Reineldis

ON ST. REINELDIS, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, WITH HER COMPANIONS GRIMOALD AND GONDULF, MARTYRS,

AT SAINTES NEAR HAL OF THE MOTHER OF GOD IN HAINAUT IN BELGIUM.

VII century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Reineldis, Virgin and Martyr, at Saintes near Hal of the Mother of God, in Hainaut in Belgium (S.)

The Companions, at Saintes near Hal of the Mother of God, in Hainaut in Belgium

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. The Saint's name, place of cult, and its celebrity.

That the name of this Saint is variously formed is confessed, some writing Rayneldis, Raynildis, others Reynildis, Reyneldis, or Regnildis, most with us more simply Reineldis, as is expressed in the title (French Renelde and Reneld, Not to the Saints of Cleves more commonly by the vulgar Ernelle, or Renelle). However you judge it should be written, this at least is established, that by cult and by pilgrimages almost daily wont to be made to her, she is most celebrated especially in Brabant and Hainaut, on the confines of which provinces is situated the village itself of Saintes, perhaps marked with that name from the Saint herself and her companion Martyrs, as of the Saints of Cleves, from St. Victor and the three hundred and thirty Martyrs, it is known, although by the usual prolepsis, by the writer of the Life, who probably is not older than the eleventh century, she is supposed to have been so called while the Saint was still living, as one to whom, after the Norman depredations, the older name was unknown. But from wherever the appellation was given, they all erred, whom accordingly the Archbishop of Otranto Astio wrongly followed in his recent annotations on the Roman Martyrology, who thought St. Reineldis should be attributed to Xanten in Cleves, whom it is undoubted was born, educated, and crowned with martyrdom in Brabant; understand in Brabant taken in the wider manner, as was formerly the custom, from which, cut off afterward, no small parts were ascribed to Flanders and Hainaut, as elsewhere in this work it has often had to be said.

[2] On the Life of St. Amalberga the widow, mother of this our Reineldis, but the Saint belongs to old Brabant, on X July, some hallucinations of a recent Gallican Legendist were noted, and this among others, that he ascribed the present Saint in the title to Cleves, where in the course he is compelled to confess that she is honored in no other place than in our own Belgian Saintes, distant a little more than an hour's league from Hal of the Mother of God, in the neighboring part of Hainaut where it is joined to Brabant. So place and celebrate her the Brussels Usuard and the additions of Molanus to the text of Usuard, so that it is clear enough that the Brussels announcement, which we have elsewhere shown more than once to have been done, was described, or at least received, from Molanus. Let us hear the Brussels codex: At Xanctae of Brabant, the birthday of St. Regnildis, virgin and martyr, sister of blessed Gudila our patroness. Who, content with the company of one servant and one maid, visited on pilgrimage the holy city of Jerusalem, and the several places which the Lord Jesus corporally walked through: and after seven years, returning to her country with many relics of the Saints, remained at Xanctae, until she herself, together with Grimoald the subdeacon and Gondulf her attendant, from the Huns received the palm of martyrdom for the faith of Christ.

[3] wrongly ascribed to nuns. By Grevenus she is referred without position; but older are the things which the manuscript Florary of the Saints hands down, which thus has it: At Xanctum, on the confine of Brabant and Hainaut, the birthday of St. Raynildis, virgin and martyr, sister of blessed Gudila, of the stock of the Carolids, who suffered under the Danes in the year of salvation 660. To find Danes ravaging through Belgium at that time is most difficult; better were that chronological note absent. In the Ado of Lobbes there is added by another hand: Of St. Reynildis virgin, of Gundulf and Grimold. The monastics vie in claiming St. Reineldis for themselves, with Arnold Wion as leader, whose words are these: At Sancthae, the birthday of St. Raineldis, virgin and martyr, sister of Blessed Gudila, who with Grimoald the subdeacon and Gondulf her attendant, from the Huns received the palm of martyrdom for the faith of Christ. There follows Dorganius, then Menardus, who for the Huns substitutes the Hungarians; finally Bucelinus, who wove a long elogium; but more prudent than they, Mabillon rightly judged that St. Reineldis was never a nun, still less a Benedictine. From describing the elogia I here abstain, which may be seen in the Indiculus and Natales of Molanus, in the Fasti of Miraeus and the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay, in some to be corrected, the office of all which the Acts will supply, of which we treat in the following paragraph.

