ON ST. LANDRADA, VIRGIN AND ABBESS,
AT BILZEN IN THE TERRITORY OF LIÈGE.
ABOUT THE YEAR 680 OR 690.
PRECEDING COMMENTARY.
Landrada, Virgin, at Bilzen in the territory of Liège (S.)
BHL Number: 4711
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. Notice of Bilzen; the birth of St. Landrada; the year of her death; the elevations and translations of her body; the cult; the proper Office.
Bilzen, otherwise Belsena, a most ancient town of the duchy of Loon in Lower Hesbaye, is a place at the entrance of Toxandria on the river Demer, distant two miles from Maastricht, two from Tongeren, at equal distance on either side, commonly called Bilzen, and somewhat more than twice as far from the city of Liège. Description of Bilzen. That it was built by order of Colongus, the nineteenth petty king of the Tungri, in the year of Christ 48, is handed down in the Topography of Loon, published in the year 1717 by the noble man Laurence Robyns, Doctor of both laws and Advocate of the court of Liège, where at page 156 he cites a manuscript, folio 6. The etymon of Bilzen the author of the Life of St. Landrada hands down at number 8, in these words: By such a militia of virgins, by these schools, in a short time the place grew up, and, growing into the ripeness of all humanity, began to be called not, as before, Belua from beasts, but Belisia, that is "bene Elysia" (well Elysian). Fuller here is the edition in Surius, in which is added: for whether you regard the woodland pleasantness, or the watered abundance of rivers or fountains, and also the waxen sweetness of bees and of honey, the Christian religion of the inhabitants being added; there is little cause to doubt of its Elysian blessedness. In the same place is seen a monastery, now inhabited by a congregation of Canonesses Regular, which is called Munster-Bilzen, that is the monastery of Bilzen or Belisia, whose beginnings are to be referred to St. Landrada, a church being built there under her auspices in honor of the Virgin Mother of God, as is indicated in the Life; companions being taken to her, zealous for and followers of a more perfect institute. See the Life from number 7. That this church was consecrated by St. Lambert at the beginning of his pontificate among the people of Maastricht on the Meuse, which Le Cointe fixes in the year 668, the same hands down in tome 3 of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, page 620, number 6.
[2] That our Saint was sprung of most illustrious birth, the writer of the Life mentions at number 1, thus speaking: Landrada's illustrious birth; Clothaire (not Lothaire, as faultily in our manuscript), the fourth from Louis, baptizer (that is baptized) of Blessed Remigius, ruled at that time the monarchy of three kingdoms, of Burgundy, Neustria, and Austrasia; Pepin, son of Carloman (not of Charlemagne, as again faultily our manuscript), with the man of God Arnulf, afterward Bishop of Metz, were Mayors of the palace, more glorious over the sanctity of this their newly-born grandniece than over the care and governance of the kingdom over which they were princes. By Pepin here understand him commonly called of Landen, distinguished with the title of Blessed, concerning whose fatherland, family, and dignity Bollandus long ago treated at length on the twenty-first of February; where besides he inquires whether he was the first Mayor of the palace in Austrasia; and intermingles moreover some things pertaining to St. Arnulf, which may there be seen.
[3] when she was born; In what year St. Landrada came into the light, the author of the life does not determine. It can nevertheless somehow be gathered, if the things related there be true; from this, that she is said to have begun to draw her first light under King Clothaire, and Pepin and Arnulf, the chief ministers of the same King in the court, as we just said; and thus, whether Pepin, Clothaire reigning, began to act as Mayor of the palace in the year of Christ 614, when he induced the Austrasians to submit themselves to Clothaire; or first in the year 621 or 622 (concerning which matter it is treated at length on the said twenty-first of February), no more fitting time seems able to be designated for her nativity than that which is interposed between the year 618 and 624 on both sides; since Arnulf, during whose administration of the office of Mayor of the palace under Clothaire Landrada is said to have been born, was taken to the same office in the year 618, according to the Chronological table of the most illustrious Meurisse, arranged concerning the Bishops of Metz; in which the beginning of the episcopate of Metz of the aforesaid Arnulf is fixed in the year 624. Let us therefore connect the birthday of the virgin Landrada with about the year 620; from which epoch the whole series of her life can be conveniently ordered.
[4] In what degree of consanguinity St. Landrada was related to Pepin and Arnulf, in what degree of consanguinity is difficult to determine. Our Lahier in her life, part 2 of the Menology, page 8, candidly confesses that he spent vain labor to loose this knot, various things pertaining to it being read and reread, but with fruitless effort. He had premised that she could not be called the grandniece of Pepin and Arnulf, as though she had been born of Ansegisus and Begga, whose children these were. For it is certainly established that Pepin surnamed of Herstal was born of them; if therefore St. Landrada was born of these parents, she herself will not be an only child, such as she is expressly written by the author of the Life to have been. What if you take the name grandniece here in a wider signification, so that it denotes not a near, but a somewhat more remote kinswoman of Arnulf and Pepin, as a certain more recent French Legendary understood that name.
[5] Le Cointe, thinking the mind of the writer of the Life to be otherwise interpreted, in the cited tome, she was related to Pepin of Landen and Arnulf; page 367, says that that Author, when he calls Landrada the grandniece of Arnulf and Pepin, hints that she was born of the excellent parents Ansegisus, son of Arnulf, and Begga, daughter of Pepin; besides the marriage which Begga contracted with Ansegisus, no relationship at all intervening in those times between the two families of Arnulf and Pepin. To which pretended nativity, besides the argument tasted above by us from Lahier, he opposes two others; the first, he says, is drawn from the age of Begga, who did not attain her marriageable years before Arnulf's pontificate. The other is taken from the authority of the old writers, who constitute Ansegisus the father of Pepin of Herstal, but nowhere of Landrada. From what has been said you have whence to correct those who confound Landrada, daughter of Charles Martel, mother of St. Godegrand, Bishop of Metz, with ours, doubtless deceived by the homonymy of the names, and because ours is said to have been the grandniece of Pepin; which things were long ago touched in the preceding Commentary of St. Godegrand, tome 1 of March, page 453. Where besides is consigned the year of St. Landrada's death, about 680 or 690, concerning which some things now come to be elucidated.
[6] The Life presents us with an epoch at number 10, by the aid of which we can chronologically establish concerning St. Landrada's death. in what year she died. For there it is narrated that St. Lambert, toward the end of the Life of St. Landrada, laboring in her last illness, being ordered to be summoned, betook himself to her, since he too was not far from death, if we believe the Author of the Life, writing that, the sad news of her afflicted health being received, the holy old man freed himself of all things, and hastened his way to the Virgin of Christ. But now, since St. Lambert closed his last day at the end of the seventh century, or the beginning of the eighth, it follows that about the year 690 Landrada rested with a holy end, the year of the century not being expressed by the Author of the Life. Lahier fixes the said death in the year 694 or 695, Lambert being crowned with the laurel of martyrdom, according to him, in the year 696 or 698; which Labbe defers to the year 707; Le Cointe
but to the following, 708. Which can afterward be discussed in its place, on the seventeenth of September; when the deeds of St. Lambert will be treated by design; to which we remit the present controversy.
