Cunera

ON ST. CUNERA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR,

AT RHENEN AMONG THE BELGIANS IN THE DIOCESE OF UTRECHT.

ABOUT THE YEAR 700.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Cunera, Virgin Martyr, at Rhenen in the diocese of Utrecht (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

§. I. A more probable conjecture concerning the family and age of the Saint than is the trustworthiness of the Legend, which makes her a companion of St. Ursula.

Rhenen is a town of the dominion of Utrecht in Belgium, now on the right bank of the river Rhine, formerly situated on the left; and therefore perhaps in antiquity called by a plural name, The situation of the place, because it was between two Rhines; the New, namely, which in these parts is now called the Lek; and the Old, of which now you would hardly find traces except interrupted ones. Below the place itself sits Batavodurum, commonly Wijk-bij-Duurstede, above the Ford now called Wageningen: within which tract and beyond, St. Cunera Virgin and Martyr is religiously venerated. Concerning her today in the Additions to Usuard, Molanus: where the body was elevated by St. Willibrord, In the town of Rhenen, the elevation of St. Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, made namely by St. Willibrord, Bishop of Utrecht, and thus within the year 694 and 744: for through fully fifty years, as St. Boniface of Mainz witnesses in Epistle 1, preaching to the nation of the Frisians, he converted the greatest part to the faith of Christ, destroyed shrines and temples, and built churches, establishing the Episcopal See in the place and castle which is called Trajectum (Utrecht); as being then the royal residence of the whole nation.

[2] As certain as this is, so uncertain to us is the popular tradition, by which now it is everywhere believed, A synopsis of the Legend, badly patched together. that Cunera came as a companion of St. Ursula, slaughtered with her retinue at Cologne; and that Radbod, King of the Rhine, present at that slaughter, having hidden her under his cloak, kept her alone of all alive, and having brought her to Rhenen, commended her to his wife. More credible are the other things subjoined to such a beginning: namely, that the Lady of Rhenen, seeing Cunera singularly loved by her husband, moved by jealousy, having dragged her into a stable, strangled her with the help of one handmaid, and buried her in the stable. It is added, that the Lady herself, driven into a frenzy, destroyed herself by a fall; and that nocturnal lights above the body, and horses refusing to enter the stable, manifested the sanctity of the deceased: moved by which, the Lord of the place gave and endowed his Palace in her honor. But after very many years, St. Willibrord passing through there, was asked by the citizens that he would deign to translate the Blessed Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, for whom God was daily wont to do various miracles. So the sermon or legend for the feast, which Gerard Vossius, in his book on the Latin Historians, believes to have been composed at the beginning of the 16th century; being about to write perhaps the 15th century, if he had seen its Belgic version cared for in the year 1480 in the good city of Utrecht, to use the terms of the Printer. No reason persuades it to be much more ancient. But following this sermon or Legend, the Author of the Manuscript Florarium of the Saints, the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lübeck in the year 1490, Grevenus in the Additions to Usuard, Ferrarius, Miraeus, Gelenius, Wilson, Saussay, without hesitation praise Cunera herself, as one of the Ursuline society.

[3] St. Ursula is venerated on the 21st of October, where Cunera is said to be one of the companions of St. Ursula; when of her and her Companions there will be to be treated professedly; meanwhile I could not restrain myself, but in the Chronico-historical Attempt concerning the series of the Roman Pontiffs, in a proper Dissertation, I inquired whether between SS. Pontian and Anterus there could be a place for Cyriacus, who, having laid down the Pontificate, is said to have followed the Virgins to martyrdom, and on that account is omitted in the Catalogues of the Pontiffs. Then in the Paralipomena to the same Treatise, page 38, I touched on that whole argument; and thus to have lived in the 3rd or 4th century, and by defining rather what in the Ursuline Legend is utterly incredible than what ought to be deemed credible, except the sanctity and cult, not to be called into controversy, I proposed some conjectures of mine, intending in them to test the judgments of the readers, before coming to the sum of the matter. From wherever, however, the Virgins were collected, and in whatever way they are said to have been brought to Cologne, or on whatever occasion slain; and that whether under the Emperor Maximinus, having begun to persecute the Christians in the year 236; or under the tyrant Maximus, hastening against the Huns sent in upon him and besieging Cologne, in the year 385; whatever, I say, of these you may choose; it does not appear by what reasoning St. Cunera could have belonged to a Society of this kind.

[4] For the whole nation of the Frisians, up to the coming of St. Willibrord and the end of the seventh Century, and at Rhenen served a King: (as I said) was held entangled in the darkness of paganism; nor by any reason does it appear probable, that in the town of Rhenen so near Utrecht, there was a Christian, I will not say King, but even a petty ruler, three or four centuries earlier; who had Cunera living with him, and honored the burial of her when dead, having given her his palace.

A similar or even greater difficulty is found in the very person and family of St. Cunera, while she is believed to be the daughter of Aurelius and Florentia, reigning in lesser Ortayas, near the city called Orchada; which Crombach and others so understand, as if she were said to have been the daughter of the King of the Orkneys, and indeed by one or other parent a kinswoman of St. Ursula herself. For the Orkney islands, set against the extreme corner of Northern Britain, as they to this day use a language almost Gothic, and most different from the languages of the Picts, Scots, or Hibernians; likewise to have been the daughter of Aurelius King of the Orkneys, so they are thought to have received their first inhabitants from Gothia or Denmark, and to have always been enemies to the Scots and Picts; so that even granting that Ursula was British, it can hardly be believed that any communion of marriages came between nations distinguished more by manners than by distances. Let us grant this, however; shall we also grant that Roman names were in use in islands to which not even the Romans dared to aspire, although those islands the Britons reduced into a Province scarcely defended from the Scots and Picts, that famous wall being set against them, which even now divides the kingdoms of England and Scotland, now known by those names?

[5] The Scots indeed say that St. Palladius, sent to them by Pope Celestine in the year 431 as Bishop, extended his apostolic care even to the Orkneys, St. Sernanus being directed to them as Bishop; are said to have been only attempted in the 5th century, and that St. Kentigern in the 6th century instructed the same through disciples. But neither is that proved with sufficient certainty, and it makes nothing for the times of St. Ursula, earlier by at least one century. Today indeed those islands are reckoned a part of the English Empire, in so far as it also embraces Scotland, and their Bishop, while the Catholic cause stood, was subject to the Archbishop of St. Andrews; yet in the year 1085, in Malmesbury book 5, there is still named Paul, Earl of the Orkneys, subject by hereditary right to the King of the Norici or of Norway, who pledged them to the King of Scotland in the year 1474. And the Picts indeed, the farthest of the Britons, by whom, if there had been greater friendship, the Christian faith perhaps could have been taught and handed to the Orkneys, did not begin to receive the light of the true faith before the year 430, perhaps not even before the year 1000 did they receive the faith. somewhat later than the Scots who were in Hibernia. But the Norwegians, Danes, and Goths received the first preachers of the Gospel only after the year 800. When moreover St. Magnus, held as the Apostle of the Orkneys, lived (whose name I find noted in Olaus Wormius in the Danish Calendars on the 19th of August), I have not yet ascertained, yet I should hardly think he penetrated thither before the 11th century.

[6] These things being so, if anything of truth underlies the popular tradition concerning St. Cunera (as something of truth is always wont to underlie such things) I should believe her Lord More credibly, Frisia being now converted, she was brought to Rhenen to have been one among many of those Nobles whom St. Willibrord made Christians in these confines of Frisia and Germany. While Cunera lived in the ministry of this man (whose name, of the same origin as the names Conrad, Cunegund, Cunibert, persuades us to believe her not very foreign) since she was a Christian from the cradle; and merited her lord's love for herself in many ways; she was slain through jealousy by his less pious wife. But divine miracles declaring her holy, first the very stable in which she lay buried and not so very long after, the body was elevated: was turned into a sacred little chapel, St. Willibrord approving and consecrating an altar above the body, or some successor of his at Utrecht to whom the wavering tradition has fitted the name of Willibrord, and consecrating an altar above the body. Then indeed, the miracles growing frequent, and the Christian religion flourishing more and more among the people of Rhenen, when the same or another Pontiff of Utrecht had dedicated a larger Parish church there, he was asked by the citizens to elevate the holy body: which he did on this day, the 6th of June.

[7] Nonetheless another Finding of St. Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, is noted in the Florarium on the 19th day of December: [whose other finding too on 19 December, and Translation on 29 October, is commemorated.] nor would it be a wonder if, after the course of very many years, the church being overthrown by the casualties of wars or fires, and the sacred body buried under the ruins, it was again found and gladdened the people of Rhenen: who now, I know not whence, persuaded that she was of the Society of the eleven thousand Virgins, judged that the Translation was to be made on their Octave, that is the 28th of October, as this is noted in a certain Martyrology printed at Cologne about the year (as Molanus indicates) 1521. On that day however the Florarium notes the Passion: which, although I see it commonly approved, as instituted by St. Willibrord; I fear nevertheless that it is true, and I am rather inclined to believe that the day of the slaughter, secretly perpetrated, remained altogether unknown. However it be, the cult of the 28th day must have been sufficiently celebrated, by reason of St. Cunera, then either suffering or translated, since in the Utrecht Legendary of St. Saviour, whence we shall give the Acts, she is found placed on such a day; and consequently under the same, as the primary, mark, even in the original Rhenen membrane, whence we have learned that it was transcribed, when it was permitted us to see it. That the Scottish Martyrology of Camerarius proposes St. Cunera on the 9th of June I would not value a straw, on account of the manifest levity of the author in inventing such things, in which he seems to have vied with Dempster.

§. II. The slight age and trustworthiness of the Rhenen Legend, a twofold inspection of the Relics.

[8] Thus far I had written, when, by the kindness of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord, Peter, Archbishop of Sebaste, and Apostolic Vicar through the United Provinces, I received the original Rhenen membranes, written about three hundred years ago, for the use of the Choir (as the form and larger character show) but, what we lament, mutilated, six leaves being torn away, The Manuscript Legend at Rhenen with its Prologue which had been in all, at the least, sixteen. At the beginning of these is placed a Prologue, beginning, after the genius of the 15th century, thus; Cunera, as if Concealing treasure (condens æra), because she here concealed a treasure in the earth, which she now finds in heaven. Then there is subjoined the Genealogy of St. Cunera, with such a beginning: According to Isidore, in Europe lies a certain land, which is called the Orkneys, and has in itself thirty-three islands, of which thirteen are possessed by Christian men … which once stood under the empire of the King of the Orkneys, and the genealogy but now of the King of England, and in German are called Bartnengen: in which land a great royal city lies, which once was called Orchada, but now York. So unhappily the beginning being placed (for we know no York, except York in England, utterly fabulous; nor do we concede the English any right, for the time at which these things were written, over the Orkneys) to such a beginning, I say, the rest agree, in which the Author feigns in that city a King Aurelius, who, having led an army against the barbarians, conquered, captured, and handed over to the Sultan of Babylon, by this man's daughter, having through him been drawn away from the worship of idols (as if indeed those Sultans were idolaters), and having contracted marriage with her, was freed, and returned with her, and from her begot Cunera; after a Jewish astrologer had foretold that from him a serving woman would be procreated, who according to the course of heaven would flourish on earth with virtues, as the earth with flowers and heaven with stars, through whom many desolate would be consoled, and the sick healed: but he himself, because he refused to consent to the adultery of the wife of that Jew, now shines with glorious miracles; as also his wife, baptized, because she was zealous to lead her life in the fear of Christ and to fervently attend to his commandments, then shone with virtues and signs, and now with many glorious miracles … Thus this holy and elect Virgin Cunera was prophesied by a Jew, before she was born, by whose merits may we glory unto the ages. Amen.