[4] The elevation of the sacred body in the 9th century, To the celebrity of the cult pertains the elevation of the sacred body which the Manuscripts mark as made in the year 866, others 860 (Surius in his edition in the year 806) before three bishops of the neighboring dioceses, in which elevation the chief part must have been taken by the bishop of Cambrai, who then was, as Molanus rightly noted, John XIX, the first of that name, ascribed to the Catalogue of the Saints; and if the others were of Liège and Tournai, that one was then Franco XXXVIII, but this one Rothardus in order XXXIV. These things had to be conjectured, since in the Acts their names are not expressed, concerning which matter the discourse will recur in our annotations on the Life of the Saint herself. The older French little book on the Life of the Saint adds, edited from an older one at Douai in the year 1617, that Gerard, bishop of Cambrai in order XXXIII, who sat from the year 1076 to the year 1093, reposited the sacred body in a more decent and more honorable place, and secured it with his own seal; which I could wish were explained a little more distinctly: for if, as is everywhere said, from the year 866 the sacred remains had been deposited in a silver casket, I do not see what Gerard could add to them, unless perhaps the former reliquary had been plundered by the Normans, or consumed in the burning of the church, of which the Acts also make mention at number 13, the relics being timely removed.

[5] Let us confess that all these things were committed to memory or writing obscurely and negligently, the translation in the 11th century. from which nevertheless this seems able to be drawn out, that the anonymous compiler of the Acts wrote after the ninth century, in which the first elevation is supposed to have been made, and before the end of the eleventh century, in which we have shown Gerard to have flourished; for he mentions the first elevation, not the translation made by Gerard. The aforesaid French Life proceeds as Molanus also almost has it: At last in the year one thousand one hundred and seventy, John abbot of Lobbes (I think, as chief lord of the place) reverently exhibited the sacred relics to the people, and placed them in a more august reliquary before many witnesses. Thus far that older French Life, from which you would almost gather that this other reliquary must have been golden, since the silver one is said to have been more august, but who would judge that this is to be taken so rigidly? The other more recent French Lives add that a visitation of the same relics was instituted in the year 1352 by Peter, likewise abbot of Lobbes, and most recently by the Most Illustrious Francis vander Burch, archbishop of Cambrai, in the year 1621, whence, they say, the veneration and trust of the pious faithful in the Saint marvelously increased, and so also the concourse of those making pilgrimage to her, which even today most constantly perseveres.

[6] These things being disposed in order, as far as the tenuity of the matter allowed, The manifold miracles of the Saint, some doubts occur pertaining both to the cult and to the life, concerning which, that I might be more certain, I gave letters to the Reverend Father Arnold vanden Eynden, Rector of our college of Hal, from whom, after more than one little excursion to the place itself, I could learn those few things which concerning the excellent religious cult, and the almost daily benefits at the intercession of the Saint, he deigned to communicate with me. He testifies first of all that very many miracles are wrought each year, of whose multitude I should believe to be the cause why greater account is not taken of them. Infirmities of every kind are said to be very often cured through the merits of St. Reineldis, but especially inveterate ulcers, wounds, and troubles of that kind, for which wondrously profitable is the water of the most celebrated fountain, distant about a quarter of an hour from the church of the place, which has obtained its appellation from the name of the Saint herself; which same water is very frequently used both at Hal and in the neighboring places and elsewhere, nay even to the more remote places is eagerly

carried, not without often the hoped-for success, of which matter there are manifold and most recent proofs.

