ON ST. BASINUS THE MARTYR,
AT DRONGEN IN FLANDERS.
ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Concerning his cult, relics, coming, and Acts.
Basinus, Martyr, at Drongen in Flanders (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
[1] Truncinium or Trunchinium, in Flemish vernacular Drongene or Drongen, is situated on the river Lys, and is distant one mile from Ghent, a most ample and most well-known city of Flanders: The first church of this place, The origin of the monastery of Drongen, says Sanderus, book 4 of the Affairs of Ghent, chapter 6, in the district of Mempiscus on the river Lys, sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, built and endowed by holy Basinus the petty-king and martyr, blessed Amandus, bishop of Maastricht and apostle of the people of Ghent, adorned with a college of canons, or (as the ancients spoke) a monastery of clerics living in common, about the year of the Lord 633. According to this reckoning, after five centuries had elapsed, the clerics being removed for just causes, Iwan, count of Aalst, called the Premonstratensians from the monastery of St. Martin of Laon, and assigned the place to them, Odger the Provost yielding the Provostship. So the chronicle of the Premonstratensian Order in Miraeus at the year 1137, page 105. The Premonstratensians still possess this monastery, marked with an abbatial title, and every year on July 14 under a triple rite, as they themselves speak after the ancient manner in their printed Offices, celebrate the feast of St. Basinus with an Octave. But in the Office all things are said of the common of one martyr; even the very prayer, in which he is addressed by the name of King. In the parish church of Drongen, according to the mandate of the most illustrious and most reverend bishop of Ghent, the feast of the same Saint is venerated on the Sunday next after July 14.
[2] It seems that formerly the whole body of St. Basinus existed at Drongen; but, the Calvinist fury raging through Flanders, part of it perished in the perturbation of all things with the other remains of the Saints, I gather from Sanderus, who in the book and chapter just cited, near the end, thus writes: Drongen formerly had the bodies of SS. Basinus, Aldegundis his daughter, and Gerulf the martyr: now, after the heretical furies, there survives the skull of that martyr, part of the body of St. Basinus, and a tooth of St. John the Baptist, which, by the testimony of Meyer, Baldwin the Bald, restorer of that monastery, formerly gave to the Provost of Drongen. Martin Steytius, priest of the Abbey of Drongen, in his Belgian Legend, published at Ghent in the year 1658, testifies that a very great concourse of people is made to the relics of St. Basinus, and that in them, however much diminished, there is no less power than of old against various diseases; nay he asserts that every year innumerable miracles are wrought through the intercession of our Saint. Of the testimony of the religious man I do not doubt, but I grieve that he has brought forward none authentically proved one by one. The same in general only Saussay extols, who in his Gallican Martyrology wove such an elogium of our Saint: At Drongen near Ghent, the birthday of holy Basinus the martyr, who, born of royal stock, excelling in remarkable sanctity, built three churches along the course of the Lys, of which one, dedicated to the honor of the Mother of God, when he defended against the devastation of the gentiles, being grievously wounded by them in the field of Meldeveld, his spirit being breathed out in a pious and grateful death to God, flew away to the supernal triumphs: and buried in the monastery of the Premonstratensian Order together with holy Aldegundis his daughter, he testified that he perpetually lives with God by his assiduous helps to his clients. On which account there today his memory is venerated with an annual festivity.
[3] whom the monuments Almost all the Belgian hagiologists treat the memory of this Saint. Our Rosweyde described from the Martyrology of Drongen the following: On the day before the Ides of July at Drongen, the birthday of blessed Basinus, king and martyr, who, as our fathers, by a truthful narration, as we believe, narrated to us, was the first founder of the high monastery of holy Mary at Drongen, likewise also of two chapels, of which the one is consecrated in honor of blessed John the Baptist, the other in honor of blessed Peter. From the same source, unless I am mistaken, Molanus drew those things which in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium at July 14 he thus explains: At Drongen the passion of blessed Basinus, king and martyr; who, as our fathers by a truthful narration, as we believe, narrated to us, was the founder of the church of holy Mary at Drongen and of two chapels of the holy Peter and John. But when Basinus defended the church of blessed Mary against the devastation of the gentiles, grievously wounded in the field of the village of Meldeveld, a martyr he migrated to Christ. But Cornelius Jansenius the bishop in the testimonial letters of his visitation calls him a martyr of Christ, most illustrious by various miracles. Yet he is said somewhere to have found the title of confessor. But these two do not conflict, in that he did not die at once from the wound: for by that reasoning others too are called, now confessors, now martyrs. But because in the image of the reliquary he bears a lily on his breastplate, hence there is a suspicion that he was not indeed king of France, but a king or petty-king in France.
