ON ST. REGISWIND, A LITTLE GIRL OF SEVEN YEARS,
AT LAUFFEN ON THE NECKAR IN SWABIA.
9th Century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's monuments, cult, and Acts.
Regiswind, a little girl, at Lauffen on the Neckar in Swabia (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
Lauffen, a small city of Swabia situated on the bank of the river Neckar, and therefore called in the vernacular Lauffen am Necker, that it may be distinguished from places of the same name in Germany, obtained its name from the rapid course of the river flowing past: for "lauffen" among the Germans signifies "to run." St. Regiswind was once celebrated at Lauffen on the Neckar. He who desires to know more particular things concerning its situation and other matters pertaining to it, let him consult Franz Petri in the Suevia Ecclesiastica lately printed, page 497, Martin Crusius in the places to be cited below, Matthäus Merian in the German Topography of Swabia, page 48, Martin Zeiller in the Treatise on the X circles of the Roman-Germanic Empire, page 585, and other topographers, most of whom in the description of this place made mention of the Saint proposed in the title. For in that town, which anciently is said to have been called by a sufficiently specious name, Augusta of the Neckar, St. Regiswind or Regiswida was venerated with catholic rite, and her prodigies were celebrated, before Luther diffused the contagious poison of his heresy through Germany. Nay, that even now the memory of this holy little Girl survives there among the heterodox, our Johann Gamans testifies, who in the year 1645 from Heilbronn thus writes to Bolland: The day before yesterday I made an excursion to Lauffen to St. Regiswida; there are still several monuments of her there among the Lutherans.
[2] It is doubtful what monuments of veneration What those monuments among the Lutherans are, neither does Gamans himself indicate, nor is it easy for me to affirm for certain. That several survived still in the sixteenth century I gather from the heterodox writers themselves. Among them Martin Crusius, part 2 of the Suevian Annals, book 2, chapter 3, says that the whole history of St. Regiswind was depicted in the temple of Lauffen. Then he exhibits the following epitaph, which I suspect was inscribed in the year 1527 on that altar or reliquary:
There keeps watch, distinguished, celebrated, a little maiden in this tomb, Regiswind, a martyr also and exceptional; whom a savage nurse, in the first flower of youth, innocent, oppressed, driven by grievous fury. The urn, forever beloved by the highest Thunderer, holds the venerable bones, the spirit dwells among the stars.
[3] I know not whether these or other monuments have remained
after the fire of the year 1564, there still survive there. in which the temple of Lauffen, struck from heaven, burned down. Concerning this misfortune the same Crusius in the said Suevian Annals, part 3, book 12, chapter 10, thus writes: The conflagration of the parish temple of Lauffen (once built to the honor of the holy little maiden Regiswind, see above, part 2, book 2, chapter 3) containing the year and the day of the month in these verses:
Fifteen hundred, sixty, and four years had gone by since thy cradle, O Savior Σῶτερ: September was preparing its swift shoulders and the Nones, when these shrines fall by the sulphurous thunderbolt.
That thunderbolt was at first as it were a burning candle. But when no one resisted (although it could easily have been resisted), it so increased that it reduced this temple to ashes and embers. Thus he; from which it is clear that I, both on account of the temple utterly burned, and on account of the Catholic Religion eliminated from this town, can deservedly doubt whether the remains of St. Regiswind, or other traces of the cult, still exist there. Perhaps our Gamans is to be understood of certain civil monuments persisting in memory of this holy little Maiden among the Lutherans, such as is that which, besides others, Martin Crusius in the cited work, part 2, book 2, chapter 3, after exhibiting the Acts of St. Regiswind, indicates in these words: Thus far concerning St. Regiswind. From this a custom grew up, that the rustics hire their menservants and maidservants on the day of this Saint, that is the XV of July. But, leaving these civil indications of ancient cult, let us dig out the catholic veneration of this Saint from the Martyrologies and Ecclesiastical Breviaries.