[7] Hence that almost incredible piety and trust in St. Reineldis, and the more solemn festivities; and accordingly the perpetual concourse of those making pilgrimage to her sacred relics, even from places far distant, which also seems gradually to have brought this about, that from a long time she has already been held as the chief patroness of the village, in place of the older St. Quentin, so that on this day XVI July, according to the custom of the Church, the feast is celebrated by the people, with cessation from servile works. Besides these things she is also honored with a particular cult on the feast of St. Matthias the Apostle, on which, by ancient tradition, the translation of the sacred relics is supposed to have been made; what the Natales of Molanus mean by a third translation which is festively kept on the day XXVI October, I do not thus far sufficiently perceive; this the Reverend Lord Pastor of the place certainly omitted to indicate. For the rest, the by far chief solemnity is celebrated on the very festivity of the most holy Trinity, a supplication being ordained no less frequented than pious, in which the sacred relics, placed on a triumphal car, are carried about, together with the two somewhat smaller wooden reliquaries of SS. Grimoald and Gondulf, which both on the car and on the altar dedicated to the Saint occupy each the lower part. From the form of the more precious casket of St. Reineldis, made of gilded copper, make a conjecture of the other two, never separated from that chief one.

[8] the bier, supplication, and confraternity. The little silver statues placed at each side of the bier of Reineldis need no explanation, since it is clear enough that the twelve holy Apostles are represented, just as on the front is displayed the image of the Saint herself, which, like the rest, is wholly of silver, and itself of the height of about two palms, clad almost in the manly garb of a pilgrim, as from the accompanying figure I think is clear enough, in which this remains to be observed, that from the opposite front of the bier, if it is permitted so to speak, another silver statue of the most blessed Virgin Mary is represented. The whole casket is a foot and a half wide, two high, and its length extends to four. At what time, or at whose expense it was made, it has not thus far been possible to ascertain. Further, the singular veneration of the men of Saintes and the neighboring inhabitants toward their holy Patroness appears most of all from this, that, connected among themselves as it were by a sacred compact, they instituted a sodality or confraternity, with those laws which have also been published, prescribed to themselves, by which they may be incited to a somewhat more perfect kind of life, and to exercising the Christian virtues, by mutual examples, various heavenly graces being granted by the Supreme Pontiff, and even plenary indulgences, besides those which on the festivity of St. Reineldis are extended to all who flock thither, from which are manifest the things which in the title we undertook to prove.

§ II. Lineage, age, Acts.

Of St. Reineldis' lineage, parents, brother and sister, and their whole progeny increased to an immense extent, it has already been so often disputed, The Saint's parents, brother and sister, and most recently on the said day X July, that it is altogether superfluous to begin that web here again. As certain we establish that St. Amalberga the mother was married to one husband only, and bore children, at least such as are known, only three, namely St. Emebert, bishop of Cambrai, our Reineldis, and Gudila the youngest, patroness of the Brussels people, Venantius and Gengulf, Pharaildis and Ermelindis being altogether excluded, concerning whom see the Commentary on St. Amalberga throughout the whole first two paragraphs; so that here may deservedly not be refuted, but neglected and rejected, the addition, concerning which we there spoke, the inept observation of some smatterer on the Life of St. Reineldis, by which he wished to correct the same in that point which we hold certain, namely that the Life expressly asserts that St. Amalberga bore one son only, and but two daughters, as being married only once, as in the said place is sufficiently demonstrated. What besides the same smatterer noted, that the title of king was wrongly added to Pippin, or that Witger is feigned duke of Lotharingia, all these are not expressed in our Legend; and are for the rest sufficiently observed and rejected there by us: men are to be pardoned who measure all things by their own age.

[10] For defining or circumscribing within certain limits the age of St. Reineldis the Anonymous writer suggested nothing sufficiently distinct: she flourished in the 7th century, that she lived in the holy Belgian, or seventh century of Christ, the things which of each are sufficiently explained on their proper festivity do not permit us to doubt. With Emebert and Gudila she does not seem to have reached the eighth century, since she was very probably older than both and the eldest, but her martyrdom must be interwoven with those times in which some depopulation of the barbarians happened even into Brabant. The Acts call them Huns, but by a generic name, as Bolland on the Life of St. Relindis III February rightly observed; who were very probably Frisians, the Franks fighting among themselves, extending their depredations so far. By these, as far as it can be gathered, the holy Virgin, intercepted with her companions, obtained by the shedding of blood the crown of martyrdom, at the same time in which the monastery of St. Relindis at Maursel was destroyed, her brother Eligard being slain, as in the cited place accurately, and if not truly, at least closely to the truth, Bolland explained, and after him Cointe in his Annals of the Franks at the year 680 from number 10.

