Wandregisilus

ON ST. WANDREGISILUS, ABBOT

IN THE MONASTERY OF FONTENELLE NEAR ROUEN.

IN THE YEAR 667.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Wandregisilus, Abbot of Fontenelle near Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BY P. B.

§ I. The Acts of St. Wandregisilus; miracles; the history of the translation to Mount Blandinium; and their authors.

The birthday of St. Wandregisilus, or Wandrigisilus, and Wandregesillus, surnamed Wando, in the vernacular Saint Wandrille, who was the founder and first abbot of the monastery of the same name, which is also called Fontenelle, the Church celebrates today, as we shall see below. We give the Acts of St. Wandregisilus in double form, each by a coeval author; That his Acts were written long ago before the ninth century, testifies the author of the Chronicle of Fontenelle, who flourished about the year of Christ 835, which you have in the Acherian Spicilegium of the latest edition, tome 2, from page 263: for he says in chapter 16, that among other ancient codices by Harduin, a monk of Fontenelle, most skilled in the art of writing, or rather of painting letters, and dead in the year of Christ 811, as Mabillon asserts, there was also transcribed a Book of the Lives of the holy Wandregisilus, Ansbert, and Wulfram, confessors of Christ: already then therefore there existed at Fontenelle more ancient copies of these Lives, whence he transcribed his own; and which, unless I am much mistaken, contained that Life of St. Wandregisilus which we are here about to give in the second place. For we shall bring forward two Acts, after the example of Mabillon, century 2, from page 526, and each indeed elaborated by coeval authors, each already published by the press.

[2] The former our Labbe published, tome 1 of the Library of Manuscript books, page 784, of which the former are sincere, first published by Philip Labbe, having borrowed them, as he says, "from ancient parchments, which, received from a man most friendly to him and excelling in erudition, Sir d'Herouval, most studious of illustrating antiquity, exhibited to him." By the same Herouval they were communicated to Mabillon, who gave the same

again in the place which we assigned, after Labbe, expressed in type. But he adds that that codex, or the Herouval parchments, formerly belonged to the Corbie library, and were written in uncial letters. The same judges this former Life to be sincere and entire; but makes its author a monk of the Jura monastery, which was called Romanum or Romanis; because namely the Saint tarried for some time in that monastery, and there happened that miracle which the author here, number 17, writes that he learned from the Saint of the Lord himself narrating: then, because the author of the second Life seems to designate this same writer, and these very words, when after that same miracle at number 12 he subjoins: "This revelation concerning the Man of the Lord had been shown to a certain servant of God, dwelling in that very place (the Jura monastery), who was also wont to narrate it to us." Certainly that author, Mabillon subjoins, speaks of the monastery of Fontenelle as of an alien domicile: although he calls Wandregisilus "our Father" at number 29: from which at least this also follows, that not only does the former Life differ greatly from the latter, but also the author of the one from the author of the other.

[3] they prove the author's age of themselves. The age of this writer you will easily gather from what has been said; for he shows himself, openly enough, a contemporary of Wandregisilus at number 17 by the words just recited. The same is to be drawn from the prologue; where at number 1 he thus has it: "Roused to weave the Life of the blessed lord Wandregisilus, I shall undertake it with the faculty by which I am able: … very many things indeed concerning the virtues of that most blessed Man to set forth to me, many things seen by myself (namely those which were done before the Saint's departure from the Jura monastery,) and mostly also brought forth by the relation of venerable monks, or his disciples (of Fontenelle, I think,) who served him through prolonged times, which they narrate not only as heard, but as seen… I have expressed in style." Similar things are elsewhere: from which it is permitted to conjecture in how great esteem this little work must be held, although composed everywhere barbarously and obscurely, and perhaps on that account less than the other, of which I shall presently speak, obvious in the manuscript codices; and never before the times of Labbe subjected to type: for Surius did not publish this first Life, as Jacobus Longus wrongly notes in the Gallican Historical Library, number 5529; but the second, as to one inspecting it will be plain. But which of the two more faithfully expressed the same autograph in type, Labbe or Mabillon, I would not dare to determine; they certainly not rarely disagree; as I shall note, when it shall be worth while. The edition of Mabillon is indeed mostly more emended than that of Labbe; but this seems to have been done more religiously according to the parchment codex. And so, since Mabillon does not accuse Labbe of infidelity, I suspect that he himself changed those opinions and words of the autograph which he judged to be either corrupt or less perspicuous.

[4] The latter Life is of an anonymous author, but a monk of Fontenelle; The other Acts written later by another author, as indeed seems to be drawn from his prologue, in which he calls St. Wandregisilus "the most blessed Father," "the kindly Father," "the venerable Father"; and inscribes his work to St. Lantbert, then bishop of Lyons, but a little before abbot of Fontenelle, and successor of St. Wandregisilus: to bishop Lantbert, I say, he inscribed it, as from the very words Mabillon rightly proves here in the preliminary observations, number 2; but not to Lantbert then also abbot of Fontenelle; as the same Mabillon, forgetful, as happens, of himself, ill observes in the notes to the second Life, page 545. Thence also it appears that this Life was composed after the beginning of the year of Christ 681, in which St. Lantbert ought to have succeeded St. Genesius in the episcopate of Lyons; if indeed that is true, that thirteen years and eight months before, that is, from the month of July of the year of Christ 667, the death of St. Wandregisilus, he governed the monastery of Fontenelle as abbot, as we taught in his Acts on the fourteenth of April: or at least it is necessary that this work was elaborated after the year of Christ 678, if the authority is to be preferred, which indeed seems ancient, of the Acts of St. Condedus in Mabillon, in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, century 2, page 864; where the seventh year of king Theoderic is bound to the second year of St. Ansbert the abbot, who had succeeded St. Lantbert at Fontenelle: for thus the sixth year of Theoderic must be bound to the first year of St. Ansbert, in which namely he succeeded Lantbert, taken from the dignity of abbot to the episcopal; but that year was of Christ 678. Beware nevertheless, if you follow this author, of establishing that St. Lantbert, with the author of his Acts, was abbot for thirteen years, which Mabillon does: for that openly contradicts the Acts of St. Condedus, in which the ninth year of Lantbert is said to be the third of Theoderic; and therefore the sixth of Theoderic ought to be called the twelfth of Lantbert, in which according to this author he was made bishop from abbot.

[5] This Life also seems to have been conceived later than the first; since it closely follows its order up to the founding of the monastery of Fontenelle, and that indeed by a contemporary, they are clearer; but interpolated: and besides supplies some things which had been omitted in the other; and those chiefly which followed the beginning of Fontenelle; whence also you may argue the author to have been of Fontenelle. Yet he too was almost a contemporary of the former, and so also of St. Wandregisilus, of whom he writes; which he himself testifies of himself in the prologue in these words: "We shall therefore insert those things which by true assertions we have found to have been done: for some were seen by myself," etc.: then also by these which we gave above from number 12: "This revelation concerning the Man of the Lord had been shown to a certain servant of God (the author of the former Life, as Mabillon also judges) dwelling in that very place, who was also wont to narrate it to us." So much the more therefore should these Acts be esteemed, the clearer and fuller they are than the former; unless it were established that they were afterward interpolated in some places, as will be seen below; which wonderfully detracts from their worth: nor yet on that account have I thought that they must be altogether omitted, because they contain a certain explanation and supplement of the former; then because these alone have been almost hitherto in use, and continue further to be, in certain churches; so that they deservedly ought to be illustrated by us.

[6] These also Lawrence Surius published on this day; but greatly changed both throughout the several chapters, we give them from manuscript codices: and especially toward the beginning and end of the whole work: for he both exhibits another prologue; and the translation of the three holy bodies performed by St. Bainus, he accommodates to St. Wandregisilus alone, of whom, not without battology, he repeats that he was buried in the church of St. Paul for forty years. We drew them from the parchment manuscript codex of Vaucelles, and compared them with another manuscript codex of the formerly Thouars monastery, and likewise with those published in Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century 2, from page 534. Then the various readings of them, which indeed are of any moment, we assigned in the notes. With these agrees the manuscript Life of St. Wandregisilus of the monastery of St. Catherine, formerly of the most holy Trinity near Rouen, as far indeed as we conjecture from those things which John Prevot, a man most devoted to our studies, and canon and librarian of the church of Rouen, once consulted by our Bolland, answered: this only seems to differ from our copies, that it asserts Fontenelle to have been founded in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 672, on the day of the Kalends of March, in the eighth indiction; yet it retains the eleventh year of Clovis: then that it marks the death of the Saint in the twelfth year of Lothair III, which the other codices fix at the eleventh year of the same: finally that in the translation of St. Wandregisilus it connects the fifth year of Bainus with the year of Christ 694. But in these it fights with itself. But what in this part is more correct, or less erring, will be discussed below.

[7] as also his miracles collected in the ninth century; and certain later ones; To the Acts of St. Wandregisilus we subjoin miracles, some of which, out of many, are circulated. These we drew from the same our Vaucelles codex, which we tested against other manuscripts, namely the Thouars, and the Anchin, and likewise against the printed copies of Mabillon in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, century 2, page 547, noting those things which seemed to the purpose, wherever the texts compared among themselves differed; and adding all those things which Mabillon deliberately omitted. He who collected those miracles, that he too was a monk of Fontenelle, he not obscurely professes in the preface; when he affirms that he wrote these things "out of love of the aforesaid father, St. Wandregisilus, and by the command of the prelates of the monastery of Fontenelle." But his age he indicates both elsewhere, and at number 44, where he openly signifies that he, with others, was present at the translation of the relics made in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 885. But it must be noted that most of the prodigies here reviewed, although they are chiefly ascribed to St. Wandregisilus, yet can be reckoned common to him with St. Ansbert; since they happened almost at the relics of both. There is also another miracle of St. Wandregisilus, wrought after the age of this author, which from the other Appendix to the Chronicle of Fontenelle in d'Achery, in the Spicilegium, tome 2 of the second edition, we shall give in the Commentary below at numbers 37 and following: for those things which pertain to those times in which his relics were translated to Ghent, can be read in the History of their arrival at Mount Blandinium, of which now there must be treatment.

[8] and then the history of the translation to Mount Blandinium. And so to the miracles of St. Wandregisilus we shall append the history of his translation to Mount Blandinium, which formerly lay beside Ghent, now is enclosed within the walls of the same city. It was published long ago by d'Achery and Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century five, from page 200, but with the beginning for the greatest part cut away, perhaps because it seemed more verbose than is right; we nevertheless thought that it, whatever it be, must be supplied, lest anything could be desired from an authentic monument; and that from the same manuscript codex whence the already-mentioned authors brought forth their material: for its copy the illustrious man Aimeric Bigot most kindly communicated to us in the year of Christ 1665; yet so described that you may understand well enough that the characters of the autograph were sometimes ambiguous. Wherefore we compared this our copy with that printed one; nay also with a not small part of the same history in the manuscript little book of the proper Offices of the church of Blandinium. Further, the author of this narration was a certain anonymous monk of the monastery of Blandinium; as from the very beginning shines forth. Concerning his age Mabillon thus thinks in the preliminary observations: "Concerning his age, although I can determine nothing certain, yet that he passed the year one thousand one hundred I would not easily believe; since (number 49) he attests that the miracle of the trees breaking into flowers in autumn happened yearly still in his time: which I know not whether it lasted for several centuries after this translation; since of it among the subsequent authors

no mention is found."

[9] I found besides among our papers a certain Sermon on the solemnity of St. Wandregisilus, What has been preserved in the edition of these. transcribed (whence, or by whom, I know not) and sent to the anonymous Subprior of the monastery of Anchin in the year of Christ 1582. It is indeed elegant enough, and argues the author to have been not moderately learned; but because it regards morals only, and brings no light to our Acts, I judged it must be suppressed; especially since I could not ascertain of what age at last it was. But in producing the rest, which I have commemorated above, I have preserved our usual custom; so that the first Life, which ran with a continuous text from beginning to end, I have divided into chapters and numbers: but the order of the other Life, since it seemed too concise, I have cut into longer chapters in such a way that what were before chapters are now so many numbers, the same title being meanwhile preserved in the margin, which in our codex corresponded to the several chapters. In the miracles I have contracted and arranged the former method of chapters and inscriptions, not sufficiently even, as it seemed, no change at all being anywhere made in the text itself; which same has been observed in the rest. It now remains that I discuss those things which in these our monuments are either doubtful, or interpolated, or omitted; which that I may do in order, I shall follow the very times of the things narrated.

§ II. The Saint's birth, the life led in the world, his conversion to the monastic institute, and the chronological reckoning of these.

Wandregisilus, in the former Life at number 4, is said to be sprung from the territory of Verdun, noble by birth, He is born among the people of Verdun, his father Waltchisus, and of the highest parents. The latter Life agrees, number 1; but adds: "Finally his father (St. Wandregisilus's), Waltchisus by name, sprung from a most noble stock, was a cousin of Pippin the most excellent prince of the Franks." Waltchisus also they call the father of our Saint, several others in Dominicy, in the Various monuments of antiquity, which he subjoins to Ansbert's family revived, pages 6, 12, 13, 15; and Bouchet in the True origin of the family of the kings of France, among the proofs of the first part, pages 38, 39, 52. But who was that Waltchisus; or of which Pippin the cousin? "His father," says the author of the Chronicle of Fontenelle in the Acherian Spicilegium, tome 2 of the new edition, page 264, "named Walchisus, as we learned by the truthful tradition of the elders, was the paternal uncle of the most glorious Pippin, duke of the Franks, son of Anchises." He therefore established that Waltchisus was the son of St. Arnulph bishop of Metz; and brother of Ansegis, who from St. Begga, daughter of Blessed Pippin of Landen, begot Pippin the Fat or of Heristal: which was also the opinion of the instruments cited in Bouchet and Dominicy, of John Iperius in the Chronicle of St. Bertin, part 9, of Sigebert in the Chronicle at the year of Christ 692, and of others everywhere, even of the younger, as Arthur du Monstier in Neustria pia, where of Fontenelle, chapter 1, of our James Malbrancq, On the Morini, tome 1, book 3, chapter 31, of Pagi in the Baronian Critical notes at the year of Christ 944, number 9, nay also once the opinion of our Elders, although only in passing insinuated in the notes to the Life of St. Ansbert on the ninth of February, page 350.

[11] who was not the son of St. Arnulph bishop of Metz, But this opinion both we in the following tome on the twenty-first of February in the Commentary on the Acts of Blessed Pippin, and elsewhere more often, have dismissed, and afterward several learned men thought must be exploded, and especially Hadrian de Valois, Frankish History, book 19, page 141, Cointe in the Annals at the year of Christ 601, number 41, Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century 2, page 535; who rightly deny that St. Arnulph of Metz had any son besides St. Chlodulph and Ansegis: which also the most ancient authority teaches, as we saw in the Commentary on the Acts of the same St. Arnulph on the eighteenth of this month, §2, and the reckoning of the times openly demonstrates: for in what manner could St. Arnulph, whom we showed to have been born there about the year of Christ 582, be the father of Waltchisus, when the son of this Waltchisus, St. Wandregisilus, cannot even be feigned to have been born after the year of Christ 601; as will appear from those things which will be said below? Then that St. Wandregisilus was not younger in age than St. Chlodulph, the firstborn son of St. Arnulph, teaches Cointe just assigned; who nevertheless subtracts as many years from the age of St. Wandregisilus as no one else. It would therefore be necessary to invent the grandson born before the father; Wandregisilus, I say, before Waltchisus, if anyone would have this the son of St. Arnulph, that one his grandson.

[12] but a cousin of Blessed Pippin of Landen, We must therefore adhere to our author, whom in this place we do not know to be corrupt, when he asserts that Waltchisus was not the paternal uncle of Pippin the Fat, but the cousin of Pippin, as must be gathered from the time, of Landen; for that the title of "most excellent prince of the Franks" is added to him, which Cointe will have been wont to be attributed to the Heristal one, not the Landen one, in that I shall easily admit that something of interpolation was intruded into the text of the contemporary writer; although neither ought that epithet to seem in every way alien from the condition of Blessed Pippin of Landen himself. Further, "cousins" (consobrini) are properly wont to be called the sons of two sisters; whence, if it please so to understand our author, it will have to be said that the mothers of Gualchisus and of this Pippin were sisters; nor therefore is Umno to be heard, much inferior to our author both in age and in merit, in the Life of St. Arnulph, which we exhibited in the second place on the eighteenth of this month, when he says at chapter 1, number 9: "From the sister of this Pippin (of the Landen one he had made mention a little before), Waldrada by name, was born Gualchisus, who begot St. Wandregisilus, confessor of Christ." For thus Pippin and Waltchisus would not be cousins between themselves, but that one the maternal uncle of this one, this one the nephew of that one by his sister. Bouchet makes Waldrada not the mother of Waltchisus himself, but his wife, from whom he begot St. Wandregisilus, since of this his assertion in the cited proofs he brings forward absolutely no witness who even names Waldrada anywhere. We prefer to confess the mother of our Saint unknown to us, than rashly to designate her. The author of the Life of St. Godo on the twenty-sixth of May, page 444, calls Wandregisilus himself the cousin of Pippin; but usage has it commonly that the sons of cousins also are called cousins. The Chronicle of Maillezais in Labbe, tome 2 of the Library of Manuscripts, page 193, asserts that Waltchisus was the cousin of king Dagobert and of the other kings. In our second Life at number 14 it is also said that Erchinoald, who under Clovis was Mayor of the palace, was "of maternal origin the kinsman of the blessed Man (Wandregisilus)": but the same Erchinoald, Fredegar witnessing at chapter 84, was "kinsman by the mother of Dagobert." These things concerning the Saint's nobility.

[13] What year of his birth was to him, the more ancient Life does not indicate; he is born, I say, not about the year of Christ 570; yet it hints that it could scarcely have been more than twenty-five years earlier than the beginnings of the Dagobertine reign, that is, the year of Christ 622; when it says at number 9 that "king Dagobert had the Man of God himself in his service in his youth." He was therefore a youth when Dagobert reigned, and under him Wandregisilus, as is said at number 4, "performed the collectorship committed to him." The same argument must be drawn from the Chronicle of Fontenelle in d'Achery, chapter 1, number 2, where it is said that the same Man of the Lord, "while he was strong in the years of the age of adolescence, was most nobly educated in the court of the most glorious king Dagobert in military affairs and courtly disciplines." He was not therefore born in the year of Christ 570, as a certain manuscript Norman Chronicle notes, and that indeed, as it seems, of the abbey of Fontenelle, in a certain ancient parchment Codex which formerly belonged to the Thouars people, then passed to the abbey of Dunes, which is most compendiously deduced from the nativity of Christ up to the year 1204, and likewise another Norman Chronicle reaching from the birth of Christ up to the year 1220, which is in the manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden, number 322, as Henschen noted, who left us some excerpts from it. The same Arthur of Neustria pia, page 131, asserted, and it almost follows from the second Life of St. Wandregisilus at number 27, where it is narrated that he died in the year of Christ 665, about ninety-six years old. This, I say, contradicts the former and sincere Acts of our Saint; for he could not here be called a youth in the year of Christ 622, in which Dagobert first began to reign in Austrasia, who would have lived more than fifty years; at which age it would even be ridiculous to invent parents who then first should bid him betroth to himself a girl, which he is recorded to have done according to their command in the first Life at number 5; and that under Dagobert; since those nuptials were presently followed, by the mutual consent of each spouse, by the conversion of both to the institute of a more perfect life, Dagobert holding the kingdom, as is there said at number 9.

[14] And indeed that the second Life is here interpolated an open contradiction demonstrates: for he who at the cited place is feigned to have died in the year of Christ 665 more than a nonagenarian, but altogether toward the end of the sixth century, the same at number 1 is said to have had the beginning of his renowned nativity "in the time in which the strong king Dagobert honorably governed the scepters of the kingdom of the Franks"; whereas from the beginning of the reign of Dagobert up to the year of Christ 665 only 43 years intervene. But that he is falsely asserted to have been born under Dagobert will be established both from the year of Christ 667, which we shall prove below to have been the last of St. Wandregisilus, and from the age at which he migrated to heaven: for he was in old age, as is in his former Acts at number 27, and indeed "weakened by long age, he very often sang, saying: Woe is me! for my pilgrimage is prolonged": there at number 31, and according to the later Acts at number 20, "making a journey he could no longer be carried on a horse," namely being now placed in the last age; "but was carried in a vehicle." In the Life also of St. Ansbert archbishop of Rouen, tome 2 of February, page 349, number 13, our Saint is said to be, near death, "now placed in decrepit age." These things certainly seem to signify a man not much less than a septuagenarian: so that, to establish him so old in the year of Christ 667, and still a youth and vigorous while Dagobert reigned, we think he was born about the end of the sixth century.

[15] although the year cannot with certainty be determined. Nor does the conjecture of our Elders displease, in the notes to the passage cited from the Life of St. Ansbert, by which they suspected that it was done by the yawning of the copyists, that in the second life of St. Wandregisilus the ciphers denoting his age were changed, and thus that for 69 there is now read 96, in which manner he would have been born about the year of Christ 598, and would have been in the twenty-fourth year of his age (which certainly pertains to youth) when Dagobert took the kingdom of Austrasia. Cointe nevertheless, at the year of Christ 601,

number 40, thinks the said numbers not transposed, but the first inverted, so that for 66 was written 96; and so he himself establishes that he was born in the year of Christ 601: nor does this displease; although I doubt whether all the copies of the second Life had that number 96: for in the proper manuscript Office of the Blandinium people, drawn from that Life, it is 95; Peter de Natalibus, book 6, chapter 127, reads 92; the Rouen Breviary printed in the year 1627 has 90; the manuscript Norman Chronicle of the Queen of Sweden notes his age as 89. In these there is a greater difference than can be attributed to the mere transposition or inversion of numbers, which are easily committed by the negligence of copyists. Wherefore, although I do not disapprove the conjectures already stated, because they cannot err much from the true time of his birth; yet nothing appears in them whence any one year rather than another can be sufficiently solidly determined.

[16] In the court of Dagobert having discharged great honors, There is nevertheless reason why it seems it should be referred rather to the end of the sixth century, than to the beginning of the seventh; since before he sent notice to his consenting wife and to the world (which Cointe establishes as done about the year of Christ 627, number 3; but Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals in the year of Christ 629) he held the collectorship, as the first Life has, number 4; nay the countship of the palace, as the second Life narrates, number 2; likewise the Life of St. Godo given on the twenty-sixth of May; the Chronicle of Fontenelle, chapter 1; the Chronicle of St. Maxentius or Maillezais in Labbe, and other younger authors. But this office, since it was occupied in exercising courtly and most weighty judgments, this too seems to demand, that besides notable prudence of law, we ascribe to Wandregisilus, when he undertook it, as great gravity and authority of age as we can: as great, I say, as we can: for neither, as we just saw, is it permitted so to extend it, when he withdrew from the court, but that he could be called youthful when he first came to it. Why then should we not believe that he was about thirty years of age when such a province was committed to him? But this holds even much more, if anyone would have that he was not only count of the palace, but also duke, before he said farewell to the world: this at least the author of the Chronicle of Fontenelle just cited asserts; although on an uncertain foundation, as it seemed to Mabillon indeed, Annals, book 12, number 13.

[17] The same reasoning makes me prefer to assign his conversion to the monastic life, which the first Life narrates at number 8, the second at number 5, to the year of Christ 629 with Mabillon, rather than 627 with Cointe: since no authority from elsewhere patronizes either opinion, and the former system agrees with the rest of the chronology of our Acts no less than the latter; as will be made plain from the following: for before Fontenelle was founded, in the year of Christ 648, as will be said below, nothing else must be established than the reception of sacred Orders, which about ten years spent in the Jura monastery preceded. Grant that these together were 12 years; you will come back to the year of Christ 636; thence further, drawn back to the year 629, are 6 whole years, of which if you give the first to Mont-Falcon, the last to Bobbio and the Roman journey, but keep the middle 4 for Elisangium; there will be, I think, satisfaction abundantly enough to both Acts. For his first withdrawal from courtly affairs to Mont-Falcon was by no means long-lasting; since in each Life he is said to have dwelt there "not much time." But Mont-Falcon (commonly Montfaucon) is now a small town of France in Champagne in the diocese of Reims, distant about 4 leagues from the river Meuse and from the city of Verdun: to the place, formerly beset with dense forests, the name was given from a bird which we call a falcon, and which gave to St. Balderic either the occasion or the indication of building a monastery there in honor of St. Germanus, as Flodoard narrates, Ecclesiastical History of Reims, book 4, chapter 39.

[18] There are those who will have this to have been Balderic, who by another name in our second Acts at number 5 is called Baltfridus or Waltfridus, with Waltfridus, whether the same as or different from St. Balderic. by whom our Saint was admitted into this monastery: and certainly of this Baltfridus no mention is anywhere made, that I know, except in this place (for I care nothing for Saussay); whereas nevertheless he ought to have been most well known for the sanctity of his life, as is there asserted in these words: "Whose acts and Life, if any wish to know, they will easily find in the deeds written about him." But it seems little probable that of him whose Acts were in all men's hands, the memory should be altogether neglected in the neighboring churches, whether of Verdun or of Reims. The Acts indeed of St. Balderic have perished, if you except some few things which the praised Flodoard noted; but the recollection still flourishes among the people of Reims, and in their Breviaries his feast is prescribed each year on the sixteenth of October. This certainly strengthens the conjecture of those who recognize no Baltfridus different from St. Balderic. Add that St. Balderic founded the monastery of St. Germanus at Mont-Falcon toward the beginnings of Dagobert, as you will gather from Mabillon, Benedictine Annals, book 12, from number 10: he could therefore easily have still presided over it when St. Wandregisilus came. Finally, in the manuscript Thouars copy of the second Life of St. Wandregisilus, not Waltfridus, but Baldricus is read, as our Rosweyde noted, who compared ours with it. Mabillon nevertheless, who had thought that the same man was understood under both names in the notes to these Acts, then in the Annals at the place just praised, inclines to think that one was Balderic, another Baltfridus, and that moved by the diversity of both names. This can be discussed again in its place on the sixteenth of October, when there will be treatment of St. Balderic. Let us pursue the begun series of the Life.

§ III. His austere life at Elisangium, his journey into Italy, his sojourn in the Jura monastery; the priesthood, the founding of Fontenelle, and other basilicas, the time of his rule.

[From Mont-Falcon he migrates into the territory of Elisangium about the year of Christ 630;] Not long had the Saint come to monastic discipline at Mont-Falcon, when he was called by Dagobert to the court, to give account of this his counsel, conceived without royal mission or leave. But thence, the cause against his detractors being gained, he returned indeed to Mont-Falcon, as the second Life has, number 5, but stayed there so briefly that the former Acts indicate scarcely any delay, when they subjoin at number 11: "Thence (from the court of Dagobert) having returned, he began to build a cell in another place from his own substance." The later ones thus have it, number 7: "Which (place of Mont-Falcon) not long after being left on a certain occasion, he migrated into the territory of Elisangium; where he also built a monastery according to the opportunity of the time on his own possession: for there blessed Ursicinus rests, venerably buried." He came therefore to the territory of Elisgangium or Elisangium either in that same first year of his conversion, of Christ 629, or, at most, the following. In Elisangium he seems to have dwelt for some years; both from this, that he built there a cell for himself, for a stable domicile certainly; and because the life which he there led is so described that it ought to seem a certain apprenticeship of those illustrious virtues with which he was afterward adorned even to his death; which certainly men conspicuous for singular sanctity have been wont to draw out so much the longer, the more fervently they seize it, and the less they think they have advanced in it, even when they have advanced most. They are attempting a huge building; they therefore lay a solid foundation: but scarcely is anything solid in virtue, unless by long and assiduous exercise it be turned into a habit.

[20] What this cell was, or where it was, the sincere Acts do not explain; but the interpolated ones where he built a cell, and lived most austerely, signify both that it was a monastery, and situated in the territory of Elisangium, where Blessed Ursicinus rested buried. But he rested in a low valley, beset on both sides with steep mountains, where the river Doubs turns its channel back from the Rauraci, or the territory of Basel, to the Burgundians, in a monastery erected by himself, from which, while living, sending forth in every direction the rays of sanctity, doctrine, miracles, he attracted thither so great a multitude of men that the place, a little before uncultivated and wild, in a short time grew into a village, such as it still was in the year of Christ 1139; but afterward it passed into a town, and that indeed fortified with a citadel, still retaining the ancient name of St. Ursicinus, in the vernacular S. Ursitz. This monastery of St. Ursicinus, formerly subject to the abbey of Grandval, passed with it to Adalbero bishop of Basel by the donation of Rudolph, the last king of Burgundy, which the emperor Otho III confirmed in the seventh year of his reign; but afterward it was changed into a college of twelve canons. These and more things Urstisius in the Chronicle of Basel published in German, book 1, chapter 3, and others: but of the cell or monastery once built there by St. Wandregisilus, no word among them. It must therefore be said, either that that monastery was very obscure and had already long ago perished, or that the word "cell," which is in the former Life, or "little cell," as is in the Chronicle of Fontenelle, was rashly changed into "monastery" by the interpolator of the later Life: for although "cell," and likewise "little cell," among the ancients generally signified a monastery; yet sometimes it also then denoted a little house destined for one monk or hermit, as may be seen in Du Cange in the Glossary. What if therefore our Saint erected for himself only such a little cell at St. Ursicinus, where he lived solitarily? Certainly no mention of monks, none of superiors, none of cenobitic discipline is made in this place in the primitive Life. Besides, what in the same Life at number 11 is called a "cell," there at number 13 seems to be named a "hut"; by which name no one ever, I believe, understood a monastery. But if to anyone the other Life here also appears sincere, he, for all I care, may think with Mabillon, who in the notes to the Acts of St. Germanus, century 2, page 513, hesitating also at this difficulty, says: "Perhaps there were already there certain little cells built by Blessed Ursicinus, which Wandregisilus augmented."

