ON ST. FREDEGANDUS, ABBOT,
AT KERKOM NEAR ANTWERP.
PERHAPS EIGHTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Fredegandus, Abbot, at Kerkom near Antwerp in Belgium (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
§ I. The place of the Saint's dwelling and his cult.
Turninum, which is believed to have been a fortified and not ignoble town before the irruption of the Normans, now a village called in the vernacular Deuren or Deurne, distant about half a Belgian league from Antwerp, even today with an annual festivity solemnly venerates St. Fredegandus as its apostle and patron: St. Fredegandus is venerated at Turninum, for among the inhabitants of this place, and various Belgian writers, there is a constant tradition that St. Fredegandus led a religious life at Turninum in the monastery of Quercolodora, which indeed Mabillon mentions in the Benedictine Annals, book 20, no. 72, at the year of Christ 726, but thinks the place at this time unknown. However it be, from the codex of pious Donations in Miraeus, chapter 6, it is established that in the year 725 or 726 Rohingus and his wife Bebelina delivered to St. Willibrord the bishop a church, "which is built within the castle of Antwerp on the river Scheldt, which Lord Amandus the Pontiff built in honor of Sts. Peter and Paul, princes of the apostles, or of the other Saints, and gave for that church … to the venerable man Firminus, abbot of the monastery of Quorcolodora, a little place … named Tumme in exchange." Miraeus in the Notations on this charter suspects that by the place Tumme is to be understood Turne or Deurne; which is not so absurd, since the same Rohingus granted to St. Willibrord other lands too near Turninum, as may be seen in the same codex, chapters 7 and 8. At least from this it is plain that the church of Sts. Peter and Paul, now called St. Walburga's, in the borough or castle of Antwerp, built by St. Amandus, once belonged to the monks of Quercolodora, and that Rohingus, an exchange being made, acquired it for St. Willibrord.
[2] Our Henschenius in his learned Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Amandus on the VI of February, no. 24, treats of the same donation, where he is said to have been abbot of the Monastery of Quercolodora, and in the following number discusses certain things making to our matter, which, on account of the rarity of that month, it pleased to transcribe hither: "What above," he says, "in the donation of Rohingus is called Querquelodora, the monastery of the abbot Firminus, seems to have been at Durini or Turnini, which is the village commonly Deurne, distant one league from Antwerp. And indeed one may suspect that that very monastery was built by St. Amandus for the strengthening and propagation of the faith recently planted there. But Quercolodora or Kerckelodora was so called, as it were Kercke-loo-dor, from the water (which was called dor or dur or deur in the old Belgian language) flowing beside the wood or loo, near which wood was the temple Kercke, χυριακόν. But that water is the river Scenda, which washes the village Durninum. Who first is believed to have presided over this monastery is St. Fredegandus, hitherto patron of the people of Durini, venerated on the XVII of July, to whom perhaps the Firminus mentioned above succeeded. Great was the connection of this Quercolodora, and a certain communication of goods, with the other monastery, built by St. Amandus at the river Sambre, as we shall say below: to which the body of St. Fredegandus was translated, when the Normans laid waste all things around Antwerp." Then, no. 62, he mentions the same translation of the relics, of which we shall have to dispute afterward.
[3] John Baptist Gramaye in the Antiquities of Antwerp, book 4, which was destroyed by the Normans, chapter 4, has these things of the same place: "Among the villages of the land of Ryen, Turninum deservedly holds the first place in antiquity, called from towers (lest anyone dream of some Turnus or Trojan). A city once, and indeed before Antwerp, adorned by the preaching, miracles, and tomb of Fredegandus the bishop, whose body, the tyranny of the Normans coming on, translated to the Monastery at the Sambre, there rests in the college of the noble Canonesses. But the city, as the codex of the Life and translation of St. Gummarus hands down, on account of the iniquity of the inhabitants, deserving the vengeance of God, its Apostle's body being absent, destitute of strength, the Normans rushing through the river Scinda into Bratuspantium, fell as prey, utterly overthrown. The neighbors recovering from this disaster, Turninum too revived, furnished with a castle, and a Benedictine abbey, founded by the Dukes of Lorraine, but in the year 1063 translated to Ename." I observe here that some things are sold by Gramaye which are not so certain. First it is mere conjecture that Turninum received its name from towers. Then, propped by no testimony of the ancient writers, he calls St. Fredegandus a bishop. Besides, he erroneously, after others, names Brabant Bratuspantium, as was shown from Hadrian de Valois and others in the Corollary to the Acts of St. Rumold, chapter 1. Finally we do not know what that castle was, which Gramaye narrates was built after the Norman devastation, since now no vestige of it survives, and no building appears in the whole village which by its structure indicates so great antiquity.
[4] the monks migrating elsewhere; Miraeus in the Notations on the charter cited above, at the name Tumme, observes the following. "Perhaps Turne or Deurne, once Turninum in Latin, a village near Antwerp on the little river Scheine, where once was a monastery, in which St. Fredegandus at some time acted as a monk. His sacred bones, brought from Saint-Omer in the year 1590 to Antwerp, are kept in the cathedral temple there. Moreover, the Normans rushing into Belgium, the monks, Turninum being left, are thought to have migrated to Ename near Oudenaarde, where even now there is a Benedictine abbey." Baron le Roy in the Notice of the Marquisate of the Holy Roman Empire, book 2, chapter 1, rightly denies that the monks then migrated from Turninum to Ename. "To this opinion," he says, "as regards the translation of the said monastery, the reckoning of times is opposed: for the irruption of the Normans happened in the year eight hundred thirty-five, or according to Sigebert's chronicle two years later; but the Benedictine monastery of Ename is established to have been built by Baldwin of Lille, Count of Flanders, in the year 1063. Therefore two hundred twenty-eight years after the destruction of Turninum." But whether, after the monastery of Quercolodora was destroyed by the Normans, a new Benedictine abbey was founded there by the Dukes of Lorraine, and afterward passed to Ename, as Gramaye asserts, I dare not affirm for certain, since I have not hitherto found it confirmed by solid testimonies. Yet it is certain that the monks of Ename at some time possessed rights and estates in Turninum and neighboring villages, which in the year 1308 they transferred to the Antwerp canons of the Premonstratensian Order, as is plain from the charter which the most learned Baron le Roy in the work already cited, book 2, chapter 1, exhibits near the end.
