ON ST. WILLIAM, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT SAINT-BRIEUC IN ARMORICAN BRITTANY.
In the year 1237.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's age, family, episcopate, persecutions, canonization, cult, Acts and their writer.
William, Bishop and Confessor, at Saint-Brieuc in Armorican Brittany (St.)
BY J. B. S.
We bring forward a prelate, so renowned throughout all Gaul in the thirteenth century for illustrious deeds, for contests on behalf of ecclesiastical liberty, and for other eminent virtues, and so illustrious for so many miracles, that a few years after his death he was solemnly enrolled in the register of the Saints. This was St. William (in others Guillelmus or Wilhelmus), bishop of Saint-Brieuc in lesser Brittany, His virtues are narrated in the Life rather of which city, since treatment was already made long ago at the 1st of May, on occasion of that Saint from whom it received its appellation, there is no reason why we should here linger in describing it more at length. This is wonderful, that a writer did not fall to so illustrious a Saint who, besides his virtues and miracles, would have arranged his Acts in some order, from which it might have been drawn out of what origin, or when he was born, when he was created bishop, in what year at last he breathed out his happy soul; so that you may understand that you are reading an encomium rather than the history of a most holy life, he himself testifying that he sets forth not all things, but only some, in a certain style, rude and simple indeed, yet very brief and truthful, as will become manifest from what follows.
[2] For of the Saint's age the biographer treats not a word, so that, had he not named his successor Philip, and then Innocent IV the Pontiff, than their circumstances by whom he was endowed with the honors of the Saints, it could scarcely be divined to what century one should refer him. Moreover, those who from time to time have written only of his happy death rather involve the matter than elucidate it. The Sainte-Marthe brothers in the Gallia Christiana clearly mark the year 1234, and to them closely adheres the recent writer of the History of Brittany, Lobineau, volume 1, page 217. But on the contrary Jean Chenu, Claude Robert, d'Argentré, and others, whom Albert le Grand cites and follows, unanimously bring back his glorious death to the year 1237, being at variance among themselves in this, that they either restrict or extend the times of his episcopate. Hear the praised Chenu, who, having connected the death of his predecessor Silvester with the year 1225, thus proceeds: "St. William II, called Pinchon, ruled the church for fourteen years: he built part of the cathedral church, which he would have finished, had not envious death snatched him away on the 29th of July in the year 1237."
[3] Better does Robert refer the beginnings of St. William's episcopate to the year 1220, or the time of his episcopate, etc. so that he completed not only fourteen years in the dignity, but about seventeen, or at least departed from life in the seventeenth year of his see; which Albert le Grand rightly adopted, thus arranging the series of his life, that he will have the Saint born about the year 1184; that at the age of twenty-two, and so in 1206, he received minor Orders, was successively promoted to higher, and at last, his predecessor Silvester being dead, who had sat only sixteen months, was raised to the chair in the year, as we said, 1220. These things being thus ordered, he attributes seventeen years of pontificate to St. William, rightly connecting his end with the year 1237. But, unmindful of himself, he shamefully slips when he says that he flew to the heavens in the fifty-ninth year of his age, whose beginnings of life he had above referred to the year 1184; so that if he had wished to speak consistently, he could not have ascribed to the Saint more than fifty-three years of life. But indeed we candidly confess that we have hitherto not been able to find in what year he truly beheld the light, whence a determinate number of years of life might be gathered: if indeed he reached the fifty-ninth year of his age, it is necessary to say that he was born a full six years earlier, and so in the year 1178.
[4] The writer of the Legend brings in a doubt concerning his birth, when in the Prologue, dividing his work into seven chapters, Nor is anything handed down concerning his origin: he says that he will treat first of his noble origin, which nevertheless he touches upon not by a single word; unless he understands it of moral nobility, namely that which virtue alone and by itself establishes, or of the upright and pious education of parents illustrious in that sense, whom for the rest it is agreed were conspicuous by no secular nobility at all, as all who have spoken even in passing of his progenitors clearly hand down. That the lot and condition of his parents was not above the middling, therefore, is confessed: the name of his father was Oliver or Olivarius Pinchon, or as others Pichon (Castellanus forms it in Latin as Picio), of the village of Saint-Alban in the diocese of Saint-Brieuc: but his mother we have received to be called Jeanne Fortin, of a village equally obscure in the diocese of Saint-Malo, so that the whole nobility of St. William is to be fetched from his heroic virtues alone and his signal sanctity; in which part the composer of the Legend was by no means wanting to his task.
