Vincent the Confessor

ON ST. VINCENT THE CONFESSOR, OTHERWISE MADELGARIUS,

AT SOIGNIES IN HAINAUT, BELGIUM.

ABOUT THE YEAR 677.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Vincent Madelgarius, Confessor, at Soignies in Hainaut, Belgium (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. The Saint's name, birth, fatherland, manner of life, age, and death.

The seventh century from the birth of Christ, most fruitful of Saints in our Belgium, has often been praised in these Acts, often described; often of today's holy Vincent, or Madelgarius, mention recurs, for the sake of his wife, likewise holy, of his children and kindred; The Saint already often mentioned in the Acts, as may be seen in the Life of St. Waldetrudis, his most pious wife, on April 9; of St. Landric his son, bishop and abbot, on the 17th of the same month; of his daughter, the virgin abbess St. Aldetrudis, on February 25; of St. Aldegundis, foundress of Maubeuge, his wife's sister, on January 30, and in other places. Moreover the monastery of Hautmont on the Sambre, founded by St. Vincent himself, and distant about one league from Maubeuge, Abbot Ursio sufficiently delineated, treating of the sacred body of St. Marcellus the Pope carried thither, in volume 2 of January, page 12, so that all these things need not here again be commemorated: nor is the joining of Pope Martin with Dagobert to be refuted, concerning which and other errors of this kind our predecessors have so often treated. The situation and lordship of Soignies (commonly Soignies) you have at the Life of the said St. Landric, from which and others you may again gather what we have more than once touched elsewhere, namely that most of the cities and towns of Hainaut, as the metropolis itself Mons, Condé, Nivelles, Maubeuge, and so many others, grew up at monasteries or on occasion of monasteries, as of Hautmont and Soignies, first begun by St. Vincent Madelgarius himself, where also today he is especially venerated, it is most certain. But let these things be noted in passing and by way of preface.

[2] To this pertains more the true and genuine expression of the name of this Saint, or the very name is doubtful: which it is not so easy to draw clearly from the writers; some asserting that Vincent obtained the surname Madelgarius, Malgerus, or Madelgerus (French Mauger), from the victory won over the pomp of the world and worldly enticements; which, though perhaps it is not to be admitted as beyond doubt, yet we observe was constantly so called by the first authors of the Legends, to be cited below: others on the contrary announcing Vincent Madelgarius in the present manner. You will marvel that there have not been lacking those who dreamed that Vincent was so called because he expelled the Vandals from Ireland. To contend more sharply about the word I have no wish at all; to me it will be of no moment, whether you call the Saint of whom we here treat Madelgarius surnamed Vincent, or Vincent Madelgarius: but whichever of the two be the proper name, whether the additional name, lest the diversity beget confusion, we shall follow the more received appellation with the common usage, not unwillingly suffering it, if the first opinion, as the more ancient, be preferred. These things therefore being left in the middle, we shall first, so far as can be done, explain the various difficulties, before we set forth his cult, elogia, and relics, which are better known. But this explanation will add just so much of clarity as can be elicited from the more ancient monuments—wretchedly consumed by those frequent incursions of the barbarians, which we are so often compelled to deplore—through obscure traces.

[3] but his deeds wondrously entangled; And that I may begin from the chief documents or the Legends themselves, after Mabillon examined them, he rightly judged, in volume 2 of the Acts of the Order of St. Benedict, page 672, that of holy Vincent, or Madelgarius, few things ascertained occur. This we find most true in that variety of writers, mingling Ireland with Belgium in such a way that some will have him Irish by race, others that he was in exile in Ireland, most with the writers of the Life would say that he was appointed by King Dagobert as pro-rex or governor, almost as count or proprietary duke of that island, whom his holy wife followed, and whence, returning, they brought with them many holy men into Belgium, of whom the greater Legend names not a few, so expressly and roundly, that it is almost incredible that such a tradition should have prevailed among the monks of Hautmont, which was not supported by at least some foundation, as must again be said below; whatever Cointe raises against all these things in his Annals of the Franks at the year 648 from number 11, intending separately to prove that at least St. Fursey was not brought from beyond the sea by St. Vincent, because the author of the Life of that Saint does not mention this matter, alleging this cause of departure, that he perceived the province to be disturbed by the incursion of the gentiles: which is almost the same reason adduced by the Venerable Bede in the same place.

[4] not therefore, however, wholly to be rejected. But from the cited words of those men it does not altogether seem to follow what Cointe wished to draw from them; as if the cause of St. Fursey's departure from his fatherland on account of the incursion of the gentiles, and the company of St. Vincent, were at odds; who—that I may not report here the opinions of all or their conjectures at pleasure—for whatever cause finally he could have set out into Ireland and England, could have had that Saint, as well as other contemporary countrymen, whom it is established passed thence to us, as companions of his journey, or at least have invited them to himself into Belgium, of whose acquaintance he afterward made use. This indeed, from the sole authority of the anonymous writer of the Life of St. Vincent, who does not exceed the twelfth century, I would not dare to admit as certain; but neither do I see that Cointe's arguments prove that the matter could not so have happened, and perhaps really happened, since the nearest writers who are extant affirm it, and no repugnance occurs in all of them: but no one will deny that very many things were done, although a certain memory of them has not been transmitted to us; but for the rest these things can in some way be admitted, on the credit of the said writers and constant tradition, so long as they are not overthrown by more efficacious arguments. The Life of St. Foillan, in manuscript with us, almost suggests the manner in which they may otherwise be saved, when it says that the cause of the pilgrimage at that time of so many Saints from Ireland was Madelgarius (who is also Vincent), who, powerful in Francia and powerful in Ireland, animated many to make pilgrimage for Christ, and fostered them with his aid.

[5] However you take these things, this alone I labor at, lest the whole Legend be undermined, He cannot be said to be Irish by race; to which cannot be ascribed what others have invented, namely that St. Vincent is to be ascribed to the Irish; for they are deceived, as here again rightly Mabillon, who call him Irish by fatherland, in which I subscribe to him so much the more easily, because, by the confession of Thomas Sirin, no memory of him exists in the more ancient Irish Fasti, and I observe none in the less ancient ones, which was not received from the Belgians, and especially from Molanus, perhaps also from the Life of St. Etto, or others of this kind, sometimes scraping together marvelous and exceedingly inept things, as you have on July 10. Those who dream that Madelgarius was formed from the Irish Macguir, truly they object to us a preposterous figment, by no means to be admitted without witness or surety; whatever Armagh John du Pont, canon regular, foists upon us in his immortal Memorial on the life and virtues of St. Vincent, published at Mons in 1649, as one who asserted this crudely enough in some Commentary on the Saints of Ireland. Nor perhaps do those savor better, says Mabillon again, who call (St. Vincent Madelgarius) Aquitanian, confounding Madelgarius with Amalgarius, whom, sent by Dagobert against

the Gascons, Fredegar, chapter 78, teaches. Nor indeed will it seem strange to anyone, if we say that it proceeded from that same confusion, that they record the father of St. Vincent to have drawn his origin from the nation of the Gascons, although we shall show below that this too can be saved in another way. Having therefore rejected both the Irish and the Aquitanian or Iberian origin, let us pass to things a little more certain.

[6] That St. Vincent was illustrious by race, there is no doubt at all; for so in express terms he is called by the ancient writer of the Life of St. Aldegundis: nor is the genealogy of the Counts of Hainaut to be admitted. The handmaid of God Aldegundis had a sister, by name Waldetrudis, who had been joined to an illustrious man, Madelgarius, surnamed Vincent. The like is handed down by Hucbald, monk of Elnone, and others in Bolland. Balderic, bishop of Noyon, in his Chronicle, and Philip of Harveng, abbot of Bonne-Espérance, call St. Vincent a Count, not of Hainaut, as the more recent ones wrongly do, but of that kind which we have often said were bare and temporary officials, or governors of cities or districts, removable at the King's pleasure, just as governors were called Dukes, as is most well known to the learned. If anyone perhaps doubt; let him see our Jacobus Simon in the annotations on the Life of St. Waldetrudis, published by him in French at Arras in the year 1629, from page 33 to 46. Cointe rightly laughs, at the said year 648 number 14, at that whole genealogy of the Counts of Hainaut, drawn from Alberic son of Clodio down to St. Waldetrudis, to which add the rest, in Vinchant and others, more splendidly than truly adorned. Nor less inept is what the praised Ursio the abbot thrust forward, in the cited place, when he proclaimed St. Vincent duke of the Lotharingians, Franks, and Saxons, at that time when the name of Lotharingia had not yet become known to the world. Trifles and amplifications being again dismissed, thus in few words Mabillon.

[7] Vincent was born in the place whose name is Sterpea (Strépy-lez-Binche) near Binche in Hainaut, The place of his birth is certain enough; as the very ample possessions testify which he had in the district of Hainault, which is part of the present Hainaut, and took its name from the river Haine. He could have added that this same is most expressly confirmed by the authors of the Life, so that there is no place for fabulists babbling contradictions. From the same Acts and from elsewhere it is established that he professed military service under King Dagobert, and married Waldetrudis to wife, who had most illustrious parents and kinsmen, and among these Gundeland, Mayor of the Palace, as uncle, as you may see at the Life of St. Bertilia on May 11. Living most piously in wedlock, he received several children from his holy wife. The Legends assign four: Landric, Aldetrudis, Madelberta, Dentlinus. But when God had inspired Waldetrudis with the fire of his love, says the ancient writer of the Life of St. Aldegundis, her blessed husband Madelgarius, seeing her to be bound under the nod of God, betook himself to the monastery which is called Hautmont, that, established under the holy rule of the monks, he might lead a spiritual life and persevere in good deeds. What was done in the time of the marriage, besides the clericate undertaken by his son St. Landric, you would scarcely gather from the Acts, which also almost leave it doubtful which first among the spouses led the partner to the separation of the marriage bed.

[8] But that the order of his age and conversion may be somewhat arranged, but the order of his life and conversion, from the series of events, and from the Acts of the holy women Waldetrudis and Aldegundis, it seems sufficiently gathered that the monastery of Hautmont was built before St. Vincent meditated or at least carried out his full conversion: for all things speak in such a way that you plainly perceive the monastery to have been already founded, when, at the exhortation of the holy Amandus and Autbertus, laying aside the belt of military service, he was tonsured a monk, and betook himself to the monastery, which is thus narrated in the Life of St. Ghislain in our Vaucelles codex, so that it is sufficiently clear that already then monks were established at Hautmont; about what year we shall presently see, where the aforesaid words shall have been recited. The dedication of the oratory of Ghislain being premised, at which the chief men of every state and dignity from the surrounding places had been present, he thus continues: Among whom a certain noble count, by name Malgerus, the bishops preaching, compunct by divine inspiration, the deceitful world renounced, was tonsured on the head with all his own by the hands of the bishop of Cambrai: and because, by taking up the cross of the Lord and following his footsteps, he wished to be dead to the world, he was enclosed at Hautmont under the regular habit, whom, God's grace preceding and following him, he kept immaculate to the end. Henschenius, in the preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Amandus, §13, number 95, judges this to have happened in the year 653; on which hypothesis (for so it must be called) from that point the rest pertaining to his age can in some way be arranged.

[9] However, I say, for the things which pertain to the series of the Saint's Life to right chronological reckonings, are so entangled from the age of St. Waldetrudis his wife and her sister Aldegundis, that they can scarcely be reconciled. For if it is true that the latter was a young girl in the year 660, while her sister already ruled the monastery of Castrilocus; it will follow that St. Waldetrudis, if she married Vincent about the year 636, was married before Aldegundis was born. Add that her Acts record the said Waldetrudis to have been born in the time of Dagobert, under whom she was more truly joined in matrimony. The Legends testify that St. Vincent was ennobled with the glory of the world chiefly in his reign, and they themselves are not sufficiently exact as to the reckoning of times. It pleases me more, that from the acquaintance of holy men he had already then conceived little sparks of greater piety: which if it is permitted to suppose, it can also be said that, Dagobert being still alive, he deliberated about building a monastery; the relics of St. Marcellus could have been carried thither, before Vincent seriously thought of undertaking the monastic institute; Dagobert could have contributed something to the erection of the monastery before the year 644, in which, in the more ancient opinion, he is judged to have died; and thus the buildings of the aforesaid monastery were gradually erected; so that nothing compels us to reduce its first beginnings, with Cointe, to the year 648, or with Mabillon to 650, since the labors of so great a work seem to have demanded several years, and to have given time to St. Vincent that, terrestrial desires being gradually put off, he might stir up both himself and his own to solid virtue by the example of the monks, to which at last the final crown was added by the exhortation of the holy Amandus and Autbertus, to which pertains that phrase, "tonsured on the head with all his own," whence it is given to understand that many followed him to the monastic life, both intimates and domestics, so that the number of the monks grew to three hundred.

[10] But we here pursue only the series of his age, thus to be arranged in some way, could not hitherto be recalled; that on the aforesaid Dagobertian hypothesis, St. Vincent is supposed to have been born about the year 615, who twenty years after, namely 635, gave his assent to the royal military service, advanced by the favor of Dagobert, and a little after joined in matrimony, in which, exercised through various offices, and drawn away from vanities by the examples of his most holy wife, he was moved, whether by miracle or otherwise, to the foundation of the monastery of Hautmont about the year 642, and obtained aid from the King himself, by which afterward the matter was brought to an end, and the monks being gathered in that place, meanwhile deliberating longer about keeping continence, at the admonition of the most holy Bishops in the year 653 at last utterly broke his chains, and, leaving his wife, put on the monk; and him, at the urging of St. Ghislain, St. Waldetrudis shortly followed, the most worthy foundress of the convent of Castrilocus. He himself received his wife's sister St. Aldegundis at Hautmont in the year 661, not indeed to be veiled by the aforesaid holy Bishops, as Henschenius holds in the praised Commentary on the Acts of St. Amandus number 68, for that seems to have happened earlier; but to be instructed by holy admonitions. Let it be supposed that he persevered at Hautmont, not to the end (which is to be understood of his profession, not of the place) but until the year 670, until, out of love of greater solitude and quiet, he founded another monastery at Soignies, and betook himself thither, where after about seven years he flew away to the crown of his merits in the year 677; which the writers hand down concordantly enough, Castellanus alone prolonging his life to 680; but Fortius marking the year 666. These things being posited, he is to be judged to have migrated to heaven a little more than sixty years old, his holy wife surviving some years.

[11] I am not ignorant that writers are found who define the times of the holy Vincent, nor can the ages of SS. Waldetrudis and Aldegundis be composed, Waldetrudis, and Aldegundis otherwise: for they will have St. Waldetrudis to have been born in the year 626, the other in 630; but by what sufficient reason these agree with the age of Madelgarius and other circumstances, I indeed do not rightly perceive. For St. Waldetrudis could scarcely be born so late, and be married under King Dagobert. For the rest, Aldegundis, who as a young girl bade farewell to the world against the will of her parents, nothing prevents her from having been born in the year 630, and at the age of 13 or 14 to have received the sacred veil at Hautmont from the holy Autbertus and Amandus. Other difficulties, to be explained from the too great distance of age between the two sisters, we have not undertaken; and indeed, as I was saying, St. Waldetrudis must have been born before the year 626, lest otherwise we be compelled to defer her marriage to the year 644 or 645, in which she had not yet reached her twentieth year, Dagobert being already dead, under whom nevertheless it is established that she married and received children, and that her husband St. Vincent served in the military, if there is anything in the Legend that can be safely admitted. The defect of attention in fitting all things together at once produces these inconveniences, that although the several points separately at first sight seem to subsist, compared among themselves, they must necessarily collapse. To me hitherto the things which I judged should be established for the time being concerning the age and marriage of St. Vincent are more probable, until from elsewhere a little more of surer light be shed.

[12] which, entangled by the writers of Hainaut, That I have hitherto not been able safely enough to draw it out of the various Legends just cited, I candidly confess; ready willingly and gladly to yield the palm to those who shall have been more fortunate than I, and more accurate than the writers of Hainaut: for both Vinchant, and the last French embellisher of the Life of St. Madelgarius, Fortius, canon of Soignies, as well as Pontius nearly contemporary with him, and the more ancient Guise, and others, seem to have brought their studies to this, that they should heap together many things speciously and at the same time without order, which here to refute or restore professedly would be as much as to wish to recall the whole history of Hainaut of the seventh century to right reckonings, which I judge is manifestly not of this place or design. Nor from the several Lives of St. Aldegundis, published by Bolland and Mabillon, is anything more distinct drawn out: for if all the points be rightly weighed, this at last will have to be gathered, that that Saint did not flee to Maubeuge before her germane sister St. Waldetrudis had withdrawn from her holy husband; which we have already thought must be referred to the year 653 or thereabouts: but meanwhile the praised Lives speak in such a way that they expressly name, for the flight of St. Aldegundis and the endowment of the monastery of Maubeuge, the age of King Dagobert, and so having been done

all these things must be before the year 644, which it is most difficult to combine aptly: and far more difficult, if with the more recent ones you connect the death of that King to the year 638.

[13] however our Simon has tried to explain. The most disturbed reckoning of the times of that century in the affairs of Hainaut was seen, and, so far as was permitted, to bring some light to these dense shadows, the praised Jacobus Simon tried, in the cited annotations from page 8, where, from the epoch already mentioned of the nativity of St. Aldegundis, namely the year 630, and from other things done between the holy sisters, back and forth, as their Acts relate, he not improbably deduces that the firstborn St. Waldetrudis must have been more advanced in age, and about eighteen years older than Aldegundis, and so born at least in the twelfth year of that seventh century: which is plainly another hypothesis, in which you see the age of St. Vincent must be anticipated by nearly a whole decade, who accordingly died not merely sixty but seventy years old. Thus, however, he; having scrutinized all the corners, whether in any way the things which were handed down so obscurely by the compilers of the Legends concerning the said holy sisters, our Vincent, and others, could be reduced to the chronological norm. Henschenius did not consult Simon when he illustrated the Acts of St. Waldetrudis, nor was he solicitous about determining her age; indicating only this in his annotations, that she was born before Dagobert departed from the kingdom and from life, of which who could have doubted, I do not see: and here again I equally candidly confess that Simon's opinion does not displease me, provided it can be sufficiently connected with the rest, especially since by the express terms of the very Life of St. Waldetrudis, she was born in the times of Dagobert, the renowned king of the Franks, whom we know first began to reign in Austrasia in the year 622. But those tangles I leave to the people of Hainaut themselves to unravel. Let it suffice to have attempted these things: however obscure are the things which surround the times of St. Vincent; of his solemn cult there exist clearer and more illustrious monuments than can be called into doubt.

[14] These things being long since prepared for the press, I myself made an excursion to Soignies, From the diplomas it is not proved that the Saint was Count of Hainaut. to explore in person whether anything remaining lay hidden there, which might bring some light or aid to illustrating so many doubtful things. Most kindly received by the very Reverend and most ample Dean, more than once here praised, I had access to all the sacred monuments concerning the Saint, and having venerated them, I was led to the archive of the chapter, where was exhibited a parchment diploma of the Emperor Maximilian, grandson of Charles, acting as regent for the prince of the Belgians, by which, confirming in the year 1512 certain immunities formerly granted to the church of Soignies, he adduces a much more ancient diploma, namely of the year 1387, of Albert of Bavaria, then Count of Hainaut, in which St. Vincent is marked with the title of Count of Hainaut, and is called predecessor in that county, and is decorated with various appellations of this kind, from which the most ample man tried to infer that the Saint was known and held in those ancient times as true count of the whole of Hainaut. The force of an argument of this kind is known to those who are learned in distinguishing petitions offered to princes from their decrees or decisions; if the people of Soignies had called their most holy Patron duke of Lotharingia, of the Franks, or of Saxony, I do not indeed doubt that the responsive diplomas would have shone with plainly the same honors and dignities: so that from this nothing can be drawn to establish for the seventh century properly, as we understood just now, the appellation of Count of Hainaut due to St. Vincent. We pass to the cult.

§ II. The Saint's cult in the sacred Fasti, his elogia, his relics.

Hitherto we have handled things almost doubtful and uncertain, at least not sufficiently ascertained, concerning the name, birth, deeds, and age of St. Vincent, Not one festivity of the Saint is celebrated; to which succeed things a little more certain concerning the ancient cult shown him long since and constantly, both at Hautmont and at Soignies, then indeed through the whole Cambrai diocese of Hainaut, in whose proper Missal, printed at Paris in the year 1527, and left to us by the late Reverend Master Jerome Harts, pastor of Burcht, there is a Mass of the holy Confessor in the second place, "Justus ut palma," with the rest of the common on this day. Of the increases of that cult and the more celebrated solemnity afterward, later abrogated for the diocese and restricted to the church of Soignies alone, we shall give more in the following paragraph; here first the Martyrologies must be reviewed, and the chief encomia, wont to be circulated in Belgium and elsewhere, but to be subjected to the aforesaid file of historical truth. That his birthday is recalled on this day is certain; that on June 6 some memory of him is made, in the manuscript additions of the Charterhouse of Brussels to Greven, we have noted among the Passed Over on that day: there follow, moreover, other commemorations on September 20, on which day Molanus marked a translation at Soignies among the auctaria to Usuard, and again on October 29: On the same day, the second translation of Blessed Vincent the confessor, which he testifies in the Natales he received from the Calendar of Soignies, with no time indicated in which the aforesaid translations were made, of whose epochs I find nothing which can certainly determine their times. But let us inspect the sacred Fasti concerning his birthday.