[5] the relics of the Saint having been translated earlier. And these things indeed about Turninum and St. Fredegandus, an inhabitant of the same place, the more recent writers write. But the most ancient who mentions both in express words is a certain Brother Theobald, who after the eleventh or perhaps twelfth century seems to have written the Life, translation, and certain miracles of St. Gummarus, both in prose and in verse. He therefore in the manuscript Acts, chapter 16, has these things: "At a certain time, when the sins of men had grown, and by the supernal judgment had deserved the scourges of correction from God, the Norman nation was led out from its seats, a most fierce nation, which, brought by ship into the Rhenish province, laid waste all things round about. They burned Antwerp, ravaged Walcheren; so that others were dispersed, that there was no place where mourning ceased. Through the river therefore which is called Scinda,"
they came to the village Turninum, where was the monastery of St. Fredegandus the confessor. But God, hating the place on account of the iniquity of the inhabitants, ordered his relics to be carried elsewhere, that there might be no obstacle against the desolation. These being taken away, as if the wall and towers of the city being destroyed, the enemy nation rushed in, and by fire all the buildings perished, and consumed the monastery itself, partly slaughtered the men, partly led them away captive; nor did a house survive, nor an inhabitant escape, nothing but solitude remained." The same as to substance is read in the metrical Life. From what has been said so far it is plain enough how greatly Ferrari erred in assigning the site of Turninum in the General Catalogue of the Saints, when, treating of St. Fredegandus on this day in his notes, he places this village in the county of Namur, and thinks it is now called Moustier. The origin of this error is manifest. Ferrari namely confounded both places, because he was ignorant that the relics of St. Fredegandus had been translated from Turninum into the monastery now commonly called Moustier, which, built at the river Sambre by St. Amandus, is distant two miles from Namur. But these things about the arena of his sanctity perhaps more than enough. Now let us establish the cult of our Saint.
[6] Although it is not to be doubted that St. Fredegandus has for many centuries had public veneration among the Belgians, His memory exists in our manuscript Florarium, the Usuardine Supplements, yet among the Martyrologists his first memory occurs in our manuscript Florarium, which, written in the middle of the fifteenth century, thus celebrates his annual commemoration on this day: "At the village Turninum of Brabant, the birthday of blessed Fredegandus the confessor, whose bones, when they had rested for some time there in his monastery, and at last by divine order had been translated elsewhere, that place, which before was unseen [*] and almost inaccessible, was soon depopulated and desolated by enemies." Usuard augmented by Greven puts on the same day these few words: "Of Fredegandus, bishop and confessor." But Molanus in the Usuardine Additions, edited at Louvain in the year 1568, thus records him: "On the same day, of St. Fredegandus the confessor." Then in smaller type these are added; "who with St. Fursey came from Ireland, and rests in the monastery of the Ladies on the river Sambre, not far from Namur." But in the edition of the year 1573 and 1583, these last being omitted, only is read: "In the monastery of Argenton, on the same day of St. Fredegandus the confessor." I do not sufficiently understand what that monastery of Argenton means, which, situated in the territory of Namur, is now inhabited by nuns of the Cistercian Order: for it is an ancient tradition that St. Fredegandus died at Turninum, and that his sacred bones were translated to another monastery of the county of Namur, mentioned above. If perhaps by this is signified that some part of the relics is preserved in the Argenton monastery, I do not dissent: for on this account, but more clearly explained, Saussay records the same Saint at Saint-Omer in his Gallican Martyrology in these words: "At Saint-Omer, the veneration of the relics of St. Fredegandus the confessor, one of the companions of St. Foillan, illustrious for the glory of apostolic preaching."
[7] With these later editions of Molanus agree, and other Martyrologies. and announce St. Fredegandus in the monastery of Argenton, Wion, Menard, and other Benedictine hagiologists, except Dorganius, who in the Calendar of the Saints of his Order relates him thus simply: "Of St. Fredegandus the confessor." Bucelin after his manner adorns him with a prolix elogium, whose beginning I here transcribe: "In the monastery of Argenton, of St. Fredegandus, monk and confessor. Fredegandus or Fredegaudus, an Irish monk, companion of the pilgrimage and apostolic labor of the holy Foillan, Fursey, and Ultan, wondrously shed light by word and example on the peoples neighboring Antwerp, and, a monastery being built at Turninum, there closed the remaining days of his life with a holy end." Then of the destruction of Turninum follow those things which we gave above from other authors. Yet Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium agrees almost with his first edition of Usuard, and, making no word of the monastery of Argenton, expressly expresses other places of cult in this manner: "At Turninum, the birthday of St. Fredegandus, presbyter and confessor, whose body rests in the collegiate church of Monasterium (Moustier). But he is of those blessed preachers who came from Ireland into Gaul with St. Foillan and other apostolic men. But the place in which it is already mentioned that he rests is the monastery on the Sambre built by blessed Amandus in honor of St. Peter, two miles from Namur; where anciently there was a congregation living monastically the very name indicates; but now they are called Ladies and Canonesses. There is also a celebrated memory of the holy Man at Deurne near Antwerp: for there he rested, when that place was a city, and is said to have been girt with walls, when Antwerp still lacked them." Then he narrates the ruins inflicted on Turninum by the Normans from the Acts of St. Gummarus, whose words pertaining to our matter we exhibited above. To enumerate here other Martyrologists who followed Molanus I judge superfluous.