[21] The holy Man inhabited the Elisangium cell until thence, by angelic guidance, he went to the Bobbio monastery of St. Columban in Lombardy, [until thence he sought Bobbio about the year 635, and Rome; then returns to the Jura monastery about the year 636.] as the former Acts assert at numbers 13 and 14; the later at number 9; the Chronicle of Fontenelle, chapter 1: and that toward the year of Christ 635: for nothing urges that we say this done with Cointe about the year of Christ 623; since from what has been said he seems to have held the already-mentioned cell for a longer time. Concerning Bobbio enough is said in each of the Acts, so that nothing need be added. It can be treated more fully in the Acts of St. Columban on the twenty-first of November, and there can be consulted

meanwhile Ughelli, Italy Sacred, tome 4, and 1318; from which you will also understand that St. Bertulph must have presided as abbot over Bobbio when this our Saint turned aside thither; and so when he departed thence; for he did not stay there long, but "a little while," as the first Life has, number 14, or "for some little time," as the second, number 9: but Bertulph ruled Bobbio for 13 years; and he is thought to have died in the year of Christ 640. I establish therefore that about a whole year was spent by St. Wandregisilus in that monastery, when he thence thought of going to Ireland (Rome, however, being first visited, which the second Acts alone narrate at number 10, that he might see the thresholds of the Apostles). So I place him, returning from Italy, in the Jura monastery, called St. Romanus, in neighboring Gaul, the diocese of Lyons, toward the year of Christ 636. Mabillon lapsed in memory in his Annals, book 23, number 47, when he sent St. Wandregisilus, returned from Italy, back to the monastery of St. Ursicinus; whereas both the Acts, and he himself elsewhere more than once, assert otherwise: for as soon as, coming from Italy, he reached the Jura monastery, there he chose his seat, Ireland being neglected, which before he had looked to. Of this monastery we have already often treated, chiefly in the Acts of St. Romanus, its first abbot, on the twenty-eighth of February; of St. Lupicinus, the twenty-first of March; of St. Claudius, the sixth of June.

[22] "Many days," says the author of the former Life at number 15, He is ordained by St. Ouen and St. Omer about the year 647, "he there dwelt under a regular institution": the Chronicle of Fontenelle has "much time"; but the second Life more expressly at number 11 expresses "the courses of nearly ten years spent in the monastery of St. Romanus." These if they be numbered from about the beginning of the year of Christ 636, will run out toward the year 646; or even a little sooner; since they are said to have been not ten, but nearly ten. Thence therefore he then came to St. Ouen, by whom he was initiated into sacred Orders, as after both our Acts the Chronicle of Fontenelle hands down. For this further two years, and a little more, up to the founding of Fontenelle, suffice. For although through that time long interstices ought to be observed in the reception of sacred Orders by those who from the secular life aspired to the clergy; yet Pope Gelasius I had so contracted them for monks whose virtue was approved, that in one year they could be ordained subdeacons, deacons, and priests; as you may see in his epistle 9 to the bishops of Lucania in Labbe, tome 4 of the councils. There is therefore here time enough both for the said ordinations, and for whatever sojourn of St. Wandregisilus with St. Ouen, which the Acts seem to demand. Yet some suit could here be brought against us by those who contend that St. Ouen was consecrated bishop of Rouen, not in the year of Christ 635, which with Fridegod some had wrongly assigned; but in the year 646, on the fourteenth of May: for, if our later Acts at number 13 be regarded, Ouen must have already for some time held the episcopate, and that so apostolically that his fame had grown illustrious far and wide, before St. Wandregisilus set out to him from the Jura monastery: by what reasoning therefore could he here meet him, already a bishop, in the year of Christ 645, or the beginning of the following? But this trouble Cointe removes from us at the year of Christ 640, from number 20, where he undermines the foundations of the adversaries, and himself proves by strong arguments that St. Ouen was girt with the Rouen infulae in the same year of Christ 640. Consult him, Reader; or also our preliminary Exegesis in tome 3 of April; until we shall have discoursed more of St. Ouen on the twenty-fourth of August.

[23] He founds the monastery of Fontenelle The next work of St. Wandregisilus after receiving the dignity of the priesthood, and most august, was the erection of the monastery, which by him is now almost always called St. Wandregisilus's, although it also has another name from its site, Fontenelle. But Fontenelle, says Mabillon, Annals, tome 1, book 13, number 50, "is a place of the district of Rouen among the Caletes, nearly eighteen miles below Rouen, no more than eight hundred paces from the river Seine, near the town of Caudebec, so called from the fount of the rivulet flowing past through the very narrow valley, which scarcely suffices to contain the buildings of the monastery." The rest pertaining hither can be read briefly in the Acts, especially the second at numbers 14 and 15; but more fully and more pleasantly in the first chapter of the so often praised Chronicle of Fontenelle in d'Achery; where it is also added that St. Ouen was the exhorter to St. Wandregisilus for undertaking so great a thing. The history of the whole abbey, from its very beginnings to his own times, according to the series of the abbots succeeding one another, Arthur du Monstier of Rouen, of the Order of the Recollect Friars Minor, composed diligently enough in his Neustria pia from page 131 up to 184; more briefly the Sammarthani hand down the same, tome 4 of Gallia Christiana, page 908: let whoever is curious in these matters consult them; yet so that he trust not too much everywhere to their chronology: for they err already from the very beginning: the Sammarthani indeed, when they bind the beginning of Fontenelle and of the rule of St. Wandregisilus to the year of Christ 645; but Arthur, when he fixes it at the year of Christ 654 or 655, page 132: which was almost also the opinion of our Elders both in the notes to the Acts of St. Ansbert on the ninth of February, page 350, and in the Diatribe on the three Dagoberts, book 4, chapter 3. But, the chronology of the kings of the Franks being afterward more thoroughly discussed, they chose the year 648 for this foundation; as you may see on the fourteenth of April in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Lantbert, and in the Exegesis cited at the preceding number.

[24] And rightly indeed they thus established it; since the author of the second Life expressly expresses that year at number 14 in these words: in the year of Christ 648, on the first of March; "But this work was begun on the day of the Kalends of March, in the eleventh year of king Clovis." For thus its place Mabillon restored here in the preliminary Observations on the Acts, number 4: nor can it be doubted, since this author lived with St. Wandregisilus, that he used that single mark, since no other was through those times in use; as we often, and in this place too, note the adduced Mabillon, Cointe at this year, number 28, and Pagi in the Critical notes on Baronius in the same year, number 19. And so all the other marks of times which are added we owe to the interpolator, certainly no chronologist; who forced things so little coherent into the same year, following the example of the author of the Chronicle of Fontenelle, chapter 1; nay borrowing his words: although in these marks not all the copies of the second Life agree either among themselves, or with that Chronicle; which is a new argument of the supposition: for thus has the manuscript of the monastery of St. Catherine, formerly of the most holy Trinity near Rouen; as once John Prevot, canon and librarian of the church of Rouen, testified to Bolland, in a writing which we keep: "But this work was begun from the year of the Lord's Incarnation 672 on the day of the Kalends of March, in the eighth indiction, which was the eleventh year of the aforesaid king Clovis, the most blessed Pope Martin presiding over the Roman See in his seventh year": where you see that neither the year of Christ, nor the Indiction, agrees with our copy, nor so with the Chronicle of Fontenelle: everywhere nevertheless are preserved both the Kalends of March and the eleventh year of Clovis; which therefore alone are to be reckoned here fixed and genuine. But Clovis II succeeded his father Dagobert in the year of Christ 638, on the eighteenth of January, on which he died; as after Valois, Cointe, and Mabillon we ourselves also established in the mentioned Exegesis; and it is now the opinion of all the learned. The eleventh year of Clovis therefore had begun in the year of Christ 648 from the eighteenth of January, when, at the next Kalends of March, Fontenelle began to be founded.

[25] The same year of the founding of Fontenelle can be confirmed from the other years of the kings of the Franks, which are compared by the same author with the years of the rule of Wandregisilus: which is confirmed. as at number 18 it is said: "In the fourth year of the rule of the same man of God, which was the fifteenth of the aforesaid king Clovis," etc.—which is the sincere text of the author himself, interpolated with no adventitious marks of times, like the former. From which it appears that by him the first year of the rule of St. Wandregisilus, or of the erected abbey of Fontenelle, was placed in the eleventh year of the same Clovis: for since the first year of the rule of Wandregisilus began in the month of March, the fourth year of the same is rightly joined, which ran out in the month of March of the year of Christ 652, with the fifteenth year of Clovis, which had begun from the eighteenth of the preceding January. The same is to be noted at number 19; where the seventh year of Lothair III is put together with the fifteenth year of Wandregisilus ruling Fontenelle. For Clovis II reigned 18 complete years, as in the Exegesis before mentioned, chapter 2, number 14, we proved: he died therefore in the year of Christ 656: for if he had reached the following, he would have to be said to have reigned 19 years. He died, I say, in the year of Christ 656, though it was well advanced, since he survived at least to the second week of November; as from an instrument which Mabillon produced, Pagi shows in the Critical notes on Baronius at the year of Christ 656, number 17; from which also it is certain that the death of Clovis II must not be placed before that year, since there the third year of Lothair his son and successor answers without doubt to the year of Christ 659 up to the second week of the ninth month, or November. From the year of Christ 656 the seventh year of Lothair, reckoned, ought to begin in the year of Christ 662 and end in the year of Christ 663; but into it falls the fifteenth year of Wandregisilus the abbot; inasmuch as, reckoned from the eleventh year of Clovis, of Christ 648, in the month of March, it ought to run from the Kalends of March of the year of Christ 662 up to the same Kalends of the year 663. The same the Chronicle of Fontenelle confirms, chapter 1, number 8: since after the place of Fontenelle granted by Erchinoald "in the eleventh year of the aforesaid king (Clovis) on the day of the Kalends of March," it subjoins that "in the following year… the twelfth of the oft-mentioned king… on the day of the Kalends of March" the confirmation of the same donation was sought and obtained. And so concerning the eleventh year of Clovis, rightly here noted in the Acts, it seems by no means to be doubted.

[26] Under Lothair III he augments the monastery and builds 4 basilicas, This monastery, small at first, as things generally are when they are born, then under Lothair received a great increase both of place, and of monks and buildings, nay even of privileges and lands, St. Wandregisilus attending to all, as is narrated in the second Life at number 15; where also are commemorated four basilicas by the same

built; and that under the same Lothair, as appears from this, that the Saint, while he pressed on with this work, destined his nephew Godo to Rome to seek out relics of the Saints for the new buildings, who obtained them from Pope Vitalian, as not only our Acts, but also the Chronicle of Fontenelle, assert; but Vitalian is believed to have entered the Pontificate in the year of Christ 657, which answers partly to the first, partly to the second year of Lothair III. And so Cointe thought that these things must be referred to the beginnings of Vitalian, by this same argument; as you may see at the year of Christ 658, number 15. Mabillon nevertheless, here in the Acts, signifies that Vitalian was intruded by the interpolator, yet brings no cause why he so judges. I suspect this to have been his, that a little below in the Acts at number 18 he read: "It has seemed pleasant to relate a miracle wrought AFTER THESE THINGS through the man of God himself," etc. Hence, I think, he conjectured that those churches were built before that miracle, that is, before the fifteenth year of Clovis, and so long before the Pontificate of Vitalian. But indeed if that reasoning makes anything to the point, the same could avail to make all the other things which are narrated up to number 18 said to be done before the fifteenth year of Clovis; which nevertheless concerning the founded monastery of Fécamp neither the Acts of St. Waningus, published both by us on the ninth of January, and by Mabillon century 2, allow to be believed, nor did Mabillon himself believe in his Annals, where, following those Acts, he referred the beginnings of Fécamp to the times of Lothair III, or the year of Christ 658. Wherefore that word "after these things" in our Acts affects not the order of the things narrated, but of the narration, which in this place most certainly relates ὕστερον πρώτερον (the later first).

[27] Our Saint presided over the monastery founded by him for years, not ten only, as Arthur wrongly gathered from his confused and disturbed chronology; [and over several others, for 19 years, 4 months, 21 days, over which he presided:] but altogether nineteen years, four months, and twenty-one days; as all the copies of the second Life have, which indeed I have seen; in which, although it be read at number 27 that he died "in the nineteenth year of his rule, in the fourth month, on the twenty-first day," yet must be understood nineteen complete years and 4 months, and 21 days: since in the Acts of St. Ansbert on the ninth of February, chapter 3, page 349, it is said that he ruled Fontenelle "for the space of nearly twenty years… from the first day of the building." So also Trithemius understood, On the illustrious men of the Benedictine Order, book 3, chapter 96; where he roundly reckons the years of this rule at twenty, because namely the twentieth had flowed on for nearly five months; the same was the opinion of the interpolator himself, if you number the years of Christ from the founding of Fontenelle up to his death, as they are added by him. Nor do Mabillon, Cointe, Pagi, and other more recent writers dissent. And at this time indeed it is wonderful how greatly Wandregisilus promoted both the monastic institute and the Catholic cause; since besides the basilicas just mentioned he erected some others, as is gathered from the same Life; for you have two at number 17, and that indeed with little cells or little monasteries, whither he destined the monks, whom even the enlarged Fontenelle could no longer contain: another again at number 18; another with a monastery at number 20; another finally with a monastery at number 21. Nay, that the very nunnery of Fécamp (of which Arthur treats fully in Neustria pia from page 193) we should think must be partly ascribed to him? The Chronicle of St. Bertin at least, in Martène, tome 3 of the Thesaurus of anecdotes, column 465, says that St. Wandregisilus was greatly a coadjutor to St. Waningus in the foundation of this monastery. Hence perhaps it was subjected to him by Waningus, as our second Life asserts at number 17. There is a controversy between Cointe and Mabillon, whether St. Wandregisilus prescribed to his people the rule of St. Benedict, or another; this seemed so to Cointe, Annals, tome 3, at the year of Christ 667, number 5; but the former Mabillon defends both here in the preliminary Observations on the Acts, and in the Annals of his own Order, tome 1, at the year 689, number 65; but especially in the Preface to part 2 of the Acts of the third century, number 35: and so defends it that the Benedictines can and ought to retain this Saint among the others of their Order, as of St. Lantbert on the fourteenth of April, page 216, our Elders judged.

§ IV. The time of his death, the place of his burial, various translations.

In assigning the year in which the holy Man ceased to live, no small diversity of chronologists and others is found, He died not in the year of Christ 665, which for brevity's sake I pass over. The most received among others was the opinion of those who had chosen the year of Christ 665, derived, I think, from the later Acts, in which at number 27 he is said to have died "in the nineteenth year of his rule, in the fourth month, on the twenty-first day, which was the year of the Lord's Incarnation 665, in the eighth indiction; further, the eleventh year of king Lothair III of his life, Pope Vitalian holding the Pontificate of the Roman Church in his ninth year." But we have already taught above that all these are the interpolator's, except the eleventh year of king Lothair III. This appears both from what has been said before, and from the manuscript copy of the same Life at the monastery of St. Catherine, or of the Holy Trinity, near Rouen, in which Prevot testifies that it is thus read: "After a little he grew silent, about 96 years old, and in the 19th year of his rule, in the 4th month, on the twenty-first day, which was the year of the Lord's Incarnation 611, in the 12th indiction. Further the 12th year of king Lothair III of his life, Pope Vitalian holding the Pontificate of the Roman Church in his 14th year." Where you see that these adjuncts of times were by no means first noted by the author of that Life, but were intruded by various interpolators, since they so greatly disagree among themselves. But indeed, you say, the twelfth year of Lothair in the Rouen manuscript also differs from the eleventh year of the same king, which is noted in the others. I confess it, but between 11 and 12 there is so slight a difference that from the primitive codex of the author, perhaps not sufficiently expressed, it could easily have arisen; not so that other, different by the whole heaven.

[29] but 667, on the 22nd of July, The eleventh year of Lothair nevertheless must be retained (whatever seemed otherwise to Cointe at the year of Christ 667, number 1); first indeed because all the copies of the second Life, both printed and manuscript, which I consulted, have it, except that one of Rouen: then because into it agree those things which we just noted concerning the beginning of Fontenelle and the time in which our Saint governed it; which do not agree with the eleventh year of Lothair: for from the eleventh year of Clovis, of Christ 648, on the first of March, when the monastery was begun, up to the eleventh year of Lothair, of Christ 667, the twenty-second of July exclusively, there are 19 years, 4 months, 21 days, over which we said Wandregisilus presided; but the eleventh year of Lothair lasted, at the least, up to the second week of the next following November: but that the day of St. Wandregisilus's death was the eleventh of the Kalends of August, or the twenty-second of July, both his Acts testify. There are added the very ancient Acts of St. Condedus the anchorite in Mabillon century 2, page 864, which join the ninth year of St. Lantbert the abbot (who succeeded St. Wandregisilus only four days after his death, as his Acts given on the fourteenth of April have) with the third year of king Theoderic; which fits our chronology excellently. For Theoderic succeeded his brother Childeric in the year of Christ 673 before the middle of September; as Pagi proves at that year, numbers 11 and 12: the third year of the same therefore began in the year of Christ 675; when namely in the month of July the eleventh year of the rule of St. Lantbert had begun, reckoned from the eleventh year of Lothair, of Christ 667.

[30] buried among the people of Fontenelle in the basilica of St. Paul the Apostle; In what place the Saint breathed out his happy soul must not be inquired; since our Acts sufficiently indicate that it happened in his monastery of Fontenelle; where they also affirm that he was buried in the church of St. Paul the Apostle, which is one of those which we said were founded by him at Fontenelle, number 26. The same confirm the Martyrologists to be produced below, when they assign the place of deposition. There is further added in the other Acts at number 27: "And he (St. Wandregisilus) was buried in the church of the holy Apostle Paul for forty years; but the holy prelate Ansbert for eleven years, and the renowned Pontiff Wulfram for nearly nine years." But that these words are not our author's, is manifest from his prologue: for there he dedicates this his writing to St. Lantbert bishop of Lyons, then certainly surviving. But he, although it is not known in what year he ceased to live, as was said in the Commentary prefixed to his Acts on the fourteenth of April; yet could not have reached the eighth century; since to him in the see of Lyons before the end of the seventh century various successors are assigned, who arranged the series of those archbishops, James Severt, John Chenu, and the Sammarthani. And so Mabillon in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, century 3, part 2, page 462, notes that he died about the year of Christ 688; Cointe in the Annals at the year of Christ 687, number 25, places Isaac, the successor of Lantbert: but at the year 693, number 10, after Severt he proves from Bede that in that year Godwin sat at Lyons, who is reckoned the third from St. Lantbert deceased. What therefore is here narrated in the second Life was done not a little later than the author wrote; and so all these are plainly things supposed to him: which I marvel that Cointe did not notice at the year of Christ 704, number 20.

[31] The same nevertheless is asserted in the Acts of St. Wulfram, which are attributed to Jonas a monk of Fontenelle, where he rested for 37 years, as they stand in Surius on the twentieth of March: but our Elders judged these Acts so depraved that they thought they must be omitted; as may be seen on the said day of March. The same also has the Life of St. Wandregisilus in the bishop of Equilio, book 6, chapter 127. The same is read in the other Appendix to the Chronicle of Fontenelle in d'Achery, chapter 1. These are drawn, as I think, from the Chronicle of Fontenelle according to the manuscript codex of Fontenelle, which is said to have the same; except that for "forty years" is written "about forty years"; in which agree both the copy which d'Achery published, and also our manuscript from the codex of Rouge-Val compared with another of Tournai, which at chapter 2 thus have it: "Blessed Wandregisilus therefore rested in the same basilica of St. Paul about forty years; but the renowned prelate Ansbert nine years; and the holy archbishop Wulfram eleven years." These disagree from the authors before cited, first,

because they do not number the forty years in which our Saint rested in the said church; then because the eleven years which they attribute to Ansbert, they ascribe to Wulfram; but the nine which those grant to Wulfram, they join to Ansbert. Which chronography indeed so pleased Cointe that he tried to emend by it the Life of St. Wulfram, which he gave whole at the year of Christ 704. And indeed it is better than the former ones, if by "about forty years" be understood thirty-seven years; as many as are thought to be from the death of St. Wandregisilus up to his elevation and first translation, according to the same Chronicle; which, although in chronology it is often wretched and unhappy, here nevertheless all follow; both because its author is ancient (for he is believed to have died toward the year of Christ 834), and because from it the interpolators of the other Lives, who write on this matter, seem to have seized their material. But thus he here narrates at chapter 2, in which he pursues the deeds of St. Bainus.

[32] "For this bishop Bainus, among the innumerable works of his goodness which he did, translated also the bodies of the holy Wandregisilus, [until thence he was translated to the church of St. Peter the Apostle by St. Bainus] Ansbert, and Wulfram into the church of the blessed Prince of the Apostles Peter from the basilica of St. Paul the Apostle. And he placed that of the blessed father Wandregisilus in the middle; but that of the great prelate Ansbert on the left; and that of the glorious pontiff Wulfram on the right part in the apse of the same basilica toward the eastern side. But this holy translation was made in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 704, in the second indiction, on the day before the Kalends of April, on the second feria. For the solemnity of holy Easter was then on the third of the Kalends of April; which was the tenth year of the glorious king Childebert: further, of Pope John, who as the eightieth from blessed Peter ruled the Roman Church, the first year; finally of the aforesaid father Bainus the fifth year from when he had taken up the care of the rule of that monastery. But in the same place in which blessed Wandregisilus had rested in the aforesaid basilica of St. Paul the Apostle, he placed blessed Erenbert the bishop, who before, buried in the lower place of the same church beneath the arches, had rested more or less thirty-three years, on the thirty-first day after the aforesaid translation, and he built over him a coffer adorned with silver. Blessed Wandregisilus therefore rested," etc., as I cited at the preceding number. Then he subjoins: "Who were so found with their garments unharmed from corruption, as if they had been delivered to burial on the same day. For as they had been wont to minister to the holy altars; so also they had been buried."

[33] in the year of Christ 704, on the 31st of March, But it would be a marvel if that chronographer here err in assigning the year of Christ 704 to this translation, which he fortifies with so many marks consonant among themselves, as many as I have expressed in capital letters: for I see nothing which could deservedly be carped in them: not the Easter, not the Indiction, as appears; nor even the tenth year of king Childebert; whatever otherwise our Elders once established: for he began to reign in the year of Christ 695 before the twenty-third of March, as Pagi rightly shows in the Baronian Critical notes at the year of Christ 692, number 18: his tenth year therefore ran on in the year of Christ 704 from about the middle of the month of March: nor finally the fifth year of St. Bainus from taking up the rule of the abbey of Fontenelle, however much this displeases Cointe at the year 704, number 3: for the beginning of St. Bainus is referred in the same Chronicle to the seventh year of king Childebert and the thirteenth of Pope Sergius, which two marks cannot stand together; since Sergius was ordained on the fifteenth of December in the year of Christ 687; as both Pagi demonstrate: his thirteenth year therefore ended in the month of December of the year 700; whereas the seventh year of Childebert began only in the following year before the twenty-third of March: the sixth year of Childebert therefore ought to have been written, not the seventh; and that this was the mind of the author is confirmed from this, that he joins the fifth year of St. Bainus with the tenth of Childeric ending in March; which he could not have done, unless he had willed that St. Bainus was made abbot in the sixth year of Childebert; which is also signified by the thirteenth year of the Pontiff Sergius being added. Grant then that the beginnings of Bainus pertain to nearly the beginning of the sixth year of Childebert, that is, to about the middle of March of the year of Christ 700 (for the day and month in which he began is unknown); you will easily understand that the fifth year of Bainus, at the end of March, concurs with the tenth of Childebert, of Christ 704. However it be, concerning the first translation of St. Wandregisilus, made in the year of Christ 704 on the day before the Kalends of April, from this author all agree; although in the order and first year of Pope John they recognize an error.

[34] [together with the body of St. Ansbert the bishop indeed; but whether also that of St. Wulfram?] But whether St. Wulfram had already then died, and therefore was translated together with Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert, is a matter so intricate that, wherever you turn, nothing certain enough occurs which you may affirm. Our Henschen denied it in the preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Wulfram on the twentieth of March, and judged that St. Wulfram lived up to the year of Christ 741; and that both from his own Acts, such as they are, and especially from the history concerning the death of Radbod duke of the Frisians, with which all the Belgic antiquities agree, which he gave from the longer Acts there; from which history he rightly established it followed that St. Wulfram survived Radbod: but Radbod perished in the year of Christ 719. But because it was not yet thence established how long that Saint had survived, he gathered it from Odorannus, Clarius, monks of St. Peter-Vivus at Sens, and others, who write that he died in the year of Christ 741, or thereabouts. These were the arguments by which he believed sufficiently overthrown the authority of the single Chronicle of Fontenelle, in chronological matters sometimes asserting conflicting things: of the single Chronicle of Fontenelle, I say; for if the same is read in our second Acts, that has been shown not to be our author's; in the Acts of St. Wulfram also they were inserted not without contradiction. But that these were taken from the Chronicle of Fontenelle both there and elsewhere appears from this, that they are expressed almost everywhere in the same words. Henschen added also certain Martyrologies, which celebrate the elevation and translation of St. Wulfram not only as done separately from the translation of Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert, as the more contracted Acts narrate; but also on another day and month, namely on the Ides of October. These Cointe saw and tried by many arguments to refute at the year of Christ 704, that he might defend the faith of the Chronicle of Fontenelle both in marking the death and the said translation; and persuaded Pagi indeed, as may be seen in the Critical notes on Baronius's Annals at the year of Christ 700; but not Mabillon, neither in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, century 3, part 1, page 356, nor in the Benedictine Annals, tome 2, page 11; inasmuch as he, not daring to proscribe the history of Radbod's death for the reasons adduced by Cointe, thought that Wulfram lived at least to the year of Christ 720; and therefore could not have been translated together with Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert. Whichever of these opinions, as it has its weights, so is not free from difficulty; as will be plain to one consulting the cited authors; for the matter is neither of this place, nor seems of such moment that we should renew the controversy afresh with a long dissertation.

[35] But how great veneration the relics of our Saint were held there, it is permitted to conjecture from this, that to this his sepulcher Pippin himself the king, Translated; thence Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert from the year of Christ 858, surnamed the Short, came for the sake of prayer, while Wido, called the layman, presided over the monastery, who is reported to have ruled from the year of Christ 753 up to 787: as the Chronicle of Fontenelle affirms, chapter 15; where also the liberality of the same Pippin is commended; inasmuch as by his aid the church of St. Peter, in which the remains of St. Wandregisilus were kept laid up, consumed by flames in the year of Christ 756, rose more elegant and more lofty; at which time must have happened that which below in the miracles at number 6 will be narrated. This sacred deposit remained in this place up to the year of Christ, not 862, as in the appendix of the Chronicle of Fontenelle chapter 2 it is said, but 858, as the author of the Miracles affirms below at number 10 and following: when, on account of the frequent incursions of the Normans, it had to be translated to safer places toward Boulogne, together with the body of St. Ansbert; and first indeed it came to an estate which was called the villa of Bladulf, and was, to those coming from Fontenelle to the territory of Boulogne, across the river Althea, as you have there number 10. Thence at once both bodies were carried to the church of St. Peter, which was near the emporium of Quentovic (now commonly Étaples); in the same year, on the fifth of the Ides of May, on the very Vigil of the Ascension of Christ; where it stayed for five days, as the same says at numbers 12 and 13. From the church of St. Peter near Quentovic the relics of both Saints were carried to Walbodegem, which is called a villa of the territory of Boulogne, and laid up in the basilica of St. Quentin M., as is there at number 18. Hence, I think, were received the particles of the relics of Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert, with which the monks of St. Riquier of Centula are said to have been endowed in the Chronicle of Hariulf in the year of Christ 866, in d'Achery, Spicilegium, tome 4, page 503 and the following.

[36] to other and other places; and at last to Ghent in the year of Christ 944, From the temple of St. Quentin the same remains of Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert were again carried in the year of Christ 866 to St. Peter's near Quentovic, according to the same author number 30: and there they were preserved up to the year of Christ 885, when on the twelfth of the Kalends of December they were carried thence to the church of St. Caraunus, near the city of Chartres, and about three months afterward received within the city itself on the fourteenth of the Kalends of March; until thence they were translated to Boulogne, for fear, as it is fair to believe, of the Normans, who in the following century threatened the people of Chartres, and would even have taken their city by siege, had not the barbarians, routed by the valor of Richard and Robert, been put to flight in the year of Christ, as Pagi shows in the Critical notes, 911, on the thirteenth of the Kalends of August. The bodies of our Saints were certainly there before the so often cited author of the miracles put an end to his writing: for he narrates the last prodigy done then, when the relics of both already reposed there. From Boulogne they were carried to Ghent to Mount Blandinium in the manner which you will learn from the history subjoined to the miracles; and that in the year of Christ 944, in the month of August; although they did not come to the monastery of Blandinium before the third of September, as is there said at number 46. But as to the body of St.

Wulfram, which in this history is narrated to have been translated together with the other two, we said this to be false on the twentieth of March, page 161, and it appears from the history of his discovery, which from the appendix of the Chronicle of Fontenelle we gave there, page 148. Further, all the aforesaid translations are wont to be reduced chiefly to three; of which the first is reckoned that which was made at Fontenelle from the church of St. Paul to St. Peter's, and is also called an elevation; the second from the church of St. Peter to Boulogne, or into the territory of Boulogne; the third finally from Boulogne to Mount Blandinium. There is also in du Chesne, tome 2 of the Writers of the history of the Franks, page 525, one who would have that our Saint's body was carried to Saint-Omer, and that indeed in the year of Christ 846; but he is refuted by the history of the Miracles cited, no otherwise than the anonymous author published by the same in the Writers of the history of the Normans, page 2, where he establishes the same.