[16] In the better-known genuine Martyrologies of the ninth century, Ado, Usuard, and others—and the same a fortiori suppose of the more ancient—St. Vincent or Madelgarius is not known; in some auctaria of Bede, especially on this day in the additions to Bede and Ado; whose age is uncertain, his memory is found inscribed: let the words of the Arras codex suffice: On the same day, at the villa which is called Somnias (Soignies), the deposition of Blessed Vincent, who, at the admonitions of Blessed Autbertus the pontiff, leaving the world, exercised himself in the deeds of a good conversation. He is also inserted into the Ado of Lobbes, in the margin indeed, but by an equally ancient hand: At Soignies, of holy Vincent the confessor, who built Hautmont. A longer elogium is recited by the Ado of St. Lawrence of Liège, whose words the Florarium of the Saints also reports. Thus both speak: At the monastery of Soignies, of St. Vincent the Confessor, who before he put on the monastic habit was called Madelgarius; but because, the Lord aiding, leaving the evils of the world, he bravely overcame them after his conversion, therefore he was called Vincent. Who in the monastery which is called Hautmont, with head tonsured, lived very many years under the holy rule, now rests in the holy tomb at Soignies, in which he departed from human affairs. But he was, while still set in the world, husband of St. Waldetrudis, who, separated from him with charity preserved, built the mount which is called Castrilocus, and for spiritual exercise gathered a great host of holy virgins.

[17] in the Usuardine ones variously marked; The same, or with briefer phrase, of St. Vincent mention various Usuardine auctaria, of which we describe some from the most well-known edition, that under a single view may appear the different manner of announcing: To the Tournai codex there was added in the margin in few words, by a similar though somewhat more recent hand: Of Vincent the confessor, of Hainaut. In fuller words the Brussels one: At Senogias (rather Soignies), of holy Vincent the confessor, and of his wife blessed Waldetrudis of Castrilocus, niece of blessed Gudila. Who, at the exhortation of the holy Autbertus and Ghislain the abbot, made a monk from a Count, strove to serve Christ in all his acts. The nepotism, or "neptism," of this writer with his St. Gudila we have rejected elsewhere also: that St. Gudila was daughter of St. Amalberga, of whom it was treated on July 10, we well know; but whether, and in what degree of consanguinity, this touched St. Waldetrudis, has hitherto not been ascertained by us; the blood-connection of the holy Walbert and Bertilia with St. Amalberga must first be proved. But these things we dismiss, that we may hear Greven: Of Vincent, Count of Hainaut, the confessor. The announcement of Molanus in the later editions seems contracted from the Ado of Liège: At Soignies, the deposition of Blessed Vincent the confessor of Christ; who in the monastery which is called Hautmont, with head tonsured, lived very many years under the holy rule, charity preserved, separated from St. Waldetrudis his wife. To these almost subscribe other more recent ones, with Canisius calling St. Vincent an abbot.

[18] in the Monastic and others not sufficiently exactly. Of the same treat the monastic writers, among whom Wion described the words of Molanus already reported: in his annotations inventing trifles about the Saint as king of Ireland and Count of Hainaut, who forsooth, his wife permitting, in the year 606, in which more probably he was not yet born, embraced the monastic life. These things were more rightly omitted by Dorganius and Menard: I pass over the longer elogium of Bucelinus, which adds either little to what has been said, or things even more uncertain. Constantine Ghini reckoned St. Vincent among the canons regular, describing the elogium from Molanus, but so twisting it, that if all things be rightly composed, he seems to indicate that St. Aldegundis was not the sister-in-law but the daughter of Vincent. Nor was he passed over in the General Catalogue of Ferrari, who, not content with those things which he had read in others, will have our Saint not only to have brought with him from Ireland the Saints named elsewhere, or invited them into Belgium, but with those very ones, namely Ultan, Foillan, Fursey, Eloquius, Etto, and Adalgisus, to have built the monastery at Hautmont, as if all these were monks in that place. Briefly, rightly, and truly Castellanus: At Soignies in Hainaut, of St. Madelgarius (Mauger), who is also called Vincent, husband of St. Waldetrudis (Vaudrue), whose sacred body is honored there in the collegiate church of his name, namely translated from the monks—dispersed or extinguished, I suppose, by the Normans—to secular canons, St. Bruno the archbishop procuring it in the year 965, as testify the monuments existing there to this day.

[19] Saussay, after his manner, exercised his pen in the Supplement of his Gallican Martyrology, page 1145, laboring under the common faults with the rest, The elogia of Saussay and Molanus, and adding besides something of his own, in that, for the monastery of Hautmont, he feigns Maubeuge founded by the Saint, and that he withdrew, not to the aforesaid monastery, but to Soignies, laying aside his military belt: Hear his discourse: At Soignies in Hainaut, of St. Vincent the Count, who under King Dagobert, mighty with all vigor, and especially noble for zeal of religion, that he might advance the inhabitants of that tract which he governed, still living in barbarous manners, to all honesty and piety, brought from Ireland, whither by the King's command he had crossed over, the apostolic men Ultan, Foillan, and others into Belgium, and for their hospitable fostering built the monastery of Maubeuge on the river Sambre, and his own people being instructed by their aid to the observance of the Christian law, he himself, withdrawing to Soignies, laying aside the military belt, put on the humble habit of religion, and having heaped up piles of merits under holy discipline, fell asleep in the peace of Christ. He is venerated in the whole of Hainaut with the highest celebrity, not only on this day, which is that of his deposition, but also on the twentieth day of September, which is that of his translation. The other translation we have already assigned, being about to treat below of the more celebrated cult.

[20] But of all the other encomiasts Molanus snatched away the palm, whose words we take not from the Natales but from the Indiculus, they mix together many things, because this is his proper work, the other posthumous and published by the care of another. Thus therefore he has there: Saint Vincent the confessor, Count of Hainaut, formerly

called Madelgarius, was not the lowest among the palatines of Dagobert, king of the Franks. For he had to wife a kinswoman of the king, the most blessed Waldetrudis, and the king had him for some years as governor of Ireland. Whence afterward, returning into Gaul, he brought with him most holy and vigorous preachers of the faith. Among whom Foillan, Fursey, Ultan, Eloquius, Etto, and Adalgisus. He honored Autbertus the bishop with a wondrous affection of humility, who kindled him so with the fervor of supernal love that, laying aside the belt of secular military service, he bound himself wholly to the divine worship. Whence at the Sambre, in the town which is called Hautmont, he built a monastery, which still subsists, distant one mile from Maubeuge, where, having taken up the monastic habit, under the rule of holy conversation he humbly shut himself away: for he was, charity preserved, separated from his wife Waldetrudis, who at Castrilocus built a monastery of nuns. Then very many most holy men frequented this mount, in name and in religion high, speaking of the salvation of souls.

[21] deservedly to be rejected: But the history names Ansbert, bishop of Rouen, proscribed with exile, Hugo, abbot of Jumièges, Vulmar, abbot of the monastery of Boulogne, Etto the Breton priest, Amandus of Elnone, Wasnulph of Condé, Ghislain of the monastery of Cella, Ursmar and Ermin of Lobbes, Foillan and Ultan of the monastery of Fosses, Aldegundis of nearby Maubeuge, Waldetrudis of Castrilocus, Gertrude of Nivelles. Afterward he also built the monastery of Soignies, in which he fell asleep and rests. But today there is a college of Canons at Soignies, a town of Hainaut; which change, according to the Annals of Hainaut, was made by Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, in the year nine hundred sixty-five. His birthday is July 14, which also the church of Cambrai, to which the whole of Hainaut is subject, deservedly celebrates with nine lessons. What in that elogium displeases us will easily be understood from what has been said and what is to be said; that the aforesaid Saints came at some time to Hautmont, there is nothing to forbid us to believe, but that they were there while St. Vincent was alive and dwelling there, the reckoning of the times does not permit, as we shall show below concerning St. Ansbert: Hugo of Jumièges, himself also bishop of Rouen, more probably was not yet born when St. Vincent departed from the living, as you may see in his Life on April 9.

[22] nor do the things which Miraeus has please us, No more do those things please which Miraeus records in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, confounding the Pippinian and Vincentian families, so that on February 21 he did not hesitate to make St. Amalberga the elder, a widow, sister of SS. Waldetrudis and Aldegundis. Then for St. Vincent he alleges Dinter (a man of no great authority) in the manuscript Chronicles of Brabant, and others handing down that he was Irish by nation, and formerly Madelgarius, in Irish called Maguir. If he was not Irish by nation, he himself says, he seems at least to have lived some time in Ireland; perhaps with Dagobert, son of Sigebert king of Austrasia, whom, sent off into that island by Grimoald mayor of the royal palace, we have taught above on February 21. Thence further, Vincent coming into Gaul, brought many apostolic men, among these Foillan, Fursey, Ultan, Eloquius, Etto, and Adalgisus. Now the things which follow accord better with what was discussed above in some way: At the urging of St. Autbertus, bishop of Cambrai, he bade farewell to the pomps of the world; at Hautmont on the river Sambre he built a monastery, and hid himself in it. Which place, when it became populous by the throng of the brethren, that he might more freely give himself to God, he withdrew to Soignies, to a more secret place, where he built another monastery for himself and a few companions, which is today a distinguished college of Canons.

[23] That here many uncertain and false things are reported by Molanus and Miraeus, or the manuscript Appendix of Soignies: which by lapse of time grew by the tradition of the common people, I think is now sufficiently clear; not otherwise than by the reason before which we explained, are they to be understood accommodately: but all the limits of sincerity the author of a manuscript seems to have transgressed, once transmitted to us from Soignies under the title of an Appendix to the Legend of St. Vincent; which certainly has no need at all of an appendix of this kind, having enough if it subsists of itself. In this new, ill-arranged farrago the hateful cabbage of the Irish fatherland and the ancient most illustrious Maguir race is warmed over again, nay enormously augmented, and this with arguments so new and weak that it is irksome to report them, much less to impugn them more laboriously. We have conceded almost too much to the Irish, when we showed not altogether improbable, at least not repugnant to historical truth, the departure of St. Vincent into that island, or at least into England, for whatever cause finally; so that we do not think that the things which the said appendix ineptly casts back, so discordant and directly opposed to the Acts themselves, can be exacted. That you may make a conjecture of the other inventions, in article 5 it is asserted that, Walbert, the father-in-law of Madelgarius, having died in the year 598, St. Vincent with his wife Waldetrudis ruled Hainaut. In article 6, besides the Saints named in the Legend, he is said to have drawn more than thirty other Scots and Irish into Belgium, having himself become a monk in the year 606; and other things equally unskillfully arranged, of whose worth you now easily judge.

[24] That therefore we may distinguish those doubtful and uncertain things from the truer ones, a more faithful guide in this matter will be Balderic, elsewhere often praised by us, to all of which are preferred, as the chief, after the Norman incursions, though not always a true writer of Belgian affairs, with whose words we have thought this paragraph should be concluded. Thus he speaks, book 2, chapter 35: I would not pass over the village which they call Hautmont, nor undeservedly so named, since blessed Vincent, with many religious men who had been with him, rendered it exalted by his conversation. Moreover, that Vincent, an excellent Count, namely the husband of St. Waldetrudis, according indeed to secular eminence most powerful both in goods and in race, yet, instructed by the erudition and frequent admonitions of blessed Autbertus the pontiff, shrank far from the pomp of secular military service, and judged it better to devote himself to the service of God. Therefore, while he was solicitous and took care about seeking a place for his conversion, the divine piety was not lacking to fulfill the desire of the holy man. For on a certain night the Lord rained snow, and sprinkled all the region round about with snowy dew, except a little of the place, which in the aforesaid village, in the manner namely of a cross, he reserved to be sprinkled. Which the man of God understood by a higher counsel to have happened from heaven to his desire, and made more certain by the divine sign, soon in that same place founded a monastery at his own expense: which also his master Autbertus, religious men being taken with him, dedicated in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and there the holy man, happily conversing, strove to lead the sanctity of a laudable life.

[25] These things in few words and too contractedly Balderic, which certainly require no small breadth of time, what he handed down concerning St. Vincent in almost the same manner in which we lately deduced the order of the years most probably, deservedly distinguishing the construction of the monastery from the consummated conversion of the Saint himself. This you plainly see, that among all these things nothing Irish, nothing Maguiric is mixed in, all subsisting without controversy, even the miracle of the snowy rain, which the Legends also constantly record. The author continues: To whose pious conversation many religious men flowed together, he says, and, their estates and own goods being handed over, dwelling with the holy man, built themselves up to the norm of the regular life. But when the place began to be augmented by kings and princes, and to be held populous by the throng of brethren, that he might more freely give himself to God, he withdrew to a more secret place; which place also I shall mention a little later. By whose form and example the religion of the monks afterward grew for a long time, but through the incursions of the gentiles, nay also through the frequent seditions of the domestics, want creeping in, the monastic order being reduced to the canonical, thus remained for a time up to the time of Lord Gerard the bishop. Namely to the age of Balderic himself, chief minister of that Bishop, in whom see the other vicissitudes of the monastery, the reduction from canons to monks, the new restoration through Fulcuin, etc., of which, as an eyewitness, he treats at length in book 4, chapter 6. We return to the Saint.

[26] Balderic, bishop of Noyon and Tournai. Let us repeat the place, says Balderic, book 2, chapter 46, which, the brethren being left at Hautmont, we have said before that blessed Vincent sought. This indeed is called by the inhabitants Soignies: where the man of the Lord himself, removed from the throng of the people, the brethren being associated, built a monastery, and there, the courses of this life being finished, happily buried, with his son Landric, bishop of Meaux, rests in peace. Thus far the more solid narration of Balderic, whether we ought to believe him that St. Landric was bishop of Meaux, Henschenius discussed at his Life on April 17. Here let me note in a word, a controversy once agitated between the monks of Hautmont and Rosweyde, whether the holy Vincent and Landric, father and son, should be called abbots of both monasteries, of Hautmont and of Soignies, to which Rosweyde did not seem able to be brought. Another likewise with Bolland, whether those monks should be reckoned Basilian, such as they supposed St. Ghislain to have instituted in his Cell, or rather Benedictine? Both I think should be composed thus, that I plainly hold that those Saints, although dwelling at Soignies and there dead, did not lay down the care of Hautmont as long as they lived; so that if they were not immediate abbots, yet they could be called fathers: but that they embraced the Benedictine institute, if not under the very beginnings, at least not long after, as the more common rule through those times. But these things would carry us far from the Saint's cult, of whose increases it remains to treat.

[27] The relics, kept in two shrines, Concerning the relics, what here remained to be said: the people of Soignies possess the precious remains of their most holy Patron, and continue to honor them with the highest veneration in an ancient but magnificent church, which I admired, neatly and elegantly adorned, when I went thither on May 3, in the year in which I write this, 1723. Two shrines, wrought with ancient workmanship, elsewhere sufficiently explained, the here more than once praised very Reverend and most ample Master Lambotte, Dean of that church, showed, which I found described in few words in the Appendix, to be more discussed in the following paragraph. Thus there, and truly to our purpose, the eyewitness records: The phylactery, which is of silver gilded, with which the head of divine Vincent is adorned, sustained by four lions of the same material, Margaret, Countess of Hainaut, daughter of the Emperor Baldwin, with great liberality as well as devotion, gave as a gift, which the letter M sufficiently shows, hung on the phylactery, adorned with pearls and gems; but which was not sufficiently expressed by the draughtsman: he could have added that this is gathered more from her statue, occupying one of the eight niches, and bearing in her hand a little model of the shrine itself. The phylactery is of such mass that it can scarcely be carried by one man; and it is so artfully engraved, and skillfully composed with rising little towers, that it draws beholders into admiration of it. The greater reliquary, in which the other relics of divine Vincent are kept, is so to be commended for its antiquity, magnitude, and weight, that scarcely eight robust men suffice to carry it.

[28] Because more than once by letters I had earnestly begged of the praised Dean, and again in person, that he would take care of the delineation of both shrines, of which the smaller of the head, so that, engraved in copper, they might here be represented, to commend the piety of the people of Soignies toward St. Vincent; this he afterward executed, using an artist not sufficiently skilled, from whose coarser lineaments were rendered the plates which are here exhibited. The sacred crown, the phylactery or reliquary, spread out on the larger sheet, had to be much contracted, lest a huge church rather than a small shrine should be formed, such namely as can be lifted and carried by one man, as I in person perceived, and as, from the image placed above, even somewhat larger than the just size (for the whole structure does not much exceed two feet of height), is in some way perceived. Fortius warns, page 177, that the sacred head was separated from the rest of the body in the year 1250 by Peter, bishop of Albano, legate of Pope Innocent IV, Albert, bishop of Prussia and Livonia, and Nicholas of Cambrai assisting; and likewise the same Countess Margaret, at whose expense the magnificent shrine was fabricated, as we have already said. To the eight niches respond as many little towers and statues, with medals hanging, of which only five can be open to the eyes. The other decorations, which here can for the most part be recognized, are more fully described by the said Fortius; for us it is enough, to the glory of the Saint, to have exhibited such distinguished monuments to be viewed.

[29] the larger of the sacred body are here exhibited. The mass and weight of the greater reliquary is sufficiently understood from the brief description given, the rest to be sought from Fortius from page 174, where he indeed enumerates the Apostles arranged in gilded silver, but what the images expressed here on the roof indicate, neither could he himself explain, nor was it easy for me to divine; from the rude delineation, as far as could be done, they have been engraved. Its length extends to nearly six feet, its breadth to one and a half. On the open front, of the same metal, is seen St. Vincent, with his two sons Landric the bishop and Dentlinus, just as the holy wife Waldetrudis with her two daughters, Aldetrudis and Madelberta, is everywhere set forth. The inscription written there sounds thus:

An angel is sent from the highest citadel of heaven, / who, revealing to Madelgarius the mandates of Christ, / commands in dreams that he build Hautmont. / So it comes to pass that, while on earth he builds a sacred house, / the Saint merits a perpetual seat in the heavens.

On the opposite front is also a gilded silver statue of Christ the Savior, with another epigram, of which this part alone could be read:

On the front of the sacred shrine the heavenly majesty shines, / full of good zeal, which no good man will reprehend.

The rest is left to be viewed and considered by the eyes, from the appended figure in smaller form, as is our custom, but sufficiently amply contracted, so that nothing may deservedly be desired for splendor or workmanship.

§ III. The same cult more propagated by the bishops of Cambrai, the relics wont to be solemnly carried about, the festivity extended to the whole diocese, and the Office proper to Soignies.

We have already heard Molanus testifying that the church of Cambrai was wont to recall the feast of St. Vincent with an Office of nine lessons, of whose Mass also we have spoken: The more ancient cult at Hautmont and Soignies, but the beginning of that institution you would not easily divine, although that it was most ancient, I do not at all doubt; then perhaps begun, when, the Norman ravages ceasing, the church of Soignies passed to canons, St. Bruno of Cologne so disposing in the year 965; or certainly when, in the time of Bishop Gerard, in the next following century, the monastery of Hautmont was restored to its integrity. We cannot rest on conjectures: the first proof of some more solemn cult does not show that the highest care of both churches was directed thus far to promoting the celebrity of the holy Patron. There is this diploma, described from an ancient codex of Soignies, of Nicholas III, bishop of Cambrai, in the Sammarthani fifty-fifth in order, given in the year 1261 on the third feria after Palm Sunday, which was April 19, Easter falling on the 24th of the same month, under the dominical letter B. In this instrument Nicholas, having premised some things pertaining to the Saint's life, which renew the inveterate traditions concerning the duchy of Lotharingia, of the Franks and Saxons, concerning the lordship over the islands of Ireland, and concerning the county of Hainaut, and which therefore are omitted by us; comes down to the foundation of Soignies, and to its defender and vindicator St. Vincent, so that whoever should have sought him devoutly and faithfully, especially in their corporal or other necessities, would quickly obtain from the Lord, by the merits of the same pious confessor, the desired effect of their just petitions.

[31] Then he speaks thus: But because charity has grown cold, in the year 1261 it was renewed and augmented. faith wavers, and the devotion of the moderns grows cheap, by provident deliberation the beloved sons the provost, dean, and chapter of the said church of Soignies have decreed, that every year on the morrow of Pentecost, processionally with the crowds of the faithful there devoutly assembling, they should perambulate the town of Soignies, reverently and devoutly carrying about the reliquary in which the body of the same most blessed confessor rests, with the other relics of that church, to stir up the peoples of the faithful to implore most devoutly the patronage of so great a Father, and that God, by his intervention, may grant to those piously asking the things asked, and, having mercy, avert the scourges of his wrath, which the Christian people justly suffers manifoldly for its sins. We therefore, commending in the Lord their pious purpose and statute in this part, and desiring to prosecute that same church, which we love with a sincere charity in the Lord, as we are bound, inasmuch as in it first and longest, in the office of the provostship, we received the stipends of the clerical warfare, by special grace, of the mercy of Christ, etc. Thereupon he declares the indulgences, says the copyist who described it, whom I would rather had added the cause why on that day rather than on the Saint's proper festivity that procession was of old instituted: unless we believe it prevailed by some custom, just as we have said of St. Ragenufla at Incourt on this day, and of St. Amalberga on the 10th of this month.

[32] The solemn procession by which the sacred remains are carried about, For the rest, of its perseverance the Appendix, cited above, testifies in article 19 in these words: Every year, on the morrow of Pentecost, the procession of the town of Soignies is celebrated, in which the body and head of St. Vincent are borne processionally through the circuit of the city. But that procession extends far from the city, so that Matins are sometimes begun at half past two, sometimes at the third hour, sometimes at half past three, according to the diversity or length of the circuits; for there are three circuits, long, middle, and small. Early in the morning, at a fitting hour, according also to the diversity of the circuits, Prime is said, which finished, the Litanies of the Saints are said. When it has come to the invocation of St. Vincent, his reliquary is taken down from its high place by two of the more recent Canons, and two younger chaplains … The Litanies finished, to the journey or procession, a great throng of people also, from various places both near and far, flowing together, it proceeds with the greatest reverence and devotion. When it has come to the villa in the last new suburb, which is commonly called Del baille, the sacred head of St. Vincent is taken up by the men of Cambron, which they carry through the circuit, binding themselves, not by written word, but by living voice, to render it in the same place whole and unharmed, as they received it from them. These things are described a little more fully by Fortius, book 3, chapter 17.