[7] Translation on the third before the Nones of May. Already the bodies of SS. Landoald and his companions had been translated by St. Florebert; and afterward elevated by Bono the Archdeacon, as is narrated on the nineteenth of March, tome 3, from page 37; when a certain woman, named Sigeburgis, dropsical, admonished by St. Landrada in a nocturnal vision concerning her body to be elevated, took care that it be elevated together with two others, buried in the same place, called Wintershoven, and was suddenly healed. The whole matter the Collector of miracles recounts; concerning whom afterward; let it suffice here to record that this translation, or elevation, was made on the third before the Nones of March. See what is said in the preceding Commentary of SS. Landoald and his companions, tome 3 of March, page 34, number 2.
[8] [Another translation to Ghent, adorned with a notable miracle of the Saint at the bier,] A far more celebrated translation is marked in the Life of SS. Landoald and his companions; in which are narrated the monks of the monastery of St. Bavo of Ghent, stirred by the miracles of the Saints, having received Wintershoven from Otto II, and the power of translating the relics; in which, I say, they are narrated to have consulted Sarabert the presbyter, and, the site of the relics being understood, to have carried the same forth with solemn pomp from that place, whence they could not once be carried forth by the plunderers; and, honored on the way with various offerings, to have shone with prodigies. Among which this was not the least, that the bier in which St. Landrada was contained, gave a leap, all beholding, and removed itself from St. Landoald, wonderfully affording to so great a priest reverence and befitting honor.
[9] in what year it happened: Moreover those sacred deposits, as is there noted, arrived, God willing, on the very most sacred day of the Lord's Annunciation and Incarnation, at the monastery of St. Bavo, which is most rightly called the Ghent monastery; whose most devout Brothers were deservedly filled with great joy above the rest at the coming of the Saints, and therefore, clothed in solemn manner, with all the ecclesiastical adornment and an infinite train of peoples flocking from every side, coming to meet them from afar singing psalms, took up on their shoulders the same most holy relics with rejoicing, and led them into the basilica with great exultation, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 980. With the year of the mentioned translation agrees the old Ghent Chronicle, manuscript, which Miraeus cites in the Belgic and Burgundian Fasti, page 377.
[10] in which same year also a very solemn elevation. Another elevation of the body of St. Landrada, and of the other Saints of whom above, in solemnity not inferior to the former, following in the third year after their deposition among the Ghent monks, is read in the same tome of March, pages 45 and 46, by a coeval Ghent monk as author, as is there said; where it is set forth that the relics, placed in a crypt, shone with many miracles; and these being seen, by the Abbot of the monastery, after thanks given to God, men were sent to the Bishop of Liège, to hold an inquisition concerning the more ancient miracles done at the relics of the Saints; which, collected by the same Bishop in a Synod, and together with other Acts confirmed by the Archbishop of Reims, are reported, the elevation of the relics being granted; to which Lindulph, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, being invited, placed them in precious cases made for that end; and, the sun being risen, the obstacles of the malevolent being cast off, with solemn pomp he elevated the sacred relics, replaced them above the altar, all applauding, and celebrated Mass, the miracles being announced, and the feast being proclaimed forever, on the thirteenth of June, in the year 982. These things in compendium; which you have described at length in the Acts, in the cited place.
[11] Another translation of the sacred pledge I dig out of our Bartholomew Fisen, Another translation. in the Flowers of the church of Liège, page 307, saying that the sacred body remained at Wintershoven even to the year 966, when a notable portion of it with the head itself was translated, not without a miracle, by a certain Lantzo, lord of the place, but afterward brought back to Bilzen, and there kept with excellent devotion to this time; that the rest of the body was carried away to Ghent in the year 984 (nay 980, as we said above), and to our age is in veneration at St. Bavo's. The Life of St. Landoald and his companions, chapter 3, commemorates that Lantzo, with the Bishop's leave, wished to take away parts of the relics; but, the servants being made immovable, he was often hindered, and at last, a part of his inheritance being assigned to the church, obtained his wish. More credible to me would be the things which Fisen here adds concerning Lantzo, if I knew them to rest on some old instrument. But the things which he asserts concerning a notable portion translated with the head itself, and afterward brought back to Bilzen, which he says is to this time kept there with excellent devotion, the rest of the body being carried away to Ghent, are proved not to stand from the following authentic instrument, which, by the endeavor of Father James de Pauw, priest of our Society, the most ample Lord Goethals, Graduate Canon of the exempt Chapter of the Cathedral church of St. Bavo at Ghent, and Secretary of the said Chapter, most obligingly communicated and copied for us; concerning which in the next paragraph; when we shall first have treated of another translation.
§ II. Another translation of the relics of St. Landrada; the present state of the relics among the people of Ghent, proved by an authentic document; the eulogies of the Saint.
Besides the mentioned translations of our Virgin, I read of yet another in Surius, who, after he had given the Life and miracles of St. Landrada from a manuscript copy, Yet another translation. which he says he had as the only one, asserts that in the manuscript codex the following was written in the margin by another hand: In the year of the Lord 1277, on the Sunday after the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the venerable Philip, Bishop of Tournai, celebrated the translation of the body of the blessed Virgin Landrada at Haaltert. At which translation were present the venerable Archdeacons, master Henry de Muda, and the Lord Nicholas, called Miso: the Lord Giles, then Abbot of St. Martin of Tournai, and very many other religious and also secular men, namely the Lord Radulph of Nivelles, the Lord John of Haxpoele, and the Lord Philip his brother, knights, and very many others, nay innumerable, both noble and ignoble. This very translation Meyer inserted in his Annals, book 9, page 94, at the year 1278.
[13] That by this translation of the body of blessed Landrada no other can be understood than of a part torn from the body, which perhaps was notable, a phrase often used elsewhere in translations of relics or their catalogues, persuade, besides the monuments alleged above, The body of the Saint rests at Ghent in St. Bavo's. concerning the conveyance of the Saint to the monastery of St. Bavo at Ghent, the Authors later than the translation at Haaltert, and especially Raissius, a diligent investigator of the sacred pledges of Belgium, who affirms in his Belgic Hierogazophylacium, page 86, that the Cathedral church of St. Bavo of the city of Ghent has the bodies of St. Landrada the Virgin … of St. Macharius the Patriarch, Archbishop of the see of Antioch, etc. For the rest, lest the name Haaltert, or Altere, in which the translation is said to have been made, detain anyone, observe that by this name is designated a village, once of the jurisdiction of Tournai, but now of the most illustrious jurisdiction of Ghent, midway between Bruges and Ghent, near the Ghent-Bruges canal. The very reverend Lord P. A. de Roo, Pastor of the aforesaid village, consulted by me concerning various things pertaining here, in a letter given to me on the seventh of August of this passing year 1720, answered my questions in these words: First, St. Landrada is not venerated in our church. Second, no relics of the aforesaid Saint exist. Third, we have no diploma of the translation of the relics. Fourth, neither is it established that any miracles were obtained by her patronage in the said village. But that in ancient times some cult of St. Landrada flourished there, is not obscurely clear from the traces left of an obsolete veneration, the praised Lord Pastor testifying in the same letter that in the account of his church, rendered in the year 1633, there is had mention of an annual pension to be paid for the leasing of a garden of fruits pertaining to St. Landrada, comprising the magnitude of 477 geometrical rods, etc.; and he adds that these terms are continued in the subsequent accounts even to this day. Concerning these thus far. Now it will be worthwhile to behold the present state of the relics among the people of Ghent, proved by an authentic testimony, some things being premised which pertain here.