§ V. The rest pertaining to his relics, and chiefly the translation of both arms; the loss of the body: the cult.

His relics for a while carried to the territory of Beauvais, Although in the preceding paragraph we have embraced all the translations of Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert, nor are others recorded to have happened later; since among the people of Blandinium both treasures, while indeed they survived, were constantly preserved; yet I would not have this so taken as that they could never meanwhile be carried out of the monastery somewhere for a while: for that this was done with the body of St. Wandregisilus is established more than once; and first indeed by that same man who lately had brought it from Boulogne to Ghent, the holy abbot Gerard, who is believed to have died in the year of Christ 959; which the author of the appendix to the Chronicle of Fontenelle thus narrates at chapter three: "When therefore the fame of his (Richard I duke of Normandy, in whose dominion was Fontenelle) power was flying far and wide, and the land of the Normans exulted in deep peace, the abbot of the monastery of Ghent, Gerard by name, having taken the precious body of Wandregisilus, hastened to come even into the territory of Beauvais, and turned aside for lodging into a villa which is called Reveriscors, which he took care to make known to Theodoric, a noble and very powerful man, through the Major of the same estate; because, though unjustly, he then dominated that possession which had long ago been of the dominion of the monastery of Fontenelle. Which when that proud and arrogant man learned, he struck the legate with a staff which he happened to hold, and with great injury compelled him to go out of his sight.

[38] "He therefore who had brought the message returned; and with grave grief intimated to abbot Gerard what he had suffered: where the Saint avenges his own injuries: which being heard, there is a great groan of all, and at once they prostrate themselves before the litter of the Saint, and amid flowing tears and bitter sighs of the heart the aforesaid abbot tearfully complains against the Saint, reproachfully urging many things. But amid these, the sun departing, the silence of night came. But Theodoric, about to sleep, composed himself in his little bed; to whom suddenly a terrible person under a monastic habit appeared, and, vehemently reproving him for the insult which he had inflicted on him the day before, struck him grievously with a pastoral staff which he bore; who at once, awakened, his sleep interrupted, groaned grievously, and cried out with loud and disturbed voices that he had been beaten by a certain white-haired abbot: then, seized with a sudden torture of his inner parts, he sought the retreat of nature, where, pouring out all his bowels by a foul discharge, he miserably ended his life: that it might be clearly given to the living to observe of what merit before God the holy father Wandregisilus was, who could so condemn to the punishment of death his living enemy and guilty of an atrocious injury. This matter therefore at once became known to all in that region; it cheered abbot Gerard with his companions not moderately.

[39] "Who then, counsel being shared with his men, left all his retinue with the holy pledges for guard; [and presently they are carried back to Ghent; and so also they were carried to Oudenarde.] and so, horses being mounted, he hastened with a few to the city of Rouen; and, being admitted, intimated to count Richard the causes of his coming diligently and opportunely, and reported that he had at hand the body of St. Wandregisilus, which he would restore to its place, if the lands were rendered to him which he could prove by the privileges of the charters: but he, using the counsel of his princes, ordered the charters to be exhibited, and recited before all to be set forth. Which being done, a murmur and contradiction began to be made by all, who said that they could by no means lack their own honors, which for themselves the warlike valor of their predecessors had won by arms and blood, or which they had acquired for themselves by long service and many sweats. Thus therefore, a difficulty being made of the matter which the aforesaid abbot Gerard sought, he could thenceforth be retained by no promise, but returned at once to his people by the measured journey, and, so great labor being consumed in vain, hastily carried St. Wandregisilus back to the place whence he had brought him out; where before God and men in great glory and honor he still rests." These things that author, who flourished in the eleventh century. In which century indeed that the relics of St. Wandregisilus were again carried to Oudenarde with several others, collected there for a while from all Flanders for conjuring peace, in the year of Christ 1030, Sanderus narrates, Ghent affairs, book 4, pages 305 and 383, from the Chronicle of Sigebert, which also has that at the same year in the edition of Miraeus according to the codex of Justus Lipsius. But these deserve to be called rather supplications than translations.

[40] His arm carried back from Ghent to Fontenelle, the other is at Brogne. There is nevertheless still celebrated a translation of the true name, not indeed of the whole body of St. Wandregisilus, but only of an arm, made from the monastery of Blandinium to that of Fontenelle, while Robert presided over the latter, as from the manuscript tables of Fontenelle Arthur narrates in his Neustria pia, page 164. But Robert presided, by the same witness, from the year of Christ 1047 up to 1062. By reason of this arm together with certain other relics of Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbert, Ordericus Vitalis seems must be reconciled with himself, Ecclesiastical History, book 4, when he says first indeed, page 618, that the monks of Fontenelle on account of the Norman calamities carried off relics which they never brought back, among which he reckons the bodies of Saints Wandregisilus, Ansbert, and Wulfram (of whom last we spoke elsewhere) carried to Ghent, which "by the Flemings," he says, "kept up to the present day, are there in great veneration." But then, page 623: "But Ansbert of Rouen (his words are) is kept at Fontenelle with Wandregisilus the abbot, and Wulfram archbishop of Sens, and is daily honored with due reverence by his people." Namely this he understands of the arm and of those ashes of which it was said on the twentieth of March, page 148; but that of the remaining body, which the people of Ghent held: except that another arm also, with part of the head, one tooth, two fingers of the hands, and some hairs, fell to the abbey of Brogne, under St. Gerard the abbot, Rayssius witnessing in the Belgic Hierogazophylacium, page 126.

[41] His body was in great veneration at Ghent, Further, that the relics of our Saint were in great veneration among the people of Ghent it is permitted to understand not only from Ordericus, but also from the History of the arrival at Mount Blandinium to be exhibited below; likewise from its various celebrations, wont there to be observed each year; finally from the very place in which they were there formerly laid up with others, which we described on the fifth of February in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Bertulph, and again on the tenth of July, where of St. Amalberga V., page 83. The same, in the papers which we have pertaining to the Blandinium people, I find thus depicted: "In the choir of the monastery of St. Peter is a chapel, that is a cell, adorned with an iron vault, and so artfully constructed that it seemed to grow from the pavement. The artificer, by name Peter Paul, an inhabitant of Ghent, by the order and command of the lord John Cauwerburg abbot of the said monastery, undertook to fabricate it; but before the work was completed, the said abbot migrated from this world; but it was completed under Gerard de Cuelsbrouck, succeeding John (in the year of Christ 1517) in the abbatial prelature: after which work the artificer also shortly died, who had for the work only 48 hundred florins (that is, four thousand eight hundred florins)." Then he adds that the work was esteemed at double, and subjoins: "Afterward also this iron work was gilded, in which were elevated the holy bodies of St. Bertulph, who is wont to strike, as it was reported, when war and a calamitous time was at hand (see the cited Commentary on the Acts of St. Bertulph), of St. Gudwal, St. Ansbert, St. Wandregisilus, St. Wulfram, St. Amelberga, and several others up to ten." Of this work Sanderus also makes mention in passing, Ghent affairs, book 4, page 325.

[42] In the same paper it was noted that all these relics, with many others, afterward either burned, but in the year 1578 it perished in the Calvinist persecution. or scattered, or cast into the running water, or otherwise unworthily treated by the Calvinists, perished, or at least disappeared; but that the chest, adorned with silver, pearls, gems, and most precious stones, fell to the uses of those impious men. Which also Blandinium each year bewails in the eighth lesson of its ecclesiastical Office on the third of September in these words: "Whose, alas! relics, and the most sacred pledges of the most sacred bodies… God being not undeservedly angry with us… were violently snatched by the enemies of the faith in the year 1578, the Calvinist prince of Orange persecuting the Catholic Church in Belgium, not without inestimable loss, in that above a seven-year exile we suffered in this our monastery, which was then horribly defiled with foul ruins." Thus far of the relics: now some things of the cult.

[43] How ancient and celebrated his veneration was in the Church, both from what has been said above of the first translation and elevation, His cult ancient and celebrated, and below from the miracles, can be estimated. This the most ancient Martyrologies also attest, such as are those which are wont to be called Hieronymian; for thus has an old copy compacted about a thousand years ago, as at least he asserts who published it, Martène in the Thesaurus of anecdotes, tome 3, at the eleventh of the Kalends of August: "In the Gauls, in the monastery of Fontenelle, the deposition of Wandregisilus the abbot." Similar things are read inserted in the copies of the same Martyrology on the same day in Florentinius, and d'Achery in the Spicilegium of the new edition, tome 2, at the beginning; similar things on the same day have Wandelbert, Usuard, and others everywhere both printed and unpublished, whose list to weave in a matter by no means doubtful we have thought superfluous; since even in the modern Roman one it is thus announced on the same day: "In the monastery of Blandinium, of St. Wandregisilus, famous for miracles." On the same day his commemoration is prescribed in the Breviary of Saint-Omer printed at Paris in the year of Christ 1518, as also in the Breviary of the Morini of the year 1542, and the Verdun one of the year 1625; in the Rouen one of the year 1581 on the same day his commemoration is made in both Vespers and Lauds, but on the morrow his feast is celebrated with a semidouble rite; but in the Breviary of the same diocese printed in the year 1627, on the twenty-second of July his memory is held

only in the second Vespers, but on the morrow a semidouble Office.

[44] Nor indeed do certain Martyrologists hold it enough to set forth one anniversary celebration of him, and indeed with various anniversary solemnities; but some mark two, others several in the year. Thus in Florentinius not only his deposition, and likewise the dedication of the church of St. Peter, in which the venerable Father himself is said to rest, is noted on the eleventh of the Kalends of August, but also his first translation on the second of the Kalends of April, or the thirty-first of March, on which we said it was made. The manuscript Florarium of the Saints celebrates his deposition with a long eulogy taken from the second Life on the twenty-second of July; the first translation on the thirty-first of March; but the other to Mount Blandinium on the third of September. The same do certain augmenters of the Usuard published by us. The same the Martyrologists of the Benedictine Order on the same days, Wion, Menard, Bucelin; Dorganius nevertheless omitted the memory of the Blandinium translation, but for the rest agrees with the others.

[45] chiefly among the people of Fontenelle and Blandinium. But the rest, as is fitting, the monks of Fontenelle and of Blandinium surpass in this part: and they indeed, when on the fourth of the Kalends of March (as the praised Prevot taught Bolland from the Breviary, as he writes, of Fontenelle already then long ago printed, but not on sale) they celebrate the dedication of the church of St. Wandregisilus with a double rite: but on the sixteenth of the Kalends of July the commemoration of St. Wandregisilus, or, as it is in the series of the Breviary, he says, "the solemnity of the arm of St. Wandregisilus in copes": on the eleventh of the Kalends of August the feast of his deposition with an Octave in copes. The people of Blandinium in their proper Office honor his first translation with a double rite on the thirty-first of March: his deposition on the twenty-second of July with an Octave; and at last also his Arrival at Mount Blandinium on the third of September likewise with an Octave, as is established from their proper Offices, which we here keep in manuscript. The lessons and Antiphons teach us nothing new besides that which at number 43 we noted; from which it is established that even after the relics were lost the former piety toward St. Wandregisilus and others did not cool among those religious men. They are drawn from the second Life and the History of the arrival to be produced below; except that there is in them some confusion, which from the Acts themselves it will be easy to emend; as when it is said in the Office of his Arrival in the second lesson of the first Nocturn that "the holy Wandregisilus, Ansbert, Wulfram, on the day before the Kalends of April, were translated by St. Bainus, prelate of the see of Thérouanne, to Boulogne into the basilica of St. Peter": here the equivocation of the basilica of St. Peter deceived the author: for there are two basilicas of this name, but most different, to which also different translations of St. Wandregisilus were made; one is at Fontenelle; and to this Bainus translated our Saint, as we warned above: the other at Boulogne, or rather of the territory of Boulogne near Quentovic; to which the Saint's body was carried only a century and a half later, and so long after the times of St. Bainus. Go to the fourth paragraph above.

LIFE

Sincere, by a certain coeval author, an anonymous monk of the Jura.

From the New Library of manuscript books of Philip Labbe, tome 1, from page 784; and from the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict published by Luc d'Achery and John Mabillon, Century 2, from page 526.

Wandregisilus, Abbot of Fontenelle near Rouen in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 8804

BY A COEVAL AUTHOR.

PROLOGUE.

By how much the life of certain religious men is more excellent in merits, by so much it ought to shine more clearly in deeds; The author about to narrate things seen and heard by him, especially since we are less fit to trace it out. For we trust in Him who said: "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you"; and by whom the tongues of the dumb have been unlocked ^a. It is not therefore to be marveled at, if through His creature He furnishes understanding; since, when He wills, He narrates His truth through the mouths of beasts of burden. Raised therefore into hope of Him, and girt with heavenly strength, I, roused, will undertake my dryness to weave the Life of the blessed lord Wandregisilus, with the faculty by which I am able (for the Lord is powerful to strengthen speech): for very many things concerning the virtues of that most blessed Man to set forth to me ^b, many things seen by myself, and mostly also brought forth by the relation of venerable monks or his disciples, who served him through prolonged times, who narrate not only things heard, but seen—in this work concerning the shining grace of the aforesaid Father, few of very many, in humble speech indeed, that I may not beget disgust in the readers, in a brief little material I have expressed in style, lest a longer page bring in ridicule; but let a modest narration nourish edification for the readers, even if it be less elegantly completed, the mercy of divine aid granting that He may thence deign to grant pardon to us.

[2] Now therefore let him who reads these things grow warm in mind into the zeal of a good work and into its fervor; he exhorts to attention and to zeal for imitating. let him guard, by meditating with all avidity, on the altar of his heart the deeds which he shall have heard in his ear, and by guarding perfect them, and the perfect fulfill with the highest desire in the work of the Lord. I therefore, a tender little one ^c, beseech that everyone who shall read this Life of the blessed Man take heed that, as Cain struck with iron, so he strike not out of envy with tooth and tongue; but let him take care to guard it in heart and soul: because, as the prophet sings, "The sons of men, their teeth are arms and arrows, their tongue a sharp sword." For mostly the examples of the good greatly profit for the conversion or correction of mortals, by which man is edified daily to pursue manifold virtues: for if, to attain the amenity of paradise, to which we are moved forward, precepts were lacking; the examples of the Saints would suffice us for a law. This the eternal triune King fulfills from the ages, who, commending the perennial fame of His servants, that posterity may profit by their example, and grow warm into the love of the heavenly fatherland with the greatest devotion.

[3] which is the end of this writing. But we, considering these things, have inserted by relation of this venerable father Wandregisilus that which pertains to the praise of the Lord, not that which may grow weary by the favor of human declamation. The evil have in it what they may fear, the good what they may congratulate, the proud that they may be humbled, the luxurious that they may guard the example of chastity with modest mind, the garrulous that they may rest, the greedy that they may wither, the avaricious that, leaving ^d the world with all its impediment, the drunken may learn to be sober, the plunderers may seize meekness, the sluggish that they may grow warm, the imprudent may seize true prudence with holy simplicity. Let us all with admiration consider how great grace of religion we have in this Athlete of the Lord, which we may marvel at ^e, and how great the force of his virtue, or the affliction of his body and the fount of his tears: how or in what manner he renounced most things by contempt of the world, and, crucifying his own wills on the trophy of the Lord, persevered; because brevity does not permit his whole working to be concluded in speech; but nevertheless let us leave the text of this narration, that we may more happily come to relate something of the merits of his life; let us rise to the glory of God by pronouncing ^f.

NOTES.

* Mabillon: "I roused."

* therefore

* who

* little material (materiolam)

* to us

* one and eternal

CHAPTER I. The fatherland, nobility, marriage, monastic life of St. Wandregisilus at Mont-Falcon and Elisangium.

Therefore there was, venerable in virtue, the Lord enlightening, Wandregisilus, surnamed Wando, Wandregisilus a noble of Verdun, and royal collector, sprung from the territory of Verdun, noble by birth, but nobler by religion. Who, accompanying his highest parents once ^a, both from the very rudiments of his youth instructed him in action according to the manners of secular men amid the honor of the world. Who, receiving earthly honors, exercised the collectorship ^b committed to him; but nevertheless his mind was not alienated from the commands of the Lord, because he fulfilled the injunction of the holy Gospel; for he rendered the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and what is God's to God.

[5] Not after many days, being asked by his parents ^c, he takes a wife by command of his parents, that he should betroth to himself some girl, he, according to their command, betrothed to himself a certain girl of exalted parents and well born: for she was in the world most noble ^d. Then the Man himself began silently to say in his thought what he ought thereafter to do; for he wished to desert the delights of the world and to subject himself to the service of God; and because he feared, if it became known, that she would by no means give consent to him, he thought that he should take her, and afterward talk to her about the habit of the religious conversation; because, taking her, and afterward wishing to gain his taken wife (as it is written: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"), by prudent exhortation, as he was learned, he persuaded her that the virtue of the religious conversation has great reward; that those who here had been joined in one flesh, might in the glory of the Saints be united without end.

[6] But she, kindled by the Holy Spirit, caught up such words beforehand, saying: whom, consenting, he presently consecrates to God a virgin. "O Lord God; what was it to thee, that thou didst not before divulge this matter to me? Know most certainly, that I too, without any doubt, wish to deliver myself to the service of God, and to desert the vanities of this world, and to reign in the glory of Christ. Which I so beseech thee, my lord, that what thou utterest with thy mouth thou strive to fulfill in deed, and free thyself, and deliver me, thy handmaid, to the yoke of God with the highest haste." But he, hearing these things, turned into joys, glorified the Lord, and marveled at her so excellent desire. Consent is made on both sides. But he himself laid aside the crown of his head ^e, and surrounded her with the grace of the veil: and, the Lord aiding, such was his conversation or purity of heart, that through it the Lord deigned to work very many virtues, while he was still dwelling in this body.

[7] Why more? Let us return to that time in which the Lord deigned to show His strength through His Servant. He composes brawls by prayer: While he was still in the lay order, going on a journey,

coming with his consort ^f and a large household to a certain place which is among most wicked rustic men, who neither feared God nor revered any man, there arose a contention over the fodder of the horses so violent that, had not the mercy of the Lord and the merits of the man of God himself come to aid, many homicides would there have been done. But he himself sought help there where the possibility of granting it was, and, going to prayer as to a sword, he asked for the shield of divine mercy, and, the Lord having pity, who is a kind hearer of His servants, at once that quarrel was so mitigated, as if from long times they had held joined the laws of friendship, and through the son of peace, which the Man of God himself plows, the Lord turned the litigants to concord through His Servant in a wonderful manner.

[8] he becomes a monk; Thereupon he began to grow more warm in heart and to announce Him with the mouth of profession, saying: "Surely He is to be loved above all; because, wherever He shall be invoked, at once He is to be heard at hand, according to what the Lord Himself promised through the prophet: 'But when you shall seek me with all your heart, I shall be found by you.'" After which the Man of God himself, leaving the delights of this world, desired to dwell in a holy monastery under the habit of religion. At first he dwelt, with a certain old man, in a place which is surnamed Mont-Falcon ^g, not much time; who ^h was a man very notable ⁱ, adorned with the crown of the head ^k, with beautiful eyes, a lily-like face ^l, long hands, and often he desired to wash them with water, who, having distributed all his substance, sought to sit down in the furnace of poverty ^m.

[9] and therefore accused before the king, But because the devil is envious to harm, and malice fights against the form of goodness, the devil had burned with the greatest envy against him, who through himself or through his abettors ceased not to disquiet him; but he, girt with the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith, fought strongly against all the arrows of the enemy. King Dagobert ⁿ, who then in those times was present, because he had had the man of God himself in his service in his youth, wished to disquiet him because he had tonsured himself without his command, and ordered him to be brought into his palace. The Man of God himself, trusting in the aid of Christ, who was present with him as a comforter, though unwilling indeed went to the royal court; who, when he had come near the consistory of the Prince, there was a certain poor little man who had sunk his vehicle before the gate of the king himself: many going out, no one furnished him aid; but almost all walked over him, trampling him. But the Saint of God himself, coming, saw the impiety which the sons of distrust were working, and descending swiftly from the horse on which he sat, both stretched out his hand to the poor man, and together they lifted that wagon from the place.

[10] after an act of charity and humility he is acquitted: Many, beholding him, how he had defiled himself with mud, derided him and said many reproaches to him. But he, caring nothing for the reproaches of the wicked; but humble, followed his humble master by his footstep; because the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: "If they have called the father of the household Beelzebub; how much more his domestics?" But when he turned this to the praise of God, at once an angel of the Lord appeared, who diligently cared for his garment, and it was made more white than it had been before, and afterward he came into the palace of the king, and stood before him and his satellites, like a lamb in the midst of wolves; but the Lord, shepherd of all the Saints, was keeping His sheep, snatched from the jaws of the enemies, in the midst of them, as a guardian; and all knew that this was a Man of God, and that for the desire of Christ he had despised all the glory of the world. And the king commanded that no one should make disquiet for him; but it should be lawful for him to contemplate the glory of the Lord.

[11] Thence returning, he began to build a cell in another place ^o from his substance; he lives austerely in another cell, where he afflicted himself with fastings and vigils; daily groans, daily tears, and, if ever imminent sleep had oppressed him resisting, on the bare ground he scarcely dashed together his dry bones. For he, for fear of Gehenna and love of Christ, had condemned himself to such a prison. The devil, seeing him always ascend to a more eminent way, burned against him with excessive cruelty, and made him many disquietudes both open and in sleep: who, the Saint of God himself, knowing his deceitful ambushes, which he suggested to him through the consent of sweetness, by the standard of the cross and by abstinence overcame his allurements and persuasions.

[12] The devil himself, seeing himself conquered by the Man of God, wonderfully overcoming the allurements of the flesh. declined to a greater destruction; and, if in any way, according as the human condition [p] bears, sleep had oppressed him, through that very vision he thrust manifold assaults. Who, awakened from sleep, took up the armor of God, saying: "O God, incline unto my aid"; or he besought this of the Lord, that He would grant him strength, that he might overcome the wicked enemy. And if ever in that nocturnal vision he had had an illusion through the titillation of the flesh, rising immediately with groaning and tears he plunged himself into the river; and, when it was winter time, in the midst of the ice he sang the psalmody, and, each psalm [q] being completed, up to the waters he asked pardon. O how great the zeal of the blessed Man, and the greatest battle which he waged daily against the enemy! And the merciful Lord stretched forth to him His right hand, because his mind lay toward Jesus, he bedewed His feet with tears and wiped them with his hair, and subjugated his resisting enemy by the fasting of his body.

NOTES.

p Supply "bears," or something similar.

q Namely the psalm.

* a man of life

* at a certain time

* if to him

* Who

* of virtues

* burst forth

* my

* which

* most wicked,

* would have been

* joined

* God

* And at first

* an old man

* he followed

* Beelzebub

* through sleep

* the Lord's

CHAPTER II. His journey to Bobbio, his most holy life among the people of the Jura, an angelic apparition; the reception of sacred Orders.

An angel leading, he seeks Bobbio, The Lord, seeing His Soldier that he fought strongly against the adversary, sent His angel to help him: and on a certain night, according to his wonted custom, he lay in his hut, in a hair-shirt, and was translated in spirit by the holy angel, and led into the monastery which is called Bobbio ^a, in the region of the Lombards which is called Italy; and showed him all its dwellings, how and of what kind they were: who, when he had left him, the Saint of God himself began to turn over within himself what this was: who, remembering the command in the holy Gospel, Christ saying: "Unless one leave all things which he possesses, he cannot be my disciple"; and: "He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me"; fulfilling the Lord's precept, rising he left all things; taking with him three little boys with an ass, others not knowing, he went out of his land and of his kindred, and of the house of his father, and walked, not knowing by what way he should lead his journey ^b; but the Lord through His angel showed him by what way he should go, and he came to the aforesaid place, where it had been shown him.

[14] But when he had entered and seen all the dwellings of the monastery, whence, fleeing the praises of men, he thinks of Ireland; he most certainly knew that which before the Lord in ecstasy had shown him by word, and he dwelt there for some time. All knew that this Man of God was an athlete, and his devotion

and origin came to the knowledge of all, and the Lord deigned to reveal to him there many conditions ^c. But he himself, always desiring to have secrecy, that his virtues might not be manifested to men, but pleasing to the Lord (because he took heed of that which the Lord said to false servants: "You are they who justify yourselves before men, but the Lord knows your hearts"), gathered into the storehouse of his heart the virtues of God, and desired to please Him who daily looked upon him from on high; and, wishing to dwell in a more remote place, and to keep the strait and narrow way, he resolved to walk into Scotia Ireland. For he burned with the desire of the Lord, because the charity of Christ was spread abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, who had been given to him.

[15] But when he went, coming by the monastery which is built beyond the Jura parts, yet he stays among the people of the Jura, surnamed Romanum ^d, he sought lodging there. The Abbot himself received him with the highest diligence: where, when, according to the wonted custom, fulfilling the command of the Lord, they had come to wash his feet, the Saint of God himself knew that there was that narrow way [via] which he wished, out of desire of Christ, to follow, and more surely by the spirit of the Lord it was known to him that for this the Lord had brought him, that he should dwell under the habit of religion; and he delegated himself there into obedience, and for many days there dwelt under a regular institution; namely he, always ascending to the summits of virtues through humility, and guarding against vainglory, following meekness, fearing lest, if he seemed to do any good, the devil should creep in through the wind of elation, guarding himself much even from the smallest faults, that is, from idle speech, mostly guarded against lofty laughter, knowing that it was said, that "The fool in laughter raises his voice"; but upright always and cheerful, he was most ready in the commands of the Lord.

[16] where he affords notable examples of virtues, Aided by these virtues as by his companions, he was more humble than the rest, quiet in speech, cheerful in bearing, pious in aspect, mature in morals; he neither wished to detract, nor mostly to hear it; not murmuring, but obedient, the things which had never been uttered by the father's mouth he did, as by a divine command, with all swiftness, holding the command of the Lord, and always in His law was his meditation; wherever he was, he turned over the commands of God to be ruminated, and by meditating kept them. Such was his zeal, because he had mortified his members which were upon the earth: naked he had carried the naked cross; and, now dead to the world, he lived to the Lord: and the Lord, seeing that he was very diligent to exercise His service, laid open there many conditions through an inward eye, and roused up through him very many sleeping in the sleep of sloth and slothful to do the work of the Lord, and made them rise up to the work of faith.

[17] and praised by an angel, he learns of his nephew's conversion: Nor do I dare to pass over that greatest miracle which was done, as I learned from the Saint of the Lord himself narrating. On a certain night, when he was most devoutly persevering in prayer in his cell, an angel of the Lord stood before him in so great a shining brightness that that dwelling terribly resplended with immense light; and it filled that hut with the odor of sweetness; and a voice was made to him, saying: "Servant of Christ, most ready in the fear of God, peace be with thee, for great art thou before the Lord, and great are thy works which unceasingly thou dost: persevere unto the end; because the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for thee a crown and the amenity of paradise unlocked, that with Him without end thou mayest be exalted."

[18] but he humbles himself so much the more. And in that place he foretold to him things to come, and said: "Because thy nephew Godo ^e will follow thee." Hearing these things, the holy Man, prostrating himself again with groaning in prayer, growing more and more warm, not exalting himself in that the Lord had spoken to him through His angel, and had magnified his works; but humbling himself, and confessing himself more to be a sinner; because he was not worthy that the Lord should visit him. O that blessed virtue and that Man, who deserved to be praised by the mouth of the Most High! O blessed mortification, which makes one a partaker of the Son of God! O blessed humility, which among men is most vile, before God exalted! By keeping this the blessed Wandregisilus has part in the kingdom of God.

[19] He comes to St. Ouen, and is initiated into sacred Orders: Let us come to that time in which now the Lord willed to show His Servant among all nations, and unlocked a precious pearl ^f brought forth from His treasuries, that through him the salvation of many might increase, and to him a twofold crown might be multiplied. Coming to Rouen ^g, to the blessed see in the days of Ouen the orthodox ^h: who, when the pontiff himself had seen him, knew that this Man of God was a great worshipper, and wished to bless him to the burden of the subdiaconate; whom, unknowing and almost unwilling, he set to that grade: thence a levite: then to the priesthood by the hands of the lord Omer ⁱ he made him ascend: who, the Saint of God himself, after receiving the blessing, fulfilled his office: for he was adorned to exercise that ministry.

NOTES.

* had shown, being led out

* life

* the summit of virtue

* joined

* countenance

* affection

* ever

* trembling

* by ruminating

* shining

* the Son

* partakers

CHAPTER III. The erection and increase of the monastery of Fontenelle; the Saint's prefecture, and apostolic works; the gift of prophecy and of miracles.

But because he always sought again the fount of humility (for he did not wish to be occupied in earthly acts), He founds the monastery of Fontenelle, he sought a place where the Lord might show him how under a holy rule he should lead his life. To whom the Lord gave such a place, where the good shepherd bore the care of very much of the flock of Christ; he settled beside a most abundant fount, which is called Fontenelle, in the wilderness which is called Gemeticus Jumièges, from the fisc which he received by royal gift ^a: there he founded a monastery and built it up from the precious stones of the souls of many holy men. For he built basilicas in honor of St. Peter, of blessed Paul, and ^b of St. Lawrence, and other oratories, not much distant from the monastery, about one mile, in honor of St. Amantius, prelate of Rouen ^c, for love of him he built.