[33] sometimes also carried elsewhere. The Appendix continues in its last chapter in these words: Nor is it to be passed over in silence, that it may be known in how great honor was, both of old, as now, the memory of our father Vincent, that in the year 1070, in the time of Baldwin, the sixth of this name, Count of Hainaut, the body of the same Patron was carried to the monastery of Hasnon, while the church was being dedicated, with the bodies of twenty-four other Saints, that by his prayers and merits it might patronize those there serving God. That Blessed Vincent was one of the twenty-five bodies of Saints which were carried thither, Cognatus relates in book 12 of the Annals of the city of Tournai, chapter 24. If it were worth the trouble, other translations of this kind could be found, especially in those times in which the custom had prevailed of carrying the sacred remains of the Saints together to various solemnities. This you will find was done with the relics of the same Saint six years before, namely in the year 1064, at the dedication of the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher by St. Lietbert, bishop of Cambrai. You have in the Acts, volume IV of June at the day 23, page 606, a good long list of all the sacred bodies which honored that solemn ceremony with their presence. But of these enough; now let us also pursue in few words the things which pertain to the rite of the ecclesiastical Office.

[34] Peter, bishop of Cambrai, in the year 1323 With how singular a veneration Peter, bishop of Cambrai, in the Sammarthani sixtieth in order, the same who in the year 1313 had ordered the relics of St. Waldetrudis to be solemnly raised from the ground, thought St. Vincent should be venerated, he himself shows by a particular decree in full synod of the year 1323, promulgated to that end, in which, having premised a rather long discourse recounting the Saint's merits and no small part of his life, with the titles also augmented through the duchies of Hainaut, Ireland, Lotharingia, Franconia, and Saxony, ascribed to the Saint from the fame of the common people; he shows, I say, concluding the preface thus: Let the prince of Hainaut therefore rejoice, and the fatherland, over so great a prince triumphing in heavenly glory. Let the subjects exult and be glad, who have merited to have a patron crowned by God. For what people of the faithful of Christ ought not to rejoice in the illustrious festivity of so most holy a confessor, whose miracles are precious. Then, pursuing the rest in order, he adds: But we, turning the edge of our consideration to the Most Blessed himself, and to his church of Soignies, decree and ordain that the feast of that Confessor, which was wont to be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month of July, be solemnly celebrated in all the churches of the county of Hainaut, and that on that day rest be kept from all mechanical and servile work.

[35] Wherefore to you and to each of you, in virtue of holy obedience, he institutes the feast as of precept through the whole of Hainaut, and under pain of excommunication, we command and enjoin, that you solemnly celebrate a feast of this kind in your churches; strictly commanding to all you clergy and laity of the same county of our diocese, that on the said day, as on the Lord's day, you rest from all manual work, and reverence a feast of this kind fittingly, that as, set on earth, the Count of Hainaut shone with excellence of dignity, so in his holy body he may be more devoutly venerated. For we, trusting in the mercy of Almighty God, and in the merits and intercessions of the glorious Virgin his mother, and of all the Saints, to all who are truly penitent and confessed, who shall come to the church of Soignies on the vigil and on the festivity of the said Saint, and through its octaves, for each day on which they shall have devoutly visited the said church, mercifully relax forty days of the penances enjoined upon them: willing that the present indulgences endure for all time, notwithstanding any revocations whatsoever, under whatever form of words,

hereafter to be made by us or our Officials, unless of those indulgences special and express mention be had. In witness whereof, etc. Thus he, egregiously solicitous for promoting the glorious cult of St. Vincent.

[36] But that afterward it was gradually diminished by the Bishops his successors, which was afterward restricted, and now abrogated. and the festivity contracted through the county of Hainaut, we have already above intimated, to investigate the causes of which changes is neither our office nor of this place: it will be enough to state the matter itself from Fortius. He narrates, book 3, chapter 18, page 188, that in the later synods of Cambrai the festivity of St. Vincent was reduced so far that it sank to the lowest class, and at last, in the year 1604, under the Archbishop of Cambrai William de Berghes, was reformed and utterly abrogated, so that at this time it is restricted to the town of Soignies alone and its territory (not excluding, I suppose, the canonesses of St. Waldetrudis at Mons): where, however, it is hitherto celebrated with immense apparatus and constant piety of the inhabitants and concourse of neighbors, not rarely illustrated by miracles. Since therefore of this chief festivity, of the procession on the feasts of Pentecost, and of the two translations, wont to be recalled there also, enough has already been said, it remains that from the manuscript Office of Soignies we cull those things which may suffice for the knowledge of the whole matter. It is variously distinguished here and there with red letters by the writer, under this title: The Antiphons of the Office of Soignies of St. Vincent, patron of Soignies, together with the responsories and chapters, according to the use of the church of Soignies. The lessons are omitted, doubtless to be repeated from the Legend itself: we shall select a few things.

[37] Some specimens The beginning is drawn from the Antiphons at First Vespers, which are composed in hexameter verses; from the first of which the people of Soignies take the argument by which they reckon their Saint among the Irish, of which matter it was disputed above: we describe them one by one in order. The first is:

With great gifts the Irish land endowed us, / when it made us have the blessed Madelgarius.

II. He, living as a soldier under the magnificent Dagobert, / by the merit of his life made himself beloved by all.

III. For brave, just, then prudent and modest, / he prudently conformed himself to all, / that he became mild to the mild, and lofty to the harsh.

IV. After the change of the supernal right hand touched him, / setting behind him things possessed, counting as nothing things to be had, / in manners and habit he becomes a religious monk.

V. Thus associated a poor man with the poor of Christ, / with sincere heart he followed true poverty, / whence he shall possess the lot of the blessed through the ages.

[38] from the Proper of Soignies There follows the Chapter under this formula: God gave confession to his holy Vincent, and set him high in the word of glory; he gave him power against his enemies, and honor in celebrations. Worthy to be described is the hymn from which you may gather that St. Vincent is reckoned not Irish but a Gaul by race. Thus it has:

Let the flowers of the Church praise the King of heavenly glory, / whose supernal fatherland shines with the grace of splendor. / Among these flowers, Vincent endowed with virtues / Christ enthrones in his most bright palace: / born of the first nativities and of the chief nobles, / Gaul brings forth the recruit, Ireland exalts the leader. / Hence, touched by the nectar of heaven, he began to set the world behind, / after the belt of warfare, he loosed the marriage bond: / he wholly dies to the world, following Christ by living, / he gathers the fruit of his labors, free he flies away to heaven. / Let there be glory to the Trinity, praise, honor, and power, / through which the excellent victor Vincent conquered the world.

[39] are exhibited in few. From the three antiphons of the first nocturn of Matins, what is to be thought of the others, as also of the responsories, anyone will easily be able to understand. Behold the first: A man of laudable life, Madelgarius, by surname Vincent, born of noble stock, is endowed with a nobler industry of mind. The second is: From the very years of infancy the precepts of Christ, imbued with divine faith and human law. The third: Grown up, the servant of God, with the advances of his age grew in good acts. Of this kind are the rest of the Office, taken chiefly from the Saint's Acts, or explained with like phrase, so that nothing peculiar occurs besides the proper prayer and the hymn at Lauds. This is his Prayer: Almighty and everlasting God, who made your blessed confessor Vincent overcome the enticements of the pressing life, grant to your people, that by his intervention, all crimes being purified, it may merit to enjoy the heavenly goods. Through our Lord. We stop at the said hymn at Lauds:

Hope in perils, salvation, honor to your own, / blessed Vincent, we pray, come to our aid; / we are tossed on the sea, we are beaten by storms, / the pirate goes about, strives to slay; / free us from the mouth of the sea-monster, / and obtain for the shipwrecked the harbor of salvation. / This may the Father with his only Son grant, / may the Paraclete, the creating Spirit, grant. Amen.

Nothing more does the thick manuscript Breviary of the church of St. Waldetrudis of Mons teach us, in which the lessons are recited, as well as the rest, confused, with the feast of the Showing marked in the Calendar prefixed at October 29, of which nevertheless on that day in the Breviary itself there is no treatment. More tolerable are the lessons in the proper Office of those canonesses, published at Douai at Beller's in the year 1625, to which others are added for October 29 concerning the translations of the sacred body, both the Metz one under Charles the Bald, as they will have it, and the Mons one through Rainier of the Long Neck, Count of Hainaut, under Charles the Simple, of which see the annotations below on the more ancient miracles of the Saint.

* rather "precepts"

§ IV. The Legends written of St. Vincent, purged of their grosser errors, and his miracles received at Soignies.

How laboriously the first designer of our work, Heribert Rosweyde, sweated in collecting the Acts of the Saints throughout Belgium, The monuments pertaining to this, has been explained above in more than one place, nor can it be sufficiently commemorated. Among the immense labors by which he seemed not so much to survey as to devour the Belgian libraries, going about all the monasteries, that of Hautmont he by no means passed over, whence I find a letter written to him, from whose words it is given to understand what we intimated in few words at the end of §2, that the monks of that place laboriously tried to prove that St. Landric, from bishop of Meaux, was the second abbot of the monastery of Hautmont as well as of Soignies: to which they adduce the examples of their abbot Richard, who besides Hautmont governed twenty others; and before him St. Gerard directed eighteen; besides that the monks of Hautmont at another time had an abbot common with those of Saint-Ghislain and Saint-Vaast. But more urgently they establish this from the Legends themselves, where St. Vincent, already near death, sufficiently shows that he had by no means cast off the care of his first sons, while he desired his own life to be ended, where he had cut off the hair of his head: but then, commending all his own to his son, You, he says, most beloved son, the supernal clemency has provided as ruler for them, and has chosen you a fit leader of this sacred warfare. Which things are here said only for this, that it may be clear that already for a hundred years and more our predecessors have bestowed no small labor on drawing out the deeds of St. Vincent.

[41] Nor was Rosweyde's care less to collect all the monuments concerning St. Vincent which he believed to be laid up among the people of Soignies, Rosweyde already of old collected, as most plainly teach the letters of the Reverend Master Henry de Vergnies, elsewhere praised by Henschenius, and of our Father Aegidius Mouton (he calls himself of Weerde), from whose brief account you will perceive how not idly the matter was done. The archive of Soignies, I suppose, had not been open to Rosweyde the searcher, whence, compelled to use the labor of another, he had earnestly asked the said Master de Vergnies, canon of that church, the distinguished man Aubert Miraeus also aiding, that he himself would survey and suggest all the instruments of Soignies and direct them to Mons in Hainaut and to Weerde, to be described either there or at Antwerp; which he testifies that he diligently did in a letter given on December 14, 1606; but Rosweyde must have received these then, when in the Fasti of the Saints whose manuscript Lives existed in the Belgian libraries, published from the Plantin press in the year 1607, he made mention also of the Vincentian ones. Vergnies does not conceal the various difficulties which it was not so easy for him clearly to resolve, both concerning the translation of the body of St. Marcellus, not aptly enough bound up with the times of St. Martin the Pope and Dagobert, and concerning other things, of which we have already disputed before. The same solicitude appears in other letters given on February 25, 1607, and from Weerde of Mons on March 12 following, so that it is plainly established that the learned Canon exhausted the archives of Soignies, lest anything should be lacking for the illustration of his most holy Father.

[42] and after him Bolland, Nor did the inquiry concerning St. Vincent stop there, being resumed by John Bolland, with Balthazar Cordier as colleague, to whom there is extant a letter given from the monastery of Hautmont on September 4 in the year 1633, from whose opening alone you will be made more certain of the chief question then moved. The writers are Lords Philip Froymont and Francis Selpin, thus roundly beginning their letter: Very Reverend Fathers Balthazar Cordier and John Bolland. Your sight, which I grieve was so brief, has wonderfully refreshed me (so I suppose Froymont speaks); and indeed if, through your occupations, it had been permitted us to remain together longer, we should ardently have conferred, as we had begun, about our affairs, and, as I think, not without fruit. Yet I do not cease to behold you in the Lord with great affection, and, as I hope, I shall see you again, and my joy in the Lord will be heaped up. Meanwhile, what I had promised, I send to you. Asked by the Reverend Father Jacobus Simon whether our Vincent was a Benedictine, I have tried to establish the affirmative part. Thus finally he addresses Bolland: No place for doubting is left, but that St. Vincent was a Benedictine, since the history of his life, approved by all, most expressly testifies it, and no one hitherto has produced anything to the contrary.

[43] with the men of Hautmont and Soignies as helpers. I judge that a like investigation of the monuments pertaining to St. Vincent was made and renewed by the aforesaid Fathers Bolland and Cordier among the people of Soignies; certainly thence were received various writings, concerning the Saint's life and cult, which we shall here enumerate in few words, whether they were first directed to Rosweyde or to Bolland. From Soignies there certainly came to us the greater Legend, distributed into fifteen chapters, whose prologue Bolland described with his own hand, and whose author we believe to be a monk of Hautmont, who, by the testimony of the already praised Froymont, wrote about the year of Christ 1167. The other, lesser Life is said to have been of Master Preudhomme, canon of Cambrai, but also most probably destined hither from Soignies and described by Rosweyde. In the list of the Soignies documents are mentioned also the miracles, of which more below. And they are all transcribed by the same hand as the Appendix discussed above by us, to which the Reverend Master Claude Bonnet, canon of the church of Soignies, seems to have contributed his labor. Vergnies asserts that he sent a copy of the letters of the Bishop of Cambrai, likewise the antiphons and responsories of the Office, which we gave in the preceding paragraph. Besides, the narration of the translation of St. Marcellus, cited also above by us, which is extant in volume 2 of January, page 12; the Life of Landric and other things, which to

St. Vincent are not so nearly reduced. To say it in a word, I think nothing remains which is to be sought today either at Soignies or from Hautmont. But what Vinchant means in the Annals at the year 643, when in the margin he cites Philip of the Almonry in the Life of St. Madelgarius, chapter 22, I confess I do not understand.

[44] The Life, moreover, extracted from the codex of Preudhomme, canon of Cambrai, Bolland examined and illustrated with some annotations, The Legend of Hautmont is given which I know not to what day he thought to refer: certainly he seemed to prepare it for the edition, some things being already described by his own hand, and we should have judged it should be printed under his guidance, had we not found it plainly to agree in substance with the other, a little longer, received from the praised canon de Vergnies, whose anonymous author, a monk of Hautmont, arranged most things more verbosely, yet equally with the other, but passing over those things which the writer of the lesser Legend had not sufficiently opportunely inserted concerning St. Waldetrudis, since these are elsewhere better and more fully deduced. That first and briefer Preudhomme Legend, whose writer and age we are ignorant of, was of old described by Rosweyde, transmitted hither, I suppose, from Soignies, but, to say it again, so meagerly put together that it contains nothing of the Saint which is not more fully reported in the Hautmont one. And, in default of a purer one, the chief, and indeed the only one to be given by us, seems almost to bear the hand of the already often praised Vergnies; which we also have in our great manuscript codex of Vaucelles, or Moretus, once collated with another manuscript Legend, lent for a time to Bolland by the Reverend Father Alexander Kenett of the Order of Minors, which was of the monastery of Bethlehem near Louvain; but the variant readings found in that manuscript did not seem to Bolland of such moment that they deserved to be observed or noted.

[45] For the rest, both Lives labor under the same defects, both so arranged laboring under many defects, that the matters and times can by no means be sufficiently distinguished. The nation of the Gascons or Wascanians, from which the father of St. Vincent was born, each expressly sings, whereas much more probably he was a Belgian or a Frank: each sends him off as pro-rex, I would almost say heir and lord, into Ireland, whom his holy wife afterward followed thither: each plays on the sevenfold number of Saints, all of whom at once St. Vincent brought away from Ireland into Francia, which no one would easily reconcile with the Acts of those Saints: add the conversations and other matters not judiciously enough arranged. All which things, however, though, as Cointe roundly pronounces, we do not judge to be forthwith false and plainly to be spurned, we confess with Mabillon to be certainly such that they can by no means be called ascertained, but, surrounded by most of those additional circumstances, at least for the greater part to be purged, to save in some way the substance of the matters. For if, the superfluous things being cut away, they be reduced to a convenient sense, the things which those writers received from a long tradition and from most ancient little pages, all will not seem so discordant but that they can at least in some measure be tolerated, as is explained in few words there.

[46] St. Vincent's father could indeed have drawn his race from Gascony, at that time sufficiently known, and in several things scarcely aptly to be saved; then enriched with various possessions in Hainaut. Nor does the crossing into Ireland, whether by Dagobert's command, or for another reason, seem to be agitated with so great effort, since for various causes St. Vincent could have set out, in which the Life of St. Foillan cited above asserts that he was powerful: and that pilgrimage persevered further in tradition, whose true cause, buried in oblivion, gave occasion for inventing others. Nor are these things so discordant that on that account one must feign an Iberia in Gascony, from which he ridiculously returned through Ireland (Hibernia) into Francia. But that he had some Irish Saints as companions on his return, or summoned them from Ireland by his munificence, there is nothing to forbid us to believe. In this the longer Life exceeds, that it brings St. Ansbert, bishop of Rouen, an exile, to Hautmont, St. Vincent surviving, whom we have said died at the latest in the year 677, sixteen whole years before Ansbert was driven from his see, as you may see in his Acts on February 9. No more does the confluence to Hautmont of so many other Saints subsist, some of whom perhaps never saw that place with their own eyes: certainly they could not have been there, St. Vincent being alive and surviving as monk or abbot. The Anonymous seems to have wished to collect nearly all the Saints whom he had understood to have flourished in Belgium in that century. To omit the rest, even if I am silent, it is sufficiently clear that it savors of the style of a Legend of its own century, where many things are narrated with few words, not rarely verbosely and inelegantly. The division of chapters and numbers we have adapted to our norm, two other and obscure things being referred to the annotations. And these things of the Latin manuscript Acts.

[47] which is also lacking in the more recent one of Fortius. The French Life, amplified with many digressions and episodes, cited above by us, was written by the Reverend Master, canon of Soignies, Le Fort, otherwise Fortius, which the very Reverend and most ample Master Lambotte, today Dean of that church, deigned to send to me, published at Mons in the year 1654, to which the author made the title "Mirror of Nobility," thereby not obscurely directing the whole matter, that he might stuff a history, of itself doubtful enough, with moral precepts, drawn out through 196 pages in the form, as they call it, octavo. I unrolled the whole more than once, but with fruit to be repented of, inasmuch as in it I have found scarcely anything which conduced to explaining the difficulties: no more than from the "immortal Memorial" of Pontius mentioned above, worthy neither of memory nor of citation. From the magnitude of the Fortian volume you easily understand that the writer did not stand on the primitive Acts, but compiled various other things, out of his piety, I suppose, toward the Saint, which here to discuss or refute is not worth the trouble. He scrapes together from every quarter especially those things which, as more marvelous, so ought to be reckoned less probable. From one specimen you will make a conjecture of the rest: on page 88 he expressly asserts that St. Vincent himself, returning into Francia, with those seven Irish apostles, already praised above, went straightway to Rome; for which he adduces the Natales of Molanus in the elogium of St. Etto, resting on no authority at all. I pass over the rest, lest I be compelled to repeat here what has already been so often ventilated. Of the present cult Fortius could testify better, and explain some circumstances of the miracles, of which we shall have to treat below.

[48] There are two Latin classes of miracles, As for the miracles, moreover, they were communicated from the manuscript Offices of the church of Soignies by the praised Claude Bonnet to Bolland, to which was prefixed this title: There follow the miracles, both ancient and more recent, published by the merits of divine Vincent, the guardian of the people of Soignies. The ancient indeed rendered into a more elegant style, or more common speech; but the more recent translated from French into the Latin tongue, by Master John de Lattre, canon of Soignies: to the greater glory of God and the honor of his servant in the year of the Lord 1628. Here you hear two classes of miracles, of which to the former a more recent pen set its hand, in which Bolland, not sufficiently trusting, preferred to take those more ancient ones from our great manuscript codex of Moretus or Vaucelles, cited above, from which we too shall give them entire, complete and ordered; where in the Soignies manuscript some things are omitted, and others confusedly arranged, which in the codex are better and more accurately described. But we shall give them, all things being faithfully preserved, even the little preface, the phrase, and the order, only the titles being changed, which, moderately contracted, we thought should be placed in the margin. But if any more obscure things occur in them, you will find them explained in the annotations.

[49] Of all these same things, after his manner a little more fully treats the praised Fortius in the second part of his history, from page 199 to 362, somewhat augmented from Fortius, distributing them chiefly into three classes. The first embraces twelve miracles altogether, more ancient, so called also by us, because the time in which they were wrought, and the other circumstances, are obliterated. This difference intervenes between Fortius and our codex, that in this only eleven miracles are found. Namely, Fortius fetched from elsewhere the remarkable patronage of the two most holy spouses shown to the people of Hainaut, their clients, in a general calamity, an epidemic disease or plague raging, as we shall presently subjoin from him. In the second part Fortius enumerates four more recent and splendid miracles approved by the Ordinary, namely the archbishop of Cambrai. Third and finally, through eight chapters he reviews other singular benefits obtained by the merits of St. Vincent. It will be ours to compare the work of Fortius with our manuscripts, and where anything different occurs, to note it; or if he supplies anything new, to add it to ours, as we here do concerning that twelfth one passed over in the Vaucelles codex.

[50] The aforesaid Fortius therefore describes, from page 262, a horrid mortality in the times of William of Bavaria, Count of Hainaut and Holland, feeding upon the province of Hainaut, and explained. a pestilence raging, such as had never before been seen; which, arisen in Great Tartary, as is believed, in the year 1346, thence through a whole triennium had pervaded all Asia, Africa, and Europe with such atrocity that by their mere sight and breath those afflicted by it killed others; as at the said year our Philip Briet accurately records from the historians of that time in his brief universal Chronicle. That plague had penetrated into Belgium and so into Hainaut in the year 1349, and had afflicted that wretched province with such slaughter that it seemed to be despaired of for the life of all. Human remedies therefore altogether failing, the people of Mons and Soignies had nothing prior than to flee to the protection of their most holy spouse-patrons Vincent and Waldetrudis: a solemn procession therefore being appointed for October 7 to the heath of Castrilocus, both they themselves, carrying the sacred remains on both sides, and all the neighbors in the rite and habit of penitents, assembled to about a hundred thousand men; and there, Mass being sung with immense celebrity by the Dean of Soignies, and other prayers and tears most ardently poured forth, they felt the heavenly aid present by the merits of their Saints, and so, the calamity being soon driven off, and the venom dissipated, peace and tranquillity, nay the desired salubrity and serenity of the air, returned through the whole fatherland, by the wondrous patronage of both Saints. Have now the Acts themselves in the order we have said.