[5] For from him indeed can wholly be gathered all the endowments and virtues most worthy of a holy prelate, namely the grace of prayer, a little concerning his exile. reverence toward divine things, wondrous wisdom and knowledge, and discreet prudence, then, besides austerity of life, piety, and humility, his fervent, nay incomparable charity, both toward God and toward his neighbor, that is, toward the flock most beloved to him, and the poor especially, upon whom he most liberally poured out not only daily and fixed alms, but all his grain—let us say his barns—and whatever he had in his house. Add his pastoral, nay plainly paternal and indefatigable care; in defending the rights of the church and clergy his unbroken fortitude, whereby he resisted to the face Duke Peter, surnamed Mauclerc—understand, a most bitter hater of the clergy—and more than once exposed himself to the most imminent peril of death: which laborious part of his life the author does not follow out diligently enough, but whose defect Albert and others have abundantly supplied. At last the matter came to this, that, driven into exile, kindly received by the sick bishop of Poitiers, he for some time supplied his place with indefatigable zeal.
[6] His death and canonization. Returned to his own by postliminy, he completed his glorious course of life with a like end, so great a fame of most perfect sanctity being left behind him that it continually penetrated to Lyon, where, dwelling at that time, Pope Innocent IV, the celebrity of his miracles being known, scarcely a whole decade after his death did not hesitate to enroll him in the catalogue of the Saints; a signal diploma being dispatched for this purpose on the 17th of the Kalends of May, in his fourth year, that is, 1247, which we shall here relate whole after the Acts and Miracles, where this is peculiarly to be noted, that the very day of the canonization, the 15th of April, continued solemn among the people of Saint-Brieuc, the very bull of Canonization being distributed into three lessons, besides the birthday wont to be celebrated on this day with a solemn octave, in the course of which various lessons are recited on different days, so that they are twelve in number, comprehending almost the whole Legend, which have also been extended to other churches of Armorican Brittany, concerning which Albert is to be seen, reviewing each in order. Moreover, I have not thought it worth while to relate here the hymns proper to the Saint, nor the more recent Martyrologies, the Brussels Usuard, Molanus, or others, the place of all which will be supplied by an elogium of Saussay of this kind:
[7] Saussay's elogium. On the same day, in the diocese of Saint-Brieuc, the deposition of St. William, bishop and confessor of that same city. He, zealous for a virginal life, and using perpetually toward the poor a signal almsgiving, then most of all when at one time the provisioning grew heavy, imparted to the needy for the sustenance of life not only whatever grain he himself had, but what he received from elsewhere on loan. Moreover, he was so given to prayer and supplication that, besides the divine office of the Canonical hours and other pious prayers, he recited also the whole book of Psalms every day with the inmost piety of his soul. Likewise he was of wonderful humility and abstinence: excelling also in pastoral zeal and fortitude. For often, for the bodily safety of his sheep, he exposed his neck to the swords of the enemies rushing upon the city. That losses and injuries
from his own people, he often spent days and nights wakeful in weeping and tears, that he might mitigate the wrath of the divine power, offended by their crimes. The Man of God also endured exile for justice's sake. But when the tyrants had been destroyed by divine vengeance, being recalled with fitting honor again to his own diocese, there he happily consummated the last act of his life, illustrious with many other works of piety and holiness. His body, buried in the cathedral church, was found incorrupt two years later, fragrant with a most sweet odor; and made attested by great flashings of divine virtues the beatitude of his glorious spirit. Whom therefore Pope Innocent IV, by solemn judgment, enrolled to be venerated in the catalogue of the Saints.
[8] Who the writer is. It remains that we inquire a little concerning the author of the Life. Surius roundly named him Godfrey Calvo, archbishop of Bourges: but he has hitherto been sought in vain among the chief prelates of that city. Nor indeed did the writer himself dare to attribute to himself a dignity of this kind, candidly professing his own unskillfulness in the words, "Although knowledge does not abound in me, nor eloquence suffice, etc.," which do not at all seem to fall upon a man who was an archbishop, whether of Bourges or of another metropolis; but rather, as Claude Robert seems rightly to have conjectured, upon someone deputed to the service of St. William himself, who, being perhaps of Bourges origin, discharged in the church of Saint-Brieuc the office of archdeacon or archpriest. We have thought that the man's name, namely Godfrey or Gaufrid, surnamed Calvo, is to be retained, abstaining from every title or grade. Behold now the Life itself, as it was published by Surius, the chapters of the author being preserved in the margin.
LIFE
By Godfrey Calvo. From Surius.
William, Bishop and Confessor, at Saint-Brieuc in Armorican Brittany (St.)
BHL Number: 8906
BY GODFREY CALVO.
PROLOGUE.