[4] Among the Martyrologists the first memory of this Saint occurs in the contracted Hieronymian Martyrologies, Her cult is proved from the Martyrologies, which were recounted in our volume VII of June. For in them the Reichenau codex on the XV of July, after other things, thus announces: Elsewhere, of Reginsinda, martyr and virgin. Then in the Supplements of Usuard, and first indeed in the Rosweyde codex, she is recorded also under the name of Reginsinda the virgin. But the Additions of Greven on this day have it thus: Of Regiswind, virgin and martyr. But in the Additions of Molanus, the title of martyr being omitted, it is thus noted: On the same day, of St. Regiswind the virgin. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue announces her feast in this manner: At Würzburg in Germany, of St. Regiswind the virgin. Arthur in the Gynæceum adorns her with this brief eulogy: At Würzburg in Germany, of St. Regiswind the virgin, who, full of great spirit of grace and virtue, sought the heavenly places. Each of these writers took Würzburg for the diocese of Würzburg, as is clear from the Acts and from Castellan, who in the General Martyrology more distinctly thus celebrates her memory: At Lauffen on the Neckar in the Duchy of Württemberg, in the diocese of Würzburg, St. Regensvitha the virgin, who is there venerated as a martyr on this day, although her Acts relate that she was buried on the sixth of May. Probably Castellan drew this notice from our Acts, where on the VI day of May among the things Passed Over are said the following: St. Regnisidis or Regiswind, virgin and martyr at Lauffen on the river Neckar in the diocese of Würzburg; she is said in the Acts to have been buried on the day before the Nones of May, and is recorded in the augmented manuscript of Usuard which belonged to Nikolaus Schech of Hagenau. But in the said diocese she is venerated on the XV of July.
[5] Ancient too is her cult in the Breviary of Würzburg: and from the Breviary of Würzburg. for there is extant in our Museum, under the letter I, number 18, a manuscript codex on parchment of sufficiently ancient character, in which are contained the Offices of the church of Würzburg, where in the Octave of St. Kilian is read concerning St. Regiswind the following collect: Almighty everlasting God, whose weak thing is stronger than men, mercifully grant that we who celebrate the yearly solemnities of blessed Regiswind, innocent and martyr, may, by her patronizing merits, merit to attain to continual joys. Through, etc. The same prayer has the Missal of Würzburg, printed in the year 1509, and other Breviaries of the same church printed, except that in the Cologne edition of the year 1575 is set down: that we who celebrate the yearly feasts of blessed Regiswind, thy innocent martyr and virgin, etc. But in the proper Offices printed at Würzburg in the year 1625 it is thus had: that we who celebrate the yearly feasts of blessed Regiswind, thy virgin and martyr, etc. I note that St. Regiswind in these Breviaries is everywhere adorned with the title of martyr. But this name is to be taken in a broader signification: for it is commonly known that the cause, not the punishment, makes martyrs. But since to this innocent little girl death was inflicted by her nurse from desire of vengeance, I do not see how she can be raised to martyrdom of the strict name.
[6] Her Acts with the synopsis of Bruschius The Acts of this holy little Maiden, or rather compendia of the Acts, I found in certain writers; but none of them hitherto assigned me a determined year of her death. Yet this epoch can be gathered approximately from the time in which Humbert, by others Hunibert or Hubert, presided over the church of Würzburg. Gaspar Bruschius in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Würzburg, enumerating the years of this prelate, at the same time gives an exact synopsis of this history in these words: Hunibert, by others Hubert, is elected on the day before the Kalends of January in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 832. He presided nine years, three months, eight days. He died in the year of salvation 841 in the month of March. In the times of this bishop the Emperor Louis had a prefect in the town of Lauffen situated on the Neckar, a prince born of Noricum, whom some judge to have been the Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, Ernest by name. He had by his wife Fridburga an only little daughter, Regiswind. The nurse of this infant had an own brother serving prince Ernest, by whom, when he was once grievously beaten, because he had too negligently cared for something committed to him by his lord; the nurse so blazed with anger and indignation, that she took counsel with herself concerning the slaying of Regiswind.
