Hildegrim

ON SAINT HILDEGRIM,

BISHOP OF CHÂLONS AND HALBERSTADT.

IN THE YEAR 827.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Acts collected from the Acts of his brother St. Liudger, his double Episcopate, and his cult.

Hildegrimus, Bishop of Châlons and Halberstadt (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] This illustrious Bishop St. Hildegrim becomes known chiefly from the Acts of his brother, St. Liudger Bishop of Münster in the city of Westphalia, now called Monasterium. The chief Acts of this man Altfrid wrote, a little after Bishop of the same See, illustrated by our John Bollandus of pious memory among his last endeavors, The Acts in the Life of his brother St. Liudger and printed on the 26th of March. He in the Prologue thus premises: "I cannot fully comprehend the examples and acts of St. Liudger: because I learned them not by sight, but by hearing, those attesting them who from infancy had known him and had been instructed by him, namely Hildegrim the Bishop his brother, and Gerfrid the Bishop his nephew; but also the nun woman Heriburga his sister, etc." Gerfrid was the successor of St. Liudger, and of this man Altfrid was the writer. But Blessed Hildegrim had already then been ordained Bishop of Châlons in Champagne in Gaul, as will be established below.

[2] their grandfather Wissurgus Altfrid begins from the illustrious stock of the said Saints: whose grandfather was Wissurgus, a defender of justice, ordered to be secretly slain by Radbod King of the Frisians; but who, conscious of the plots, fled to Grimoald Duke of the Franks, and imbued with the Catholic faith, obtained the grace of baptism. He

in the time of Charles Martel, after the death of Radbod, having returned to his own inheritance, began to be a helper of St. Willibrord, with his sons and kinsmen. the father Thiadgrimus, Among the sons, Thiadgrimus, father of SS. Liudger and Hildegrim, took to wife Liafburga, whose two maternal uncles Willibraht and Tidbraht were the first of the Frisian nation under St. Willibrord to receive the office of the Clerical state, which are more fully explained in the first chapter.

[3] Now St. Liudger was born in the year 744, and applied to various studies, among others had as Teacher Blessed Alcuin, he himself a disciple of his brother, then still living in England; from whom, having returned to his homeland, among other labors he also undertook the instruction of various disciples, of whom one was his own brother Hildegrim. Afterward, Frisia having been laid waste by Widukind Duke of the Saxons, hitherto Gentiles, Liudger, says Altfrid in no. 18; "compelled by necessity, deserted those parts; and the throng of disciples being disposed of, taking two of them with him, namely Hildegrim his brother and Gerbert, who was surnamed Castus, set out for Rome: and going forth from there, came to the monastery of St. Benedict in the kingdom of Benevento: and there abiding in holy conversation, learned the rule of the same holy Father Benedict. with him he goes to Rome and Cassino: For he was desirous to build in his inheritance a monastery of Monks: which afterward, the Lord helping, was so done in the place which is called Werden." These things Altfrid: which were chiefly accomplished in the year 785 and the two following: at which time Hadrian held the Pontificate at Rome, and Theotmar was Abbot of the Cassinese monastery of St. Benedict: of whom and the coming of St. Liudger, in his metrical Life these verses are read:

"He went to the Monks placed on Cassino's Mount of Benedict, written among the Saints. Here, with good omen, by name Theotmar, Liudger found his nephew Abbot."

[4] Werden, indicated above, then beginning to be cultivated, chiefly from the year 797, and various possessions offered, and donations made in the year 798, to which Hildegrim the Deacon subscribed, is consecrated Bishop of Münster, but St. Liudger in the year 802 or toward the end of the preceding, in that administration departed life in the year 809, the body of him, who died in the year 809, on the 26th of March. Therefore the disciples, who, as Altfrid writes in Book 2, no. 8, "were not unmindful, how while still living he had disposed, that in the place named Werden, where in his own inheritance for the habitation of Monks, in honor of the holy Savior and the holy Mother of God, and the holy Prince of the Apostles, he himself built a church, his body should be buried. But when the people, recalling his holy merits, vehemently resisted the doing of this; counsel being taken, they led it to the monastery composed by him, he takes care to have brought to Werden, by name Mimigerneford, and left it buried in the church of St. Mary: until the venerable Bishop of the church of Châlons, Hildegrim by name, brother of the same man of God and instructed by him, should treat with the glorious King Charles, that by his command, indeed by the counsel of God, in the place where alive he himself had decreed, his holy Body should be buried … where on the thirty-second day from the death of his Saint, wonderfully fragrant, he was buried in the aforesaid place." Thus there. Of the said Church of Châlons—in another manuscript Catalaunensis—in Gallic Champagne the thirtieth Bishop Hildegrim is placed by the Sammarthani: but in what year he was ordained is unknown.