About to write the Life of the blessed prelate William, I invoke its Inhabitant, the Holy Spirit: that He who bestowed virtues upon him may grant me speech to narrate them, The author's excuse. and of His clemency may supply the powers which my unskillfulness denies. Although knowledge does not abound in me, nor eloquence suffice to set forth, as befits, the works of a holy Man of this kind, worthy to be recorded; yet, induced both by the devotion by which I am bound to that Saint for many benefits and suffrages received through him, and by the request of certain very solemn men, whom out of charity I am compelled to obey, I shall endeavor to explain his deeds—not indeed all: because I have not learned, nor could I know, all: but some, which, being present partly in his house and society, I perceived with the faith of my own eyes; and partly heard from certain men worthy of credit—to the glory of God and of the most holy Man, in a certain style, rude and simple indeed, yet very brief and truthful. And that the things which follow may more easily offer themselves to the inquirer, they are distinguished by the seven chapters set down below. For treatment is made, first, of his noble origin and the beginning of his holy life. Second, of the grace of prayer, and his reverence toward divine things. Third, of his wondrous wisdom and knowledge, and discreet prudence. Fourth, of his fervent charity, austerity of life, and piety. Fifth, of his profound and admirable humility. Sixth, of his happy death and consummation. Seventh, of his wonderful canonization and translation.
HERE BEGINS THE LIFE
St. William, from the first flower of his youth bearing an aged heart, gave his mind to no pleasure: He preserved the integrity of the flesh. but knowing that the life of man upon earth is a warfare, he disposed to serve God in holiness and justice all the days of his life. He, walking in the flesh, warred not according to the desires of the flesh, but compelled it to serve the spirit. Which at his death he disclosed to a certain confessor of his, to whom, as to a familiar, he committed the secrets of his heart, saying: "Brother, give thanks for me to God, who has kept me until this day clean from the sin of the flesh by His grace." Nevertheless the enemy of the human race, who is the more provoked to scandals by that which is despised by the just man, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, through the wiles of women many times attempted to corrupt that servant of God. For when the same, still young and set in a lesser office, had been lodged in the house of a certain rich man, a certain woman, goaded by the spirit of fornication, brazenly darted fiery rays at that man of God. For he was pleasing not only to God by the merit of his sanctity, but also to all who saw him by the elegance of his body, the eloquence of his words, and the grace of his conversation. But after the unclean spirit had deceitfully occupied the heart of that little woman, it did not rest until it should pour forth the venom of sin conceived in her mind. And when the day yielded to darkness, the others sleeping, the silence of the night being seized, she made her way to the chamber of the blessed man as he slept, and cast herself, a tortuous serpent, at his side. But the man of God, awakened at the unaccustomed touch of the woman, not only abhorred the crime, but also straightway leaping from the bed, as from the midst of a fire, hid himself from the face of the serpent: like the patriarch Joseph, who fled the offered lust, his cloak being left behind.
[2] Shameless women assail him. Truly then blessed William, who was found without stain: who could have transgressed, and did not transgress; and could do evil, and did it not. At another time, when blessed William was discharging the pontifical office, a certain noble woman of the territory of Saint-Brieuc, bereft of the help both of a husband and of friends, was greatly harassed concerning debts and other affairs in the Bishop's court. At last, not knowing what to do, out of womanly wickedness she thought that, if she could by polluted love obtain the favor of the prelate, she would the more easily overcome her adversaries, and end her cause with a prosperous outcome by the favor of the judge. On a certain day, therefore, having drawn the Bishop aside, she began with soft speeches and words full of enticements to provoke him to mingle with her in the obscenity of lust. But the man of God, forearmed by the Holy Spirit, understanding her cause and the sordid intention of her heart, is said to have given the woman such an answer: "O unhappy woman, why hast thou wished to seduce thy shepherd, thy pontiff, thy father and lord, with words of this kind?" And shaking with his hand the linen tunic before his breast, which he used after the manner of a pontiff, as if he would shut out the fire from the bosom of his heart, with signs of indignation he added these words: "See, wretched one, that I am a Bishop and priest of God." Then, wounded by the goads of the man of God's rebuke, she covered her face with the cloak of confusion, and, touched inwardly with grief of heart, she straightway went forth from the house. Thus the Lord tried His Saint like gold in the furnace, and received him as the victim of a holocaust by the merit of chastity.
[3] His kindness toward the wretched and poor. Besides these marks of chastity, another proof of virginity appeared at his death. For when his body was treated by the ministers of the church, to be washed with fitting reverence, his lower members were found not shameful, but as if boyish. Adorned therefore with the aureole of virginity, he who was not defiled with women deservedly follows the Lamb of God. Now not only did he gird his loins with the strength of chastity, but he also held burning lamps in his hands through the works of charity. For he, like a most pious father, nourished the poor, relieved the miseries of the wretched, and mercifully exhibited the other works of piety to the needy. Nor was it enough for him that he ministered to the poor through his purse-bearer: nay rather, from the purse which he was wont to carry for this purpose, he himself stretched out the hand of mercy to the needy. For with so great an affection of compassion did he burn toward the poor, that when the remnants of food were given to the poor gathered together, he himself through some window directed his gaze upon the givers and the receivers, lest anyone should defraud the alms, or any poor man be injured or remain without a share of the gift. But if what was to be distributed did not suffice for the multitude of the poor, he caused the deficiency to be at once supplied.