[14] The Secretary of the Chapter of St. Bavo at Ghent In the year of the Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty, on the twenty-ninth day of July, the Reverend Lord Treasurer of the exempt Cathedral Church of St. Bavo of Ghent, at the requisition of the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who spend diligent labor on illustrating the Acts of the Saints, took care, in the presence of me the undersigned, Canon and Secretary of the same Church, that a certain wooden little chest, nearly three feet long, kept there with this inscription—St. Landrada—should be opened: which being opened, we found in it first two diplomas, fixed together, of which one was of this tenor:
[15] sends two diplomas: [Charles Masius, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Bishop of Ghent, to all who shall see these present letters, greeting in the Lord. When in the visitation of this our Cathedral church we had found eleven cases of sacred Relics, which we understood were once enclosed in the same cases by the most Reverend Lord Jansenius (of pious memory), first Bishop of this See; fearing however lest, after so many years, wars, seditions, and rebellions, which especially in this city and for the cause of the Catholic Religion intervened, some damage or irreverence had been done to them; by the common consent of our Reverend Confreres, the Lord Provost, Dean, and the other Canons, we took care that all the cases be brought to the Chapter place, and there be opened in the presence of us and of all the Lords, on the eighteenth of the month of February, of the year one thousand six hundred and eleven.
[16] But because, according to the letters of the aforesaid most Reverend Lord Jansenius, found in this case, and to which the present are fixed, [the other of the recognition of the relics of the church of St. Bavo by the illustrious Masius;] we found also these sacred relics, specified and described in the same, sound, unhurt, entire, and placed and wrapped in due order and manner: so we left and replaced them with the reverence, honor, and ceremonies which befitted. In faith and testimony of all which, we have caused the present, subscribed by our hand, to be strengthened also with our seal, in the year, month, and day above. It was signed, Charles Masius, Bishop of Ghent]: and the aforesaid seal hung appended. The other diploma or letters mentioned in the foregoing are of the following tenor.
[17] [Anno Domini one thousand five hundred and seventy-four, the other of the recognition made by the most illustrious Jansenius of Ghent. on the tenth day of September, the most Reverend Lord, D. Cornelius Jansenius, first Bishop of Ghent, the Venerable Lords being present, Marcus Stercke the Dean, Clement Crabbeels the Archdeacon, Peter Gillis the Treasurer, Peter Simonis the archpresbyter, and many other Canons of the Cathedral church of St. Bavo (the reverend Lord Viglius of Zwichem, Provost of the church, being at Brussels on royal business, and approving it by his vote), opened the bier of the holy virgin Landrada, when it was wholly overlaid with much mold and almost dissolved, and the linens in which the sacred relics were wrapped were
altogether unclean, corrupt, and putrefied: from this, that for nearly two whole years, for fear of the Gueux, enemies of the faith and religion, who cruelly everywhere raged with slaughters and burnings, it had been placed, together with nearly all the other relics of the church, in secret and underground places. But the bier being opened, he found the head of the holy Virgin, though somewhat broken, together with nearly all the other bones of the body.
[18] All which, diligently cleansed, he religiously transposed into new and clean linens, and into new wooden little chests; of the relics of St. Landrada, specifically, elevated by St. Florebert. together also with two white seals, one of Florebert Bishop of Maastricht, to which was joined a certain oblong membrane with the following inscription: "There lies in this shrine the holy virgin of God Landrada, who was made Abbess at Bilzen, where also, laying aside the man, rendering her spirit to God, committed to the earth by the nuns, she was divinely thence translated to Wintershoven, and buried near the sepulcher of the holy priest Landoald; whose day of deposition is celebrated yearly on the eighth before the Ides of July; and the elevation of her holy body by the holy Maastricht Bishop Florbert is known to have been done on the Kalends of December." But the other seal was of Lindulf, Bishop of Noyon, having joined a certain square membrane with the following words:
[19] "In the year 980 of the Lord's Incarnation, on the Ides of June, and by Lindulf, Bishop of Noyon, the translation. there was made in the Ghent monastery the translation of the body of the holy virgin Landrada by the venerable Noyon pontiff Lindulf. In testimony of this matter and of the translation of the aforesaid relics, the aforesaid most Reverend Lord caused these present letters to be strengthened by the appending of his seal." And there hung the said seal, impressed on red wax, with this circumscription: the seal of Cornelius Jansenius, by the grace of God Bishop of Ghent; and enclosed in a box of white iron.
[20] Chronological notes added to the diploma. The praised most ample Lord Secretary observes in the margin of those letters, at those words, "of Florbert Bishop of Maastricht," that this annotation is had: He presided over the Church of Maastricht from the year of the Lord 731, even to 758. Moreover at these words, "the elevation of his holy body by the holy Maastricht Bishop Florbert is known to have been done on the Kalends of December," in the margin is had: In the year of the Lord 738. Finally at those words, "by the venerable Noyon pontiff Lindulf," that in the margin is written: He presided over the Church of Noyon from the year of the Lord 975 even to 987. The same Lord Secretary attests that he found also in the aforesaid case the two mentioned membranes, containing the above-said inscriptions, which, he says, we read distinctly, written in letters and abbreviations reflecting very great antiquity. There lay near them the seals, mentioned also above, of white wax, as it appeared, of nearly a finger's thickness, and of an otherwise oval figure: on which respectively were impressed the images of the said Bishops with their names circumscribed; save that the inscription of the seal, mentioned above in the second place, was no longer legible.
[21] [In what state the relics of St. Landrada now are, is set forth by the Lord Secretary, an eyewitness.] But in what state at this time the relics of St. Landrada are among the Canons of the Cathedral church of Ghent, thus sets forth the same, most ample Secretary as above; who, the case being opened, accurately uncovered and inspected them. Have his words: But now as to the relics of St. Landrada; we found them, as they are described above, wrapped in a double white and clean linen, and lightly bound with a white linen ligament, with a silken veil laid over: which being reverently uncovered, we beheld placed at one extremity the head or cranium, somewhat broken; to which consequently lay near the other bones of the body, easily all or nearly all, yet dissolved and somewhat confused: from handling or numbering which more curiously we abstained. But when we had for some time reverently gazed upon that sacred treasure, we wrapped, bound, and covered the same with the same linens, and the same veil, in the manner in which they had been before. In faith of all which I have written and signed these letters with my own hand on the 31st of July 1720. Goethals, Graduate Canon of the Cathedral Church and Secretary of the Chapter.