A LIFE.

By an Anonymous Author.

From two old manuscripts.

Vincent Madelgarius, Confessor, at Soignies in Hainaut, Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 8674

A. ANONYMOUS, FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

PREFACE.

The useful history of the Saints: That the Church is presented under the likeness of the firmament, and that the same is illustrated by the merits and virtues of the Saints, as by starry ornaments, as the new things suit the ancient, so the multitude renders it probable by the kind of truth. Which is also clear to rest on the proclamation of the Psalmist, when he says, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the works of his hands in the announcement of the firmament. The announcement, or splendor, as Solomon says ^a, of the firmament, is the glory of the stars; but the preaching of the Church, the virtues and merits

of the Saints. Wherefore to rise up into it with a pure gaze of mind, and to comprehend in it the most blessed Vincent, as a most excellent star, with the embrace of the soul, gently to touch him with a spiritual kiss, and by the offices of the tongue to diffuse everywhere the rays of his merits, as it is the chief business of divine jubilation, so it is a salutary profit of virtue to be imitated. And the memory of the eminent examples in so great a Father, as much as it has been held useful for shunning the pomps of the world, so much is it in every way apt for embracing the joys of eternal life. Accordingly, the more celebrated the power of the miracles conferred from heaven, by the grace of God, upon his sanctity, the more excellently it flashes with the novelty of the divine work, the more richly it inspires the heavenly radiance into attentive minds.

[2] like the goats' hair once contributed to the work of the sanctuary. Now therefore, for constructing the verbal ornaments of so distinguished a matter, what effort even of the skilled suffices? Yet, counseled by your admonition, Lords and brethren ^b, and supported by the patronage of the venerable Confessor himself, what is less of my strength, I carry forward with this hope and faith constantly, and having carried it forward, I salubriously expend it, to be judged by your love. The divinity itself also assents to whatever the will of mortals presumes to his praise. For the rest, it graciously enough intimated its approval of the vows, in that Moses, that conversant of the Deity, appointed offerings to be brought for the buildings of the tabernacle. For when the edict of the heavenly command had been set forth to the multitude, it was deliberated by all that some gift should be offered to God ^c. In which the will was in no way subject to necessity, but in the imparting the liberty of choice reigned. Meanwhile the gifts of prompt devotion are made, a great abundance indeed of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, and the other metals of that kind, the living grace also of gems, distinguished by the shining antiquity of their colors. There was brought forth wool of the Indic fleece dyed with purple, and the most elaborate threads of twisted fine linen. Nor were lacking the hyacinthine skins upon reddened hides, nor the not-to-be-despised heap of goats' hair. But in all these things what the mystic sense of the secret discloses, the most esteemed virtue of the learned has elaborated: words indeed agreeing with the divine praises, they said lay hidden in those same goats' hair. Wherefore, though the insignia of gold and gems, or of the other things, that is, of virtues, flee away, let there be brought to the bosom of the Church even the useless abundance of hairs, that is, of words; but such as may proclaim the virtues and merits of the Saints, and so become precious above gold and topaz. And now, the clemency of the heavenly aid being invited, I shall hasten the excellent Acts of the pious Father; that with how great gifts of graces in Christ he is endowed, may stand openly manifest to the faithful in clear light. In which business, as has been said, let the reckoning of the vow rather than of the talent be regarded: and that to the merits of the Saints all utterance is narrow, let a prudent emulation observe.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The birth, military service, and marriage of St. Vincent.

At that time therefore, when the majesty of the Christian empire had prevailed with serene dominion in the whole world, Born of illustrious parents, and excellently educated, and Christ had everywhere among the nations dilated the glory of his knowledge; the most blessed confessor of the Lord, Vincent, surnamed Madelgarius, before the ages indeed predestined by God, was nobly born to the world ^a, but more nobly transferred to the world to come through the grace of God. Sprung indeed from the most excellent stock of the Franks in the villa called Sterpeias, as he shone conspicuous by the renown of his parents and kinsmen, so he formed his life with the increases of good men. His father also, by name Madelgarius, grew from the most illustrious nation of the Gascons ^b, as is ascertained by the report of the ancients. But his mother, deriving her vein from the royal stock of the Franks, and having the name Onoguera ^c, was by right of wedlock serving that most illustrious man: who handed over the boy, of a disposition acceptable to God and men, to be instructed in the disciplines of the liberal arts and at the same time in the Gospel schools. Wherefore his mother both richly illustrated him with human wisdom, and manifoldly inflamed him with the understanding of heavenly things, and educated him from a boy into a perfect man. Whose several moments of his flourishing age, to what arguments of his goodness he applied them; hence, with the rudiments of worldly military service, it will be established by the arguments of the best virtues.

[4] And when the times of his training were still growing up in the boy by the supernal grace of God, he serves under King Dagobert, dear to him and to the courtiers. the care of his parents demanded that he should give his assent to the royal military service. At which point of time indeed the renowned King of the Franks, Dagobert, relaxed the reins of his empire by land and sea, and fittingly administered the rights of the citizens with royal skill. To whose warfare the noble recruit bound, and girt with the royal belt, commended to pious acts all that the royal magnificence esteemed worthy. Whence also the royal greatness turned the eyes of its love upon him at once: the benign loftiness also of the nobles, and all the cheerfulness of the palatines smiled upon him. But he was also so robust in bodily health, conspicuous for the comeliness of his form, marked by the elegance of his stature, most serene with a placid countenance, and resplendent with every grace of humanity; and the mind illustrated within by the beauty of virtues, he rendered polished with higher ornaments: where the sincere devotion of faith bound itself with the most firm glue of hope and charity. With these together the equity of justice, the cleanness of his hands, the purity of his life, the piety held toward his neighbor, the gentleness and mildness of his manners. Enticed always by the beauty, the companion of these, to the rest, and advanced from day to day to greater things, he showed openly to mortals to what things the virtue of the Most High had formed him.

[5] His parents urging marriage, Having therefore passed the years of adolescence, the venerable recruit, and having seized the course of most pleasing youth, as he was to his parents the only one by birth, so he was specially beloved by the privilege of love. They rejoiced also in the favorable report of his acts and life, by which he was frequented in the palace, by which he became celebrated among all the people. Then, much in suspense with the hope of posterity, by what successor the great abundance of their affairs should rest, they ponder with sagacious mind. Wherefore they deliberate that their son's mind should be inclined to matrimony: and they long that he succeed to the hereditary right; to whom both so great an ornament of their house may suit, and the spacious estate of an ample patrimony. There was living then in the palace a certain most excellent Gualbertus ^d, endowed as well in race as in resources, having himself also obtained a wife of royal eminence, to whom the name Bertilia adhered. Whose daughter, by name Waldetrudis, the parents choose to seek in marriage for the venerable Vincent, inasmuch as the comely beauty of her virgin face, and so great a renown of birth, illustrated her. The illustrious Walbert also being consulted about this, he now deliberates from his heart to satisfy their desires, both for the equal title of nobility and dignity, and also for the proof found in the young man of all prudence and gravity.

[6] out of love of chastity he resists, Now the matter, from the father, is brought to Vincent: the discourse of the consent to the nuptials is introduced. But he, who had already resolved to devote his mind to the supernal things; had indeed destined to triumph by the title of chastity. Nay, strengthened by the Apostolic counsel, he preferred to act singularly in Christ, than by the marriage right to be shared with the world. Wherefore he strove to suspend from himself the edicts of his parents, and to postpone the proposed pledge of the dowry: Which the father, bearing with no equal mind, thus used against him the word of correction. Why, most beloved son, do you think you must resist the paternal will and that of your own, by noble deliberation. Concerning the right of wedlock, reason opportunely presents itself, which disposes that our race be propagated by the sole hope of you, and turns all the affection of our whole family, with its goods, to the regard of you alone. For in vain did the supernal piety provide this affluence of things for our diligence, if he to whom by right it is due leaves off wishing to use it. Behold the patrimony and the thousand acres of the purchased land, the households also of slaves fittingly and numerously gathered; by whose frequency both our house is honorably enough administered, and the abundance of the family estate is daily augmented. And to what end these things elaborated by the zeal of our sagacity, if they are to be under the dominion of a stranger heir? Like as by the whirlwind of the wind the flowery things of the field depart, or when the honor passes with which the leafy tree clothes itself, so, despised by you, shall all our glory fall to ruin ^e. Accordingly, in the angelic and apostolic sanctions it stands commendable that sons obey the admonitions of their fathers; against whose opinions and authority you contend on the other side, who have chosen to go into contempt of our counsels and those of your own.

[7] Thus the father spoke, and the whole kinship of his relatives approved what was said, but at last he yields, and marries St. Waldetrudis. and attempted Vincent with manifold exhortation. And having tried in vain to resist these, and driven into a strait by the opposed examples of the Scriptures, by the nod indeed of God he too silently considered, among the rest, that Apostolic saying, which he rightly thought worthy of imitation: Sons, he says, obey your parents in the Lord; and that of the heavenly Philosopher: He who, he says, hearkens to the Father, is refreshed in the mother: and again: Keep the honor of your father, and blessing shall come upon you from God. Enticed by these and things of this kind, and regarded by the deity of God's providence, he showed himself exorable to the vows and petition of his parents; whence also he inherited the everlasting fruit of blessing from God. For the future nuptials he dedicates the betrothal-gift after the custom, and Waldetrudis, of most excellent memory and form, he pledges with a ring, joins in matrimony, whom our discourse had already titled the daughter of Walbert, of eminent nobility. Whose mind, what disposition it was in the nuptials, afterward shone by the examples of the angelic life, which they formed to that degree by heavenly services, and richly illustrated by the exercises of all virtues. But also the sister of the venerable Waldetrudis, by name Aldegundis ^f, herself also instructed in all the fullness of the divine law, advancing indeed from the very beginnings of infancy in the school of virtues, and, under the title of chastity, serving the love of the eternal King. For the rest, to those desiring to know whatever they were, the knowledge of the matters is at the doors, with the ornaments of their pious conversation. To dwell on which would be laudable enough; but the sacred Vincent, besprinkling us with the odor of his virtues, forestalls us, who will both piously soothe our minds, and greatly refresh them with spiritual sweetness.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The province committed to him by the King, his holy sons and daughters.

He is set over the island of Ireland by Dagobert: The marriage thereupon being accomplished in solemn manner, there was joy to all the people; and as much over this did the townsmen congratulate, as

the first in the royal palace: and the king himself, congratulating with immense joy that the royal recruit had likewise obtained a marriage, commended him the more nearly to his love, in that he had obeyed the vows and edict of his elders, and himself deservedly judged that the posterity of so great a family would profit both himself and his kingdom. Wherefore the royal munificence also enriched him, augmented him too with revenue and honors; and besides gave the whole island of Ireland ^a to lie subject to his power and dominion. He gathered indeed, by a mind inspired from heaven, that he would be a sufficient protection to the whole land, and that this flank of the kingdom must be everywhere protected by the arm of so great a Duke, nor in any way trampled by hostile harm. Whence also that Davidic verse: Because, he says, the Lord saved his anointed, therefore in the powers is the salvation of his right hand. Having therefore received the principate from the King, with the whole senate's decree also favoring this, with a great company of his own and of illustrious men he hastened to the borders of the western world, and, the Ocean of the Gallic sea being crossed, and the British orb, which belongs to the nation, ever and everywhere accompanied by heavenly grace, he happily settled in the land of Ireland. And behold the throng of the whole people, delighted by the presence of their dear Duke, rushed to meet him with the voice of exultation, and with pious tumult raged as if about to receive a King. Nothing was to be heard or seen except what was of joy and gladness, such as is wont to be the tumult of the citizens when a King is received, when he has returned, his enemies being triumphed over without slaughter of his own. And it was to all an honor and a reverence, that a man held by the king with special love and honor should be chosen prince into the lot of his dominion. He himself also, paying his vows and libations to the divine majesty over these things, nor in all things attesting to the clemency of his king, added also those proclamations of the Davidic oracle: A people whom I knew not served me, in the hearing of the ear it obeyed me. Then he sanctioned laws and rights for the citizens, and marked them with the cult of justice, of the keeping of which above all he himself was exercised, because in keeping them there is much reward. Let happy Ireland rejoice meanwhile, protected by the shield of this illustrious Duke, by whose prudence and fortitude also it remained safe from every whirlwind of infestation.

[9] and St. Waldetrudis goes to him. And now much time had flowed by, when his venerable wife seemed to be wearied by love of him ^b, and much saddened by his absence. And when by delay the desire grew, nor had any remedy come to her pious love, she at last judged that her sadness must be met by this reasoning, that for the sake of seeing her dear husband she should now leave the sweet fields of her native soil. Nor was there delay: counsel being taken with her own, she deliberated to press the vow of her mind; and those whom she found most faithful among her own and illustrious, she led with her to Ireland for her guard and protection. But the venerable Vincent, his wife's arrival being known, at once exults with immense joy; he blesses the name of the Lord, and consigns her to the former consortium of the marriage-bed inviolate through Christ; admiring also the constancy of the woman's heart. And so, kept in suspense by desire of her through the intervals of the times, he loved her the more ardently in Christ, and thus disclosed the voice of his mouth in address: What reason was it, most noble wife, that you should have intended the business of so long a labor on this journey, and attempt the perils of the dreaded sea? To whom she: For the grace of embracing your love, with which my soul desired you, neither the fierce intemperance of the threatening deep, nor any adversity of misfortunes detained me. All things at last, by the grace of God, turned out prosperous, all turned out pleasant, who bound us with the bond of his charity. Thereupon clinging to each other for some time with mutual embraces, and passing the day celebrated with gladness and feasts in Christ, they became a joy as much to the peoples of the whole land as to their own faithful and friends. What therefore meanwhile the most blessed man exercised on those shores beyond the sea, and how much fruit of pious work he brought forth, the memorable emulation of the Saints has declared; whom he invited by the example of his acts and life. Whom, to be assigned to this work for his glory, as it were a certain garland of lilies from the valley of flowering Ireland, I have thought it worthy to pluck out.

[10] Therefore the man most worthy of God, having spent longer courses of the times in the principate of the said island ^c, Returning into Francia he leads with him many Saints: received by heavenly inspiration to revisit the paternal seats of Francia together with his holy wife. And behold happy Ireland judged it worthy that her sons, whom she germinated for Christ, and through Christ had long since delegated to the company of her Vincent, should now also be made most faithful companions and associates of his journey. And there were, of special grace and merit beyond the rest, Foillan the bishop, and his brothers Ultan and Fursey, Eloquius and Algisus, Etto and Adelgisus: who, as designated by the sevenfold ^d number, so were illustrated by the Spirit of sevenfold grace. These therefore, by hope and love of the delights of Paradise,

They hung on the base earth, held by their native land, / meditating that the world would be nothing to the space of heaven.

These, I say, made illustrious messmates of the venerable Duke, and cleaving to his sanctity as by golden chains, intend to go together with him to the borders of Gaul, to be glorified by his presence, and likewise exalted by his excellence. And thus, having entered the Ocean, the heavenly aid also going before and accompanying, all that army of the Lord turned aside to Gaul. Whom, received within his borders, and diffused in his places into the good odor of Christ everywhere, he rendered nectar-sweet to all with the sweetness of eternal life.

[11] The renowned king Dagobert also, having learned of the most welcome return of his beloved Vincent, in the court he lives most holily, with his wife. rejoicing over his safety, himself also in the Lord, applied him to his side after the custom for the strengthening of the royal protection, and fitted him to the affairs of the commonwealth (as if an omen of salutary auspice). The most blessed man himself also, gratifying the clemency of the divine majesty in all things, heaped up the grace of God in himself, though living among the courtiers, with the works of virtues together with his wife. So distinguished by the worship of the divinity, they extinguished the superfluous fires of desire, keeping indeed the measure of nature in wedlock, but equaling the religion of the Patriarchs. And according to that instrument of the Davidic mouth: Glory and riches in their house, and justice remained for ever and ever.

Not in their heart was the deceiving glory of the world, / nor was the worldly summit an allurer of the gentle breast.

The higher their dignity grew in human things, so much the more in divine things did the purity of the contrite spirit awaken. Bearing that deifying yoke on their shoulders, and relieving their necks of its light and sweet burden, and according to another's prophecy: Because the Lord of hosts, the Lord, is their memorial, therefore in them is judgment and mercy of the poor. They were the rest of guests, to the naked a garment and shade from the cold, to the sick a visitation and remedy, in tribulation a refreshment to the sweltering, in protection of the ward and orphan executors of the mandates of their God: but doing all things with charity in the midst, they were tending to the sum of all virtues. With these ornaments indeed their mother wisdom clothed them: with these zeals of good things she cultivated them, by which they might be worthy of the presence of the eternal King, and become fit citizens for the banquet of the nuptials of the Lamb.

[12] Of St. Waldetrudis is born a son, St. Landric, The sacred beginnings of the memorable man having therefore now been tasted, and refreshed by their mellifluous sweetness, it pleases us to take into the midst what kind of one, by the nod of God, he was in the procreation of sons. Nor did the order of time draw itself out at length, and the most blessed Waldetrudis conceived and bore a son, whom it pleased to call Landric ^e. Whom, regenerated at the sacred font, and initiated also in the supernal mysteries, after the times of weaning, they appoint to be skillfully imbued with the liberal studies, and to be advanced with all the grace of the divine law. For which business indeed they provide men skilled from heaven and marked by the administration of holy orders. By whose sagacity, taught with the mastership of the Holy Spirit, he was as quickly as possible brought back to his father's house. Nor did the works of the Holy Spirit lie hidden, which the boy of gracious disposition germinated from infancy. For suddenly he is stretched on the ground, is rolled at the paternal knees of his holy father, and, that he might be girt for the warfare of the eternal King, presses with tears and suppliant voice. The pious father, admiring the devotion of his son, and the cheerful grace of his countenance somewhat overshadowed with sadness, after he was silent, thus begins to the bystanders. Bound by love and affection of him as of a firstborn, I judged that he should be joined by the laws of wedlock: but wherever the will of the Most High shall intend, thither our littleness must be inclined. And thereupon he betook himself to the counsels of his own, pre-eminent in race and dignity, and disclosed his son's petition in order. But they say: In the boy's prayer must be considered the predestination of the Lord the Creator, and his mind must be attended to, which it is agreed is inspired from heaven. Wherefore condescend graciously to his vows, fulfill his desire, lest the delay of the deed become a repentance of the offended majesty. Soon the sacred Vincent says: Salutary admonitions must be obeyed; especially since it is a heavenly business, for the vow of my son and the honor of God it must be treated eagerly and honestly. And it was added: Whatever therefore the boy suggests by ethereal instinct, it will behoove to fulfill by necessary law. Meanwhile there are present the summoned princes of the church, I mean priests and prelates, and, hands being imposed on the boy, they assign him to holy orders. Then the memorable man together with his wife say: Glory to you, Jesus Christ, worthy of his vocation they grow bright in an order so distinguished.

[13] But the venerable boy of God appointed the grace which he received who then, flourishing in eminent sanctity, is made a Bishop. to be cultivated with the worship of sanctity; and among the years of boyhood he equaled the industry of the perfect. His was assiduous meditation of the holy law, and continual frequenting of prayers and readings, and no less abstinence from vices and the flesh, for which he fattened his spirit with heavenly affluence. The power also of his virtues and signs, by which he was afterward glorified in the right hand of God, as it is everywhere openly conspicuous by its light, so especially in the Church of Metz,

Whose episcopate most illustrious through a long age, / after the goal of the flesh he migrated into the hall of heaven.

Happy, I say, offspring; equally most happy parents, whom the supernal providence destined before the ages to be joined for raising up the sons of his love: who, according to that saying of the excellent Prophet, germinated as a lily, that their glory might be as the olive, and their odor as of Lebanon.

[14] But the illustrious servant of the Lord, in the firstfruits of his womb so beloved and acceptable to God, SS. Madelberta and Aldetrudis, instructed by St. Aldegundis: decreed that the pledge of twin offspring, which he yet received from his most pious wife, should be fostered in the bosom of holy mother Church. For there were twin sisters, little maidens, and they too to be for a dowry of the Lamb of God the Father; of whom the one was called Madelberta, the other Aldetrudis. To these the most blessed Virgin Aldegundis becomes another mother in Christ, who had also been aunt on the mother's side by blood. For their education the holy parents approach ^f her sanctity, offer prayers; to which the pious virgin graciously condescends, and permitted them to obtain their requests with grace: she assigns them to her solicitude and care, forms them with the salutary auspices of religion and discipline; that to the white-robed army of virgins they might shine a most honorable mirror of sanctity and a golden token of chastity. She herself holds forth in herself an exemplar of virtue, and by it kindles their minds to the beauty of the eternal King: with whose desire also they stood so fervent that they embraced nothing fleeting or mortal. Such the spiritual mother cultivated them, and left them after her death as emulators of her conversation; the supernal

deigning also elegantly took her up by germane succession into the government of the monastery of Maubeuge. For the rest, the little book, described with the golden ray of their life, adorned also with the golden-tressed flowers of virtues, inspires the odor of paradise into its readers.

[15] There is born also to the Saints a little son, while yet an infant, Dentlinus ^g, he too so called. Who, soon reborn in Christ, St. Dentlinus, their brother, dies piously. and while still in the white robes filleted unto the whiteness of the soul, within the sacred beginnings of infancy, migrated to the palaces of heaven. And that he follows the Lamb with the white-robed thousands, he commends by signs and virtues: by which he shines most brightly in the finger of God. This glory of the holy sons therefore being foretasted, and offered to the edification of the faithful, as it were something of roses or of lilies; now let us come to the glory of their most blessed father, and refresh our mind with his face, as with spiritual feasts, and taste and see that the Lord is sweet.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The admirable beginnings of the monastery of Hautmont, and the Saint's conversion to a better life.