[4] Belgian, Then he thus pursues the history of that same church: For the rest, the church of the Mother of God built and propagated by Basinus, blessed Amandus, apostle of the people of Ghent, adorned with a college, or, as the elders spoke, a monastery of clerics. Whose place was destroyed by the Normans in the year 883; but by Baldwin the Bald the rebuilder it was called the High Monastery at Drongen. But to the canons, who had cast off the regular life worthy of the monastic name, succeeded the Premonstratensian canons in the year 1138. Whence Drongen, in Flemish Drongen, is celebrated among the Abbeys of the diocese of Ghent, adorned with the bodies of the holy Gerulf, Basinus, and his daughter Aldegundis.
[5] Molanus in his additions to Usuard of the first edition thus has on this day: and the Martyrologies for the most part call him king, The passion of St. Basinus, king and martyr. Then in other type is added: Who rests at Drongen, a monastery outside Ghent. Almost the same has Canisius in the German Martyrology, Ferrari in the General Catalogue, our manuscript Florarium, and many Belgian Martyrologies, which constantly call St. Basinus king. Yet Galesinius in his Martyrology accommodated to the use of the Holy Roman Church, and printed at Venice in the year 1578, prudently suppressed the title of king, thus recording his memory on the day before the Ides of July: At Drongen near Ghent, of holy Basinus the martyr. Him some more prudent Belgians imitate. Our Baldwin Willot in the Belgian Hagiology on July 14 calls St. Basinus a prince. Certainly he cannot be called king, unless by this word, in a certain broad signification, they wish to be understood a prince-man, a petty-king of a certain tract, or rather a lord.
[6] I observe that the most illustrious and most reverend Master Cornelius Jansenius, first bishop of Ghent, also abstains from the name of king in the testimonial letters of his visitation, [but the bishop of Ghent abstains from the title of king in the testimony of his visitation.] which I would here have given entire, if they had been transmitted in time at my request. This defect their compendium will easily supply, which, by the care of our Father Francis Cocquyt, more than once praised elsewhere, the Reverend Master Robert Gansman, religious of the Premonstratensian Order, sent to me, who thus described it from the Register of Drongen: In the year of the Lord 1569, on the second day of the month of May, in the afternoon, at the instance of our most reverend Prelate, there came to Drongen the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Master Cornelius Jansenius, first bishop of Ghent, and, in the presence of our most reverend and most ample Lord Livinus Baes, of the distinguished man Lord Master Cunerus Petri of Brauwershaven, doctor of sacred theology, and bishop-designate of the church of Leeuwarden in Frisia, and all the religious of the monastery, those alone excepted who dwelt outside, several seculars standing by, he visited the reliquary of the glorious martyr of Christ Basinus (these are the words of the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend bishop of Ghent) there most illustrious by miracles, and it being reverently opened, he found there a great part of his sacred body and each of the chief bones of the Martyr, which, when he had diligently examined, and freshly cleansed, he religiously replaced in the same reliquary to the honor of God, leaving there in testimony of the truth letters strengthened by the appending of his seal, a very few relics of that body being taken away, necessary for the consecration of altars.
[7] From what place St. Basinus came to Drongen I hold undiscovered. It is uncertain from what place, In the Acts indeed he is said to have built a city, and called it Basotes from his own name, from which by a journey of three days and nights he came to Drongen. But such a city, which ought to have been situated in Flanders or the neighboring provinces, is unknown to all cosmographers, and on that account not a little suspected by me of fiction, like the famous city to the Belgians, which certain too credulous Belgian writers so greatly celebrated. Perhaps one might suspect, on account of a certain, though remote enough, affinity of name, that this place was Bassée, a town of Belgium in the county of Flanders and situated on the very border of Artois, of which St. Basinus was lord or prince, and which bears lilies on its family shield, such as are also seen painted on the breastplate of St. Basinus. But because, says Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, in the image of the reliquary he bears a lily on his breastplate, hence there is a suspicion that he was not indeed king of France, but a king or petty-king in France. But these are mere and most uncertain conjectures, which as such we leave.
[8] and in what year St. Basinus came to Drongen. Although in the Acts the determined time of his coming
is not indicated, yet according to the chronicle of Drongen and the unanimous consent of the Belgian writers, St. Basinus seems to have come to Drongen in the time of St. Amandus, who about the year 630 began to teach the Christian law to the people of Ghent and the neighboring peoples, and to whom, after other Apostolic excursions, he returned a second and a third time, as it is permitted to see more fully in the Life of St. Amandus, illustrated by Godfrey Henschenius in our Acts on February 6. From these things indeed the coming of St. Basinus can be gathered more or less, but its certain year cannot be fixed, since it is uncertain whether it happened in the first, second, or third sojourn of St. Amandus among the people of Ghent. But from this indeterminate epoch it at least is clear that the Belgian addition must be corrected, which was added to the Roman Martyrology printed in Belgian at Ypres in the year 1688, and in which it is said that St. Basinus was slain by the Vandals, because he defended the church against their sacrileges: for from history, both ecclesiastical and profane, it is most certainly established that in the time of St. Amandus the Vandals were not in Belgium or the neighboring regions.