[21] For he was, for his zeal of sanctity, dear to Dado Ouen ^d the pontiff, in whose parish ^e is that monastery. Subjecting himself to St. Ouen, and receiving nothing from the converts; He was no despiser of the canons; but he was so humble that, even if he tried to go on a journey, he would receive it by the permission of the prelate, and without his edict he would not go on a journey; because he knew it was written: "All things whatever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in the heavens, and whatever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in the heavens." Further, he wished to be without a portion of this world, that he might eat his bread from his own sweat, and it was so for many times; and the Lord, seeing that His elect multiplied the grace of the talent which He had given him, made several run together to that monastery following his Gospel, leaving father and mother, house and fields, and the rest.

[22] which nevertheless he did somewhat later, when they grew too much, Which the Saint of God himself, seeing how the Lord gathered there a multitude of holy men, he could not be without fields; unless he received of those who, enlightened, subjected themselves to the service of God; that he might have whence to procure their necessities, that is, only food and clothing, according to the commanding Apostle: "But having coverings and things whereby we are nourished, let us be content with these." For he was a most true shepherd according to the Lord's precept; because he laid down his soul for his sheep. By his sweetness he turned the bitternesses of many into a liquor, by his humility many proud, confounded, returned to humility ^f.

[23] who flew together to his instruction; By his doctrine he gathered many into the kingdom of God. For he was a learned scribe bringing forth from his treasure things new and old; he comforted the doubtful, strengthened the weak, furnished aid to the sick, and against the devil fought for them with a most strong battle: he took away very many preys from the mouth of the roaring lion and led them back to the Lord's sheepfold, like a good shepherd, and cured the wounded by the word of grace; and he instructed his sons how they might resist the surging ambushes of Satan, and that those who had put their hand to the work of the Lord should not look back; and he announced to them, saying:

[24] and exhorted them chiefly to humility, "To look back, son, is nothing else than to repent of what thou hadst begun to perform, and again to bind thyself to worldly desires, most dear one. A man ought always to be ready for humility and to ascend to higher things: we ought not to reckon the years which we spend in the monastery, but that we have lived without complaint in the commands of the Lord. Even if no elation puffs us up, in that we do not steal with thieves, and are not joined with homicides or perjurers, let us reconsider within our consciences of what kind are our acts; whether we have not hatred against anyone; whether we root out detraction with all swiftness; whether pride puffs you not up; whether ambition weakens not; whether luxury defiles not; whether anger exasperates not; whether vainglory forestalls not; whether immoderate laughter wrinkles not; whether idle speech hinders not; whether we keep charity, peace, joy, kindness with all avidity."

[25] and perseverance, This is necessary for us, that at every hour the Lord find us prepared for His work; [] let Him rejoice, and crown; that the devil may fall, and mourn; because he has the greatest sorrow when he sees anyone most prompt in keeping the commands of the Lord. Little sons, keep yourselves from all defilement of the world. Today we live, tomorrow what may befall us [] we know not; let the memory be revolved to our diligence, how we, who were once sons of darkness, now having obtained the mercy of the Lord, are made sons of light. Therefore let us cast off the work of darkness, and through the precepts of Christ, as through light, let us walk.

[26] and mutual charity, See that the devil bind you not [] in his mousetrap through the envy of zeal, but, bound by charity, serve one another in turn in the fear of the Lord; and if your adversary shall have perceived this, he will be put far to flight from you; because to him whom his enemy shall have seen unanimous with him in the battle, he can by no means approach: because the charity of God cements together, and the unanimous have the most foul enemy laid prostrate. This was his zeal, or his labor, whereby he fought against the devil; because he nourished his sons, whom by the word of God, as by [] milk, he was nourishing [*] to war against him, and pointed out his poisoned arrows, from what quarter they could arrive.

[27] Who over those same sheep of the Lord ^g in the aforesaid holy monastery even to the end of his life without complaint (as I think), a Shepherd more exalted above all, bore solicitude in all things. sustaining his own also by the labor of the hands. So great a most true humility was present to him, that for the education of his sons, in old age ^h, he strove [] to begin [] the labor of the hands. O how great and illustrious a Satellite of Christ! that he who through the keenness of contemplation lifted up his heart to the things above, detained for fraternal loves, in earthly things in many ways subjecting himself to servitude [], that, after the manner of the Apostle, he was made all things to all [], that he might gain all, who by that same manifold grace which the Lord had given him, watered the earth of the gentiles, and made sweet the torrent of thorns, and the dead sea. And thus in the holy Man a happy report traveled through the far spaces of the earth; and, if anyone had not seen him with bodily eyes, he had great confidence, that through his intercession, as it was, he might have the clemency of the Lord made propitious.

[28] In this his preaching shone in the greatest part, He converts many neighbors to piety. that, when he dwelt in the land with the brutish or servile [*] men, in a short time by his entreaty they were converted; so that those who before had been plunderers, afterward bestowed their own goods. What shall I say more, that in so fierce or savage a barbarian nation, lately Christian, after the monkish manner, when he wished to be gently rebuked, he prostrated himself even to the ground, asked pardon ⁱ. For that same holy one of God among his sheep, or the field of the Lord, plowed with the preaching of the word, and said: "Not to us, O Lord, but to thy holy name give glory." And his entreaty was made daily for them, that in so new a plantation the Lord Jesus Christ might fix the root of charity, and firm the foundation of stability: whose prayer was assiduous not only for his sons, but also for the whole nation, both of the just and also of sinners, whose flesh the king of Assyria ^k boiled in the pot of fornication with a burning.

[29] It is very wonderful and stupendous to consider, if we do not believe that the spirit of prophecy dwelt [] in a man of God of this kind, He knows secret and future things: which was often present; so that while anyone in no way made his guilt known, the servant of God himself would say: "Brother, what is it with thee, that thou walkest with so grim an aspect, saddened in heart []? Are there not some contrivings of thy heart? Be swift to confession: do not let thy guilt rest quiet in thy heart, because the addition of a small spark begets a great fire. Rise, brother; stand upon thy feet, and do not lie prostrate; be not with the devil, but rise with Christ." Further, I too speak without doubt, that he heard him pronouncing things to come, which my eyes afterward most plainly saw. These things [*] the brevity of this text by no means suffers to dwell upon longer. But, as far as I shall be helped by the divine mercy, it befits us to touch upon this; lest, as above, the pen prescribing at length, I should beget weariness; and this I so believe to be lawful for me to inquire, how great contests of miracles the Lord deigned to work through that same holy one of God, and our venerable Father.

[30] he wrought very many miracles; Nor can my poverty grasp this, but it is known to God alone: this is clear: what appears to human sight I have thought must be inquired, because concerning that same holy one of God I have touched but a few things. For let us know most certainly, that through him the Lord cleansed lepers, made the lame walk with free steps, and the darknesses of the inner heart, and the dead now almost buried, He raised up. Who, snatched from the miseries of this world [*], today in the celestial seats warreth with Christ and His holy angels, and his glory shall be Christ, and he shall never have an end, rejoicing in the amenity of paradise.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV. His last illness, and the admonitions of the dying man; the driving away of the demon; the apparition of the Saints. The author's exhortation.

He is seized by disease, and by a three-day ecstasy, Let us come to that place in which the Lord willed to lead His renowned one from the labors of this world into celestial rest. He too, failing at a certain great age, sang very often, saying: "Woe is me! that my pilgrimage is prolonged; I have dwelt with those who inhabit darknesses, my soul has much wandered"; and praying to the Lord [] he said: "O good Jesus, free me, because I greatly desire to see thee." Who, hearing the voice [] of His servant, sent upon him a small sickness, that he might receive the holy soul from the body. Which same man of God was for three days and three nights not speaking with men, but, led forth in ecstasy, they contemplated the glory of the Lord, and through a little while he opened his eyes, and looked into heaven with cheerful countenance.

[32] Which the disciples, who stood before him, knowing, while the disciples lament, because his mind was translated to the glory of the Lord; but the brethren seeing that now the Lord wished to receive him, were greatly saddened, saying: "What shall we do; why dost thou leave us so soon, Father? We would wish to hear thy words, we all desire to be corrected by thy accustomed admonition." And they prostrated themselves with groaning and tears in prayer, beseeching the Lord that He would not permit him to depart from the body, before he should serve them with the grace of comfort. Further, the Lord, seeing the greatest contrition which His sheep suffered for their Shepherd, because now he in no way [*] spoke to them, permitted that same holy one of God to preach to them many words of preaching.

[33] Who, having called together his disciples, unlocked to them very many mysteries, to whom he gives his last admonitions: secrets, and hidden things, both concerning himself and concerning the rest. Then the monks asked him, according to the custom, what they ought to do after his departure? But he, opening his mouth, answered them: "Know for certain, that, if you shall remain in my discourses, and shall keep what I have foretold to you, that you be founded in unity and charity, and also humility, so that among you there be no dissension, your condition has to remain rightly forever, and the Lord will be with you all your days, and your consoler and helper will be present in all necessities." He expressed to them a few words in brief [*], because now that Advocate was near who received him into the bosom of His rest.

[34] But when the devil perceived that through the merits of that same holy one of God the Lord was calling him to the blessed life from these darknesses, he puts to flight the demon, appearing to him, led by the greatest envy against him, because he had ever been against him a most strong fighter, and had drawn away from his mouth not only himself [], but also very many sheep, and had been a pious leader [] to eternal life, he wished by his most foul blacknesses [*] to beget terrors of soul: but the clement Lord never deserted His just one, but, ever dwelling in him, struck the devil, and put him to flight. Even the disciples of the aforesaid Father, who were present before him, heard him saying: "In the Holy Spirit the Lord baptized me in the fountain of the laver, and the most foul demon met me, and the Lord struck him on the forehead, and put him to flight."

[35] This holy one of God, beholding a multitude of the company of the Saints, to whom succeeds a choir of Saints. whom the Lord had sent thither to his departure, to stand before him, called upon a certain Saint, whose life and morals that same blessed Man knew, saying: "Agatho, Agatho," with cheerful countenance; and by that same calling the brethren were made more certain that a multitude of Saints was gathered there; and I myself learned from a certain brother narrating in the monastery, that when he was in his cell, he heard choirs singing psalms most excellently. And that brother, rising on the pavement, and running, hastily came to the church, and thought within himself that the brethren were already singing for the departure of the blessed man of God, who, coming into the church, and finding nothing in it, returning with terror [*], came to the place where the venerable Father was, and asked the bystanders whether they had heard anything. But the brethren, answering,

said to him that they had heard no one. And the holy Man himself asked those Brethren who were tending him, saying: "Can you sing with those who sing psalms here?" They said to him: "Lord, who they may be, we know not; thou knowest." But he with shining face rejoiced in the Lord, and sang psalms with them in heart.

[36] He dies, the angels exulting, the monks weeping. But at the last of his departure the whole multitude of monks was gathered, and that most holy soul went forth from the body, and the companies of angels received him, who at his departure were singing psalms, and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he most devoutly served in this life, unlocked to him the amenity of paradise. Then the multitude at his death chanted with great lamentation; they pour out tears for the separation of the flesh: the angels exult for the finding []: their mind is sad that the shepherd has died; the angels rejoice because they had now [] received the holy one of God ^a. The old men exult, the young men are glad, the youths rejoice, the monks are eager, because the blessed and eternal seats receive holy Wandregisilus; and after the many labors which for the Lord's sake with grateful mind he endured in the present life, he shall receive in perpetuity the greatest crown.

[37] The author's exhortation. Let us follow him, Brethren, with common zeal, if we wish to rejoice with him forever. Let us humble ourselves for the Lord's sake, as he did, that we may merit to exult with him. Let us mortify our members, that the spirit may flourish; let us be concordant, that the devil may flee; gentle, that the angels may rejoice. Let him see the seed of God multiplied, which he scattered [] in our hearts, and let the Father rejoice in the sons, and the sons in the Father, that in that terrible examination of the judgment to come he may be able to present us before the eyes of God, saying: "These are the sheep which thou didst commend to me, Lord; none has perished of them, keeping thy commands which I announced to them": and may the eternal King deign to say to you []: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom with your beloved, my renowned Wandregisilus, which is prepared for you from the origin of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing it, who protected His Confessor in the present life, and after death joined him in the joy of the Saints, who with the eternal Father liveth and reigneth God in the perfect Trinity for ever and ever. Amen."

Whoever will know the death of that same most blessed one: on the 11th of the Kalends of August, when the work was perfected and consummated, the Lord received him.

ANNOTATIONS.

SECOND LIFE

BY A COEVAL AUTHOR, A MONK OF FONTENELLE, BUT INTERPOLATED.

From our Valcelles manuscript codex, collated with the Thouars manuscript and with the Life printed in Mabillon.

St. Wandregisilus, abbot of Fontenelle near Rouen in Normandy.

BHL Number: 8805

FROM THE VALCELLES MANUSCRIPT.

PROLOGUE

To St. Lantbert, archbishop of Lyons.

About to write the life of the most blessed father Wandregisilus, Here begins the Prologue to the Life of St. Wandregisilus the confessor. with all effort of my strength I seek the Holy Spirit as helper; that He himself may mercifully bestow on me the knowledge of setting forth the text of his Life, who by the fervor of His charity disposed to inflame the heart of the Saint in manifold ways, and rendered it most worthy of His habitation. For to so illustrious a work a poor genius succumbs, unless the divine suffrage be present at hand. For in the works of the excellent Man manifold matter of speaking is found: and if I had judged myself in any degree fit for this business, I would long ago have set myself to write the deeds of the gracious Father. Yet I trust in Him who said: "Open thy mouth, and I will fill it." It will be no wonder to me, if the Almighty afford to the unlearned the understanding of speaking truth; who, when He willed, bestowed speech upon a brute ass. By the intercession therefore of that same venerable Father, I will now try, by what virtue I shall be able, to revolve a few things out of many. We shall therefore insert those things which we have experienced by true assertions to have been wrought: for some things seen by myself, very many also proved by the most true assertion of his venerable monks, who adhered to him for long times, I have learned: who not only faithfully narrate things heard, but also things done in their very presence. Which if they be set forth less elegantly, or utterly lack the beauty of eloquence, my most reverend of pontiffs Lantbert, let them be adorned by your most eloquent [*] discourses, sweeter than all honey, that they may become apt for readers. Yet let readers know, that I do not so dote by folly, as to wish to be equaled to the steps of the learned: since I am inert, unwise, torpid with the sleep of sloth ^b.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The birth of St. Wandregisilus, his offices, marriage, monastic profession on Mount Falcon; the apparition and angelic obsequy.

Of the birth of the blessed Man. The illustrious therefore and glorious man of the Lord Wandregisilus, surnamed Wando, is known to have had the origin of his renowned birth in the region of Verdun, from noble and religious parents, at the time when the brave king Dagobert honorably governed the sceptres of the kingdom of the Franks ^a. For his father, Waltchisus by name, sprung from a most noble lineage, had been a cousin of Pippin the most excellent prince of the Franks. And that I may bring forth more deeply the bright origin of that same holy Man, since he was born of most noble and most rich parents, he assiduously showed himself no less noble by the morals of a splendid life and the examples of pious conversation.

[2] Of the royal military service, and his administration and honest life. And when the age of adolescence prevailed in years, under the aforesaid king Dagobert he was nobly educated in military deeds and courtly disciplines, inasmuch as most noble. And, the morals of a holy life increasing, and imbued with all the disciplines of worldly affairs, he is constituted count of the palace by the aforesaid king Dagobert. Which grade being a little while administered, greatly exalted by the ardor of his parents with very many honors (as the dignity of secular affairs has it), he is also not long after set over the disposition of very many things. And undertaking this office, he exercised the administration committed to him with the zeal of piety. Ever treating of celestial things in his mind, he magnificently fulfilled the best commands of the princes, rendering the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God. And he was free to rebuke them, humble to obey: subject to the king by apostolic command, devoted to Christ. For he was firm in faith, prompt in good works, most true in speech, just in judgment, provident in counsel, conspicuous in goodness, illustrious in charity. And he rebuked his subjects clemently, tolerated them patiently. And there was in him a wonderful discretion in all works, and a marvelous love toward all.

[3] [That he unwillingly betrothed a certain girl to himself, and soon gave her a bill of separation.] But time having rolled on, by the exhortation of his parents, though unwilling, he betrothed to himself a certain girl, born of most noble birth: and celebrating chaste nuptials in solemn manner, he obtained the immaculate couch of the virgin flower. At length he persuaded his spouse to keep her virginity entire, and by the gift of chastity to merit the fellowship of the angelic virtues. Strengthened by this prudent admonition, and illumined by supernal light, she says thus: "I pray, most noble of men, that what thou bringest forth with thy mouth thou hasten to fulfill in deed, and strip thyself of the cares of the world, and commit me thy handmaid to the camps of the perpetual King." But he, exulting in her laudable devotion, joyfully poured out thanksgivings to the Inspirer of all good things. And there is made on both sides, Christ magnificently granting it, a most healthful consent of chastity. For he himself took the habit of the clericate, and his spouse, covered with the veil of pious religion, he forthwith gave to the monastery of the nuns to be associated. In which, manfully, a keeper of herself, accomplishing the path of an imitable life, she brought back a triumph to the Lord: and her conversation so shone forth, that for declaring her merits, very many virtues are said to have been wrought by the Lord through her. These things being thus, let us turn our style to narrating the works and virtues of the holy Man.

[4] While yet dwelling in the lay habit, he was taking the road surrounded by the obsequies of his own, Of the common people rising against the man of God, divinely rebuked. he turned aside into a certain place suited to his journey: where a seditious crowd, to the injury of the holy Man, was inflamed with the goads of all fury. For, stirred by folly and barbaric rage, and like to beasts in understanding, they rush upon the man of God with a throng of their own: where no small human blood would have been shed, unless his intercession and the virtue of Christ mercifully were present. For he himself begged help from Him to whom it is said: "Thou art my refuge from tribulation": taking prayer for a sword, he demanded the shield of the divine mercy. Nor was the divine help wanting, where the human was lacking. At length the throng of the wicked stood so immovable, that it could not approach nearer, held back namely by the virtue of Christ. And at once that strife is turned into admiration to the beholders, and so, that by the prayer of the man of God they were at once loosed and saved; and, pacified, departed, who had come seditious. Nor ought it to be a wonder, since a son of peace was present, if the Almighty for his sake turned the litigants to concord. Thence he began more and more to be kindled with the divine fire, and to search out the heights of the contemplative life, and to glorify and at the same time praise God, saying that He is to be loved above all things with all effort, who, wherever He shall be justly invoked, is present a hearer, according to the saying of that prophet: "When ye shall seek me with all your heart, I shall be found by you." And who so restrained himself by his own discipline, unshorn ^b, as if he foreshadowed of old in his deeds the future form of a shepherd; that he might be prepared an irreprehensible priest in the temple of Christ. O most perfect layman, whose imitators the priests themselves desired to be! O mind to be preached to all, to whom to live was nothing else than to fear Christ with love, and to love Him with fear!

[5] But after, as was indicated above, that same holy Man forsook the delights of this world, Of the place called Mount Falcon where he took the habit of the clericate. he desired to be engaged in a holy monastery in the divine philosophy, and to give his venerable mind to be informed by the monastic rule. And first in the place which is called Mount Falcon, with a holy man, named Baltfrid ^c, he dwelt not much time: whose acts and life those who wish to know will easily find in the deeds written of him. But that same man of the Lord Wandregisilus was of middle stature, which did not exceed an honest form, with vigilant eyes, a fair face, long hands, and comely and pleasant in all the form of his body. Who delivered all his faculties and estates partly to monasteries to be possessed perpetually, partly receiving prices from these, distributed them with a bountiful hand to the needy. And thus, stripped of the cares and impediments of the world, free and naked he had striven to contend with the crafty enemy. At length the envious enemy, perceiving his insuperable devotion, strove in every way to hinder his pious acts and pursuits. And first he moves the mind of the king and of his nobles against him,

namely that, torn away from the holy place, he should be compelled to receive the secular habit. But he, unceasingly insisting on prayers, by the divine arms rendered void the efforts of the enemy.

[6] [Concerning the renowned king Dagobert calling him to the palace, and the evangelical obsequiousness rendered to himself.] In these times the renowned king Dagobert, namely a lover of God, and a strenuous fosterer and likewise founder of the holy churches and venerable monasteries, and a most strong defender of his own kingdom and unconquered enlarger of it, governed the scepters of the Franks honorably, his enemies on every side being subjected to his dominion. And because the aforesaid Man of the Lord had once been nourished in his court, and had been enlisted in his services, he strove, by the counsel of his men, to bring trouble upon him, because without his permission he had changed his habit and had consigned himself to the monastic religion ^d. Whom he ordered to be summoned and to come as quickly as possible into the royal court. But he, trusting in the aid of the Lord, who was always wont to be present to help him, remembering also that saying of the Apostle Peter: "Be subject to every human creature for God's sake, whether to the king, as excelling," though unwilling indeed, presented himself in the palace to the sight of the king. But when, commanded, though with reluctant mind, he hastened to the royal buildings, before the doors of the palace he suddenly came upon a certain poor little man with a vehicle, which was his only home, sunk in the mud. And when all passed by the wretched man, or even some pressed upon him, the holy Man understood that a reward was reserved for himself from this, if he should show mercy to one in need and pressed to the ground. Perceiving also the cruelty which the puffed-up men were working, he descended with gravity from the horse on which he sat, and, stretching out his hand to the poor man, lifted him together with the wagon out of the mud. Then certain of the stolid ones, seeing how from the lifting of the fallen man he bore a muddy cloak, imputed it to vainglory and rashness, after the manner of the envious Pharisees. But he, desiring to please God alone, cared nothing for the reproach of the wicked; but humble, he imitated his humble master, who says in the Gospel: "If they have called the father of the household Beelzebub, how much more his domestics?" But when he patiently embraced in his heart the reproach brought upon him out of piety, forthwith an angel is present, clothed from heaven in a snowy cloak, who, diligently cleansing his garment, rendered it whiter than it had been before. But afterward, coming into the royal house, he stood in the sight of the king and his nobles, like a lamb in the midst of beasts. And the Lord, guardian and ruler of all who please Him, rendered him everywhere safe and fortified from the harm of enemies: and it was plainly made manifest to all that he was a most faithful servant of God, who had trodden underfoot all the glory of this world for the expectation of things to come. And the king commanded that no one should be troublesome to him; but that according to the vow of his mind he should serve the divine commands, and, no one resisting, should keep the observance of his purpose. And so, secure by royal authority, he returned for the rest to the place of his beloved dwelling.

NOTES.

* Mabillon: "author" (factor).

CHAPTER II. The monastery founded by him in Elisangium; his frequent and grievous contests there with the demon; an angelic revelation; the Roman journey; his sojourn and holy life among the Jura monks; another angelic visitation.

Which place, not long after, being left on a certain occasion, he migrated into the territory of Elisangium ^a, [That he built a monastery in the territory of Elisangium on his own possession, and of his manifold contest.] where also he built a monastery, according to the opportunity of the time, on his own possession. For there blessed Ursicinus rests, venerably buried. For there is shown in that place even today the pallet of the same man of God Wandregisilus, where he was wont to give his limbs to rest after long insistence upon vigils and afflictions. For there, frequently insisting upon fastings, vigils, and prayers, as a heavenly recruit, he is made a most strong soldier. For if ever a vehement sleep had pressed upon the Man of God as he was engaged in the divine praises, content only with bare feet and a simple garment, he was wont to stand upon the ground, and to pray with bent knees. Detained by such affliction of labor, he had become so attenuated that he could scarcely raise his limbs, thinned by exercises of this kind. Finally the ancient enemy, perceiving the insuperable constancy of the Man of God, at once betook himself to stirring up stronger temptations, and thrust upon him very many disquietudes both visibly and, more often, through sleep: so that he would transform himself, in mockery, into the shapes of beasts, or birds, or serpents, and present himself terrible to his sight. But the Man of the Lord, understanding his manifold devices of harming, and his deadly suggestions, by the standard of the holy cross, and every kind of rigor of abstinence and continual prayer, supported through all by divine consolation, manfully rendered his efforts void.

[8] But when that slippery serpent perceived himself overcome on every side by the Man of God, Of the tempter repulsed, and of manifold affliction. he seeks yet greater things and adds the deadly temptations of his arts. On the contrary too there was in the Man of God so great a fervor of faith, and an insatiable ardor about the worship of God, that the more troubles of his usual craftiness he brought upon his body, the more he desired to be brought upon himself. But when on a certain night he had indulged in sleep beyond his custom, at once the enemy was present, and mocking, said: "I have been more wakeful than thou ^b this night." Then the Man of God said: "I do not doubt that thou art everywhere wide awake for the ruin of others and the heaping up of thy damnation. For the flesh shall be tamed, which impelled me to this sloth of torpor." But rising from the idleness of sleep, he took up the armor of God, and uttered such things, saying: "Thou indeed art always the guardian of thine own, not slumbering forever, be present as a merciful one to thy unworthy servant." And when at that time there was the harshness of winter, under the open sky in the midst of snows and ice, weeping and drawing long sighs, he most devoutly sang to the Lord the Davidic and heavenly music, a melody. But he so applied himself to fastings that in the whole week, except the first and fifth day of the week, he by no means took food. O how magnificent and most praiseworthy the war which the most approved Soldier of the Lord unceasingly waged against the ancient enemy! Truly a most worthy temple, in which the Lord might dwell, clean with fastings, adorned with prayers, refreshed with purity, decorated with vigils. In whose mind indeed He placed the beauty of all virtues, and a most sober dwelling of wisdom.

[9] [That first in a vision, by angelic guidance, and at last with human company he came to the monastery of Bobbio.] On a certain night, wrapped as was his custom in a hair-shirt, when in his cell he had given his limbs to rest for refreshment, he is suddenly caught up into an ecstasy of mind, and by angelic guidance is led into the monastery which is called Bobbio, situated in Italy, and the dwellings of that place were shown to him. But awakened from sleep, he understood that this oracle was divinely enacted, and that he was admonished to this, that for the grace of the contemplative life and for exploring the path of a stricter continence he should visit such places. For, mindful of the Lord's precept, in which He says: "Unless one leave all things which he possesses, he cannot be my disciple": rising, he left all things which seemed to him a burden ^c, that, stripped of all things, he might more safely run the way of God's commandments. And, the assembly of all the brethren being gathered, he prayed that, their prayers interceding, the Almighty would mercifully grant aid to the imminent journey. And so, bidding them farewell, with three boys and an ass he undertook his appointed journey: and exulting, having begun the pilgrimage of the desired labor, he crosses the ridges of the Alps, and, entering Italy, comes to the monastery of Bobbio, as by revelation he had learned: which the blessed father Columban ^d, of Scottish race, flourishing in praiseworthy deeds, when he had been expelled from Gaul by king Theoderic ^e, and had been magnificently received in Italy by Agilulf king of the Lombards, had by his permission built. Which place by the tradition of the ancients they called Bovium ^f, on account of a stream flowing in that place by this name, and another river flowing past, named Trebia, over which formerly Hannibal, wintering, felt no small losses of men, horses, and elephants. Blessed father Wandregisilus therefore, coming to this place, which at that time was inhabited by the disciples of the aforesaid Columban, tarried there for some little time. But when he had seen all the dwellings of that place, he most openly understood that these things had before been divinely shown to him by the Lord. And the inhabitants of the place knew that he was a most approved Soldier of Christ, and his fruitful devotion and the origin of his most noble stock was suddenly made manifest to all: and the Lord deigned to show him there many presages of things to come, to be intimated to posterity.

[10] But while he tarried in the aforesaid place, a holy thought came upon him, That he went to Rome. that he ought to set out to Rome to the thresholds of the Apostles: and, Christ leading, what he piously purposed he devoutly fulfilled. Then, the journey being begun, surveying the holy places, he flew to that same most celebrated city, and devoutly offered his vows to almighty God and His most blessed Apostles, saying with the Psalmist: "In me, O God, are thy vows, which I will render, praises to thee." And so, admonished in a vision that he should seek again the countryside of the Gauls, he turned his journey to the Alps. For he wished to dwell more remotely, and panted not moderately to lead a pilgrim life for Christ, if the Lord God should grant his vows. For he had resolved to sail to the island of Ireland; but the divine goodness reserved this magnificent gift, for the instruction of many, to the peoples of the Gauls.

[11] But when, with no small sweat, yet delightful, Of the monastery of Romanum and of his holy conversation. the Alps being crossed, he now trod the Gallic fields, for the sake of lodging he sought a monastery whose name is Romanum, situated beyond the Jura pass. The father of the place therefore received him venerably and after the monastic manner, and rendered the due obsequiousness, as the praiseworthy norm of this life dictates. And the Man of the Lord knew that the monastic religion flourished there, and gave his effort that he might be bound to the society of the monks, and delegated himself there into obedience, and for nearly ten courses of years under a regular institution warred for the Lord with happy devotion. There he began to give himself to fastings and prayers alone, exceeding the bounds of many men, and to bear upon himself the yoke of Christ, which to those who bear it is light, by denying himself, and taking up his cross, he strove with all effort to follow Christ; ascending namely to the summits of virtues through humility, following meekness, and keeping modesty and sobriety and gentleness equally in all things. Finally the Man, a chief lover of religion, execrated the vice of discord, the haughtiness of arrogance and elation. For he was more humble than all, forestalling all by the obsequiousness of charity; slow to speak, and swift to hear; a guardian namely of his mouth; cheerful in countenance, mature in morals. In obedience also and subjection

so prompt had he been, that he performed the command of his father, as if divinely enjoined upon him, with all sincerity swiftly: and his meditation was ever fixed with all effort upon the law of Christ: for wherever he was, he attentively searched the commands of God, and urgently fulfilled them. Such was the zeal of the blessed Man, and such the religion that flourished in him; because he mortified his members which were upon the earth. Naked, he bore the nakedness of the cross, and, now dead to the world, a stranger to the earth, he lived to God. By whose salutary examples very many, negligent and lukewarm, being provoked, seize his arduous path, and to the work of sublime virtues, that same Saint helping, solicitous for eternal life, they rise up.