Chapter II.
[4] At a certain time of dearth, when blessed William saw the poor tormented with hunger, he exposed all his own grain to be distributed to them. But when it did not suffice among so many, Great liberality in the charity of provisioning. especially since a great space of time yet remained until the harvest, by his prayers he received grain from the canons on loan, to be dispensed to the poor. Truly blessed is that Saint, who went not after gold, nor hoped in the treasures of money: but, like a cheerful man taking pity on the wretched, lent his own to the Lord. For he was so faithful in his stewardship that, almost all being distributed to the necessity of the poor, nothing at all remained whence he might make a testament. For he preferred to lay up in heaven the treasure entrusted to him, where neither rust nor moth destroys, nor thieves dig through and steal, rather than on earth, with the slothful servant, to hide the money of his Lord, or to leave it to be devoured by strangers. Thus the lamp of blessed William not only shone outwardly to the glory of God, but also burned inwardly in affection, whose ardor was in him ordered in a threefold manner, namely toward God, himself, and his neighbor. For, wholly in the love of God, giving himself to devout prayers, he burned with the prophet, saying: "My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall be kindled."
[5] For although, with Martha, he was occupied with many affairs about the care of government, He reads the Psalter daily. yet that one thing of Mary that is necessary—giving himself to divine discourses and devout prayers—he by no means omitted. For besides the Canonical hours and other accustomed prayers, every day he read the Psalter, which he knew by heart. Again, as regards himself, there burned in him that same little fire of charity, of which the Lord says: "I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it burn?" For fire reduces to ashes and consumes. But our God is a consuming fire. Whose ardor reduced the soul of the blessed man to ashes through humility: attenuating his body through frailty, it bound both by an equal bond to the service of God, as is written in Leviticus: "The fire consumed both parts." But blessed William, the greater he was, the more humble he appeared, and did the works of humility. For sometimes, to blow the fire for warming the food of the poor, he is said to have bent down his head.
Chapter III.
[6] On a certain day a certain messenger came to his house, asking the loan of a bathing-vessel for a poor woman The highest charity, lying in childbed. For he reserved such little vessels for pious works of this kind. And when the Bishop had learned the cause of his errand, and none of his servants except the chaplain was present, he neither denied him nor deferred what he asked, but, with the help of his chaplain, emptying the vessel, which was full of grain, he placed it with his own hands upon the shoulders of the messenger to carry.
[7] But on a certain night the bed of a certain monk had been made in the Bishop's chamber: and when the Bishop, going to sleep, saw the monk's bed near the ground, and humility. but his own, on account of pontifical excellence and reverence, in a higher place: he did not suffer the monk to lie lower than himself: nay, he caused the bed to be made up again, and the one to be made equal to the other. By these and other merits and examples of this kind, that blessed William the bishop attained the glory of eternal exaltation. Not only
but the fire of the Lord's charity had reduced his heart to ashes, and had also burned his body through penance. For although, deferring to his own dignity and to that or the merits of others, he often had great banquets prepared, yet, modesty being preserved, always tasting little of the meats, he reserved the rest to be dispensed in alms to the poor.
Chapter IV.
[8] The austerity of his life He used water, pure or mixed with wine, liberally, although he was thought by many to love wine and rich fare. Moreover, when his bed was spread, as befitted a Bishop, and the servants believed him to be resting upon soft things, spurning the couch, he more often chose the hardness of the ground for praying and sleeping. But as regards his neighbor, in this charity burned like fire. For as often as he perceived anyone desolate or afflicted, or sick, he himself was made sick, according to that saying of the Apostle: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" Moreover, on a certain day, while that blessed Man was standing in the midst of his house, a certain dropsical and poor little woman, asking alms, stood before him. Now she was so swollen by her infirmity that the width of her tunic could scarcely contain her body. Beholding her, the pious Father, who ever bore the pious bowels of charity over the afflicted, ordered alms to be given to her; and also administered to her a cup of the theriac which he had, piously believing that she could obtain health by an antidote of this kind. Having received the cup, the woman went her way.
[9] and his kindness toward a wretched woman. At the hour of dinner the Bishop remembered her, and by a messenger sent her his own dish, of which he had tasted little. The messenger, long seeking her through the streets and squares, at last found her in a little bed, laboring under exceeding suffering, and drawing near to her end. When he had reported this to the Bishop, he, fearing lest through the theriac which he had ordered to be administered to her she had incurred the peril of death, hastened into the church to pray for her to the Lord: where, weeping abundantly and roaring from the groaning of his heart, humbly accusing himself as guilty of her death, he so long invoked the mercy of the Lord until it was announced to him that the woman had risen, and had been wholly released from her infirmity. Hearing which, the Bishop, for joy, caused her to be presented to him. Seeing her fully restored to health, marveling, he could scarcely believe that this was she whom he had seen that same day almost like a monster. But who would doubt that this woman had been recalled from the gates of death by the prayers and merits of the holy Man?
