Consortia

ON SAINT CONSORTIA,

VIRGIN AT CLUNY IN GAUL.

TOWARD THE END OF THE SIXTH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On her cult, translation, acts, parents, and age.

Consortia, Virgin at Cluny in Gaul (St.)

BY THE AUTHORS G. H. & D.P.

Concerning this most holy Virgin there occur certain tangled matters, which will be more evidently and clearly set forth to the Reader, The cult of St. Consortia the Virgin, if we begin the matter itself from her cult, since nothing appears more suitable. The manuscript Martyrologies of Usuard, but augmented, the Parisian one of the monastery of St. Victor, and another of the Queen of Sweden, likewise the manuscript Florarium of the Saints, and the Martyrology of Bellinus of Padua according to the custom of the Roman Curia, printed at Venice in the year 1498, and reprinted at Paris in the year 1521, set forth the bare memory of St. Consortia the Virgin. The same did Molanus in his Additions to Usuard of the first edition, who in the second and third edition added "in the monastery of Cluny." There had gone before the author of the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lübeck in the year 1490, Grevenus in the Auctarium of Usuard published in 1515 and 1521, likewise Maurolycus and Felicius, ascribed to Cluny: everywhere with these words: "At the monastery or convent of Cluny, of St. Consortia the Virgin." The same has Galesinius; adding in his Notes, "From the records of the monastery of Cluny." The same things are inscribed in the present-day Roman Martyrology; and by Baronius is cited the Martyrology of Bede, but spurious, in which the bare name of Consortia the Virgin is printed. The same is recorded by Arnold Wion in his Benedictine monastic Martyrology, adding that "at what time she flourished, and of what monastery she was a nun, has hitherto been hidden from him." Dorganius and Bucelinus followed.

[2] These things we have found concerning the veneration of this Virgin, and indeed as worshipped among the Cluniacs. But since that monastery was from its beginning one of monks, men, as we have often said concerning the Saints of that place, the feast of the Translation on March 13. the solemn cult of St. Consortia seems to have been introduced from elsewhere, together with her sacred Relics. We noted, on the 13th of March, treating of those passed over and deferred to other days, that St. Consortia the Virgin, translated to Cluny, has there a feast on that day, and is commemorated in various Martyrologies. And first, in the cited Martyrology of Bellinus these things are read: "On the same day at the monastery of Cluny, the translation of St. Consortia." Which Maurolycus, Molanus, Galesinius, Ferrarius described in the same words, and Canisius in his own idiom, and among the monastic writers Wion, Dorganius, Bucelinus, who attached an elogium. We were, in the year 1662, in the very monastery of Cluny, received with great kindness, and we copied various things, and only from the manuscript of Usuard augmented for the use of the said monastery, we noted on the 13th of March the same words already related: "On the same day at the monastery of Cluny, the translation of St. Consortia": but on this 22nd of June, nothing about her. Hence first a doubt might arise, whether this Consortia, and the Virgin Consortia related in Bellinus, ought to be reckoned the same. Ferrarius, Wion, and Bucelinus favor this, when on the 13th of March they also call the translated Consortia a Virgin; and Canisius, on the said 13th of March, adds that the same is treated on the 22nd of June, which we also did on the said 13th of March; and the matter appears sufficiently probable.

[3] Baronius raises another doubt in his Notes on this 22nd of June when he says: She does not seem to be the daughter of St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons. "There were Consortia and Tullia, two daughters of St. Eucherius, afterwards Bishop of Lyons. Ado mentions these on the 16th of the Kalends of December when he treats of St. Eucherius. Whether, however, the Consortia of whom we treat is the same, afterwards established in the Cluniac convent, we hold hitherto unascertained." Ferrarius in his Topography on the Roman Martyrology, under the word "Cluny," asserts that Consortia seems to have been the daughter of St. Eucherius. But where afterwards in the General Catalogue he treats on the 13th of March of the Translation of St. Consortia, he is wholly silent about Eucherius and about her having been his daughter. Saussay nevertheless in his Gallican Martyrology, on the 13th of March, writes that St. Consortia was the daughter of St. Eucherius, and on this 22nd of June says: "whom they report to have been the daughter of St. Eucherius." But who report it thus he does not explain. Acherius and Mabillon, however, seized the occasion of touching on this in the first volume of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, when they relate the Life of St. Eucherius the father and of Consortia the daughter, ascribing her to the 22nd day of June. Here meanwhile, toward the end, he warns that St. Consortia was not a nun, and that she was deservedly expunged from the Benedictine Martyrology by Menard: and therefore she was not to be inserted by him into the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict.

