CONCERNING S. SERENA, MARTYR, AT METZ IN BELGIC GAUL.
Under Diocletian.
CommentarySerena, Martyr at Metz in Belgic Gaul (S.)
From various sources.
I. The birthday, deeds of S. Serena.
[1] At Metz, in the convent of nuns of S. Mary, on the third day before the Kalends of January, the solemn commemoration of S. Serena the Martyr is celebrated. Her body, brought from elsewhere, is religiously preserved there. Some make her a Spoletan, others a Cordoban. Andrea Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology writes thus: The birthday of S. Serena, At Metz, the translation of the precious body of S. Serena, Virgin and Martyr, who, at Cordoba in Spain, while she was rendering various consolations to the Martyrs, was denounced to the impious Judge on this account, and under the persecution of Diocletian, after various torments endured for the steadfast assertion of the faith, having completed an illustrious combat, she bore away with the palm of victory the well-earned laurel of imperishable eternal glory. But Martin de Roa, one of ours, has described the deeds of the Saints of Cordoba with the greatest diligence, and does not list any Serena among them.
[2] There exists in the French work of Rene Benoit on the lives of the Saints, a life of S. Serena, which is said to have been translated into French in the year 1571, her Life, at the request of Blanche de Hassonville, Abbess of the aforementioned convent, by Toussaint Roussel, then a Canon of Metz, later a Priest of the Society of Jesus. We labored long and hard to obtain the Latin original: nothing was found, either in that convent or elsewhere. We suspect that the story was perhaps more fully described from certain Lessons: or certainly, even if he merely translated it, it is nevertheless not very ancient, since it cites the Mirror of Vincent of Beauvais, and makes mention of S. Clare and S. Elizabeth, Landgravine. Wherefore we did not think it worth rendering in full into Latin. We have briefly excerpted what properly pertains to the historical narrative.
[3] Roussel contends that she is the Serena whose mention occurs in the Acts of S. Sabinus, Bishop of Assisi and Martyr; and says that her body was brought from Spoleto to Gaul by Theodoric, Bishop of Metz, and donated to the said convent of S. Mary. These things are found concerning her in the cited Acts: But after six days, hearing these things, a certain matron, She visits the captive Martyrs: named Serena, from the city of Spoleto, who was a widow of thirty-three years, most Christian and fearing the Lord, devoted to prayers and fastings and almsgiving, used to come by night to S. Sabinus the Bishop, and tending to him, would embrace his feet and kiss them, and gathering up the hands of S. Sabinus the Bishop in her house, she placed them in a little glass vessel, and preserved them with aromatics, which, touching them day and night, she would place upon her eyes.
[4] At the same time Serena brought to S. Sabinus the Bishop her blind nephew Priscian, whom she loved dearly, on whom physicians had exercised every art of medicine, [she obtains sight for her blind nephew, by the prayers and touch of S. Sabinus the Bishop:] and had been unable to cure him. Having presented him to S. Sabinus the Bishop, Serena said to him: My lord, I adjure you by Christ, in whom you and I believe, that in His power you would place your arms upon this servant of yours, and pray to God the creator of heaven and earth and of all things, and I believe he will receive his sight. Then S. Sabinus the Bishop placed his stumps upon the eyes of the blind man, and began to say with tears: Lord God, creator and merciful ruler of all things, do your good will for those who hope in you. And kneeling with weeping he said: Lord God, be propitious to me a sinner who calls upon you; who are the true light, enlighten those who hope in you, for we are not worthy, we who are left in our sins. In you your servants hope: enlighten our darkness, for you are the light of truth and of life; and you said, Lord: Whatever you shall ask in my name, you shall receive. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever. And when all had responded, Amen; S. Sabinus placed his stumps upon the eyes of the blind man saying: May He open your eyes who opened the sea and led Israel through the midst of it; may He Himself bring light into your eyes, so that all nations may know that He is the creator of all things visible and invisible, and that He is the one who opened the eyes of the man born blind. Then the eyes of Priscian, the nephew of Serena, were opened; and all who were in custody saw the wonderful works of God, which the Lord Jesus Christ wrought through S. Sabinus the Bishop, etc.