[11] For the rest, however perhaps those things be not altogether undoubted, under its end crowned with martyrdom. we wish it to be beyond controversy that the martyrdom of St. Reineldis and her companions is sufficiently proved from the most received sacred Fasti and the Legend; of which we do not think a more probable epoch can be determined than about that year 680, which nevertheless we do not undertake to establish more scrupulously, as neither the very day of the martyrdom; it is enough that from time immemorial, on this XVI, as her birthday, St. Reineldis has been venerated. It were to be wished that the Acts rested on a little greater faith, which we have so often desired in the Legends of the Belgian Saints, after the Norman ruins, from the surviving, and mostly very confused, tradition of the people too liberally adorned and augmented, and interpolated by the gross ignorance of unskilled men in weaving genealogies and disposing the reckoning of times. Among the various Manuscripts collated by our Elders, this is the chief diversity, that the copyists inserted here and there some prejudices, which they thought more apt for establishing their own opinions, and so some attributed more children to holy Amalberga, others fewer. I have already said elsewhere that there pleases me beyond the rest that copy which the codex of St. Paul in Sonia, marked ✠ Ms. 50, supplies, the variants added in some places by a more recent pen being neglected; to which comes nearest the edition of Surius, to be preferred to almost all, did not the editor himself confess that he had after his manner changed the style; nay it would be detected that he had so everywhere polished it that he removed most difficulties.

[12] Besides the said Sonia codex there exists another, The Acts which are here given, but it more recent, in which the Acts of St. Reineldis are much more diffuse; augmented namely with longer digressions, such as are also had in another manuscript, to which is affixed the hand of Rosweyde, testifying that a collation was made by him with a manuscript at St. Martin of Louvain, as manifestly appears from several changes and punctuations, which show clearly enough that not a few interpolations or amplified phrases crept into those copies, from some of which, by a more recent hand, very many things were added to the margins and at the foot of the pages in the very codex of St. Paul which we follow, but which we thought all to be passed over, because they are mostly mere expansions verbosely extended, by which namely the Acts of the Saint might grow more. But indeed I think those which will be given sufficiently ample, and stuffed with sufficient doubts, so that things need not be fetched from elsewhere to delay the readers. Pippin, not indeed with the title of king but of one reigning, his sister or niece St. Amalberga, Witger, her husband, holding the duchy of Lotharingia, and other things of this kind, proceed from almost the same workshop in which the histories of Amalberga herself and her holy children were forged, as has already been said and repeated enough and more than enough.

[13] To be preferred to the French Legends. From the Legends, or rather encomia edited in the French tongue, no help is to be sought; they are little books fitted more for conciliating piety and veneration of the Saint among the flocking pilgrims than for making faith, concerning whose genealogical series, augmented with immense superadditions, we have already spoken enough elsewhere. Of three little books of that kind which are in our possession, the older was edited at Douai by Marc Wion in the year 1617, under the title of the Life of St. Reineldis (French Renelle); the other two, different from the former but similar to each other, are called contracted elogia, published about the same time at Liège and Brussels, no year being appended, so that from the approbation given in the year 1681 the age of each edition must be gathered, which other older ones certainly preceded, with the same, at least as far as this pertains, profit. The history of the boy of Xanten on the Rhine, namely stealing away the head of St. Reineldis, is there so described as if the Saint's head had remained there, whence her solemnity is held equally on the Rhine as in Hainaut, of which matter neither trace nor vestige is found among the men of Xanten on the Rhine, where I recognize no monastery of Virgins, which was founded on that occasion, so that accordingly, without any corruption of the whole Legend, that whole history, added to the Life of St. Reineldis, can be absent.

