ON SAINT EBREMUNDUS, ABBOT OF FONTENAY-LE-MARMION,
IN THE DIOCESE OF SÉEZ IN NORMANDY.
6TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
From Saussajus, and the Acts.
Ebremundus, Abbot in the diocese of Séez in Normandy (S.)
G. H.
Andreas Saussajus, in the Gallican Martyrology on this X day of June, adorns S. Ebremundus with this elogium: From Saussajus is had, that the Saint, In the territory of Séez of S. Evremundus, Abbot and Confessor. He sprung from the city of Bayeux, of conspicuous nobility of stock, spent his first age in the court of King Chilperic: with whom prevailing in great favor, having obtained also great honors, joined in marriage to a girl of distinguished family, the royal court being left, also flowed with great wealth. But while he enjoyed these conveniences, mindful nonetheless of God and of salvation, he did not omit religious offices; but so diligently fulfilled them, that among so many honors and delights he cultivated piety, and frequently bent over sacred reading. To which when on a certain day he was attending more attentively, he fell upon this admonition, by which Christ the Savior, that perfect service may be rendered to him, proclaims; whoever makes more of father, mother, or wife than of himself, is in no way worthy to be reckoned among his disciples. He is stimulated with pious goads, to renounce himself; to disjoin from the bed the wife, whom he hoped to be favorable to his religious purpose; to bear his cross, and to follow Christ he resolved with himself. With the divine Breath aspiring to his vows, the matter succeeded according to his wishes. For the wife of Evremundus, with the same zeal divinely kindled, by agreement received herself into the sodality of the handmaids of Christ. and his wife, But Evremundus, seeking places suitable to his purpose, turning aside to a village of his possession, whose name was Fontenay, in the Diocese of Séez; there built six little buildings, naming them after as many Heavenly ones, built a little cenobium, who should favor the beginnings. And soon also a little cenobium, in which, Amolbertus the Bishop approving the illustrious endeavors, with some worshippers of God, who had grown together with him into an assembly, he instituted life, all intent on heavenly matters and divine obsequies. Thence his virtue, like a certain sun, when it spread the rays of holiness far and wide, several flew together to him, that under his lead they might enter the path of most pure life. For they thought themselves
happy, he shone in miracles, if they committed themselves to his discipline, and followed his footsteps so pure. To whom he, not only by his admonitions, but by excellent examples too, paving the way of salvation, happily advanced them in it. He also shone in miracles, by which the divine Majesty declared his multiplied merits. But at length the strenuous servant of Christ, when among mortals he had expressed the blessed life and virtues of immortal minds, having completed glorious labors, departed to the Heavenly ones whom he had emulated.
[2] and the Body, carried to Creil, The body buried in the same place, after it had there long shone with indications of divine glory, was transferred by the Toparchs of Creil, which town is in the Beauvais country, to the church, which they had built there in his honor, and most honorably rested in its bosom for about six hundred years, namely until the year of salvation 1567; in which the impious fury of the heretics, this town having been captured, devastated churches, and plundered and despoiled the sanctuaries. then by the Calvinists was burned. For then with nefarious daring, the venerable relics of S. Symphorianus Martyr and of this holy Confessor, taken out from their cases, and most unworthily afflicted with many insults, those enemies of God savagely cast into deadly flames, and blew away the very ashes. But by divine benefit from this destruction the face of S. Evremundus, which was placed in a peculiar repository, was preserved: which the Canons of his church seasonably moving, snatched away from the ministers of satan, that it might not be torn apart by their parricidal hands, with auspice: and that single pledge survives, by which the townspeople boast themselves still defended by the protection of their Tutelar, after the sacrileges of pestilent heresy have been tolerated.
