Arnulph

ON S. ARNULPH, MARTYR, IN BELGIUM.

Eighth century.

Arnulph, Martyr at Cysoing in Belgium (S.)

"By night the Saint was taken up, / And translated to the head / Of the present Church."

Molanus cites some stanzas of this verse in his Index and Feasts of the Saints of Belgium, and Buzelin at the place cited, who also in book 3 of the Annals of Gallo-Flanders faithfully relates the history of S. Arnulph. That verse was communicated to us from a manuscript of the monastery of Marquette near Lille by our Giles Bucherius. Ferreolus Locrius also mentions Arnulph in his Belgian Chronicle, and William Gazet in his Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, who reports that his aid is especially invoked against fevers; but he errs when he writes that Gisela, who is buried there, was his wife, and Alard his son.

[4] His son was a Bishop of Cambrai. Geoffrey, or Gunfrid, or Godfrey, Bishop of Arras and Cambrai, is written to have been the son of S. Arnulph the Martyr by Demochares, Claude Robert, and Gazet. George Colveneer in his Notes on book 1 of the Chronicle of Bishop Baldric of Noyon, chapter 36, writes thus: "Who this Arnulph the Martyr is, I would not easily say. In the Martyrologies I find two Martyrs named Arnulph: one on 18 July, who is written to have been Bishop of Tours, a contemporary and disciple of S. Remigius, and so this is not the one in question; the other on 3 October in the additions of Molanus to Usuard with these words: 'At Mouzon, the feast of the Blessed Arnulph the Martyr.' Where, however, 'Mouzon' should probably be read as 'Mosom'... Whether this is the same, I am not certain." Locrius and Ferreolus rather think their Arnulph's son held that bishopric. The date of Arnulph can be established from the fact that they would have his son succeed Trawaard, or Traguard, about the year 752, after the latter's death, and die in 770 or not long after. And this is made sufficiently probable from what Baldric narrates in book 1, chapters 36 and following.

"All the people of Cysoing / Rejoice in the presence / Of the distinguished Martyr."

"Where Gisela is placed, / And her illustrious offspring, / Adalard by name." Molanus also has Gisela, and most who write about her.