[He is admonished by an angel to build a monastery at Hautmont, the dimension and form of the church being expressed,] But the renowned Confessor of the Lord tarried still on the secular height, but singular among the courtiers, as was said, for the grace of religion and piety. He acted indeed like Martin or that Daniel in the palace, but he cultivated the heavenly Jerusalem with intent affection and mind, continually aspiring to the glory of the future immortality, and turning in the hand of his mind the horrendous chaos of the pit; now most pleasantly gladdened by the recollection of the former; now by the amazement of the latter he became piously anxious and troubled; weighing in the one the glorification among the holy sons of God, in the other the confusion and afflictions with the impious of the enemy. Over these things joy and consolation shone upon him from the Angel of great counsel. Meanwhile the day is closed by night, and he himself is received by sleep and bed for the sake of rest, in which, by the providence of God, it happened that he was detained more than usual, and thus led into ecstasy. And behold the heavens are opened, in the descent of the supreme groomsman, who with immense glory of ethereal light appeared in the presence of the Saint. He discloses the message from heaven, subjoins the edict from the Lord concerning the construction of a basilica. There is a town, he says, resting upon the river Sambre, and having the name Hautmont, where by the work and skill of your love the holy majesty of the Lord commands a monastery to be made, and, when completed, honorable with the relics of the Saints, and by the name and merit of the supreme key-bearer you shall make it venerable. Thereupon, the man being taken as companion of the angelic journey, they are transferred to the same place by swift power, and he imaged the whole measure and form of the basilica with the measuring reed, which the right hand held forth. And again, connecting the causes of the salutary edict, he added, saying: Take heed, most excellent and illustrious man; for the belief of the things which you see is not vain, and weigh the signs and windings of the running reed with diligent reason. For in a business of this kind there is no small material of your salvation, and a reward of true blessedness that shall profit unto the fruit of your obedience. And from this you shall be enrolled in the fellowship of our holy college, as a veteran soldier, and shall enjoy the glory of the kingdom, and, among the delights of paradise, you shall be gifted with the happy consortium of those who imitated the footsteps of the Lord the Savior.

[17] These things said, he terminated the vision with the word, and, taken up from the eyes of the Saint to the heavenly things, he gives thanks to God: presented himself to the divine majesty. And at once the sacred Vincent, awakened from sleep, and now most healthfully enough drowsed in Christ, snatched himself as quickly as possible from the bed; he stretched his hands and eyes to heaven; he rendered praises and thanks to the divinity. Since, he says, most clement Ruler, by your creation we subsist, by your providence we are governed, by your benefits we are nourished, therefore we extol your magnificence with worthy proclamation of praises, and venerate and worship your blessed name for ever with all the affections of our heart. Then, his cheeks wet with a shower of tears, and the sobs of sighs also interspersed, he pleaded many things in this manner, and inclined the ears of the Lord to his prayers: by whose omnipotence, as he merited to be foreknown and predestined to be made conformable to the image of his son, so by the infusion of the Holy Spirit to be compunct so far that now, worldly ambition being utterly set behind, he desired to be marked with the divine worship and the palm of heavenly warfare. Over these things being made as it were priest and salutary herald of his own soul, he approached it divinely with counsel and admonitions. He first introduces a treatise on the vanity of the world, and produced that indeed from the treasure of wisdom. Thereupon, to shun the enticements of its pleasures, he extended the causes of the question immensely, and at last concludes with a most approved reason that all its prosperous or pleasant things are as a cloud passing through the air. Whence he esteemed, in the one part of his counsel, both to be snatched as quickly as possible from its whirlwind, and to be led to the harbor of eternal salvation.

[18] After he pondered these things in his mind, and ruminated them within himself with pious voice; he consults his wife and friends: he summons the most blessed Waldetrudis, and gathers together a great throng of his own serving in the fear of the Lord; and what he had undertaken to execute by the heavenly oracle through the angel, he willed to be manifest to all, the hinge of his discourse being entered. Who, turned into amazement by the celebrity of the miracle, alike said to him: If the belief of the things which you profess is not doubtful, let it now be your greatest care to obey the heavenly command: lest, to the offense of the deity, and the detriment of your salvation, you be at least by some occasion of delay impelled. These things said, the holy man being made more cheerful, and, so to speak, more constant toward the heavenly things, passed by the tediums and thickets of delays, and sped his journey to the place of the angelic vision. There are made indeed companions and associates of the journey men illustrious as well for the honesty of their religion as of their race, by whose most provident sagacity all things of the future work might be most orderly.

[19] It was come therefore to Hautmont: when behold again something distinguished of the divine work, something to be admired and celebrated by the faithful, signs being found he builds a church and monastery, namely in testimony of the angelic revelation, appeared very similar to the deeds of that ancient Gideon. For as, he praying, the whole world was wet with the shower of the morning dew, but the fleece alone remained dry; so also here all the surface of the lands round about grew white with dew and frost, but the place of the basilica to be built, by the reed of the angelic walking or measurement, made manifest the traces of its dryness as a sign ^a. That spectacle worthy of admiration surrounded the holy man with amazement and joy; and the peoples of the faithful standing by are filled together with fear and ecstasy. They proclaim God wonderful in the heights, and resound the glory of his majesty with sweet murmur: they take care also with grateful solicitude to hold the most blessed Vincent in suspense, that he press with haste to begin the sacred work. They subjoin that it will be a most certain sign of the heavenly command, and that no mockery of phantastic suggestion appears in this. And the holy man, exulting the more richly at this, and commending himself to the divinity after his custom, keeps wholly awake for setting up the building of the sacred basilica, and, until he render it perfected after the likeness of the angelic figuration, perseveres untiring. To the multitude also of stonemasons or those skilled in architecture, whom he drew from every quarter, he assigned the expenses of his own administration, which the pious Lord does not cease to augment for the glory of his servant. And now that tabernacle of the heavenly presage is happily consummated, and honored with the venerable patronages of the Saints, and marked with the honor and name of the prince of the church. He also arranged elegantly and opportunely the cloisters and dwellings of the servants of God to be built, as if already in the camps of the Lord he stood out by a certain pastoral skill. But that same place is surrounded with the grace of amenity, most beautiful with the little rivers of the mountains gliding among the valleys; suffused also with a magnificent abundance of fish from the river Sambre gliding by, so woody with the shady compass of the forests, and joyful with every richness of fertility, that you would think the fruits of Jacob's inheritance to abound there, or the glades of Carmel to burst forth. Meanwhile the Apostolic man becomes a matter of admiration and praise, so using the world as though he used it not, who, amid the pomps of worldly glory, continually occupied his mind and studies with heavenly things. Whence glory to you, Christ, whose are all the treasures of wisdom, with which you so enriched this most blessed man, and inflamed him with the fire of your holy fear and love.

[20] Thither he summons pious monks from every quarter: The building of the sacred monastery therefore being consummated, as was said, he still bent his effort to a salutary business, in which by the grace of God he shone with efficacious deed. He surveys the dwellings of the Saints diffused far and wide, invites every most fervent master of the spiritual warfare, that in the same place, which he built by divine revelation, the frequent jubilation of the Saints might not be lacking. Meanwhile that monastery becomes most celebrated with an innumerable throng of the faithful, as much of those flowing together by the skill of the man of God, as of those desiring to serve the divine contemplation. To whom, proposing the arms of the spiritual warfare, and establishing what belongs to the cenobitic arena, in the field of the mandates of the excellent father Benedict, he persuaded them to attain the excellent summit of the monastic state. He adds also an abundance of family estate, which he so ministered flowing in all things, that you might see every complaint of want excluded. There had been also a certain villa of his own right, called Gyuregium, which too he graciously delivered over to Christ and his servants, and by the tenor of a testament ascribed it perpetually to that place. Whence it came to pass that by the example of the most excellent man that memorable place was frequented by the people of the faithful, and so that the immense opulence of various expenses passed, into the uses of the servants of God, by their munificence. But to those to whom it pleased to be supported by the order of monastic religion, and to be marked with the holy habit, a greater abundance and a nobler multitude of these acceded. They put off the world with its goods, and join themselves to the unity of the body of the Saints in that same place. And this is your glory, most blessed father Vincent, this likewise your holy fructification in Christ, inasmuch as you were the root of this Deific stock, or the matter of a sacred example most fertile by imitation, and dilated on every side with the branches of virtues. Truly as a fruitful olive in

the house of the Lord, or a palm flourishing in the courts of the temple of God; so unto the salvation of many you flowered with pious religion, and brought forth the aromatic fruit of a pious work.

[21] The oratory therefore of that angelic oracle being accomplished, as was said, St. Waldetrudis giving thanks to God. nay rather the household of the divine service being fittingly established, the notable man hastens his return to his own affairs ^b, which now, out of the grace of divine love, he had watched most carefully to renounce. And of the prodigy of the miracle, that the place of the basilica to be built, untouched by the dew, gave credit to the angelic footstep, he introduced discourse with pleasant mouth, and reported it to Blessed Waldetrudis with the testimony of divine praise. Thereupon the sacred work honorably accomplished after the likeness of that same vision, and the throng of monks fittingly gathered there, and the most sufficient use of public administration applied. She indeed, mingling amazement with joy, and fostering herself longer with the delight of the miracle, spoke praise and glory to God the author, and paid worthy thanks in every way for his benefits.

[22] Meanwhile all things become a weariness to the venerable Vincent, [Concerning the leaving of the world he consults St. Autbertus, by whom he is animated to it:] whatever the worldly height suggests: he bends his mind wholly to the quiet and blessedness of the Saints, and untiringly holds in suspense the desire of his soul upon it. Accordingly, sighing much at the recollection of the venerable throng of cenobites, lately gathered by himself for the glory of God, and piously accusing himself as without part in this heavenly warfare, he suspects the greatest loss of his salvation, unless, snatched as quickly as possible from the world, he be inserted, as a most valiant athlete, into this choir. Who, for the faithful executing of the business, asked aid from the Lord of heaven, and, for counseling himself over this, betook himself with no sluggish mind to the discourse of Autbertus the Prelate. For that distinguished Bishop at that time shone with pontifical glory on the chair of Cambrai, and with pastoral diligence attended to the care of the Lord's flock, to whom he himself shone as a mirror of sanctity with the dowry of merits. To whom Vincent of distinguished memory and grace, coming the more often, and comprehending with perspicacious mind the things which are of eternal life; what vow at last he had conceived over the excellent desire of the holy habit, he confesses in the presence of the holy prelate with most humble mouth: and although he excelled in earthly things, illustrious by the title of race and dignity, and no less prevailed on every side with the cult of religion and piety; yet by the example of that venerable Centurion, what it most befits to imitate, he sagaciously presses to be executed by the Apostolic man. But the most holy prelate, considering the affection of the most noble man stirred up by the Holy Spirit, and that he was wholly panting after the glory of eternal blessedness, having himself also entered upon the Gospel work, inflamed the holy man the more richly with zeal of the mandates of God, the more constantly he perceived him animated to the supernal things;

He counseled to shun earthly things, to love the heavenly. / He had said that nothing is more excellent than ethereal arms, / which slay spiritual enemies, as with a thunderbolt; / and that by these the life of men must be guarded from the plague of vices:

that also by the practice of secular warfare the exercise of spiritual discipline is weakened, and that the same resists the zeal of pious conversation by a certain obstacle of its opposition. Since he perceived that he sought it with unceasing vows, he says that all riches must be renounced, that he might become the most perfect disciple of Christ. Lastly, to deny himself, and, accompanying the footsteps of the Savior, to bear his cross, that indeed is the chief thing unto the sum of true blessedness, and to accumulate a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. And that he might seem to have taken thought for all, all things being set behind for the grace of Christ, he promises hundredfold gains, and confesses that the gifts of light and of eternity succeed. Vincent therefore, eminent in piety and religion, gladdened by the mellifluous sweetness of the salutary doctrine, and as if already sworn into the warfare of the supernal King, solidified that familiar colloquy with the holy prelate by the glue of Christ, and daily frequented it by the most celebrated practice of love. Forgetful, I say, of the king and the nobles, and no less disdaining purple or silk, he had it as singular and only, to magnify and exalt with Autbertus the name of the Lord together. Let the princes and renowned of the world meanwhile hear, and be delighted by the laudable man, and be moved by so notable an example ^d.

[23] St. Waldetrudis at last assents to his purpose. Nor did the man of illustrious merit delay to intimate to Blessed Waldetrudis the opinion conceived in his mind, and that she should give effort to incline to his vows: and because he had sufficiently and more than enough hitherto sweated at glory and riches, and now at last had decreed that the warfare of God must be exchanged for worldly things, he held her in suspense with pious admonition. But the woman of pious memory, changed with immense sadness over these things, very many times attempted to lead the holy man from his purpose; judging it namely not right for herself to be deprived of the consortium of so great a husband ^e. To whom the venerable hero presses to repeat the same things the more often, and to revolve the more frequently the distinguished token of the monastic order, and, complaining much of himself as void of it for so great an interval of time, said that hence it must now be imitated with all his affections. But the illustrious woman, perceiving in the most blessed man the working of the Holy Spirit, and feeling the breath of the grace of God, imparts herself with a blessing to his petition, laudable in Christ, and believed it the greatest impiety that he should be resisted; nay, she most attentively commended him with vows and prayers to the providence of the supernal Ruler. Let your holy will be done, she says, Lord Jesus, and your virtue and piety, proclaiming in all things. And thus the Saint of the Lord, the consent and will of his wife devoted to God being known, and the blessing received, held himself, with manifold exultation, by no means defrauded of his desire. Then after his noble custom he rendered thanks to the supreme divinity, and at the same time to his providence and benignity he testified that all things would profit, to anyone resting on a salutary auspice: as if that Davidic saying seemed to him to be chanted: Blessed is the man who hopes in you. Thereupon an innumerable weight of gold and silver, with a strong beauty also of gems, is brought into the midst; purple too or silk, or whatever precious and pleasant shines in garments distinguished with gold, with a supply likewise of vessels and royal ornaments. And, the indivisible majesty of the holy Trinity being invoked, a threefold division is made of all the furniture placed in the midst: one part is set apart for the restoration of the churches of God, another too is separated for the sustenance of widows and orphans and the poor, but a portion is taken up for the redemption of the bound and captives; and that holy posterity being already long since left in the hereditary right, and himself, a poor man, having with entire faith followed Christ made poor for us,

He stripped off from the care of the world its lofty rights, / that free he might live by the Gospel norm.

Behold, to what the intention of the most blessed man, to what all that institution of his life and manners destined itself; namely to leave the world with its goods, and to cleave singularly to the footsteps of Christ the Lord.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

His singular virtues in the monastery, his withdrawal to Soignies, and his pious death.

And now the distribution of all things being solemnly made in Christ, and thus divided for the price of the heavenly kingdom, that angelic monastery at Hautmont, He becomes a monk at Hautmont, tonsured by St. Autbertus. built long since by his own means and skill, he now approached to be glorified by his presence, and to be illustrated by the clear fame of his sanctity. And, the token of royal warfare being there laid aside, and the monastic habit being taken up also, he transferred himself into the warfare of the eternal King the Lord, and shared in the noble triumph of his camps. Whom the memorable Prelate Autbertus, as he cleaved to him singularly by the privilege of familiarity, both fortified with holy blessing, and cut off the hair of his head as a sign of sanctity; then also fittingly enrolled him in the fellowship of the Nazarene people, as a worthy athlete of God. And by right, I say, worthy to be inserted into the people of acquisition, to announce the virtues of the Lord, who called him out of darkness into his admirable light. Where indeed at that same point the renowned confessor of Christ Ansbert ^a, and eminent prelate of the church of Rouen, fostered the gaze of his mind with theoric sweetness: but, by the injury of prince Pippin removed from his episcopate, and there proscribed with exile unjustly, and at last received in Christ by the vital sleep of death, was carried back to the monastery of Fontenelle, by angelic command, and with the accompanying glory of miracles; where also, before the hierarchy of the archbishopric, as abbot he shone resplendent with the tokens of virtues. With whom the sacred Vincent, coupled by the chain of Christ, plucked the mellifluous fruits of eternal life; and like twin columns of light they glittered everywhere with the radiance of sanctity.

[25] The nobles admire and praise his conversion. But the distinguished kind of deed suddenly becomes an amazement to the peoples and tribes; and because Vincent was through Christ dead to the world, they magnify him with vows of praises and with gifts. This all the princes of the Franks, this indeed the king and the king's nobles, and all the chief men of the palace admire, and form for themselves in this spectacle diverse voices. A most powerful man, they say, excelling in wealth and glory, distinguished by race, most useful in the administration of public affairs, on whose counsels it was agreed that even the King himself especially rested, has now given to all an excellent end, since he has decreed to enter the heavenly warfare. Whence, armed with a special zeal of virtue, and piously invited by so great an example of the holy man, they now pressed with a certain wondrous affection to resist the worldly enticements. Nor was there a small throng of Saints, in whom holy mother Church then rejoiced, and who flowed together to holy Vincent for the grace of eternal blessedness. And especially the son of Carloman, namely holy Hugo ^b, who himself also, long illustrious in the episcopate of Rouen, then acted as a monk in Christ. The venerable priest Etto also, who continually honored the most blessed man with a certain singular privilege of love, to whom he also came long since as companion from the British bosom. But also Vulmar, the memorable abbot of the monastery of Boulogne, betook himself into the midst of the throngs of that holy assembly, enticed by the worthy conversion and honesty of manners of so great a man. Many holy men visit him. Just as indeed the bees fly to and fro assiduously to the hives, so nonetheless to the Mount, high in name and in religion, flowed together by turns the standard-bearers of the Christian warfare, doubtless honeyed by the sweetness of the aforesaid man. For there was present a frequent visitor and reporter of divine things, Blessed Amandus of Elnone: in which conference and report St. Wasnulf of Condé laid up for himself heavenly treasures. Nor rarely intervened as consolers St. Ursmar, and after him St. Ermin, bishops of the church of Lobbes: St. Ghislain also, often coming thither from the monastery of Cella; and also the venerable priest Foillan with his brother Ultan, from the monastery of Fosses

they exulted and rejoiced at the proclamation of so great a change of the right hand of the Most High. Blessed Aldegundis too, the nearer she was to the place, so much the more frequently was present from nearby Maubeuge. But blessed Waldetrudis, the more closely she had once been joined to him by carnality, so much now, cleaving more closely by spirituality, from that very mount of Castrilocus very often came down to him, more spiritually than the rest. To whom the wonderful virgin Gertrude, flying to it from Nivelles, frequently interposing herself, shone resplendent with the flowers of virginity. The holy Fathers also of all Gaul, flourishing exceedingly in sanctity, thither at the same time hastened emulously, conversing with one another about the salvation of souls. That place becomes as solemn by the throng of Saints as distinguished by religion. What therefore shall I record of the virtue of holy Vincent and the good of his patience? Shall I worthily proclaim the rigor of his abstinence? Shall I explain his prayers continued with vigils? To each of these he so singularly attended, as if he had been unmindful of the rest. That most slender little body of mortified flesh becomes a dwelling of sanctity, becomes a most serene habitation of the Holy Spirit; specially adorned with the kind of the Lord of hosts, it remained uncontaminated by every stain of vices. Whence, because in the battle-line of the Lord's war he fought bravely, and triumphed with a distinguished victory over the prince of the world and all his own; Christ crowned him with the excellent title of a name, and destined him to be called Vincent ^c by the faithful and religious men: for by name he was before called Madelgarius. And by right, I say, he changed the use of his name, who turned the compact of piety of his life into act. But now the memory of the beloved dwelling of Soignies, worthy of praise, strikes the mind, that it should turn itself thither, and judge that indulgence must be reverently given by the service of the pen to how it rejoices in the patronage of its Vincent.

[26] While therefore the most blessed man dwelt in the aforesaid monastery of Hautmont, He withdraws to Soignies; and there builds a monastery, and among those (so to say) forces of the divine army by a singular exercise of sanctity, there came also another intention of supernal inspiration, which by the grace of God he consigned to a worthy effect. For, fearing the continual concourse of the popular throng as a certain great detriment to his sacred purpose, and still raw in heavenly things, he turned in his mind at last to put a measure to this trouble, and to devote himself to more remote places for the grace of divine contemplation. Concerning which also he merited to be animated by the counsels of the reverend prelate Autbertus, and to be strengthened by the fortification of his wonted blessing. And so, mindful of the place of pleasant memory, called Soignies (for by the death of his elders it had long since come to his posterity), he applied hither the mind of his pious intention; where he resolved to decline the inconvenience of the vulgar rush; as if that Davidic saying seemed to him to be chanted by the honeyed instrument of his breast: The lines have fallen to me in goodly places, for my inheritance is exceedingly beautiful to me. In this place therefore the venerable Confessor built a monastery of elegant enough work, which he caused to be dedicated in veneration under the name and honor of the most blessed Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, and of SS. Peter and John the Apostles, and of other Saints. Nor less did he gather there a throng of the servants of God, excellent, splendid in piety and religion, and endowed with every dignity and grace of the monastic order. To which also, whatever of humanity befitted for use, that conscience of good things always furnished opportune by hand, lest the want of refreshing the bodies should withdraw the service of the divine servitude, which is the food of souls. There was also no lowly bestowal of villas and estates, which he assigned to that same monastery by hereditary right, of which two, Halcinus and Methuinus ^d, serve to this day the uses of the servants of God dwelling there.

[27] and instructs the monks with pious admonitions. But he himself, the leader of the Lord's flock and lordly shepherd, held forth in himself the token of all virtue, and the proofs of eternal salvation, so that you would observe in him, as much by works as by words, that memorable saying of the Doctor of the Gentiles: Be imitators of me, dearest sons, as I also of Christ. And thereupon, commemorating the holy examples of the preceding Fathers, and proclaiming the excellent gravity of life and manners, he persuaded them to hope for glory and praise from the Lord by the exercise of pious imitation; to shun any desires of earthly ambition, to prefer with vigilant affection the unfailing amplitude of supernal beauty; saying that the lovers of the world and of vain glory must be punished by the inevitable sentence of the future discrimination. By these and such words of holy exhortation that sacred flock grew with the increases of virtues, and abounded with the fullness of salutary grace. And this to the glory of the most blessed Father, whom the grace of the supreme divinity rewarded with a pious return, that as he formerly stood out distinguished by the prerogative of worldly warfare, so now, as standard-bearer and leader of the Lord's camps, he might go before, lovable and strong, and become an unconquerable shield of equity. Who also, for the ornament of monastic rigor, used a most harsh covering: instead of feasts once fittingly furnished in imperial manner, he rejoiced in the hardships of cold and hunger: instead of couches shining with gold and silk, he lay on the bare surface of the earth, delighted with the strewing of scanty straw, as if with the soft feathers of courtly pomp. And that he might further, together with their very prince, subdue the plagues of vices, he displayed the troops of virtues with victorious arms, by which he might slay in himself the deadly venom of all adverse persuasion. And thus, instead of purple and fine linen, living in ashes and haircloth, instead of royal beauty,

Riches being set behind, he went as a needy companion of Christ, / whose first virtue was to be held poor for Christ.