[4] Arthur du Moustier, when he treats of St. Consortia in his Sacred Gynaeceum on this day, adds these things in his Notes: although there is a parish of hers in the Diocese of Lyons. "There exists in the diocese of Lyons a parish Church under the invocation of this holy Virgin, two miles to the West of the city, at which from the neighborhoods of the province there is a frequent gathering of devout suppliants, demanding the aid of this blessed Virgin for the staunching of a flow of blood." A similar cause may have given the people of Le Puy occasion to honor the same holy Virgin in their Cathedral church of the Blessed Mary on this day also, under the rite of a double Office, as has the Catalogue of proper feasts transmitted thence.

[5] That devotion could easily have been brought thither from Cluny, since the monks of Cluny had their Priories throughout all Gaul and beyond it, For not of the first, who died in 449: dependent on the Archmonastery, not to mention in the nearby dioceses of Lyons and Le Puy. But it cannot be that she who, after the death of Lothar I, King of the Franks, that is, after the year 561, was still marriageable under his son Sigebert, should have been the daughter of St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons—not only of him whom alone the ecclesiastical annals have known, who died in the year 449, on the 16th of November; but not even of the Younger, whom Senertus, nor of the second, Raynaud, and other more recent writers imagine for themselves among the bishops of Lyons, on the ground that a certain Eucherius, although without the name of any See, is found subscribed to four Councils celebrated under St. Caesarius of Arles; namely, the Fourth of Orléans in the year 524, in the twelfth place; of Carpentras, 527, in the second place; the Second of Orange, 529, in the fourth place; and the Third of Vienne in the same year in the third place. They imagine, I say; because subscriptions were customarily made according to the order of episcopal seniority, who is imagined to have sat until 529: and those ordained earlier signed earlier: no one therefore will persuade me that it is one and the same person who subscribed in so disordered an order to those four Councils. But whichever of these anyone may wish to choose, and to insert into the series of bishops of Lyons, I have not yet found one suitable, such that long before his episcopate (which nevertheless would be required) he was the father of St. Consortia.

[6] There would remain, therefore, some third person to be named; and this the Life of St. Caesarius, Bishop of Arles, written by his disciple Cyprian, seems to suggest. nor even of a third who could be imagined in the place of Aetherius. But from Sirmond's report Chifflet notes that in the better and older copies of that Life the title "of Lyons" is lacking: and if Aetherius, who accompanied St. Caesarius across the Alps, was at all "of Lyons," he was so young that the Saint could rebuke him for disobedience. Chifflet thinks there was an error in the name; and that one should write Aetherius, then still a layman and not yet a bishop, but first made such after the death of Caesarius; yet here so called by anticipation: who, because of the similarity of name, is also found written as Eucherius. But not even he could have been the father of Consortia. For having been taken from being a Counsellor of Gunthram, King of Burgundy, to ecclesiastical governance, after the year 585, and before 589, he lived (as is established) until the 7th year of King Theodoric, that is, the year of Christ 602, the same being the 41st from the death of Lothar I; whereas nevertheless St. Consortia is said, after the death of her parents, to have been by Sigebert, Lothar's son, given over in marriage to a royal Procurator.

[7] Chifflet, in his Paulinus Illustrated, produces a letter which he himself disinterred, which "to the holy, and rightly to be proclaimed, and to be venerated and most beloved sons, Eucherius and Galla," Bishop Paulinus wrote, after they, perpetual spouses and parents, with their offspring blessed by God, Salonius and Veranus, had withdrawn into the island of Lero near Lérins, On the occasion of Paulinus's Letter to Eucherius and Galla, to lead an eremitic life under the direction of St. Honoratus living nearby—whence Eucherius was afterwards taken to the episcopate of Lyons. Moreover, on the occasion of that letter, so opportunely found, for the knowing of the names, both of the wife and of the island chosen for retreat (the names of the sons became known from Gennadius, who cites the father's writing addressed to them)—on such an occasion, I say, the same Chifflet, in chapter 18, from a very ancient Jura Codex, written almost nine hundred years ago, and collated with three of Lyons and one of Gigny, produces a little tract, whose title is, "The Conversion of St. Eucherius the Bishop and of Galla his wife, and the life of the two daughters Tullia and Consortia, Virgins": which title the Benedictine biographers, in the said century 1 as I have said, inverted thus, "The Life of St. Consortia the Virgin and the conversion of B. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons, the published Acts as though written by a contemporary, and of Galla his wife." They acknowledge the author to be contemporary with both, these wholly, that one in part, on account of these words related at no. 11: "Since