[14] Of the two companions of the holy Virgin and Martyr, Grimoald and Gondulf, Of what sort the companions of the martyrdom were. or Gundulf, nothing occurs to be said in this place, besides those things which of them are recorded in the common Legend itself. I understand the present tradition of the place to be, that the first named, namely Grimoald, exercised the office of pastor or curate of the church of Saintes, the other of guardian in the same church, whereas meanwhile in the Acts at numbers 9 and 11 the former is called only a cleric and subdeacon, but Gondulf a servant or attendant. Which dignity is to be preferred in each case, I do not disquire at length; let it suffice us that they are said, and truly were, companions of St. Reineldis, through a glorious confession of the faith, in her illustrious martyrdom, and were endowed with the same perpetual and constant cult among the men of Saintes, of whose earlier life or deeds nothing has been handed down to memory. These things being abundantly premised for the due notice, we reject the rest to be observed in the annotations. Have therefore now the Acts themselves as they were described by us from the codex of St. Paul, a few things being here and there enclosed between these signs [] to complete the constructions.

THE LIFE

From the Manuscript codex of St. Paul in Sonia, collated with other Manuscripts and Surius.

Reineldis, Virgin and Martyr, at Saintes near Hal of the Mother of God, in Hainaut in Belgium (S.)

The Companions, at Saintes near Hal of the Mother of God, in Hainaut in Belgium

BHL Number: 7082

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Therefore ^a the most blessed virgin Rayneldis was sprung from most noble birth, from the castle of Condé, which is situated upon the river Scout ^b, Born of most noble parents, and was of most noble origin.

For, Pippin reigning, the father of the most holy virgin Gertrude, whose life was famous for innumerable virtues and miracles, her father, Wigerus by name, held the office of the duchy of all Lotharingia, and held the primacy among the palatine princes. But beloved of God and men, the same Duke so disposed his principality amid the waves of the world that he pleased both the king and all his fellow princes; and obtained the favor no less of all the poor than of the rich. Now his possession was the aforesaid castle of Condé, and Amniacum and Wginiacum ^c, with many other estates, whose names it is not expedient to recite here. He therefore joined to himself in matrimony a royal maiden, sister ^d of the aforesaid duke, by name Amelberga, comely in form, adorned with good morals, splendid in holy works, conspicuous for chastity, and most honorable in all honesty. From her therefore the Lord gave him a most holy offspring, Emebert, afterward the most blessed pastor of the holy church of Cambrai, whose deeds, full of virtues and miracles, flourish there to this day ^e, and two ^f daughters, of whom one was called Gudila, the other Rayneldis.

[2] But when the same maidens had proposed from their infancy to lead a most chaste life, who also themselves renounced the world, and many of the chief men of the kingdom, on account of their nobility and riches, desired to be united to them in marriage, it pleased them, remaining in virginity, rather to cleave to the heavenly bridegroom with all the desire of their mind, than to be stained by the contagions of mortal spouses. And when, grown up in age, they acquiesced rather in the counsels of God than of men, and arranged to remove their youthful life from all secular levity, it pleased also the father and mother to desert the world, for the love of the heavenly kingdom, and to fulfill that word of the Lord: "Whoever shall renounce all that he possesses for my sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life." Desiring these things therefore, that they might obtain the rewards of so great and so desirable a promise, they brought it to effect: for Wigerus, the most prudent duke, having received the habit of sacred religion, gave himself to the discipline of the monastic rule, but his wife Amelberga, having received the sacred veil from Autbert, bishop of the see of Cambrai, dedicated herself to Christ.

[3] These therefore, all worldly honor being set aside, being united to God, having altogether turned away from marriage, the estates with their benefices remained to holy Rayneldis and her sister; and when many princes and most powerful lords assiduously urged them, by the lawful bond of marriage, not only with great force, but also with the utmost instance of prayers, to be joined to them, fleeing to change the purpose of their most chaste life, they flew to the protection of divine religion (the seal of espousal to Christ being received with the sacred veil from the aforesaid Bishop). Holy Rayneldis therefore, the glorious virgin of the Lord, as from the very first flower of tender age composed in good morals, adorned with the flower of chastity, studied to labor at divine works, soon turned to this with all her strength, it is incredible to tell with how great abstinence she gave herself, how assiduously she afflicted her body with fastings and prayers. Never was her tongue silent from the praises of God; neither by day nor by night was she at leisure from psalms and hymns, and spiritual canticles, or divine colloquies.

