ON BLESSED ISFRIDUS,
BISHOP OF RATZEBURG IN WENDISH-LAND, OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER.
ABOUT MCCIV,
Miracles from Krantz, cult & memory in the Order.
Isfridus, Bishop of Ratzeburg in Wendish-land, of the Premonstratensian Order (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Raceburgum, an Episcopal city in today's Mecklenburg Duchy, for about four hundred years had its Bishops from the Premonstratensian Order, Of Isfridus, the holy successor of B. Evermodus, says Krantz. & only Canons of the same Order in its Church. The first of these was B. Evermodus, disciple of S. Norbert, who had only Aristo as predecessor. The Acts of the said B. Evermodus we illustrated on the day XVII February, where also of the Ratzeburg See was treated. The successor of B. Evermodus was B. Isfridus, about whom Albert Krantz in book 6 of the Metropolis ch. 40 writes these things.
[2] To the Church of Ratzeburg, after Evermodus, a man equally best Isfridus is set Bishop: who shone with such great sanctity; water turned into wine, that he did some miracles unwillingly. He had ordered on the sacred day of Parasceve, that a minister should bring him water for drink. He prepared it, & was bringing the water. The Pontiff tasted, & found wine. With grim face turned upon the minister, Did I not, he said, order that thou shouldst bring water, not wine? Terrified he affirmed holily that he had brought water from the spring. He ordered again to draw: but it was wine. A third time again the matter is repeated, & the same occurs. Then dissolved in tears, he raised his eyes to heaven. When, he said, by thy will, wondrous Creator, the creature is changed, I yield to what thou orderest: behold on the day of the passion of thy son I take what thou providest. They show today the fountain near the house of the treasury of Raceburg, whence the water was drawn. This too is reported of him, that at a certain time, when he was going around the cemetery with the Procession, a blind man illuminated, he saw a certain blind man sitting by the way & begging: whom sprinkling with holy water, he said that Prophetic verse: The Lord looses the chained, the Lord illuminates the blind; & immediately the blind man was illuminated, Relics displayed, & received sight. Ps. 145, 8 Of these two Pontiffs Evermodus & Isfridus the Relics, in the choir, in a certain chest to the South, which is ordered for this, are conserved.
Verses are ascribed to Isfridus.
For him sweat heated turned into wine; the blinded was illuminated; with such praises distinguished Isfridus flourished, to be numbered in the Catalogue of the holy Celestials continually.
There was also to this Saint perpetual labor in the vineyard of the Lord, the Wends converted. while he preached to his Wends, not yet well firmed in the faith. For the temporal sword more, than any other thing held that nation of hard neck in the faith. It profited the hardened hearts to have Pontiffs of great merit, who by prayers with God might obtain, the door of the heart to be opened to the light of faith. Hitherto Krantz.
[3] Gabriel Bucelinus, part 1 of Sacred Germany pg. 54, Memory of the same 1 July, exhibits the Catalogue of the Bishops of Ratzeburg, the third of whom Isfridus with Krantz he honors with the title of Saint. The Order of reciting the divine Office is wont to be printed at Madrid, & in the Premonstratensian Order is prescribed the Office of Isfridus on the Kalends of July. But others refer it to XVII Kalends of July, or this XV June, to others 15 June. when John Chrysostom Vander Sterre, in the Natales of the Saints of the Premonstratensian Order, adorns him with this encomium: At Raseburg the birthday of B. P. Isfridus, Bishop & Confessor of the same city, of the Premonstratensian Order: who as the successor of B. Evermodus in the Episcopate, as he was a professor of the same white institute, so neither in virtues nor in miracles inferior: & he labored very much in converting the Wends to the Christian religion, by the example of his predecessor. John le Paige, in book I of the Premonstratensian Bibliotheca, enumerates the Saints & Blesseds of the Premonstratensian Order, & on pg. 347 writes these: S. Isfridus, from Provost of the Jericow convent, was given as Ratzeburgensis Bishop among the Wends, third in number. Peter de Wagenare to the elogies of others adds these: He fell asleep in the Lord an octogenarian, on XV June about the year MCCV. Merianus in the Topography of lower Saxony, pg. 197 & following, describes the city of Ratzeburg; & Isfridus the Bishop, illustrious for his wonderful works, Time of death. says he departed life in the year MCCIV. Anhert Mirans the same
celebrates in the Premonstratensian Chronicle pg. 146, & in the Catalogue of Men distinguished by the opinion of sanctity from the same Order, printed about the year MDCXIII, honors him also with the title of Blessed.
[4] Hence various Abbots of the same Premonstratensian Order, in this our Brabant, impose the name of Isfridus on their own members in their Profession: Memory in Brabant. & the Postulan Canons among them in Campinia boast, that with them is an altar, consecrated by B. Isfridus the Bishop. Andreas Saussajus cast him into the Catalogue of those Saints, who have not their own birthdays, & therefore wishes him to be referred to XVII February, & joined to F. Evermodus, as also in the Topographic Index he warns is to be done.