Vastrada

ON ST. VASTRADA, WIDOW,

AT SUSTEREN IN THE TERRITORY OF JÜLICH.

From documents received thence.

Eighth Century.

Vastrada, Widow, at Susteren in the territory of Jülich (S.)

J. B. S.

How little celebrated in the sacred Fasti or Martyrologies is St. Vastrada, otherwise Vastrades, mother of St. Gregory—not properly bishop, but abbot and rector of the church of Utrecht—grandmother of St. Alberic the bishop, so certain seems it that she enjoyed an ecclesiastical cult in the monastery once, That she was long ago worshiped as a Saint now the college of noble virgins at Susteren, or Suestrium (commonly Susteren) in the territory of Jülich, formerly of the diocese of Liège, now of Roermond, concerning which not long ago various things collected and described in the vernacular tongue the Reverend Father Arnold Hertsworm, praised by me elsewhere, prior of the Holy Cross at Venlo, whose lucubration, dedicated to the most illustrious Lady Wilhelmina Elizabeth Baroness de Hompesch, abbess of Susteren, and lent by herself, the Reverend Father Ludovicus Toebast, now for the second time rector of our college of Roermond, sent to me in the year 1721, from which I took care to have transcribed those parts which pertain especially to the Saints, although I observed very many things which deviate very far both from historical truth and from a right reckoning of times.

[2] There Hertsworm narrates, part 2, §4, the Susteren foundation, or rather restoration, by Zwentibold and his wife Oda, the adduced documents prove; not altogether undoubted, to which monastery the praised SS. Gregory and Alberic more than once flocked, as being those whose mother, the already mentioned St. Vastrada, had betaken herself thither; where afterward she both made the end of her life, and, having obtained burial, attained public veneration: which same our Fisen testifies in the Flowers of Liège, among many ambiguous things daring to assert this as certain, that posterity venerates her, reckoned among the Saints: nor does it seem doubtful to me that the manuscript Florarium of the Saints meant to indicate the same, when on this day it announces Vastrada, not rightly distinguished by the title of martyr; "Likewise of Vastrada the martyr," whence perhaps Greven took his own in the Usuardine supplements; "Of Vastrada the martyr": certainly Castellanus in his universal Martyrology in the most express words places her among the Saints; "At Susteren in the duchy of Jülich, of St. Vastrada," which he probably drew from William Heda in Gregory, where, having spoken of her disputed burial at Susteren, he subjoins; "where also St. Vastrada, mother of the same Gregory, rests, whose feast is celebrated on the 12th day before the Kalends of August."

[3] although of her deeds scarcely anything has been found. Vastrada likewise as a Saint Mabillon acknowledges at the Life of St. Gregory in the 3rd Benedictine century volume 2, from page 319; furthermore her immemorial cult the sacred remains of the same confirm, religiously preserved in the sacred treasury of Susteren, concerning which the praised Hertsworm, part 3, §4, having twice entered the venerable sacristy and accurately scrutinized all things, as an eyewitness writes that he found there the bones and ashes of St. Vastrada or Vastrades, mother of holy Gregory, grandmother of St. Alberic, which

are worshiped on July 21. Let these things be said for vindicating the public veneration of St. Vastrada; for of her Life, deeds, or the time of her death, nothing, so far as I know, has been handed down to memory: but the things which about other Saints, distant among themselves by almost a whole century, Hertsworm there mingles, will be discussed expressly in their own places hereafter, namely at August 17, when it must be treated of Benedicta and Cecilia daughters of Zwentibold, then at August 25, when of St. Gregory, at November 14, where of St. Alberic, and elsewhere. And so much for now: but if anything else pertaining to St. Vastrada come into our hands, it can conveniently be referred to the birthday of her son St. Gregory, for from no other source than his Acts did the sanctity of the mother become known.