[8] In the Breviary of Liège and Namur a commemoration is made of him, That for more than two centuries the memory of St. Fredegandus was celebrated in the ecclesiastical Offices, is plainly clear from the Liège Missal, which, printed at Paris in the year 1509, makes on this day a commemoration of Fredegaudus (thus too, on the testimony of Molanus, his name was incised on the Moustier bier) and of Alexius, confessors, and prescribes this collect common to both Saints: "O God, who dost surround and protect us by the glorious confessions of thy holy ones Fredegaudus and Alexius, grant us both to profit by their imitation and to rejoice in their intercession. Through our Lord, etc." In the proper Offices of the church of Liège, printed in the year 1623, on the XVII of July the canonical Hours are recited of St. Alexius with a commemoration of St. Fredegandus, presbyter, in Lauds only. But it is a commemoration of a common confessor not a pontiff. From these it is sufficiently plain that the people of Liège did not believe St. Fredegandus was a bishop, although Greven and Gramaye decorated him with this title. Nor did the proper Offices of the diocese of Namur, printed in the year 1619, acknowledge his episcopate, which on this day in the Rubrics thus prescribe: "Of the holy confessors Alexius and Fredegandus. All things are said from the common of confessors not pontiffs, except those which are here had as proper." Then follows the same collect, which I already gave from the Liège Missal. Then is subjoined a third proper Lesson, which in almost the words already related in no. 5, and soon to be related again, describes the devastation of Turninum. St. Fredegandus at Antwerp in the church of Blessed Mary had once a chapel consecrated to his name (now commonly called St. Ursula's), as is plain from a Brief of the Pontiff preserved there, by which plenary indulgences are granted, to be valid for twenty years, to all faithful of Christ … who … shall have devoutly visited every year the chapel of St. Fredegandus on the birthday of the same Saint, the XVII of July. But I doubt whether the feast of that Saint was ever celebrated there with an ecclesiastical Office, since the Breviary printed in the year 1496 for the use of that church makes no mention of him. I do not know whether perhaps in the following century, in which he was chosen by the people of Antwerp among the patrons against the plague, some peculiar cult was added in the Breviary. At least today in the proper Offices of that diocese no commemoration is made of him.
[9] At Turninum his Office is celebrated with a double rite, and in the second Nocturn the following Lessons are recited: and at Turninum his Office is solemnly celebrated. Lesson IV. "When, the way of the Saints being made public, the Sun of justice deigned to send more benign rays even into the islands which are far off, he began to bring forth various clouds from the ends of the earth, namely men great in merits, sublime in life, and whose whole conversation was in the heavens: who, full of an apostolic spirit, flew as clouds, and, fecundating the Lord's field, instilled the dew of heavenly doctrine." Lesson V. "But among other apostolic men and heralds of the law of Christ, whom in great number Ireland sent into Gaul and these lands together with the holy Foillan, Ultan, and others, into the Antwerp territory too ran out St. Fredegandus, whose celebrated memory and fragrance of virtues even now perseveres at Turninum near Antwerp. This was the arena of his labors, in which the holy Man strenuously contended with the world, the flesh, and the devil: until there he might seize the prize of eternal retribution, and as a faithful and prudent servant enter into the joy of his Lord." Lesson VI. "But when the Normans, through the river which is called Scinda, had come to the village Turninum, where was the monastery of St. Fredegandus the confessor, and God, on account of the iniquity of the inhabitants, held the place hateful, he ordered the sacred relics of the Saint to be carried elsewhere, that there might be no obstacle against the desolation: which at last being taken away, as if the wall and towers of the city being destroyed, the enemy nation rushed in, and by fire destroyed all the buildings, and consumed the monastery itself; the men partly it slaughtered, partly led away captive. So much lies in the relics of the Saints, which are fountains of salvation and springs of miracles."
Annotation* Perhaps "invincible."
§ II. On the relics of the Saint and his patronage against the plague.
From what has been said in the preceding paragraph, the bones of St. Fredegandus seem to have been first translated from Turninum to the church of St. Peter in Hainaut. The relics of St. Fredegandus brought from Saint-Omer to Antwerp, But that translation could be rendered doubtful, both by the Belgian and by the Latin Acts of the translation, which assert that his sacred relics, before the irruption of the Normans, were first carried to the monastery of St. Bertin in Artois. Hence our Malbrancq in his work on the Morini, book 6, chapter 6, narrating at the year of Christ 845 and 846 how, for fear of the Normans, various bodies of the Saints were brought to the fortress of Sithiu, thus writes of our Saint: "The people of Antwerp too provided for their St. Fredegandus, whom Scotland had given a noble confessor: all of whom Adalard, prelate of Sithiu, most benevolently and honorably received, congratulating himself with Folquin the bishop, in what manner God should remunerate the contrived loss of one Saint by the accession of many Saints." There is added that the monks of St. Bertin sent to the canons of Antwerp certain relics, of which Aubert Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti on the day XVII of July thus writes: "Moreover a part of the relics of St. Fredegandus, brought from Saint-Omer, from the Bertin monastery, to Antwerp about the year 1590, is kept there in the chapel of the cathedral basilica dedicated to St. Ursula and her companions." But what became of these bones sent from Saint-Omer to Antwerp is here to be candidly declared, that the heterodox may see that we do not proceed blindly in honoring the remains of the Saints, which nevertheless they often impiously and falsely reproach to the Catholics.
[11] are forbidden to be exposed to public veneration, In the year 1593 (not 1590 as Aubert Miraeus says, much less 1580 as our Willot, to be cited below, writes) the Bertin monks, through a certain Lord Coster, sent to the most Reverend Lord Dean and chapter of the cathedral church of Antwerp a reliquary, in which they thought were contained the bones of St. Fredegandus, as is established from the manuscript Register of the same church, where at the year of Christ
1593, folio 256, are read the following: "The same Lord Coster exhibited testimonials by a public notary, by which the Religious of St. Bertin testify in what manner that body, which he brought, was found in St. Bertin in the time of Lord Gerard d'Hamericourt (he obtained the see of Saint-Omer in the year 1562), first bishop of the people of Saint-Omer, being abbot in St. Bertin." But since those testimonial letters did not prove certainly enough that these relics found at Saint-Omer were of St. Fredegandus, the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord John Miraeus, fourth bishop of Antwerp, not long after in a visitation of the cathedral church left a certain writing, by which he prohibits the said relics to be exposed to public veneration, until of their truth it be plainly established. But that instrument of the most Reverend Miraeus was found in the very reliquary in the year 1715, when the parish priest of Turninum had asked from the most Reverend and most noble Lords Dean and chapter of the said cathedral church certain relics of St. Fredegandus, which on account of that uncertainty were prudently denied him.