it is long to narrate all the things which the Lord wondrously worked through his servants Eucherius and Galla and their daughter Tullia; I will relate a few of the deeds of B. Consortia, which I have heard from the holy Brothers Uranius the Priest and Celsus the Subdeacon, who clung to her while she lived, and also from Aurelian the Priest, who until now serves God at her tomb, as they have related." I heard.

[8] The Benedictines considered the whole matter to be safe for them, by understanding Eucherius the Younger, having moreover set aside Chifflet's opinion, which Chifflet thinks rashly patched together. who held the work to be interpolated, and that the second part indeed is to be considered genuine; but that the Kings Lothar and Sigebert were Kings of the Alans, then still ruling in Provence, not of the Franks: but that the first part was badly stitched onto it from the History of St. Eucherius, snatched from his eremitic retreat to the episcopate of Lyons. But here it is said that he did not have daughters as companions, but sons—although Ado of Vienne believed it, in his Martyrology on the 16th of November, following the Life of St. Consortia thus interpolated; nor is it shown that he had the place of his anchoritic retreat on the mainland upon the river Durance, but on the island of Lero, nor that he was snatched to the episcopate in the way that is said. I turn therefore to another point, and it pleases me to conjecture, from the situation of the place where the father of St. Consortia lived, near Manosque, that he himself was the Bishop of the city of Riez, distant only five leagues to the East of Manosque, She is rather believed to have been born of Emeterius or Eucherius of Riez, that one who, next after Faustus II, inscribed in the year 549 to the Fifth Synod of Orléans, is hitherto known by name alone as Emeterius; which name, being commonly less known, an ancient copyist turned into Eucherius; moved by the similarity of life, and by the name of the wife Galla, although all the rest differed, especially the time; and consequently, instead of "of Riez," he wrote "of Lyons"; which others, deceived by Ado, followed everywhere afterwards—unless perhaps he was the first to give to another the example of corrupting the text. But why not—just as Eucherius is presumed to have been made from Emeterius—why might not Galla have been made from Gisla? I would not wish to be so scrupulous: nor to stand as surety that the successor of Faustus II of Riez was called Emeterius and not Eucherius, since not this but that name is written in Claudius Robertus and the Sammarthani; for thus they write it without any witness or proof at all.

[9] to whom, as also to the one of Lyons, Galla was the wife. Nor do I see so great a difficulty in conceiving that there was a double pair of spouses, called by the same names in the fifth and sixth centuries, and having enjoyed nearly the same fortune. For why should this seem more wonderful than that now, in two cities, and in very different times, a double pair of spouses of nearly similar fortune should be found, whose names are Peter and Joanna? For just as these now, so common then were the names Eucherius and Galla. Their very different acts, times, and places persuade us to believe in three pairs of holy physician brothers, whose name was Cosmas and Damian: God so disposing, and willing that the example of the first Anargyroi, that is, of those who heal freely, should be renewed under the same names. Let us believe the same to have happened in the two pairs of spouses, who by a similar example dismissed the world, and withdrew to solitude, whence each man was called to the episcopate; and every difficulty subsides: provided that, instead of the church of Lyons, to which it is impossible to give a second or third Eucherius, and a nearly similar fortune of both. one may be permitted to suppose that of Riez, of which, besides each Faustus, and between them the intervening Contumeliosus, no Bishop is named, before Claudian who in the year 573 subscribed to the Fourth Council of Paris, which Claudian could have been the successor of our Emeterius or Eucherius. Therefore, under such a caveat, not as one wishing to teach, but as one ready to learn, I will give the Life of St. Consortia, now twice subjected to the press, with only the name of the church and city of Lyons changed: for whoever shall wish to hold this, must necessarily overturn the whole history.