[9] Judgment concerning his Acts written by an anonymous author. The Acts of St. Basinus, written by I know not whom, we give from the manuscript of Drongen. But what I think of them, I shall first candidly open. Besides certain things already said in passing, there does not please me the angel under the appearance of a stag leading St. Basinus to Drongen, nor the pursuit of that stag through three days and nights, which savors of a fable. That great sound of the church of St. Peter, and the splitting of the wall from top to bottom, what they mean I do not sufficiently understand, unless perhaps the writer thought that prodigies must be scraped together from every quarter for himself, to adorn the Acts of the Saint. That prodigious dripping of oil, the blindness of St. Aldegundis removed, and a little after her entrance into the church returning and again cured; as also many other miracles demand a witness worthy of faith, such as certainly is not the writer of the Acts, who feigns that it was commanded by the angel to St. Basinus that he should call the place in which he built a church "to the high monastery of holy Mary"; whereas nevertheless Sanderus, from the Premonstratensian chronicle and the monuments of the monastery of Drongen, book 4 of the Affairs of Ghent, chapter 6, writes these things: In the year 883 the Normans wintered at Ghent, and destroyed and burnt the monastery of blessed Mary, which is called Drongen. But in the year 884, as the monuments of that same monastery have, that which had been destroyed by the Normans was restored by Baldwin the Bald, count of Flanders, and called the high monastery at Drongen. The chronicle of the Premonstratensian Order, published by Miraeus, treating at the year 1137 of the monastery of Drongen, affirms the same in fewer words thus: Which, destroyed by the Normans in the year 883, was afterward restored by Baldwin the Bald, count of Flanders, and called the high monastery at Drongen. I pass over the untamed horse proposed by St. Basinus to his daughter, and the desire of the holy Virgin wishing to be bitten by the horse, because life wearied her, and other discordant things feigned against decorum, which I leave to be observed by the reader in the attentive reading of the Acts themselves, which I now subjoin.
ACTS.
From the manuscript of the Monastery of Drongen.
Basinus, Martyr, at Drongen in Flanders (S.)
BHL Number: 1029
FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.
Blessed Basinus, King a and martyr of Christ, was born of royal stock and of Christian parents, and was reborn from the sacred font of baptism, St. Basinus, living piously, and named Basinus. From the cradle he showed himself a companion of the worshipers of Christ, and, clothed with holy religion, with all the desire of his heart and body and mind he strove to serve Christ. He was just in all the ways of the Lord, and bountiful in alms. After the death of his father and mother, when he reigned, he built a city, which he called Basotes b from his own name. Then he took a wife, and of her begot a daughter, whom, reborn at the sacred font, he called Aldegundis c, and with open eyes she did not see.
[2] On a certain day, the Lord inspiring, he rose to hunt; he is wondrously led to Drongen, and behold a certain stag of wondrous magnitude and beauty appeared to him, which he followed with his soldiers and hunters and dogs: but by the providence of God all, wearied, withdrew from him except two soldiers, with whom he followed it through three days and three nights. But on the third day after sunset they came together into a place beautiful and spacious in length and breadth, having toward the south a running water, which was called Leia d, and on the other part, toward the north, having a great wood, into which the stag vanished from their eyes. And they, very sad from the weariness of their bodies, rested in that same place for the night.
[3] But at midnight blessed Basinus, awaking and opening his eyes, saw heaven opened over that place, where, according to an admonition received from heaven and there came a voice to him saying: Basinus, this place, in which you rest, is holy, and by the providence of God you have been led hither by your Angel in the likeness of a stag, that he might show you the sanctity of this place, and that you should build three churches, the first in honor of the blessed Mother of the Lord along the course of the Lys, which you shall call "to the high monastery e of holy Mary": the second a little to the east along the course of the Lys in honor of the Forerunner of the Lord: the third to the north beside the same church in honor of blessed Peter the Apostle f.
[4] St. Basinus therefore rose, and his soldiers, at first dawn, and by a direct journey with joy and exultation came to their city Basotes; he commands three churches to be built, and he gathered chosen workmen, who knew how to work with stones and to cut wood, and led them with him to the aforesaid place, and made them build a church in honor of the blessed Mother of the Lord, which by angelic precept he named "to the high monastery of holy Mary." Afterward he made them build the other two.