[7] are compared, And so, Ernest and Fridburga once going forth, the servant, left alone at home and driven by furies, seized the girl, slew her, and cast her headlong from the citadel of Lauffen into the Neckar flowing past. This girl suffocated in the waters, who nevertheless could neither be snatched from that place by the force of the river, nor be submerged or overwhelmed by the waves, and glittering likewise with many miracles, that bishop Humbert, admonished by a certain Angel in his sleep, raising her from the waters in the presence of many priests, carried into the temple of Lauffen, and honorably buried, where even to these times she has been preserved. I see here that Bruschius and certain other more recent writers differ in some circumstance from the Acts: for these, number 12, assert that the little body of St. Regiswind was raised from the river not by the bishop, but by others, and was buried in the cemetery of the church of Lauffen. But then, number 13 and following, they narrate that, after some years had elapsed, on account of the frequent miracles and celestial admonitions, it was translated by bishop Humbert into a new church. Therefore Bruschius seems here to have confounded things done at diverse times.
[8] A more prolix compendium of the same Acts wove together Martin Crusius the heterodox in the already-said place of the Suevian Annals, and are defended against the accusations of a certain heretic. where he affirms that he translated that history from an ancient German document. But, after the heretical manner, he carps at the prodigies wrought after the Saint's death, and without sufficient foundation charges the Catholics in this history with falsehood. But it is little to be regarded what men of this kind yelp, who explode evident miracles contrary to their sect, and, according to Jude the Apostle in the Catholic epistle, whatever things they know not, they blaspheme. But whatever things they know naturally, as dumb animals, in these they are corrupted. Is it because certain miracles are not sufficiently certain, or even, if you will have it so, were forged by impious or stupid men, that all the rest are to be rejected without discrimination? We Catholics ourselves spend immense labor in discerning the true and the false, nor do we need, for distinguishing them, the envious criticism of heretics. But there is no reason why the writer of this history (in Law a man is so long presumed good, until he be proved bad) should be convicted of fiction, since in his narration he appears sincere, and in the prologue of the Acts says that he writes those things which came to his notice from priestly persons concerning her innocent death. The author, without doubt after the manner of his century, is at times obscure and verbose, so that he explains few things in many words. His name, age, and profession of life escape us. The Acts themselves, which our Father Gamans took care to have copied in the monastery of Böddeken of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the diocese of Paderborn, we here give, and illustrate with notes the things which are more obscure.
ACTS
From a notable manuscript parchment Passional of the monastery of Böddeken of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine of the diocese of Paderborn, folio XCV page A.
Regiswind, a little girl, at Lauffen on the Neckar in Swabia (S.)
BHL Number: 7101
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
While the venerable merits of all the Saints the blessed mother Church rightly venerates with heartfelt love throughout the regions of the four-cleft a world by her services, and resounds with harmonic praises, [The author teaches that especially the holy patrons of one's country are to be venerated,] who, having now singularly [*] gone forth from the pilgrimage of Egypt, by a various combat indeed, yet not by an unequal zeal, the blood of that paschal Lamb, true, not typical, patronizing them, have manfully returned to their fatherland, the joyful walls of paradise b; yet more specially in a certain manner and as it were solitarily it congratulates itself that it possesses through diverse places its own patrons, whom, the divinity being its auspice, it may ever have both as champions against the darts of the enemy, unwearied, and as propitious intercessors for its daily excesses. We therefore, we content with humble little tombs c, not supported by the sepulchral presence of martyrs, who by the most hearty assertion of truth preached Christ in the open to be king of all the ages, and thus, made red by the shedding of their own blood, carried back to the King of Kings himself, for whom they fought and conquered, the victorious banners of victory over the enemy, to be crowned with laurel forever; but by the co-essence e of the virginal clod f, armed with a shield d (which, killed by the rancor of the ancient serpent, a virgin and martyr, tender, gloriously borne up on the wing of innocence, flew through to the ethereal court), those things which came to our notice from priestly persons concerning her innocent death, with whatever pen, to the wise together with the unwise, trusting in her patronage, we here undertake to lay open.