[12] and at least seem doubtful, I do not wish anyone to conclude from what has been said that these relics are false; but at most it can thence be inferred that they are perhaps of another Saint, or at least doubtful, because the schedule, which was found together with the aforesaid body in the Bertin monastery, was so worn by age that it could not be distinctly read, as is indicated in the very testimonial letters written in French, which are inserted in the already cited Register of the church of Antwerp. Besides, Arnold Raisse, a diligent investigator of Belgian relics, in his Belgian Hierogazophylacium, pages 97 and 101, enumerating the sacred pledges which are preserved in the Bertin monastery, does not there mention St. Fredegandus. I know indeed that the same author, following Aubert Miraeus, thus writes, page 301: "The cathedral church of St. Mary at Antwerp keeps a part of the relics of the body of St. Fredegandus, an Irish presbyter, which they obtained from the Bertin monastery in the year 1590, in the chapel dedicated to St. Ursula and her companions." But these come from the same source, namely the testimonial letters, and so rest on the same credit.
[13] [Since the body of the same Saint is said to exist in the monastery of St. Peter in Hainaut,] Raisse in the same little work, page 369, signifies that the relics of St. Fredegandus were first translated from Turninum into Hainaut, in these words; "The noble canonesses of Monasterium at the river Sambre possess a great part of the body of Christ's presbyter and confessor Fredegandus, which was carried from Turninum to this temple of St. Peter by divine ordination, before the devastation of the Normans." This opinion of Raisse and others appears to me more probable: for I observe that already from the year 1509 a commemoration of St. Fredegandus was made in the Liège Missal, which was probably instituted on account of his relics resting in the diocese of Liège, to which then the monastery of St. Peter of Monasterium was subject, before the bishopric of Namur was erected. On the other hand I note that the supposed body of St. Fredegandus was found in St. Bertin only in the time of Lord Gerard d'Hamericourt, first bishop of Saint-Omer, that is after the year of Christ 1562. Therefore the canonesses of Monasterium in Hainaut, which are prior in time, seem also stronger in right.
[14] Yet I do not deny that the Bertin monks once had some relics of this Saint, and in the monastery of St. Bertin in Artois, or perhaps even now have, since various Belgian Acts, although more recent, assert it: for the body of St. Fredegandus could, before the first Norman devastation of Brabant, have been translated from Turninum to the canonesses of Monasterium, and afterward thence, for new fear of the same barbarians, be transferred to Saint-Omer, just as our Malbrancq cited above testifies that about the year 846 various bodies of the Saints were brought from every side to the fortress of Sithiu. But what the same Malbrancq thinks, that the relics of St. Fredegandus were then first carried thither from Turninum or Antwerp, is to me quite improbable, since a decade before Turninum and other towns of Brabant had been devastated by the Normans, as is proved in the Life of St. Libert on the XIV of this month. What if, between the first, in the year 835 or 836, and the second, of the year 882, irruption of the Normans into Brabant, the body of St. Fredegandus was brought from the monastery of Monasterium to Saint-Omer, and afterward, by the example of others, restored to the canonesses of Monasterium, certain sacred bones being retained for faithful keeping? But this is mere conjecture, which we wish to be received as such.
[15] It could also, in later centuries, on account of the assiduous tumults of wars and other causes unknown to me, that same body be placed in the Bertin monastery as in a safer place. it is explained how the sacred bones could have come to these, Thus I understand that the sacred bones of the same Saint were in the sixteenth century hidden for fear of the heretic soldiers; of which matter, in the manuscript Collectanea of Gilles Monoye pertaining to the Saints of Namur, I read the following, chapter 16: "The feast of St. Fredegandus, commonly saint Frego, is celebrated on the XVI Kalends of August, whose sacred pledges in the last century, in the war against the French, first hidden in the woods, then, for fear of Orange, laid up in the earth in a certain little chapel, but found, were most irreverently and hostilely dispersed. Now at last collected into one, the head only excepted, of which I could learn nothing certain, they are said to be kept in the bier which is seen at Monasterium, in French Moustier, and in the feasts of Pentecost is carried about with solemn supplication through the parish; but within the Octave is frequented with the celebrated devotion of the neighbors." These things I have adduced only for example, that I might show how in the preceding centuries the same relics could, for a like cause, be carried to Saint-Omer. It is also probable enough that some part of the body was given as a gift to the Bertin monks, as others will have it, who place the relics of this Saint in both places.
[16] That at Turninum, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, relics of St. Fredegandus existed, and to other places. I gather from his miracles, in whose prologue it is read that at that time an annual supplication was decreed, in which the venerable Sacrament of the altar together with the relics and statue of St. Fredegandus was carried about. Besides, in a certain miracle St. Fredegandus is said to have commanded a deaf woman to go to Turninum and there visit his relics, if she wished to be freed from deafness. But these relics I conjecture were dissipated or carried off by the heretics raging about the middle of the same century in Belgium, and profaning all sacred things, because today at Turninum none exist, as the present parish priest of that place, questioned by me on this matter, testifies. If any relics of the same saint were at that time at Antwerp in the chapel of St. Fredegandus, they doubtless perished in the famous iconoclasm of the Antwerp temples, accomplished in the year 1566 by the sacrilegious Calvinists. But that we may put an end to the disputed relics of the canonesses of Monasterium and of the Bertin monks, let our Baudouin Willot be heard on this matter, who in the Belgian Martyrology written in French thus speaks on this day: "At Monasterium, which before was a monastery, then a college of secular canonesses, not far from Namur, is honored the body of St. Fredegandus the Irishman, patron of the same place, which by divine order was translated hither from Turninum, which was a town near Antwerp, before it was destroyed for its sins by the Normans. Yet a certain part was afterward carried to the monastery of St. Bertin, and thence in the year 1580 (this chronological error we corrected above) to the chapel of St. Ursula at Antwerp." In this manner the controversy between the canonesses of Monasterium and the Bertin monks seems to me able to be settled. But if this settlement please neither party, let them settle the dispute among themselves. We meanwhile let us here add a few things about the patronage of our Saint against the plague.