[12] Of the angelic address divinely given to him. While the man of God therefore was dwelling in that place, a celestial visitation is present. For when on a certain night he was most attentively engaged in prayers to be offered to the divine ears, in the little cell appointed for himself, and fit for such a business, that place was filled from heaven with an odor and brightness of incomparable suavity, and a voice of this kind was brought to him: "Servant of Christ, most devout in the fear of the Lord, may peace ever be multiplied to thee. Fight the good fight, and be ever intent upon those works which through me the bearer are daily offered to the Lord. Because not to those torpid in idleness, but to those running in faith and most attentively warring for Christ with wakeful urgency, the door of eternal life lies open, which is now unlocked to thee by the Lord, that with the colleges of the just thou mayest enjoy the joys that shall abide eternally. Thy nephew also Godo, for whom thou solicitest the ears of the Lord with most frequent prayers, shall imitate thy footsteps, and, all the vanities of this world being forsaken, as a strenuous soldier shall most devoutly fly to the camp of Christ." Hearing this, the man of the Lord, prostrate on the ground, most closely applied himself to prayer, not extolling himself in his heart because he had merited to be visited with a deiform visitation; but humbling himself, he confessed himself frail and a sinner, and that he was not worthy, defiled with the stains of sins, to be magnified by a celestial oracle. This revelation concerning the man of the Lord had been shown to a certain servant of God, dwelling in that same place, who was wont also to narrate it to us. O with how great heraldings is so great a deigning of virtue to be exalted, and with how great praises is that Man to be honored, who thus merited to be made wondrous by Christ! O happy mortification of the servants of Christ! which, while it is voluntarily wrought in the members of the body, makes them fellow-citizens of the angels. O the narrow and strait way, to be embraced in every way! by which the man of the Lord Wandregisilus, having entered, was made an inhabitant of the celestial hall.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III. The Saint's priesthood; the founding of Fontenelle, and the liberality of princes toward it; other churches likewise built by him, and enriched with the relics of Saints.

In these days, moreover, the glorious confessor of the Lord Audoen, in the third year of king Clovis ^a, Of his coming into the territory of Rouen. son of Dagobert, having obtained the see of the city of Rouen, administering the word of health-bringing preaching to his citizens, a favorer and likewise a teacher of the catholic faith, inebriated their barbaric and untamable minds with the nectar of evangelical doctrine ^b, and taught the teachable and subject nation, once rough to believing, and by innumerable assertions demonstrated that Christ the Lord God is to be worshiped. Whose life being known to all, and his laudable devotion ascertained, admonished also in a vision to revisit the western places of Gaul, having gone out from the aforesaid Roman monastery with the license of his father, he began to take the road which leads to Belgic Gaul, and came to the aforenamed celebrated city of Rouen, and was received with the utmost reverence by the aforesaid venerable prelate. Who, mindful of their former connection and fellowship, and of his most noble origin, and also of his pious and God-worthy religion, kept him with himself some while in the city, and enlarged him with the honor of the second order, decorating him, though very reluctant, with the grade of the subdiaconate; and thence in process of time imposed upon him the burden of the Levitical ministry. Which being happily administered, not long after, to the priesthood, though refusing, by the command of that same most blessed prelate Audoen, he was consecrated by the venerable Audomarus, pontiff of the city of Thérouanne. At length, after receiving the gift of the sacred benediction, he zealously fulfilled the ministry imposed upon him, holding the path of humility in all things. For he was not a little fit and apt for this most sacred ministry. Wherefore the aforesaid glorious prelate judged that he should be retained perpetually with himself in the city, because he was delighted with his honeyed address, with which he often refreshed him, and cherished him with his gravity. But that same excellent Worshiper of God, desiring to lead a stricter life, greatly aspiring to the secrets of the desert, ever fled worldly honors with all effort, that with Christ he might merit the celestial ones. And with all endeavor he sought a place opportune for so great a business: that, if perhaps, the whirlwind of the world forbidding, it should not meet his vows, at least under the yoke of Christ and His gentle burden, he might most promptly perform the regular life, that through him the salvation of many, Christ going before, might increase.

[14] [Of the site of the monastery of Fontenelle, and the liberality of the prefect Erchinoald.] While he revolved such things in his mind, it befell that, the prefect Erchinoald ^c granting it, he received no small part of soil, on which, as a rude inhabitant, he might build the monastery of Fontenelle, together with his venerable nephew Godo. Which the tradition of the ancients, on account of the abundance of fountains flowing in that place, called by this name. For there were shown in that same place traces, nay ruins of buildings, once wrought by the industry of former inhabitants, but utterly leveled to the ground by the bestial fierceness of foreign enemies: in which, at that time, there seemed rather the lairs of wild beasts than the habitation of men. This place the man of the Lord Wandregisilus, and his aforesaid venerable nephew Godo, granted to them by the aforesaid patrician ^d, were zealous, with some favoring them, to cast out whatever was useless by rooting it up; and at length to lay the foundations of the monastery, that, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, in the dens in which formerly dragons dwelt, the greenness of the reed and rush might spring up: namely that the fruits of good works might be born there, where formerly beasts were wont to tarry and dwell. But this work was begun in the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred and forty-five ^e, on the day of the Kalends of March, in the third Indiction, which was the eleventh year of the aforesaid king Clovis, the most blessed Pope Martin pontificating over the See of the Roman Church in his seventh year. Which was perfected with such skillful zeal and the utmost industry, that in that time it was almost equaled to the venerable monasteries. But this monastery is situated in the territory of Rouen, distant from the mentioned city nearly eighteen miles: but from the great river Seine, by a space of about eight hundred paces. But since we have made mention of the prefect Erchinoald, it pleases to write something worthy concerning him. For he, after the passing of the aforesaid king Dagobert of good remembrance, nobly administered the order of the prefecture and the greatest care of the kingdom of the Franks, even with his son Clovis and queen Bathild. For he was signal in goodness and most bountiful in alms ^f, and by his maternal origin a kinsman of the blessed Man.

[15] Of queen Bathild, and her sons, and their gifts. But after king Clovis of blessed memory departed from life, queen Bathild remained with three sons, namely Chlothar, Childeric, and Theoderic. Of whom Chlothar, who was the elder-born, obtained the height of the kingdom, and ruled the people of the Western Franks ^g for fourteen years: and what his father had begun, the aforesaid place, he devoutly was zealous to enlarge with pious gifts and privileges of his authority. The bounds also of that same place, as was the will of the venerable father Wandregisilus, he most devoutly increased. And there dwelling, the man of the Lord began to build the monastery, supported by the solace of many ^h. To whose fame the peoples flowed together from everywhere, and were careful to dedicate to the cult of religion very many estates, so that a very great multitude of monks being gathered, their number was three hundred. Thither the children of the nobles strove to flock from everywhere; that, the delights of the world being spurned, and the pomp of present possessions being despised, they might desire to attain the eternal rewards with so great a Father. For the aforesaid man of the Lord built in that same place basilicas of excellent workmanship, four in number, namely in honor of Peter the prince of the Apostles, and at the same time of Paul the teacher of the nations, and of Laurence and Pancratius, martyrs of Christ ⁱ. But that same man of the Lord sent, while he was engaged in this work, his aforenamed nephew to the city of Rome, for the pledges of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ; that, the basilicas being built, he might have at hand the relics of the Saints, to whose name and reverence he had resolved to dedicate them. Who, most willingly obeying the vows of the pious Father, went to Rome, Vitalian being Pope, pontificating at that time over the See of that same Church ^k: and, having received from him very many pledges of the Apostles and Martyrs of Christ, returning with the Apostolic benediction, he carried them with him, and no small store of sacred books: and, the journey being accomplished with a prosperous course, exulting he returns to the man of God: and all which he had brought, that same man of the Lord venerably received. And, summoning also the prelate Audoen of holy remembrance, he suppliantly entreats that he would consecrate the aforesaid churches which he had built, and at the same time place upon the altars of Christ the pledges which the aforesaid Godo had obtained with his authority at Rome. Which it is established was thus immediately fulfilled by the aforesaid prelate. But the place of that same monastery is so fertile and so pleasant, that when anyone has come thither, among the groves of apple-trees and the amenities of green gardens, it pleases him straightway to break forth into these words: "How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel! as woody valleys, as watered gardens beside the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched; as cedars beside the waters."

[16] Besides, a helper and signal cooperator of this work Of the illustrious man Waningus. had been Waningus ^l, an illustrious man, who had devoutly conferred upon the man of the Lord very many estates by a happy gift for the uses of the servants of Christ, and had of his own accord handed over his son, Desideratus ^m by name, under the rule of the aforesaid Father in that same place, to obey the monastic discipline and the warfare of Christ [*]. For that same Waningus was most rich, who built manifold dwellings of monasteries in his own possessions. Of which one is that which is called Fécamp. In which place, while he tarried, he is suddenly caught up into an ecstasy of mind, and there are shown to him the punishments of the damned, and the felicities of the just, and he hears, a celestial oracle being shown by a gift, that he would live for the space of twenty years, and this

he had obtained from the Lord the holy martyr of Christ Eulalia, to whose prayers he was wont assiduously to commend himself. But that same martyr of Christ, appearing to him, admonished him to build a monastery in the aforesaid estate in which he dwelt, and to commit it to no one of his own stock to rule. When she returned to the heavenly ones, he summoned the man of God Wandregisilus, and set forth to him the order of the vision: and at the same time, being cured by his prayers of the fever with which he was pressed, he received the desired soundness, and, as he had been admonished, forthwith began to build the aforesaid monastery.

[17] For there was at that time in the city of Bordeaux a virgin of Christ named Hildemarcha ⁿ, Of the holy virgin Hildemarcha, and the holy man Sindard. a most holy governess in a certain monastery of nuns: to whom a certain man of God, a monk and deacon, named Sindard, when he was sent into those parts for the utility of the servants of God, was wont to turn aside for the sake of hospitality. To whom she intimated that she had been admonished in a vision, that she should go to the land of Rouen, and visit the man of the Lord Wandregisilus, and under his rule obey the divine commands. Who, as is written in her deeds, coming to the servant of Christ, was led [*] to the aforesaid most illustrious man Waningus; and that same Waningus, handing over the aforesaid monastery of Fécamp by testaments to blessed Wandregisilus, by his counsel gave it to that same most religious virgin to rule. Whose life and laudable conversation the booklet which is written of her deeds clearly narrates. Which I have therefore thought should be recorded, that it might be intimated to posterity, that the aforesaid monastery was very recently ^o under the jurisdiction and rule of the aforesaid Father. But the aforesaid servant of Christ Sindard brought to the man of God the relics of St. Saturninus, bishop and martyr of the city of Toulouse [p], and also of the holy confessor Amantius, prelate of Rodez [q]: in whose honor he founded two basilicas; of which one, which exists in veneration of the martyr, is situated on the top of a steep mount, once fertile with vineyards. But the other, which is founded in the name of the confessor, is distant from the principal monastery itself one thousand six hundred paces [r]. There were shown in the destina [s] of that basilica the pallets and seats where the blessed pontiff Audoen and the holy confessor of Christ Philibert [t], while they visited the man of God, were wont to rest and sit together. Whose discourse, moreover, was no other than of the kingdom of Christ, and of the delights of paradise, and the torments of hell; of justice also, and faith, and charity, and the salvation of the fatherland, and at the same time of the enticements to be spurned, and peace to be preached to all. In which little cells the aforesaid man of the Lord placed monks, who should be engaged in the divine services: because the enclosure of one monastery could not easily contain so great a band of those living the common life.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV. The Saint's assailant healed by him; a temple erected to the Mother of God; the wondrous providence of God in his need; estates conferred on the Saint; the little monastery founded by him; his predictions.

Of Betto the keeper of the forests. A miracle wrought after these things through the man of God himself, I have deemed it pleasing to relate to the glory of the Giver and the honor of the Worker. In the fourth year of the rule of that same man of God, which was the fifteenth of the aforesaid king Clovis ^a, while he, together with a band of the brethren, was engaged in the work of the hands in the aforesaid valley to the eastern quarter, where the fountains of the aforesaid river of Fontenelle arise, a certain man, named Betto, namely the keeper of the royal forest, whom the aforesaid brethren, desiring to lead a solitary life, had compelled to migrate from the place where they were working, corrupted by the pest of envy, and at the same time full of a demon, met the man of God, and wished to pierce him with a lance: but the divine vengeance soon forestalled the malevolent soul. For his right hand, which he had raised against the man of God, growing numb, the lance stood fixed in the ground before his own feet: but he himself, seized by a demon, fell before the footsteps of the man of God. Whom the servant of Christ, seeing struck with due vengeance, kept with himself that day and the following night. And when again the following day shone forth, he summoned him to himself, and, God favoring, cured of the pest by the prayers of the Father, he returned to his own home. In that same place therefore a basilica was founded by the man of God in honor of the most holy Mother of Christ ^b, where, by his intervention, very many miracles are daily done, the Lord commanding.

[19] Of St. Bathild the queen admonished in a vision. For in the aforesaid monastery, when the man of God with his own were dwelling, and there were no comforts of food, Baltfrid the cellarer disclosed it to him. To whom he said: "The Maker of things can prepare a table for His servants in the desert, who by the multiplication of five loaves satisfied five thousand men." And so it befell to happen according to the word of the man of God: for the divine piety admonished queen Bathild in a vision, that she should minister necessaries to the servant of Christ dwelling within the vastness of the desert. Who, awakened, directs laden vehicles to the servant of God. But he rendered thanks to the Giver of all good things, who with His accustomed help would ever be present a consoler to His servants. And thus, a benediction being received, those who had brought these foods ^c returned by the path by which they had come. In these days, that is, in the seventh year of the third king Chlothar, which was the fifteenth year of the rule of the aforesaid Father, that same man of the Lord went to that same king, and received a privilege of royal confirmation over the site of the aforesaid monastery by a most liberal grant: and it had been celebrated in the territory of Chartres ^d in that palace which by a diminutive name is reckoned Palatiolum ^e.

[20] For even if the Father, to be imitated, at any time disposed to make a journey, he could no longer be carried on a horse, Of the illustrious Hartbainus giving an estate to the holy Man. namely being now set in his last age; but was carried in a vehicle which either mules or horses drew. For in the aforesaid territory, while there dwelt a certain illustrious man, named Hartbainus, namely the son of the illustrious Herimbert, coming to conversion, he bestowed on that same glorious Father a certain estate, named

Butio ^f, in which he built a church, established dwellings for the servants of God, and placed there monks serving the divine clemency. But the aforesaid servant of Christ Hartbainus ended his life, Christ being the author, in the observance of great religion, and devoutly delivered very many estates to that same venerable Father.

[21] His father, moreover, the aforesaid Herimbert, when he was held set in great anxieties of fevers, Of the noble Herimbert and his goods delivered to the man of God. was by the prayers of the most holy Man restored to his former soundness, and at that same time devoutly delivered to that same venerable Father a certain estate, named Virtlaicum, situated in the district of Tellau upon the river Eure ^g, imprecating in the grant that the invaders of this property should perpetually be punished under eternal damnation. For that same most benign man rejoiced to bestow his goods upon Christ, making Him a partaker of earthly things, that He too might make him a coheir of celestial goods; knowing that a patrimony entrusted to God neither the commonwealth snatches away, nor the fisc invades, nor any forensic calumny overturns; understanding likewise that it is written, that that inheritance is well laid up which is preserved with God as keeper. But, these things being omitted, which by their numerousness exceed the knowledge of the relator, let us return to the works of the virtues of the man of God. And since we have made mention of the places built by him, it pleases to bring forward one into the midst.

[22] At length, from the liberality of the illustrious Waranto, upon the river Wintlana ^h, Of the little monastery Monasteriolum founded by the man of God. he built an oratory in honor of the prince of the Apostles, to which he gave the name, by a diminutive word, of Monasteriolum. Where also he gathered a cohort of monks warring for God. For his doctrine overflowed in his disciples; because what he taught by word, he fulfilled by deeds. No one near him was either held by sorrow, or lifted up by excessive gladness. For he was pleasing in all things, of singular fervor, of special alacrity, of unique charity toward the poor, toward pilgrims. He knew both to resist the proud, and to be subject to the humble: to spare the subjected, and to war down the proud: to render to the wise things befitting, and to unlock mystic things to the simple. Brave in adversity, sober in prosperity, temperate in all things, discreet in everything. This was his zeal and unfailing labor, that his subjects should walk by the path of the right journey: because from the advancement of the sons, the praise and reward of the Father was heaped up. For, excellently exceeding the ninetieth year of his age ⁱ, he was so manly, that in the labor of the hands he seemed to go before the young. O man most worthy by the prerogative of his merits! who, through the keenness of contemplation made celibate, yet for the education and example of his sons placidly subjected himself to manifold servitude, imitating the Apostle, who says: "I am made all things to all men," and the rest. And thus through the western places of Gaul his most praised fame flew abroad, so that you would as it were behold the times of the Apostles to be present: so that, the delights of the perishing world being spurned, a multitude of noble men possessed all things common with all. If anyone tried to usurp anything as his own, removed from the fellowship of the rest, he was forthwith struck with the vengeance of penitence. But even all the peoples of the Caux country had been so brutish and like to beasts before his coming into this region, that, except the name of the Christian faith, the virtue of religion was held almost abolished in those places. For the venerable Man labored with unwearied zeal, that whatever places he traversed, he might season all with evangelical words. And so by his admonitions and preaching they were converted, that those who before plundered others' goods, afterward bestowed their own, and broke the statues of idols which they formerly venerated by a profane rite; and piously of their own accord subjected themselves to the discipline of Christ, who before, rebellious, did not deign to hear. And so great an honor and affection of devotion had grown up toward the priests and monks, that if it befell anyone of the plebeian order to have them meet him, however powerful a person, he adored and venerated Christ in them. We do not doubt that the spirit of prophecy also was divinely conferred on him, so that what was to come, he made known to very many. Assuredly it is known that he often foretold things to come, which afterward are established to have been fulfilled.

[23] That he foretold the death of the sons of the holy queen Bathild. For to queen Bathild, the widow of king Clovis, he intimated the death of her three ruling sons and their successions. Of whom Chlothar, who was the elder-born, in the fourteenth year of his reign, was suddenly deprived of human fellowship. Then Childeric, rashly slain by conspirators, was taken from the present life. The third also, Theoderic, surviving his mother, took up the governance of the kingdom: and thus it is manifest that it came to pass according to the prophecy of the man of God. These few signal miracles, with the indulgence of the hearers, let them suffice for the present, related in brief and unpolished speech. We must come, Christ favoring, to those things which the all-powerful virtue is reported to have wrought bountifully on earth at the most holy bones, the spirit of that same Patron being taken up to heaven. At length we hold it undoubtedly, that by his merits, as has been more frequently inculcated, the languors of the soul were cured in many, to the praise and glory of the name of Him who said: "Without me ye can do nothing."

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V. The last illness; the three-day ecstasy; the successors designated by him; the exhortation to his own; the flight of the demon; the apparition and song of the Saints; the most pious death, burial, translation.

These things being thus, let the articles be turned to weaving anew how that Blessed one merited to be snatched from the miseries of the present exile, Of his age and sickness. and by the divine disposition to be translated to the celestial glory of felicity. For, set in his last old age, inasmuch as he was in his ninety-sixth year ^a, very often supplicating the Lord, he said: "Woe is me, that my pilgrimage is prolonged!" And he added: "Benign Jesus, eternal Word of the Father, snatch me from this vale of weeping, and make me as quickly as possible appear worthy of thy sight." And the Lord, hearing his worthy prayers, sent upon him a last, nay a health-bringing sickness, that, tested in the furnace of the present and perishing age like the purest gold, he might become a most worthy heir of heaven. For, caught up for three days and as many nights into an ecstasy of mind, the door of heaven is shown opened to him. At length, frequently opening his eyes with joyful aspect, he gazed upon heaven. His disciples also, beholding the most blessed dissolution of the most holy Father, rejoiced indeed at his reward worthy of God, but were greatly saddened at his bodily absence: and amid sad sighs and flowing tears, they said with querulous voices: "What shall we do, that thou desertest us so soon, Father? We desire to hear from thee the word of immortality, and we wish to be corrected by thy accustomed admonition." And, prostrate on the ground, they pour out abundant weepings, and pray the Lord that, before he entered the way of the just, they might receive his address. And thus the all-powerful God, at the prayers of His servants, seeing the greatest sorrow which they suffered for the departure of their Shepherd, accommodated the ears of His piety; and permitted that same renowned Soldier to cherish the recruits and the veterans with sweet addresses, and to intimate to them very many things to come; as by experiment some of them became clear.

[25] Of his successors, foretold to the brethren in his presence. And the monks thereafter inquiring, after his most happy death, whom he would set over them, he is reported to have given such a response: "The eternal Maker of things," he said, "who granted you an opportune place, in which His peoples might serve Him forever, He himself, most dear sons, after the departure of my littleness, will mercifully bestow on you a worthy and devout ruler. Yet there are in your presence two most illustrious sons of mine, who in turn, after the departure of my frailty, shall succeed into the place of the rule." For there was one, by the name of Lantbert ^b, a man of excellent religion and family, sprung from the territory of Thérouanne, who after blessed Genesius ^c had received the prelacy of the church of Lyons: the other, the man of the Lord Ansbert ^d, who had succeeded blessed Audoen in the pontificate of the church of Rouen. Whose life and virtues the booklet which is written of their acts clearly narrates. These became successors in the order of the rule to the aforesaid most holy Man.

[26] Of the holy men buried in the aforesaid monastery, Under their rule the most holy fathers, namely blessed Wulfram ^e, prelate of Sens and preacher of the nation of the Frisians, and also the man beloved of God Erimbert ^f, pontiff of the city of Toulouse, and the holy anchorite and priest Condedus ^g, sprung from the island of Britain, embracing the monastic habit, most devoutly flew to the gleaming camps of Christ. Their relics also are kept in the same place with due honor: where they are strong in the glory of virtues, as is most fully written in their deeds. But among the rest the aforesaid man of the Lord, bidding farewell to his disciples standing by him with words of exhortation and comfort, uttered these things; that they should not leave the begun journey, but by persevering in better deeds daily confirm themselves, and more attentively retain his admonitions, and fulfill them in work: namely that unanimity, charity, and humility might shine in their hearts, and that no pest of dissension or envy might ever gnaw their minds: and thus their state, rights, and the brightness of religion might endure through all eternities perpetually.

[27] Of his death and his falling asleep in Christ. This brief and last prayer being celebrated before them, since the glorious time of his blessed consummation was at hand, that the earthly burden of the body might be commended to the earth, and the celestial spirit might ascend the heights, the Viaticum being received, after a little while he fell silent, being about ninety-six years old, and in the nineteenth year of his rule, in the fourth month, and one and twentieth day; which was the year of the Lord's Incarnation

the six hundred and sixty-fifth, the eighth Indiction: further the eleventh year of Chlothar the third, of his own life, Pope Vitalian discharging the Pontificate of the Roman Church in his ninth year ^h. And when the envious enemy perceived that the hour of his reward was at hand, standing bloody beside him for his sake, he strove to bring upon him manifold terrors. Whom, set in such a struggle, the brethren standing around heard in the spirit of holy translation saying that he had been dipped in Christ the fountain of the laver, and that the demon hindering him had been divinely put to flight. He also called thrice by name a certain just man, named Agatho, whose laudable life and conversation he had of old known. From which, and from the subsequent revelation, it is clearly gathered that a multitude of Saints was present at his passing. For by a certain one of his disciples, a man of great religion, at that same hour a most sweet celestial song had been heard: who also inquired of the brethren whether that most sweet sound had penetrated their ears. But the Man of the Lord himself commands those standing by him, that they should sing with joined voices with those singing. "Who they may be," they say, "we know not: but thou, to whom of old, as is believed, the door of eternal life lies open, knowest in every way." But he himself rejoiced in the Lord with joyful countenance, giving thanks to God, because He had unlocked to him the door of heaven. O man most worthy of all praise! at whose passing the celestial choir exults, and the army of all the supernal virtues rejoices; to whom the door of heaven lies open, and the bosom of Abraham receives him rejoicing. A multitude therefore of monks, whose number was nearly three hundred, was present at the passing of so great a Father to chant the divine praises: cheerful indeed for the glory which, the Egyptian servitude being of old spurned, he was approaching, the promised one; but cast down with much sorrow, because they were bereft of an illustrious patron. Surrounded by this band of disciples, fortifying himself with the sign of the health-bringing Cross, on the eleventh day of the Kalends of August, released from the bonds of earthly corruption, he rendered his soul to heaven, to be associated to the fellowships of the just, and to possess the glory of eternal felicity ⁱ. There now he takes part in the choirs of the angels; here he shines with the brightness of virtues. There he intercedes for his servants with suppliant voice; here he protects them with sublime power. There he asks; here he bestows. There he pours out vows; here he answers vows. But there was present at this his holy passing the renowned pontiff of the church of Rouen, Audoen. And he had been buried in the church of St. Paul the Apostle for forty years; but the holy prelate Ansbert for eleven years; and the renowned pontiff Wulfram for nearly nine years ^k.

[28] They were also translated thence into the church of St. Peter the Apostle by St. Bain, bishop of the city of Thérouanne and rector of this monastery, in the fifth year of his rule, Of his translation with the other Saints. which was the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred and eighty-four ^l. Who were found so entire from all corruption, with the garments in which they had been clothed, as though they had been delivered to burial on the same day. The day therefore of the sacred translation was appointed the day before the Kalends of April. This day therefore, awaited by the vows of all, had come. Priests, monks, and the whole choir of clerks, together with the faithful peoples, were present. Then with the praises of hymns the tombs are opened; from which so great an ineffable odor of fragrance came forth, that with a wondrous sweetness it filled not only the people standing around in the church, but also the people placed in the atria. And they were carried into the church of St. Peter the Apostle, and placed in its eastern part; where they gleam with signs and miracles, Christ being their prelate, to whom with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit is all honor and glory through all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

MIRACLES

OF ST. WANDREGISILUS

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR, A MONK OF FONTENELLE.

From the parchment codex of Valcelles, collated with the manuscripts of Thouars and Anchin and the editions of Mabillon.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The cause of writing these miracles. Many indeed and very stupendous signs of miracles, and profitable to relate, almighty God has deigned to accomplish through blessed Wandregisilus, the excellent confessor, in times past and in ours, which through the sloth and carelessness of writers have been omitted and covered with silence; which, if they had been written, could greatly have profited unto the salvation of souls: since, when the signs of virtues are preached among the peoples, they more and more rouse torpid hearts to the love of God, and, kindled, render them apt to seek the suffrages of the Saints more fully and more frequently. But concerning those things which were done in our times, these few, the divine grace granting it, though in unlearned speech, yet for love of the aforesaid holy father Wandregisilus, and by the command of the superiors of the monastery of Fontenelle, we have deemed should be written.

CHAPTER I.

The miracles of St. Wandregisilus up to the year of Christ 858, when his relics were translated from Fontenelle to Bladulf's-village.

Miracle I.

Therefore when a certain woman on the festivity of that same excellent Confessor, in the district of Caux ^a and the village Campania ^b, was doing the work of weaving, A woman violating the Saint's feast is punished; but repenting, is freed. much forbidden by her neighbors and God-fearing men, that she should not on the solemnity of so great a Patron busy herself with daily work; but rather should go to the church and be free for the divine praises, like the other peoples of that land; and the aforesaid woman cared nothing for their rebuke; nay with a swollen heart counted it as nothing; forthwith her hand, with which by rash daring she was drawing the woof through the web, grew stiff, and the woof clung in the middle of her palm; so that the nails of her joints were fixed in the middle of her palm, nor could they in any way be torn away. But she herself, seized by this virtue of the Saint's merits, begged with a tearful voice to be led to the basilica of St. Mary ^c, which was near the monastery of Fontenelle and of its dominion. And when in going she took the road, and had beheld the basilica in which the most holy limbs of the confessor of Christ Wandregisilus rest with due honor, according to the measure of men ^d, and begged his pious suffrages, the woof fell from her hand: and thus, praising God for her liberation, she returned to her own home.

II.

[2] At another time also ^e, while another wicked woman on the vigil of the festivity of that same Confessor of Christ was cutting the harvest with a little sickle, Another miracle not much unlike. a handful of the harvest clung tightly to her left hand, and to her right the little sickle which she carried. Who ran with swift course to the aforesaid basilica, and there, when she long persisted in prayers, by the intervention of the pious Confessor merited to be freed from this trouble.

III.

[3] A certain servant also of the household of the aforesaid Confessor, named Aderold, on the Lord's day incautiously cutting a walking-staff by hand, Another like the former. and striving to adorn it by whittling, the joints of his left hand, with which he held the staff, were so fixed in the palm, that the wood itself remained tight in the middle of his hand; but to his right hand the knife clung. Who, recognizing his own crime, resolved to go at once to the church of the Saint, where the happy limbs of the priest of Christ Wandregisilus with his companions rest; and there tarrying some time, by the merits of the said Father the knife together with the wood fell from his hands to the ground in the same basilica: and this deed became an example of terror to all who heard, that no one should presume to do servile work on Christ's Resurrection and the feasts of the Saints ^f.

IV.

[4] But that which was done in Germany and in the land of the people of the Saxons, then gentiles, A soldier, from the imminent capital punishment while the great king Charles subdued their lands by warring ^g, we ought not to pass over in silence. For a certain soldier of the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, named Sigenand, while with other soldiers he was plundering by devastation the wealth of those same gentiles, was seized by them, and some others also: and when he was being led to the place where he was to be beheaded, he begged more frequently the suffrage of the holy protector Wandregisilus, that by his pious prayers he might merit to escape the imminent peril of death, and, while he more often sought the help of that excellent Patron in prayer, a certain one of the Saxon people, whose name was Abbo, began diligently to inquire why he named Wandregisilus so very frequently. He answered: "Because in truth I am his servant; and I believe that by the intervention of his sanctity, God being propitious, I shall be freed from the peril of the present danger."