ANNOTATIONS.
* perhaps, figuratively.
CHAPTER I.
The parents of St. Regiswind, her education, the violent death inflicted by her nurse, the finding of her body and her burial.
Of divine memory, the pious Louis a, ever Augustus, Louis the pious emperor, at the time when he sweated to govern too hastily the monarchy of the Franks with the rein of his empire, since indeed he had subjected to himself, in sceptre-bearing dominion, God being propitious, the three more excellent species of Europe, a body solid enough—namely Italy, Gaul, and Germany—after he had here and there, by his imperial majesty, checked the adverse blasts of wars, by chance settled at the Vindelician city b, which they call Augusta; in which, staying some time, he willingly satisfied, as was fitting, all who had causes to be cleared up. But at the same time a certain one of the soldiers, mighty in arms and famous, Noric c by nation, Ernest by name, merited with him a place of familiarity not the last, partly by the proof of his nobility, partly of his pious manner of life.
[3] But there is a place in the parts of Southern Francia d, To a certain Ernest, a Bavarian, the town of Lauffen which is called a member of Germany, in the territory of the holy church of Würzburg, which the inhabitants, on account of the most powerful onrush of the Neckar e, the noble river companion of the Rhine, in the Teutonic tongue call Loufum [*], that is, a descent. It seemed good therefore to the venerable Augustus that he ought to go to that place for the sake of hunting, and to the aforesaid Ernest his courtier, under the testification of his lordly favor, to entrust it to be diligently fitted out in all things which befit the Augustan highness. Who, obeying the commands, with no mean effort filled up all things which pertain to the instruments of that business, a few suns being interposed f, but since, neither by the situation of the place, nor by the abundance of hunting, such a majesty seemed able to be more leisurely delighted, returning to the Augustus not less swiftly, concerning the quality of the place and the circumstance of things, as the matter stood, he pleaded with a faithful report.
[4] And when concerning this matter he had at hand some sufficiently fit witnesses, grants, presuming on the divine foresight, he broke out into these words: If, he said, it had pleased your dominion, as a benefit, that my littleness should merit that place, to your honor perhaps my hand might there find something advantageous. To which the Prince, giving swift credence, touched by a certain divine instinct, resolving at once to satisfy the entreaty of his devout soldier; If, he said, it is so, my most dear one, as thou assertest, especially since the enormity of my imperial care compels me to go to other most dismal places, we wish thee henceforth to use our munificence, so only that thou possess that place, subjected to our fisc g, henceforth without the obstacle of any hindrance, as long as thou livest, ever with powerful hand, and that all things which are of our right there obey thee in our stead, that continually our dignity may experience the more abundant affection of thy service.
[5] These being brought to a conclusion, Ernest, by no means slighting the imperial delegation, who, transferring his family thither, led his wife, by name Fridburga, with his whole house and family and all his furniture, from his former habitation of the Noric land, and, a strenuous settler, possessed the aforesaid place as quickly as possible. Who, prosperities succeeding, was so enriched in that same district with fortunate things, that he was found inferior by a small interval to few of his fellow-provincials: nor undeservedly; since, not unmindful of the evangelical decree, he was busy to render to God the things that are God's, and to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, that both by the effort of religion he might please the divinity, and by the strict belt of soldiery the Cæsarean dignity.
[6] But it happened that he, after the courses of some years, received the joyful gift of a female pledge from his most Christian wife there, he begat a daughter, whence divine providence disposed to destine to him a corollary of perpetual joy [*], who, when after the manner of the faithful he gave his born offspring to the regenerating grace, and imposed on her the name Regiswind, after he received her, robed from the Jordanic h waves with the fleece of the Lord's Lamb, straightway provided for the frail infancy one of the maidservants, skilled in this office, as a pedagogue, who, as the pupil of her eye, with careful vigilance might fortify the infant with the rampart of guardianship, until she should pass, with girlish modesty, to the years of understanding.