[9] The Sultans of Babylon the world first began to know under their first Saladin, in imitation of those things which are attributed to St. Elizabeth of Schönau, who in the year 1164 having seized Egypt, drew to himself the whole power of the Caliphs, and at Babylon or Cairo chose for himself and his posterity the seat of Empire: whose age, how far it is distant from the age of Radbod King of the Frisians, and of St. Willibrord preaching under him; and this in turn from the time of the Ursuline martyrdom, who does not see? And consequently, how badly patched together is the whole following Legend. Although the Author promises to recite concerning the life and death of St. Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, what was written of her; yet it is not to be presumed that he had very ancient writings before his eyes; as being compiled after the publication of the history of the Ursuline Passion; which, however much Crombach contends to raise to the 7th century and the age of St. Cunibert, I fear nevertheless that it ought rather to be ascribed to the 9th or 10th century: but this names none of the companions by name, except the single Pinnosa. Then in the year 1183 a new history of the eleven thousand Virgins was written, by an Anonymous author alleging revelations made to Blessed Elizabeth of Schönau, eighteen years after her death. Such a history being soon spread over all the Germanies, and thus first published in the 13th or 14th century and on account of the novelty of things until then unheard-of received with great applause, although no Cunera appeared there, much less her genealogy; yet an example of feigning was given to this one by like license; so that this one of which we treat ought not to be deemed more ancient than the 13th or 14th century.

[10] The Genealogy in the said membranes is followed by a new title, written in red. Here begins the Passion of the same Saint: and the word Theme is added, That Legend long ago printed in Latin, because it takes its beginning from this sentence of Psalm 67, Wonderful is God in his Saints. Molanus, in the Births of the Saints of Belgium, alleges the history printed in Latin in the second volume of the Legend at Louvain and Cologne in the infancy of printing. This Legend was first printed at Cologne in the year 1483, and two years after reprinted at Louvain. Our Father Hermann Crombach published the same, in volume 2 of the Ursuline History book 11 chapter 10, using a Manuscript codex of the Cathedral Church of St. Martin at Utrecht: and he asserts that another copy was submitted to him by the Most Reverend Archbishop of Philippi, from the original found in the shrine of St. Cunera; namely that one which I have in hand. Besides, John Gerbrand of Leyden, a Carmelite, in the Chronicle of the Bishops of Utrecht and the Counts of Holland chapter 4 and the two following, or rather a sermon, is given from a Manuscript. described the same Life and translation. We ourselves had it long ago from two Manuscripts, one of the Monastery of Böddeken in Westphalia, the other of the church of St. Saviour at Utrecht: which, being collated with each other and with the printed copy and the Rhenen membrane, we have judged the same Legend should here be exhibited, that the Reader may by his own judgment excerpt thence what he shall approve more: but we give it under the title of a Sermon, as more apt.

[11] Together with the said membranes we likewise received, copied in the year 1695, Documents of the Relics inspected in the year 1615. on the 5th of September, the Testimony of T. Donckers, Apostolic Protonotary, concerning the Relics and their visitation and custody, under the mark of the year 1615, the 16th of May, old style, of the following tenor. When the Lord John Ludolphi, Vicar of the church

of Rhenen, had died on a pilgrimage to 's-Hertogenbosch in the said year on the 7th of May; who hitherto, by permission of the Superiors, had held in custody, on account of the iniquity of the times, the Relics of the most holy Virgin and Martyr Cunera, Patroness of the people of Rhenen; he being dead, the visitation and inspection of these same Relics was made by the very Reverend and Venerable Lords, the Lord Wilger a Moerendael, Dean of the church of St. Peter at Utrecht; the Reverend Lord Victor Schorelius, senior Priest and Vicar of the same Church; and Master Jacob Boolius, Prebendary of the Church of Blessed Mary; and there were found in a wooden case these following things, in four different wrappings. In the first wrapping, which on the outside is covered with red Damascene fine linen, and within with a white linen veil, these were. Two very great bones, to the length of a palm and a half. Three other bones, to the length of one palm. Five other long bones, but somewhat smaller. In the second wrapping, which on the outside is covered with black and worn fine linen, within with white cloth, these were found: Three parts of the head, to the breadth of three fingers, and a length a little more than a finger; a larger bone, as it seemed, from the shoulder-blades; two thicker parts of bones, and somewhat larger; seven notable parts, but smaller still than the preceding; yet four other smallest parts of bones. The third is a casket of red fine linen, with golden edges, in which were two fillets or head-ornaments of woven fine linen, in one of which cling many insignia of that Virgin of a double kind, in the other little golden flowers are interwoven: In the fourth wrapping is the Towel of her strangling, long a little more than two ells, broad three quarters of an ell and a half, wrapped in two other towels, rudely marked with white little flowers of fine linen: to which, for an uppermost wrapping, there seems to be added an ancient and worn Corporal. These things, inspected and visited by us, were again enclosed in the same casket for preservation for the above-named city of Rhenen, in the year and on the day as above: In testimony of which thing we have subscribed this schedule of testimony, written at that very time. And the subscribed were the same three as above.

[12] Crombach, in the Ursuline History book 10 chapter 41, and in the year 1638, recites the Letter of the Most Illustrious Philip, Archbishop of Philippi, and Apostolic Vicar through the Provinces of the United States, given at Utrecht on the 12th of March, in the year 1638, in these words: Concerning the life, death, and miracles of St. Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, I cannot write and report things more true and more solid, than those which, both printed more than a hundred years ago, I found enclosed in the casket, which contained the Head and the greater part of the Body of the same holy Martyr, together with the hand-towel or hand-cloth, with which she was strangled; and with two hair-fillets or head-fillets (in Belgic we call them Huyven) which all are preserved in good custody with us. As to the history of the life, when also a Manuscript book of miracles was found. written in manuscript nearly two hundred years ago … I add to these a copy of it. As for the miracles … they are noted in sufficiently great number in the said Manuscript book, and I believe that in the printed copy, which was sent to Cologne, the same are contained. Of others more recent or done about our times I have nothing certain, except from the report of certain elders; nor has it been permitted hitherto to take full information. I know nevertheless that one or another, who labored with a very dangerous obstruction of the throat, when they devoutly applied to the throat a particle of the Relics of St. Cunera sent to them by us, received the grace of health, and reported the same as accepted from God through the intercession of St. Cunera.

§. III. The cult of the Relics of St. Cunera through various places, and certain miracles wrought at them.

[13] The heads which are held elsewhere, Crombach, praised in the preceding §, in book 8 weaving an Index of all those Virgins, who, venerated in various places, are thought to have belonged to the Ursuline Society, numbers more than one Cunera, at which indeed I marvel: since neither from the sepulchral titles in book 7 chapter 19, nor in the Index, woven after the same book, from the revelations ascribed to Blessed Elizabeth and to Hermann, is a name of this kind found. For if the omission of the Rhenen Cunera in those can be excused, as being slain long after the others and elsewhere; whence, I ask, could it be known that those Heads which are held in the church of St. Vincent at Cologne, and in the Cistercian monastery of Swivekan among the Virgins at Dendermonde, under the name of St. Cunera, are not of this Cunera. are of Martyrs of that Society? Unless it can be said that of the truth indeed of those Relics it is clear from this, that they were taken from a heap of others; but the names gratuitously assumed, as is done daily concerning the Relics brought from Rome. It will be clear meanwhile that neither Head is of the Rhenen Cunera, since that which is believed to be hers is still kept in her casket.

[14] Was there at Rhenen a use of proving the perjured at her Relics? For the rest, as I think those Heads pertain nothing to her, so neither do I think it makes for her peculiar praise, that in the Life of Blessed Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn, illustrated on the 5th of June, number 7, it is read, of the men of his mother, who, to gratify their lady, attempting to alienate the son's inheritance, offered an oath on her behalf, to be made upon the Relics of the Saints, brought from the neighboring church of Rhenen, built in honor of St. Cunera, those upon which they were wont to swear. For although Crombach in the whole chapter 40 of book 10 attempts to prove thence, that there was a most ancient custom of the people of Cleves and Guelders, of proving the perjured at the Relics of St. Cunera; he nevertheless brings nothing, by which either he proves that the Relics, which they brought from the church of St. Cunera, were hers; nor, this being granted, that it was peculiar to these Relics, does he prove that this custom existed universally concerning any Relics whatever. However that may have been, let no one believe that Meinwerk held in contempt Relics of whatever kind, because he cast them away, and, the Relics of the Apostles Peter and Paul and St. Blaise being brought forth from his store-chambers, made them swear upon these; but let him understand, that those were deservedly suspect to the holy Bishop, which men ready to perjure themselves offered; and that, to do this with more impunity, perhaps bringing profane bones into the midst. Meanwhile from that very place is proved the celebrity of the Saint, in the age of Meinwerk, that is, in the 11th century.

[15] The continuation of the same celebrity, in nothing diminished through the predominating heresies, is even now proved by the frequent use, in all the surrounding region, The name frequent there. of adopting the name of Cunera for girls to be baptized. But that name is commonly pronounced contractedly Knera, whence the diminutive Knertje or Knirtje. I also find a little schedule written by the hand of our Rosweyde in these words, Peter Blyenborg, Licentiate of Sacred Theology, unknown to us hitherto, places this Collect on the 11th of June, An old Collect, the day of St. Cunera Virgin.

Antiphon. Cunera, noble Virgin, the solace of the poor; / may she be the diligent help of the country of Utrecht.

O God, who for the constancy of the Christian faith, at the prayers of your glorious Virgin and Martyr Cunera, turned loaves into wood; and adorned her, strangled for you, with the crown of martyrdom; grant us, we beseech you, by her prayers, to be converted from sins, and to be freed from the bonds of unclean spirits. and her patronage, especially against ills of the throat. But before the rise of Calvinism or Geuzism in Belgium, there were found certain Belgic and uncouth verses, which Rosweyde left in the same schedule to this effect: At Rhenen, at the foot of a lofty and magnificent tower, stands the most adorned church of St. Cunera, said to have been martyred there: whose body there rests, and whose sepulchre is visited by men, horses, and oxen, laboring under grave disease: but there are cured especially the pains of the throat.