[22] The announcements, in the Martyrologies, I would not here detain the reader by recounting the many announcements concerning our Saint. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of Saints who are wanting in the Roman Martyrology, Molanus in the Additions, Lahier, Sanderus in the Hagiology of Flanders, Miraeus in the Belgic Fasti, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, Menard, Gazet, Dorganius, and Castellanus report her on this day. The Usuardine Brussels codex announces her with a eulogy: At the Belisian monastery, of St. Landrada, virgin and abbess; who was the illustrious offspring of those whom the Franks call Mayors of the palace, and a kinswoman of Blessed Gudula, our patroness. And when she had died, straightway appearing to Blessed Lambert the Bishop, she designated to him the place of her burial. And when the people did not consent to fulfill this, she was buried at Bilzen; but after three days she was found, divinely transported with her sarcophagus, where she had foretold. A compendium of her Life or eulogy Fisen composed in the Flowers of the church of Liège, from page 305. Besides this small eulogy, which the Supplements of Usuard, not long ago illustrated, suggest, another is given by the Belgic Fasti of Miraeus, whom Molanus follows in the little Index of the Saints of Belgium. But since I silently pass over all these, I bring forward that which Saussay composed in the place alleged above, where it is thus read:
[23] She (Landrada), of illustrious Frankish stock, begotten from the Mayors of the royal house, and the eulogy from Saussay. an only child to her parents, was dearer to them by so much as in her, even from childhood, greater indications of prudence and virtue shone. But after, the years of childhood being spent, her parents wished to give her in marriage, she pleaded with so great gravity before them, that she almost admonished her very parents concerning continence and the bill of divorce. Thenceforth, all things being spurned, and enclosed in the straits of one little cell, but as though enjoying the breadth of paradise, praying and lying on the same ground, she sustained her poor little body with dry bread and cold water; when, on account of such specimens of sanctity, she came to the notice of Blessed Lambert, Bishop of Liège and afterward Martyr. But being dear also to St. Willibrord, Prelate of Lower Maastricht, on account of her excellent gifts of piety, by his exhortation she built a monastery of sacred virgins at her own expense from her patrimony in the forest of Beyla.
[24] There, a noble society of virgins flocking to her being gathered, an excellent mistress of all religion (in whose face was pallor from fastings, on whose tongue speech seasoned with salt, in whose eyes shining chastity, alms flowing forth to the poor, constancy prevailing in adversities, modesty in prosperities, continual service bestowed on all) she led the handmaids of Christ to all perfection of Christian virtue. Among whom she fully formed St. Amalberga, a virgin of illustrious nobility, to the imitation of her own sanctity. And at last, after a long struggle of flesh and spirit, falling into a bed of sickness, since she remitted nothing of her assiduous zeal of praying, loosed from the bonds of the body, to the desired nuptials of the heavenly Lamb, with great adornment of merits, a prudent and pure virgin, she happily set out; and, honored by St. Lambert himself with worthy obsequies, she shone in the tomb also with illustrious testimonies of the heavenly glorification attained, from which, raised by the Angels and replaced in a more fitting place, she shone forth with still greater indications of divine power. Thus he, who as to substance took these things from the Life.
[25] How stable and perpetual the cult of St. Landrada persevered at Ghent, The proper Office. is easily perceived from this, that she is honored with an anniversary Office on this day, proper antiphons being appended in both Vespers at the Magnificat, and in Lauds at the Benedictus. In the proper Lessons of the second Nocturn, correct from the aforesaid what is there read concerning the Saint; where, as certain histories relate, she is said to have been the daughter of that most glorious Charles Martel, Duke of Brabant.
§ III. The Life which is here given; its Author; the Legend, whence it was taken; the compiler; the collector of the miracles.
The manuscript Life which is here given lacks a prologue, A double Latin Life of St. Landrada is at hand, of which one is extant in Surius; the other is our manuscript. This, collated with that, I judged worthier of print, as more genuine, purer, and more ancient; although that both proceeded from the same fountain appears sufficiently from the agreement of both. The Surian has this proper to it, after its wonted manner, that, being moderately fuller, and having here and there sentences stuffed in from the sacred writings, it does not seem to have retained the original phrase of the writer, nor to have been transmitted to posterity altogether pure and untouched. Yet in this that copy surpasses ours, that it has a prologue; if indeed it be the offspring of the first Author; which seems likely; because that he exercised his style in writing prologues is gathered from the Acts of St. Rumold, St. Bavo, and St. Trudo, bearing the name of the same Author. The prologue therefore, wanting in our manuscript copy, I here restore from Surius, collated with the Corsendonck manuscript of the Canons Regular near Turnhout.
[27] which is restored thus, No one would doubt that it pertains to the glory of the Almighty to gather again or propagate the deeds of the Saints, forgotten or abolished. For, as it were, such grains are cast into a certain likeness of a future harvest, and, being cast, luxuriate with a richer crop and are gathered again; when the studious hearer is either extended in good things, or restrained from evil. Kindled once with this zeal, by the license of the ancients, they sweated not only in their own studies, but also in foreign ones; as Cicero in the Oeconomicus of Xenophon: Virgil in the Iliad of Homer, Terence in the comedy of Menander. All which, though they soothe the hearts of the hearers, it is ascertained how much they profit, well understood, to the correction of the delinquent. To be silent of the rest, who would not wonder at the most fervent zeal of that King Ptolemy? For whom, when all the gymnasia of the Greeks did not suffice, it has been heard with what sweat, with what expense, with what wages he procured or extorted the talents of those whom they call the Seventy. All these our Jerome, surpassing by a certain flight, pursues letters, as it were fleeing over the whole world, and daring to enter the densest forest of the Hebrews or Chaldeans, with infinite labor even to the cutting of his teeth, plucks sycamores with the Prophet Amos; and, the kernel being broken and the foreign letter captured, wrests the warlike club from the hand of Hercules, and, importing the sweats of many years into the Latin treasuries, makes others' labors serve for our uses.
[28] such as it is extant Innumerable others besides burned with this zeal, who, as Daniel says, instruct many unto justice, and shine like stars into perpetual eternities. But why are these things repeated from so long a beginning? Namely, that I may show that I am provoked to write not wantonly or delighted by soft rumors, but by the sole intention of charity, to attempt what I cannot; for it is no small labor to say otherwise things said before, and to bring back old things into a new auditory, where are a thousand kinds of men, and the varied use of things. Yet I will undertake, in one little lucubration, the life of the blessed Virgin Landrada, you asking that I may satisfy you, and that by the example of the admirable woman I may kindle others to virtue, and by her merits
may at least merit some pardon of my debt. For in the litter of our Savior the pillars are of silver, the ascent of purple, the middle strewn with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem. Therefore, though we have not yet attained the brightness of eloquence, or the ardor of martyrdom, let us at least sigh toward the middle of the couch, so that we who are neither pillars by carrying others, nor purple by dying for the truth, may yet occupy the middle, by rightly believing true things, and truly writing right things. For it is better through things of this kind to disclose one's talent, than through the Aonian mountains and the summits of Helicon, as the Poets sing, to scatter or wear it away.