LIFE

From the editions of Chifflet and Mabillon.

Consortia, Virgin at Cluny in Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 1925

FROM THE PRINTED TEXT.

[1] There was a certain man of the Senatorial order a, Eucherius by name, The father of the Saint joined to a noble wife, having a wife sprung of noble birth, Galla by name; whom indeed an ample estate, and a numerous household, and an abundance of treasures had made illustrious in the world; but the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, adorned them more brightly in the sight of the Creator of all. And since they had no children, they besought the Lord, and he heard their entreaty, giving them a daughter, whom by a votive name they called Consortia, desiring indeed to have her as heir and propagatress of their blood. two daughters being born, And when they were educating her in the fear of the Lord, and she, placed in her childhood years, had begun to have a religious spirit—the Lord no doubt calling her by a hidden inspiration to the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom, according to the presage of her name—their hope was increased by receiving another daughter, whom they called Tullia, and they said: "The Lord will multiply our seed through Consortia and Tullia, just as he multiplied through Leah and Rachel in the house of Jacob the heirs of the future promise."

[2] After this, eager to fulfill in deed what Eucherius had long been planning in his mind, he said to his wife: "You have heard, I believe, sweetest one, and you retain in faithful heart, our Lord Jesus Christ, in his Gospel wholesomely admonishing us, where he says: 'Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you: take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.' Matt. 11. 29. he asks of his wife a separation: Wherefore, applying our religious hearing to such sweet promises of his, why do we not keep his precepts, especially since he has given us things which by right can rule and possess our little properties b? If therefore it does not displease you, I have decided to shear the hair of my head, and to lead a solitary life in a cave, which according to my will the Lord has shown me, situated in the territory of Aix on our land, which we call Mons Martius c, overhanging the river Durance."

[3] Galla, hearing these things, and in a good and excellent heart devoutly receiving the spiritual seed, she offers herself as a companion. threw herself at his feet, giving thanks and asking through the Lord, who was the author of so great a counsel, that he not desert her desolate; but rather that he act so that, after the conjugal bond by which they had been two in one flesh, they might be bound by equal zeal and one purpose in one spirit toward the Lord, saying: "If you desire to shut yourself in a cave, permit, I beg, that with changed garb I may serve you in the stead of a handmaid."

[4] and after their possessions were distributed, The vow therefore is hastened, and a great banquet being prepared, kinsmen and friends are called. B. Eucherius makes manifest the cause, they oppose him; but the mind of the Saints, persevering in its purpose, by no means consents, once having put his hand to the plow, to look back. What more? Of all that they had possessed they make three parts, of which they bestow one on the poor, divide another among their servants, and leave the third to their daughters.

[5] Having therefore entered the aforesaid cave, St. Eucherius so blocked up the place on every side that no one could enter to him, he encloses himself in the cave, his wife ministering. the blessed Galla daily ministering food to him through a little window toward evening, as she herself had asked. But not many days after their conversion, their daughter Tullia, remaining in virginity, passed to the Lord, and was buried on her own land, which is called Thele d, in a double cave. When St. Eucherius heard this, he said: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord: as it has pleased the Lord, so has it been done"; and he exhorted Galla not to be saddened over this matter. Job 1.

[6] And when she would by no means receive consolation; The dead daughter Tullia appears to her mother, foretelling many things. one day, after she had given her limbs to sleep following the Matins hymns, she saw in a dream B. Tullia, clothed in a white stole and gleaming with a golden cloak, standing by her and saying: "Why do you mourn me as if lost, whom the Lord has led into the fellowship of holy Virgins? Know that you too will follow me to the Lord; for he has prepared a crown for you, since you have fulfilled his commandments. My father also, exalted to the Pontifical Chair, will come after us, and will be great in the sight of God: moreover my sister Consortia will remain in virginity, for which she will suffer many things, until she too receive the crown of life." When she had related these things to St. Eucherius after her rest, he, bursting forth in a voice of exultation and confession, said: "I give you thanks, good Shepherd, for there is no consoler like you, who have deigned to console your servants, and to render joy after lamentation"; and they no longer wished to weep for her.

