and untouched in the midst of the flames.
[4] Rescued from the flames; And these things are confirmed and deposed under oath by eyewitnesses: Boddardus, at that time Sexton of the church of Munda, Joannes Knobben, and Joannes Wollbeck, men of honest and upright reputation, who also, after sorrowfully observing the rage and fury of the sacrilegious men for some time, inflamed by holy zeal, extracted the relics from the flames and ashes, by a wonderful benefit of God, whole and intact, when the statue and the tomb had long since been consumed.
[5] In addition to these things, a most noteworthy fact: a certain girl (her name was Catharina), then occupied in domestic service at Cologne, part of which was removed, afterwards restored, but now married to Joannes Schurman, a senator of the same town, when she wore around her neck a particle of these relics, taken with imprudent piety and placed upon an Agnus Dei, was agitated by continual restlessness both by day and in her sleep, until she restored the particle she had removed to the relics which had survived the fire.
[6] Image of S. Irmundus. A glass window of our church today displays an image not unlike the statue of S. Irmundus (which we noted above was consumed by flames): a radiance surrounds his face, his hand is furnished with a pastoral staff, he displays a very large rosary, his garment is that proper to Hermits, he leads a dog on a leash; foals, cows, piglets, and donkeys stand about in great number.
[7] In witness of all these things, we the Pastors (who know that the abovesaid events certainly occurred, either from our own knowledge or from the sincere and faithful account of our forebears) have, upon request, subscribed these letters and sealed them with our signature: We likewise, the above-mentioned Magistrates, have in witness of all these things caused them to be authenticated and sealed with the customary seal of our Court upon certain knowledge. Done at Mundt, the 10th of November, in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine.
Werner Busch, Pastor of the place, attests with his own hand. Joannes Kobens, Vicar pro tempore of the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary and S. Irmundus.