[17] St. Fredegandus was at Antwerp a patron against the plague. From the miracles to be given below it will be plain that St. Fredegandus at the beginning of the sixteenth century was a singular patron against the pestiferous plague and burning fevers. Also the city of Antwerp, afflicted with an epidemic disease about the year 1512, felt great relief by the intercession of St. Fredegandus, as Augustine Wichmann commemorates in the Apothecary of spiritual medicines, chapter 42, and more briefly in his Ecclesiastical Diary of the Saints tutelary against the plague, thus writing at the day XVII of July: "At Turninum in Brabant, of St. Fredegandus, presbyter and confessor, who by his merits drove the pestilence away from Antwerp." Of his patronage against the plague mention is made in the above praised Flemish rhythm, which, composed two hundred years ago, hung at Turninum in the chapel of St. Fredegandus, and is related in the Belgian Legend of the Saints, which Henry Adriani, pastor of the hospital of St. Elizabeth, edited at Antwerp in the year 1602. Our Papebroch in the manuscript Antwerp Annals at the year of Christ 1512 thus rendered into Latin four little verses of this rhythm pertaining to our purpose:
You are an intercessor against the pestilence, As clearly appeared at Antwerp; Where in the year after a thousand five hundred and twelve, You saved those asking you from such a poison.
§ III. The Saint's Acts, homeland, profession of life, and epoch.
Besides a longer Legend written in Flemish, The most ancient memory of St. Fredegandus which I have hitherto been able to find exists in the Life of St. Gummarus, whose fragment pertaining hither I exhibited in the first paragraph. In vain I sought older and certain Acts of this holy confessor. I find them indeed in a certain manuscript codex of our museum, written in Flemish two hundred years ago at most; but in it the anonymous author fills more than forty pages with wordy praises of common virtues, which can be fitted to any holy monk and abbot. Moreover, to say roundly what I feel, this Belgian Legend teems with so many fables and ineptitudes, that I should think I should lay out time uselessly and bring weariness to the reader, if I laboriously translated it from our vernacular tongue into Latin: for of the antiquity of the Antwerp castle, built by Julius Cæsar and adorned with privileges, he fables many things; nay he dreams that the letters of these privileges still survive as witnesses. He also inserts many things about the impious sect of Mahomet and the Arian heresy, with which he pretends the inhabitants of Turninum and the Antwerp castle were infected, whom he asserts were led from those errors to the true faith by St. Fredegandus, whose name he ignorantly interprets from a Hebrew etymology. It does not please to set forth here the other trifles which that writer babbles to nausea. Yet afterward he narrates certain miracles which happened in his age through the intercession of St. Fredegandus. But since of these a contemporary author can make faith, though fabulous in relating ancient matters, these, translated from the Belgian idiom into Latin, I shall give afterward.
[19] Nor about the deeds of St. Fredegandus does a certain Belgian compendium of the Acts deserve greater credit, and a Belgian compendium of the Life and a rhythm, which was communicated to us by the most noble Lord Andrew Valckenisse, secretary of the city of Antwerp: for in it the anonymous author narrates old wives' fables about the giants then dwelling in Belgium, and ignorantly confounds most diverse times and deeds, as when he connects the martyrdom of St. Ursula with the destruction of Turninum, and asserts that both were perpetrated by the same infidels, whom he himself calls Huns. I have besides a Flemish rhythm composed two hundred years ago, which in the barbarous
metre of that age explains more briefly and more probably the deeds done by St. Fredegandus. It exists, as I noted above in no. 17, in the Belgian Legend of the saints, edited by Henry Adriani at Antwerp. Lest the curious reader miss anything in the obscure and uncertain Acts of this Saint, I shall touch in a few words the chief heads of the rhythm. First the author says that St. Fredegandus, born at Turninum near Antwerp, shone with various virtues from boyhood, and led a solitary life. Then he narrates that, having been made abbot of the monastery there, he converted to the Christian faith many inhabitants of the land of Ryen, and among others St. Gummarus, who about the year seven hundred served under Pippin. Finally he asserts that the body of St. Fredegandus was translated to Saint-Omer to the Bertin abbey, and, the Norman devastation being described, extols his miracles and especially his patronage against the epidemic disease, of which I treated above, no. 17.
[20] Finally, after much investigation, by the care and diligence of the most Reverend and most noble Lord Peter Goos, canon of the cathedral church of Antwerp, I obtained the Latin Legend of St. Fredegandus, I found the Acts of the same Saint briefly written in Latin. which is had in the Acts of the Chapter of the said cathedral church at the year 1593, tome 1, page 257. It is indeed brief, but appears more recent. Its anonymous author writes things scarcely coherent and confounds diverse times, as we shall see afterward, when the epoch of our Saint is examined. Those Acts, together with the bones mentioned in no. 11, were sent from Saint-Omer to Antwerp, as is plain from the notice which the actuary of the Antwerp chapter prefixed to those Acts related in the Register, page 257, in this manner: "The same Lord Coster also exhibited a certain old torn manuscript paper, which he said he had received once sent from Antwerp to his monastery, at which time they asserted that relics had likewise been sought by the people of Antwerp from them, of which a copy follows." Here are subjoined the very Acts, which we shall give after this commentary, and shall try to illustrate with notes. Now let us first discuss their chief heads.