[29] After the glorious triumph of the Lord's Resurrection therefore, that fire being kindled everywhere in Surius. which the Lord Jesus came to send upon the earth, and willed to be vehemently kindled, not only men, but also women, grew warm with that admirable love of the Almighty even to the contempt of death. Neither age, nor sex, nor anything that can entice or flatter, retarded the running cavalry of God. They laughed at harsh things; they trod down prosperous things, and full of the hope of immortality, they pursued with all effort the Beloved feeding at midday, until they overtook him. If occasion of torment was lacking, they fought with themselves, and by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, by the daily martyrdom of their own torture, they overcame the other law in their members, resisting the law of the mind. From this mass of the approved coin of Christ, the image of excellent virtue, was the virgin Landrada. Which last words contain the beginning of the Life as also of our manuscript copy.
[30] At number 11 of the life, edited in Surius, those things which follow in this place in the manuscript copy The fragment which here follows, are said to be omitted by design. Since it is certain, as is there reported and abundantly clear from what has been said, that Charlemagne cannot be referred to the times of Landrada. And truly, Bollandus being witness, these things were not had in the Corsendonck manuscript, as he himself noted in the margin of a leaf torn from the printed Surian codex, which I have before my eyes. But what that inept fragment means, understand in few words. After the Life at number 8 had narrated that companions flocked to St. Landrada, by which militia of Virgins and by which schools in a short time the place of Bilzen grew up, and, growing into the ripeness of all humanity, began to be called, not as before, Belua from beasts, but Belisia, that is "well Elysian," presently there is subjoined a rather long digression concerning St. Amelberga, Landrada's disciple, of this argument:
[31] There assembled at these spectacles of the camps of God many of the nobles. Among whom also King Charles, chronologically faulty, called the Great: for after a hunt, entering this monastery, to pass the night; amid the evening banquet, suddenly from the neighboring forest a she-bear, having young and therefore the fiercer, is announced to be at hand, about, after her wonted manner, to attack the poor at the very threshold of the gate. All flee: Landrada alone, undaunted by a certain courage, meanwhile offers to the Prince the bar with which houses are wont to be barred, and frequently, having armed it with the sign of the Cross, aims it at the now rushing bear. He, nothing moved, crying out after the military manner, advances step by step against it, and, his right hand being carefully balanced, with one and the same not difficult blow makes that broken mass a victim. Thus he was called not Charles, as from his grandfather, but Charles the Great, from the huge deed. This victor of beasts and of all contests is wounded by soft lust. There was there a sacred virgin, named Amelberga, noble by race, remarkable in form. She was nourished in that sole assembly of holy women, under blessed Landrada, and, all things being despised, was kindled in the love of the one eternal King.
[32] thrust out of the life; Of the perfection of her life there is no doubt: for it is had in the deeds that, while she labored in the offices of the church, and handled the mortar with her virgin hand, the young King, gazing at her more frequently, drank the soft poison with wanton eyes. Yet he fought with himself for some time, hoping—which was the fact—that Amelberga could not be corrupted by human love, and that it was base if the King should be defamed by the mark of divorce. But when day by day he was more consumed by this soft heat, his sense being fed, his mind changed, on one of the days he made an assault on the Virgin. She, resisting, and seizing the doors of the neighboring church, though with the bone of her arm broken, escapes, and, prostrate before the altar of the Mother of God, as after a shipwreck, entreated the solace of her Lover. A short and pure prayer being poured out, she is straightway most mercifully consoled, and, as after the furnace of temptation, far purer, is restored to entire health, and, fearing after this emergence from shipwreck lest she should again relapse into the dashing of the waves, night being returned, she took flight with her brother Reding, and sought Temse, her estate, upon the river Scheldt. After this digression, it returns to the words of the Life of St. Landrada: When the day of the reward of Blessed Landrada was at hand, which you have in the Life printed here at number 9.
[33] But that that digression is fabulous, to say nothing of the testimonies of the old writers, which it lacks, is abundantly clear from the reckoning of the time in which St. Landrada lived, perhaps first composed by another fabulous author. having preceded Charlemagne by about 100 years. What if this fable was here stuffed in from an Author of uncertain name and age, who wrote a book comprising the Life of St. Amelberga, but, as Mabillon says, third Benedictine century, part 2, page 240, besprinkled with so many fables and uncertain narrations, that it seemed better to him to pluck some things from it than to exhibit the whole book. There is therefore nothing which can compel anyone to adopt these old wives' tales; the same Mabillon reporting, in the cited place, page 241, after he had sifted certain fragments tasted from the said Life, that the things which are related concerning Charles's desired nuptials with Amelberga, from her ill-composed Life, rest on no testimony of the old writers. Besides, too much does that Amelberga, who is narrated by the biographer of St. Landrada to have been formed by her from the first lineaments of the virtues to the perfection of the ascetic life, too much, I say, according to the reckoning of the death of St. Landrada, fixed above by us, does Amelberga in age precede Charlemagne, than that she could have sought his nuptials, as will be plain to one considering. But lest we be longer concerning Amelberga in a place not her own, perhaps the things which pertain to the present question will be able to receive greater light from what will be said on the tenth of this month. This I insinuate in passing, that perhaps this fable took its origin from the confusion of two Amelbergas into one, distinct in manner of life and in time. However it be, let what has been said suffice for the present argument.
[34] It remains that we treat briefly of the Author of the Life. His name is designated in the title, Of the Author of the life, prefixed to our manuscript life, in these words: There follows the Legend of St. Landrada the virgin, which Theodoric the Abbot wrote; the same who presided over the monastery of Saint-Trond, and committed several Lives to writing, as we insinuated above. For the rest, concerning his age, merit, and learning, enough has been said in the preceding Commentary of St. Rumold, on the first day of this month, §2. I take no account of a more recent French Legendary, who, though professing the same Theodoric as author of the Landradian Life in his Critical table on this day, yet casts a scruple, as though indeed some prejudice were had, lest those works be supposititious, and falsely attributed to him, as not sufficiently worthy of such an author.
[35] The compiler of the Legend, from which the Life came, was a monk of a certain name, the compiler of the Legend but prior of an uncertain monastery, as the following clause indicates, written in our copy: Here ends the Legend of the Saints of this place, thus briefly compiled by master Oliver Longi, Prior of the same monastery. Nor did I find more there for the instruction of the reader concerning this matter; nor is it easy to divine in what age he lived, when he wrote, and other things of that kind which pertain here.
[36] The present place admonishes us to speak in few words concerning the collection of miracles, to be subjoined to the life. and the collector of the miracles. The Author lies hidden. The collection is excerpted from the Corsendonck manuscript, concerning which above, and was had after the Life of St. Landrada, collated with the edition of Surius, as we have now premised. The miracle which is there reported from number 6 even to 9 exclusively, concerning Sigeburgis the dropsical woman, admonished concerning the bodies of St. Landrada and also of SS. Adrian and Julian to be elevated, and, taking care of their elevation, suddenly healed; that miracle, I say, the collector took from the Acts of St. Landoald, tome 3 of March, page 38, number 12; where those periods are joined, omitted in our manuscript: But the fame of many, both before us and at present, bears that this Blessed woman, while set over the nuns of Bilzen, plucking the most sweet fruits of supernal contemplation, formed the most sacred virgin, of illustrious birth, Amelberga, in holy morals and studies. And this translation was made on the third before the Nones of March. By which clause the instruction of St. Amelberga under Landrada is especially confirmed, here written long before Theodoric, namely in the year of the Lord 980, as Hariger the Author says in the prologue of the Life of St. Landoald, in our work in the same place, from page 35. There may also be seen the miracles done at the sacred relics of SS. Landoald and his companions, in which nothing at all forbids attributing a part of the glory to our Saint, buried with them at Wintershoven, translated and elevated thence together with them; nay, equity demands to do this. Consult the said Acts of SS. Landoald and his companions on the nineteenth of March. Nothing now detains us from subjoining the Life of the Saint, illustrated with our notes.