[4] She diligently fulfills the parts of Martha and Mary. Always intent upon the poor of Christ, laboring with the utmost effort that they might be nourished and clothed with garments, and lack nothing, she most fully fulfilled the office of Martha. Never did her hand appear dry from the sweat of almsgiving; for she more often found poor upon whom to bestow, than those who superabounded ^g. But that she might fulfill the Gospel precept, she thought not of the morrow, but bestowing all things on the needy for the name of Christ, she retained nothing for herself besides a slender sustenance of life. To her menservants and maidservants she more frequently offered service than they to her, and, they reclining, she herself more diligently ministered. Covered underneath next to the flesh with a hair shirt, she continually bore the cross of the Lord by the mortification of the flesh in her body, opening the ears of her heart to divine discourses and to the doctrines of the holy Scriptures, choosing the best part of Mary, sitting by the feet of the Lord. And while day by day she strengthened the spirit by subduing the flesh, she always walked with bare feet, and prostrate in prayer, she often joined the night to the day. She scarcely ever took food except once a day, and that a little barley bread and water. Spurning a bed prepared for her according to the custom of the nobles, with silken garments and precious coverings, she reclined on ashes and a hair shirt.

[5] Having set out for Lobbes and being excluded from entrance, Since therefore she had resolved to have nothing but God, it pleased her, by divine inspiration, to go with her sister Gudila to Lobbes, and to hand over to blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, all that she had. But when they had knocked at the door of the monastery, that they might be admitted, it was answered them by the monks of the same monastery, the doors being closed, that no woman had entered that house from the time it was founded. This being heard, Gudila withdrew; but holy Rayneldis, prostrating herself before the doors of the church on bare knees and elbows, ceased not to knock at almighty God with pious prayers and tears, remaining three days and nights continuously without food and drink, until He, who never failed those serving Him, and repels not those presuming upon Him, marvelously showed the signs of His power. For in the middle of the third night, all the brothers resting, the divine power opened the doors of the monastery, and, no mortal drawing the ropes, caused the bells to sound. Excited by this sound the brothers run together from every side, and finding the Saint prostrate in the manner of a cross before the image of her Redeemer, inquire what had happened, or how she had entered the church.

[6] To these things, "If, being a sinner," said the blessed Virgin, "unmerciful men would not admit me, she is admitted by a miracle and transcribes her goods to the monks. He, by whose mercy all things subsist ^h, opened to me a sinner the doors of this church, and, the entrance being laid open by His power, introduced me, as you see." Hearing these things the father ⁱ of the monastery with the brothers cast himself at her feet, and, weeping, prayed that by her prayers she would aid them with God. Then, saluting one another, blessed Rayneldis, her knees placed on the ground, prostrated herself at their footsteps, beseeching that she might be worthy to be commended by the prayers of so great fathers. Honorably therefore and with great devotion received by them, indicating what she had arranged, she most devoutly fulfilled it. For to the Key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom she handed over Saintes with five villages, and all their appurtenances, that by him she might be worthy to be introduced into the palace of heaven.

[7] Thence, a blessing being received from the father of the monastery and the brothers, returning from Jerusalem she lives most piously at Saintes, and wishing to undertake the course of a greater contest, she went to the city of Jerusalem, content with the company of one servant and one maid only, that there she might bear the cross of her Redeemer, where she believed Him to have suffered for her own and all men's salvation; and there for two years she devoutly visited the several places through which the Lord had gone, as though she had Christ the Lord present in the body ^k. But after seven years, most precious relics of the Saints being acquired, namely a part of the sepulcher, and of the wood of the Lord's cross, and of the incorrupt garment of the Theotokos Mary, and many others, returning to her country she entered Saintes, and, received with the utmost joy by her menservants and maidservants, and all the natives of that place, she lived above herself, transcending the human measure, and until ^l the times of the Huns, as if placed already in an ecstasy of mind, all earthly things being trodden underfoot, gaping after the heavenly, she obtained the state of the contemplative life, resplendent with miracles and virtues.