[5] And shortly after, having narrated the conversion and martyrdom of Venustianus, vir clarissimus, Governor of Tuscany, these things are added: At the same time the tribune Lucius seized S. Sabinus the Bishop and brought him to the city of Spoleto, She buries S. Sabinus: and without a hearing ordered him to be beaten until he should expire; and when he had been beaten for a long time, he gave up his spirit. His body was collected by a certain matron Serena, who had already collected his hands, and she joined them to the body, and buried him at about two miles from the city of Spoleto, on the seventh day before the Ides of December.
[6] These things concerning Serena are recorded by all who write the acts of S. Sabinus, which we shall give on 31 December. Certain other things are reported by Roussel: that Serena was instructed from her earliest age by S. Sabinus the Bishop in the mysteries of the Christian religion and in the precepts of true piety and the other virtues: She was a virgin though called a widow, that she preserved her virginity inviolate even in marriage, as previously S. Cecilia and others: that she withdrew into a convent which had been founded in the countryside near Spoleto by the mother of S. Sabinus: that here she led a most holy life, often learning secret things from heaven: that thence she was frequented with a great concourse of people of every rank, even by night, and was accustomed to impart opportune consolations and counsels to all: famous for miracles: that she extinguished by her prayers and by presenting a cross a fire that was consuming the buildings of that convent with conflagration. These things, because they are not attested from elsewhere, and some may seem not well suited to those most difficult times of the Church, we neither wish to confirm, nor is it altogether right to reject: for there were both then and before gatherings of pious women, even in the city of Rome itself, constantly engaged together in the pursuit of piety, so that in rural Umbria some such community could have coalesced. If she was a virgin, this was perhaps unknown to the common people, as was proper, and therefore she was called merely a matron. If she was instructed from her earliest age by Sabinus, especially when already a Bishop, he must have been of advanced age when he suffered martyrdom. That there was a wide sowing of the Gospel, even long before, among the Spoletans and neighboring peoples, is evident from what is related in the acts of S. Felicianus, Bishop of Foligno, on 24 January.
[7] The same Roussel reports that Serena appears to have ended her life by martyrdom; and that this is consonant with the devil's hatred against the flock of Christ, with the cruelty of the tyrants who then held power, and with the piety of Serena herself, crowned with martyrdom, by which she visited and fed captives, and buried the slain: although Theodoric the Bishop, who brought her body to Metz, was unable, even with great effort, to find anything concerning her deeds beyond what we have related from the Acts of S. Sabinus. She is certainly venerated with the office by which Virgins and Martyrs are customarily honored, and in the ancient Martyrologies (of that convent, or perhaps of the Church of Metz) is called a Virgin and Martyr.
II. Translation, miracles.
[8] Theodoric, Bishop of Metz (as we said from the Chronicle of Sigebert on 24 January when treating of S. Felicianus), being bound to the Emperor Otto I by blood, affection, The body of S. Serena brought to Metz, and intimacy beyond all others, while serving under him for three years in the Italian expedition, collected many bodies and relics of Saints from various places in Italy, by whatever means he could: first from Marsica, S. Elpidius the Confessor... from Spoleto, Serena the Martyr together with Gregory the Spoletan Martyr... All these, together with a part of the chain of S. Peter the Apostle, with hairs of the same, and the blood of S. Stephen the Protomartyr, and a part of the gridiron of S. Lawrence the Martyr, donated to him by Pope John, together with many other relics of Saints, Bishop Theodoric translated into Gaul in this year (970), and placed them in the church of S. Vincent the Martyr, built by him on the island of the city. Vincent of Beauvais has the same, book 24, chapter 88, where he also mentions Serena, whose name Roussel found missing in his copy, because perhaps, as in the Venetian edition of the year 1591 and the Douai edition of the year 1624, he read Serenum, not Serenam.