[7] whom the nurse, the demon instigating, But that virulent snake, the insatiable devourer of the human race, who from the beginning was a murderer; ever the irreconcilable persecutor of innocence and the kindler of vices, when he grieved that nothing of his own sprouted in the daughter of the new adoption, nor that a new sprinkling grew rusty with any spatter of the old leaven, the crafty turncoat, a keen occasion being gradually applied, lest it should be either, labored with the sweat of native gall i. Namely, that most unspeakable maidservant, who hitherto seemed the most faithful keeper of the little maiden, he so branded with the cautery of his envy, that, by a reversed turn, she became the minister of death, who had been ordered to be of life.
[8] on account of the beating inflicted on her brother by Ernest, The seven seasons, therefore, of the tender age of the holy virgin Regiswind having rolled by, it happened that the brother of that same nurse pastured the equine flock of his lord, who had been ordered with keener zeal to look after the wild little troops of mares. He, therefore, when many times, as is wont to happen to persons of that condition, growing lazy, he acted more remissly toward the flock, and inflicted no small loss on his lord, the pastoral care being neglected, on a certain day was compelled to render an account of the mares entrusted to him, in the presence of his lord; and when, placed in judgment, he could defend himself by no pretext of care, all apology being meanwhile suppressed, his lord commanded him to be punished with the harsh censure of the scourge, according as he had merited, that both he might amend him for the rest, and impose fear on the others.
[9] she slays and casts into the Neckar. But his sister, namely the nurse of holy Regiswind, exceedingly stomached with the most bitter grief of such a misfortune, began to rave with so great a whirlwind of impatience, that, a citizen of an insane head by a certain new kind of fury, now feigning herself frenzied, now lethargic, at last she paid to her lords a miserable retaliation. Rising, therefore, ill-deserving, at the auspicious hour of opportunity, she seized the sacred girl, raging and furious, and, hastily going to the river Neckar, first, the throat being intercepted, the neck being twisted, deprived her of life, and then, led on by the whole fury of madness, threw her into the midst of the waves, who, when she knew that she had perpetrated so great a crime, wretched, dashed herself more wretchedly into the abyss of despair, and of her own will, gasping, sought for herself the destruction of death: for she ascended, an unsound spirit driving her, the rugged eminence of a precipitous rock, where a mortal precipice lies open to all, which, the strength of the channel assailing it, is agreed to be hollowed out more steeply, as if labored by the more toilsome sweat of human ingenuity, that she might the more swiftly deliver herself to death, the more perilously she descended to the depths.
[10] certain citizens, the murder being detected, But because, according to the voice of truth, nothing is hidden which shall not be revealed, and nothing secret which shall not be published, not by any chance, but rather, I believe, by the divine nod, some of the citizens of the place came up, who, astonished with a great prodigy of stupor, quickly inquired with subtle investigation what that wretched woman, lost to God and men, wished to attempt in that place; who, when she answered that she wished to commit herself to the precipice, and yet did not presume to betray the sting of her conscience, they strenuously at once surrounded her on both sides, extricated her from the imminent peril, and with the greatest force extorted the truth of the matter: which being learned, setting aside the wretch stung with conscience, they set about to trace with anxious inquiry, along the winding shores of the river, the little body of the sacred Virgin now already extinct.
[11] O new spectacle befitting a new martyr and most tender virgin! they find the little girl's body in a wondrous manner, The twilight of the third day now passed, they see the sacred lifeless body of the little Maiden, clinging to a certain fishy hollow, with lively face and ruddy countenance, which, with arms extended in the manner of crucifixion, amid the very liquid globes of the waves, now solid, nature yielding, it had fixed, having suffered. A wondrous thing, and hitherto unseen in our age. For you would see a seven-year-old virgin, clothed with the adornment of the sevenfold grace, among the lily-white companies of virgins intently praising the crucified Lord, and, because her spirit had the office of being before the sight of the divinity, showing, her limbs now trodden by death, in the waters. What more? Since it can by no means be doubted that, whole from every stain of transgression, among the hymn-sounding choirs of the Innocents she follows the Lamb of God wherever he shall go, would anything be lacking to the purity of the snowy little lamb? Shining without doubt with the twin lamp of virginity and martyrdom at once, not only with the lilies of the valleys, but also with roses reddened in blood, in that sanctuary of the white-robed, stoled, she reigns with Christ without end, blessed. But thus far.