[8] But when, our sins demanding it, the Lord permitted the Christian people to be smitten with scourges, where, the barbarians rushing in, as one guilty of crime, and willed the elect to be separated from the reprobate, the Huns were permitted to go forth, who, entering Gaul, slaying all with the sword, delivering all to flames, utterly devastated the whole region. When therefore the inhabitants of that place, trembling with terror and stricken with fear of death, some fleeing through the byways of the woods, others hiding themselves in the caves of the rocks and the caverns of the mountains, the more noble and more powerful betaking themselves to the most fortified towns and castles, the most brave contender of Christ could neither be impelled by threats of death, nor torn away by the blandishments of friends from the place in which she had arranged to end her life. For she said to those who compelled her to go out: "If, for the sake of Him who willed to suffer for my deliverance and that of the whole world, I flee to lose this wretched life, what shall He say to me, when He shall sit on the throne of His majesty to judge the living and the dead, if I flee to lose this wretched and most brief life for His love?"

[9] When these and things like these the most brave athlete of Christ Rayneldis said, whom she declines to flee, all fleeing, she alone remained in the same place, with only two men, who above the rest adhered to her more familiarly [*], namely a cleric by name Grimoald ^m, and a servant by name Gondulf. The barbarians therefore rushing in, the maiden, full of the sacred spirit ⁿ, established in the love of the heavenly bridegroom, with her companions, after her wonted manner fled to the aid of prayer, and before the altar of St. Quentin ^o the martyr prostrated herself in the manner of a cross, that as [he], obtaining the palm of martyrdom, was a faithful witness of his Redeemer, so she near the memorial of the Martyr might be worthy to be made a partaker of the same testimony of Christ.

[10] She is beheaded at St. Quentin's. But when the barbarians rushing in, like not men but most savage beasts, thirsting for human blood after the manner of ferocious lions, burst into the church in which the holy handmaid of Christ was praying, and, seizing the Virgin herself by the hair, dragged her round about, beating her with cudgels and scourges, and pounding her with kicks, and striking her with fists, and affecting her with most cruel blows, and mockings, and many injuries, she herself sang psalms to the Lord in gladness of heart, saying: "Blessed art Thou, God, Father of our Lord, who hast granted to me a sinner, not by my merits but by the grace of Thy Only-begotten, this which I always desired from infancy to obtain." The barbarians therefore compelling her to stretch out her neck, with bent knee she manfully awaited the stroke of the striker, weeping for joy, and pouring forth a prayer, saying: "I give Thee thanks, Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to reckon me in the number of Thy handmaids; and receive my spirit." Which said, she stretched out her neck, and sustained the stroke of the striker, her head being cut off, and rendered her spirit to heaven.

[11] Her companions Grimoald and Gondulf are also slain. But holy Grimoald, her subdeacon, underwent the same sentence of decollation. Gondulf ended his life, three [*] nails being driven into his brain. But this ought not to be suppressed in silence, that the Martyrs of Christ being slain, the soldiers of Satan attempted to burn the church with the Martyrs themselves, but the merits of blessed Rayneldis withstanding, being by no means able to kindle the place, they withdrew confounded. Holy Rayneldis therefore consummated the course of martyrdom with her holy followers on the XVII Kalends of August, and with the palm of victory fell asleep in the Lord. The Huns therefore withdrawing, the inhabitants of the place who had remained surviving, returning to their own, found the bodies of the Saints unburied, and buried the holy Virgin with her aforesaid companions in the same church on the Ides of August.