[16] And these are the things which I have been able to gather concerning the ancient cult of Cunera among the people of Rhenen, Certain bones carried from Belgium into Portugal, and concerning some of her Relics still preserved there. What was done with the other parts of the sacred body; it pleases me next to narrate. But first I would wish you, Reader, to remember, that in the Appendix for the 2nd day of April to the Acts of St. Mary the Egyptian, I gave a public document, by which it is clear; that to Emmanuel King of Portugal, in the year 1565, by Margaret of Austria, then Governess of Belgium, were sent the Relics of St. Adrian and of five Belgic Saints there named, among whom is St. Cunera: and thence brought back to Antwerp: of which several the King gave a separate particle to his granddaughter Mary, betrothed to Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, son of the aforesaid Margaret; reserving the remaining larger parts for himself and his kingdom. But how these were thence carried away into Gaul, by Antony the Bastard, arrogating to himself the title of the Lusitanian kingdom, and by him about the year 1594 given to his son Emmanuel, a Religious of the Cistercian Order, together with many other most excellent Relics of thirty-four saints, and in the year 1633 were by him consigned to the monastery of St. Saviour at Antwerp, and finally in the year 71 of this present century were solemnly elevated, may be seen drawn out in §4 of the preliminary Commentary. This one thing I shall have said, that in Number 16 are recounted two parts of the bones of St. Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, on the 21st of June, where it should be read the 12th.

[17] But a far greater portion of the sacred body came to our College of Emmerich, in the year 1602, more brought to Emmerich in 1602, together with these letters. In the name of the holy and individual Trinity. Amen. Be it known to all who shall read or hear read the present document, that the Noble Lord Thomas a Buerlo, in 1602, on the 2nd of January, brought the Relics of St. Cunera, Virgin and Martyr, which are kept at Rhenen, which were given to him by the venerable man and Lord John Ludolphi; I. A bone of the shin or arm; II. A round bone from the neck with three little particles; with the seals of the hair-fillet, III, from the fillet of the same Virgin and Martyr, two (as is thought) hereditary insignia of the father and mother, embroidered with a needle, which the same city of Rhenen used, received from its Patroness; IV, A little bundle of threads from the sacred cloth, with which she was strangled. All which the said Priest, the Lord Buerlo being present, diligently took out of the casket, in which the said Martyr's Relics were kept, which by him were secretly preserved. In faith of which thing they subscribed and strengthened with a seal, on the 24th of April in the year 1602, Thomas a Buerlo, of Zutphen, and for some years an exile for the cause of religion, residing in the College of Emmerich: and John Hasius of the Society of Jesus, then Rector of the College, and there dead in the 24th year of this century: who enclosed the aforesaid Relics in a little casket of gilded copper, adorned with silver plates, and altogether similar to the other casket, by the faculty of the Apostolic Nuncio, in which he had enclosed the Relics of SS. Eusebius, Roman Martyr, Patron of Arnhem, received from the same Lord in like manner, of which mention is to be made on the 25th of August: but both those Caskets are at the same time exposed on the altar on the greater feasts, and each on its own day is venerated by our men with the office of a Double rite.

But that all these things and other similar might be legitimate, Octavius Frangipani, Bishop of Tricarico, Apostolic Nuncio to the Princes of Belgium Albert and Isabella, granted to the aforesaid Reverend Father John Hasius, Rector of the College, full power of collecting from heretical places and retaining the sacred Relics, letters being drawn up and sealed concerning that matter, from Nieuwpoort in Flanders in the year 1602. So testifies he who sent us the description of all the Relics of the College of Emmerich, in the year 1669, Frederick Eimeren of the Society of Jesus.

[18] I, sufficiently certain, together with most who are now learned in the matter Tesserary, or as they call it Armorial, that no hereditary insignia were in use in the age of St. Willibrord, which seals are not well believed to be the hereditary insignia of the Saint. much less of St. Ursula, and not even long after; but that they first began to be employed in the 10th century, at first indeed arbitrary and vague, then fixed; took care to have delineated at Emmerich and here expressed those very ones which are inexpertly presumed to have been the insignia of Cunera's parents.

I would not indeed wish it to be thought that they were painted and placed there, to persuade posterity that St. Cunera used them, to preserve the memory of her parents, and left them to the people of Rhenen to be employed (for this would be a base imposture) but to make public faith to the very fillets, in which they saw them interwoven, that those were anciently preserved together with the sacred bones: and that the insignia indeed of the Lord of Rhenen, which the town too uses, namely three yellow bands drawn across a silver field, sprinkled with six little crosses of the same metal set saltirewise, commonly called Saltires, the others were of the Wife or Lady, drawn perhaps from the Rotzenberg family, which has three silver globes upon a black ground for its arms, as may be seen in the Armorial Garden printed at Ghent, under the mark of the year 1567, as the most noble Lord Adrian Westphalen, a diligent searcher of such things, writes to me from Alkmaar. It may also be that the fillets themselves are an offering, placed to the Saint by some wife of a Lord of Rhenen, in memory of being cured of some grave pain of the head.

[19] Furthermore among the many precious Relics, in which the Metropolitan church of Utrecht was rich, certain notable ones too were reckoned of the same St. Cunera, From the redeemed Relics of Utrecht, I know not how long ago brought thither. When the Calvinists, having gained possession of affairs, made little of all these, a Catholic citizen, surnamed Botter, a man of a Consular family (whose widow, surviving until the middle of this century, is much praised in the life of the Venerable Joanna Randenradia, who died among the people of Roermond with the reputation of great sanctity) Botter, I say, redeemed all of them, at the price of two thousand florins. But the twelve years of the truce, kept between the Spaniards and the Hollanders, being completed, a certain Canoness surnamed a Rhynfeld, granddaughter of the Lord Botter, gave the Relics of St. Cunera to the very Reverend Lord John Moors, Abbot of the Premonstratensian Canonical Order at Berne: who deposited them in his Pastoral church of Berlicum. a part of St. Cunera carried to Berlicum, Hence the devotion toward the Saint being propagated, it stirred up Catholics from everywhere, especially those who dwell about Rhenen in the Veluwe and the Betuwe. But these flow together especially on the Sunday immediately preceding the feast of St. John the Baptist, when her feast is there celebrated.

[20] Nor after 's-Hertogenbosch was taken by the States did that public confluence cease, and thence into Bedaf, as long as by the peace of Münster it was permitted to the Confederates to prohibit all public exercise of the Catholic Religion throughout the whole territory of 's-Hertogenbosch: that nevertheless the cult of the Saint might not utterly cease, it pleased the Prelate of Berne to transfer the Relics of St. Cunera to the nearest field left to the Catholic rite; into the village, I say, of Bedaf, under the Dominion of Ravenstein, where more and more the popular devotion toward St. Cunera grows famous. So the Lord Lucas Sionghers, long residing at Bedaf, and in the year 1690 caring for the Catholic cause at Berlicum, in his letters to me: and he adds: I saw, an eyewitness, a thousand men, on the aforesaid Sunday, coming together with great devotion, and not without fruit and relief of the sick, especially against pains of the throat. I also knew a most honest widow of the town of Grave; it is honored with great concourse. whom, her throat being inflamed incurably, the physicians had placed beyond hope of convalescence. But the virgin Cunera, piously invoked, was present, and dispelled the evil: but she herself, mindful of the benefit, returns yearly to pay her vow. I have also heard a certain Parish-priest of the Teutonic Order, asserting from the pulpit, that he had been cured of a similar evil by making a vow, and the waxen offerings, hundreds upon hundreds, hung up at Bedaf, make plain to how many Cunera, invoked, has there been a help. Of the Lord Botter and his wife more will be treated below, where of the Relics of St. Odulf, communicated through her to our College of Halle.

A SERMON ON THE FEAST DAY.

Composed about the beginning of the 14th century, from Codices anciently written and printed.

Cunera, Virgin Martyr, at Rhenen in the diocese of Utrecht (St.)

BHL Number: 2011

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

[1] Wonderful is God in his Saints, who, among the other miracles of his power, Prologue concerning the end and usefulness of this Legend, works wonders even in the fragile sex, sending Blessed Cunera once to us, the farthest inhabitants of almost the worldly circle, did wonders in her life, in death likewise and after death: which Saint, proposed to us as an example of virtues, we are deservedly bound to honor and venerate, as is fitting; especially we who dwelling live in the circuit of the place of her passion, that is in the diocese of Utrecht. To honor, I say, this Saint, and other Saints of both sexes, by recalling their life, profits us toward imitation; while we attentively weigh which, we are incited to shake off the torpor of the mind, and to follow their footsteps, according to the measure of our strength. Moreover from the worthy veneration of the Saints fruit is acquired for us, and from their prayer. Let us therefore recite concerning the life and death of the holy Virgin and Martyr Cunera, the things which are written of her.

[2] For when Blessed Ursula, obeying the divine nods, had proposed with her Companions to go to Rome, to visit the thresholds of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of the other Saints resting there; in which Cunera is said to have accompanied St. Ursula, she sent messengers to Blessed Cunera her kinswoman in lesser Orcarda, to the city called Orcada namely York asking that she would be willing to set out with her. She, gladly assenting to the prayers of St. Ursula, having obtained the permission of her parents, went to her as quickly as possible. But her father Aurelius and mother Florentia grieved at the absence of their daughter Cunera. After these things St. Ursula, her Companions being gathered, accomplishing the pilgrimage undertaken; and on the return coming by ship to Cologne, suffered Martyrdom with the other Virgins, and withdrawn by the King of the Rhine from the slaughter of her companions, as is more fully contained in the Legend of the eleven thousand Virgins. Moreover at that time when the holy throng of Virgins was thus martyred, there was present there Radbod, King of the Rhine, seeing the Virgins atrociously slain. At length, Blessed Cunera going out of the ship, and willing to suffer Martyrdom for the love of Christ, and led to Rhenen: the said King, moved by mercy on account of her elegance, covered her with his cloak: and leading her with him to the town of Rhenen, where he dwelt, protected her from that death by God's favor. This Virgin Cunera alone, of that happy College of Virgins, is read to have remained surviving.

[3] These things being thus accomplished, Blessed Cunera, being in the King's lodging, where ministering piously and faithfully, always had God before her eyes; not erring from his commandments, indeed unceasingly giving herself without weariness to prayers, vigils, abstinences, and other good works, she went from virtue to virtue, and altogether despised every ornament of the world with its glory. She came to the aid of the poor according to her ability: and because glory follows even the unwilling; the King, considering Cunera to attend fervently to virtuous works, exalted her, preferring her to the whole household, and committed to her the keys of the kingdom. Having received which prerogative, Cunera in nothing exalted herself; but rather, humbling herself in all things to the King, the Queen, and the whole household, by the jealous mistress she was obliging in all lawful and honest things: and for this cause she was loved by the King above all who served him. But the Queen, weighing the singular love of the King which he bore toward that Virgin; envied her beyond measure, desiring to blacken her illustrious name in whatever way.

[4] Wherefore the King once reclining at table, she narrated feigned evils about the holy Virgin, she is charged with prodigality, that she might tear him from her love. But because the deed conquers the word, the King, indignant, did not give credence to the Queen, enjoining silence upon her, because he found Cunera faithful in all things. Whence the Queen, conceiving a greater envy, after the wonted manner of the wicked, who always strive after what is forbidden, panted with all her might by fair means and foul toward the confusion of Cunera. After some time St. Cunera, while she was passing through the palace with loaves received in her bosom for the use of the poor; and is excused by the miracle of the loaves turned into chips of wood: was seen by the Queen, who thus addresses the King: My Lord King: behold Cunera, beloved by you, prodigally scatters your goods, as you will be able to learn by ocular faith. Cunera is called by the King: who, much terrified, humbly invoked God, that she might be freed from the impending confusion. By divine clemency the loaves were turned into little spears: which the King seeing in her bosom, rebuked the Queen with hard words.