[9] Moreover, the most praised Bishop Theodoric's life was written, as Sigebert of Gembloux attests, by himself; we have not seen it. Roussel professes to have received the following from it: Near Spoleto there rested the body of S. Serena the Virgin, in the convent and church of S. Sabinus the Martyr outside the walls of that city, where it was resplendent with very many miracles, with an immense multitude of people flocking there daily, and very often spending the nights themselves with torches, candles, and lamps. Theodoric sent thither the deacon Rothard and others of his most trusted men, and obtained all the bones of S. Serena. Carried away from Spoleto. Unwillingly indeed did the Spoletans let go so great a treasure, who considered themselves safe under her special protection; but it was necessary to yield to the authority of the Emperor, and to the favor of so great a Bishop. And so the most sacred relic was brought to Metz.
[10] They record that many were rescued from the peril of shipwreck by the aid of S. Serena; that the city of Spoleto itself, worn down by a grievous siege, was liberated when the enemy, Miracles previously wrought: who were striving to scale the walls with ladders, were suddenly seized with numbness and then reconciled; and that the enduring memory of so great an event flourishes even now. When the holy body of the Martyr was being conveyed to Metz, it happened that it was necessary to cross a river by boat: but here a storm suddenly arose and the skiff was overturned, and during the translation. the casket of relics plunged into the waters, and beneath it the Priest to whose trust the relics had been committed. But such was the benevolence of God honoring His Martyr that he, bearing the casket on his shoulders, was cast safely onto the shore together with it by some mysterious force: and soon the bells of the nearby towns and villages rang of their own accord, impelled by divine power: the Clergy and all the people came, roused by the novelty of the prodigy; health was restored to very many who were sick.
[11] As the holy burden approached Metz, the sacred and secular orders came forth to meet it, The body entrusted to the consecrated Virgins. and it was introduced into the city through the Campana gate with remarkable splendor: but then it stood immovable at roughly the midpoint between the city walls and the convent of S. Mary, so that it could not be moved further by any force, as though the holy Martyr were giving a sign that she wished to be placed there, that this was the seat she approved. Nor indeed did the meaning of the portent escape the religious men who were managing the translation. Therefore, having taken counsel together, they convey it into the basilica of S. Mary with no difficulty, as though it were now propelling itself forward of its own accord. Here they joyfully venerate the heavenly treasure thus placed.
[12] Here fevers were cured, Nor did the favor of God or the Martyr stop there, being attested thereafter by very many miracles. A fever had consumed a certain woman with slow wasting for fully seventeen years: she implored the aid of S. Serena, and soon recovered.
[13] In the year 1437, a certain man named Albert, afflicted by fever for an entire year, again: betook himself to that church, and having offered a prayer, was seized by a gentle sleep. Meanwhile the consecrated Virgins assembled for Vespers: he, awakened, exclaimed: Let us praise the merciful God and Savior; I have been relieved of my long illness by the patronage of this holy Martyr. Nor did he thereafter suffer poor health for the rest of his life.
[14] So frequent and certain were the benefits of the invoked Martyr that people vied with one another to flock to her tomb, even for the sake of obtaining counsel in doubtful affairs. Sound counsel obtained, The very Nobles of Metz, before they would set out for assemblies or any other public convention of the province or empire, would spend a wakeful night in prayers in the basilica of S. Mary; reckoning that from thence courage and timely counsels would be supplied to them.
[15] That a healthy tempering of the air could also be obtained, that excessive and therefore destructive rainstorms could be averted, and storms driven away, and other benefits, if the people duly invoked Serena with their prayers, has been established by the experience of many centuries. For this reason the people of Metz had long been accustomed to carry forth the body of Serena from the church of S. Mary with solemn ceremony, and to bear it with remarkable pomp and piety through the crossroads all the way to the basilica of S. Sulpitius. And the prayers of the devout people scarcely ever fell fruitless. Our Rousselius treats of S. Serena at somewhat greater length.