[5] He thereafter undertook the administration of the affairs of the monastery of Werden, already then Bishop of Châlons, and began to acquire various possessions for it, very many of which the reader will find in the preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Liudger, no. 29. One I bring forward, granted in the year 820, and related there in these words: "I, Theodgrim, son of the late Aldgrim, have entrusted my whole inheritance, which Ricfrid handed over to me, for the remedy of my soul and for eternal retribution, to the monastery, which is built in honor of the holy Savior in the place which is called Werden, and presides over the monastery of Werden, in the district of the Ripuarians next to the river Ruhr, where Hildegrim the Bishop is seen to preside. I have handed over the aforesaid in the villa which is called Arlo in the district of Theant with all integrity, that is one church, in lands, in slaves, in houses, in buildings, woods, meadows, pastures, waters and watercourses, the whole and entire I hand over and confirm… It was done publicly in the 7th year of the glorious and religious King and Emperor Louis on the 12th of the Kalends of July. And this conveyance was made in the place which is called Mimigernaford." Rector with Bishop Gerfrid. Another donation is added, made at Werden, "where Hildegrim and Gerfrid the Bishops as Rectors are seen to preside." Gerfrid namely of Münster, and Hildegrim perhaps then of Halberstadt, of which See although in the threefold Life of St. Liudger there is no mention; yet there is mention in a rhythmic poem, written more than five hundred years ago by a certain Monk of Werden. For he in Litany 4, treating of the disciples of Liudger, has these things:

[6] "So that he was zealous to give to very many disciples A lesson always every morning: Whom both teaching and instructing, Through honest morals he led to honors. leaving Châlons, Of whom very many were made Bishops, As his first brother Hildegrim, Who in some Church was once Prelate of Châlons, under Reims: Where while he dwelt and ruled what was committed, And perceived that his brother Liudger Had prosperity, that he might convert the nations, Whom from paganism he acquired for Christ: And he too, admonished doubtless divinely, Commits himself to the North Thuringian nation; he goes to the Northern Thuringians: Using the aid and hospitality of his brother, Staying in a place called Helmstedt: Where, ordaining the most holy seeds Of the Gospels, into the North Thuringians' Breasts they cast them, until the grace of God Made there a fruit drawn even up to the heavens. The Bishopric is still a witness, Where the same Hildegrim began his See: Although at Werden he is buried in body, Yet of Halberstadt may he be Patron, Amen."

The Helmstedt named in the poem, here ascribed to Northern Thuringia, is said to have been restored at the petition of St. Liudger by Charlemagne, and to have been under the Dominion of the Abbot of Werden up to the year 1490; and lives at Helmstedt: when it was handed over to the Duke of Brunswick: for it is in the jurisdiction of this Duchy, distant four German leagues from Guelpherbytum, commonly Wolfenbüttel. Furthermore Hildegrim seems, the See of Châlons being left, to have migrated to Helmstedt, using the aid and hospitality of St. Liudger still living, and often staying there. In the little map or chart of this town of Helmstedt, printed by Matthäus Merian in the Topography of Brunswick in the year 1654, the monastery of St. Liudger is still noted, commonly called by the Germans S. Ludigaris Klooster.