[12] When therefore the Lord wished to glorify the memory of His Martyr, and to show to His faithful Miracles at the Saint's tomb, how great glory she had obtained in the heavens, it was revealed to a certain paralytic, who for seven years

had suffered a dissolution of his members, that he should be carried to the sepulcher of the Virgin. Who, as soon as he touched her tomb, his heels and soles, and his other members were so consolidated as if he had never suffered any infirmity. Many therefore, beset by fevers and diverse diseases, having heard of her miracles and virtues, coming from far and near, at her tomb, aided by the benefits of God and the merits of the most holy Martyr, glorifying God, returned with joy to their own sound. Many blind, enlightened, and lame, strengthened in their gait, returned from her sepulcher with immense joy.

[13] whence she is said to have been raised in 866. How great benefits God bestowed on His people through her, it is long to narrate, and we fear also lest it should seem to generate weariness in the readers: yet the vestiges of these, in the wax candles hung up, in the eyes, hands, and feet of wax, and the other members of men and women, from whom, by her merits, infirmity had been emptied and health received, remained until the burning [q] of the church, burned for the crimes of the people, in testimony of her virtues. But the most sacred clod of her body was raised from the earth in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and sixty-six [r], and was reposited, with great praises of the peoples and of the chanting Clerics, in a silver casket, three bishops of the neighboring dioceses being present [s].

[14] After these things, the course of a few years having elapsed, The head, stolen away, being punished, the son [t] of a certain most noble man, kindled with love of literary study, leaving his native place, came to these parts, and entered Saintes, and there was kindly received in lodging by a certain presbyter, a wise man: who, when he had arranged to stay there for the space of some time with the same presbyter for the sake of learning, and license had been granted him to enter the church at his pleasure, since he seemed well and gravely composed, one night, the guardians incautiously sleeping, the shrine being broken, he stole away the head of holy Rayneldis, with the little book in which her deeds were had. But when he had come to the house of his father with the sacred pledges, how much he had offended God, or of how great merit was the Virgin whose pledges were carried, could not lie hidden from the citizens of that place; for the same young man was straightway seized by a demon, and began to be so grievously vexed that scarcely did breath remain in him.

[15] Then the father and mother, as bereft of their only offspring, is restored at the parents' vow. afflicting themselves with excessive grief and grave anxiety and continual laments, the matter being known, with devout mind implored God, to whom nothing is impossible, that, the merits of the blessed Virgin availing, He would deign to restore their only pledge to health, and kindly receive their vows: for they promise to build, in honor of God and St. Rayneldis, a congregation of virgins, brides of Christ, from their possessions, if the Lord would deign to fulfill their desire: which was so done; for the young man, the demon being expelled, received health entire, and after these things was devoted to God. But they, fulfilling as they had vowed to God and the holy Virgin, built a monastery of women near the same Saintes, on their estate, called Elchina, and there, devoting themselves to the service of God, happily passed the course of their life. This therefore, to the best of our rude little knowledge, though inelegantly, we have written concerning the life and acts of holy Rayneldis, virgin and martyr: it remains therefore that, her glorious merits aiding, we may be worthy to attain to her fellowship, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor and power and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. A barbarous and redundant word, unless it signify "sharp," or "headed," so as to intimate the great heads of the nails.

q. When that happened, I do not divine: perhaps it can be referred to the incursions of the Normans.

r. I would rather read with Surius 806, when times were a little more peaceful in Belgium, than the year 866, or, as others, 860; in which the fear from the aforesaid Normans did not permit one to think of making a silver casket.

s. Namely of Cambrai, Tournai, and Liège, if only these are sufficiently certain.

t. The edition of Surius and some Manuscripts would have this youth to have been of Xanten on the Rhine, perhaps from the affinity of names. Our reading indeed displeases less; although, to say it candidly, I would rather that whole history, or the two last numbers, were absent; lest we be vainly compelled to seek I know not what Elchina, and the monastery of virgins founded there, into which also the boy's father betook himself; of which no vestige now occurs anywhere in Hainaut: but at the Rhine that nothing at all is known of St. Reineldis, has long ago been written to us.

* "redemptione" (redemption).

* "familiaribus" (as friends) or "familiarius" (more familiarly)?