LIFE
By the Author Theodoric, Abbot of Saint-Trond.
Collated with that which is in Surius.
Landrada, Virgin, at Bilzen in the territory of Liège (S.)
BHL Number: 4712
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
The illustrious birth of the Saint; her virtues; her ascetic life, companions being taken to her; the building of a church; from the first tomb she is divinely transferred to another.
The illustrious birth of St. Landrada, The virgin Landrada, of excellent virtue, was most warlike against the devil, the giant of pride. Imitable indeed to virgins, and admirable even to men. The offspring of the Franks, and the illustrious progeny of those whom they call Mayors of the palace, she ennobled and adorned by her merits the whole progeny of her ancestors from the stock. I am silent that, blessed in her mother's womb before she was born; chosen before she was conceived; from her very cradle she straightway strove to understand Christ in secret, and by the movements which were permitted her to detest infancy, and to relish something I know not more divine; an only child to her parents, and therefore the more affectionate. Already in her at that age could be seen how greatly that vessel would afterward be filled with the grace and abundance of the Holy Spirit. Clothaire a, the fourth from Louis, baptizer of blessed Remigius b, ruled at that time the monarchy of three kingdoms, of Burgundy, Neustria, and Austrasia. Pepin, son of Charlemagne c, with the man of God Arnulf d, afterward Bishop of Metz, were Mayors of the palace, more glorious over the sanctity of this their newly-born grandniece than over the care and governance of the kingdom over which they were princes.
[2] her upbringing; her zeal for virginity, Her ten years I now pass over, which she ran through with such piety and grace that she seemed daily to incite her nurses to the pursuits of religion. I come to those things which afterward she chose, seized, held, and fulfilled by her own sweat.
Her parents pressed to give their only daughter in marriage, that they might recover fruitfulness. She straightway pleaded the contempt of nuptials, with the inconveniences which follow, with so great gravity that she almost admonished her very parents concerning continence and the bill of divorce. Thenceforth, all things being spurned, and enclosed in the straits of one little cell, she enjoyed the breadth of paradise, praying and lying on the same ground, and in the same strait, with dry bread and water, provoking rather than restraining [*] her hunger. Amid virtues of this kind and the chastisement of this weak body, if I should proclaim her chastity, I shall be blamed as superfluous. She was ignorant of baths; soft beds, even when she burned with fever, she abhorred; wrapped in a hair-shirt, on the bare ground the soldier of Christ was exercised. What anyone could have sinned, she avenged in herself, as though she herself had already sinned, and paid the penalties of another's fault.
[3] Martin e at that time at Rome, Remaclus f at Maastricht, with the austerity of her life were most watchful in word and work in the sacerdotal care: Trudo g in Hesbaye was growing up into a recruit of Christ. Kindled by the virtues of these, she desired at every moment either to desert her fatherland or to fly to the desert. Meanwhile she never was without tears, never had days or nights without continual afflictions. Alone and almost uncompanied she had entered upon solitude, had not either her age, or the care of the poor whom she fed, held her foot. For no cleric, no needy person escaped her hand, but was either sustained with food or wrapped in her garments. Whose cells did she not enter? Whose feet did she not herself wash? A wonderful intention, and a fortitude difficult in such a sex.
[4] and lowliness of mind. And she covered her whole body with some mean cloak, so that whoever saw her would believe her not herself, but the last of the handmaids. Idleness she chastised with labor. She treats again of the desert. And all the things which she had already left for Christ, she reckons all that in vain, if she should not also deny and leave herself. Her parents being unwilling, her household protesting, she enters the forest which, from the fierceness of the inhabiting beasts, they call Belua, and, a little hut being raised by her own hand, she enters to fight with the devil. While a servant-boy was occupied in feeding the cattle, darkness rushing in, while he kept the mid-watches of the night, his eyes lifted, his ears erect, after the manner of those evangelical shepherds, a heavenly light shines forth over this place first of all: afterward, with the light, he hears an angelic song. He was amazed at himself. The vision being taken away and day returned, the cattle being gathered, he brings back the miracle to the Virgin. She, nothing moved, as one wont to use the frequent colloquies of the Angels, yet prepares herself for the coming night with the purification of fastings and prayer. She summons also a presbyter, named Sigemar, and, with him certain secret lustrations of the soul being celebrated, with that her shepherd she goes to the place.
[5] There, lying on the ground, and murmuring I know not what mystical things into the divine ears, Her solitary life, she filled the earth with tears. There was present a winter rougher than usual with cold, with the densest snows. She, with bare feet and clothed in a single woolen garment, the more she grew warm inwardly with the fire of the Holy Spirit, the more easily she bore outwardly the inconveniences of things. Then indeed the heavens were opened, then the heavenly light, poured out more doubly, shone. The angelic voices too, with their wonted sweetness, sounded more present, and brought back certain counsels of the divinity from the heavenly treasuries to the Virgin betrothed to God. Thenceforth, as forewarned and instructed concerning the will of her Lover, she thought that not one hour at all was to be passed over, but that she should revisit the same place, and there perform the due services of prayers.
[6] She stood in the midst of the silence of the night, uncompanied and without witnesses, refulgent with rare rays of virtues; as also with a heavenly vision. and, elevated beyond all this muddy weakness, ran with the free foot of the mind into the odor of the heavenly unguents. When suddenly, the heavens being opened, a light accompanying, a cross of wondrous work glides down, and is deposited, as it were for a gift, upon the adjacent stone, to Landrada, who was already crucified to the world. For as soft wax receives and represents the impressed image of a seal; so also the hardest stone still to this day shows us entire the whole impression of the same cross. Meanwhile the voice of a ministering spirit was heard: Receive, Landrada, this pledge of charity from your immortal spouse. He sends you the espousals of the cross, who, dying on the cross, restores all things. These are the gifts of your Lover. With such a defense, in this place henceforth the unclean spirits, famine, mortality, inequality of things, diseases, and pestilence shall not harm.
[7] The Saint builds a church, St. Lambert consecrating it; The Virgin of God, rejoicing at the gift, strengthened by the consolation, forgetful of sex and age, girds herself into a certain manliness; with her own hands she undertakes the task which she had not been able to do. To root out brambles and thorns; to hoe the ground; to strive to found a church in honor and memory of the Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary: with her own hands to dig out and carry stones, to draw the line, to lay the foundations, and in the place of the cross destined for her, no other than she herself placed that altar which still endures. The hand of the Almighty was present to his untiring laboress even to the consummation of the perfected work. Then indeed she summons Lambert h the Bishop, afterward to be a Martyr of Christ, and, admonished by the pious familiarity by which they had bound themselves from the beginning of the holy soul, she obtains according to her vow the consecration of her new church and the imposition of relics.