[5] From that hour the Queen, considering that she could not harm Cunera by words, is afterward secretly strangled by the same one, contrived to slay her secretly; seeking counsel from her handmaid, how this might opportunely be done. The handmaid, understanding the Queen's will, conspired with her in the death of the innocent Virgin. The King therefore riding out for the sake of hunting to the mildness of the air; seizing Cunera they threw her down, and with a hand-towel of singular workmanship, (which is still in this sacred church, which is called Rhenen) strangling her, they buried her, suffocated, in the stable. But after this enormous and inhuman crime was perpetrated by them, and buried in the stable they firmly promised that they would never reveal it to anyone. The King after a little while returning from the hunt, the Queen with a placid gesture eagerly greeted him with a cheerful countenance. The King observed the Queen with the household coming to meet him. But not seeing Cunera, he asked where she was. To whom the Queen, busy to hide her wickedness, answered with a premeditated lie, saying: In your absence, Lord King, the parents of Cunera came to our dwelling, leading her away with too much haste.

[6] she is revealed by a double miracle. Meanwhile the King's horses led to the stable, in which St. Cunera was buried, could in no way be compelled by blows or goads to enter. Wherefore led to another stable, they easily entered. But the King reclining at table, in the evening the stable-keeper, seeing in that place of the stable in which St. Cunera was entombed candles burning in the likeness of a Cross, quickly announced it to the King. Which heard, the King, perplexed with great astonishment, ordered the truth to be more diligently investigated.

The servants therefore running to the stable, saw the candles burning from afar: but while they were drawing near, they utterly vanished from their eyes. And when they had entered the stable, seeing the fresh earth newly disturbed, they dug it up: and finding the body of Blessed Cunera, with the hand-towel by which she had been strangled, lifted it from the pit. But the King, seeing Cunera, whom he had most greatly loved, so enormously slain, from probable conjectures and from violent presumption, The mistress, driven into madness, is destroyed by a fall: discovered that the Queen had been the doer of her death. Kindled therefore with vast fury, the King punished the Queen without mercy, so far that, bereft of reason, she wandered through the whole region, insane for three days: and tearing out her hair, and rending her garments, she became utterly furious. As it is written, He will destroy the evil evilly; it befell concerning the Queen, God permitting: who at length, after three days' insanity, threw herself headlong from a certain summit. But the King, deprived of the solace of Cunera, in her honor gave his palace. This holy Virgin Cunera suffered in the year of the Lord 339. And here (as the new title written in red has it) begins the Translation of Blessed Cunera Virgin: it begins in this manner:

[7] In the year of the Lord 698, Blessed Willibrord, first Bishop of Utrecht, St. Willibrord, asked to elevate the body sent there as Archbishop by Pope Sergius, with his Deacon Blessed Adalbert and subdeacon Blessed Werenfrid, while he intended to visit his Metropolitan; it happened that he passed through the town of Rhenen: who, when he made some little stay there, the wiser men of the town coming to him recited many things concerning the deeds and virtues of Blessed Cunera; beseeching unanimously and devoutly, that he would deign to translate that blessed Virgin and Martyr, for whom God almighty was daily wont to do various miracles. The testimony of those worthy of faith being heard, the holy Prelate rejoiced: but because he was then occupied with arduous affairs, which did not admit delay without inconvenience; is admonished by a storm not to defer the matter. he promised to fulfill their pious will. But after he had reached the end of his own, descending the river Rhine by ship, he came peacefully near the mount of Heymon, where a horrible storm arising, and almost swallowing his ship, compelled all being in the ship to dread submersion. Therefore Blessed Willibrord, invoking the divine help, humbly prayed for the mitigation of the storm. Which being appeased by the grace of God, he remembered that he had promised the townsmen at Rhenen the translation of Blessed Cunera Virgin, when he should return. He confessed therefore before his men, that on account of the forgetting of his promise, he had been deservedly imperiled. But when they were beside the town of Rhenen, he ordered the ship to be quickly brought to shore: and so it was done. Blessed Willibrord, going out of the ship, admonished his men to approach the place of Blessed Cunera humbly [and devoutly. They came therefore all, according to the admonition of the holy man, to the place where St. Cunera rested; approaching the same with sincere minds, and asking to be aided by her merits].

[8] Henceforth the Saint is venerated throughout the whole diocese. After these things St. Willibrord, employing the due solemnities, reverently translated the body of the most blessed Virgin and Martyr Cunera. Whence it came about that her name was exceedingly magnified throughout the diocese of Utrecht; and the miracles, which the Lord was wont to work for her mercifully, were divulged. Let us therefore venerate this glorious Virgin and Martyr, for whom, as has been said before, God did wonders in her life, namely by the changing of loaves into other things; and in death, by the lighting of candles at her tomb; and after death, by the frequent working of miracles. For this Virgin, for no fault, but for the virtuous works which she unceasingly did, lost her temporal life: and therefore Jesus Christ our Lord bestowed on her with his own an eternal life, who with God the Father lives and reigns, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

p The Manuscript: "in the sea": which, since it seemed unfitting to the transcribers, (for the mouth of the old Rhine to the sea, now obstructed, is distant from Utrecht more than two days' navigation, but in a straight line of sky 8 leagues) the Böddeken and Louvain copyists preferred, just as those whom they transcribed, here too to omit the words [] intercepted.

q The Manuscript: "They made"; and hence, the sense being disturbed, the same scribe preferred again to omit two lines, in his judgment less necessary. But John of Leyden, having got the true reading, wrote, "they came."

MIRACLES

Collected from the Rhenen Manuscript, but a mutilated one.

Cunera, Virgin Martyr, at Rhenen in the diocese of Utrecht (St.)

BHL Number: 2012

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

§ I. The dead raised, blasphemers punished, the blind enlightened.

[1] The same fortune, which took away the end of the Legend from the Rhenen membranes, the 4th and 5th leaf being torn out, has also begrudged us the knowledge of the first miracles; and left the 6th leaf with this imperfect sense at its head, "giving thanks to God, and they paid their vows to Cunera." There follow then three miracles concerning the dead raised, in this manner.

[2] Two boys are resuscitated: At Veerhuizen the boy of Gerard, called Crauwel, fell into a cauldron full of porridge: and the dead boy being drawn out by the mother, as it seemed to her, she promised to Blessed Cunera, that if the boy revived, she would without delay carry him to the church of Rhenen; and would weigh him with wine and wheat in her honor. He revived: and she fulfilled the vow. At Rhenen John, son of Henry, otherwise Putinan, fell into a well; and, as it seemed, was drawn out dead. His parents invoked Blessed Cunera, that he might come to his former life, vowing an offering for him. He revived: and they paid their vows. This one was a citizen of Rhenen.

[3] In the year of the Lord 1403 at Utrecht beside the bridge, named Rodenborger-brug, a certain boy being in a boat, fishing for the things which had fallen from another boat in winter time: who falling from the boat, swam for some time thus upon the water, only the buttocks of the boy being seen. But certain standing upon the street, likewise a third not knowing, doubted what this was, that swam in the water: and inspecting diligently, they recognized that it was a boy. They with diligence drew him out of the ditch, and placed him upon the ground, that the water might run out of the boy's body. But certain bystanders, having confidence in the blessed Virgin and Martyr Cunera, said: O Blessed Cunera, who do many signs and miracles, raise this drowned boy, and pray God for him that he may come to his former life. We promise to God, to offer him to you with offerings, at Rhenen in your church. While they promised such vows, the boy yawned as if he had awakened from sleep, and was healed. And they, paying their vows, gave glory to God and Blessed Cunera. Thus far the 6th leaf, whose other face, as also the first of the following 7th leaf, remained blank; to that end, I believe, that other similar ones might be inscribed, to be referred to the first general title, which perished, concerning the dead resuscitated: for after those empty pages there follows a certain likewise general title, concerning vindications, how St. Cunera avenged herself on her blasphemers and on the mad: and after three examples of these, the space of a column and a half, remaining on the first face of the 8th leaf, is filled with miracles of another kind, written by a different hand and with livelier ink; but the reverse face again has a general rubricated title concerning the blind, and again the reverse part of the 9th leaf is almost wholly empty, and there is a passing over to the 11th leaf to the title concerning captives.

[4] There was a certain indiscreet man of Vleuten of the diocese of Utrecht, who in the year of the Lord 1378, on the day of the Translation of Blessed Cunera, at the first station which is made at Elst, blaspheming Blessed Cunera spoke thus: Blessed Cunera seems to be a procuress, because pimps and bawds, who cannot be joined to one another, come here to Blessed Cunera that they may there be able to fornicate. the blasphemer is driven into madness, Who immediately fell to the ground, and acquired the pest of madness, gnawing his hands: and would have torn off all his members with his teeth, if he had not been held by his kinsmen. Brother Nicholas of the Order of the Augustinians of Dordrecht, at that time keeping the station, and at the vows of others is restored to himself, and making a sermon, besought all the faithful of Christ, there gathered in honor of Blessed Cunera,

beseeched, that for the love of God they would invoke the soul of the Blessed Virgin Cunera, for that blasphemer and most wretched sinner, that he might recover his former health. But his kinsmen vowed to God and Blessed Cunera, that while he was in life, he would yearly visit the thresholds of Blessed Cunera in shirt and breeches, all other garments being taken off, with a pound of wax. After the space of one hour, that man came to himself, and lamentably confessed his sins, promising to God and Blessed Cunera to fulfill all the vows of his kinsmen. He did what he vowed, and obtained health until death.

[5] There was also another blasphemer, in the year of the Lord 1419, on the Vigil of the Translation of Blessed Cunera Virgin, another is punished by a swift death. sitting upon his horse, near the gate of the city which is called the Mount-Gate, saying: Behold how many foolish faces come to visit one foolish face. Whose horse immediately breaking its neck fell dead, and on the second day the blasphemer expired. Let us not marvel that the Saints will avenge themselves on their blasphemers. Whence we read in the books of Kings, that Elias said to the captain of fifty of King Ahaziah, who was coming to Beelzebub the god of Ekron, to inquire concerning his infirmity, whether he would recover or not; Elias meeting him on the way said to him and to his fifty; If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and devour you and your fifty: who in a moment were devoured. And if Elias did this; the Saints of God assuredly have power to do this same thing to those, who did not believe a Prophet to be in Israel.

[6] At Apeldoorn in the Veluwe, there was a certain man sick with the disease of madness. His wife vowed to Blessed Cunera, The madman is healed by a vow thrice repeated: that if the infirmity in him ceased, she with him, on the Vigil of her Translation, would visit her with offerings. He neglected the vow, and the infirmity was doubled in him. They vowed in the second year to fulfill the vow; which also a second time they neglected. Then in the third year that infirmity fell upon him, so that he gnawed the fingers from his hands with his mouth. Then a third time they vowed their vows, and satisfied them, and he obtained health. The things which follow and fill the rest of the page are, as I said, inscribed by another hand, nor do they pertain to the general title, but are written under titles added in a most recent and minute character, concerning captives, concerning a dead woman resuscitated at Tiel, a dead man resuscitated.