[12] Lifting, therefore, the little body of the Virgin from the trodden whirlpools of the stagnant waters, and honorably bury it in the cemetery. after they had indicated the order of the matter to the parents, for celebrating the sacred obsequies in solemn manner a crowd of priests is convoked from every side, that they might complete not, I say, her funeral, but rather her natal offices. Immediately, innumerable persons coming together from towns both near and distant, and, with crosses and tapers and all the apparatus of ecclesiastical religion, meeting so noble a nature, the greatest crowd of parents and friends surrounding them, in the cemetery of the basilica of the above-mentioned place, namely Loufun [*], pledging the earth with a virginal surety, they buried the little body of the most holy Virgin with moist eyes, on the day before the Nones of May.
ANNOTATIONS.
* read Lauffen.
* that is, of joy.
* that is, a glutton.
* read Lauffen.
CHAPTER II.
The occasion of the translation, the translation of the sacred body, and the miracles.
The little maiden's sepulchre, once falling After the glorious burial of the blessed virgin and martyr of Christ Regiswind, some years being spent, the pious and merciful king of kings and crown of virgins, Christ, not bearing his spouse, now abiding with himself in his own bridal chamber, to be any longer glued to secular sepulchres, deigned in a wondrous manner to show of what merit she was. For that church, of a poor wooden fabric, enduring there a long time, on a certain night, crying out by certain voices of its own ruin that the new Martyr of Christ, buried nearby with recent memory, had obtained a resting-place not sufficiently worthy beneath the open sky [*], fell in some part toward the sepulchre of the Virgin with a great crash, as if it wished to afford her an entrance not by the door, but more largely.
[14] and the church again, it is declared must be changed. Which when on the morrow the rustic citizens beheld, and yet could not at all weigh what was in the matter, they were busy the more swiftly to repair it, carpenters being joined, lest perchance the house dedicated to God should lie open to thieves or beasts: and when, a small interval having passed, again and again it violently fell over the tomb, some of the citizens of the place began to murmur among themselves, asserting simply, what nevertheless was true, that namely on account of the innocent girl, now palmed with the martyrial prize in the heavens, such signs were wrought from heaven. But now the parents of the holy little Maiden, the native habitation of the Noric brine a being revisited, with all their movables, gave their back to the Franks b, and what the supernal clemency was doing toward their daughter, they could by no means know.
[15] The bishop of Würzburg by an angel But there presided at that time over the holy church of Würzburg a bishop lovable to God, by name Humbert c, to whom, sleeping at a certain hour of the untimely night, there stood by one of the citizens of heaven, saying: Arise as quickly as possible, and take care diligently to cleanse the place which is called Loufun, situated on the bank of the river Neckar, from all unseemliness, and study to build me an oratory with great haste, because the pearl of the Lord, which hitherto has too incautiously lain beneath human feet, must be carried into it with magnificent honor, and, as long as the orbit of this world revolves, the solemnities of Masses and hymns must there be celebrated after the ecclesiastical manner.
[16] These being pleaded, that cloud-flying messenger straightway returns whence he came. twice, But the bishop, rising in the night, making little of the Lord's command, and holding what he heard as an uncertain dream, oppressed by human sloth, altogether neglected to attend: when behold, a small interval intervening, to repeat the message, the angel revisited the bishop placed on his couch, saying: Why, my brother, hast thou made naught of the Lord's mandate? And hast thou dissembled to make the oratory which I commanded? Now therefore arise, hesitating nothing, because I am sent by God to announce these things to thee, and believe me, that if thou draw back thy foot further and be found disobedient, I have to chastise thee with a worthy punishment of stripes. The pontiff, awaking and ruminating these things with himself, believed it rather a phantasmatic illusion than a divine revelation, with obstinate mind, and, as before, remained rebellious, unknowing.