Chapter V.
[10] At another time, when, from the pressure of the battles which were waged between the Franks and the Bretons, He exposes himself to perils for his sheep. the duchy of Brittany was troubled, and the city of Saint-Brieuc, with enemies rushing upon it by turns, was burdened with many losses and injuries, blessed William, like a good shepherd, going about the city with great weeping, endeavored with fatherly affections to console his scattered sheep. Often too, magnanimously thrusting himself into the midst of the robbers, he did not fear to lay down his life for his sheep. Oh, how often did men of blood cast their sacrilegious hands upon him as he protected his little sheep, and, brandishing swords against his neck, afflicted him with threats and insults! But he, when he suffered all these things, did not threaten, but, like a most meek lamb, with silent heart kept patience. And if at any time, through the insistence of the clergy, necessity compelled him to bear the sentence of excommunication against evildoers and robbers, lest he should seem remiss and negligent, with grief of heart and many tears he exercised the power of the keys, when he struck evildoers with the sword of a sentence of this kind.
[11] With how great an ardor of charity did he love his neighbors, who thus mourned—like David and Samuel—for his enemies! Thus the holy rod from the root of Jesse, which is interpreted "burning," went forth. He is driven into exile. For the rod of correction ought to go forth from the fire of charity. But Ezekiel, speaking of the four living creatures, saw in the spirit lightning going forth from the fire. And from the fire lightning goes forth when the sentence of excommunication is brought forth not from anger or hatred, but from charity. Meanwhile, a grievous persecution raging through the malice of tyrants in the Breton church, blessed William, manfully inflamed with zeal for justice, strove to resist the tyrannical ferocity. For which cause he was constrained with threats and injuries by those tyrants and their accomplices: nevertheless he set himself as a wall for the house of the Lord, as far as he could. Refusing therefore to acquiesce, to the prejudice of ecclesiastical liberty, in the will of the princes, he was compelled to go forth from Brittany, and to set out into exile. But the just man, like a lion trusting in the Lord, and knowing that the dignity of the name of Christ possesses all things in every possession, and that every soil is a homeland to the brave, as the sea is to fishes, patiently endured losses, threats, exile, and insults for the hope of eternal beatitude. For the Lord says: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Chapter VI.
[12] But at that time the bishop of Poitiers, laboring under continual infirmities, had been made powerless and weak, He undertakes the vicarious service of the bishop of Poitiers. so that he could not at all exercise the office belonging to him: who, receiving venerably and devoutly blessed William, fleeing the assault of an obstinate persecution, deemed it worthy to commit to him the care of his flock. Blessed William therefore, having assumed the vicarious care of the diocese of Poitiers, having there for some years lived most holily in those things which pertained to his office—celebrating orders, dedicating churches, consecrating altars, confirming children, and also solicitously ministering the other offices of a bishop—showed himself gracious and famous before God and men. But when it pleased God to weaken the assault of the ferocity of the enemies, the good shepherd, leaving the sheep of another, returned to his own sheep, exceedingly desolate on account of his absence, with very great joy.
[13] Concerning this care of his own sheep, he solicitously watched, not only spiritually by the example of holy conversation and the pasture of doctrine, He returns to his own see. but also temporally by the succor of human necessity, as has been said. For with this threefold food the Lord commanded Peter and his successors to feed his people. And although he set the care of his flock before every temporal business, yet, if he could live in peace, he proposed to consummate the already begun fabric of the cathedral church of Saint-Brieuc. When on a certain day he was thinking more watchfully about this work, filled with a prophetic spirit, he said: "Certainly, living or dead, I shall consummate the building of this church." And the Lord in the process of time fulfilled his prophecy. For when he himself, living happily, to live forever, had happily consummated the course of the present life, his most holy body was buried with fitting reverence in the cathedral church.
[14] When it had there lain hidden for two years, before it flashed with miracles, His happy death. like a precious stone, Philip his successor, the bishop, nonetheless faithfully strove to become the executor of his purpose concerning the fabric of the church. But it was necessary, for the seeking of a foundation, according to the disposition of the work, that the body of blessed William should be transferred from the place in which it had been laid. Now it came to pass, when the clergy with the people had assembled to dig up that treasure, that his very body was wondrously found with the integrity of all its members, and, as if it had been seasoned with the most precious aromatics, filled with an excellent odor those who were present: so that from the manner of life which they had seen, and from the marvels which they beheld, they without doubt believed him to be a saint, since they perceived incorrupt the corruptible body, which indeed had lain hidden in the sepulchre for two years. What else could they say, but that "this was done by the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes"?