Since, as that Apostolic saying thundered, he esteemed all joy when he turned aside into various tribulations.

[28] Why no miracles wrought by him while living are extant. Nor is anything therefore rashly to be derogated from the merits of so great a man, as if he had not illustrated his excellent life with the power of signs; since, as he avoided the tumult of the popular throng, so he put behind the glory of miracles becoming public. Besides, we have learned that signs are to be granted to the unbelieving, not to the believing. For the rest, let it shine as with the sun to the sons of light, that the venerable Father, after the manner of the Saints, glitters the higher with signs and prodigies after his death, the less he gave effort to these in life, either because he was able through the grace of God, while living, to do more, which the negligence of writers or the destitution of the place so often arisen has withdrawn from the knowledge of mortals. But now the time itself demands that notable thing, in which, to elicit the departure of the happy soul from the body, a twofold nectar of discourse may emerge, and move into the ears of the people the sound of eternity.

[29] By such and so great zeals of the venerable Father the pious Lord being enticed, He suffers from gout: now prepares in the heavens a crown worthy of his excellent labor, and the unfailing gift of eternal blessedness. And that the token of all perfection might shine in him, and the proof of sincere faith; he is seized with a somewhat gouty pain, that, more refined than the purest gold, he might be presented to the sight of the majesty, and so be taken up to be transposed into a heavenly ornament. But the bitterness of the pain prevailed so far that the faculty of walking utterly failed the most holy man. But he himself, amid the straits and temptations of the flesh, blessed the name of the Savior with untiring voice, reckoning that little detriment of the discrimination brought from heaven as the very great emolument of his future blessedness with the Apostle: For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us.

[30] Nor long after, the time of his holy vocation impending, He sets St. Landric over the monastery of Soignies: held in suspense by pious solicitude for the flock he was to leave, lest so great a fructification of his own in Christ should be deprived of pastoral diligence, he beats heaven with vows and prayers, and, a suppliant, invites the majesty of the Lord to his counsel. For he desired his life to be ended where he had cut off the hair of his head, and laid aside the arms of warfare and the pomp of the world. Then, his venerable offspring Landric being summoned, a man of no mean glory: You, he says, most beloved son, the supernal clemency has provided as ruler for them, and has chosen you a fit leader of this sacred warfare. Let your hand therefore be strengthened, for the Lord will be your confidence, and in this custody of the divine flock let your effort manfully sweat. In the innocence of your heart you shall feed it, and in the understanding of your hands you shall lead it forth. And when you shall have given obedient consent to our admonitions, and fulfilled the office of the supreme Shepherd with efficacious skill, you shall merit praise and glory from the Lord, and be exalted at the end with the blessedness of the kingdom. Instructed with these and other things in the highest degree, he took up the holy man into the watches of the Lord, and observed in him a document of justice, and a future exemplar of virtue. In which business how he shone with perspicacious work, the experience proves of the excellent labor with which he afterward exercised himself in the pontifical chair ^e; and he adorned the times of his priesthood.

[31] And now the venerable Father began to be wearied by a salutary sickness, and, having exhorted his own to virtue, he dies: and to be dissolved by his final languor; when that excellent company of monks surrounds him, bearing out the affection of their heart with tears and sobs, inasmuch as most sad at the departure of so great a Father, and anxious and trembling at the discrimination of their bereavement. But he himself, rejoicing in the Lord, was pouring forth words of holy exhortation, and unceasingly persuading the things which are of eternal life. Of seeking the good of blessedness, of shunning the burning of hell, all his discourse had shone. And thus saying his last farewell, and fortifying his spirit with the viaticum of the vital Sacrament, he fell asleep glad in Christ, about to possess praise and glory on the starry throne. And behold the gate of heaven is opened to him, the hall of Paradise is unbarred; and, the hosts of ethereal light descending hither and thither, the departure of the happy soul becomes more celebrated, and amid the most pleasant harmonies of angelic melody, it sought the adorable sights of the presence of God; where it rejoices to be present, a veteran citizen, to the joys of the angels, to the rest and brightness of the Saints. His hope, which here he nourished by faith, there he does not cease to foster in the very reality and truth; where he beholds God face to face, where he merits continually to contemplate the glory of his majesty, not through a mirror or in an enigma, but in the substantial and perfect vision of the indivisible Trinity. Which as it shines admirable in the Saints, so it remains ineffable in words or letters.

[32] and is buried at Soignies. The venerable confessor Vincent therefore passed from the afflictions of this world into the glory of everlasting felicity on the day before the Ides of July, in the aforesaid monastery of Soignies, built by himself, leaving the clod of his precious corpse. Which the surrounding peoples of the faithful honorably attend, paying to the pious funeral the due exequies in solemn manner, and lay in the tomb with fitting honor: from which to the faithful, with the fragrance of merits, a most sweet odor of miracles emanates, through Christ the prince of the Saints, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, three and one God, remains reigning for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

737. But even granting that the rest could agree; that they so often flowed together to Hautmont, on the credit of so unskilled a writer, I indeed would not admit: I have already said in the Commentary that both he and others collected all the Saints who were known to have flourished about those times in Belgium, although some never saw St. Vincent with their own eyes. Let these things be said of that whole collection of Saints. Whether it is aptly enough feigned that St. Waldetrudis very often came down from Castrilocus to her husband, let others judge.

MIRACLES.

From the manuscript codex of Moretus or Vaucelles.

Vincent Madelgarius, Confessor, at Soignies in Hainaut, Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 8675

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

PREFACE.

The things therefore being assigned which the virtue of the Most High commended concerning the life and merits of his Saint, now to that glory of miracles by which after his death he lived to our world I have thought it worthy to bend my mind, with my pen as companion: where we decree that assent must probably be given to the relation of the ancients: since the things which the eyewitness master set forth to our reporters, we have approached by the unbending reasoning of truth.

[2] A lamp therefore having been kindled by the faithful at the Saint's tomb, with the liquor of oil, Oil is supplied from heaven to the tomb. a prodigy of divine virtue was memorable to behold. For some interval of time had already passed by; when one of the brethren, for it had been in his care, diligently approached, that he might supply the losses of the liquor now exhausted, bearing in his hand a flask with the liquor of oil: and behold as stupendous as unhoped-for a token of the deed, which the hand of the Lord there wrought; namely in testimony of the living dead, the lamp overflowing with redundant oil, so that the whole surface of the pavement flowed. But the sacristan, piously confused with amazement and joy, and marveling at so unhoped-for a gift of divine light, went to summon the company of the brethren, both to be witnesses of the miracle, and to see the glory of God in his Saint. And they approaching, and having contemplated the heavenly gift of the sign, praise and venerate Christ, the true light of light, by the distinguished miracle of this heavenly oil. Which, to declare the merit of his Saint, he restores with unfailing light for its augment.

[3] At the same time a certain Lambert, a priest by office, A blind cleric enlightened by the Saint's merits. namely struck by the unjust misfortune of lost sight, drew out his life in continual darkness and grief. Whom in such discrimination the heavenly compassion at last regarded, and graciously inspired him to approach the memory of the pious father Vincent. And since the feast-day of that same father, always to be venerated by us, which was next impending, was to be solemnized by the concourse and meeting of the faithful, he deliberated to take the journey along with a companion; and thus, satisfying his vow, he strove to come along equally. Nor delaying longer, at the memory of the Saint he is stretched down with tears and prayers, and much confident of the gift of supernal consolation by his merits. And behold, tears being poured forth for him, the virtue of the dead one watches, and the radiance sent from heaven bores the darkness with light, and gradually clears the eyes and brow of the one lying there. He felt the remedy going from the tomb, and the snatched-away light seeking again its former seat, and at once cried out to the bystanders that the grace of God and of his Saint was present to him. Who, astonished at the admiration of the sudden virtue, exhort him to press the more earnestly with suppliant prayer, that he might merit to be given the entire soundness of recovered sight. He prayed more attentively, and so the blind wound utterly perished, as if he had before experienced to see nothing but the beautiful. Immediately an immense murmur resounded up to heaven, the whole crowd burst forth into praise of God, and cried out that he was exceedingly glorious in the merits of his Saint.

[4] One trying to invade the Saint's goods is punished from heaven; And now the more celebrated fame of the glory of the man of God, living in the tomb, became known to all round about, and thundered that he shone with signs and virtues. Whence to those piously seeking there came forth a bountiful compassion of healing and cures: but to the perverse and unbelieving, vengeance from heaven. A certain man, he had the name Xantherus, before others more monstrous in crime, and more cruel by the ambition of dire cupidity: whence he ought to have profited by the imitation of the good, hence on the contrary he did not fear to plot ambushes and plunder against the goods of our pious Patron. With confidence therefore of accomplishing his crime, and with the devil as companion having set out on the journey, he did not fear to approach the very doors of the monastery too insolently, but heavenly vengeance forestalled his unspeakable attempts. For he had almost now touched the sacred threshold, when his unhappy fault brought upon the man an immense loss of ruin, and cast him half-alive to the ground. Whom his companions, seized, carry back more quickly home, amazed at his ruin as much in soul as in flesh. Nor did that one now defer the punishment of so great a guilt, he shook the whole roof with the greatest roaring and wailing: he moreover the more often cried out upon Vincent as the avenger of his hostile presumption. At last, amid straits and most monstrous gnashing, death itself wrung out the life of the wretch, and plunged him to be burned perpetually in the fires of hell. But also by the report of the deed the hearts of the people trembled, both dreading the punishments of such an example, and venerating the majesty of the Lord condescending thus to the injuries of his servant. And these things concerning vengeance on the wicked, because the death of sinners is most evil.

[5] and likewise another guilty of theft. There still remain also the mighty works of God, to declare the merits of his Saint, most worthy of relation. A certain priest, graciously enticed by the fame of the Saint's virtues, came to the place venerable for his most sacred pledges, with the gold of faith and the gifts of prayers: and, his horse being fastened at the enclosure of the hall on which he had sat; he himself imparts himself to the memory of the Saint with tears and sincere heart. Meanwhile a certain man, compelled by a malignant spirit to steal the beast, set out on a trackless journey through the more remote glades. But the priest, the solemn desire of his vows being accomplished, goes out of the oratory: but, the loss of the theft being discovered, is shaken with immense sadness and sighing. And now he rises up too importunately with harsh complaints against the most blessed Vincent, and almost inserts blasphemy in his pains, saying that he had trusted in the suffrage of so great a Father; nor could he therefore avoid the immense loss of the committed theft; when suddenly a messenger thrusts himself amid his lamentations, and reported, not without wonder, the guilty of the theft fallen from his horse with his limbs crushed: and thus, while heavenly vengeance sympathizes with the injuries of the servant of God, for the recovery of the horse joy and gladness arise to the cleric, and he is wholly borne into thanksgiving with voice raised on high. Then the report of the miracle is scattered everywhere, and the power of God in the merits of Vincent is venerated as greatest and to be admired. Behold, a virtue of example conspicuous enough for terrifying the robbers of the church, for forbidding thieves from the plunder of the Saints. Let even the crooked hear, and let the wicked plunderer cease.

[6] An illustrious man freed from madness The name of the Saint becomes still celebrated, glorified by the power of God; and therefore to be proclaimed among the faithful people. It happened at that time that the world was greatly infested by the incursion of the Huns ^a, and by the same fear the state of our place was much endangered. Wherefore for translating the little body of the Saint into the city of Metz ^b, there was a common counsel among us; and to that business the throng of the faithful most devoutly thrust itself. Nor did the glory of so great a Father lie hidden in that place, so wonderfully illustrated with signs and virtues, of which to publish here one to the praise of the Lord, is a peculiar office of his venerable memory. For, the fear of the gentiles being repressed by the regard of the supernal compassion, the brethren hasten to their own place, the pledge of the most sacred body being at once taken up, which, on the way, near a villa, by name Fellepa ^c, for the sake of lodging it had happened to be set down, which lay subject to the dominion of a certain illustrious and excellent man: to whom there was much furniture, and a very wealthy use of things: but by the force of long-continued fevers he was made mad and dull. And now all medical industry with the power of herbs vanished as to him; when at last, by a decision of a higher counsel, the grace of God breathed upon his own, which both deprived him of the error of mind, and reformed him to his natural intelligence. They alike enter into a decree, and decree that the middle portion of that villa, for the man's health, must be transcribed to the perpetual dominion of holy Vincent. Then indeed, approaching him, and setting forth what measure had been held in counsel, they press, inquiring with what mind he is to act over this. Nor was there delay: he himself willingly accommodated assent to the salutary decree, and alike, by the merits of the Saint, was restored to his former reason.

[7] But soon, seduced by repentance of the inheritance shared with the Saint, he transcribes some goods to the church of Soignies. and again enticed by the wiles of Satan, he declared a divorce to his coheir and the author of his health, Vincent, and a sudden calamity again drove the man into madness. Wherefore all that joy of health lately arisen is cast down with sad shame, and the whole assembly of friends and nobles is dissolved into tears. On what hope they should again rest, or by what solaces they should meet the sadness, they turn over with counsels and manifold intention; and at last the supreme aid of obtaining health seemed to be, that what remained over from the first bestowal of the villa, the rest, should stand as a legacy perpetually to the right and power of the Saint. Which the same illustrious man not only consented to be done, but even decreed should be strengthened by testament and perpetual writings, and forthwith, by the grace of God and the merit of the Saint, merited to be led from the waves of his mind into the harbor of reason and a sound mind. The stupendous novelty of the deed roused the peoples with the princes into divine praises, and to the causes of this spectacle, worthy of admiration, every sex and age thrusts itself: they offer thanks and vows, they extol Christ shining with miracles in his Vincent with the voice of jubilation, and count it most pleasing to dwell longer on this harmony. This is your power, Christ, these are your distinguished deeds, who, how great the glory of this Saint shines with you in the heavens, you have made manifest by the right hand of your virtue even in far-remote borders. Whence to your benefits let unending praise resound, and thanksgiving abiding for ever. Indeed that same villa, richly flowing with opulence of things, serves to this day the uses of the servants of God and of his Saint.

[8] A certain man dwelt at Soignies, whom poverty indeed made obscure, A household consigned to the Saint but the dignity of the service of St. Vincent rendered joyful ^d. For he was wholly, namely with his wife and children, of the household of that church, and therefore seemed to himself to walk more securely among his fellow-citizens. But because among the uses of mortals prosperous things are very often disturbed by adverse ones, fortune, the stepmother of felicity, favoring him greatly in the present, but not in the future: from a certain sedition he incurred the enmities of certain men even to the demanding of blood. Whence, setting before himself no

uncertain peril of life, he resolved for a time to avoid the assaults of his enemies with his own; and thus, having left the land of his birth, after he had gone forward this way and that, he at last entered the borders of Flanders, and, coming to the possession of a certain soldier, received his usual lodging. He also dwelt there some time with his wife and children, following namely those consequences of his poverty, and the longer, so much with the greater confidence. And when he now believed himself to have obtained full security, and from security presumed for himself entire liberty, a little after he incurred the worst servitude. For the lord, to whom that possession belonged, using no equitable counsel, when he saw the servant without a lord, and because there was no defender at hand, became after some years an unjust invader of the household, and an exactor of a servitude belonging to another's household. What more? He exacts tribute without judgment, he reduces them into servitude not without injury. But that man of Soignies, when he had long suffered such things, hearing of the death of his enemies, returns to Soignies, and meeting the provost of the place with the other clerics, enters upon narrating the history of his misery.

[9] But they, entering upon a consequent counsel over so great an injury to the church, decree that the invader of the household must first be met. To that business also the provost of the place is directed, against the invader he complains of the unjust invasion: from the servitude of the unjust possessor, but he, not desisting from his begun malice, in every way opposes, holding that he keeps no household but his own. But the provost, executing the undertaken business, laments the ecclesiastical necessity, even to him who then acted in the fasces, the count Baldwin. Who, accusing the hereditary soldier of the heard-of invasion, commands that he suffer the household of the church to be free. He denies that he will in any way desert what he held; but because that same household had come to him hereditarily from his ancestors, he affirms that he will confirm it by oath. The legate of the church detests and refutes on the contrary the false assertion; but is overcome by the reasoning of the one holding and wishing to prove, not truthful but juridical. Whence, understanding that it was indeed a judgment, but not justice, and placing his confidence, well proven for him, in his Patron, he obtains from the Count that the invader should confirm the sentence he had uttered by an oath over the relics of St. Vincent. The Count commands, the soldier assents. A certain day is appointed, from both sides come many hearers. The staff of the Saint is brought forth and the phylactery, the hand is stretched with insolent audacity to perjury.

[10] the punished perjury is avenged. And when the words were dictated to the one about to swear, the wretch began to be tortured by a hidden avenger indeed, but an open judgment of God. The arm of the swearer stiffened, he could neither utter words, nor draw back the stretched-out hand. But crying out with most wretched wailing: Succor, he says, to the bystanders, succor, and having mercy on me, drive this dog away from me. But those who were present, greatly amazed, and not undeservedly, because they saw no harm toward him, kept asking with troubled clamor where the dog was. But he, crying out still more terribly to be freed: Do you not, he says, see the black dog by which my arm is gnawed? At this voice the bystanders, understanding it to be not a dog but a devil, striking their breasts and signing their faces, execrate the falsifier, and venerate the friend of God. A new thing, and by its own novelty enough to be marveled at, that the enemy who had been the persuader of unjust persuasion should become also the publisher and avenger of so great a falsity. At last, by the regard of God returned to himself, and prostrate in public repentance before the relics of the Saint, he openly confessed the presumed falsity. Thus the church received the lost goods, and the obstinate iniquity obtained its deserved shame. For the successors of that same Soignies household the church still retains, well multiplied by propagation.

[11] Another soldier also was of that which they call the proud blood of the nobles, A wondrous acquisition of an estate through the Saint. who, having an estate contiguous to the estate of St. Vincent, not by industry but by error was extending his bounds beyond the term of a just division. There was very often altercation between the cultivators, but because never or rarely is a well-ordered settlement had among rustics, for some time an infinite contention endured between them. But the matter being referred by the clerics to the prefect of the church, where the prefect began to exercise his prefectorial power, the soldier nonetheless did not fear powerfully to defend his own with a military hand. From which contention it came to pass that so long the cultivation of both parts ceased, until neither part had well-certain terms of its division: and thus at last, led even by the very loss of the ceasing cultivation, they appoint a day for judgment, to judge concerning the division of the estate; namely to choose the certain from the uncertain by single combat of the servants of both parts. A wretched condition, that the land which ought to be bounded by the acre-rod and the plow, should be bounded only by blood and brain. There is therefore a meeting from both sides by many, the soldier and the prefect are present with their own; there is also brought by the clerics to the place of battle the sure hope of his own, St. Vincent. And when they wished to set down the holy body at the station of their own certain part, but, ill-certain of the terms of their own, had begun to cross their bounds, it sank down suddenly with so great heaviness of weight, that not even thousands of men could have moved it. There is a running together to so great a spectacle, the justice and judgment of God is proclaimed by all, the Lord and the friend of God is praised, not without great amazement of those present, the battle of two is ended by the victory of one. Nor was a most worthy reward lacking to so great a victor: for, compunct by that miracle, the aforesaid soldier, noble both in manners and in blood, left his part without delay to St. Vincent, to his church and its ecclesiastical servants to be had perpetually. Thus the friend of God certified the uncertain from uncertainties; the contention being loosed without shedding of blood, he gloriously made wonderful the day of battle. And whereas he ought to receive his own part, he acquired both, and thus, carried back to his own, magnificently gladdened the clergy and people of both parts.

[12] A woman wretchedly contracted is restored: A woman of exceeding unhappiness dwelt in the province of Brabant, who was so weakened by the enormity of all her limbs, that (horrible to behold!) they clung deformedly to such buttocks; the palms of her hands too were pierced by the claws of her fingers, so that they perforated with wretched windings, like the talons of birds. She, having perceived the fame of the virtues which were done at Soignies through the friend of God, willing more than able, with faithful affection stretched thither the mind of flying. And when the annual solemnity of the consecration of the church was at hand; she caused herself to be carried thither by friends with hoping mind and effective intention. By whom, set down with prayer and mournful commendation between the two altars, it cannot be told with what weepings, what tears, what lamentations that unhappy woman approached the pious confessor. For she deplored the weakness of her whole body, her useless life, and for all these things implored the intercession of that Patron before whose memory she lay. She was fed with tears for food that day; for the anguish of necessity multiplied the poured-out griefs of her heart. While others rejoiced, she wept; while others were occupied otherwise, she attended to the supernal things, and thus filled the whole day of the celebration in that contrition. But the clerics and people going out from the church after Vespers, she remained with a few in the place where she had first lain, lying down with the same ardent desire of recovering health with which she had begun. Where, prostrate on the ground, she passed through the heavens with prayers, and doing violence to the kingdom of God, prayed and prevailed upon the Lord. For behold, He from above having mercy, whose judgment is never without mercy, certain of the faithful returning after supper to the church, some to pray, others indeed to lie down, she herself began to send forth terrible voices from the immensity of her pains. For, by supernal visitation her limbs springing back to their natural state, when, the Lord healing, that shapeless matter began to be reformed by the extension of the sinews, the recalling of the fingers, the recreation of the arteries, that weak body of the long-afflicted woman was manifoldly tortured. But those who were present running together, and with pious weepings over her invoking the aid of the friend of God, at once she rose, and stood erect indeed, but still trembling at the novelty of walking. And now, her strength of convalescing gradually returning to her, she tried little by little to move and remove her unaccustomed steps. Nor was there delay: a tumult of gladness resounds, and, the people rushing in, she is led before the cross with great throng and exultation. She stands sound and glad, a fit witness of her recovery, a witness also without doubt, in the sight of all who were present, of the divine virtue. Now at last all prayer ceases, and to prayer succeeds all praise alone: the church is filled with the weepings of piety, the hymn Te Deum Laudamus is begun by the clerics, and thus on that day the heavenly bridegroom made wonderful his bride, namely the church of Soignies.