[17] But a third time, at midnight, the courier of heaven, according to his promise, gliding into the bishop's chamber, and, admonished a third time, not now with words, but with avenging rods, vehemently rebuked his disobedience, and stigmatized him with so great discipline, that namely the fit traces of livid skin made credible all the delaying d things of the divine vision. In this manner at last, the bishop having experienced the truth of the matter, repented too late that he had acted foolishly, and, his counselors and suffragan priests being quickly convoked, very many, he laid open to them all, the stripes being witness, the things which he had so long, silent, put off; then, an abundance of expenses being applied, he gathered masons from every side, and, building an oratory, as he had been commanded, in the aforesaid place, adorned it as he could.
[18] And when he had put the last hand to the divine work, he translates her body into the new church, and on the appointed day, that is the III of the Ides of July e, on which Phœbus in his natural course is wont yearly to set on fire the last part of the tropic of Cancer, had after the episcopal manner consecrated the church, with a very great assembly of monks, clerics, and other faithful of both sexes, most devoutly transported the clod of the sacred Virgin within, and placed it in a most seemly little tomb; but in that very procession, amid the sweet-sounding melodies of the clergy, the holy frequency of angels resounded these Davidic beginnings: Blessed is she whom thou hast chosen and taken up, O Lord, she shall dwell forever in thy courts. Finally, so great a fragrance of wondrous odor struck all who were present, that they thought themselves surrounded by an odoriferous breeze, and that whole place overshadowed by the glory of the divinity; knowing for certain that the Lord will not deprive of good things those who walk in innocence; because, according to the Gospel, of such is the kingdom of heaven. These things being duly consummated, suffused with great joy, they each returned to their own in peace.
[19] But after the enormous crowd of that same region perceived so great an odor of virtues, through the illustrious merits of blessed Regiswind, where she shines with miracles. all who had feeble ones and those oppressed with various discomforts, full of faith, brought them with them to the tomb of the most sacred Martyr to be poulticed f, whom the divine bounty, to declare her holy innocence, granted to return sound and unharmed. For the maimed received restoration, the blind illumination, the paralytic walking, the leprous the cleanness of their skin, and those burning with the torches of fevers rejoiced to recover their former health, rendering praise to the divinity.
[20] Kinsmen desiring to carry off the sacred bones Among these things I judge it will not be right to bury in silence that too which is related to have lately happened there. For when the fame of her holiness flew far and wide, certain nobles of her kindred, for the sake of prayer hastening from the borders of the Bavarians g to the tomb of the holy Martyr, when they explored for themselves the marks of her virtues and miracles more clearly than light, were touched with a most powerful affection of grief, that they did not have the holy little Maiden their kinswoman in their native soil; but when they stayed there some time, they began to take counsel among themselves how, the divine grace permitting, they might stealthily carry off the sacred remains.
[21] are from heaven frightened away from that crime. But the omniscient keeper of his own house, Christ, not suffering the place which he had raised to so great honor to be violated by impious robbery, prohibited them in this manner: When they attentively served their ill-ripe vigils, on a certain night, thinking it the opportune time in which to carry out in deed the thing conceived in mind, feigning prayer more earnestly, they secretly broke in and, striving greedily to seize with hooked hand the treasure of the Lord, predestined for that place from heaven and before the ages, and to hasten back their way to their country. But behold, suddenly from heaven a great fear and trembling rushed upon them, so much that the foundation of the church was shaken with a threatening earthquake, and they themselves, grievously half-scorched by the strokes of lightnings and thunders, fell to the ground almost lifeless, pale. But after, the divine terror ceasing, they returned to their heart, supplicating the Divinity with great instance of prayers, they most obstinately demanded a respite of amendment, and thus departing thence, returned to their own. Blessed in all things be God, whose honor is perpetual, glory unending, kingdom without end, and brightness without the mutability of any age, who was to us the beginning of this little labor and stands as its end: who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, three and one, through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
* more commonly, beneath the open sky.