[21] St. Fredegandus is said by some to be a Belgian, by others an Irishman, The first question can be raised about the homeland of St. Fredegandus. Jacques Desmay, canon of Péronne, in the Life of St. Fursey edited in French in the year 1607, John Colgan in the Appendix to the Life of St. Fursey, chapter 6, Molanus, Miraeus, and others cited in the preceding paragraph, ascribe him to Ireland, and say that he came with Foillan and Ultan, or, as others will have it, with Fursey, from Ireland into Gaul. But this pilgrimage of his, whether with Fursey, or with Foillan and Ultan, is rendered doubtful to me, since only the more recent, without any alleged testimony of the ancient writers, join St. Fredegandus as a companion to those Irish apostles. At least in the older Acts of St. Fursey illustrated on the XVI of January, and of St. Ultan on the I of May, no mention is made of him. Moreover the Irish origin of St. Fredegandus is rendered most uncertain by the three exemplars of the Acts already described by us, which all expressly assert that he was born at Turninum near Antwerp. I confess indeed that these Acts are with me of no great authority, yet they seem older than those writers who will have him to be an Irishman. And so we shall stand for his Belgian birth, until from older monuments his certain homeland be drawn out.
[22] and he seems to have followed the rule of St. Benedict, The other question is what institute of life St. Fredegandus followed. Usuard augmented by Greven, Canisius in his German Martyrology, Gramaye cited above, call him a bishop. But this title, we have already said, is propped by no testimony of the ancients. The Benedictine hagiographers commonly ascribe this Saint to their Order, whom our Acts favor. Whence I wonder that Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict did not mention him. Nevertheless I shall easily believe that St. Fredegandus belongs to the Benedictine Order, if those hagiographers will grant me that he came from Ireland into Gaul neither with Fursey nor with Foillan and Ultan: for if anyone, with Desmay, Colgan, Bucelin, and others, should contend that he is to be numbered among the companions and disciples of Fursey or Foillan, I shall by right doubt whether St. Fredegandus lived according to the rule of St. Benedict, since about this matter concerning Fursey himself, Foillan, Ultan, and other Irish monks there is no light controversy.
[23] if he was not by nation an Irishman. On the testimony of Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, tome 1, in the Appendix to the Life of St. Fursey, chapter 5, John Manriquez in his book on the Origin of the Eremite Brothers, chapter 15, judges that Patrick and his disciples and most other Saints of Ireland were of the Order of the Eremites of St. Augustine. But on the contrary Gabriel Pennotto, book 2, chapters 34 and 35, contends that the same were of the Order of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine, and adds that there was no other institute in Ireland down to the times of St. Malachy and St. Bernard. But Colgan there asserts that in Ireland itself there once existed eight and more founders of rules and patriarchs, under whose rules the religious and monks of Ireland lived for several centuries, until, these monks gradually deflecting from the pristine rigor of their institute, the rule both of the Benedictines and of the Regular Canons was gradually introduced. Colgan indeed thinks that Fursey and other monks of Ireland, when they came into Gaul, embraced the institute of St. Benedict; but to this opinion Charles Le Cointe contradicts, as may be seen in the Annals of the Franks, tome 3, at the year of Christ 650, no. 5. Now let us make conjectures about the time in which our Saint lived, since we cannot establish a certain chronology.
[24] To detect the epoch of St. Fredegandus our Acts would bring some light, the Belgian Acts, if they agreed among themselves, and were of such authority that they could safely be trusted. But the Belgian conflict with the Latin. For the more prolix Flemish Legend, after narrating the preaching of St. Willibrord among the inhabitants of the Antwerp castle, which is not to be placed before the beginning of the eighth century, says that St. Fredegandus was born at Turninum at that time. But the Flemish rhythm indicates that he was then of a fairly advanced age, since, after relating his apostolic labors, monastic life, and abbatial office, it asserts that St. Gummarus, serving under Pippin about the year seven hundred, was converted by St. Fredegandus. From the chronological note of the year seven hundred it is plain enough that here no other Pippin can be understood than of Herstal, who died in the year 714. Nevertheless Henry Adriani, who edited this rhythm in his Belgian Legend, notes in the margin at this place the year seven hundred fifty-six, supposing that this conversion happened under Pippin the Short or King, son of Charles Martel, who died in the year 768. Nor did the editor of the rhythm place that chronological note altogether rashly, since in the Life of St. Gummarus written by a certain Theobald it is read that he lived in the court of King Pippin. But it is nothing new that several Pippins are confounded by writers, as Willibrord Bosschaert demonstrates by certain examples in the Diatribe on the first apostles of old Frisia, dissertation 37.
[25] Our Latin Acts agree with the Flemish rhythm about the epoch of St. Fredegandus, and at least thus indicate his undetermined age: and the Latin, "About the year of the Lord seven hundred, in the time of St. Willibrord the confessor, a small monastery was there built anew and erected, which St. Fredegandus by the instinct of God entered." Then, when they made mention of St. Gummarus, they manifestly affirm that he served under Pippin of Herstal in these words: "For at that time in like manner St. Gommarus flourished, serving under Pippin, Duke of the eastern Franks, namely the lower ones from the Rhine to the Scheldt, who was also Marquis of the said holy Realm, which is Thurninum with the other neighboring villages, which Pippin obtained many victories, and, overcoming the Frisians, by the intervening preaching of St. Willibrord led them to the Catholic faith." On the day XI of October in the Life of St. Gummarus it can be more exactly inquired whether, with our anonymous, that Saint is to be placed under Pippin of Herstal, or rather, with Theobald the writer of the Acts, under Pippin the King. Meanwhile his conversion to the Catholic faith by the work of St. Fredegandus here narrated does not please me, since St. Gummarus in his proper Acts, composed by the said Theobald, is said to have lived holily from boyhood.
[26] Moreover in the same Latin Acts occurs another difficulty, in that at their end the Anonymous author asserts varying among themselves, that St. Fredegandus very often conversed with St. Rumold; who nevertheless, according to the common tradition of the people of Mechelen and the more probable computation of chronologers, was affected with martyrdom in the year 775. I do not see how anyone can easily reconcile this end of the Acts with the beginning of the same, unless he wish to admit various paradoxes, as will be plain to one comparing both epochs. But to our simpler Belgians it is not unusual to feign colloquies among Saints diverse by whole centuries. Much less can this frequent conversation with St. Rumold be found in the opinion of those who will have St. Fredegandus to have come from Ireland into Gaul with St. Fursey or Foillan and Ultan. For it is necessary that Colgan, Le Cointe, and others, who reckon St. Fredegandus among the companions of St. Fursey, should make him much older, since according to them St. Fursey set out into Gaul in the year 648. Whence Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 674, no. 13, of St. Fredegandus as a disciple of St. Fursey thus writes: "Besides Ultan, many survived of the disciples of St. Fursey. It pleases here in passing and together to copy out the deeds of some, which cannot be digested by years … Fredegandus or Fredegaudus, presbyter, instructed the people of Antwerp, and rested at Turninum near Antwerp, until the Normans overran and devastated that region. He is called in the Benedictine Martyrology Fregandus on the sixteenth of the Kalends of August, on which day he is commended by Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium." Since this Gallic pilgrimage of our Saint is proved only by more recent testimonies, it matters little to discuss his chronology at length.