[5] is freed by the apparition of the Saint. And he said: "This night Wandregisilus stood by me, admonishing that I should bring no evil upon thee, but rather permit thee to return in peace to thine own: which if I did otherwise, I should boldly act against my own salvation: therefore I permit thee to depart unharmed": and, loosed from his bonds and clothed with garments and furnished with arms, he sent him back to the camp of the Christians. But the aforesaid Abbo of the Saxon race, afterward given as a hostage to the king, and brought to Fontenelle, and believing in the name of the holy Trinity, was baptized and made a true Christian; from whose mouth certain of our brethren, who still survive, report these things by narrating: and they afterward truly narrated to us what they had learned from him ^h.

[6] Nor ought we to pass over in silence that which, in the rebuilding of the temple in which the holy body of the aforesaid Confessor rests, was done a miracle ⁱ. Wood for building the Saint's basilica, wondrously found. For when the fabric of almost the whole temple had been completed at eminent cost, and the tower in the middle of the basilica was being built with a loftier work, there was sought a beam which was to be erected on high, on which the whole weight of the pyramid and the summit of the whole work with its rafters could lean; and long in the neighboring forests such a tree was sought, nor found fit for this work: when the hearts of the superiors and builders remained sad from this fact, morning being come, certain fishermen entering the channel of the Seine see a plane-tree of wondrous size and enormous weight going by swimming through the middle of the river; which being found, they take care to announce it to the superiors of the monastery; who, rejoicing, come to the river, and, it being drawn out ^k from it, rendered no small thanks to almighty God, and praised the heraldings of that same venerable Father, by whose pious intercession it was brought about that wood of this kind, divinely given and fit for the shrine of God, should be found in the river. But this also was wonderful; because wood of that kind had never before been seen at all in these regions. And, hewn and perfected by the craft of the builder, they place it on the tower of the aforesaid temple to sustain the burden of the whole work. Thus the all-powerful God shines in His Saints with what variety of miracles He wills.

VI.

[7] Another also, which in the case of Giraldus [*] ^l,

the father of this monastery, was done, let the miracle be narrated. The abbot Geroald calms a tempest And that Abbot, by command of Charles the emperor, was discharging a certain legation in the island whose name is Angia ^m, which the nation of the Britons inhabits, and which is adjacent to the district of Coutances, over which at that time presided a duke, by the name of Anowarith; and, the things having been prosperously done, and those for which he had been sent obtained, a favorable wind blowing, having entered the Ocean on his return, so suddenly the west wind began to blow most violently, and a terrible crash of the Ocean arose, that the globes and masses of the waves seemed to surpass in immensity the height of great trees.

[8] And when all who were with him in the ship he stills it by the kiss of the relics of St. Wandregisilus. were in the utmost desperation, and there was no hope of escaping, and the countenances of all were like the image of death, at length the aforesaid venerable abbot, remembering the relics of St. Wandregisilus which he had with him, embraces and kisses them; and the other companions and the sailors of the ship, weeping with most frequent prayers, implore the clemency of Christ and the prayers of the aforesaid Patron, and vow vows to the all-powerful God and to that same blessed Confessor, desiring to render them, if by his suffraging merits they should merit to be freed from so great a danger. And straightway, by the merits and intercession of that same most holy Father, the savage perils were divinely commanded to cease, and a wondrous tranquility was immediately restored, the whirlwind of the sea being dispelled; and, praising God with a prosperous course, and rendering all kinds of thanks for their rescue to almighty God and to holy Wandregisilus, they come to the desired port. Thus the all-powerful God, who once heard the afflicted Jonah from the belly of the whale, delivered the aforesaid venerable father together with his companions from the peril of the sea by the intervention of the excellent Confessor. Whence all who were there present, and to whom this deed could come, praised Christ the Son of God, who by the merits of His servant Wandregisilus accomplished such a miracle.

[9] But those stupendous miracles which the Founder of all things has deigned newly to work through that same most holy man Wandregisilus, the Lord helping, The author passes to more recent miracles. and the merits of that same excellent Confessor suffraging, it has pleased to hand down with true and faithful speech by the pen of writing.

[10] In the times therefore when the most grievous plague of the Danish pirates, The bodies of SS. Wandregisilus and Ansbert are carried to Bladulf's-village. God permitting it, and our crimes exacting it, held the shore of the Ocean infested, and everywhere of the Gauls, especially the provinces adjacent and contiguous to the river Seine, laid waste with wretched slaughter—which in past times, when the merciful God was with His people keeping His precepts, we have heard was by no means done, nor have we read—namely in the eighteenth year of their irruption into the aforesaid great river Seine; but from when, having entered the Ocean, they had undertaken to practice piracy, in the fifty-eighth; but in the seventeenth of the most excellent king Charles ⁿ, the most holy bones and pious ashes of the aforesaid excellent confessor of Christ Wandregisilus and of the holy prelate Ansbert, for fear and trampling of these nefarious gentiles, dug out of their own sepulchers from the monastery of Fontenelle, were carried to the estate of those same Saints, which is called Bladulf's-village ^o. And when now it was drawn near with those same most holy bodies, there came to meet them the keepers of the church and some part of the brethren [p], and all the rest of the people, of those to whom, having escaped, it was possible by the addition of the aforesaid [q]; and they received them with glory and praises of God in the place which is called Middle-bridge upon the river Authie [r]. But the bridge of the river being crossed with the most blessed bodies, in the place where they had rested, a wooden cross is set up by the faithful peoples.

VII.

[11] But that miracle, which there the all-powerful God deigned to accomplish through the merits of the aforesaid Confessors, A woman is freed from a quartan fever on the way. that it may not be unknown to future peoples, we have thought it best if it be narrated. For a certain woman was in that same place, now for a long age wearied by the quartan ague; by the violence of which she had become so weary that scarcely now could she walk on her feet. Who afterward, going with right faith to that same place, was begging the suffrages of the Saints; and so by the merits and intercession of the same she was immediately cured of that same infirmity, so that she suffered no further trouble nor injury of body: but the fever also, which before had been wont grievously to weary her members, so departed, driven from her, that thenceforth it dared not touch her. For all who had heard and seen what had been done praised Christ the Son of God, who by the merits of His servants accomplished such a miracle.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The translation of the relics to St. Peter's near Quentovic; and another thence to St. Quentin's near Boulogne; and miracles done in either place in the year of Christ 858.

Other signal miracles also, which almighty God deigned to work through those same His servants, The relics are carried from Bladulf's-village to St. Peter's near Quentovic; when from the same village their venerable bodies were carried into the territory of Boulogne, it pleases to make manifest and to preach among the peoples. For when from the aforesaid village the most blessed limbs of so great Priests of Christ were carried by the monks with hymns and praises to the church of St. Peter, which is near the emporium of Quentovic ^a, and of the dominion of those same Saints, on the very vigil of the Ascension of Christ, when the third day of the Rogations is devoutly celebrated by the Christian peoples, there came to meet them innumerable peoples of clerks and laymen with the holy Gospels and crosses and wax-tapers, and with the rest of the apparatus of the churches; who, casting themselves to the ground, and weeping for excess of joy, received those most blessed bodies with the praises of hymns; and they began to go before them singing psalms, until, entering the aforesaid church, they were placed by the elder brethren of this congregation, who carried those most blessed limbs of the Saints on their own shoulders, upon the altar of the holy Apostle Peter. All these things were done on the 5th of the Ides of May ^b.

[13] where they remain five days, not without miracles. These things being thus done, it pleases now, rejoicing, to subjoin those signs of miracles which within the five days, in which the most blessed bodies of the aforesaid Saints remained there, the Lord of heaven and earth deigned to work through their illustrious merits, to the praise and glory of His name, and to disclose clearer than light. For, those same bones of the Saints being placed in the same place, presently a very great multitude of the faithful began to flow together to their aids with divers vows, namely to obtain pardon of their crimes, and at the same time to preserve and restore the soundness of their bodies.

VIII.

[14] Therefore there was a certain old woman in that same port, An old contracted woman is suddenly healed at Quentovic. who was carried on a bearing-chair to the suffrages of those Saints by the hands of others, whose extreme bodily members through the courses of many years had become so dry and contracted that she had utterly lost the office of walking: for on the same day on which the holy limbs of the aforesaid Priests of Christ were carried thither, when by the brethren of that same congregation on the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord the evening synaxis ^c was being celebrated, suddenly

by the merits of those same Saints, without any pain of body, the contraction and knottiness of her sinews was loosed and brought back to its former state, and presently rising from the ground, on which she had before lain feeble and contracted, she rendered thanks to almighty God, and began to go on her own feet, and stood so long before the altar of that same basilica, where the limbs of the Saints rested, until the solemnity of vespers was finished. And thus, restored to her former soundness, she who had been brought by the solace of others, the Christian peoples beholding, returned on her own feet to her lodging.

IX.

[15] Another miracle also, which there through the merits of those same Confessors the all-powerful God deigned to show, A mute boy there receives speech. I think ought by no means to be covered with silence. For a certain boy from the patrimony of Luceium ^d, by the solicitude and no small faith of his parents, was carried to the aforesaid basilica, where the most holy limbs of the Confessors of Christ were placed: and to him his own nature had denied the office of speaking; for the declaring of the merits of the Just, the inward Arbiter granting it, by the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Just Ones, the bonds of his tongue being loosed, he began to use his own office of speaking, and first uttered this discourse, saying: "Where," said he, "is my father?" And it came to pass, God being propitious, that before the solemnities of the Masses were celebrated on that most sacred Ascension of the Lord, and the peoples flowed together on all sides to the same basilica, the divine virtue deigned to show a miracle of this kind. And when to all who had been gathered in the same basilica for so excellent a festivity and to beg the suffrages of the Saints, it was known what had been done, they rendered thanks to God with all the depths of their hearts, who deigned to show on earth so great and such a miracle, on account of the merits of His aforesaid servants.

[16] But there was a certain woman in the aforesaid emporium, younger in age than the former, but equal in faith; Another contracted woman is healed there. who through the courses of many years had been so contracted, that, unless she were carried by the hands of others, she could in no way go from place to place on her own soles, as we said above. And when she had been brought to the aforesaid basilica, where the bodies of the Saints were kept, on the aforesaid most sacred day of the Ascension of the Lord, and, intent, was praying with her own mind for the recovery of her soundness and for her sins, when the solemnities of the Masses had been celebrated, from the ground on which a little before she had lain sick and feeble, before the eyes of all the peoples standing there, so suddenly she rose whole and sound, that she suffered no further trouble of body, God having mercy, and by the merits of the aforesaid Saints. And not only she herself for the health restored to her, but also all who saw and knew what had been done, rendered no small thanks to the all-powerful God.

XI.

[17] That also, which then in the port of Quentovic through the merits of those same His Saints the all-powerful God deigned to work, A blaspheming woman there is made mute, and is healed. we believe it will be worth while if the miracle be narrated. For there was in that same town a certain wicked little woman, who, when the choirs of the faithful were following the most blessed limbs of the Saints, not only did not deign to follow, but also broke out into a voice of blasphemy; that she could not then follow those whom she knew not, and leave her own work at which she was busy. And not yet had the nefarious words gone forth from her mouth, when her mouth was so bound with the bonds of the tongue, that for the space of eight days she uttered no speech; until she should recognize the guilt of her own folly, and offer a vow. And it came to pass, God having mercy, and by the rich merits of the aforesaid Prelates, that, the space of eight days being fulfilled, while she sent a wax candle to their lights, the bonds of her tongue were loosed, and the offices of her voice returned to their ancient manner. Thus this little woman, bound by her own guilt, loosed by the merits of the aforesaid Saints, and having received the liberty of speaking, rendering thanks to Christ, exulting ran through the whole emporium, a witness and messenger of so great a miracle; whence all the peoples, who had heard and seen what had been done, praised the Lord together, who with so great virtue of miracles ever triumphs in His own, that it may plainly be given to understand what reward of pious labor awaits the venerators of the Saints; and what vengeance follows the blaspheming and those torpid in idleness.

XII.

[18] Let us now turn, the Lord helping, the style of our writing to narrating those things which in the territory of Boulogne and the estate of Walbodeghem, through the aforesaid His servants, the piety of the Lord deigned to work as miracles. A paralytic woman is healed at Walbodeghem. But after their venerable bodies were carried to the same village, and placed in the basilica of the holy martyr Quintinus, we have briefly described what of the virtues of the aforesaid Saints could come to memory; yet passing over very many on account of their enormity. Therefore when a certain woman from the village Heringen, destitute of the office of all her members, from that infirmity which in the Greek tongue is called paralysis, had been brought with no small faith in a cart to the aforesaid village, where the most blessed limbs of those same Saints were placed for the solace of the faithful, she was so suddenly, by the merits and intercession of those same venerable Saints, restored to her former health, that, the long infirmity being driven away, she received the strength long lost. And she who had been carried to the most holy limbs of the precious Confessors by the aid of others, exulting and joyful began to go on her own soles, and rising sound from the ground on which she lay, for the health restored to her rendered no small thanks to the all-powerful God and to blessed Wandregisilus; and thus, health and strength being received together, she was perfectly cured. Let us render innumerable thanks to the Lord our God, who deigns to show such great miracles on earth on account of the merits of His aforesaid Priests.

XIII.

[19] Nor ought we in silence to pass over that miracle also, which in the same place, on account of A demoniac woman is freed there. the venerable merits of the above-mentioned Confessors, the Lord of heaven and earth deigned to show. There was in the same territory a certain virgin from the patrimony of Wacho's-village, who now for a long time had been vexed by a demon, who by the care of her parents with right faith was brought to the church where the most holy limbs were placed; and there, when they remained three days, and were praying with intent heart for their sins to the Lord of the heavens and of the whole world, and begging the help and intercession of those same servants of Christ for the deliverance of their child; when the brethren were gathered on the Lord's day to render praises to God, and were chanting the solemnities of matins, from the ground on which she lay that same demoniac woman rising, before the coffer where the most blessed limbs of the holy pontiff Ansbert were placed, stood long astonished, and, the divine gift helping her, by the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Saints was snatched from the most savage enemy and restored to soundness; which miracle being done, in the sight of the brethren and the people standing there she rose most whole. And the bystanders render all kinds of thanks to the all-powerful God, who through the merits of those same Saints wrought such a miracle on earth.

XIV.

[20] Another phrenetic woman also from the territory of Suevum and the village Laom A phrenetic woman is healed there. was carried to the suffrages of the Saints by her father with all devotion of hope and faith. And while for some days she tarried in the aforesaid basilica of the holy martyr Quintinus, where their precious bodies were guarded, by the intervention of the same, on a certain day, when by the brethren the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, suddenly in wondrous ways, without any trouble of harm, God helping, by the intercession of the aforesaid Saints she was restored to health; so that how great a grace of curing the sick had been conferred by God on those same Saints, even in the sign of this miracle was shown.

XV.

[21] Another also, which was done in the same place, let the miracle be narrated for the edification of readers or hearers. Likewise a deaf and mute man there. For a certain young man, from the estate Flammae, mute and deaf, was brought by the solace of his kinsfolk to the aforesaid basilica, where the bones and pious ashes of the Saints were kept. And when he had entered the same basilica, and lay prone before the altar to pray, so immediately by the prayers and merits of them he was cured of all trouble of body, that he both spoke and heard. Then, stretching out his hands to heaven, he rendered immense thanks to God, who by the merits or suffrage of His aforesaid servants marvelously cured him of that same infirmity by which he had long been detained. For all who were present, beholding what had been done, praised the all-powerful God, and testified Him to be most powerful in His servants.

XVI.

[22] There was also a certain woman in the estate Turbodinghem, which is a possession of the gracious father Wandregisilus, Likewise another paralytic there. and adjoining the patrimony of Walbodeghem, whose hand for very many years had been dissolved by paralysis; who, when by no art of physicians could she be helped from that infirmity, and now was placed in the utmost desperation, sought the aforesaid basilica where the limbs of the Elect of God were placed; in which, when she long most urgently prayed the Maker of the world for the washing away of her sins and the recovery of her health, by the help and intervention of the Saints she felt the divine benefit: for her hand, which by the long trouble of languor had become dry, was so presently, the pain fleeing and health following, restored to its ancient soundness, that thenceforth it suffered no injury of body. Blessed be God, who, for the merits of the above-mentioned glorious Priests to be recalled, deigns to show such a miracle on earth.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Other miracles both at St. Quentin's, and at Quentovic, after the relics were carried back thither, wrought up to the year of Christ 867.

XVII.

But that stupendous miracle, which was done in that church, [A deaf and mute man is bidden to go to the relics of SS. Wandregisilus and Ansbert] it is by no means fitting to cover with silence. For a certain man, from the district of Ponthieu and the village by the name of Hrosam [*], named Baldrad, of about 35 years, from his early age had been so mute or deaf, that he could neither speak nor hear at all. Who also by the solicitude and care of his parents had been carried through many holy places for a long time, and also to the monastery of St. Medard ^a, where the happy limbs of that same excellent confessor and renowned martyr Sebastian rest. Who, now despairing of the recovery of his infirmity, on a certain night, when he had given himself to sleep, saw a certain man of excellent

of beautiful form and white countenance stand in his presence; whose beauty was thought not human, but angelic: who, consoling him, thus addressed him, saying: "Rise, son, from thine own little bed on which thou liest, and with all confidence of hope go to the place where the precious limbs of the holy confessors of Christ Wandregisilus and Ansbert repose; and there know that, through their venerable merits, thou shalt receive together both speech and hearing." And he, awakening from the sleep by which he was held oppressed, and not doubting of the promise of the supernal gift, taking with him a companion of the journey, resolved to go with most swift course to the same basilica in which the bodies of the Saints were placed.

[24] where, by St. Wandregisilus appearing to him, he is healed. And when he had come to it at the evening hour of the day, and was tarrying that night in the same basilica with other sick persons, when the solemnity of matins was being celebrated by the brethren of the same congregation, on the eighth of the Ides of November, on the Lord's day ^b, before they had the matins Office itself performed and chanted, when he lay prone before the altar in which the bodies of the Saints were kept, suddenly he fell asleep: and he saw a certain man of most beautiful form, bearing snowy whiteness, as he himself afterward narrated to us in relating ^c, sitting on a golden seat, holding a golden rod in his right hand, with the top of which, in the back of the head, he twice touched the aforesaid mute man; and presently a force of enormous chill penetrated his brain and reached even to his mouth, and likewise passed through the openings of his ears; and awaking at once, and rising from the ground on which he lay, before the eyes of all the brethren and the people standing there and chanting praises to almighty God, with a lofty voice and alacrity of heart he began to cry, saying: "Thanks be to God. Behold, blessed Wandregisilus is present, through whom now the Lord has restored to me speech and hearing." Whence all the peoples who had assembled at the same basilica to seek the suffrages of the Saints, seeing what had been done, praised the Lord of heaven and earth, and proclaimed that blessed Wandregisilus would be of great merit with Him.

XVIII.

[25] Not long after, while he was present to those invoking him in peril, there follows a bright and very great miracle. For the illustrious man Grippo, Grippo the prefect, near to shipwreck, namely prefect of the emporium of Quentovic, by command of the most excellent king Charles ^d, discharged a certain legation in the Island of Britain to the king of the nation of the English. At length, the things for which he had been sent having been strenuously obtained and performed, when on returning he had boarded the ship and entered the Ocean plain, a favorable wind blowing, he had accomplished almost the middle of the journey, and the space of the night being almost passed, before the splendor of rosy light illumined the world, so suddenly a savage storm arose, that no hope of escaping remained to the aforesaid leader and his companions who were with him in the ship. And when the sea swelled with the various and most violent motions of the winds, and the boat was driven hither and thither by the force of the sea, and moved wandering, and no way of escape lay open in any manner, when now the sun sent forth its light-flowing rays, and illumined the whole world with its own lamp, the aforesaid leader beheld a lighthouse above the shore of the sea, built there of old by the industry of the ancients for the course of navigators, and he contemplated also the basilica in which were placed the most holy limbs of the precious confessor Wandregisilus and the supreme pontiff Ansbert, and his eyes filled with tears, supplicating with humble voice he said:

[26] "Formerly our priest, now the companion of the angels, St. Wandregisilus being invoked, most blessed Wandregisilus, succor now with pious prayers the afflicted and those now at every moment in peril. With thee as leader, I set out from this region; with thee as leader, I went to foreign places. Behold, deserted by thee, now led to the borders of my fatherland, oppressed by the mass of a grave peril, I pay the deserved penalties of my desert. Do not withdraw thy prayer for the liberation of thy servants. A sweetness more pleasant to us than honey, do not suffer our joys to be stained by the cloud of extreme sadness. Our joy and exultation, restore safe to their native soil those whom thou didst lead forth in safety." Amid these things the leader himself and his companions offer vows, desiring with every effort to render them.

[27] Scarcely had they finished the aforesaid words, when suddenly, by the help and pious intercession of the gracious Wandregisilus, the storm being dispelled, they land happily at the port. a marvelous serenity is restored, and the patron whom they sought as absent, they understand to be present by his illustrious virtue: tears at length are turned into joys, sorrow is exchanged for gladness. For, the sails being raised, with swift motion and great rejoicing the boat ran to the shore, nor, driven among the hard rocks and steep and rough places, was it crushed, nor does it know that it endured perils, while it rejoices to have escaped dangers. It fulfilled indeed the ministries of the journey, leaving the signs of virtue. But the aforesaid leader Grippo himself, on the very vigil of the Lord's Nativity, eager and safe, came to the same basilica, in which the most blessed limbs of the aforesaid confessors of Christ had been placed; and there he rendered to almighty God manifold praises for his rescue with reverence of great humility, and offered the promised vows.

XIX.

[28] That miracle also we ought not to pass over in silence, which at that same time, through the merits of the Saints, was done in the same church in which their precious bones or sacred ashes were kept. A paralytic woman There was a certain woman, named Deodata, from the district of Ponthieu and the village Agrona, who to seek the suffrages of the Saints, in the most sacred days of Lent, was brought to the aforesaid basilica. Who so lacked all the offices of her members, worn by the paralytic disease, that her head seemed to all at every moment of the hours to roll about, and, agitated, to turn from its place. But her hands were so loosed and tremulous that in no way could she apply them to her mouth: for even the candle which she had brought she could in no wise place upon the holy altars, unless supported and helped by the aid of others: for whoever beheld her always thought she would fall and suddenly die.

[29] is suddenly healed. Who, while she was shaken by such a trouble of sickness, was so cured of the same infirmity of languor by the merits and suffrages of the aforesaid Saints, that she merited to receive back swiftly all the offices of her members long lost, after the space of five days from when she had come to the same basilica. For so great a grace of driving away sicknesses from human bodies is present in those holy Confessors, given by the supreme Maker, that very many hastening to those same Saints for the grace of being healed, but others returning, merit to be freed, Christ granting it, from various and diverse kinds of diseases.

XX & XXI.

[30] In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 866, Likewise a blind and lame boy: and his mother, sick with fever, are healed. the bodies of the holy confessors Wandregisilus and Ansbert came to the church of St. Peter, which belongs to the dominion of the aforesaid holy Priests, and is near the port of Quentovic; where after some days a certain boy, named Bernold, from the district of Ponthieu and the village which is called Diglitis; whom his mother testified to have been utterly deprived, for the space of eight years, of the office of his eyes and of the step of walking. When he had come to the aforesaid church, in which the bodies of the Saints were placed, in the sight of all who were present, he received his sight, the Lord granting it, and his step. But the mother of the aforesaid boy, named Hildegard, who was for a very long time vexed by a quartan fever, the Lord having mercy, received her health in the same place.

XXII.

[31] At the same time also ^e a certain young girl, named Sperta, is restored from contraction. from the aforesaid port of Quentovic, who had long been contracted in her hands from the arthritic ^f disease, obtained the straightness of her hands and health, all who were present beholding, in the same basilica through the suffrages of the Saints by the divine gift.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Miracles wrought in the same place in the year of Christ 867.

XXIII.

In the year 867, at that same time, a certain woman, named Echitrad, of the nation of the English, A woman with an issue of blood and lunatic recovers suddenly. by a vow of supplicating, as is the custom for penitents, was going to Rome: who was lunatic, and was afflicted with a flux of blood for very many years. And when she had turned aside to the aforesaid place, where the bodies of the Saints were placed, and had prostrated herself before the altar to pray, she received the long-desired health, the Lord having mercy, on the tenth of the Kalends of October, through the merits of His Saints: and at length she pursued her begun journey, which leads to the citadels of the city of Rome.

XXIV.

[33] About the same time a certain man, named Wandalgar, and his sister, named Gisleberta, A brother and sister, possessed, are freed from a demon. from the district of Ponthieu and the estate of Bladulf's-villa, belonging to the monastery of St. Maurice, possessed by an unclean spirit, and for this bound with the tightest chains, placed in a wagon, were brought to the aforesaid basilica on the 7th of the Ides of April. Who, on the twelfth day from when he had come thither, by the virtue of Christ and the merits of the holy Confessors, all who were present beholding, the demon being driven from them, made whole, returned to their own homes.

XXV.

[34] Then on the fifteenth day, that is, the 11th of the Kalends of May, Likewise another possessed man. a certain man, named Amatus, from the emporium of Quentovic, was so invaded by an unclean spirit that through his mouth he spoke reproachfully, and named the Saints, saying they were powerless to expel him: who nevertheless on the very day on which he had come, in the aforesaid basilica before the sacred relics of the Saints, by the virtue of Christ perfectly cured, rendering the promised vows, returned to his own home.

XXVI.

[35] At the same time also a certain woman, named Airisma, from the district of Tellau and the estate surnamed Haismedis, A blind boy recovers his sight. was taking care to bring her son, named Ricolf, blind for four years, to the aforesaid basilica for recovering the light he had lost; and when there, for the calamity which her aforesaid son suffered, she had invoked the mercy of the Lord and the holy Confessors, he merited to receive the long-denied light. But this miracle was done on the Nones of May, the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord.

XXVII.

[36] Then, from the following time, a certain man, named Frederic, from the district of Ponthieu and the village named Vertunnus, A lame man is raised up. was violently shaken by a long-continued pain of the knees, that is, of two years; who, when he had been brought to the aforesaid temple of God, and before the mentioned bodies of the Saints for three days had begged the divine help for his trouble, before all who were present was raised up, and restored to the entire state of his body.

XXVIII.

[37] But a certain woman, named Tatburch, from the district of Thérouanne ^b, A blind woman receives light, who for five years had not seen the sun, there prostrated herself to pray in the aforesaid basilica before the altar. When at the solemnities of the Masses the Gospel lesson had been read, the light which she had lost, Christ the Savior of all granting it, through the merits of the Confessors she immediately received: but this miracle also was done on the 12th of the Kalends of August, on the vigil of the festivity of our holy father Wandregisilus.

XXIX.

[38] Afterward ^c a certain old woman, Ermengard

by name, from the village whose name is Lucus, A contracted woman is restored. who for a very great time of years, the joints of her sinews being contracted, had been bent, praying in the aforesaid place the divine clemency, was so perfectly cured, as if she never suffered any bodily trouble.

XXX.

[39] Then a certain man, named Rotgar, from Villarcellus, A man out of his mind is made whole. by the name of Audilegiæ Corte, out of his mind, was brought by his own to the aforesaid place, and there remaining some while, all who were present beholding, before the aforesaid bodies of the Saints, his sense being recovered, God being propitious to him, by the intercession of the Saints, in a moment of time was healed.

XXXI.

[40] But a certain woman, named Itberta, came thither, A blind boy obtains the use of his eyes. where the bodies of the Saints remain buried, bringing a little son, named Ricard, who had been for some time blind; and there tarrying three days, Christ the Lord granting it through the merits of the Saints, her aforesaid son received the light long denied. That miracle had been done on the 4th of the Nones of December.

XXXII.

[41] Then, some interval of time succeeding, a certain man, by the name of Raduin, A lame man suddenly recovers his step. from the district of Thérouanne and the village by the name of Amaniacum, weakened by a violent contraction of the sinews, had so become lame, that for almost 13 years dragging his legs and feet with sluggish movement, he lacked all office of walking. Who also, some years before, when the bodies of the aforesaid Saints were kept in the village Walbodeghem, had been brought; but why he was not cured, let them say who will: to me it seems that, for the salvation of his soul, or the knot of some guilt of his, his cure was deferred, not utterly denied; nor then, but at another time, and in another place, God granting it, it had to be done by the aforesaid Saints. At length, brought by his own in a cart to the aforesaid basilica, in which the relics of the Saints dwell, praying the divine clemency, in the moment of one hour he received the entire soundness of all his members through the merits of the Saints.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Other miracles thence seen, both near Quentovic; and at Chartres, when the relics had been brought to them; and finally at Boulogne.

XXXIII.

In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 868 a certain virgin, named Berchildis, from the district of Soissons ^a, A woman, likewise lame, is raised up. and the estate by the name of Bergiaca, weakened by a contraction of the sinews, and made useless through twelve courses of years, when she had come to the aforesaid place, creeping on her knees and hands rather than walking, to her tarrying in the same basilica a certain man in a white habit appeared, admonishing that she should remain in the same place until, God commanding, she should through the merits of St. Wandregisilus receive the help of the desired health. On the fourth of the Ides of June this vision had been shown to her. Then on the third day, that is, the 2nd of the Ides of June, when the solemnities of matins had been chanted by the brethren, she began by crying out to demand the aids of the Saints by name; and in this cry, the bonds of the sinews being suddenly stretched out, unharmed [*], raising herself, she stood upon her feet. And she too, cured in this manner, returned to her own home by the steps of her feet, who, as we have said, had come to the thresholds of the Confessors by striving rather than by walking.