[15] His body, after two years, is found incorrupt. They marveled, moreover—nor is it wonderful—how the corpse of a man, which had lain so long under the earth, surpassed with the fragrance of a most sweet odor the aromatic spices. But He whom the flesh had served whole from sin, from the finding of the incorrupt body disposed the lamp of his sanctity to be exalted from under the bushel upon a candlestick, so that it might shine to all who are in the house of the Lord; the odor of sweetness proceeded wondrously from the Lord Himself, sweetly disposing all things: so that he who had been the good odor of life unto life, the good odor of sanctity, might diffuse everywhere the odor of miracles by prodigies. For from that day he began to flash with more frequent miracles, through which the Lord spread the knowledge of his sanctity, not only through all Brittany, but also through the surrounding adjacent and remote provinces. As many, therefore, as, oppressed by diverse languors, visited his tomb, Miracles at his tomb. confidently seeking from him the benefits of health, having recovered the grace of the desired health, returned rejoicing to their own homes. Wherefore in troops the peoples run from everywhere, desiring to behold, and also to experience in themselves, the miracles which the Lord, wonderful in His Saints, mercifully works through him. By whose alms and devout offerings the church, which the Saint had said, in life or after death, that he would build, received its completion with precious work, to the praise and glory of Almighty God.
Chapter VII.
[16] When therefore blessed William illumined with so many and so great rays of miracles, not only Brittany, He is enrolled among the number of the Saints by Innocent IV. but also diverse provinces of the world, Philip of good memory, bishop of Saint-Brieuc, his successor, deeming it unworthy that so great a light should be hidden within or beneath a bushel, hastened to the lord Pope Innocent IV, then residing at Lyon, with the firmest testimonies and witnesses of miracles, on account of a business of this kind. Hearing which reports, the supreme Prelate, exulting in joy, deemed it worthy to commit the inquiry into the miracles to a certain Cardinal. But what happened on that very day, appointed for a business of this kind, is to be reckoned no less than a miracle. For besides the fit witnesses whom the said bishop of Saint-Brieuc had brought, very many others from other parts of the world suddenly flowed together, testifying to the most approved sanctity of blessed William, in that they firmly asserted that they had felt his suffrages, invoked for diverse infirmities, both in themselves and in others. The miracles therefore being proved, and recited in the audience of the supreme Pontiff, and approved by him and all the Cardinals and other prelates of the churches who were present, the same supreme Pontiff, by the common counsel of the brethren, decreed that William, bishop of Saint-Brieuc, his merits requiring it, should firmly be enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints, and be venerated with celebrated memory. But the marvels of that Saint—yet few, because no one could set forth in writing each single thing—I shall briefly narrate.
MIRACLES.
William, Bishop and Confessor, at Saint-Brieuc in Armorican Brittany (St.)
BHL Number: 8906
BY GODFREY CALVO.
A certain woman of the diocese of Saint-Brieuc, who for three years and more had been throughout her whole body so swollen with dropsy The cure of a dropsical woman. that it was by no means believed that she could obtain health, a vow being made, rested upon the tomb of blessed William, on the fourth before the Kalends of August, namely on the day on which the most blessed Confessor departed from the world; and after the first hour of the day, while the divine office was being sung in the church, as if awakening from sleep, the swelling being removed, she was suddenly restored, by the merits of blessed William, to her former health.
[2] A certain sick man also, near Saint
lay before the door of another man's house upon a dung-heap at Saint-Brieuc, Likewise a cripple. so crippled that, in seeking his own livelihood, he carried himself through the town upon his palms and knees. A certain woman, compassionating his suffering, said to him: "Alan, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I vow thee to blessed William, who by his merits and prayers will confer health upon thee." And the woman and her son, taking him by the hands, raised him upon his feet. He forthwith, his members made whole, took his way to the church, with many following him and praising God in blessed William, rendering thanks to Almighty God and to his most holy Confessor.
[3] Moreover another woman, suffering so great a corrosion of her side The woman's horrible disease is driven off. that, with her intestines almost laid bare, she gave off an exceeding stench with great horror, rested through one night upon the tomb of the Saint. But on the morrow, about the first hour, in the presence of many, she was so delivered from this horrible affliction that no traces of the aforesaid affliction remained.
[4] Furthermore, when a certain boy, of about eight years, A dead boy comes to life again. playing near the bank of a certain river, had suddenly fallen into it, the people crying out, his father in grief ran to the place, seeking him with all speed. When, with many helping him, he had by no means found him, with redoubled cries he began to rave. But the bystanding people, compassionating him, said: "Vow thy son to St. William, at whose invocation God works miracles." And he, scarcely heeding their counsel for grief, straightway cried out thus: "St. William, blessed confessor of the Lord, I vow and commend my son to thee." Scarcely had he finished the vow, and behold, the boy was found dead beneath the water, and was drawn out from the depth of the river. The father, beholding him dead, began again tearfully to cry to blessed William, and to invoke him, saying: "St. William, restore to me my son alive, whom thou hast deigned to show me thus dead." Now the mother of the boy, having at that time set out on pilgrimage to blessed William on behalf of the same boy, because a certain infirmity had befallen him, was present at his tomb on the preceding night. While therefore the father was devout in his vow and prayer, in the sight of the bystanders life was at once restored to the boy.
