ON S. NAZARIUS, ROMAN MARTYR,
IN THE VILLAGE OF HIS NAME AMONG THE ATREBATES.
A discussion of his cult and miracles there.
Nazarius, another, Roman Martyr among the Atrebates in Belgium (S.)
D. P.
There is a village among the Atrebates, called Ablainzevelle of S. Nazarius, The celebrated cult of S. Nazarius in the Arras region a little below the source of all the Lensii, distant two leagues from the city of Arras, and three from Béthune. There, not long after the year 1630, learning that those laboring with pains of the head, frenzy, and madness were cured, John Gamansius of pious Memory—often praised by us in this work—often went. While stationed at Arras with a Spanish soldier, and suffering an almost intolerable torment of the migraine, he went to the same place; and having obtained the benefit which he had hoped for, he wrote in these words to our Bolland, who had not long before begun to collect the Acts of the Saints: against pains of the head and frenzies, Do you know anything of S. Nazarius, on the 12th of June, who two hours from here is venerated with a great concourse of pilgrims, for the curing of diseases of the head or brain? If you have peculiar and notable customs of his church, and pious traditions in the cult of that Saint, I will refrain from writing them. Among other things I saw a book, where above three thousand are noted down who there miraculously recovered their health, and that only from the year 1590 to 1630.
[2] Finding nothing further, I believe that it happened to this otherwise most diligent man—as often to those who follow the camp—that he was transferred from there elsewhere with the royal troops before he could put Bolland's commission concerning the aforesaid into execution. Nevertheless I deemed it my duty not to neglect an indication thus found: and having sent letters to the Rector of our Arras college, Nicolaus de la Planche, I inquired about the aforesaid, at the beginning of the year 1690. The Pastor of the place, D. Franciscus Robart, answered most kindly to my queries, on the 27th day of January; that all the things contained in the memorandum of the aforesaid Gamansius are true, on account of the crown of the head there preserved from of old: and that such a book has been kept there for some centuries back, where more than six thousand of those cured are noted down by name, and the number is daily increased: and that from the alms there gathered the church has been in great part built, beautiful and ample like a Cathedral, and that in it from antiquity the crown of the holy head is preserved; which—whence, when, and how it came there—is unknown, since nothing written is found about that matter. But because there is also found there a Legend of SS. Nazarius and Celsus of Milan, it seems to have been brought from Milan.
[3] But I am not moved by the use of that Legend, since I see that the people of Lorsch themselves—who received their Relics entirely from Rome—confuse two Nazariuses, so that from one they take the Legend, from the other the day of cult. Therefore, setting aside this kind of usage, I will believe that that Relic is of the Roman Martyr, received perhaps more immediately from Lorsch: I will not, however, think the same of the very many bones which a certain Carmelite brought there from Rome fifty years ago, under the faith and attestation of Alexander Victricius, Bishop of Alatri, in place of Cardinal Ginetti: but rather I would conjecture that, those bones being found under a fitting argument of holiness, the name of S. Nazarius was assigned to them (as usually happens at Rome, since added names are rarely found) because they were destined for the village of S. Nazarius: wherefore I am not anxious to learn more about them.
[4] As for what pertains to the customs of the place, and the miracles of healings obtained; concerning these it is pleasing to hear the Pastor himself, speaking in his own words: There, in what are commonly called the Cradles of the Saint Adjacent to our cemetery, he says, are certain chambers, which the common people call the Cradles of S. Nazarius; in which the sick, placed there, are tended with the greatest care by those appointed to this pious work, men assisting men, women women, day and night, and ministering all things necessary, and daily leading them into the church to hear Mass, for one, two, or three novenas. So even now there are two there, awaiting the movement (so to speak) of the water and the grace sought: and on the 17th day of this current January a certain peasant, an inhabitant of the Saint-Omer region, brought here in a cart with hands and feet bound; on account of the excessive frenzy with which he labored, returned hence healed, after a novena was completed, praising and blessing God. I can, moreover, testify that for almost five years, the frenzied also placed there today, since I undertook the care of this Parish, I have seen more than twenty most evident miracles performed. But I especially remember a certain citizen of Mons; who, when he had come most utterly foolish, during the Mass which he was hearing, felt as if a veil were drawn away from his head, as he himself told me when the Mass was finished, and returned home hence sound of mind. Something similar happened to a certain matron, dwelling near Douai; recover the health of their minds, whom her kinsmen had kept bound and shut up for no small time: but, vows being paid to S. Nazarius, she was thus restored to herself, as if she had never labored under any affliction. But a certain courier, similarly cured, since he counted it a shame to himself to have been placed in those cradles, relapsed into madness; nor did he merit to be freed except by a third novena performed there.
[5] There would be no end if I tried to relate each thing, which from the register is established to be almost infinite; those suffering a relapse who neglect the custom of lying in these, yet I cannot be silent about the success of a miracle, performed in a certain very noble man. He had fallen into such madness that he had to be bound hand and foot by the servants who were to bring him here. And when they had come to the bounds of our Parish and the rivulet of the Lensii, he was suddenly found perfectly sound; and he asked, and learned, for what cause he was thus bound, the same servants reporting it. Nevertheless they were proceeding to pay the vows, but while walking the thought came to him that there was no further need of it, and that the now-cured madness should not be made known. This being decided among them, they began to return: but when they reached the same boundary, at which the madness had departed; it returned again. Then indeed the servants repented of the advice given, and led their master to us: but they did not receive him sound, except after a third novena; and they recognized this to be the punishment of the former ingratitude.
[6] Thus far the Parish priest of the place, of set purpose suppressing the names of those cured: wherefore I did not think it necessary to urge that he have the aforementioned book transcribed; containing perhaps nothing else than those things which it matters nothing to posterity to know. If I am mistaken, and someone gathers the choicer miracles into one treatise; we shall not be reluctant to give them to the public light, in a future Supplement of June. Meanwhile, thanks are to be rendered to the lord of the place, the Lord de Lannoy; who, together with two Presbyters of the same place, subscribed to the aforesaid relation, as one certain of the truth of the matter narrated.