[13] likewise another sent back from St. Waldetrudis to Soignies: At that time, in which by the merits of St. Waldetrudis the mount of Castrilocus flowered with the various flowers of virtues, every age, both sexes, sound and infirm, hastened thither out of desire of cures. These the guilt of conscience; those the disease of flesh manifoldly pustuled drew on. Where how efficacious was the inner healing of souls, the outer recovery of infirmities sufficiently openly showed. There flowed thither from heaven the grace of supernal piety, scarcely anyone coming thither returned without a remedy. From the aforesaid territory of Soignies therefore a certain woman, contracted in her whole body, is carried thither by friends, and among many, seeking the same or similar things, is brought before the presence of the bride of God. She lay there some time without the efficacy of recovery, and while she saw many daily healed, she was tortured with greater sadness. But the woman's cure was deferred, not because the intercession of St. Waldetrudis was lacking to her, but the supernal ordinance disposed her to be reformed otherwise. For although St. Vincent and St. Waldetrudis now, immortal with Christ, enjoyed the light of eternal blessedness, yet the bride, paying due reverence to the bridegroom, sent back to him the woman to be cured, accompanied namely by the solace of her intercession. O worthy conjunction of the Saints, which even amid embraces, the discipline of chastity in no way afflicted, after the departure of life merited to be united to the fellowship of the angels. And when the wretched woman was afflicted with the tedium of long expectation; at last after some days, brought back by her own to Soignies, she is set down in the church of the holy Confessor before the cross. Where lying with excessive affliction, forgetful of prayer, she reviled St. Waldetrudis with womanly invective, complaining namely against her, that whereas she had pitied all others, her alone she had sent back without compassion. St. Vincent did not bear the injury to his bride, did not bear longer the affliction of the poor woman, nor delayed to intercede for her with Christ. For, Vespers being celebrated, on the very Lord's day the contracted woman is raised up, there is a running together of clergy and people, the Lord is praised in common, and thus the injurious woman, health being recovered, is reconciled to St. Waldetrudis.

[14] Nor does the friend of God shine only by the recovery of neighbors, and again a third afflicted with the same disease, but even more amply flourishes by the very many restorations of health of foreigners. Flanders is a witness, a witness too the province of Brabant, a witness nonetheless is the region of Toxandria. For in Toxandria a certain man married a wife, who indeed for a time, as it seemed to her, married happily enough, but afterward lived too unhappily. In the first years indeed joyful, the first years of the new union being passed, gradually the unhappy woman began to incur a most evil languor beyond the endurance of the human condition. Her legs and feet stiffen, that frail matter is contracted backward in all its limbs almost to the neck, only

the trunk remains, in the woman a matter of shame and grief, the labor of her husband, his grief and sadness. The magnitude of the languor excludes every estimate of human aid, no man dares to hope any recovery of her, except the reformation of Him alone who had formed her. Her husband therefore, on whom alone the conjugal bond enjoined the familiar care of her, when all hope of recovering health by human means was taken from him, turned himself wholly to the aid of the supernal compassion, and, condoling with his wife's misery beyond all friends alone, dilates his mind on every side to seek the merits of the Saints: he prepares a little cart, spreads a little bed; he sets his wife on it, goes out wandering and groaning, because great was the groan which the sweetness of marital affection roused. He runs in mind with hope and confidence, drawing with him that social yoke, misery accompanying. The whole road is filled with weepings and tears, which namely the domestic calamity poured forth, here marital charity, there conjugal necessity. No place to which he could come is passed by, whichever is marked with the merits of the Saints.

[15] But wherever he enters, at once he meets God and the Saints with prayers and tears, and led about by her husband to various sanctuaries, but from all (alas!) he returns without the efficacy of his vow. The labor bestowed was spent in vain. For the compassion was deferred, not the prayer cast off, nor the petition refused, nor the concession denied. For he had not yet come to the place destined for his wife's health, nor had he yet found that friend of God, Vincent, whom unknowingly he sought. Thus contrite in heart, fallen in mind, held in suspense by desire, wearied by the journey, he returned mourning and grieving. Where whatever he found to relieve the sadness of his mind, nothing at all availed him. A manifold misery had beset his house, namely the want of neglected cultivation, the grief of his wife, the sadness of the husband, and, deprived of both lights, the neglected and negligent household of poverty. But nothing was less tolerable to the man than to be present to his own with so great a calamity: whence, admonished by certain necessary persons to seek the memory of St. Gudila at Brussels ^e, he hastens to bend his mind and step thither. He repairs the vehicle, and, one ox being yoked, the only one he had, again places under it his miserable monster. Thus that man of one ox, having always in heart and mouth the memory of St. Gudila, took the journey wandering alone toward Brussels, not to purchase salt, but to beg health for his wife.

[16] she is healed at Evere where are the Saint's relics. On the same journey there is an estate serving the church of Soignies, Evere ^f is the name of the estate, in which is a church and in it the relics of St. Vincent. Hither leads him, not fame or fortune, but the providence of God wonderfully disposing all things. For unless the most merciful arbiter went before, the most miserable man would not find the way of mercy. It is proclaimed to him by those meeting him, some bestowing alms, others marveling at the novel expedition of the one-ox man, that there flowered the memory of the merits of St. Vincent. And now the whole body of the poor woman began to tremble at a sign of a certain renewal, all her limbs to be moved, as by a certain presage of the supernal visitation. When therefore it is come to the church, the woman is set down from the vehicle, and placed before the altar. There meet mercy and misery, the weeping of the assembling people and their sighs, the sobs of the husband and the clamorous prayers [g] of the wife, for whom the intercession of the friend of God, for all these things, being now heard from heaven, the shrine of supernal piety is opened, and health is poured back into all her limbs. The feet and legs spring back, the hands and arms, and the head is reformed with its former grace. That whole body of unhappiness is raised up, and is almost entirely brought back now to its former state, when behold a certain man, Maurus by name, leaping out to become a helpful supporter, became an injurious hinderer. For where the human succeeded, the divine aid ceased for the hour; and thus what little of the raising remained, remained imperfect. Wondrous works of God! Lest her ash and earth should forget itself, without pain, without deformity there remain some traces of imperfection. The multitude of the people is roused to piety, no one ceases from the praise of God, no one from the admiration of his friend. The husband exults with joy, and hands over to St. Vincent the ox which he alone had. He admonishes his wife to return with him, but she, kindled with a better intention, the remaining time of her life, the veil being taken, perseveres there to serve her deliverer.

[17] To the same villa also a certain man came in pilgrimage, Of a pilgrim man buried in the church of St. Vincent. and, broken by much walking, received lodging. Then, delighted by the sanctity of the place, and enticed also by the great benignity of the inhabitants toward him, he tarried among them in kindly conversation. And because he especially cultivated the place out of the memory of St. Vincent, he frequented the church daily very much, where what his intention was, was by no means hidden from his hosts. For he was truly a pilgrim of the world, and, as far as mortals could discern, a future dweller of heaven. Indeed, God disposing for him the term of living there, seized by infirmity, he enters the way of all flesh, the province of the dead. What more? Dead, by his dictating merits he was buried in the church. There had at that time oppressed that same province a canine plague as to rage, by which namely men die in the plunderings of men, devour themselves and all their goods in prey, with iron and flames, and scarcely abstain with their teeth from the very devouring of mutual flesh. Nothing remained for a refuge of liberty except some devotions of the churches. Thither was gathered whatever the rustic hand could gather. Whence also in the aforesaid church of St. Vincent no place of ground was empty except that in which the man of God had been buried. That alone the reverence of the guest had made free. Which remaining empty, a certain woman, because that animal is more audacious than all the animals of the earth, dared to set up there her seat. St. Vincent did not bear the injury to his guest, but, mercifully angered at the impudent woman, brought the vengeance of a pious correction. For soon as first she sat upon that seat, weakened in all her limbs she cried out with pain. Those present are troubled at the novelty of the thing, they grieve and are amazed at so sudden a weakness of the woman. Yet she is brought back to the friend of God and set down before the altar of St. Vincent with great wailing of her own, about to experience a little after the physician of his wonted piety. Where, after, recognizing her fault, she repented with her whole heart, execrating her own audacity, she recovered entire health.

ANNOTATIONS.

Thus far the more ancient miracles, in which you may desire the accuracy of the writers or collectors, no circumstances clearly denoting from which one may come into knowledge of the times, for, as I just observed, only the name of Count Baldwin, simply taken, no more designates Securicula than another of the same name. There is subjoined in our codex the hymn at Vespers of the Office, "Regem cælestis gloriæ," etc., but since it was described above in the Commentary, I have not thought it should here be subjoined again. Behold now the more recent miracles, much more distinctly explained, to which in our manuscript this title is prefixed: There follow the miracles, done in our time by the suffrage of Blessed Vincent; translated from the French tongue into

Latin, and collected by Master John de Lattre, canon of Soignies; to the greater glory of God, and the honor of his servant. I collated the manuscript with Fortius, in which the order is somewhat inverted, but where he himself acknowledged his error. Of his division it was said above; here I would only note that in the second part the fourth miracle is inserted, and that the most recent of all, inasmuch as wrought in the year 1643, which from it we shall subjoin to the rest, rendered from French into Latin, or rather contracted: for the rest no difference occurs worthy of note, except that in the Latin version of the former miracles many things had to be corrected, of which to warn the reader one by one I do not judge worth the trouble.

MORE RECENT MIRACLES.

From the Soignies manuscript,

Collated with the French edition of Fortius.

Vincent Madelgarius, Confessor, at Soignies in Hainaut, Belgium (S.)

Master John Bacchart, licentiate of sacred theology, parish priest of the parish church of Lens in Hainaut, Master Bacchart freed from an affliction of his right side; who was also pastor of Binche, afterward canon of the Metropolitan church of Cambrai, while he discharged the office of sub-regent in the schools of Ath, namely in the year 1597, by a defluxion, now secretly descending into his right side, was vexed with so intolerable a torment that he was altogether deprived of the use of his arm, and his hand could not minister food to his mouth, the arm resisting stiff. After long consultation of physicians, destitute of all human aid, when he could not return to health, he had himself carried back to his father's house: whither brought, he was there fixed to his bed for the space of about five weeks. At last, his friends exhorting him, he made a vow to visit the thresholds of St. Vincent at Soignies. Nor was the vow void: set on a horse he proceeds to Soignies; he, the journey being carried to the midpoint, began to move his arm a little. On the next day, a votive Mass being heard at the altar of St. Vincent, embracing the pillars which support the body of the blessed Confessor, by the divine mercy bestowing, forthwith all languor being laid aside, he is freed from all torment. These things from the informations which Master Valentine Colart, canon of the Metropolitan church of Cambrai, Archdeacon of Hainaut, and official of the most illustrious Master William de Berghes, Archbishop of Cambrai, had; and these are the accounts which the said Master Bacchart rendered under oath of truth into the hands of the said Master Colart.

[2] and Antony Ramaix from grievous pains of the limbs; Antony Ramaix, citizen of Ath, in the year 1595, by the fall and weight of one cask of beer, his hip so bruised that, the disease gradually growing, he was tortured with the sharpest pains of all his limbs, and for the space of nine months was thereupon compelled to lie some days in bed, nor could he walk about the house except supported on props; when there was no help, no art in the physicians, several pilgrimages by him to several places of the Saints were made in vain. It happened that on a certain Thursday on which the solemn translation of St. Vincent had fallen to be celebrated, a vow of pilgrimage being made by him, and (as is the custom) some little sum of money offered, that he might pray; his vow was not sent forth in vain; for suddenly he convalesced better, not even laying aside, but casting away the props by which he was supported, he began to stand on his feet, and to walk about the house with much admiration of the whole family. A little after, the vow being paid at Soignies, by the divine grace granting, the strength of his body being recovered by the pious merits of the blessed Confessor, he was made sound and whole. These are the accounts made by the said Antony before the said Master Colart.

[3] and Agnes du Bois from a long-continued torment of the head. Agnes du Bois, widow of Nicasius du Leuloy, of no mean condition among the citizens of Soignies, forty-eight years ago or thereabouts, in the twenty-third year of her age, was struck with a certain intolerable trouble of the head, so that for many whole days she was compelled to lie down, and now not only sense but even mind failed her, and she was held scarcely able of mind, like one frenzied. For the rest, when no remedy for her so great evil was found, and indeed pilgrimages to the memory of St. Leodegarius, bishop and martyr, at Ghoetynyes, and to the other thresholds of the Saints, were made in vain: when on a certain day a greater force of the passion wearied her more and more, afflicted with immense pain, she turned upon herself the solicitude of her mother. The mother therefore, dreading the case of her daughter, moved by the affection of commiseration, and bringing her aid, induces the mind of her daughter to direct her thoughts to St. Vincent, by whose merits and patronage torments of the head are put to flight (as is sufficiently ascertained, votive waxen heads hanging beside the sacred relics:) nor did the hope which she had placed in the blessed Confessor deceive her: for soon she began to be better. Some days being interposed, the vow being made, and a votive Mass heard at his altar, she returns home. But when it was winter and she approached the fire, she, agitated by an unusual sneeze, sneezed from her nostrils, or coughed out, a certain little stone making a noise, of the size (as they say) of a Roman bean, rendering the likeness of lime, from which for so many years she had suffered continual pain. Freed by which little stone, not long after, the supernal grace bestowing, every ailment of the head being put to flight, she obtained the perfect health so long sought, sooner than her expectation. These things from the informations which the aforesaid Master Colart had. It is also to be noted that these three immediately preceding distinguished and renowned prodigies, published by the patronage and merits of St. Vincent, at the petition of the Lords of Soignies, the counsel and judgment of theologians and other honest men being employed, William de Berghes, Archbishop of Cambrai, approved, and declared that these things had so been transacted. Given at Cambrai in his Archiepiscopal palace in the year 1606, on the ninth day of March.

[4] Other miracles too are brought forth, not to be omitted, but to be published. James Moucheux is restored to health from a grievous languor. James Moucheux, born at Soignies, a citizen of Mons, was not without means: for from the beginning of the year 1608 until the month of July of the following year 1609 he was involved in so atrocious a disease of the head, that the force of the pain invaded the rest of his body, but especially his legs, with a hidden humor. The remedies of his calamity and the arts of the physicians of Mons being attempted in vain, the powers of medicaments also being applied in vain, several memories of the Saints besides (especially St. Medard at Andrelue, and St. Cornelius of Ninove) being visited in vain, God reserving to St. Vincent the honor of healing the man. So great a force of the disease wasted the man more and more day by day, that from the middle of March to the following May he was fixed to his bed. From excessive languor he was so exhausted that he could neither read nor write, nor be present attentively at the sacrifice of the Mass, nor through the streets, and by himself, advance a step and steady his foot (the long-continued disease making his footing fail), although leaning on a staff. At last, destitute of human help, he turned his thoughts to God and the aid of St. Vincent, full of confidence and hope. Wherefore when he had made a vow, a confidence being conceived in his mind, a few days being interposed, he proceeds from Mons to Soignies, nor was he destitute of his hope. For, the divine and votive things being celebrated for eight whole days at the altar of the divine Confessor, and there fortified with the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, forthwith, the force of the obstinate disease beginning to relax, he feels health restored to him; and thus, sufficiently strengthened in the office of his limbs, glad and exulting, he returns to his own home, resolving anew (as was fitting) to visit the thresholds of St. Vincent. On the day therefore of the celebrity of the gracious Vincent, July 14, he renews the observance of pilgrimage, nor was the repeated pilgrimage void. For when he followed close behind in the solemn procession, with immense devotion, the sacred relics of blessed Vincent, suddenly a certain hidden defluxion running through his calves, so great a pain invaded him, that, involved in so great pain, he could scarcely accomplish the remainder of the procession. At last, all pain being put to flight, his sinews being vigorous, he obtained the health long desired, and the soundness of his limbs. A year being revolved, on July 14 of the year 1610, he came to Soignies vigorous and whole, to render thanks to blessed Vincent his benefactor, decreeing thereafter every year, not unmindful of the benefit received, to come to Soignies and frequent the memory of the holy Confessor. This account the aforenamed James Moucheux related to the Dean of the collegiate church of St. Vincent, licentiate of sacred theology, Henry de Vergnyes, in the same year 1610.

[5] Michaëlis Hanouille, of the Franciscan discipline in the monastery of Brugelette, Sister Michaëlis freed from pain of the head. by a hidden humor gliding thereupon from the brain into her shoulders, was pressed with a most grievous pain. But that she might be snatched from so great a pain of torment, she frequented every year the memory of St. Vincent; nor did the frequenting fall out in vain; for she always brought back immense relief. In the autumn of the year 1606 or 1607, the troubles of the head invaded her more sharply than ever before. The nuns who ministered to her, that they might bring some relief, pressed her head with joined hands. So also the obstinate force of the pain had occupied the rest of her body, that, fixed to her bed for three weeks, with atrocious pains of all her limbs, destitute of their benefit, she could not move herself unless aided by others' hands. On a certain day, destitute of human remedy, she turned her mind to God as well as blessed Vincent, a vow being made, adding to the vow what prayers she could: for immense pain weighed down the office of her soul. How great was the force of her prayer, God openly demonstrated; for not so long after, a brief sleep oppressed her body burdened with anxiety of mind: the sleep being shaken off, from her pains and disease, sooner than all expectation, she feels herself utterly freed, and to have recovered the vigor of her body: forthwith leaping from her bed sound and vigorous, she goes to her germane sister Mary Hanouille, superior of the nuns, and, addressing her, says these words: You all deserted me, but the patronage of blessed Vincent being implored by me, by his merits and benefit I see myself healed. She, walking by herself on her own feet through the various places of the monastery, congratulating with the fellow-sisters who met her, proclaims the experienced benefit of the blessed Confessor Vincent. All the nuns therefore, like ones astonished at the distinguished prodigy of so great a thing, whispering among themselves in common conversation, said that she would relapse into her former infirmity, and that she was overflowing with premature joy, and that a subsequent relapse would presently disturb the clear and poured-out gladness. But it happened far otherwise than they thought: for day by day, the divine grace granting, blessed Vincent aiding, she convalesced better, acknowledging the heavenly benefit, she set no measure of rendering thanks to God and his Confessor: with the greatest zeal of religion coming every year to Soignies, sufficiently mindful of the benefit received, for the remaining time of her life she visited the sacred relics of blessed Vincent. These things the aforenamed superior deposed before the Dean of Soignies, Henry de Vergnyes, and Master John de Vergnyes, priest.

[6] Louis Gresouille is invigorated from an incurable languor. The year 1608 is believed illustrious for a renowned miracle. Louis Gresouille, citizen and carter of Ath, an atrocious and obstinate disease had first invaded through half a year: some interval of time being interposed, suddenly by a new and, more grievous than the former, pain he is struck through a year: for such

was the force of the evil that he was utterly destitute of the use of his limbs. His legs stiff, fixed to his bed, he could not move them without another's help; his cold limbs were fomented with distilled waters (which they themselves distilled): but since these brought no help, they approach a certain shepherd, master of medicine, who gave medicaments as well as fomentations to be applied to the diseased limbs, against the obstinate pain, which by no means checked the pains of Louis; but rather aggravated them, and tortured him with more atrocious troubles. He, wholly in afflictions, passing an age more grievous than death, when he perceived that no aid of his calamity was laid up for him in the virtue of these medicaments, and by their application was shaken with more atrocious torment, judging that to human aid the divine must be added, turned himself to the patronage of St. Vincent with all religion and vows; proposing, full of confidence and hope, to visit his thresholds. And so, on the twenty-ninth of May in the year 1608, lifted onto a cart, having undertaken the votive pilgrimage, he proceeds to Soignies for the sake of paying his prayers and vows. Meanwhile he decreed that votive supplications should be celebrated before the sacred relics of the Confessor. When it was come thither, he is carried to the sacred building before the altar of the blessed Confessor: nor did his hope, nor his vows fall in vain; for at the time of the votive Mass, which he heard attentively as well as devoutly, his cold limbs grow warm again, the languor gradually receding, feeling his strength, by the divine clemency bestowing, return, about to make a trial of his strength, he rises from his chair, standing on his feet he approaches the altar for the protection of the Eucharist. The divine service being accomplished, not without immense admiration of his wife and of those who were present, he alone by himself, without any support, glad, went round the high altar more than once; then, without any helper, all present being amazed at so renowned a miracle, he returns to his lodging: whose so great miracle's fame (as is wont) running vigorously through the whole city, and pervading the ears of the lord canons, the matter seemed worthy of which they should take counsel. Called into council, they order Louis to be summoned to them (witnesses being employed); he goes out from his lodging with his wife without any support to them: he is examined about his disease; the examination being accurately accomplished, he turns aside to his lodging. Meanwhile by common decree of the canons, by the ringing of the Vincentian bell the clergy and people are called together to the church. Louis, coming to the church with his wife as companion, turns his eyes upon himself, the immense people (which was fuller than usual) following close behind, admiring the notable prodigy done. Then in thanksgiving, in alternating choirs, with joyful voice the hymn Te Deum is sung. He meanwhile, praying on bended knees before the high altar, rendered thanks to God and to blessed Vincent, the peoples being astonished at the novelty of the thing, and, from the magnitude of joy, tears arising, with one mouth by all the merits of the Confessor are proclaimed. And so exulting, glad, and vigorous, possessed of his vow, he seeks home again. But when he came to the gate of the city of Ath, he descended from the cart; on his own feet, no support sustaining him, he returned to his own roof. The people of Ath, aware of his infirmity, when they saw him entering on his own feet, were amazed at the prodigy of so great a thing, and the novelty of the matter. To whom Louis, whomever he met, joyfully proclaims the experienced benefit of blessed Vincent. He indeed, delivered from so atrocious and incurable a disease and so miraculously restored to health, not unmindful of so great a benefit, as long as he should live, vowed to come to Soignies every year on his distinguished solemnity, and left a votive tablet, witness of so great a miracle, on which his effigy representing him to the life was expressed, which is seen hung at the right of the altar of the Confessor on a pillar, an illustrious monument of the miracle among posterity, with this French inscription: Le XXIX May MDCVIII a esté guari Louis Gresouille d'un mal de jambe, ne pouvant cheminer; estant porté en l'eglise de S. Vincent, par la grace de Dieu & l'intercession de S. Vincent en est sorti guari ledict charton d'Ath.