[3] All these things in his magnificent eloquence Saussajus. Now first let us inspect what pertains to his cult and the translation of the body. Basilica of Creil. In the Blaeu Geography of the Gauls, and the description of the Region of Beauvais, under proper title is proposed the Castellany of Creil; above, the Toparchy of Creil called, and these are read: The city and Castellany of Creil are subject to the Bailliage of Senlis. It is mentioned by Lupus Ferrarius the Abbot in a certain Epistle, and he calls it Credilium; but Dudo of Quentavic, Crothelense castle; later instruments finally call it Credulium: it is adorned by a most beautiful castle. Its basilica is illustrious. Dedicated to S. Evremundus: whose sacred spoils before the thousandth year, from the monastery of the diocese of Sees, into this town had been translated. These there. But it is doubted, Whether the body was previously at Ouche? whether from the said monastery of the Séez diocese it was immediately translated to Credilium, or Creil; or whether previously it had been brought to the Uticensian monastery of S. Ebrulfus, in the Oximian district and the diocese of Lisieux. For in the year 943 the bodies of SS. Ebrulfus, Ebremundus, and Ausbert, whom S. Ebrulfus had raised from death, together with other precious Relics, had been taken away by Hugo the Great, Duke of France and Burgundy, writes Ordericus Vitalis Monk of Ouche, in book 6 of his Ecclesiastical History page 621: and on the following page near the end he adds, that the Orleans men chose for themselves the bones of S. Ebremundus the Abbot. But because among the Orleans men no memory of this Ebremundus, or Evremundus, is held, the said Relics could in that very century, before the year one thousand, have been translated to the said Creil, or Credilium town; and hence occasion was seized, that the Author of the Life of S. Ebremundus, of which we shall soon treat, wrote that from his death S. Ebrulfus succeeded in his place. Meanwhile the Sammarthani, in Volume 4 of Christian Gaul, establish S. Ebremundus as the successor of S. Ebrulfus: which we propose to be further elucidated by others.
[4] The mentioned town of Creil is situated on the river Oise, on the borders of the Beauvais and Valois countries, and is by many ascribed to this; but from the city of Senlis it is distant two leagues. From the ancient Breviary of this Church our Fredericus Flouët sent to us the Acts of S. Evremundus, distributed into nine Lections, Acts from the Breviary of suspect credibility. which in most things correspond to the elogium already reported from the Martyrology of Saussajus. But (to confess the truth) they are of clearly suspect credibility, and patched together by later ones from some tradition; and by us therefore the more to be proposed, that it may be understood what credit is to be given to the elogium of Saussajus. And first, what is referred at num. 2 and 3, are almost extracted from the Ms. Life of the said S. Ebrulfus, whose words we append in the Annotations. What then at number 4 and 5 are subjoined, are attributed to S. Alnobertus, Bishop of Séez; but who was younger than S. Evremundus by a whole century and more; and this near the end, is said buried by Lotharius Bishop also of Séez, who is constituted fourth from S. Alnobertus among the Sammarthani, and is read to have died in the year 757: when yet S. Evremundus is said there to have died on the fourth Ides of June, in the time of King Chilperic, and so before the year 584, in which this King was killed. Saussajus, that he might avoid this rock, does not mention the said Lotharius the Bishop, and for Alnobertus wrote Amolbertus; but of whose name no one is known to have been Bishop of Séez. If there is a place for conjecture, I would suppose, Renobertus; whose mention in the Life of S. Ebrulfus is made, the said Sammarthani assert, and they say that he lived in the same time as S. Evremundus.
[5] Memory also on June 11. Hugo Menardus, in the Benedictine Martyrology on the day XI June, recalls S. Evremundus Abbot in the Beauvais territory, and in book 2 of Observations adds, that the Body was burned by the rage of the Calvinists, except the face, preserved by the diligence of the Canons. Menardus is followed by Bucelinus, who on this June tenth, refers as another, with some elogium taken from Saussajus, in which he asserts, that in the court of King Chilperic he spent his first age, and flourished in the year of Christ 720 (namely 136 years after the killing of Chilperic) perhaps that he might more certainly ascribe him to his Order, the Benedictine, about which we shall rejoice to receive greater certitude.
LIFE OF SUSPECT CREDIBILITY.
From the ancient Breviary of Senlis.
Ebremundus, Abbot in the diocese of Séez in Normandy (S.)
BHL Number: 2371
FROM MS.
I, II
[1] In the time of the most glorious King a Chilperic, two strenuous men flourished, as far as pertains to worldly dignity, Educated in the King's court, sprung from most illustrious birth, in the city which by the inhabitants is called b Bayeux: that is c Ebrulphus and Evremundus, in the court of the aforesaid d King most diligently educated. For so great grace the Lord deigned to confer upon them from their youth, that through the office of excellent humility, a great place in the palace without the envy of their companions they obtained. e * But when S. Evremundus was still adorned with worldly riches and many things, made a lover of wisdom through everything, opulent and learned, abundantly skilled in divine letters and ecclesiastical offices, he often and without intermission investigated the sacred Scriptures through various codices; that through the deeds and institutes of the ancient Fathers, he might be able to profit unto the salvation of his soul.