[7] The servant of a certain farmer, dwelling in the parish of Rhenen, was made captive by robbers, malefactors, a captive is freed, grave-plunderers; and being led captive by these into a certain wood, situated near Wageningen, commonly called the Most, bound on all sides cruelly with iron chains, so that by his own strength he thought he could in no way be loosed. Wherefore filled with grief and bitterness, in his mind bewailing his misery, and wearied with various troublesome afflictions, lying on the ground he began little by little to incline to sleep, desiring for a little to recreate his strength. To him sweetly sleeping appeared Blessed Cunera, saying; Arise eagerly, for you are redeemed from the hand of your plundering enemies: the bonds with which you were bound are loosed. Go, and offer your gift, and before my Relics, which rest at Rhenen, render thanksgivings for this benefit. The captive therefore rose, and felt himself freed, and offered his gift for the benefit, piously bestowed on him by Blessed Cunera.

[8] At Tiel there was a certain matron having a certain child, who lay dead for three hours, a dead boy is resuscitated: and no vital spirit appeared in him, as the mother of the boy herself asserted: who, greatly saddened by the so sudden death of her infant, yet having great confidence in the blessed Virgin Cunera, began confidently to invoke her as her helper in the grief of her heart; that her boy might be able to come back to his former life by her prayers; making a vow to present the boy and herself, to her image, in the church of Rhenen, if the boy revived, with their worthy oblations. Which being done, the boy aforesaid attained sound the flower of his former life, to the joy of his mother and the honor of the most high King. This miracle, the mother sacrificing the boy, related with gladness to the masters of the fabric of the above-said church. And so it is established to many discreet men at Tiel. In the year from the nativity of the Lord 1430, on the 5th of the month of May, it was first divulged in the diocese of the Pontificate of Utrecht.

[9] In the year of the Lord 1498, a certain woman of Montfoort, on the vigil of the translation of Blessed Cunera Virgin, at the hour of Vespers, a blind woman struck with apoplexy is enlightened and healed: was carried into the church upon a vehicle: who related to all being in the aforesaid church, that for three years and more she had been struck with apoplexy, and in the same hour lost all her sight; in the stroke she retained not one member, which she could move, except the tongue in her mouth. In the aforesaid year, before the feast of the Translation of Blessed Cunera Virgin, in sleep (as it seemed to her) she was admonished, that she should promise to visit on the aforesaid feast the relics of the blessed Cunera Virgin, with an offering of one pound of wax, and to keep this yearly: Blessed Cunera promising that she would intercede for her with our Lord Jesus Christ, and that she would recover her health: which also was done. While she was carried into the church of Blessed Cunera, around her sepulchre, she was at once healed of the apoplexy, and obtained the light of her eyes; all being in the church marveling, and giving praise to God and Blessed Cunera. But she, paying her vow, giving thanks to God and Blessed Cunera, with sound body returned to her homeland. At the same hour two boys were beheld there; and the fathers and mothers of the boys testified, that one was born blind, likewise two blind boys; although he seemed to have the pupil whole in his eyes; the other's eyes had been extinguished through smallpox for three years: who both around the sepulchre of the said Virgin acquired the light of their eyes. Their parents, giving thanks to God and Blessed Cunera, making an offering, with great joy returned to their homeland.

[10] and a third, at the touch of the cloth with which the Saint was strangled. About the year of the Lord 1380, on the day of Blessed Cunera Virgin, when the Relics were carried to Elst, where the first station is kept; a certain male boy, of twelve years or thereabouts, born blind, was led by his father and mother before the bier of Blessed Cunera; who of their own motion said, that three times in sleep they had been admonished, that they should carry their son on the day of the Translation at Elst before the bier of Blessed Cunera, and permit him to touch the eyes of the said boy with the bare cloth, by which Blessed Cunera was strangled, that he might receive whole sight. Who when they had related this to Lord Nicholas of the Order of Blessed Augustine at Dordrecht, and to the Masters of the fabric and the Council of the city of Rhenen for the time being there; they assented to their petition. While the said cloth was shown to the common people, as is the custom, thus bare it was placed to the eyes of the said boy once, a second, and a third time. He, as the parents said, who had been born blind, received light, and marveling at the beauty of the world, which he never saw, asked about everything. The pilgrims with the parents seeing these things, gave praise to God; and the parents, making an offering for him, with great joy returned to their homeland.

[11] William de Ysendorn, son of the Lord de Ysendorn of the diocese of Utrecht, about the year of the Lord 1389, Likewise a one-eyed youth, revealed in confession to Lord Wolter Zimdelbier, Vicar in the church of Rhenen of the said diocese, concerning the loss of the sight of one of his eyes, namely the right, which he had lost for three years: which he had acquired from a fall by which he fell from his horse; asking him humbly, if it could be done, that he might be touched with the bare cloth, by which the blessed Virgin had been strangled; because he had so great faith in the Lord and Blessed Cunera, that he would receive the light of his eye. He himself, on account of the benefit which he and his had done to the church of Blessed Cunera Virgin, obtained his wish. One day in the same year before the feast of the Translation, by chance he came with his father, mother, and sister into the city where the said Wolter had been in his lodging when the Relics were carried, as is the custom to carry them; and he obtained that the said William, with father, mother, and sister, were led to the place where at that time the Relics were placed bare. They, seeing the Relics, bowed to the ground, kneeling. The said William alone rose, and prostrating himself to the ground before the cloth of Blessed Cunera, with great humility and devotion, making a prayer with great weeping, rose. Afterward also he asked that his eye be touched with the bare cloth, which they entrusted, candles being lighted, to the said Lord Wolter. Who, approaching the cloth with great reverence, holding it in his hand, touched the eye of the said William once, a second, and a third time. He himself, the left eye being first closed, and the right opened, again and again fell to the ground: and lifting up his eyes with devotion to the cloth, said, Lord father, and Lady mother, thanks to God and the Blessed Virgin Cunera, I have now received my light, and therefore I see well as ever in my life I saw. He himself with father, mother, and sister making an offering, with great joy departing from that place, in a short while afterward offered an image of silver in honor of her in the church.

[12] More are wanting. Hence almost the whole page was left empty: which then another by another hand thus began to fill. A miracle concerning the contracted. A certain woman of Culemborg of the diocese of Utrecht about the year of the Lord 1418, on the Vigil: the rest here omitted to be written, see below from the German booklet in Crombach: for the following two leaves which perished under their several titles likewise perhaps proceeded, in part empty or afterward supplied. I pass to the 11th leaf.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

p So we commonly call it, what entirely is Apoplexia.

q Crombach in the chapter just cited renders it Variolae (smallpox), commonly we use the diminutive, and call it poxkens or pockelen; but with the simple word Pocke, to signify a fouler disease.

r This Nicholas of Dordrecht could have enlarged the Augustinian Alphabet of Herrera and the Encomiasticon of Elssius, if he had been known to them.

s Himself without doubt, who above is "Iseldorn."

§. II. Captives freed, various diseases cured, even of animals.

[13] A noble captive, and destined to death by his enemies, The young lord Arnold de Hoenpoel, of the diocese of Cologne, had been captured by his enemies and imprisoned, so that his friends despaired of his life: because his enemies often treated of his death, and agreed and had agreed upon the day of his slaying. But his mother perceiving this, namely the Lady de Hoenpoel, much saddened and anxious about the slaying or death of her son, by the counsel of her friends, invoked the blessed Virgin and Martyr Cunera, for the deliverance of her son Arnold, that with honor she would deliver him from such peril and captivity; promising, that if her son escaped with honor that peril, first when she should search out the truth, and see him with her eyes, that then on the morrow she would prepare with him to visit the blessed Virgin Cunera in form, his mother making a vow for him, If the aforesaid young lord Arnold, for fear of body or anxiety, dared not visit the aforesaid St. Cunera in his own person; that then she would take another pilgrim for him, and also would weigh him with wheat and wine, gold and silver, there, or her for him; and also would sacrifice one wax candle of twenty or thirty pounds of wax.

[14] On the morrow, the midday meal being made, the said young lord Arnold came riding into Vorbeken of the diocese of Cologne, in his duflia, where his mother had made her stay. the night preceding the decreed slaughter, But his mother, filled with the greatest joy, asked him how it stood with him, because she had heard marvelous things of his death, since his enemies were treating of it. But he answering said: Today they would have fulfilled their will in me, because according to their purpose they would have beheaded me today, if our Lord Jesus Christ had not provided for this, with his mercy. For about midnight a certain most beautiful Virgin came to me, of twelve or thirteen years, who broke the stocks, is freed by the Saint appearing to him, and leading me from the house, beyond the first and second ditch, into the straight way, said to me with insistence, that I should fulfill the vow made by my mother for me; I lost her and she vanished from my eyes, and I found this horse; upon which I sat, rode through the whole night and day onward, and wished to appear to you first. His mother, giving great thanks to Blessed Cunera, and he promises never to harm any one of Rhenen: said: O Blessed Cunera, great is your grace with God. And she said to her son: Behold the blessed Virgin and Martyr Cunera has freed you from that peril. We will prepare on the morrow to visit her, as I vowed for you. But he answered: Mother, this I dare not do, because I am an enemy of the Lord Bishop of Utrecht. I promise to God and Blessed Cunera, never in my life from this time to make enemies of or to violate the city of Rhenen, or those dwelling in that parish, or her pilgrims; and as far as I can and know, to free them, as much as is in me, from all peril. But she on the morrow prepared herself with her household; and coming to Rhenen, narrated the things which had been done there; and paying her vows, returned to her homeland in peace.

[15] The Lord William de Ysendorn, of Hagestein of the diocese of Utrecht, captured, when by the Hollanders and the people of Utrecht it had been laid waste and destroyed, likewise another is freed, by his own vow. was placed in great peril, so that again and again he despaired of his life. He invoked the Blessed Virgin and Martyr Cunera, as his consoler, that she would deign to intercede with our Lord Jesus Christ for him, and would prolong his life. He promised to double the silver image, which he had before offered in the church of Rhenen, in weight. Shortly after the vow, the Lord of Holland, led by mercy, permitted him to ransom himself, and changed the sum which he had imposed on him. But he, giving thanks, paid his vow to Blessed Cunera. The rest of the page is empty; and the 12th and 13th leaves being lost, the 14th leaf begins, written in a somewhat more recent hand, without any trace of rubric: only titles being written in a smaller character and fainter ink between the paragraphs or in the margin, Concerning a blind man, concerning one contracted, concerning a woman freed of the stone, concerning a paralytic at Gorinchem of 89 years, concerning the resuscitation of a dead man, concerning a brute animal.

[16] In the year from the nativity of the Lord 1446, it happened at Arnhem, that a certain boy of five years, deprived of sight in winter, a blind boy is enlightened; remained pitiably for the space of eight hours. His parents therefore astonished at these things, imploring Blessed Cunera as helper and patroness of this affliction, promising to make a pilgrimage, with an offering of two wax candles in the shape of eyes, and a crucifix penny as is the custom, the pilgrimage being made he received the light of his former sight. In the year of the Lord 1416, a certain child at Utrecht, the daughter of a certain townsman, a contracted woman is healed, was contracted by divine permission up to five years. The parents therefore, seeing the daily and constant straits of that young girl, made a vow to St. Cunera. The vow therefore being made, the child convalesced, and walks at this present day by a straight path. In the year of the same Lord as above, and a woman with the stone, a certain woman suffering and vexed by the stone, so grievously that there was fear of her death; made a vow to St. Cunera, to visit her Relics reverently, an offering being first made: which promise being made, she resumed whole health, feeling thenceforth no annoyance of the stone.