[27] a certain epoch of St. Fredegandus cannot be established; Wherever I turn to establish the epoch of St. Fredegandus, I find nothing on which to fix my foot firmly: for the Acts conflicting among themselves I cannot safely believe, and from elsewhere solid monuments of antiquity are lacking, from which his certain age may be gathered. Only from the charter of Rohingus it is established that in the year of Christ 725 or 726 Firminus was abbot of Quercolodora. But now I know not whether St. Fredegandus ruled the same monastery before or after Firminus. If I believe the more prolix Belgian Acts, he must have been abbot after the times of Firminus, inasmuch as in those Acts he is handed down to have been born only at that time when St. Willibrord was propagating the Christian faith in Brabant, which most probably did not happen before the beginning of the eighth century. And so in this system St. Fredegandus perhaps was made abbot long after Firminus, and could easily
have conversed with Sts. Gummarus and Rumold, even if each be supposed to have flourished under Pippin the King. But let us propose also the other hypothetical chronology, and one at least propped by the more common tradition.
[28] whence a double chronological system is proposed. Our Henschenius, praised in no. 2 of this Commentary, suspects that the monastery of Quercolodora was built by St. Amandus, and that St. Fredegandus presided over it as first abbot, to whom perhaps Firminus succeeded. In this chronology Amandus himself, who died in the year 684, could have set St. Fredegandus, forty or, if you will, fifty years old, over this monastery, which perhaps he governed down to the beginning of the eighth century, when, he being dead, Firminus could be substituted for him. I confess all these things do not sufficiently cohere with our Latin Acts, which narrate that "about the year of the Lord seven hundred, in the time of St. Willibrord the confessor, a small monastery was there built anew and erected, which St. Fredegandus by the instinct of God entered, pre-eminent above all others in sanctity and vigor of life, on account of which he is read to have been chosen abbot." If anyone prefer to stand for these Acts, suspect from elsewhere, and contend that St. Fredegandus was set over this monastery by St. Willibrord, I shall not greatly resist: for as in these systems I see nothing paradoxical, so also I find nothing certain. Wherefore let the learned reader choose the chronology which shall please more. We here meanwhile from the Register of the chapter of the cathedral church of Antwerp give his Acts, such as they are, to which we subjoin certain miracles, which from our Belgian idiom we have made Latin.
ACTS
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
From the Register of the cathedral church of Antwerp, tome 1, at the year 1593, folio 257.
Fredegandus, Abbot, at Turninum near Antwerp in Belgium (S.)
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
Before and after the nativity of the Lord, Thurninum, situated on the bank of the river which [*] is called Schinda a, St. Fredegandus, his boyhood at Turninum piously passed, about Antwerp, was for many years a certain liberty b, and it is now written with a D, and is called in our c idiom Deurne, which at that time was a port of the sea for fleets and ships, they landing there through the marshy land, now hedged about with dikes, whereby at present Antwerp more richly flourishes, which then had not yet been, but only an ancient castle. In this liberty then was born St. Fredegandus, or by another name Fredegadus, who from his early age, filled with the grace of God, began to be strong in distinguished morals, to grow in age and wisdom, and to please both God and men.
[2] Being very strenuous in life, and most gentle among the people, there he enters a monastery and becomes abbot, devoted to the commands of Christ, and rich in heavenly doctrine, he liberally evangelized the very treasures of the Gospel doctrine to his own and to others round about in Rylandia d, which is called the holy Realm e. For then, about the year of the Lord seven hundred f, in the time of St. Willibrord the confessor, a small monastery had there been built anew and erected, which St. Fredegandus by the instinct of God entered, pre-eminent above all others in sanctity and vigor of life, on account of which he is read to have chosen [*] as abbot. For at that time in like manner St. Gommarus g flourished, serving under Pippin h, Duke of the eastern Franks, namely the lower ones from the Rhine to the Scheldt, who was also Marquis i of the said holy Realm, which is Thurninum with the other neighboring villages; which Pippin obtained many victories, and, overcoming the Frisians k, by the intervening preaching of St. Willibrord led them to the Catholic faith.
[3] But St. Fredegandus, hearing that Gommarus was a Catholic man, and at last dead, is venerated as a saint. at once summoned him, and taught him the faith l, and thus very often conversed with the holy Gommarus and Rumold m, and, being older than they, first among them paid the debt of nature, and was first canonized n in the Church of God. "Whose feast throughout the whole diocese of Liège is commemorated as principal, yet not celebrated, on the very day of Alexius, the seventeenth day of July. Whose body was placed with us in the convent with all honor and reverence at the time of the obsequies, and exalted there for several years, after whose decease, in the said liberty an oratory or church being built, was consecrated also in honor of St. Fredegandus, who was of the Order of St. Benedict, serving laudably under it, and to God happily and exultingly ascended o."
ANNOTATIONS.
* Read "which" (quod).
* Read "to have been chosen" (electus fuisse).
MIRACLES
Collected from the Belgian manuscript of an anonymous author and rendered into Latin.
Fredegandus, Abbot, at Turninum near Antwerp in Belgium (S.)