III
[2] But on a certain day when the holy Gospel was being read, the sentence of the Gospel having been heard, he heard among other things the sentence of the Lord, by which He says; Whoever loves father or mother or wife more than me, is not worthy of me. Luke 14, 26, Luke 9. 23 And again; Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. * But Saint Evremundus, not a deaf hearer of such great promise, but inwardly compunct and imbued with the supernal grace of God, as the same in the Gospel speaks, The Spirit breathes where it wills; all things being left, his goods he bestowed on the poor, and consecrates his wife to God: whatever he was seen to possess in estates and benefices, he distributed to the poor. John 3, 8 For also his own wife, most devoutly under the habit of a nun he handed over to serve the Lord; and nothing at all for himself, which pertained to the use of this fleeting world, did he retain; fearing namely that terrible sentence of Ananias and Sapphira, who fraudulently obliged for the price of their field, before the feet of blessed Peter the Apostle, received the abridgement of a just death. Acts 5
[3] The aforesaid Evremundus therefore, remembering, what the excellent preacher preaches, saying; Stripping ourselves of the old tunic, let us lay aside the works of darkness, and let us put on the arms of light; not only is he found to have left country and parents, the hermitage having been entered already constituted a second Abraham in the same deed by the Lord; but also, beard and hair of his head for divine love having been laid aside, with humbled countenance, with the highest velocity, to the hermitage, which is called Excubias, with the Lord leading he flew. Col. 3, 7 In which place also many churches and monasteries of Monks and Nuns, according to his ability, in suitable places he took care to build. he builds Fontenay and other monasteries: Then in a certain village, which is called even now Fontenay, he built six other churches; one of which f in honor of S. Desiderius he caused to be dedicated, in which also no small multitude of Monks under the regular yoke he gathered. But g when he had entered into the same forest, and had gone around hither and thither through most vast places; no suitable place for traversing was found, because already long ago it had been the habitation of wild beasts and animals.
[4] * But with divine clemency aiding, which is always wondrous in His Saints; making cells of branches. with an Angel leading the friend of God discovered very pleasant fountains: where bending his knees, with prayer to almighty God he gave worthy praises, who never abandons those hoping in Him. But prayer having been made, he wove around little enclosures of branches for the time, where also in a modest hut the same Father began to lodge. What more? He was an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame, was the father of the poor and the clothing of orphans and widows, and the Lord clothed him with a crown of justice. But S. Evremundus himself with ardent zeal, that for gathering the souls of the faithful he might labor, by his prayers obtained from the Lord, that he might convert the whole people of the province.
[5] But hearing the Prelate of the holy Church of Séez named h Alnobertus, the fame of the blessed man Evremundus; hastily he sent to him his Archdeacon Fortunatus, he receives the gifts of the Bishop of Séez. to inquire whether were true what he had heard about him. Whom when he had found, he offered prayers and gifts with Episcopal benediction; saying to him: Dearest Father, I see that you are a man of God, and sent here by His own will, I beg you, that you deign to receive the gifts of our supplication; and where you may build monasteries, as much as is well-pleasing to you, you may choose; that with the gathered crowds of the faithful this solitude may be turned into a house of prayer; and where until now was the habitation of brute animals, to the praise of the Redeemer of the world, with the episcopal benediction of the Prelate of the holy Church of Séez, may be made a lodging of Angels: that both for you may remain a reward for the building and teaching with the heavenly Judge, and for the immense peoples your prayer may be the expiation of sins. * And the Archdeacon returning, with great exultation, all things, which he had seen for the praises of the Creator, he intimated to the blessed Bishop. But the Bishop, he is visited by him praises and
thanks returning to the Lord, to him as quickly as possible went off into the hermitage; and amid sacred conversations, as he was a man founded entirely in the confession of the Lord, eloquent in tongue, Angelic in aspect, becoming in countenance, illustrious for honesty of morals, endowed with wisdom, shining in chastity, cheerful in adversities, in prosperity timid, in daily food given to excessive sparingness, distinguished in justice, adorned with the gems of faith, hope, and charity, very celebrated in the merits of holy virtues, to the venerable Father Evremundus he began thus to praise this most miserable life before the Brothers: Blessed are you, Brothers, who mock this world; and to that life, which is induced in an hour and excluded in a moment, you renounce. Hasten therefore to that life, to which never any end comes, no succession at all is given. Recall before your eyes the memorable penitence of Mary i Magdalen; who when she was filthy with the squalors of many sins, soon when with rivulets of tears she washed the venerable feet of the Author of life, she deserved to dismiss the nefarious deeds of all crimes. Be brought to memory also that venerable thief, who in the very moment of death deserved to hear, Today you shall be with me in paradise: and likewise be there to you, I pray, most beloved Brothers, according to the Apostle's saying, always one heart and one soul.