[8] she takes companions to herself. Thenceforth, religion now growing, the devil saw and groaned, and wondered at the great courage in the fragile sex. Some fought by patience, others by obedience; the tepid heat of some was refreshed by moderate fastings; the more tepid zeal of others was kindled by examples and consolations. A woman was the leader of so great a deed. In whose face was pallor from fastings, alms to the poor, constancy in adversities, modesty in prosperities, continual service to the servants of God, humility of heart and of garments; her speech too was modest, and seasoned with sufficient salt—whom would they not break, whom would they not kindle to virtue? By such a militia of virgins, by these schools, in a short time the place grew up, and, growing into the ripeness of all humanity, began to be called, not as before, Belua from beasts, but Belisia, that is, "well Elysian."
[9] Seized by a mortal disease, When the day of the reward of blessed Landrada was at hand, after a long struggle of flesh and spirit, in which, ever living, she ever died, she fell into a bed of sickness. Her marrow was fed upon, her flesh dried up, her blood drained away, while yet she remitted nothing of her fastings, reckoning it her loss if anything were diminished of her wonted measure. Around the dying mother stood the sweet company of holy virgins, avenging on themselves by continual groaning whatever she suffered. Some sat by the little bed, some held her head; some applied the little cloth, and ministered warm water: others said psalms; others held candles: there was no idleness at all.
[10] She meanwhile, as though presaging, having consoled the bystanders, foretells concerning the hour of her departure, she dies, the hour of her death being foretold; and St. Lambert being summoned and orders the holy Bishop Lambert to be summoned, that in death also she might be cherished by the colloquies of him by whose counsels in life she was always gladdened. The sad news being received, the holy old man frees himself of all things, and while he hastens the way, Landrada meanwhile migrates from this corruptible house into eternity. The Pontiff on the journey, darkness rushing in, is gladdened by a sweet vision. To him half-waking and, as it were, caught up into an ecstasy, the venerable virgin appeared with a certain grave majesty, and, reproving the senile slowness, with her wonted and familiar address, rebuked him for the delay, namely why he himself had not delivered the mysteries with his own hands to her departing.
[11] He excuses his negligence, rendering himself ready concerning the things which remain, admonished by a heavenly vision, namely concerning the place of the sepulcher. And she: With eyes erect, she says, gaze upon the heaven, and to what point the sign of the cross extends itself through the midst of the cloud of light, diligently attend. Lambert, extending himself wholly into the vision, and following as best he could certain trails, as it were, of lightning, notes the place, designated by the brightness of the cross, with the admonition of the Virgin. Here, she says, is the place of burial: here shall be the tomb of my ashes until the day on which the Lord shall command.
[12] By this pleasant showing of hers, by this attention of his, the Virgin is received into the heavens: to the place which the heavenly cross had designated, the Bishop is raised from the ground, and, re-reading the little book of his vision, borne by a hastened course beyond his strength to Bilzen, he finds them already treating of the sepulcher within the church. The prayer being ended, with episcopal eloquence he addresses his people. Lastly he enters upon a discourse concerning the revelation made to him. Straightway all murmur, and, he not yet ending, they hinder him with tumultuous clamor, and, as it were, oppose him. Here, they say, she was consecrated and set over us. By her works this church grew. Here through her the girlish throng grew up; here she gave light to the blind; here she raised the lame; here she opposed herself to all inconveniences. You yourself here were the helper of her pursuits, you the witness of her virtues, and the consecrator of this very church. It is not for a Bishop to injure the people: it is not for a Shepherd to wish to despoil the sheep, so that we should lose dead her whom living we held. This is no work of piety, no office of humanity, to dismiss the Saint from us, to leave to others the worker of virtues. Do your part according to your office; the rest we will care for according to the time and business.
[13] Lambert, moved by this pertinacity of the tumultuous people, from the tomb at Bilzen, Easy it is, he says, to be set over citizens, but difficult to please all. It behooved indeed to obey God rather than men. But since I am certain that nothing can be changed of all things whatsoever the Lord shall have willed, knowing and prudent I put my hand into the flame, and yield myself meanwhile to your will. So, at the wish of the people, the Virgin is buried: but nothing is diminished of the Bishop's former solicitude. For he knew that the elements could more easily be changed than that Landrada should lie. The Bishop enjoins a fast on himself; he continues prayers with fastings. And at last, three days being spent, in an assembly he declaims a few words on the matter. To be unwilling to obey the will of God, he says, is to stretch the arms against the torrent. And therefore it is now time that it depend also on our judgment what that vision of ours, exhibited to us long since, means; let ocular faith be applied; let the tomb of the Virgin be opened, that all scruple concerning this business may be removed.
[14] It is acclaimed by all: they go by their feet into the opinion, and, the tomb being opened, not only the body, but not even the coffin of the body itself is found. The rest grow pale with silent murmur: in which she had been buried, to another place the Bishop alone, giving thanks to God, and soothing them like sons in fatherly wise, Because, he says, distrust has now rested, let us now try what the magnificence of God can do. He himself, as leader, seizes the way: the people, his companions, run with him even to Wintershoven i; on which estate namely the same Bishop, once commended by his venerable father Aper to the holy archpresbyter Landoald, nourished and grown up, increased to the summit of sanctity. There, re-reading the indications of that vision of his, and the traces of the shown cross, the ground being dug up (O thing new and ever newly to be wondered at!), they find the sod of the Virgin transported with the sarcophagus itself,
placed in that order, with that becoming reverence, that there is no doubt to any that the ministry of the Angels effected this.
[15] she is believed to have been translated by the Angels. Gladdened for some time by this so admirable spectacle, with worthy veneration, with devout hands they replace the earth, and, failing in themselves, commit the rest to almighty God. After this indication of an angelic burial, the heavenly benefit poured itself out there with such abundance, that nowhere did the dripping of the divine gift flow more copiously. For what blind man, what one burning with fever, what one thirsting with dropsy, what one anxious with any kind of inconvenience, did not straightway receive as he asked? But the most holy Landrada died no less a martyr k than a virgin, on the eighth before the Ides of July. A most sufficient exemplar to virgins, and a purpose imitable to all good people, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning; to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATED.
* provoking rather.
MIRACLES
From the Corsendonck manuscript.
Landrada, Virgin, at Bilzen in the territory of Liège (S.)
BHL Number: 4713, 4715, 4716, 4717
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.
A certain maidservant, Lantburgis, dared to profane the solemn day of the deposition of the blessed Virgin by the service of her mistress Ingeldrada: A woman who dared to profane the solemn day of St. Landrada's deposition, but she was rewarded, worthily of her deeds, with an inconvenience. For on that very night, while she turned the millstone with her hand, suddenly the staff clung fixed to her contracted hand, and thus, taught to celebrate the feast of the Virgin, she admonished others. The staff is partly cut from her hand, but the inconvenience of her hand is not cut off: the weight of the staff is lightened for her, but the pain and contraction of her hand is not mitigated. For the miracle could not be hidden, which Christ disposed to work to the honor of his Virgin. He punishes therefore the fault of one, and it became known to all that it was pleasing to him to celebrate the birthday of his Virgin.