[5] Likewise another boy. Moreover another boy, of about three years, from the borders of Dol, fell into a certain ditch through which the sea made its passage. When his parents, seeking their son with grief, by the Lord's granting had come there, they found the boy lying on his back in the water, and drew him out of the pit. And when they had found in him no sign of life, they vowed him with a mighty cry and grief to the most blessed Confessor. At whose invocation the boy, vomiting forth water with blood, breathed again.
[6] The most foul defects of the body are healed. Again, a certain man for six years and more had had, and had, two holes in his belly, so pernicious that whatever he took into his body through his mouth by the way of nourishment, the natural evacuating places being passed over, he shamefully sent forth through those two holes. He, resting before William's tomb, at the invocation of the same Saint, was cured of so monstrous an affliction. To a certain woman also a breast was suddenly restored, whiter than usual, which she had miserably cut off from herself for the exceeding pain of infirmity.
[7] Other miracles. Moreover, to a certain man a rupture was suddenly consolidated, through which his entrails horribly offered themselves to the sight of men. Again, a certain girl, whose feet and legs were so ulcerated from a certain affliction which physicians call a fistula, that the mere amputation of her legs was being awaited by way of counsel, lest through it the sound part of the body should be corrupted, was fully delivered from the aforesaid wounds. Another girl also, caught in the burning of a fire, was found in the midst of the coals; to whom, by the merits of the same Saint, the fire, forgetful of the force of its power, imprinted no trace of injury.
[8] Sailors are snatched from peril. On a certain day also, when certain sailors, having set out on pilgrimage to blessed William, wished to return home over the sea, there arose a violent tempest on the sea, so that, the ropes broken and the oars shattered, the waves covered the little ship. They, indeed despairing of life, invoking the aid of most blessed William, said: "O blessed William, glorious confessor of the Lord, succor us, set in the utmost peril of death." And straightway, at his invocation, the sailors, safe, with their little ship covered by the waves, came to a prosperous harbor without human oarsman. What more? Through the merits of the most glorious confessor blessed William the Lord restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, walking to the lame: as the staves and wooden beds prove, which those who obtained the benefits of health left before his sepulchre, returning to their own homes. Those possessed by a demon are delivered, paralytics are restored, very many laboring under the force of fevers obtain a speedy recovery. These and many other great marvels, which are without number—especially since his miracles have no end—Almighty God works through his most blessed confessor William, to the praise and glory of His name, Amen.
CANONIZATION.
William, Bishop and Confessor, at Saint-Brieuc in Armorican Brittany (St.)
FROM the Bull.
Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his most dear Son in Christ, the illustrious King of France, His illustrious virtues being related greeting and Apostolic benediction. When the Patriarch Jacob had come to the place in which he desired to rest after the setting of the sun, he placed the lying stones under his head, and slept in that same place. Imitating his example, blessed William, of holy memory, bishop of Saint-Brieuc, ceased not to sleep to the world on the way of the present age, prudently placing under the head of his mind the stone which the builders rejected. For he, intent upon the virtues, watchful, and withdrawing himself from the din of this world as far as the pontifical dignity permitted, kept closed from the very beginning of his birth the eyes of concupiscence, which the seducer opened to our first parents, so that the gaze of his mind should not be turned back to earthly things, whereby it might be held the more free to contemplate the majesty of the divine loftiness. For he knew that to serve two masters, to rejoice with the world and to reign with Christ, is found to have been granted to no mortal. Wherefore, bringing this world into contempt, he wholly renounced its concupiscences from his acts, and, crucifying his flesh with its vices amid the straits of many austerities, he offered it, like an only-begotten daughter, with Jephthah, to the Lord in sacrifice, the fire of fervent charity being placed beneath; and thus the concupiscences of the flesh and of the eyes were accordingly subjected to the law of reason. Then the enemy of the human race, who importunately thrusts himself upon sincere minds, rose more strongly into scandals, that he who is wont for the most part to rise from the victory over the vices of others might at least cast down from his state, through the pride of life, this man raised up to God. But the same Bishop, like another Jacob—that is, a supplanter of vices—having taken up the aforesaid stone, our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom David also had miraculously laid low the huge Philistine, so utterly weakened the depraved efforts of the hostile devil that, although he ceased not to envy, yet, fearing lest, being now overcome, he should be further vanquished, he no longer dared to assail the same Bishop with his perverse assaults. Nor is it wonderful if the enemy profited nothing in him who, by the constant instancy of prayers, assiduously struck the Davidic lyre, which suffered not Saul, king of Israel, to be molested by the evil spirit for the sweetness of its song. When therefore, the Lord being the author, he had obtained a glorious triumph over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and thereafter also by miracles; he deserved not only to behold the ladder upon which the Lord