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
When after the translation of St. Fredegandus and the destruction of Turninum more than five hundred a years had elapsed, St. Fredegandus is chosen patron of Turninum against the plague, and the memory of the venerable Confessor had been erased from the hearts of men, it pleased the divine goodness to manifest to the world the merits of his beloved Servant, that he might be honored by all men: for in the time of the Emperor Maximilian b, about the feast of St. John the Baptist in summer, there arose at Turninum a plague so vehement and incurable that very many died at once. But when the inhabitants found no remedy for this evil, at the exhortation of the parish priest they took refuge in the patronage of St. Fredegandus, and placed a new statue of the Saint, which they had ordered to be sculpted, in the temple. But behold, soon the epidemic disease ceased to creep, and all seized by it quickly recovered. Wherefore in memory of this benefit and in thanksgiving, permission being obtained from the most illustrious Lord Jacques de Croy, bishop of Cambrai c, they instituted a solemn supplication to be held every year on the first day of May, in which the Venerable Sacrament of the altar together with the relics and statue of St. Fredegandus should be carried about. When the fame of this miracle was spread through the neighboring villages and cities, many sick flowed together from every side to Turninum to implore the aid of St. Fredegandus, which they also experienced, leaving there the signs of their healing, namely white rods, which those infected with the plague are wont to carry. A great abundance of them hung in the chapel of St. Fredegandus is seen to this day. But lest anyone dare to doubt of these miracles, we have collected a few out of many, which even now happen daily d in the temple of Turninum, where many are cured of various diseases and especially of malignant fevers.
[2] A certain man, by name William, dwelling at Turninum, had a son seized by the pestiferous plague. by whose intercession a certain man is freed from the plague, Wherefore with his wife and son he fled to the neighboring village Wyneghem e. But a little after, the youth being dead, the father began to labor with the same disease. But soon he ordered himself, together with his wife, to be carried back to Turninum, and to be led to the altar of St. Fredegandus. But when he had there poured out pious prayers, he suddenly obtained health, and, praising God and St. Fredegandus, returned home. At Utrecht on the Rhine in Holland f a certain whole family had perished by the epidemic disease, except a maidservant, [and a maidservant recovered from the same disease; but neglecting her vow, is punished by death.] who also was dangerously ill. To her a certain Antwerp woman related how great miracles St. Fredegandus wrought at Turninum near Antwerp, and persuaded her to vow a pilgrimage thither in honor of this Saint. Soon the maidservant, the vow being made, recovered. But when afterward, forgetful of her vow, she was admonished by the aforesaid woman to carry it out into execution, she began to mock her and to utter certain foolish words, which were not long unpunished: for, relapsed into the same disease, she died on the third day. Afterward that good Antwerp woman came to Turninum and in her place fulfilled the vow, and before the priest of the church and many other persons affirmed with an oath that all these things had so happened.
[3] Two spouses infected with the plague are prodigiously healed. In the suburb of Antwerp, which is commonly called Berchem, John Verlippen and Anna his wife, afflicted with malignant fevers, had gone out for the sake of taking the air. And when on the way the disease grew worse, they turned aside to a certain inn, in which the hostess, observing that they labored with this disease, related the miracles which daily happened at Turninum by the intercession of St. Fredegandus, and exhorted them to betake themselves to the church of this Saint. Then John, full of trust, answered that he would go thither,
even though he had to creep on the ground. Both therefore, not without great trouble, come to Turninum, and prostrate themselves before the altar of St. Fredegandus. Intent on prayers, they seemed to themselves to see a most bright light, which descended upon the statue of the holy confessor, which also sweated copious drops of water. And when, the prayer finished, they raised themselves, they saw the priest celebrating Mass, and in the temple a great multitude of people, which before, for the greatness of their grief and disease, they had not observed. Both, before the end of the Mass, felt themselves free from all fever. The people, hearing this prodigy, glorified God and St. Fredegandus; but John came to Antwerp, and publicly narrated what had happened to him.
[4] A deaf woman, In the domain which is called Wesemale g, Elizabeth Blivens had long been so deaf that she heard nothing at all. She, having understood the miracles of St. Fredegandus, sent a certain schoolman h of the said domain with an offering to Turninum, trusting that she would be healed by the merits of St. Fredegandus, as also happened. For before the cleric had returned, she heard perfectly. Wherefore she herself afterward went to Turninum to give thanks to the Saint, and there declared the benefit bestowed on her. [and an old woman afflicted with the same evil recover their hearing by the aid of St. Fredegandus.] Also in the village Borsbeek i an old woman long deaf prodigiously recovered her hearing: for on a certain night in sleep St. Fredegandus appeared to her, and ordered her to go to Turninum and there visit his relics k, if she wished to be freed from deafness. The woman, awakened, came in the morning with an offering to Turninum, and, prayers being poured out before the altar of St. Fredegandus, was healed. And so, returning home glad, she narrated to her neighbors what had happened to her.
[5] A lame and paralytic boy is restored to health. A boy of ten years was so lame and paralytic that from his birth he could never stand on his feet. At the time when St. Fredegandus was rendering himself celebrated at Turninum by various miracles, he said to his parents that he was to be freed from this infirmity only by the aid of St. Fredegandus. But when the parents had already often heard this from the boy, they carried him to Turninum and placed him before the altar of St. Fredegandus, offering him to God and the holy Confessor. The prayer finished, at once the boy rose, and, perfectly healed without any support, returned home with his parents. Whence all the people praised God and St. Fredegandus, who wrought such wonders.
[6] An Antwerp woman, When at Antwerp an honorable woman, who was called Mathildis Rosen, was seized with a burning fever, she vowed a pilgrimage to St. Fredegandus. Coming to Turninum with great trust and visiting St. Fredegandus, she wholly recovered, and returned home healthy. George Ghils, dwelling at Antwerp near the temple of St. Walburga, struggled with a malignant fever. and a man, an inhabitant of the same city, Having heard the prodigies of St. Fredegandus, as soon as he could he betook himself to Turninum, and, prayer being poured out before his altar, returned healthy to Antwerp. In the village Liloe l a woman, by name Theodorica, vexed by a contagious disease, made a vow of visiting St. Fredegandus at Turninum. and likewise another woman seized with burning fevers are healed. And when she had come thither, and had implored the aid of the holy Confessor, she was plainly healed, and glad sought home again.