VII, VIII
[6] Thus that blessed Prelate, the Brothers filled with spiritual feasts; led S. Evremundus with him to the church k of blessed Gervasius and Protasius, and to him committed the care of the Pastoral office, is consecrated Abbot of Mont-Major: and consecrated him Abbot in the place which is called Mont-Major. After these things the venerable Father in the same place built three churches, one in honor of the most victorious Cross, another in honor of S. Mary the Virgin, the third in honor of S. l Martin Abbot of the Vertan monastery. Meanwhile ran to him all the people of the whole province: the blind recovered sight, the paralytics were cured, the lepers were cleansed, the lame received gait, among other miracles and the sick at the touch of consecrated oil received strength. But on a certain night, while the blessed Father Evremundus was going around the church with vigils and prayers; he found a certain paralytic lying in dung, to whom he said: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to his disciples, Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you; he heals 2 paralytics: arise healed. Matt. 21, 22 Who immediately rising, glorified God. * In Aldovilla was a certain paralytic woman, who lifted by the hands of the faithful was carried to the man of God: whose by his prayers soon received the strength of her whole body and her sight; and, who by long disease had been bent, nor could at all look upward, with the integrity of her strength resumed, until the end of life giving thanks to God, clung to the obedience of the holy man most devoutly to serve.
[7] What more? The sick were healed, the peoples were running together, a demoniac daily the admiration and fame of the blessed Father Evremundus was growing. Finally on a certain day, while the holy man of God was going with the Brothers to agriculture, that they might fulfill obedience, as is the custom of Monks; a certain woman brought him her son, badly vexed by a demon; who, weary with grief, yet confirmed by faith, began to cry with a great voice to the man of God, and to say: Man of God, succor my old age: return to me my only son: but if you do not return him, lamenting will hell receive me. For I know and confess, that God, whom you preach, is mighty even to recall the dead to life. Seeing therefore S. Evremundus such faith of the woman, compunct with mercy, he said to her: This is the work of the Creator, O woman, not of the creature, who said to his disciples; This kind can in nothing be cast out, except in prayer and fasting. Matt. 17, 20 * At length the venerable Father placing in prayer his knees, poured out this prayer to the Lord: Holy Lord, by prayer he frees him. Father almighty, eternal God, who through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we know to be midway between you and us sinners, the blind sight, the lame gait, the dead life to confer have deigned; who gave to your disciples and their successors confidence in beseeching you, saying: Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you; and, If you do not hesitate in your heart, but believe, whatever you wish to be done, it shall be done for you; and, who freed the daughter of the Canaanite woman from the demon on account of the mother's faith; suppliant I beseech you, that you deign to free also this your servant, at the petition of the widowed mother; that those seeing may tremble, and bless your holy name, which is blessed for ever and ever. Matt. 7, 7 & 21, 22 & 15, 21, And when the faithful who were present had responded, Amen; the enemy vanished as smoke. But the Brothers and peoples seeing, struck with fear and trembling, glorified the Lord, who is wondrous in his works.
[8] But the aforesaid S. Evremundus died on the fourth Ides of June, in the time of King Chilperic, he dies June 10. in the basilica which he himself had built for the Lord. Whose holy body honorably buried S. Lotharius m, Bishop of the Church of Séez; who afterwards there consecrated Ebrulphus as Abbot, with the concord and election of the Monks, with our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, praise, virtue, power, and dominion, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.