had leaned, and by which Jacob saw the angels ascending and descending, but rather ascended and descended by it, so that he might cleave to his Creator by the zeal of sweet contemplation, and meanwhile might condescend, by the affection of pious compassion, to the infirmities of his subjects. For assuredly, lest he should profit himself alone by the merit of his life in the world, cleaving only to the embraces of Rachel—that is, to contemplation, beautiful indeed but barren—together with Jacob he descended at times to the chamber of Leah, about to drive to the places of the desert of penitence the flock committed to him, made fruitful with twin offspring: which he fed with all diligence in a threefold manner, namely by the word of preaching, by the fruit of prayer, and by the example of that wondrous manner of life, which was strong in the whiteness of virginity, gloried in the straits of abstinence, and was endowed with the blandishments of gentleness. Deservedly, therefore, could the church of Saint-Brieuc then rejoice, being assigned to the care of such a Pastor, who, as a master of life, a title of piety, and a mirror of mercy, had wondrously illumined all Brittany and the adjacent provinces with the rays of his doctrine. But now, not only she, but rather the universal Church ought to be suffused with ampler gladness, both because she beholds a new bright star arise in the parts of the West, through which those shipwrecked on the sea of the world are led back to the harbor of salvation, and because she deserved to bring forth on earth such a son, now made a fellow-citizen of the angels, whose patronage she has judged not unworthy to be invoked in her necessities. Moreover, that he who, while yet retained in the flesh, was as the lilies which are in the passage of the water, an olive putting forth shoots, and a cypress advancing in the increase of comeliness, now, the bonds of the flesh loosed, and made Israel from Jacob—that is, seeing God—might, as a lamp set not under a bushel but upon a candlestick, flash with miracles for those who are in the house of the Lord: through him, as through another Elisha, a dead boy was raised. To a certain woman a breast was restored, whiter than usual, which she had miserably cut off from herself for the exceeding pain of infirmity. Another woman likewise, by a fitting attenuation of the body, was cured of a dropsy swelling exceedingly. To a certain man, moreover, a rupture of the groin was suddenly consolidated, through which his entrails horribly offered themselves to the sight of men. A certain girl also, whose feet and legs had been so infected with the ulcers of fistulas that the mere amputation of her legs was being offered by way of counsel, lest through this the sound part of the body should be corrupted, was fully delivered of the aforesaid ulcers. He is solemnly enrolled among the Saints. Another girl too, caught in the burning of a fire, was found in the midst of the coals, to whom, by the merits of the same Saint, the fire, forgetful of the force of its power, imprinted no trace of injury. Likewise light to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, walking to the lame, and to paralytics the due function of their members, are suddenly conferred at the invocation of his most glorious name: through which the darkness of those ignorant of God is dispelled, the perverse dogma of heretics is confounded, and the blessed belief of the faithful is increased. Since therefore it is fitting that those whom the triumphant Church has exalted, the militant Church—which desires always to imitate her as it can—should venerate with prompt affection: We, after it had clearly appeared to us concerning the miracles of the same Bishop, so manifest, both through fit witnesses and also through certain persons miraculously cured, set before us and our Brethren, him whom we have recognized to be transcribed with the just in the book of the living, by the common counsel of the same Brethren and of our venerable brother the Patriarch of Constantinople and of all the prelates then present at the Apostolic See on the feast of the Lord's Resurrection,
and assent, we have decreed that he be enrolled in the glorious catalogue of the Blessed, charging by command all the Prelates of thy kingdom that they take care to celebrate his feast with attentive devotion on the fourth before the Kalends of August, on which he rendered up his spirit to the Lord, and that they cause it to be solemnly celebrated by the faithful of Christ throughout their cities and dioceses, so that through this they may deserve to find him a favorable intercessor in heaven. Furthermore, desiring that his burial-place, which is known to shine with such evident signs, be frequented with fitting honors, to all who are truly penitent and confessed, who shall approach thither with reverence at the same feast yearly, to seek his suffrages, trusting in the mercy of Almighty God and in the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we mercifully remit one year and forty days of the penances enjoined upon them; and to those who come to the aforesaid burial-place within the octave of the same feast, forty days. That therefore the royal loftiness may rejoice in the celebrity of the new Saint, whom it beholds brought forth like a flower of wondrous fragrance in the rose-garden of holy Church, and may render without intermission abundant thanksgivings to the Creator of all things, who has deigned in modern times to adorn that very Church with the presence of so great a Confessor, we have deemed the foregoing worthy to be intimated to the royal serenity by these presents, desiring that thus, through the zeal of pious devotion, thou mayest claim his suffrage for thyself with God, so that thou mayest advance by the increase of virtues and at last deserve to attain the glory of future beatitude. Given at Lyon, on the seventeenth before the Kalends of May, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.