[5] But when they were finished, he brought bishops g to dedicate them. In those days in which the dedication was, it was seen by all who were present, heaven opened over the churches, in whose dedication many miracles are wrought. and oil dripping upon the altars: and if anyone infirm was anointed with the oil, he became sound from whatever infirmity held him. There is joy and exultation to those who were present and had seen these signs. The peoples, hearing, came from every part of the earth, both sound and infirm, to see the miracles which were done in that place. Then holy Basinus, by the counsel of the bishops h, appointed clerics in the churches who should serve God day and night. These things being accomplished i in Christ, each one returned to his own place with joy, praising and blessing the Lord.
[6] The next year St. Basinus, returning to Drongen, After the circle of a year, when the nativity of holy John the Baptist drew near, holy Basinus proceeded with a multitude of peoples to the aforesaid place. Then his daughter approached him, and asked him to let her go with him to the festivity. But he answered her, saying: You cannot come with me, unless upon my untamed horse, which runs with my beasts in the field. But she, rejoicing and hoping in the Lord, ordered the herdsman of the mares to come to her, and asked him to catch for her that untamed horse, which ran with the beasts of her father.
[7] his daughter follows, blind from birth, Then he said to her that it was so hard and rough that with its teeth it bit the men whom it found. But she with tears said: O would that it were willing to bite me, because it wearies me to live in this world, because I know not for what I am useful, who am blind from my birth, and see not the light, but sit in darkness. Then that herdsman, having pity on her, led the men and her with him k into the field where the beasts were feeding. Then that horse came to her so mild and gentle as a sheep, and she put a bridle in its mouth, and sitting upon it, taking soldiers with her, followed her father to the place which is now called Drongen l, and came to the church of holy John and stood before the door.
[8] who there obtains sight from God; But raising her eyes and hands to heaven, she prayed to the Lord. As she prayed, oil dripped upon her eyes, and she received her sight. In the same hour her father came to the door, and asked whether it was day. But she answered him: Lord, it is dawning. And he, recognizing her voice, marveling said: Who are you? But she answered: I am your daughter Aldegundis. But he asked her, saying: How did you come hither? But she answered: Lord, as you commanded me. And he: How do you know that it is dawning? But she: Lord, I see heaven and the stars, and the moon, and the earth, and you my father, whom I never saw. And he: Where did you receive the light? But she answered: In this place where I stand. Then he, rejoicing, ordered her to enter the church, that both might give thanks to God.
[9] but again struck with blindness, Afterward he led her to the church of holy Peter the Apostle, which was near it. But when holy Aldegundis came to the door of the church to enter, again she was made blind, and the church gave a great sound, and the wall was split from top to bottom. Then holy Aldegundis cried out with a great voice, saying: My lord father, help me, because I do not see. Then holy Basinus, on bended knees, prayed to the Lord, that he would let her enter, and after her all the women, and that he would give her his light on this condition m, that she should remain there longer in the service of God and of holy Peter, and that she should give to his church whatever pertained to her of her inheritance; and rising from prayer, confiding in the Lord, and holding her hand, he brought her in.
[10] But when she entered, she received the light, rejoicing. she recovers her sight, and there afterward dies holily. Then all the peoples who were present, in the jubilation of their voice, blessed the Lord, saying: Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, who alone do great wonders, and blessed be the name of his majesty for ever: so be it, so be it! Then she offered herself upon the altar of holy Peter, as her father promised: whose sacred bones rest in the church of blessed Mary the Virgin, and are laid in a shrine, whose festivity is celebrated on the sixth of the Kalends of February n.
[11] After blessed virgin Aldegundis died, there came evil and most wicked men, [St. Basinus, wounded for the defense of the Church, dies, and shines with miracles.] namely gentiles, devastating on every side the churches
of Christ, and approaching the place which was called "to the high monastery of holy Mary," to devastate the churches of Christ, holy Basinus, having gathered a very great multitude of Christians, met them in the field which to this day is called Meldeveld o, and slew and slaughtered the greatest part, and put the others to flight, and there holy Basinus was wounded unto death; but first fortified with the body and blood of Christ, and anointed with oil, he migrated to Christ, and was buried in the church of holy Peter the Apostle on the fifth of the Ides of July [p]. At whose sepulcher the heavenly King, through the merits of that same holy Basinus, raised up many miracles: the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, lepers, and all the infirm who had come with a pure heart, were made sound [q], the Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. Whose relics also rest with his daughter in the aforesaid church of holy Mary the Virgin, and his sepulcher is held at Drongen in the church of holy Peter.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. His feast among the Martyrologists is marked on the day before the Ides of July. On that account we too have illustrated his Acts on this day.
q. Everywhere in general many miracles are said to have been done. To me, seeking special and authentic ones, it was answered that very many writings of the abbey of Drongen perished in the Calvinist devastation, which I easily believe.