[17] To all discreet and honest persons of both sexes, foreign pilgrims, a possessed woman is freed, devoutly visiting the Relics of the kindly Cunera, and to the fellow-citizens of the same town, be it known; that a certain girl native of Cranenburg, possessed by the devil and much vexed by his wickednesses, who everywhere sought from all skilled physicians and exorcists a remedy against that disease, but found none effective: wherefore deprived of all human help, she began to implore the most sweet medicine of God the most high, asking some relief through the intercessions of the holy and glorious Virgin Cunera, Martyr of Christ; by the counsel of a certain provident and discreet man, familiar to this aforesaid maidservant, and in his ministry most obsequious where he could: which man indeed condoling with her grave infirmity, with the consent of the possessed woman, promised to visit with her the Relics of St. Cunera. Which being healthfully done, the Leviathan resumed his alleviation, who fled from the body, by the invocation of so welcome a name of the Virgin of wondrous sanctity, leaving the vessel uncorrupted: who, redeemed from the hard yoke, paid her vow and offerings as she promised, and recited these things in perpetual memory, to the praise and honor of Cunera Virgin and Martyr, to the Masters of the fabric and to the scribe with a glad voice.

[18] There was a certain man of Gorinchem, who said, that he had been vexed for a long time by the disease of paralysis: a paralytic is cured which sometimes came upon him so cruelly, that he was sick even to death; and he was often admonished in sleep, that he should once yearly vow to visit Blessed Cunera, and thus he should convalesce. Who when he awoke cared not to come. At length, he being at Bacharach above the Rhine, after long vexation he vowed to Blessed Cunera, one sunk in water revives, that he would always be her pilgrim: and the paralysis never returned. And it is narrated that this miracle happened in the year 1439. In the same year above-said a certain woman, presenting her offering, said, that her husband being in a boat, with certain fishermen or others, and one of them thus rowing the boat, he fell out of the boat; so that his assisting companions long sought him, with nets and spears and other instruments; at length they found him, likewise a dead horse: and when he was found he was dead for a time; so that his wife vowed her pilgrimage, invoking God and St. Cunera, to visit with her aforesaid husband. The vow therefore being made, her husband returning to himself, they fulfilled their pilgrimage. It happened in the same year that a horse suddenly dead, a vow being made to Blessed Cunera, revived; and being led sound by its master, who made the vow, even before the Relics of the said aforesaid Virgin, he paid for it what was promised. After these things the rest of the half page is empty and the 15th leaf is lacking, but the 16th is present; on the half of whose first page this alone is written; and on the half likewise of the other page the last two.

[19] A certain woman in the parish of the city church at Utrecht, in the street commonly called "under the Barn-builder," is aided in dangerous childbirth. being pregnant, at the time of birth was so weakened, that her life was despaired of. Her Confessor being brought and called to her, namely Brother Nicholas of the Order of St. Augustine of Dordrecht, for counsel of body and soul; understanding through discreet women, that she could not convalesce, looking upon her said: O my beloved daughter, with heart and mind you will invoke the blessed Virgin and Martyr Cunera, that she may deign to console you, and may guard you with your offspring, and send health and relief. When you have been purified in the church, you shall visit her with gifts with your offspring

you shall visit. The aforesaid woman with humility invoked Blessed Cunera, promising to visit her according to the counsel of her Confessor. Brother Nicholas withdrew from her: but before he had entered his house, a messenger came to him, announcing to him, that she had borne a sound son, and that her life was not despaired of. After she had been purified, she came to Blessed Cunera with her male offspring, and paid her vows.

[20] A certain man, at Ginckel of the diocese of Utrecht, A pierced horse is healed, had a horse, which someone pierced through in the middle of the belly, so that that man despaired of its life. Which he vowed to Blessed Cunera, that she would intercede with the Lord for it that it might receive health. Who, out of the great confidence which he bore toward her, added; if the aforesaid horse should recover health, he would immediately sell it; and whatever should come of it, would minister the half of it as an offering. Which when it was healed, he sold the aforesaid for 30… Holland coins, and paid his vows. At Schoonhoven there was a certain man, an untamed one is tamed. who had a horse of much value: invoking Blessed Cunera as a help that he might sell his horse well, and minister a good offering to her. Who neglected the vow: but he coming to the market after some days with his horse, intending to sell it, while the merchants wished to test the aforesaid horse, the aforesaid horse running backward, and unwilling to extend itself along the straight way, made it so that he could not sell it. But he thinking upon the vow, which he had vowed to Blessed Cunera; promised to double the vow, that he might sell it well: which immediately was so tamed, that he sold it above its value: and he paid his vows.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

p It seems indeed to be written "ST," which would signify stivers, the 20th part of one Belgic florin: but so small would that be a price of a horse even for the 15th century, in which money was rarer and dearer, that I incline more to read "fl." florins.

q This miracle, with the preceding and two others wrought concerning horses, Crombach about to relate in chapter 38: he contends at length, that it is pious and by no means superstitious, but useful, to commend beasts of burden to the Saints, as is done on the day of St. Anthony, and at the body of St. Hubert. But Schoonhoven, a name common to many places, signifies Fair-garden or Fair-court; but the nearest town seems to be the one which lies six leagues below Rhenen.

OTHER MIRACLES,

Collected by an Anonymous of Rhenen from authentic sources, and a century and a half ago printed in German.

Translated by Hermann Crombach of the Society of Jesus. From his Ursula Vindicated book 10 chapters 28 and following.

Cunera, Virgin Martyr, at Rhenen in the diocese of Utrecht (St.)

FROM CROMBACH.

[1] About the year 1520 selected from very many The anonymous Author, who about the year 1520 published the miracles of St. Cunera in Belgic in print, denies that the hundredth part of the prodigies has been written down, which God deigned to perpetrate by the merits of St. Cunera concerning beasts and men: nor yet all, which he found signed and attested in records, but only the more notable were selected, lest the similarity of the other prodigies should breed weariness in the reader. So Crombach, about to begin Chapter 40 of the before-titled book: but in Chapter 28, about to render in Latin the miracles which he had found printed in German, he had thus prefaced: The chief which I could find from about the year 1330 to 1515 are noted: from the year 1330 to 1515. so that I think that by the order and care of Eleanor, of whom I am about to treat in this Chapter (to whom then as Duchess of Guelders Rhenen was subject) they were rather diligently signed in records for the memory of posterity. These the noble family of Rhode of Utrecht transmitted to me, published in print by an Anonymous author a hundred years ago in the town of Rhenen: but they are excerpted from a Manuscript book of the town, into which they had been related with the highest fidelity when they happened. From these I will briefly recount about thirty, which wondrously attest the merits of this Saint with God.

§ I. Miraculous cures done to those invoking the Saint.

[2] Illustrious is that which happened to Eleanor, daughter of Edward King of England. Her Raynald II, Count of Guelders, had joined to himself by the bond of marriage, and from Count first adorned with the title of Duke in the year 1339; In the 14th century the Duchess of Guelders, as Aubert Miraeus observes, in the Dukes of Guelders. This Eleanor had come, stirred by the fame of the prodigies of St. Cunera, piously to venerate the sacred remains, to Rhenen, attended by a great train of companions; and by blood she touched the holy Martyr, repeating the images of her ancestors from the Kings of the Orkneys. A woman therefore of so great a birth easily, by her prayers, obtained what alone she desired, that certain threads of the little cloth should be given to her, by which the holy Martyr had been choked by the impious hands of the maidservants. Now enriched with the sacred pledge, the threads of the Saint's little cloth being obtained, having gone out of the gates of Rhenen, with great joy, carried in a carriage she was returning; when straightway the horses stand motionless, on the very track, as if thunderstruck (you would have said the carriage was braked) the whole train of companions too, as if cleaving to the track, is stopped. There then, in the veneration of St. Cunera came admiration: for it occurred to them that the Saint was unwilling that the threads of the cloth should be separated from the rest of the sacred remains, it is stopped at the gates, until she has brought them back. nor be carried beyond the walls of Rhenen, destined once to give bodily health to many. Eleanor in her carriage returns to Rhenen, the horses now prone to running: she joins the threads to the sacred body, and adorns her Saintly kinswoman with great gifts, having now experienced her heavenly power: soon too, the horses being urged, she resumes her journey with no obstacle, much more reverencing the holy Martyr, the threads being now restored, than if she had retained them with heaven propitious; and from this time the admirable works of the holy Virgin, which God wrought, were more accurately consigned to records.

[3] The divine goodness is wont to adorn the Saints with glory, especially in that part of the body, in which they suffered most for the love of Christ; and to set them as patrons and guardians over those diseases too, which they themselves, while they lived, endured. Patroness of those suffering in the throat, So Saints Roch and Louis King of France help by their suffrages those infected with the pestilential disease; St. Aurelia, those with fever; for by the tolerance of these diseases they wondrously pleased God: but St. Apollonia heals the pains of the teeth, and the holy Martyr Cunera is known to aid more easily those who are tortured by the annoyances of quinsy, or by swellings of the throat, because, choked by a cloth, she carried off the laurel of martyrdom. Wilsem is a village near Haarlem, here, while a certain man ate a fish more greedily than cautiously, she removes a bone sticking in the throat, a bone occupied the throat; which so tightly constricted the bars of the gullet, that for eight days no entrance was open to the stomach for food or drink. He, the help of physicians being condemned, whose remedies he had vainly tried, fled to the aid of St. Cunera; he vows to venerate her sacred tomb at the town of Rhenen as a suppliant. As soon as he prayed, so soon did he command the heavenly medicine of the Martyr for his evil: for at once with the fish-bone he spat out his pains, the entrance of the gullet being loosed, the way for taking food was unbarred.

[4] By a like evil in Batavia a little bone had so closed the throat of a certain man, that he swallowed nothing. For a long time now he was racked with great pains: one hope of dislodging the little bone remained, the entreaty of St. Cunera; on the vigil of whose festival he goes to Rhenen with the highest piety: to another a little bone, the little cloth being applied, and having advanced to the altar, on which the sacred Ashes were shown to the people; he approached those, to whom the custody of the sacred treasure had been committed; and obtained by his earnest prayers, that the little cloth, which had constricted the neck of the Martyr, should be applied to his throat. Nor did his piety disappoint him; the little bone was struck out to the ground, all being astonished, the sacred pledge being applied; and the hoped-for health returned at once; wherefore scarcely present to himself for joy, he praised God in the holy Martyr by an offered gift.

[5] That too is memorable, which in Zeeland, at the place which is called Zierikzee, she heals quinsy, happened to Martin son of Jacob. Him swelling quinsy vexed pertinaciously, so that for twenty whole days and nights he could swallow neither a little food, nor a drop of liquid. The health which the physicians had long despaired of, holy Cunera, invoked by prayers, restored at once; for when he bound himself by the religion of a vow, that he would redeem the bulk and weight of his now-despaired body, by an equal weight of wheat and wine, with gold and silver together; besides, that he would name his first female offspring, if God should deign to grant him any, by the name of Cunera to renew the memory of the benefit; at once, the straits of the throat being loosed, he disgorged a foul mass of the worst humors, and by the Martyr's benefit thereafter began to enjoy constant health.