XXXIV.

[43] There is an estate ^b in the district of Ponthieu, by the name of Agrona, from which a certain woman, exceedingly possessed by an erratic spirit, A demoniac woman is freed. was brought by her kinsfolk to the monastery of St. Judoc ^c to be cured. And when for some days she tarried there, and her cure was deferred, it seemed good to those who had brought her thither, to lead her to the basilica of St. Peter, where the bodies of the holy Confessors were kept; which is established to have been done on the eighth day of the Ides of July. Who, when she tarried there for seven days, uttered confused and terrible voices, and through her mouth the wicked spirit brought forth many nefarious things; so that to none was it doubtful that that very one spoke through her, who also held her invaded. But on the eighth day after she had come thither, that is, on the Ides of July, Christ granting it, through the merits of the Confessors the demon being expelled, and her soundness recovered, glorifying the name of the Lord for the health conferred on her, perfectly cured she returned to her own home.

[44] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 885 ^d, The translation of the relics to Chartres. in the third Indiction, on the eleventh [] of the Kalends of December, the bodies of the holy confessors Wandregisilus and Ansbert came to the city of Chartres, and, the Lord commanding, were received by the venerable bishop Haimo ^e of the aforesaid city, and the lord Haimeric the abbot of the monastery of St. Caraunus the martyr ^f, and placed in the church in which that same martyr of Christ rests; where he showed no small humanity to the monks of St. Wandregisilus, who for fear of the gentiles had brought these things, and cheerfully bestowed worthy hospitality. And there we remained peacefully until the fourteenth of the Kalends of March; namely for three months, except three days. Then on the 14th of the Kalends of March, the fear of the gentiles persuading, and the aforesaid venerable Haimeric [] cooperating, and other venerators of the Saints; the venerable clergy and people of the same city, devoted to God, also assenting, with praises and honor the bodies of the aforesaid Saints were venerably received within the walls of the aforesaid city, and worthily placed in the chapel which the venerable prelate Gislebert ^g had formerly built within his own dwelling, in which almighty God, as He willed, marvelously made His Saints wondrous, and honored them manifoldly by the attestations of miracles, whose signal miracles, the Lord commanding, marvelously shine forth.

XXXV.

[45] For at that time a certain man, named Haimeric, invaded by an unclean spirit, A demoniac is freed. bound from his village, and at last carried up into a wagon, was brought to the aforesaid basilica, where the bodies of the Saints were guarded; who was so vexed by the erratic spirit, that he wished to attack all bystanders with the tearing of his teeth, and to bring forth from his mouth, by the urging of the demon, many nefarious and unspeakable things; and there remaining some days, the Lord having mercy, by the rich merits of the Saints perfectly cured, whole and sound, he returned on his own feet to his own dwellings: but he was of the household of the church of St. Mary of Chartres. These things were done in the last days of the month of April.

XXXVI.

[46] Then in the month of May a certain woman, named Adalgard, from the village Auriacum, A phrenetic woman is healed. which is of the dominion of the monastery of St. Launomarus of Corbion ^h, suffering phrenzy, brought by her husband and father-in-law to the aids of the Saints, one day's space being passed, God commanding, received swift soundness.

XXXVII.

[47] A third miracle also, Christ helping, A man vexed by a demon is freed. and by the interceding merits of the Saints, was accomplished in a certain man, named Adalman. He too was terribly vexed by the enemy; namely in crying out immoderately, and tearing, and spitting wantonly upon men. For he was from the district of Évreux ⁱ, dwelling in the city of Chartres, and making bread for sale: and he, perfectly cured by the Lord, departed whole; and this in the middle of the month of May.

XXXVIII.

[48] A fourth virtue of the Saints also shone forth in a man, named Augelmar: A madman is restored to himself. who, seized by a demon, his sense being lost, did empty things with his voice, and with the motions of his tongue and members; and there remaining the space of eight days, namely from the ninth of the Kalends of July until the Kalends of the same, he merited to be perfectly cured by the Lord and His Saints. For he had been of the district of Boulogne; who, expelled by the incursion of the pagans from his own soil, was at that time dwelling in the district of Chartres and the village Antilaïcus.

XXXIX.

[49] A fifth miracle likewise, God granting it, befell in a woman, named Gertrude. A woman beset by a demon is brought back to her mind. Who, her sense being lost by the instinct of the demon, both spoke deformedly, and gnashed with her teeth, and brought forth all dishonest things: who nevertheless on the third day, after she had come to the aforesaid place, by the merits of the Saints merited to be freed from this trouble. But she was from Bodo's-village [*], which is situated in the district of Chartres.

XL.

[50] A sixth virtue also had been shown in a woman, named Angelberga: who spoke little, her own sense being lost; but did other dishonest things: Likewise another is made of sound mind. who nevertheless on the third day, after she had come, by the prayers of the Saints returned swiftly to her own, whole and sound. But she was from the district of Meaux ^k; and this was accomplished at the beginning of the month of July.

XLI.

[51] That seventh miracle also, worthy of praise, we have deemed fit to be inserted into this page, which the Master of the heavens and of the world exercised in a certain woman through blessed Wandregisilus, A paralytic woman, most celebrated for sanctity. For when not a few through the borders of the Franks, noble and poor, troubled by the inconveniences of infirmities, rejoiced that they had been restored by him to the desirable health, it pleased the Modifier of all; that, as by the mouth of many in the provinces of the Germans he was praised; so a nation from over the sea might extol him with illustrious voices and devout mind. On such an occasion therefore it came to pass that the name of the blessed Man was blessed not only in his native soil, but also in a foreign land. For there was in those same parts a certain woman, so infirm in all the framework of her members, that she could neither with her hands put food to her mouth, nor with her feet in any way fix her step: she lacked also the office of her members so entirely, that she desired rather to be placed in the sepulcher, than to enjoy the aid of any solace.

[52] On a certain night therefore, when her spirit within her almost dead limbs breathed sadly, she hears through a vision a certain one saying to her: being bidden to go to the sepulcher of St. Wandregisilus, she is healed, "If perchance thou hadst been carried across to the memorial of St. Wandregisilus the confessor of Christ, who in the city of Boulogne ^l rests with the prelates Ansbert and Wulfram ^m, the gracious ones; assuredly thou wouldst have received the former health of thy body." Animated therefore by this vision, she asked her kinsfolk and relations to furnish her the aids of conveyance, by which she might approach the thresholds of the aforesaid Saints for recovering the comforts of her former health. And when she had come thither, Christ being her auspice, a great shower of tears being poured out before the tombs of the Saints, she rose so safe from the pavement, that no traces of infirmity appeared in her little body, long dissolved by the infirmity of paralysis. Which the men from over the sea, who had come with her, seeing, and many of the inhabitants, sang sweet-sounding odes to the Lord, rendering devout thanks to Him and to holy Wandregisilus.

XLII.

[53] The woman therefore who had come having recovered her health, she vowed that she would never return home; consecrated to his service, she is punished for disobedience; but for all the time she should live to persevere in the service of the aforesaid Saint. Her companions therefore returning to their land over the sea, she herself, as she had vowed, departed nowhere; but gave herself wholly to the service of her Healer. Meanwhile she heard in sleep holy Wandregisilus admonishing her, that she should never use the warming of fire, neither in the time of winter nor of summer: which if she did; let her know for certain that the infirmity, which she rejoiced to have lost, would return to her. But she, as she had been forewarned, the command of the one commanding with all

observed with diligence for some space of time. At a certain season therefore, when the vigil of the Lord's Nativity was at hand, and she asked her companions, namely the consecrated women, with manifold prayer, that they would form the oblations which she was about to offer to the Lord on the morrow ⁿ, and bake them with the fire which she did not dare to approach; and obtained it not at all; she approached the fire; and the iron with which the oblations were to be stamped and baked being seized, presently the sinews of her right hand were contracted, and, unwilling, the divine force acting, she retained the oblation-iron ^o which she had willingly taken up.

XLIII.

[54] With weeping therefore and prevailing pain closely borne for three days, but repenting of the deed, she again feels the help of St. Wandregisilus. on the fourth day now, on the festivity of the blessed Innocents, blessed Wandregisilus with his companions [p] praying, and the Author of innocence commanding, at the hour when the people, standing with reverence at Mass, were listening to the holy Gospel, the iron fell from the palm of the woman, and, falling, struck the sound upon the pavement into the ears of the bystanders. Therefore, by the sound of the iron and the cry of the woman, all who were present, moved, came with great noise to her, and, rejoicing over so great a miracle, the clergy and people praised the all-powerful God with great voices of heralding; who ever and everywhere in all His works is blessed. The iron being opened after this, in which the oblation was stamped within, they found it bloodied with blood mixed with gore; over which thing the inhabitants of that place thereafter had much admiration.

[55] The Author's Epilogue. [q] Since thy greatest virtue has wrought these things by the grace of these Saints in thy finger—which mighty works, namely, since they are so many and so great that they exceed the sum of numerousness, or by their multiplicity beget as it were a certain weariness in some—let us set a measure to them, lest the price of pearls so most precious begin to grow cheap. But we deem that Christ wrought all these things through His Servants, providing rather for the salvation of souls than of bodies. For what great thing is it for the immortal God to restore to flesh, soon to die, health for a short time and in a small measure, however momentary it be? To souls that shall live forever, as I have foretold, it profits more that the invisible God be glorified through this.

ANNOTATIONS.

HISTORY

Of the Translation of St. Wandregisilus to the mount of Blandinium, from the manuscript of Aimeric Bigot, collated with the edition of Mabillon, and the proper Office of the people of Blandinium in manuscript.

Here begins the glorious coming, disposed by God, to the mount rightly called Blandinium, of the Saints Wandregisilus the abbot, Ansbert and Wulfram the archprelates, and of the other holy pledges.

St. Wandregisilus, abbot of Fontenelle near Rouen in Normandy.

BHL Number: 8810

by

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

CHAPTER I.

The merits, age, burial, incorruption, elevation, translations, and miracles of St. Wandregisilus and his companions.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who deigned to come to us from the bosom of the Father, Christ visits Blandinium in His Saints: and to receive us into Himself, He today in His holy and elect ones Wandregisilus and Ansbert and Wulfram willed to visit us, and to present Himself to us in their coming. Rightly therefore He presented Himself to us in them, with whom to be, and through whom ever to live, they aspired ^c. Rightly, I say, He presented Himself in them, because they continually were to Him a kingdom, a throne, and a temple: a kingdom, namely, in which He reigned; a throne, in which He sat; a temple, in which He dwelt: a kingdom; because He Himself says, "The kingdom of God is within you"; but a throne, the Scripture saying, "The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom"; but a temple, the Apostle testifying that the bodies of the Saints are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Supported therefore by so great authority, we confidently say that we have today received Christ in them.

[2] this day therefore is to be celebrated, and the Patrons, The King therefore being received, and with the King so illustrious a soldiery of Saints being received, let us solemnly celebrate a day of so great gladness, and honor it with the due heralding of praises [*]. And because it is the honor of a king to praise a worthy soldier for himself, let us with exulting minds dedicate today's praises to the aforesaid Soldiers of the celestial hall for the honor of their most omnipotent King. These therefore are three columns, leaning the light of faith upon the Trinity, and reaching even to the height of heaven. These sustain the Church of God by their prayers, these the Christian empire by their assiduous intercessions. These are the excellent priests of God, Wandregisilus and Ansbert and Wulfram, before the beginning of the world indeed preordained by God to eternal life, but in their own times destined from heaven to the world; whom God in His wisdom provided both for Himself unto honor, but for the light of the Church unto exaltation, but for the Christian faithful unto utility.

[3] These angelic Fathers therefore, as in this life Christ united to Himself in peace and love; who prevail with so great authority, so also in heaven He made them reign together; and on earth He chose that their bodies should be laid away in one place: whom also He made fellow-citizens of the Angels, and glorious in the Apostolic senate He enrolled as senators to that celestial court. But to how great an honor it is assigned to be made senators of the celestial hall, the dignity of the Roman republic of old makes manifest, which, distinguished by the grades of senators, consuls, and dictators, assigned this special and, as it were, proper height of pomp to the senate; that nothing decreed by the consuls, nothing commanded by the dictators ^d, should be ratified unless approved by its opinion and weighed by its prudence. And hence it is, that the rumor promulgated concerning the most victorious resurrection of our Redeemer, and brought to the tribunals of Tiberius Caesar, Pilate the governor reporting it, had not a prosperous course at that time; because the authority of the senate was forestalled by the emperor and the common people in its approval ^e.

[4] But rather, as we think, it was provided in the wisdom of God; in the celestial court, that so great a victory of the King should be attested rather by the virtue of angelic preaching, and by the precious blood of the Apostles and martyrs, than more quickly by the prudence of earthly argumentation, spider's-webs to be dissolved. These things of the pomp of worldly glory we have briefly touched, that from this it may be given to understand (if indeed it is lawful to compare earthly things with celestial, perishable with lasting, and momentary with eternal) how glorious it is for the Saints, whom on this present day we have received as patrons, to hold the chief place in the celestial senate, and with the King of kings to moderate the causes of mortals both by prayers and by counsel; for the Psalmist says that God is glorified in the counsel of the Saints ^f.

[5] To this glory therefore of so great felicity, the aromatic clod of thy body being commended to the earth, [to which they migrated hence in the year of Christ 665, 695, 696; buried at Fontenelle:] by a happy passage, most blessed father Wandregisilus, thou didst merit to ascend, having accomplished with glory 19 lustra, namely in the year of the humanized Word 665; but holy Ansbert in the year of the same incarnate Word 695; and the renowned Wulfram in the 696th ^g, they sought to possess perpetually the same glory, where Christ the pontiff of pontiffs reigns, and crowns them with a pontifical diadem. But they obtained the place of funereal rest at Fontenelle in the church of St. Paul the Apostle in one place; where to blessed Wandregisilus, after death, the grace of God provided this unto honor, that he should obtain there the house of the sepulcher, where the aforesaid archprelates of Christ were to be laid at his right hand and left ^h. Nor undeservedly was he honored also with bodily burial by those by whose doctrine and examples they attained the height of the celestial kingdom.

[6] And there began to shine at their sepulchers the signs of miracles, where they were illustrious with miracles: the concourse of angels and men to grow frequent; Christ, to whom living in the flesh they had adhered, they also declared, dead, to be omnipotent. How great they were to the Most High, by the brightness of prodigies it became known both to earth and to heaven. But because concerning the incorruption of their limbs no small matter of divine praise lay hidden in the tombs (for as the immaculate follow the Lamb of God, so in the sepulchers

were preserved incorrupt) it pleased the Most High to reveal this also to the charity of mortals. Concerning which revelation, what shall I worthily set forth, my lords and brethren? Yet I will open my mouth in praise of God. For the glory which there shone in the Saints alludes to the joy of today's festivity. For what was then there glorified, is here today given to us; and since that same thing was both there glorified, and here today received; let us tell what that glorification was, that it may be plain to all what and how great this reception is.

[7] as appeared also in their first elevation, This most sacred revelation therefore, of which we begin to speak, was made on the eleventh ⁱ of the Kalends of April, when the bodies of those same Priests of Christ were translated from the aforesaid church of St. Paul the Apostle into the basilica of St. Peter by St. Bain, prelate of the see of Thérouanne and rector of the monastery of Fontenelle. To which translation, solemnly to be celebrated, there came with equal affection all the clergy; all the common people, of every sex and age. And when the holy bishop, with all devotion of soul and body, gave himself to the celestial obsequies, the fellow-ministers being sent before with incense-vessels and lamps, they approach the memorial of the Saints with praises and hymns.

[8] when the bodies were found incorrupt and fragrant, All standing by, and lifted up to heaven in hope and mind, the most sacred tombs are opened. And, behold, the venerable father Wandregisilus; behold, the venerable prelates of Christ, Ansbert and Wulfram, known to heaven and recognized by earth in their glory, revealing the glory of God with the most entire substance of their flesh, with the incorrupt material of their priestly fillets, offer themselves to be gazed upon by the eyes of mortals. Behold, I say, the most worthy fellow-citizens of the angels in their resting-places, most like to those laid to sleep in slumber, showing by so wonderful a prodigy of their incorruption how great a glory remains for their spirits in the heavens, were found such—nature marveling—as once they were laid away in the sepulchers. What shall I say of the emanation of an inestimable fragrance, of a wondrous suavity? You would perceive an odor, as though flowing from balsam and aromatics; for it was manifest that a multitude of angels was present. O blessed eyes, to which it was given to see that angelic spectacle, O sacred nostrils, to which it was given to perceive that celestial delight!

[9] and translated from the church of St. Paul to St. Peter's Therefore all being astonished with joy at such a spectacle, and all, both in the church and in the atrium of the church, being refreshed by the perfume of the divine nectar, who will worthily narrate what pious tears were there poured out, what of holy fear and pious exultation was roused by the Holy Spirit? But the pontiff and the ministers of the celestial obsequies, rejoicing together in the divine Office which was being performed, lifting up with pious arms the sacred tombs, full of divine remedies, translated them, as has been said, with a great choir of psalm-singers from the church of St. Paul into the basilica of St. Peter. Which being laid away in the apse of that same basilica to the East of the altar, all the people, giving praise to God in the highest, returned to their own homes, enriched with divine gifts. Thus therefore the precious limbs of the Saints being laid away with the glory of incorruption at St. Peter's, through how many courses of years hence they remained in this so admirable prodigy, is believed to be known and ascertained both to God alone, the inspirer of all, and also to the Saints, and to the angels keeping them. To whom we commend this, worthily to be extolled to the honor of God: because it belongs to their nature to penetrate more limpidly whatever is subject to incorruption.

[10] Here to us, most dear ones, discoursing in the jubilation of today's festivity, thence further to Boulogne in the ninth century; the very order of the discourse strives to rouse tears in us, and to disturb today's joys; for a barbarous nation, raging at that time about the shore of the Ocean sea, was much infesting the neighbors of the great river Seine. Whence it befell that the tombs of the Saints were despoiled of their proper honor, that in the territory of Boulogne they might be removed from infestation of this kind. Therefore, for the grace of this day, let us pass over all sad and adverse things; which not adverse to us, but all things joyful and prosperous, they begot. To Boulogne therefore it was come, as has been foretold. There was then in the sceptres Charles the Bald, son of Louis the Pious, in his seventeenth year ^k.

[11] There too it was divinely revealed how greatly they preeminate in virtue in the sight of God; when the living bishop evangelized with so great power about the lifeless remains ^l. where very many miracles of every kind were done. And that I may briefly touch some of the mighty works of the divine operations, there, so to speak, in troops, the blind their sight, the deaf their hearing, the dumb the office of the tongue, the lame their step, the contracted their erection, the paralytic their solidity, and those suffering a flux of blood the swift stopping of the flowing veins—all detained by divers languors—drew from the dead bones a celestial and vital remedy. What shall I proclaim of the expulsion of demons? Whoever, suffering madness or frenzy, were brought; whoever, vexed by an unclean spirit and possessed by a legion of demons, were dragged (praise and honor to Thee, O Christ), without delay felt the divine command. Sometimes also they were healed by the mere touch of the linens or of the palls. Therefore let an instructed mind weigh, from these remedies of bodies and outward miracles, with how overflowing benefits these Saints meet languishing souls: for truly by their merits the crowds of demons are put to flight from the hearts of the faithful, the pests of vices are driven away, the death of sinners is destroyed, and the life of souls is roused up through Christ.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The translation of those same Saints attempted to the mount of Blandinium; a description of this place, its foundation, its abbots.

[The author, about to speak of another translation of them to the mount of Blandinium;] And since by the lead of the discourse we have now come to this, that their glorious coming may sound in the ears of the faithful, we have deemed it worth while to give a foretaste of some things concerning the place which Christ our Lord chose to ennoble by their patronage and most sacred merits. Concerning which place, about to speak, we undertake, with fraternal peace and Christian faith, to narrate this, which the authority of the fathers and faithful antiquity commends to its posterity.

[13] In the district of Ghent therefore rises a golden mount, and, set on high above all, he begins from a description of this place, it is called by the bright name of Blandinium: whose length indeed stretches from the northern quarter to the southern; but its breadth from the eastern quarter to the western. And here indeed, from the eastern clime, a river named the Scheldt; but there, from the western, another, called the Lys, with a winding meander direct the noble course of their flowing. Concerning which, about to say more in praise of God, on account of the merits of the Saints exulting there in their beds, it pleases to cry aloud that saying of David: "The mount of God, a fat mount; the mount in which it hath well pleased God to dwell; for the Lord shall dwell in it unto the end." On whose lofty summit a place gleams with great beauty, which we undertake in discourse.

[14] formerly adorned by St. Amand with the monastery of St. Peter, This place therefore Amand, the eminent prelate beloved of God and men, formerly approaching, from the time when the glorious king Dagobert honorably held the sceptres, built a monastery there on the top of the mount: where there had been a most ancient shrine, in which, after the manner of the ancient gentiles, Mercury was worshiped by the foolish people of the country-folk. He therefore crushed the idol, overthrew the altar, cut down the groves, and, as we have foretasted, where he destroyed the shrine, there he built a monastery, to which he gave the name Blandinium, because he soothed the mind of the fierce people with blandishments. But this work was begun in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 610, on the day of the Kalends of October, in the first Indiction, which was the fourteenth year of the aforesaid king Dagobert, the most blessed Pope Martin pontificating over the See of the Roman Church, but in the seventh year of Aychar bishop of Noyon ^b. Which, when perfected, he dedicated in honor of blessed Peter the prince of the Apostles on the first day of the Kalends of May, relics of that same prince of the Apostles being inserted there, and of Paul the teacher of the nations, and of the holy Apostles Philip and James, and the pledges of other Saints, which he had obtained from Pope Martin: in which he also gathered a company of monks, over whom he set an abbot, named Florbert ^c, flowering with the ornaments of virtues, and illustrious for the honesty of all religion ^d.

[15] And we hold it certain that this is the first of all the monasteries founded anywhere by that same our holy father Amand ^e. which among the others founded by him is believed to have been the first, But, lest anyone perhaps, seduced by a spirit of error, deem our discourse to deviate from the truth, let him know that we lean upon the testimonies of the orthodox fathers, now reigning in heaven with Christ; from which it is lawful for no Christian to derogate; which even now could opportunely and competently be inserted here, unless the discourse avoided being led away from its own order. To these also correspond, strengthened by great authority, the ancient and modern testaments of the Roman Pontiffs, and the decrees of the Christian emperors ^f.

[16] God also assenting, a monastery of clerks was constructed in the same district of Ghent by blessed Amand ^g: distinct from the monastery of St. Bavo, which the same man founded at Ghent. where day and night praise is chanted by the faithful, under the rule of that same most holy father and abbot Florbert. Which being heard, Arnolph Bavo, presently to be an illustrious confessor of the Lord, prostrating himself with fullest devotion before the oratory of the Lord, besought that the hair of his head be cut off, and, having obtained by the hands of the venerable pontiff the honor of the clericate, merited to become a partaker with the Apostles. But now let us pursue the order of the begun discourse.

[17] Blessed Amand therefore, all things being duly ordered, Florbert presided over both, about to migrate elsewhere, burning with divine love, set the servant of the Lord, the most strenuous man Florbert, as above said, over the flock of monks as pastor

and abbot. Who, strenuously walking the norm of the holy purpose, what he taught his subjects by word, he himself first showed by example. But he ruled this same monastery under blessed Amand for twenty years, and in the year 642 of the Lord's Incarnation, on the first day of the Kalends of November, taken from human affairs, was carried, as we believe, to the heavenly ones, and buried in the same monastery, as is attested also by the marble inscription, sculptured in letters both Greek and Latin in this manner: "Here is the place where rests the body of Florbert the abbot, disciple and ordained of Amand the bishop, whose deposition is celebrated on the Kalends of November ^h."

[18] to whom others succeeded, But there succeeded him in the rule the venerable man abbot John ⁱ, substituted by blessed Amand. Who, since according to the signification of his name he was full of divine grace, inasmuch as the Lord chose him pastor of his own flock, was as well known as dear to all; so that by the mouth of the common people that place, far through succeeding times, was called the monastery of John: which he too being disposed among the intelligible ones ^k, of the disciples of the same father one named Baudemund ^l succeeded. And thus, the rulers succeeding one another ^m, up to the time when the war between Charles and Ragenfrid arose ⁿ, most honestly was service rendered there to the Lord.

[19] and others At which storm, when Cælestinus the abbot was discharging the office of Christ in the sacred rule, being innocently torn by the false delation of the envious before the aforesaid prince, as one who had favored the party of Ragenfrid, he too was by him unjustly carried into exile, and the flock of the Lord was dispersed ^o. Who died a pilgrim, and rested buried in the monastery of blessed Peter, which is situated at Rothnacum [p]. But Charles the Great reigning, safety looked upon the world, which also visited this place. For the Lord touched the heart of that same prince, and by gratuitous piety inspired him to hand over the same monastery to be ruled by the man of God Agenard [q], who at that storm was held illustrious; by whom presently a multitude of illustrious clerks, gathered together under the shadow of the wings of Apostolic protection, was here by the divine gift collected. By whose industry, and of those succeeding him, that same place, most becomingly venerated, was everywhere among the nations flourishing with the bright vigor of holy religion.

[20] among whom Rotbert, who found the relics of St. Amalberga the Virgin. There arose in those days in the kingdom, from the most valiant lineage of heroes, Baldwin, from the invincible strength of his soul and the brave marks of his deeds surnamed Ferreus, the Iron [r]. Who, having received Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, obtained with her, by divine grace, the whole kingdom between the Gallic sea and the aforesaid river Scheldt: whence also the place of which the discourse is was joined to his dominion. Which at that same time the venerable abbot, named Rotbert, known to all by ecclesiastical studies and honesty of life, undertook by divine dispensation to rule. Of whose laudable life it gives great testimony, that by pious tears poured out before the Lord, and by continual contrition of heart and maceration of the flesh, he merited to obtain from the Lord Jesus Christ that the most sacred body of the spouse and virgin of Christ Amalberga, long hidden from all mortals, was both by a wondrous revelation first shown to him, and given from heaven. At the time of whose revelation and coming so great a greatness of prodigies shone by her merits, so great a grace of remedies both of souls and of bodies gleamed, that scarcely by any mortal could they either be comprehended in number, or narrated in words. Nor let it seem incredible to any of the faithful that Christ, the spouse of that same virgin, wrought these things for her on earth, whom before His Father He glorifies with the angels and with the crowns of her chastity and martyrdom in the heavens. [The translation of the relics to the mount of Blandinium attempted by the care of Count Arnulf.] But the translation of that body of the sacred virgin was made in the year of the incarnate Word 870, in the third Indiction [s].

[21] But that we may return to the order: Judith, the renowned offspring of the emperor Charles, bore to Baldwin a son of the same name with him [t]: to whom Eltrud [*] [v], daughter of the king of the English, bore the great Arnulf. He therefore from St. Arnulf, namely the grandfather [u] of the most holy father Wandregisilus, both drew his name, and his descent from the blood of the Romans, who also of old were of the Trojans [x]; adorned also with the titles of virtues, and the ornament of eternal and temporal life. This therefore is that Arnulf, who, as today's solemnity attests, translated hither the most blessed priest of the Lord Wandregisilus, and the illustrious archprelate Ansbert: for it was wondrously and gloriously provided from heaven for the most holy father Wandregisilus, that from his stock should arise one who would devote himself wholly to his service, and would the better order the place to which he was to be translated.

[22] But as he was treating of it, and seeking counsel from the Lord about this resolve, and by St. Gerard the abbot, he was not defrauded of his desire. For, behold, there was found fit for this business a man of laudable life, illustrious in sanctity and in family, named Gerard [y], who was a monk by purpose, but an abbot by office, and apostolic by merit. To him the renowned Marquis, opening the desire conceived in his soul of the Holy Spirit concerning the ordination of that same monastery and the restoration of the ancient monastic conversation, found a counsel prudently useful and usefully prudent, by which also being led, in the year of the humanized Word 941 he entered this apostolic hall, a devout cohort of monks accompanying. Where, the flock of clerks being first eliminated, he restored the school of the Lord's service, formerly established by blessed Amand; and, wisely intent as one taught by the Lord, he took care for the norm of the monastic rule. But very many, roused by the example of so great a master, began to flock hither by the vow of monastic discipline, to tame the neck of the heart, to take up the sweet yoke of the Lord. And it befell in a short time that this monastery of the Lord's sheepfold, enlarged in number and merit, was proved no less ignoble in all things than the most noble monasteries.

[23] Nor is it doubtful to any that blessed Wandregisilus and his companions obtained this from the Lord by pious prayers, who had restored the monastic discipline there. that fit ministers of holy religion should be sent before, by whom in their coming they might be religiously met, by whom also they might be worthily received and most worthily handled: for if it is the custom for mortals traveling to send forward companions for the sake of a lodging, to preoccupy a fit hospice, that those coming may be met with joy, that they may be delighted by a glad reception; how much more do we believe that so illustrious Courtiers of the supernal palace obtained this from the most omnipotent King and Lord, that the honorable father Gerard should be sent before with his sons, by whose conversation the place might in their coming be found sanctified, and most fit for their habitation?

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The celestial revelation about the translation to be made to Blandinium; the calumny about the body of St. Wulmar being carried off; how many and what relics were translated together with the bodies of St. Wandregisilus and his companions.

