ON ST. SEVERA VIRGIN
AT TRIER.
ABOUT THE YEAR 660.
PrefaceSevera, virgin, at Trier (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Of this illustrious sister of St. Modoald, almost unknown in the monuments of Trier, he did not omit to treat who reported quite elegantly the Acts of the holy prelate of Trier, Stephen abbot of St. James at Liège, published by us long ago on 12 May. Known from the Life of St. Modoald Namely he there wove an elogium of the most illustrious Virgin, and showed her to have been set over the nunnery built at St. Symphorian by her holy brother; so that whatever may now be doubted concerning the other convents of Virgins founded by the same holy Prelate, of this one the matter is placed beyond controversy. This encomium, conceived in more words perhaps than was necessary, although once printed in the aforesaid Acts of St. Modoald, I have not hesitated to insert here in its own place, especially since concerning the deeds of this holy Virgin I have found nothing handed down to memory elsewhere, except in the Lectionary of Trier, elsewhere often cited, whence thou wilt perceive that nothing of great moment can be drawn out which was not more fully described by the praised Stephen.
[2] Further, the present cult of St. Severa among the people of Trier the already-mentioned Lectionary renders sufficiently certain. She has an elogium in the Lectionary of Trier, Bolland noted on 26 February in the Passed Over that on that day she is marked in the manuscript Benedictine Calendar of St. Salvator, better remitted hither from the Roman and others: since by Wion, Dorgan, Menard, and the other monastic writers her festivity is celebrated. Bucelin's oration adds nothing to those things which were more fully and more certainly declared of her by Stephen; but Trithemius mixed in certain things long ago refuted by us. More pleasing is the Trier Lesson, which I here subjoin: Severa, virgin of many and great kinships, is set by St. Modoald the bishop her brother over the monastery of nuns which he himself had built on the bank of the Moselle in honor of the divine Symphorian the martyr: to whom he handed the discipline of St. Benedict to be kept. And she, not degenerate from her brother's virtue, and a woman of excellent religion, shone there with excellent examples of Christian perfection through all the time of her life. At last, paving the way for her brother to the blessed life, she fell asleep in the Lord, buried at blessed Symphorian's. But thence in the time of archbishop Ludolf, a schism raging in the church of Trier, she was translated to the basilica of St. Matthias.
[3] which is explained in a few words. What is first set down in this lesson, that she was of many and great kinships, tends altogether to those things which Stephen recorded of the progeny of St. Modoald; concerning which matter the annotations of Henschen page 54 deserve to be consulted; then those which he disputed concerning St. Ita or Iduberga on 8 May page 307; from which I for my part do not yet see how those things follow which were so roundly pronounced by Wion, and from him copied by Bucelin; namely that St. Severa was born of her father Arnoald duke of Austrasia, her mother Oda duchess of Swabia; whatever she may assert she read in Rosières: whereby it would come about that this our St. Severa should also be the sister of St. Arnulf bishop of Metz: but it is not worth the trouble to enter here again the thorny wood; new investigations of the Frankish genealogy thou wilt find, on occasion of the already-mentioned St. Arnulf, on 18 July. But what is last said, that she was translated to the basilica of St. Matthias, I shall believe the author of the Lectionary. Whether the relics are today still surviving there, or perhaps laid in another place, I desire to be taught by the people of Trier: the Lübeck-Cologne Usuardine edition, I know not on what authority, noted that she was buried in the church of St. Eucharius, which no one will easily reconcile with what has been said.
[4] In the numerous line of holy Virgins and widows who imitated the example of St. Scholastica, Her memory in several Martyrologies on 10 February chapter 6 page 411 a place was also given to St. Severa abbess of the monastery of St. Symphorian at Trier. Of the same nunnery, raised on the bank of the Moselle at the walls of the city, Brower makes mention, to which he says St. Modoald gave the aforesaid St. Severa his own sister as mistress, the rule of the divine Benedict being prescribed to all; whence we have already said her memory is celebrated among the monastic writers, with whom that Mabillon does not agree in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints is gathered sufficiently from his silence; nor in the Annals, where he names her, did he bring forward anything concerning the Order: no more than the Usuardine appendices, in which she is most well known. The Utrecht, Leiden, Albergen, and Danish use the same phrase: At Trier, of St. Severa the virgin, sister of St. Monovaldus bishop of the same place: but in the Brussels one it is better read Modoald, as also the Hagenau, the Lübeck-Cologne edition, Greven, and Molanus write; to which add Canisius and other more recent writers: only the manuscript Florarium added that she was the maternal aunt of St. Gertrude; namely on that hypothesis that she was the sister of St. Iduberga wife of Bl. Pepin, which controversy we do not here re-read. Brower somewhere noted that the aforesaid convent of St. Severa scarcely survives in its ruins. The rest thou wilt learn from Stephen.