[6] Furthermore on the very feast day of St. Cunera, a certain father brought his son from Utrecht to Rhenen, and a twisted neck, who, born with a twisted neck, by a sad spectacle had been looking back at his back; but as soon as he had vowed this very pilgrimage to God and the Virgin Martyr, he obtained the right position and constitution of the human head. To Cologne too her heavenly power flowed. A clear witness of it is a citizen in the year 1502, whose daughter's neck had so swollen, that the face was twisted obliquely. No hope of dispelling the evil by human remedy remained: wherefore turning to divine things, the father with his wife and daughter vows a journey to St. Cunera. Scarcely had he conceived this in mind, when the neck began to subside, the head to recover its native position, the hoped-for health to return to the daughter. Nor were they more forward in vowing than in fulfilling the pilgrimage, which they performed with notable piety of mind.

[7] A greater thing, in the year 1481, the town of Rhenen being taken, peril threatened the throat of William Haac from the enemy. It was night; when the cries and howlings of the citizens, A knife in the throat, without harm, is bent: sufficiently indicated that Rhenen was held by the arms of the enemy; he leaping naked from his bed, and covered only with his shirt, ran forward to the church as to an asylum. But an enemy on the way intercepts the wretched man, throws him to the ground; and pressing him now lying with his foot, struck his throat with a knife. He kept repeating "St. Cunera": nor were the prayers sent up in vain. A marvelous thing! the knife, softly slackening like wax, is bent back, as if struck against flint; and curved into a triple circle, encircles the right hand of the striker, William being safe and unharmed. In whose monument of the benefit obtained, the knife itself, long hung up at the reliquary of the holy Martyr at Rhenen, is still believed to survive. Nor must the citizen of Utrecht be passed over in silence, who got his living by manual work. An evil humor had settled on his tongue, and had now for half a year rendered him speechless. an impediment of the tongue is loosed: That the wretched man might be relieved of this inconvenience, he arranges a pilgrimage toward Rhenen. And now he had arrived at the village of Doorn, when, eloquent and fluent, he found no end of proclaiming the merits of St. Cunera, both at Rhenen at the sacred remains, and returned home in his country. In the year 1503 an Utrecht woman was nursing a boy, a blind one is enlightened: now for six weeks so taken in his eyes, that he discerned nothing of the things which were placed near. The mother, moved by the fame of so many prodigies, vows a votive pilgrimage toward Rhenen; and the boy, the darkness being at once shaken off, received the light of his eyes.

[8] A girl 4 years fixed to her bed, A girl of five years, for four whole years lame, without the use of feet and hands, was tortured by a certain loosening of the nerves, fixed continually to her bed. Often she had vowed a pilgrimage, yet with no effect. It was night, and while the mother sees her daughter afflicted with such great pains, she breaks into sobs, indeed howls, as if not in possession of mind and self. The little daughter, as if to console her mother, exclaims; O mother, Cunera. That voice, as if sent from heaven, restores the mother to herself, and raises her to the hope of recovering health by the prayers of St. Cunera, whose fame of admirable works she then recalled. Therefore stretching her eyes and hands to heaven, with equal piety and confidence, her mother praying for her: against the force of the disease she implores St. Cunera, that she be no less kind to her daughter, than she had been to others; she vows a pilgrimage with her sound offspring. Nor was the hope or entreaty vain. Health followed the prayer: the daughter lifts herself from her couch; rises unharmed, and in the year 1318, on the vigil of St. Cunera, visiting with her mother the sacred tomb, gives thanks suppliantly to God, and proclaims the merits of the holy Martyr, those present being astonished with amazement.

[9] a captive, his bonds broken, At Linda in Batavia, a man of advanced age, bound with iron fetters, was detained in a foul prison. Sick at heart the old man mourned: for no way occurred, by which he might be freed from his bonds. One anchor of safety remained, the faithful solace and aid of St. Cunera invoked in troubles. He throws himself on his knees, and prays that Saint, that she would free the wretched man from prison: he vows a votive pilgrimage not without a gift. The heavenly powers held it ratified and fixed. The wretched man hears with a joyful clatter the iron restraints crackle; soon he sees the shackles, by which his neck was bound, fall, scattered into the most minute pieces; he sees the same in the fetters: and now free of all bonds, the same Saint protecting him, he is led to Rhenen: he is led to Rhenen; a herald of St. Cunera, he began to narrate to all the things which he himself would scarcely have believed except in his own case.

[10] There is in the Veluwe of the duchy of Guelders a place, the inhabitants call it Putten. a grave hernia is healed, Here a man older than fifty was ruptured on both sides, so indeed, that he could neither change place, nor yet by the violence of the disease be allowed to remain in one place. To whom from heaven and a good genius came this thought, that he should vow a vow with heart and mouth to St. Cunera of Rhenen. At once from the very vow the hernia retreats, and is consolidated, and safe he gives thanks to St. Cunera. A woman, in the year 1446, was vexed with most acute pains of the stone: but she was without remedy, since she was pricked with such great stings, and the pain of the stone that, her strength failing, she seemed near to death. She conceives a vow of going to the relics of the holy Martyr. The pain indeed remitted, but was not wholly removed; until she should present herself in person to the Saint; for then, freed of all annoyance, she felt the evil entirely driven off. By the same stings another woman was racked, and she too had vowed a votive pilgrimage. Now she had come to Rhenen, when a pain more vehement than usual assailed the sick woman, so that she seemed now about to give up the ghost. Again she invokes St. Cunera, and promises a gift. Behold, in the morning a stone is found behind in the bed, of the size of a dove's egg, the woman being safe.

[11] By these so many prodigies it came about, that the name of St. Cunera, not in Batavia, Guelders, A Portuguese girl, suffering in the eye and all Belgium only was in great glory among the highest and lowest, but also in veneration; and the common run of mortals implored her faith and patronage, now back from a thousand years. Nor indeed did the power of St. Cunera contain itself within the borders of Germany: having crossed Gaul it penetrates into Lusitania: for of Sicily I shall speak in the following chapter. In the year 1435 there was a certain Portuguese Virgin, whom a nipple afflicted with vast torment. is healed and comes to Rhenen. When for relieving the highest pain no surgeon and physician promised any aid, after she had invoked various Saints, male and female, with vain prayers, in the dead of night in her rest she sees a girl standing by her, who addresses the sick woman with these words: Why do you not vow a votive pilgrimage to the Virgin and Martyr Cunera, toward Rhenen? for you will experience a present medicine. The sick woman duly obeys the admonisher: the vow being conceived the pain at once departs, she beholds the nipple sound and vigorous: grateful she also takes her brother as companion of the way, and through such great intervals of places, by a long and difficult journey, she at length, not without trouble, finds Rhenen; and there, the prodigy being divulged, and a gift hung up to her Saint, she returned home safe.

PART TWO

Deliverance from various perils of life.

[12] A Rhenen sailor having suffered shipwreck near Sicily, And since by so great a distance of places we have gone to Portugal; let us, if it please, visit the Sicilian sea, the same propitious one as our guide. In this expanse, I think, Henry Mom, a citizen of Rhenen, with his companion Rumeler, with adverse winds underwent a peril of life. Henry was not so skilled in the sea and the sandbanks, as perhaps in the Rhine. The ship being carried into the deep, the savage force of a storm assailing, brought it into the utmost peril: indeed the storm raging, and overcoming all skill, having driven it by force onto the rocks, cast out all the vessels, and thirty-two passengers, who, swallowed by the waves, perished. Henry, in a trembling, indeed desperate situation undaunted, embraces tightly the one remedy of safety that remained, the helm; and, that he might be safer, binds himself to it with bonds, lest, torn away by the violence of the waves, he be swallowed up. Meanwhile he is tossed by the storms, now hanging on high amid the clouds, soon rolled down into the abyss by the reciprocal waves: nor yet had the storm so removed his mind, that he did not remember the Mother of God and the guardian Saint of his country, St. Cunera. A suppliant therefore, with what prayers he can, certainly fervent ones, and tossed three days with the helm of his ship, which the present image of death had expressed, he begs of her this heavenly anchor for himself, shipwrecked and tossed; lest with his body, which he feared for, the safety of his soul too should be brought into peril. Nor yet did he find the Saints easy; for three days, tossed by the waves, he prayed, neither broken by the storms, nor despairing of the help of the heavenly ones, though the matter was in a strait. That delay was the greater, that safety restored in a moment might come the more welcome.

[12] St. Cunera appearing animates him The third day had now dawned, when St. Cunera, in the appearance of a girl of twelve or thirteen years, more august than mortal, flashes forth among the waves of the sea above the helm (for nothing else of the ship appeared anywhere remaining) and a clear light shone over, which dispelled the darkness. And at first indeed he was seized with a certain dread, but this was soon thoroughly dispelled by the sweet address of the Martyr: for she bids him lay aside fear, that she is Cunera, whose aid he had implored for three days and three nights; that she had come from Rhenen, that, he being delivered from the waves and the peril of life, she might bring present solace and aid. She subjoined: But I will, that you vow to God and to me, that you will not taste or drink anything at Rhenen in my town, before with your wife and five daughters you have visited those places, to which by yearly religion my Relics are carried. and is safely brought to Catania, You, with your wife and children, alike barefoot, without shirt, shall piously go around, until you return to my tomb: then indeed you shall redeem the bulk of your body by an equal weight of wheat and wine, and shall institute a yearly pilgrimage to my honor. Here Henry, fear being now driven off, offers himself prompt and ready for all things. To whom the Virgin: Farewell, my Henry, I bid you be and remain safe and unharmed: I must now return to Rhenen. The shipwrecked man looks back at her departing, and in a moment of time (O the goodness of God! honoring his Martyr!) she vanishes from his eyes, and the shipwrecked man marvels that he is set on dry land, at that place where St. Agatha rests. Who could unfold the incredible pleasure of mind, which he conceived, when he saw himself freed not only from peril, but also from the fear of peril, and safe and vigorous? But because money had failed him, to procure himself travel-supplies; he hired out his labor to the shipmaster of the place for twelve weeks: thence he gathered only enough to reach Rome: there he fell in with his kinsman Ricquin a Dominis; and thence to Rhenen. from whom having borrowed silver, he returned safe into Batavia to Rhenen; and what he had holily promised, he more holily executed with his family. But now having returned into Batavia, let us there see a thing yet more to be marveled at.

[13] A girl sunk in a well, At Tessendoria in Batavia, of the duchy of Guelders and the diocese of Utrecht, near the water which the inhabitants call the Pot, on a Sunday, the parents were attending divine service in the church, their five-year-old daughter being left alone at home. She, while she wanders too incautiously, falls into a well. Hear a marvelous thing, and scarcely heard hitherto.