[2] That woman therefore came to the presence of the holy Virgin, she is punished; where she rests in the Ghent place, showed the peoples her contracted hand and the little piece of cut wood: she confesses the fault of her transgression and the cause of her inconvenience to the whole congregation of St. Bavo, and with prayers indeed and tears seeks to appease for herself the Virgin whom she had offended, believing to find God merciful through her merit. She sought and did not find; she asked and did not receive: because the time and hour of pitying her had not yet come. Her Mistress therefore, seeing that in asking she profited nothing, offering her, to the honor of the holy Virgin, to blessed Bavo, constituted her as it were tributary to the lord of the house.
[3] But the Abbot absolved them of the ban of the violation of the feast. but afterward she is restored to her former soundness. Thenceforth with greater security and safer devotion she called upon her lord, holy Bavo, by whose merits she trusted that his domestic, St. Landrada, would be made appeasable to her. Nor was she defrauded of the hope which she had. After a little time, wearied exceedingly by weeping and labor, she took the rest of sleep, and by the grace of God the whole hand is raised with its fingers, and upon the altar of St. Bavo the little pieces of wood are shaken off by the sound of a violent rebound. The sacristans are stupefied from their beds: and the woman, awakened, feeling herself, her hand being recovered, reconciled to the holy Virgin Landrada, gave thanks to God and to St. Bavo her lord. These are your works, Christ; these your mighty deeds, Lord, who have always deigned thus to glorify your Saints. At the ninth hour the monks rise to say praises to God: and because it was the seventh of the Sabbath, many, flocking to Vespers from the borders of the territory, in common praised the holy name of the Lord.
[4] About the year of the Lord 1400 the Curate of Dentergem a in the diocese of Tournai, The relics of St. Landrada, placed by the Curate on the left side, on a certain Sunday, the parishioners standing by, drew out from the old cross of that church many relics with their little labels, placing the more famous or known on the right side, but the less known on the left of the same altar: yet with this intention, that the more famous relics should be enclosed in the new cross, then recently bought, but the less known in the old cross again. But when the same Curate found among the other relics written in a certain little label, and publicly recited: These are the relics of St. Landrada the Virgin, and none of the bystanders recognized the name of that holy Virgin, the same relics were placed on the left side of the said altar.
[5] divinely translated to the right side of the altar. Which being done, presently, all there beholding, miraculously by a certain peaceful flight the aforesaid relics transferred themselves to the right side of the altar: and near the more known relics, as a certain doctor of laws and knight in arms, the Lord and master Peter de Ripa, temporal possessor of that parish, because he was present, afterward reported under his oath to the lord Abbot and certain religious of the monastery of St. Bavo.
[6] Sigeburgis the dropsical, At a certain other time b it happened that a certain woman, named Sigeburgis, wife of Lantzo, labored with dropsy under the skin, so that her legs with her feet had so swelled that for nearly a whole year she neither entered the church, unless she were carried in a litter, nor shared her husband's bed nor the banquet, and loathed food, and abhorred all drink except water. She, half-waking, is seized by a sudden vision of a certain untimely night, and is admonished in these words: Since you have raised our lords and ladies from the earth, why do you let us also, their faithful ones, lie hidden in the mud? For I am Landrada, Adrian the martyr and Julian. They too are of our company. This vision she intimated to her husband: and she asked that either the Bishop or the Bishop's authority be invited to raise them. He, in the past year, so complained that he had been out of pocket in the elevation of the others, that to undertake this by his hands seemed to him too arduous.
[7] admonished concerning the three bodies of the Saints to be elevated, After some days, the same vision appearing again, she is seized for her negligence in the same, as before, that is, the figure of a nun, and confounded for her contempt: And you, she says, who have expended so many and so great things on physicians, and have not merited to be cured; if you raised us from the mud, you would already have merited to be healed. And where, said she, shall we find you? The litter in which you are carried to the church, she says, irreverently presses down our tombs; but the chest, placed behind, is too burdensome to us. And if you plead that you do not deserve the Bishop or his Vicars: you have at hand at least Sarabert the presbyter and other faithful men to accomplish this. And so, morning being come, as she deliberated what needed to be done concerning these things, there is present a certain girl of her women's quarters, reporting the same vision, that she had been admonished by these same signs. She now dwells in the village of Gnodenghove.
[8] she has them elevated; and is suddenly healed. But Sigeburgis, her mistress, to whom these things were shown, and from whose mouth, swearing and protesting these things, we plucked them, still lives; lives, I say, and in the present light the noble person is fed sound and safe; a large household, faithfully seeking to know the matter, does not let it lie hidden. Who, sending with all haste the presbyters to accomplish these things, received them; meanwhile, herself not suffering to rest, had herself carried to the church, and meanwhile, little by little, to cast out the earth from the named place, and scarcely had they dug out half a foot of earth, and behold the cisterns of the Saints appeared at almost the very surface: the presbyters also arrive, whoever had been summoned, and, the sepulchers of the Saints being uncovered, they found their names brought forth in the little labels, and while they fulfill whatever is worthy of the translation as best they can, the said matron herself, who pressed on the work more attentively, suddenly turning, sees streams of poison and rottenness, gore to the measure of a sextarius, run out to her from her legs. She, admiring, and made more cheerful for the soundness recovered, returned home on foot, prepared a banquet opulently for guests and household; she herself sat amid them, neither loathing any food, nor now abhorring the draught of wine or of any other sup.
[9] Besides, many other miracles happened at a certain time of the year, Certain other miracles of which a few are subjoined. On the fourth before the Kalends of June a certain woman, Trethewara, blind, went to the thresholds of the Saints for the grace of prayer, for the sake of seeking health, but on the very way she had not yet reached there; and behold, her former health being recovered, walking, she rejoiced. On the next day, that is the feast of Pentecost, which was then on the third of June, a certain Theodoric, contracted in the sinews of his whole body for many years, many truthful witnesses standing by, wholly obtained soundness. Finally on the third before the Nones of June, the fifth feria of the same week, a blind woman from the district of Brabant, when she had invoked the Saints to help, and prepared a light to be offered to them as best she could, there was no delay, but she received the light of her eyes.
[10] wrought by the aid of the same Saints. Of the same district there was also another woman, who, afflicted with excessive pain of the reins, for the space of nearly one year, as she herself confessed, was not able to rise for the convenience of any function. She, when she learned that the pledges of the Saints had been brought thither, and knew that wonders were wrought there through them, vowed a candle for obtaining health, and prayed that they would have mercy on her in so great pain. Immediately she returns to her former health, devoutly offering a candle to the Saints, and at the same time brought forth a girdle; and for the soundness obtained returned likewise immense thanks to God through the merits of the Saints.
ANNOTATED.
between Tielt and Deinze; formerly it was under the Bishop of Tournai, now of Ghent.