ELOGIUM
From the Life of St. Modoald in the Acts of 12 May.
Severa, virgin, at Trier (S.)
Meanwhile, since she loved the adornment of his house, and always burned with a most ardent love to render worthy praises to the Creator, She is set over the monastery built by her brother he built on the bank of the Moselle an oratory in honor of blessed Symphorian the martyr, small indeed in workmanship, and less ambitious in the ornament of artful design: but, what is more noble, with the most illustrious gems of the virtues and the most beautiful
pearls of virginal whiteness, much more splendid and remarkable than was that most famous temple of Solomon, set out with gold and silver and so many wonderful ornaments. For there he established a congregation of holy Virgins, like the sweet-sounding choirs of maidens continually singing praises at the nuptials of Christ and the church, of whom the bride in the praises of the bridegroom seems to say that in the Canticles: Thy name is as oil poured out, therefore the maidens have loved thee. Over whom also, for keeping the vigor of regular discipline, he set his sister, named Severa; who according to the presage and fitness of her name, with a worthy severity of a presiding mind judging that the union of the flesh, wealth, glory, and all things which she knew to be perishable, together with her own nobility and the beauty of her body, which was to be gnawed by worms, must be little esteemed, had offered her virginity inviolate to Christ.
[2] which she governed most piously, In whose faith and love, confirming the virginal line which she had gathered for the spouse, with as much maternal piety as magisterial severity, she exhibited to them all the diligence of holy instruction. Nothing more pleasant than her severity, nothing more severe than her pleasantness: her gladness sad, her sadness sweet: her garment unadorned, her eyes downcast, her head bowed, her gait grave, her food scanty, so indeed that, when she did all things worthy of God, she yet believed she had done nothing worthy of herself, and taught her companions more by examples than by words. Nor was there wanting to her the assiduous consolation of her venerable brother, who, burning with desire like glowing bronze, sounding with word, through the sparks of holy exhortation kindled the more strongly the mind of the Virgin to the love of God, and, as they say, added oil to the furnace. Thou wouldst believe them Benedict and Scholastica: the same desire, no unequal zeal, the same devotion toward the worship of God thou wouldst see in these. Him thou wouldst think not a master, but a disciple: her thou wouldst esteem not a mistress, but a humble handmaid: except that he was so much the more the servant, she the handmaid of Christ, that each seemed not to lord it over the subjects, but to minister to them: whose worthy reward of faith and labor, since it is now time to narrate, let us make the calling of the most prudent Virgin, as it preceded in time, so precede in our narration.
[3] in the same holily died. Who, when she heard the voice of the spouse calling and saying, Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, come, thou shalt be crowned; she, tarrying not at all, answered with pious affection: I to my beloved, and his turning is toward me. And at once following him who called, with lamp kindled and adorned with the oil of a most excellently shining conscience, she was received by him with worthy honor, and led into that ethereal bridal chamber with much exultation of the Saints. In which at last, what she had long desired, being happily placed, she rests amid the sweetest embraces of her beloved spouse; and joined to the most splendid companies of the daughters of Sion, most blessed she delights in perennial delights. Whose most sacred body, surrounded by virginal choirs, bewailed with virginal lamentations, with psalms and spiritual hymns, with much honor was most dutifully laid up in the church of the aforesaid Martyr, over which she presided with the highest strenuousness. O truly blessed and venerable Virgin! who for a mortal spouse chose an immortal, who for a house of clay exchanged a heavenly bridal chamber! truly blessed and glorious, who for a brief labor enjoys eternal beatitude, who for the vain songs of players is gladdened by the sweet concert of the angels. These things concerning the life and passing of the most illustrious Virgin we have touched in few words: for neither was it just, both for her merits and for the honor and reverence of her excellent brother, to pass over her memory and praise, of which the angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.