St. Cunera the Virgin is present, who, lowering a rope, draws out the tender child, whom on the bank of the neighboring water called the Pot, she deposits within a dry pit: and there she remained with the girl day and night, until the morning twilight, lest any annoyance or peril should arise to her alone. Happy custody, which for mortal parents the heavenly ones more happily undertake! Meanwhile, divine service being performed in the church, the parents return home; and thence drawn out by the Saint, they seek their offspring with eyes and affection; they ask in the neighborhood and of the neighbors themselves, if anyone had seen her: all deny it. The father meanwhile was seized with fear, lest perhaps his daughter, sunk in the waters, had perished. Therefore solicitous the whole day, with every kind of instruments, he diligently explores the bottom of the water by the bank, if perhaps some trace of a person or of clothing should appear: but when he sees that he mocks his own labor, and human aids fail, he piously turns to the heavenly ones; he calls upon St. Cunera, as the refuge of the sorrowful. With the father the mother, more sad, prays the Saint, to regard their bereavement, to console their tears; to restore the little daughter to the sad ones, and she adds a vow of a gift. But on that day indeed the afflicted ones return home without their little daughter: the next day when the sun was setting, the father sought his horses at the same place, about to lead them home; where he finds his little daughter safe from fear, busy with games. He at first amazed: amazement soon turns into anger. He therefore rebukes the little one, after three days she is presented safe at Rhenen, where she had been hiding those two whole days? To whom the daughter: I, my Father, fell near the house into a well, out of which St. Cunera, having drawn me, deposited me here. Do you see, my Father? Behold St. Cunera herself, going away there toward Rhenen, whence she brought me very many foods. She also asked, that in her name I should beg you, that tomorrow, leading me to Rhenen, you would redeem me with wine and wheat according to custom; which unless you do, she said a graver loss of the spurned admonition threatens. By this unexpected event, and such great favors of the heavenly ones the parents exulting, obey the pious counsels of their little daughter; and grateful to God and St. Cunera, the next day the daughter being led to Rhenen, with willing and ample mind they offered wine and wheat to the holy Virgin, by whom for two days she had been refreshed with heavenly feasts.

[14] And since speech has fallen upon those who are drowned, come, let us collect more benefits of this kind into one bundle. John Aegidius, A drowned boy is resuscitated, one, between Amerongen and Wijk, near the dike which is set against the inundations of waters, had a ten-year-old son; who, having fallen from a little boat, had been swallowed by the waves. The father is stricken at the loss of his son; and having suspected what the matter was, he boards a skiff, and surveys the bottom with grappling-hooks, and finds his son lifeless under the little boat. He draws out the corpse, not without tears: the wife too flies up, almost lifeless with grief. In this surge of grief the parents turn their sad mind and prayers to St. Cunera, both fallen on their knees, they add a vow of pilgrimage; and, according to custom, of as much grain and wine as the son should weigh. This boy, O marvelous thing! at once recovers life and voice, rises; with his parents he comes home, with them soon to Rhenen, to give thanks and to propagate the praise of the Martyr.

[15] There is near Utrecht in the eastern region a place, whence turfs are dug: there at the bridge of St. Martin a boy fell into a pool. another, The anxious mother everywhere seeks her lost offspring, with voice and eyes; nor yet does he appear anywhere. Here, as a mind often presaging of evil, she goes to the pool. Alas! she sees him standing on his head, his feet raised into the air, immersed in mud and water. A mournful, alas, spectacle! Yet she draws him out: and when she finds no breath or palpitation, she carries the body to a bed. Now for four hours the boy had cast out his life; yet hope does not desert the mother. She provokes the present neighbors by her example to ask the aid of God and the heavenly ones; fallen on their knees with warm prayers and tears they ask aid, and invoke St. Cunera. At once the boy recovers life and strength: a little after the parents come with their son to Rhenen, narrate the deed, speak praises and thanks.

[16] and a third Another woman, who had fixed her domicile in the parish of Rhenen, after the Christian manner, on Palm Sunday had gone to the church, to give herself to the divine praises. When she returned home, she found her son too sunk in a neighboring well; whom, drawn out, when she saw him lifeless, at once kneeling she fled to the aid of St. Cunera, full of hope, nor with vain prayers: the son is reanimated, and proclaims the merits of St. Cunera. likewise a maidservant. Something similar happened near Amsterdam, the noble emporium of Holland, at Westhof. Here a certain maidservant was serving, who, by what chance I know not, sunk in the waters, summoned her parents. Now for three hours the lifeless corpse lay, yet they did not despair of heavenly aid: they vow a pilgrimage with their daughter to the Rhenen tomb of the holy Martyr, who at once revived; and rising likewise with them she set out for Rhenen, and paid what her parents had piously promised.

[17] Many others, either crushed, or fallen headlong from a height, she restored to health or even to life. By chance a Choir was being joined to the church of Rhenen: stones and rubble were being carried in. A boy crushed under a stone-cart There the son of Henry ab Oykere, while in the streets he indulges in games after the boyish manner, is crushed by a two-wheeled cart laden with stones. The neighbors run to help: but no indications of surviving life appeared. The mother was in the house of William a Pluderen; to whom when the sad message is brought, she laments, and bewails her bereavement: yet using prudent counsel, as toward St. Cunera she had piety so confidence, the corpse lifted in her arms she carries to the sacred building, and deposits it near the sacred reliquary. Here she presses with ardent and bold prayers, which vehement love of her son had expressed; and with tears thus addresses the Martyr: Behold, holy Martyr, behold my son, crushed and made lifeless in your work: will you then be reckoned to have snatched life from this my son and your citizen, you who so often have recalled even strangers and foreigners from the dead to life? and offered by his mother to the Saint; Restore, I beseech, restore the son to his mother, taken away by so atrocious a kind of death in your work: I holily receive him for you, if his life enjoy your gift; yours, while life is his companion, he will be a pilgrim, and will devote himself to your service: and with me all present will offer some gift at your altars. The mother prayed, and wept: he will revive: the son lay lifeless; or was it that by that delay the death of the son might be rendered more attested to all? Therefore she places her offspring on the altar, redoubles her prayers, sharpens her confidence by the very delay: when with a joyful spectacle the boy began to open his eyes, to look around at the bystanders, to seek his mother, to grasp her breasts, and to suck the milk with eager mouth; and he returned home unharmed and safe.

[18] likewise another: In the city of Utrecht, on the octave of the Nativity of the Mother of God, a boy too incautious fell under a well-laden cart; whose skull the attrition of the wheels broke: so that through the gap of the hanging little ear the hidden passages of the brain lay open to the beholder. He lay five whole hours, gave a sigh and no signs of life; no motion, no breath. The neighbors, touched by so bitter a fate with pious compassion, with the parents offer the dead one to St. Cunera: the parents too interpose a vow of pilgrimage. That piety was pleasing to the heavenly ones: at once he is restored to himself, free of all evil: and he stood looking at those looking on. One inconvenience remained, the defect of the hanging ear. The surgeons therefore being called sew the ear to the head; and at once all the wound heals. Grateful therefore with their son the parents, that they may free their mind by religion too, come to salute the Saint herself in her place, and speak praises of the benefit.

[19] a third from a height on his head, In the same city John Wannemaker, a citizen of Utrecht, had a nine-year-old son. He fell from the upper story of the house onto his head, which by the fall was marvelously battered and bruised, and suddenly made lifeless he lay half an hour: so the neighbors, roused by the cries, testified. Who nevertheless, kneeling at the tears of the parents, after the manner received in those places, suppliantly besought God and St. Cunera for the safety of the boy: the parents add a vow of a pilgrimage to be made to Rhenen with bare feet. Scarcely had they bound themselves by the vow, when the boy revived and recovered vigor, no harm of body being left. Glad therefore barefoot they enter upon the journey; and, thanks being given according to custom, in the same garb they returned to Utrecht.

[20] And just as these lifeless ones were restored to life, so it is no less to be marveled, what happened to a certain one, near to death from a fall and the collision and shattering of his members. and a stone-mason fallen into a heap of stones: There was a servant of John von Dohm, a workman, when the choir of St. Cunera was being built; it was given to him in charge, to close up the place with a window. There stood erected machines, and props, on which he should stand; and while on them he goes and returns too incautiously; I know not whether his foot slipping, or whether the machine pressed by too great weight, weakened, and indeed broken, he falls headlong assuredly with a great force of stones to the ground, his body strongly dashed and shattered upon the heap of stones below; so that, carried home half-alive, human remedies being despaired of, he seemed near to death. John the Architect grieves for the lot of his servant and nephew; and the more, by how much he was the more joined to him by blood. He, with pious men and women, implores the patronage of the Mother of God and St. Cunera, for the honor too of the Saint herself, more ardently for him, who, while he kept watch over the work of the holy Martyr, had injured himself; he adds vows in the sick man's name. Suddenly he is withdrawn from the present peril, the swelling and wounds heal; he is well, and vigorous, so indeed, that the next day he returned to his labors, closed up the window, and willingly paid the vow conceived in his name.

[21] In a place of Holland, which they call Wilsen, there was an unbridled and intractable horse, indeed rabid, so that it was bound with ropes, lest, having escaped, it should harm men. a rabid horse is tamed, The wild rage grew, so that they now deliberated about killing it: when, all its bonds broken, the stable violently broken open, it runs forth; and with frequent neighing and snorting, with kicks aimed it strikes, it wounds; and if anyone too bold should attempt approach, it ran to meet him, and unless he escaped quickly by flight, he would not have evaded the kicks of the assailant and present death. Now not so much solicitous about his horse, as lest it should harm others, the master vows to St. Cunera, God being brought as a surety and witness of his faith, a pilgrimage. Quicker than said the rage and ferocity fall; it returns of its own accord to the stable, now tractable at a nod; it receives any rider. Glad at so happy an outcome of the conceived vow, the horseman arranges a journey toward Rhenen; he offers a gift, himself a herald no less than the most gentle horse of the merits of St. Cunera.

[22] To the dead too sometimes the merits of St. Cunera restored life. A certain man's delight was a horse; a dead one is resuscitated, one, whom when sudden death had snatched from his master, it did not yet snatch the hope of recovering its use and life: for at the promised visitation of St. Cunera it rises up from the spot revived and lively, whom the master, mounting, presented to St. Cunera not without a gift. More illustrious is what I subjoin. At Vollenhove, in the upper part of the diocese of Utrecht, the governor of the castle was nourishing a noble horse,

[23] As St. Cunera is kind toward the pious, so toward the sacrilegious she is unmerciful, toward blasphemers severe, The Soldier plundering the captured town, yet so that the repentance of the offender can mitigate the severity. In the year 1499, the Duke of Guelders, suddenly and unexpectedly furnished with an army of foot and horse, occupied Rhenen; and gave the town to the soldiers to be plundered. They rage with flame and sword, break into the houses of the citizens, nor do they keep their sacrilegious hands from the sacred places too. Now the church of St. Cunera being violently unbarred, they plundered the sacred things; and two horsemen especially, signally wicked, do not snatch only what is at hand; they search the very pavement of the temple, and dig up the earth more deeply, if perhaps somewhere a hidden treasure should lie. two violating the sacred building are crushed by a fall. They pay for the sacrilege, as with a punishment of body, so of soul: for the vast mass of a sepulchral stone falls upon the diggers, not without the Divine power, crushes, buries them. The vengeance of the Divine power is divulged through the whole town; when, somewhat later, the drums being beaten, it is severely forbidden to the soldiers by the voice of a herald, that they should not break into, despoil, violate places dedicated to God. So the precious tomb of St. Cunera, which those harpies with rapacious hands had pressed with a curse, remained inviolate; but the army moved from the place, departed from the town, and left Rhenen to the custody of the holy Martyr.