[7] Anna Halet is made whole from a foul cancer. In the same times the sacred building of Vincent was illustrated by another distinguished miracle. Anna Halet, wife of Vincent Desgardins, was so wretchedly consumed by a burning fever and a dangerous and foul cancer in the region of the kidneys, that she was rendered like one deranged. Her poverty and want being considered, she is admitted into the hospital. Not so long after, because the foulness of the cancer harmed the other sick, the nun who was committed to the care of the sick is urged to carry her into the ante-hospital (the place is separated from the other sick). Master Jodocus Hurlus, and Master Alphonsus Leo, both physicians of Soignies, distinguished among the physicians of the medical art, overcome by the atrocity of the evil, refuse to apply medicaments to the evil, asserting the disease incurable, and utterly despairing of its cure. When she perceived that health was despaired of by the physicians, recalling to her mind the recent cure of the carter of Ath, namely Louis Gresouille, one year ago in 1608, by the benefit of blessed Vincent, placing likewise all her hope and confidence of her cure in the blessed Confessor, she demands a remedy for the urgent disease. And so, a vow being made, she vows herself a pilgrim, and vowed to perform every year the circuit of the procession, if no case should hinder, by herself; by another in her place, if a case should hinder. Nor did her hope, nor her vow prove void; her vows being sent forth, she recites the rosary: blessed Vincent did not fail the woman's prayers: for suddenly the wound, or obstinate cancer, began to close over. For the rest, and to the last, the pain being forthwith put to flight, within a short space, the scar of the wound being closed, suffused with immense joy, sound and vigorous she goes out of the hospital; on the fifteenth of June, possessed of her vow, she seeks home again, all aware of her disease being astonished with immense admiration. Everywhere joyful she proclaims the experienced aid of St. Vincent, by whose benefit, after the divine clemency, she had been recalled from so atrocious a disease to her former health. This is the account of the aforenamed Anna Halet before the Dean of the church of Soignies, in the presence of the Master treasurer, priest, on the 11th day of November 1610. Likewise Agnes Viellart, rectoress of the hospital, attests on the 5th of November of the same year. Likewise on the same day the aforesaid physicians affirmed the disease to be incurable.

[8] Elisabeth Charlet is restored to health from an incurable disease; In almost the same times the sacred building of Soignies is ennobled by a renowned and noble miracle. Elisabeth, daughter of Francis Charlet and Joanna Coumelet, citizens of Soignies, in the twenty-second year of her age, had entered the Franciscan community in the suburb of the city of Soignies, to put on the monastic habit: meanwhile a deadly wasting disease invaded her, and therefore, the obstinate disease not permitting, she could not be admitted to the vow of religion. Nevertheless she wore the monastic habit in that same community, with this intention (that, the infirmity receding) she might make the vow of religion. Meanwhile, the sickness gradually growing worse, near to death, she is anointed with the oil of Extreme Unction. For her cure the most excellent physicians are called from Brussels, Mons, and other neighboring places; when they had left nothing untried, for the infirmity compelled to try all things, yet they could not by their industry bring aid to her calamity. The remedies of the healers being tried uselessly; she, destitute of the use of her legs and feet, and besides beset with the sharpest pains, drew out a most miserable life, more like to death than to life. An immense fear perhaps had invaded her mind, either of untimely death, or of perpetual infirmity. And so, when she perceived no help remaining in human efforts, she aspired to the aid of blessed Vincent, full of hope and confidence, proposing to herself with no doubtful persuasion, that if she could pay before the relics of the blessed Confessor the zeal of the devotion she had conceived, and if not long-desired entire health, she at least would obtain the soundness of her limbs. Wherefore she dared to join conversation with the superior, and to ask her to permit her to be carried before the sacred relics of the blessed Confessor; which she asked with all prayers, and sought with every vow, hoping with no doubtful confidence that the prayers of blessed Vincent would be salutary to her. The superior of set purpose eluded the request of the petitioner, putting it off from day to day, because she was detained by too great an infirmity, and could not be carried thither without certain danger of life. There was approaching the day of the solemnity of the blessed Confessor to be celebrated, on which his memory is wont to be celebrated with the greatest concourse of mortals; wishing the observance of her desire to be brought to effect, supported by props (they call them crutches), a certain nun also bringing help, she tried to enter, but not even thus was she able of body, her unstable footing failing her. At last the superior, her mind changed, assenting to her votive desires and requests, on the very day of the blessed Confessor, July 14, is carried to the church by two girls in a chair, two nuns accompanying close behind, namely about the fourth hour of the morning, which she had wished, that first she might offer the votive supplication to God as well as to blessed Vincent. When it was come thither, she is set before the altar of the Confessor, the votive sacred rite is celebrated, during the sacrifice of the Mass she earnestly asks the blessed Confessor that, God being propitiated, he obtain for her the health of her body. Nor did her prayers fall in vain: at the time of the consecration she could not yet move herself from her place, but when it was come to the place of communion; a thing wondrous to see and hear, the divine mercy granting, she feels the use and strength of the limbs, of which she had been deprived, forthwith restored to her. Forthwith therefore, her sinews being vigorous, alone and glad she leaped from the chair, without any support she stood on her feet, on bended knees she is purified with the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist: the sacred food being taken, she rises, withdraws, the observance of her devotion being accomplished, joyfully walking through the church by herself, she surveys the various chapels. Afterward by herself on her own feet she goes to the monastery, where when she came, she ascended the oratory; the nuns, like ones astonished at the novelty and amazement of the thing, having performed mutual congratulation, and moved by the evident miracle, sang together the hymn Te Deum. At last, the Vespers of the lord canons being accomplished, from the monastery by herself, two nuns following close behind, she came to the church of blessed Vincent, to render thanks to God as well as to blessed Vincent. The clergy and people being called together by the ringing of the larger bell, the hymn Te Deum in alternating choirs, all being amazed at the prodigy of so great a thing, is musically sung. These things were signed and fortified with the seal both of the chapter and of the city on the twenty-first of July 1617.

[9] and Catherine Havort is cured of a similar languor; The year 1618 ennobled the relics of blessed Vincent with a distinguished and renowned prodigy. For in the same year a pestilence had begun to rage in the suburb of Soignies, and threatened a graver calamity to the city. Therefore the lord canons, when they saw it creeping day by day, sanctioned by common counsel and decree, to appease the heavenly wrath, that a solemn procession be made outside the city, with the sacred body of blessed Vincent: to which flowed an immense number of both sexes, from various and neighboring places: nor did the procession fall in vain. For, the votive procession being celebrated with the highest zeals of men, the city, the plague being driven off, escaped the present peril. Then Catherine Havort, a girl of Brussels of sixteen years, a boarder with the Franciscan nuns in the suburb of the city, subject to a grievous and incurable ailment, from the feast of St. Martin 1617 until the twentieth day of June 1618, fixed to her bed, deprived of the use of her limbs, tortured with atrocious troubles of the heart, the side, as well as the head, passed a wretched

life. To such infirmity was added another not light pain: for a most troublesome hiccup seized her, by which she was continually pressed, so that from the excessive bitterness of the pain, breath and voice failed her: but also scanty food wasted her, who not even in the interval of three months tasted the morsel of bread set before her. While her bed was being made, she made trial of her strength, whether by herself she could stand on her feet, but in vain; yet always placing the hope of her health in blessed Vincent, an immense longing goaded her mind to approach holy Vincent; she very often greatly wished to be carried to his thresholds (for on every side the force of the evil pressed) hoping that by his aid she would bring back health. For at times she said, Now I see well, I shall never obtain health, unless I be carried to his memory. Nay, on this very day of the Apostles Peter and Paul, when she had understood that in a votive procession the sacred body of the blessed Confessor was to be set down in the Franciscan chapel; she begs Sister Frances Nieux, deputed to her care, to be carried into the oratory, full of confidence, whom, taken up onto her arm, she carried like a child. Nor was her hope void: for when it was come to the chapel of the nuns, when the bearers of the sacred pledge entered, suddenly her voice failed her, and, a fainting arising, her sense and voice remained slight and scanty. As she recovered breath and voice, the said nun Frances inquires how she now was: a little better, she says; not long after, her spirit returning and confirmed, she rises from the chair, the said Sister Frances bringing help; by herself on her own feet she went round the oratory not only once. When Sister Frances saw her walking on her own feet, she stopped astonished at the novelty of the thing, and stood like one amazed and stupefied, then moved by the evident miracle, she mingled divine praises with her; then with steady foot and firm step she descended from the oratory into the chapel, where before the altar, on bended knees, she renders thanks to God and to blessed Vincent, by whose merits and benefit she was freed from all peril, and obtained the health of her body. These things from the informations had through Master Gabriel du Chateau the Dean, licentiate of sacred theology, Master Gregory de Nalines, John Navetius, canons, and Master William de Hammo, parish priest, and Master Charles le Poivre, Notary of the chapter, being employed, on June 29, 1618.

[10] The sacred building of Soignies in the year 1624 is illustrated by an evident and renowned miracle. and afterward Joanna de Louvreoir. Joanna de Louvreoir, of the Franciscan community, in the suburb of the city of Soignies, born of honest birth in the same city, in the twenty-eighth year of her age, the ninth of her profession, while on the 27th day of September 1623 she hastened to the divine office, was forthwith involved in a certain hidden humor, gliding down into her calves. While she piously and religiously poured out her mind in prayers, and could no longer, from the excessive bitterness of the evil, stand on her feet, she asked and obtained from the superior of the nuns (they call her mother), there present, the faculty of sitting. The divine office being fulfilled, whither she had to go, she by no means could, except supporting herself with her hands against the walls. From the feast of St. Francis, by command of the superior, she is supported by a staff, until the eighth day following, the feast of blessed Martin. But when she was pressed day by day more by the atrocity of the evil, commanded by the superior (moved by the affection of commiseration) she uses crutches under her arms, which she used until Quinquagesima Sunday, on which day, leaning on the same crutches, while she wished to climb into her little cell, and had ascended some steps, she could by no means go further: two nuns bring her help, leading her back to her cell, who from that time had to be carried by two nuns in a portable chair, in which she was purified with the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, because she was tortured with the most bitter pains in her calves, although the superior had called the most skilled doctors for her cure. Moreover, a manifold medicated potion being taken in vain, her limbs loaded with the ointments of the healers as well as with waxen plasters against her pains, not only were they applied uselessly, but rather by them the obstinate evil aggravated the pain, and the cure was more inclined to a graver inconvenience than to a help. And so, destitute of human help, the merits of blessed Vincent earnestly kindle her to the hope of health. Wherefore she supplicates her confessor to ask her superior to permit her to be carried to the relics of the blessed Confessor, persuading with no doubtful hope that by his patronage she would be restored to health, God being propitious. To whose pious and votive requests the superior assenting, on April 28, 1624, sanctioned that she be carried into the sacred building of Vincent by two maidservants, two nuns accompanying her close behind. When it was come thither, she is set before the altar of divine Vincent, there Master Peter Haillet, priest, awaited her at the fourth hour of the morning, about to celebrate the votive supplications. Nor did her hope, nor her vow fall in vain; from the beginning of the sacred rite up to the place of the consecration, suddenly a certain shaking invaded her legs, not otherwise than as if a physician applied a medicine to a recent or deadly wound. But at the time of the consecration of the body of Christ, being about earnestly to venerate it, she strives to fall on her knees, but in vain, blessed Vincent deferring his patronage, that it might become more illustrious. But when it was come to the Communion, she asks the nuns her companions to bring her help, that she might let down her knees to the ground, by whose support she had to be sustained as she let down her knees. Which the aforenamed priest perceiving, approaching nearer, about to hold out the sacred food, exhorting her, trembling, says these words: Show now the confidence which you have in God, and in his Saint. A thing wondrous to say and see! she, the disease being driven off by a certain divine force, feels more and more the vigor of the limbs, of which she had been deprived, return; so that she heard the remainder of the Mass, on bended knees, without any helper. The divine service being accomplished, acknowledging the heavenly benefit, on her own feet exulting and glad she transfers herself (her two companions astonished at the amazement of the said thing) between the pillars supporting the sacred relics; where partly standing on her feet, partly with knees set on the ground, she remained about half an hour, mingling thanks with praises, and awaiting the sacristan to unlock the bolts of the doors of the treasury. The sacred relics being reverently saluted by her, acknowledging the rich benefit of God as well as of blessed Vincent, on her own feet, though supported by two nuns as companions, about earnestly to pay thanks to God; about also to adore the venerable Sacrament with immense zeal of religion, she returns to the chapel of the monastery. At the admiration of which miracle the superior, fixed, wholly suffused with joy, stood clinging like one amazed and stupefied. Then the nuns in the oratory, intent on prayers and meditations of heavenly things, as they had been commanded, sang the hymn Te Deum, the Benedictus, and the hymn of blessed Vincent, with joyful voice. These being accomplished, without any support, exulting and exceedingly glad (as was fitting) sound and vigorous, she ascended from the chapel into the oratory, to render thanks to her fellow-sisters (amazed at this prodigy), because they had poured out prayers to God for her health, and to proclaim to them, as an encomiast, the experienced aid of the blessed Confessor. These being accomplished, she goes to her little cell, from which she descended to the divine Office of that day. She thereafter, whole and vigorous, convalesced better day by day. But the lord canons, called into council, lest they should incur the crime of ingratitude, by common decree sanctioned that the clergy and people, the bell giving a graver sound, be called together to the church: and thither came she who had recently been invigorated, turning the eyes of all upon herself, together with her two fellow-sisters following close behind, to render thanks to God and to blessed Vincent: where the hymn Te Deum is sung in alternating choirs. These things from the informations had through two senior canons, the Notary of the chapter and the scribe of the city being employed, by the mandate of the lords of the chapter, on the last of April 1624.

[11] Maria Sturbois is freed from the disease of sciatica, The year 1631 rendered the sacred building of Soignies celebrated by a distinguished miracle. Maria (ten years old), daughter of George Sturbois, bailiff at Nast (a village near Soignies), from the feast of Easter of the same year laboring with the disease of sciatica, a certain humor in her groin flowing secretly into both knees, was so swollen with pain, and, with an almost continual cry, from the excessive torture so consumed, that her father, moved by the affection of commiseration, mourning, was very often compelled to rise from his bed at night to bring help to his daughter; for the force of the obstinate disease pressed. She could scarcely walk, even supporting her steps with a staff, the disease pressing; involved in so great a gravity of disease, she was long fixed upon her pillow; when night came on, she had to be carried to bed, and to other places. When day by day she was consumed more and more by these calamities, the patronages of the Saints are implored; and various pilgrimages are made: as to the sacred Marian building of Messines, in French Miessenne, in Bertemont, as near Mons as it is near Lille: to the thresholds also of SS. Hilary and Leonard, but those fell out in vain; God reserving to blessed Vincent the honor of her health; medicaments also being applied in vain to the parts beset with pains. When the girl's father was at Soignies in the house of Andrew Francque, and, grieving, complained among them about the disease and the magnitude of his daughter's troubles; most opportunely the wife of the said Francque admonishes him about imploring the divine aid, and that he should flee to blessed Vincent for the sake of aid, and kindles him to the hope of health, and that he should carry his daughter as a pilgrim, on the solemnity of blessed Vincent (which will be celebrated, she says, within eight days) to his thresholds, and a suppliant implore aid: to limbs affected with a similar disease, she says, remedies are brought by his merits, and to those piously imploring him many benefits of health are given. These pious exhortations being heard, forthwith an immense longing came upon his mind, of carrying his daughter thither. He makes a vow, eager to recover his daughter's health; the vow being made, day by day the girl, the divine mercy granting, convalesced more. His business not permitting, on the solemnity of St. Vincent he cannot pay the vow; but on the next day, with the highest devotion of mind, with no less hope and confidence, to Soignies for the sake of paying his prayers and vows, he carries her behind him on a horse, and, set down from the beast, leads her by the hand before the altar of blessed Vincent; where, on bended knees, he earnestly implores his aid. When he had satisfied his vows, he also led her by the hand to the lodging, to which a helmet was set as a sign. When she could not by herself climb the steps, again carried by her father she is brought in. And scarcely set before the fire, suddenly an immense pain seized her head and calves. To the father, conversing with the hostess, a joyful message is brought, that his daughter had gone out of the house, and by herself alone had more than once ascended and descended the steps. Which message heard, like one astonished he leaped out of the house: a thing wondrous to hear and see! he sees his daughter from afar gazing at the tents of the merchants (the city's fair was on), and, to her inquiring father, she answers that, all pain being put to flight, and the strength of her body recovered, she is sound and vigorous, blessed Vincent patronizing. At the fame of which miracle, flying through the marketplace, and with a great throng of men and boys standing around the girl walking by herself with firm steps, and amazed at such a prodigy, she goes to Master Gabriel du Chasteau, licentiate of the sacred page, dean of the chapter, most worthy for a long time

(the street indeed uncultivated and rough). The father, his business accomplished, carries his daughter back on a wagon, who, set down, runs about the house exulting and glad, her mother (she was a stepmother) and the whole family marveling at the novelty of so great a thing. But on the twentieth day of July of the same year the father, acknowledging the benefit given from heaven, accompanied by his wife, the pastor, and other friends, about to render thanks to God and to blessed Vincent his benefactor, comes to Soignies, the girl walking by herself alone. There Master Bonaventure Grislain, deserving pastor at Nast, made supplications at the altar of the benefactor, in thanksgiving. On which day, arbiters being employed, Masters John Lewart, John Navet, Charles le Poivre, canons, by decree of the whole chapter an accurate examination of the whole matter is made, through Michael de Sainctes, public scribe. The lords being called into council, counsel being maturely had over these things, the bell of Vincent by its graver sound calls together the clergy as well as the people into the church. Where, Vespers being finished, in alternating choirs with joyful voice the hymn Te Deum is sung, the girl recently restored to health being present, turning the eyes of all to admiration and upon herself. Thus far the miracles received from the Soignies manuscripts, to which it remains to add that which we said above among the approved ones, the most recent, and which from the French edition of Fortius we here, somewhat more contracted, render into Latin. Thus he himself has from page 290:

[12] and Maria Buterne from a palsy before unknown. In the year 1643 Maria Buterne, wife of Nicholas Desableaux, citizen of Ath, of the diocese of Cambrai, in the month of May seized with a most grievous infirmity, was so affected in her whole body, that she was deprived of all use and motion of her limbs, so that she could not even move food to her mouth; in which most wretched state, immovable, fixed to her bed, she persevered for three or four weeks. In the wondrous and unknown disease neither the physicians profited, nor any remedies procured whether by nature or by art; and thus, having struggled a whole month with pains, she chanced to understand that the sacred body of St. Vincent, for fear of the French, who at that time had occupied Binche, distant only four leagues from Soignies, under the Duke of Enghien, had been translated thence into her own town of Ath, and set down in the parish church of St. Julian. Hence the sick woman, conceiving confidence in the merits of the Saint with sincere affection and pious intention, forthwith vowed that she would go thither; and soon in her grievous infirmity she felt no small solace: for through the house for two whole days she began to creep, leaning on a staff alone; yet, destitute of strength thus far to fulfill the vow, she was compelled to defer the matter, until a little more of vigor should accrue. But this did not succeed so promptly as she herself had hoped; for the said two days being past, the torments which had remitted a little afflicted the sick woman more sharply, except that her right hand remained a little freer from them. For the rest, these new and harder straits pressing in vain, she abstained from every human remedy; both because she had experienced no solace in them, and because the confidence conceived in St. Vincent grew, in whose honor she wished a Mass to be celebrated on Saturday, June 27: and although she could by no means be moved from her bed; as soon as it was reported to her that the Saint's body was to be brought back to Soignies, since the enemies had now left Hainaut; delaying nothing, she wished to be carried in a portable seat to the church in whatever way, not without incredible fatigue amid the sharpest pains; which was done on the next Sunday, the 28th day of the said month; and there she was set down at the entrance of the choir under the rood-loft. There she began suddenly to be shaken in her whole body with an immense trembling, and this held so long, until, moved nearer to the reliquary, she felt the trepidation subside, yet so that she continued to grow wholly cold. But after she had poured forth prayers, offered a gift, and kissed the sacred shrine or reliquary, that she might be withdrawn from the crowd, carried to the chapel of St. Catherine, she was present at the most holy sacrifice of the Mass with what sense of piety she could: and behold, by a wonderful prodigy, and no less an evident miracle, soon free from all pain she leaped from her seat, went forward without any support, returned home sound, those women following who a little before had carried her to the church: and after an hour, returning thither, bearing a burning taper in her hand, all the people being amazed, she accompanied the reliquary as far as the Pintimont gate, by which the exit from Ath toward Mons and Soignies lies open. Thence she continued to be most perfectly well, only her left arm for four or five days still remaining somewhat stiff: but when she did not cease to invoke the Saint so propitious, a vow also being added of undertaking a pilgrimage to Soignies on July 14, as his chief solemnity; her arm too was entirely restored, nor was she thereafter afflicted with any sense of pain. This instantaneous cure of so unusual a disease, physicians and theologians being consulted, the most illustrious Francis Vander Burch, Archbishop and Duke of Cambrai, declared miraculous, and so to be ascribed to the merits and patronage of St. Vincent with God, as is clear from his letters given on this matter at Mons in Hainaut on April 15, 1644.

* he bound himself by a vow

* Should it not be "about to go on pilgrimage"?

* phthisis