And now the time was at hand for translating hither the bodies of the Saints, as had been disposed in the counsel of those same Saints: for which business, when Arnulf, roused by the divine spirit, was fitting great preparations as a faithful minister, The people of Boulogne oppose the translation, taking with him that same venerable abbot with a great college of the priests of Christ, of monks and of clerks, with an equipped legion also of the faith and hope of the Christian armies, he hastens even to the city of Boulogne. Where, presenting himself with all with humble devotion to the Saints, for whose grace he had come thither, prostrate on the ground he watered the pavement with tears, by which he demanded of the Lord to be made master of his desire. There is also present, summoned, the bishop of the city, named Wicfred ^a, with splendid apparatus and bright ecclesiastical offices. Who, when he was applying himself, though unwilling, and wounded in mind by a grave stroke of grief, to executing the divine nod and the decree of the Marquis, a man worthy of the Lord, behold, there are present with an innumerable crowd the chief men of the place, armed with the zeal of unwisdom. And, a sedition being stirred, they strove to resist the divine disposition: of which sedition the author was Stephen Capicelius [*].

[25] But Christ, the true peace, peacefully disposing to consummate this work of peace, who nevertheless are presently appeased by a certain revelation: suppressed the fire of the rising scandal by a miracle of this kind. There was present at that assembly a certain venerable matron, named Torulla, who, like another Anna, departed not from the temple by day or night, serving the Lord with fastings and supplications; to whom it was shown by a wondrous divine revelation how the coffers in which the precious tombs of the Saints were contained, the seats in which they were held being left, as though lifted through the void upon the wings of the winds, settled upon the arms of the abbot and the monks. Which when with a clear voice she uttered to the bystanders, she added: "Know by this, my brethren, that it is of the will of the Most High that these most holy Men migrate hence. Whence I persuade you by the Christian faith, that your favor may correspond to the divine favor, nor that any occasion of scandal arise through you against so deiform a work." At this voice, as the clear air dissolves a cloud and a whirlwind disperses smoke; so the pleasing peace extinguished the flames of wrath, and welcome quiet dispelled the horror of strife [*].

[26] But the ancient serpent, pierced by the dart of victorious peace, but again through calumny they rise up, renews once more the poisoned point of discord. Himself presently to be struck by his own blade. For, behold, against our people a grave suspicion arises, a graver sedition is roused, saying that the body of the excellent confessor and abbot Wulmar ^b had been carried off by us. The matter of which thing two clerks were stirring up, of whom one was called Notger, the other Helger; one of them the provost of St. Wulmar, and the other the sacristan. Whereat the bishop, vehemently moved against them, began to accuse them of sacrilege, and to brand them with an ignominious crime. But the glorious abbot, when he could blot out this calumny neither by satisfaction nor by contradiction, the matter was brought to this, that, the seal being broken and the coffer fractured, they strove to explore it by ocular faith.

[27] which the truth itself soon dispels. But the abbot, seeing that they in no way acquiesced to him, nor laid aside their begun pertinacity, took this for an omen of the joy imminent to him, presaging. Whence also, all standing by, he said: "Truly I know, blessed Wandregisilus, that thy virtue here watches, to expend this labor upon thy servants for the associating to thee of the sacred limbs of thy colleague Wulmar." Which also was done. The most sacred coffer of the body of St. Wulmar therefore being opened, he merited two of the limbs of the pious confessor by a hidden divine benefit, and one he received by the episcopal blessing, giving thanks to the Lord. And fitly enough perhaps, that what was given from above should be given double, but what from below, subduple ^c. These relics therefore being gratefully received, and joined to the sacred remains of the aforesaid Priests of Christ, it happily passed into effect what by the presaging discourse of the abbot had been foretold. Why dost thou strive in vain, O envy of the devil? Behold, whence thou didst hope the divine counsel and work would be overthrown, thence it more happily proceeds to thy ruin. Glory be to Him, who through all the ages turns the machinations of frauds, which thou contrivest against His elect, into the matter of His own honor.

[28] Therefore, the litigants (because sons of peace were present) being brought back into concord, Therefore the aforesaid bodies are translated the monks, the abbot going before, approach the holy things of the Saints, and joyful, according to the revelation shown from heaven, receive them upon their arms. And, behold, joys are crowned with joys: with the aforesaid Saints, joined to the holy Trinity in the ternary number, an innumerable army of Saints grows, prepared to come with them to their unworthy little servants. But that what we say may come forth clearer in the sun, it pleased first the most high Lord, then the Saints whom we today venerate, that they should not alone, but with a multitude of Saints, visit the place where they might cherish their suppliants with pious patronages, and meet the faithful with ample benefits. Concerning the relics of the aforesaid Saints Wandregisilus, Ansbert, and Wulfram, these we brought with us.

[29] Of the chasuble of St. Wandregisilus; his head-cap ^d also, and one of his stockings, with other relics of the same and of Christ the Lord, his slippers ^e, a wallet, and part of that crozier ^f, which we set into another wood, and adorned with gold and silver. But these are the things which we have of the relics of St. Ansbert: his tunic, and part of his chasuble, and a purse, and a bowl or pyx, and little knives. Of St. Wulfram there is with us the greatest part of a dalmatic, and a little knife with its sheath. Besides, we have deemed it worthy to make known to those wishing to know the other relics also which we brought with us. Of the wood of the holy Cross; of the sponge from which the Lord was given vinegar to drink; of the sepulcher of the Lord, of white color, and of red color; of the garment of the Lord, and of His seamless tunic; of the band with which He was bound; of the place where He was crucified, of various color; of Mount Calvary, and of Mount Olivet; of the stone upon which the Lord stood when He said to Peter, "Thou art Peter"; of the manna of the Lord; of the dust in which our Savior set His foot, when from the channel of the Jordan He ascended into the little boat; of the wood planted across the Jordan; of the vessel in which the Lord blessed the water which He changed into wine; of the five loaves; of the rock which is in Golgotha; of the wood where Zacchaeus sat.

[30] Of the garments of St. Mary, of the earth of the oratory ^g of St. Michael; of St. John the forerunner of the Lord, and of the Virgin Mother of God, and of others and of his sponge; of the cloths of the Innocents, sprinkled with their blood; of their garments. Relics of St. Peter, and of his bed and pall. Relics of St. Paul, and of his pall. Relics of St. Andrew the Apostle. Relics of the sepulcher of St. John the Evangelist, and of his garment; of a bone of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. Relics of St. Simon the Apostle; of St. Clement; of the bones of the holy protomartyr Stephen, and of his most holy blood, and of one stone with which he was stoned. Relics of St. Dionysius, and of St. Eleutherius. Relics of St. Laurence the martyr; of a bone of St. Vincent the deacon and martyr. Two pyxes of ivory, which they say were brought by St. Wandregisilus from the city of Rome; of which one retains part of the knee of St. Leo the Pope ^h, with consecrated balsam, and the other in which is some part of the bones of the holy Crispin and Crispinian; which also contains the relics of other Saints. Relics of the holy Maurice, Exuperius, Candidus, Victor, Innocent. Of St. Victor.

[31] of Saints Relics of the holy martyrs George, Saturninus, and Symphorian. Relics of the martyrs Hippolytus, Valerian, and Protus. Relics of the holy martyrs Christopher, Leodegar, and Solator. Relics of the holy martyrs Quintinus, Marcellus, Daniel, Silvinus, Simeon. Relics of the seven Sleepers; and of the joints of the hands of St. Enichilianus ⁱ the pontiff and martyr we rejoice to have with us: which relics Erchenger the count, and Arnold from Germany, carried to the city of Boulogne. Of St. Timothy the martyr; of St. Carounus ^k the martyr; of the holy senators Lorius, Geminus, and Tadasius; of St. Machabaeus, and St. Marcianus; of St. Marcellus, and St. Maurelianus; of St. Lantbert, Paternus, and Desiderius; of the chasuble of St. Gregory the Pope, and other relics of him, namely of his girdle and of his hair-shirt. Of the limbs also of the holy Ermeland and Erembert we have the greatest part. Of the holy confessors Martin, Audoen [], and Veranus; of the chasuble of St. Silvinus the bishop; of the beard of lord Dado, who is also Audoen []; of the shaggy cloth ^l with which he was covered; of the linen upon which he passed over, and a shirt ^m and clasp ⁿ; of St. Fricianus the confessor; of the pall of St. Remigius.

[32] very many indeed, Of the holy confessors Germanus, Sulpicius, and Samson; of the holy confessors Marcellus, Bertin, and Albinus; of St.

Stephen the pontiff; of St. Amator; of the Saints Frideger and Emetorius; of the hairs of St. Genardus; of the Saints Geranus and Francoveus; of the Saints Benignus, Maxentius, and Maglio; of the Saints Eligius, Wando, and Jerome. Relics of St. Agatha the virgin; of the tunic of St. Agnes; of the hairs of St. Aurea; a tooth of St. Cecilia, and other relics of her; of the tunic of St. Eugenia; of St. Perpetua; of the Saints Anastasia and Susanna; of the hairs of St. Radegund, and other relics of her; of St. Bathild the queen, who did many good things for St. Wandregisilus; of St. Columba; of St. Margaret; of the hairs of St. Hildemarga, and of her garments; of St. Fides; of St. Honorina, and of twenty-seven other Saints, whose relic-labels ^o we could not read. Other relics also were brought with us, which formerly had been placed in golden and silver caskets: of which, the price of the gold and silver being expended, the monks bought from them the things necessary for food, when, by the incursion of the pagans [p], they were dispersed from their monastery through the provinces. To these Saints therefore, whom, although with uncircumcised lips, we have named by name, as the foregoing and the following of this sermon testify, the festivity of this present day is most honorably dedicated. Hence praise, hence honor and virtue to our Lord, glory and dominion to our King through all the ages of ages.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The pomp of the translation, and various miracles from the journey.

Therefore the mentioned abbot of pious memory and the venerable counts, enriched with the illustrious patronages of so great Saints, and gladdened by their precious pledges, [The bishop of Thérouanne and the clergy conducting them, they depart from Boulogne,] hasten a joyful return, about to have a more joyful coming. To whom, Christ with the angels going before, as they moved and migrated their camp, these in great joy of heart, with voices lifted up to heaven, sing glory to the Lord; those, in great bitterness, with tearful strains open the mourning of their heart; and, behold, with the bishop, the gates being opened, all the dignity of the church; behold, with the renowned marquis, the whole city accompanies in honor of the Saints: nor do the angels desert their fellow-citizens accompanying them, but with a splendid multitude surround Christ the King, present to His servants. Of whose presence, to the glory of His name, signal miracles gave testimony along the whole way, of which, passing over many and taking a few, we scatter into the paradise of the church flowers into an odor of sweetness for all who celebrate the joys of this day.

[33] [nor are the bearers weighed down by the pious burden, except when they set it down.] For when thousands of peoples, coming from all the borders, flowed together to the suffrages of the Saints, and dense swarms spread themselves through all the fields, so great a multitude hindering, they had not been able to command a swift step with their feet. But those bearing the precious pledges of the Soldiers of Christ, when naturally, as though weighed down by burdens, they ought to have been of a more hindered step, were so far from being fatigued by the service of the pious burden, that you would deem them rather to be borne than to bear anything. And when they were bidden by the elders to go before [*], and to look upon the toiling people, they said: "Be not troubled, fathers and lords, but marvel at Christ here working in the Saints; the burdens which we bear hasten our steps, laden with which we marvel that we cannot be fatigued: but unladen, we are fatigued with the common labor with you." Which hearing, they understood that they were sustained by divine grace. Whence, admiring the mighty works of God in His Saints so wondrous, and His benefits in His faithful so overflowing, with high-sounding voice they said, "Alleluia." But these things were done in that place where the mountain which they call Wonesberch ^a seeks the air by its roots. From this place therefore the attendants of the Saints, who had come from the neighboring cities, commending themselves to their holy patronages, and devoting themselves to their intercessions, returned to their own homes, fatigued with great sorrows. I pray, Lord Jesus Christ, walk with me, and direct me depicting with my pen the way of Thy Saints.

[35] A tempest arises: From the aforesaid place therefore, the people, as has been said, returning and betaking themselves to their own, the signal father Gerard, and the companions of the holy journey, appeared in the obsequy of the Saints so much the more devout, the further they were removed from the din of the remote multitude. Where, when the devil, both in the horses appointed to bear the vivifying tombs of the Saints, and in the other conveniences, was contriving damage in various ways, by divine protection and the intercession of the Saints they could be subject to no peril or loss. In which matter, admiring the accustomed divine clemency, with devout mind they sang glory to Him. Then, the sun falling, and the day's journey being completed, they turned aside into the village which they call Weretha. But that same village is situated beside the sea. But as they were rejoicing both over the hospitality found and over the overflowing humanity of the neighbors, by a sudden whirlwind of the air and a stormy shaking of the sea all their gladness was absorbed by sorrow. And unless the precious faith fixed in the patronage of the Saints had lifted them up, the hope of all safety would have been disturbed. For the sea, utterly overturned, so raised itself on high with the mass of its waves, as if presently, by divine command, it would go out beyond its own bounds, and occupy the surface of the earth.

[36] but St. Wandregisilus being invoked, it is at once calmed; What should they do, unless they transferred all their hope to Him to whom it is sung, "A helper in opportune times, in tribulation"? Prayers and tears therefore being poured out to the Lord, when they opposed the most holy patronages of the most benign Wandregisilus to the surging waves, behold, the air being calmed, all the sea so subsided into itself, as if a strong divine right hand were pressed upon its bounds. Here are renewed the ancient miracles of that same pious Father. Now, the signal marks of his signs being expressed, it comes to memory how first Geroald the abbot ^b, but secondly Grippo ^c the prefect, having suffered the force of the raging sea, were almost absorbed in the abyss of death, unless with his accustomed clemency the pious Wandregisilus were present, entreated by their vows, and tears, and prayers. So also to us, Patron of honey-flowing sweetness, shipwrecked amid these whirlwinds of the world by the tempest of sins, may Christ come through thee with the plank of piety, by whose grace, the breeze of the Holy Spirit breathing upon us, we may merit to enter the port of the perpetual kingdom.

[37] Let us consider our Patrons still glorious in this element of the air also, and the long-continued rains are stayed as in the sea. The scourge of inundation was pressing the whole world at that time. The opened cataracts of heaven were seen to consume the year's sustenance with waters. And perhaps it pleased the Lord to bring in this plague in those days, that, the Saints being translated and led through the wide tracts of the lands, the heavens might distill their mercy by their merits; and thus it might be revealed to all peoples how great a good was given to us from on high. Which also was done: for both the heavens were shut, and were bidden to suffer this law, that they both should suspend the excessive rains, and should gladden the air with the joyfulness of clear weather. And thus it befell that, as the protomartyr of the Lord Stephen, being found, was a remedy for the drought ^d; so blessed Wandregisilus, translated with the companions, gems of prelates, Christ making him wondrous, should succor the inundation. Which the husbandmen also understanding, were zealous to meet the Saints along the whole way: and, confessing so great wonders, were devoutly giving thanks to the Lord.

[38] The day festive by the passion of blessed Bartholomew shone forth ^e: The snares of the demons are eluded on the way. on whose glory, the host of redemption being immolated, they were carried across the channel which they call the Neuna by the obsequy of their Saints. And, behold, the glorious marquis is unexpectedly present, troubled in spirit, and most sorrowful in countenance. For the spirit of lying was wandering in the mouth of those saying: "Because our lord has deprived the Saints of their seats, the divine vengeance has now invaded him. Behold, in the seats which he believed prepared by himself for the Saints, he himself has not merited to abide." This voice seems to have been the voice of demons (as has been said), for perceiving that in the glorification of the Saints their own strength was to be crushed. For as at their memorial they were put to flight from possessed bodies with a great roaring; so they foreknew that they were to be driven from the souls of the faithful, which they strive the more to harm; and they were contriving either to retard the coming of them appointed by the Lord, or perhaps by fictions of lies to avert it: which snares the venerable abbot, taught by the Lord, understanding, uncovered by an eloquence ordered through the spirit of wisdom, and forbade the marquis to apply credulous ears to the false-speaking rumor.

[39] Meanwhile, darkness coming on, they chose for hospitality the village by the name of Oye ^f, A sick woman is healed at Oye. Another eludes enemies near Bergues. where, mingled with the troops of the faithful passing the night with hymns at the memorial of the Saints, a certain sick woman, all her members suffering together in a pain of the head, the Lord having mercy, was presently restored to her former health. Thence they came to the fortress which they call Bergues ^g, with a great concourse and meeting of the faithful. And the Saints being deposited in the church of the confessor of Christ Winoc with due honor, a certain poor man, on account of a hostile wedge pursuing him with arms, fled to their patronage with solid faith. Where, when in their sight he kindled the incense of prayers, and weighed out the gold of precious faith, presently, by the merit of that same weighty faith, a triumphal palm smiled upon him, the enemies being eluded and driven back.

[40] The approach of the sea is checked in the crossing. Thence also, after two days, having gone out, they came to a channel, in the rustic speech surnamed Drivlit, which we can call in Latin "the triple stream." Into which channel, because, according to custom, the sea, boiling up, now began to inundate, the companion of the holy journey, namely the renowned marquis with all his army, with great labor and sweat of the horses, scarcely had it passable. But the venerable abbot, and the brethren appointed to the obsequy of the Saints, mindful of that saying of David;

"These in horses, and these in chariots; but we will call upon the name of our Lord": trusting not in horses or chariots, but by the mere invocation of the name of Christ, with secure alacrity they committed themselves to so great a peril. And, having entered upon the watery way, they perceived that the sea, by a divine nod and by the governance of a marvelous delay, had checked its own approach, that the Saints' passage might be accomplished without difficulty, and that hereby God might be glorified in them. Behold how the Lord adorns the world with the miracles of the Saints. For all which let us say with the Psalmist: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who alone doth great wonders." Amid these things I pray, Lord Jesus Christ, shorten the way by which we walk, and hasten the coming of Thy Saints, that the desire of Thy little servants, sighing after them in the Holy Spirit, may be more quickly satisfied.

[41] To those approaching Bruges Baldwin comes to meet with his mother and clergy. Therefore, to those who had gone forward from the aforesaid river, behold, Baldwin ^h, the renowned offspring of the great marquis; behold also his royal mother, namely the most illustrious Adala ⁱ, with all their retinue and an innumerable multitude of the common people, with devout honesty and honest devotion gave themselves to meet them. With whom the Saints, remaining with their attendants only the space of one night, and taking up the way at daybreak, are received into hospitality in the village whose name is Arras. And when morning was made, behold, a very great clergy, behold, a people of diverse condition, led by Leutho the arch-chaplain, with crosses and lamps, with hymns also and praises, comes to meet them. By whose obsequy the holy things of the Saints, lifted up thence, with a concert resounding into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, were brought to Bruges ^k, and deposited with celebrated honor in the basilica of St. Donatian ^l.

[42] At Bruges the archdeacon is freed from fevers; Here a certain Bernaclius [*], most renowned among his own, when the mother-in-law of Peter was in a fever, being visited by the Lord, drew from the vivifying relics of the Saints the life of a celestial remedy. He, having performed the office of archdeacon in the whole bishopric ^m, when he was burning with the trouble of a burning fever, to pray for himself at the memorial of the Saints, scarcely dragging his sick steps, was presented. Where, when, prostrate, he poured out a silent prayer before the Lord, the flowing shower of his tears and the contrition of his pious heart made the certain redemption of his recovery. Whence, rejoicing together with the Lord and the Saints, he rouses the Christians standing by to a voice of exultation.

[43] Who, returned home, and about to make joy for his own on account of the benefit of God celebrated in himself, and indeed a second time, when he was seized with them again. was presently struck back by the trouble of the same fever, by the hidden indeed, but just, judgment of God. This languor growing strong, he could not, as he wished, visit the celestial Physicians in person. Yet, raising himself up in faith, he most earnestly demanded that something from their memorial be brought to him. There are brought the slippers of the most holy father Wandregisilus, and the cup of St. Ansbert. The slippers he received with deep reverence, applied them to his mouth and eyes, and laid them also upon his burning limbs. But of the cup he tasted a very little water. And without delay, the malice of the harsh disease being put to flight, he felt in all his limbs the virtue of the celestial antidote. Presently leaving the little bed of pain, he rises, descends to the church, approaches the pious Authors of his health, and most devoutly pays his vows of thanksgiving. The miracle becomes celebrated both from the celebrity of the place and also from the dignity of the person. Behold, this archdeacon of ours, as much by the merit as also by the price of his glorious faith, is in all things to be equaled to that Gospel woman who by the touch of the hem merited her wholeness.

[44] In the same place one of the deacons, keeping the night through with hymns and praises in honor of the Saints, To a deacon in the same place things carried off are restored with interest. suffered, by the fraud of a detestable theft, the loss of his household goods. Whence, presenting himself to the Saints, amid tearful complaints he poured out prayers and tears. Therefore he was heard, not only the loss being restored, but even a gain over the loss being obtained. By these signal miracles all Flanders and the maritime region was rendered more noble. Behold, most dear fathers and lords, while we lighten the way with discourse, and scatter the joys of miracles, we enter the bounds of Ghent, and now with joy we ascend the golden mount of Blandinium. Whence we give thanks to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, that, Thee being our leader and companion, we have accomplished the way of Thy Elect in Thy praise, and have merited now to come joyful with them to the place prepared for them by Thy promise. Concerning whose coming, long awaited and long desired, but now hastened from heaven, since Christ has made us certain, let us pursue with celebrated pomp the order of their reception.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The coming to Blandinium; the stupendous sprouting of spring flowers in autumn; a new church built for our Saint and his companions on the mount of Blandinium.

At Ghent the relics are received most honorably, The Saints therefore, carried by the venerable obsequy of their own from the fortress of Bruges, and not having passed without reverence the monastery of Tronchiennes ^a of the Mother of God Mary, beyond the river Lys, were conveyed, with the troops applauding with sweet modulation. And, behold, the nearer banks of the river, and all the streets, are received by a throng of Christians leaping forth to meet them: all the country runs to meet them; and the country-folk rush to meet them with honor possible to mortals. The royal soldiery flows together, and all the urban populace. With the concert of all these—dissonant indeed in voices, but consonant in affections—reaching to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, they approach with high-sounding modulation the monastery of the Prince of the Apostles, of which we spoke. And, behold, there comes forth, as from the bosom of a mother, the religious choir of monks, most honestly wreathed with ecclesiastical fillets, the venerable bishop Transmar ^b going before with all affection of mind and with spiritual joy, and the aforesaid glorious marquis accompanying with his own, singularly dancing over all these things, and rendering all kinds of thanks to the Lord. With this such and so great, so bright, namely, and refulgent, chorus of the faithful, with celestial hymns and angelic organs, with incense breathing an aromatic vapor, the Saints are surrounded on this side and on that; these honorably bearing the marks of the holy Cross with gleaming standards, those the wax-tapers, augmenting the brightness of the day.

[46] and they are placed in the church of St. Peter in the year of Christ 944. With this special prerogative of honor therefore the Saints, introduced into this basilica of the Apostles, into the hall dedicated to them by divine ordination and preparation, are deposited beside the virtue-bearing mausoleum of the wondrous virgin of Christ Amalberga, a joyful voice being lifted up to heaven with this sweet modulation: "O renowned priest of God, Wandregisilus, pray for us, that by thy pious prayers we may ever merit to be protected, and at length to appear worthy of the sight of the divine brightness." These things were done in the year of the incarnate Word 944, in the second Indiction, Marino [] the Pope discharging the Apostolic office in the Roman See, Louis ^c reigning over the Franks, Transmar bishop of Noyon presiding, and the lord Gerard the abbot ruling this monastery, on the third day of the Nones of September. O most celebrated day, and in every way most worthily to be extolled with the heraldry of praises! O festal day, deservedly to be numbered among the nobler feasts of the year! On which the Lord looked upon His whole kingdom through the special patrons Wandregisilus and Ansbert [] with so great benignity: on which also He visited this place with so wondrous clemency, to the eternal salvation of those worthily dwelling in it.

[47] Rejoice therefore, and keep a festal day, all Listrogaugium ^d and the whole patrimony of Ghent, The joyful acclamation of the author. thus honored by the divine deigning. Exult also and praise, church of Blandinium, namely our excellent mother, and most sweet daughter of the supernal Jerusalem. Behold, the spouse of thy charity is present, transferring into thee the Sons of His love and the Patrons of our wretched frailty. These He today consigns to thee, to be reconsigned by thee to Him in the resurrection of the just: to these also He commends thee, that through them thou mayest meet Him holy and immaculate. For all these things therefore, let all the choir of the church, festively joyful, chant with equal concert Thy wonders, O Lord, saying: "Let the whole legion of the angelic company bless Thee, O Orient! who hast visited us with the senate of the Apostles and the army of the martyrs, with the college of the confessors, and with the choir of the virgins: by whose obtaining may the jubilations of our devotion please Thee, O Christ."

[48] I will yet relate a miracle sufficiently illustrious, and to be preached without example for all ages, whereby both the Lord willed to be glorified in the very moment of the coming of those same Saints, At the coming of the Saints the earth burst into flowers, and the Saints merited to be marvelously honored by Him. The autumnal stars, as you know, had then arisen, and the sun, now placed in Virgo, permitted the earth, nature being the author, neither to put forth flowers nor to bring forth any germ. And, behold, the whole mount of Blandinium, wonderful to tell, began to produce flowers, and to clothe itself with this honor for the glory of the coming Saints ^e. The trees also began to grow white, green, and even purple with the variety of those same flowers, and to declare the merits of the Saints by the variety of distinct colors; so much so that you would even marvel at the sprouting beginnings of fruits already formed into their natural kinds. Autumn marveled that it had taken upon itself the nature of the spring season.

[49] And what is much more marvelous, it befell those same trees for long ages afterward as though lawful, [which afterward too was long done at the same season of the year, not without other miracles;] that, the orbit of the year returning, they clothed themselves with the same beauty of flowers, and recalled this glory of God, in testimony of so great a miracle, to the memory of mortals. For we ourselves, who speak these things, beheld those flowers with our eyes, held them with our hands, applied them to our kisses, and directed them also, for the honor of God, to honest persons and friends dwelling far away: some also of them we know to have been snatched from their infirmities, by the touch and odor, by the gratuitous goodness of Christ. Which wondrous mighty works of God, borne by the report of the faithful to the Eastern churches, when a certain one of those powerful in the ecclesiastical hierarchy perceived with a glad ear, weighing these lofty things with understanding he begins: "O the ineffable glory of God in so special a prerogative of this miracle! O day of unspeakable gladness, deservedly to be observed in that place with an office like that of Palm Sunday, where at the coming of the Saints so great a divine glory appeared to the eyes of mortals!" Excellently and fitly enough said. For He who

wished it, He himself, at so glorious a coming of the Saints, commanded the earth to flower: that by a prodigy of this kind it might be revealed that with the angels, in His presence, they flourish like lilies in heaven.

[50] nor indeed undeservedly; since the Saints themselves had been spiritual flowers; And deservedly God honored their coming with a flower-bearing miracle: because they themselves, living in the flesh, were zealous to adorn themselves with the beauty of those flowers, whom the Church of Christ flatters with this eloquence: "Flower forth, flowers, as the lily, give an odor." Whose loveliness again being taken, to her sons, whom she bore to Christ her spouse, she rejoicing says: "Stay me with flowers, compass me about with apples; for I languish with love." These therefore are the flowers which never wither, never fail from their own sweetness, by whose odor the sick grow strong, the dead revive. These flowers therefore, when the Saints, in whose flower-bearing coming we rejoice, out of the fullness of the field which the Lord blessed, would pluck for themselves; the Flower preeminent among all flowers offered itself to them, who both proceeded from the rod of Aaron, and descended from the root of Jesse; who also in His Canticles says of Himself: "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys." Whom presently, after the example of him who bought the treasure in the field, all things being sold, all the delights of the world being trodden down and spurned, they seized with all avidity, and placed in Him for themselves perennial pleasures with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

[51] whom we too ought to imitate. And let us also, most dear brethren, by their example, grow as a fruitful olive in the house of the Lord, flourish as the palm of the Lord, be multiplied as the cedars of Lebanon. This earth, which today among us brought forth flowers, and flowed with a honey-sweet suavity, be to us an example of germinating spiritually, of fructifying, of scattering the odor of life. Let us therefore be fragrant with the suavity of unfading flowers, let us produce fruits of honor and honesty, and mingle these with the supernal perfumes, that with the Saints, whose memory we today celebrate, we may be redolent an acceptable sacrifice to God, and, according to that saying of the Apocalypse, may offer golden vials full of perfumes in the sight of the Lamb, and sing before Him that new canticle, to whom with God the Father and the Holy Spirit is one divinity, equal glory, coeternal majesty, both now and always and through the immortal ages of ages.

[52] Therefore Arnulf of divine memory, and a most renowned marquis, showed in work the immense devotion which he had in mind toward the mentioned place and the bodies of the aforesaid Saints. At Blandinium a new church is built by Count Arnulf; For, the basilica of St. Peter being destroyed, to which the patronages of so great Saints were brought, because it was, for its smallness, unfit both for the habitation of monks and for the concourse of a promiscuous sex, he rebuilt it from the foundations in a certain greater elegance, and, when perfected, enriched it with wealth; villas also and very many estates, and other utensils fitting for ecclesiastical ministries, in gold and silver, he conferred with full devotion of mind: moreover he most honorably enclosed the bodies of those Saints in gold and silver.

[52] where our Saints may rest with others. But afterward, in succeeding time, he translated to that same place the bodies of the holy Gudwal ^f the archbishop, and Bertulf ^g the confessor of Christ, from the city of Boulogne, where also at present they rest with the most sacred virgin of Christ Amalberga: in which, by the prayers and merits of them, and of the other Saints there resting, ample benefits are afforded to the faithful, to the praise and honor of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be all honor, glory, kingdom, and dominion with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.