[7] Dithmar, Rector of the Church of Halberstadt Concerning the Bishopric of Halberstadt, Dithmar Bishop of Merseburg, who died in 1090, in Book 4 of his Chronicle writes these things: "Liudger built this place, called Helmstedt, out of his piety, in the time of the Emperor Charles the Great, the brother of Hildegrim Bishop of Châlons, and first Rector of the holy Church of Halberstadt: which he held 47 years, departing from this world in the reign of Louis the Pious the Emperor, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 827." Albert Krantz in Book 1 of the Metropolis, ch. 3, thus orders these years of Hildegrim's labors: "King Charles the unconquered built in the place Salingstede a notable church, which he ordered to be consecrated in honor of St. Stephen, and set over it as first Bishop Hildegrim, the brother of Liudger: Called by Krantz Bishop of Salingstede. but that Bishopric in later centuries was translated from this place which they then called Salingstede, now Osterwieck, to Halberstadt": and some things being interposed he adds: "Hildegrim the Pontiff, when he had long presided over the Church, increased in goods and people, thought to erect a more illustrious temple to God. While he was tormented by this thought, he was admonished by an Angel, that there was another place more pleasing to God, where he should erect and consecrate the new temple; and it showed Halberstadt, a place more frequented by people. There then the Pontiff, the temple being established and consecrated, established his See to be: The time of the See. and there he presided seven years, when he had spent in the former place a full forty: and slept in peace, full of days and good works, leaving no small reputation of sanctity, and great longing for himself." These things Krantz: by whom the seven years assigned to the Bishopric of Halberstadt please, to be set from the year 20 to 27 of the ninth century. But the forty years spent in the former place at Salingstede, now Osterwieck, a little town in the present jurisdiction of Halberstadt, plainly displease. St. Liudger and his brother and disciple Hildegrim could in the year 780 have been in this little town Salingstede, and have set out thence to Helmstedt, and in both places have announced the faith and Gospel of Christ, so that even for that reason they counted forty years from the first undertaking of preaching: meanwhile then the year 785 and two following he spent with St. Liudger at Rome, Cassino, and on the journey, and then in the year 747 [798] subscribed as Deacon, and afterward was made Bishop of Châlons: which Bishopric being left, in the cited donations Hildegrim the Bishop is said to have presided over the monastery of Werden, no Episcopal place being assigned. The memory in the Calendars on the 26th of March,

[8] Aegidius Gelenius in the Fasti of Cologne, on the 26th of March, having indicated that the body of St. Liudger was conveyed to Ruhrwerden, into the monastery founded by himself, presently subjoined: "There rests St. Hildegrim Bishop of Halberstadt, brother of St. Liudger"; and by the sign added he seems to intimate enough that he is venerated there as a Saint. On this 19th of June the Carthusians of Cologne celebrate him, or Grevenus in the additions to Usuard, published in the years 1515 and 1521, and those following him: Molanus in the first edition of the Auctarium to the same Usuard, Canisius in the German Martyrology, and Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, who esteem him a Saint, call him Confessor, and first Bishop of Halberstadt. In the manuscript Florarium it is written "St. Hildegrim, Bishop of Châlons, brother of St. Liudger." Andrew Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, drawn off by I-know-not-what error, when he ought to refer him to the 13th of the Kalends of July, but chiefly on the 19th of June. did this on the 13th of the Kalends of August: where he composed this eulogy in his manner. "On the same day the deposition of St. Hildegrim, Bishop and Confessor, brother of St. Liudger Bishop of Münster: who was a great ornament to his age, by the morals of a most chaste life, and the excellence of Episcopal vigilance. Whence, when he had first for some time sat as Bishop at Châlons, with vast celebrity of every virtue; brought hence by Charlemagne into Germany, and established by him Bishop of the new Cathedral Church of Halberstadt founded by him, Wrongly by Saussay on the 20th of August, he most holily illustrated the beginnings of this See with the splendors of the divine office discharged; and at last at Gerden (rather Werden) in the monastery which his brother the Blessed one had built, near him rested with a happy exit; and was there glorified with the same glory of sanctity, with which he himself, and with the cult of blessed memory." Likewise Saussay on the 19th of July: "The Translation of St. Hildegrim from being Bishop of Châlons, the first of Halberstadt established by Louis the Pious." Gaspar Bruschius in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Halberstadt honors the same with the title of Saint, held a Saint by others.

and asserts that he presided with the highest piety, by teaching and preaching, and governing the province committed to him, likewise with the highest integrity of life. The same things Cratepolius described in his On the Saints of Germany, among whom he numbers him. The same Bucelinus in the Bishops of Halberstadt, Merian in the Topography, and other more recent writers also entitle him a Saint. Finally Theodore Rhay, among the illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, etc., from the Annals of a certain Werner adorns him with an ampler eulogy, and concludes this by affirming that "he left after him very many miracles, the inheritance familiar to the Saints": yet he uses only the title of Blessed.