[7] Now it came to pass after these words that a certain young man, St. Consortia refuses a husband. Aurelius by name, going to the holy Eucherius, asked of him his daughter Consortia in marriage. Hearing this, and fearing because of the revelation which he had learned through St. Galla, and silently considering the matter, he said: "The girl whom you seek as bride is of age, let her speak for herself: for I have left it in her power, whether to marry or to remain in virginity." And when St. Consortia was brought into their sight and was questioned about this: "I have neither the faculty of promising," she said, "nor the power of refusing: but all things are in the hand of God: for I have Christ as my spouse, who will not abandon me, until he leads me into his bridal chamber." Hearing this, that young man for the present indeed was silent; but afterwards he sent to her noble matrons, her kinswomen, that they might urge her with coaxing words toward entering the bond of marriage. Since these were troublesome to her, she asked for a respite of seven days, that she might consult the will of God.

[8] When therefore they had departed, St. Consortia, devoting herself to prayers, fasts, and vigils, by the example of St. Eugenia: with tears besought the Lord to direct her by his will. Meanwhile there came into her hands the deeds of B. Eugenia e the Virgin, in which, when she had read that that one, born of Pagan parents, fleeing from them and converted to Christ, with shorn hair, for a long time, in male attire, had dwelt among the servants of God in a monastery; she said in her heart: "If she, casting off her Pagan parents, converted to God, remained in virginity, and attained to the palm of Martyrdom: how much more ought I, born of Christian parents, and redeemed by the blood of Christ, to persevere in what I have purposed?" She prayed also, saying: "Lord, who converted her from the cult of idols to yourself; make me, whom from the cradle you have consecrated by the saving laver, to attain to her fellowship." And her heart was strengthened in the Lord.

[9] But on the seventh day, the young man Aurelius coming to her,

[10] It happened at that time that the Pontiff of the Church h of Riez passed to the Lord. Now it was the custom of the aforesaid Church that, whenever it was widowed of its Bishop by the law owed to all mortals, in electing a successor it should await the revelation i of the Lord. her father being elected Bishop, Then therefore, after a three-day fast had been first imposed on all, the Angel of the Lord, appearing in a vision to a certain little boy, said: "There is a certain Senator, Eucherius by name, shut away in a cave above the river Durance, who, leaving behind all that he possessed, has followed the Lord: go to bring this man, and appoint him as your Pastor for yourselves, for he is chosen by the Lord." When the boy related this to the elders at daybreak, all the Brothers being summoned, they gave thanks to the omnipotent Lord, and having sent with Clerics to the aforesaid place the Archdeacon, who then bore the care of the Church, they found him as the Lord had revealed to them. And when the Archdeacon had indicated to him the matter for which he had come, he began to say with an oath that he would not voluntarily go out of the cave; nor would he go with him, unless he were led bound. And when he long repeated such things, the Archdeacon, breaking through the wall of the cave, brought him out; and, according to what he himself had sworn, led him bound … k. Whom the Clergy and people, choosing him with equal mind and one consent as their Priest, solemnly placed in the Pontifical Chair. But Galla his wife, having entered that place of the cave in which the man of God had lain hidden, passed the remaining time of her life religiously as she had begun, her daughter Consortia supplying her daily sustenance, just as she herself had formerly done for her husband.

[11] she ministers to her mother who succeeds her into the cave: And since it is long to narrate all the things which the Lord wondrously worked through his servants Eucherius and Galla, and their daughter Tullia; I will relate a few of the deeds of B. Consortia, which I heard related by the holy l Brothers, Uranius the Priest and Celsus the Subdeacon, who clung to her while she lived; and also by Aurelian the Priest, who until now serves God at her tomb.

[12] When therefore, her parents being dead, holy Consortia had begun to be in her own power, she built a church on her own land, which is called the village of Matton, in honor m of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, and established there a guest-house from her own goods: but what was left over, bestowing it on the poor, Consortia builds a church and a guest-house: she laid up for herself a treasure in heaven; and she decreed that her household should be free. These things being thus arranged, she went on to Lothar n, King of the Franks, to ask of him that by his command she might remain quiet in his kingdom, and serve the Lord in virginity. And when, after many labors of the journey, she had approached the palace, the Lord deigned to appear in a vision to the aforesaid King, she goes to King Lothar. whose daughter had now for a long time been ill, saying: "Why are you sad over your daughter? Behold, one of my handmaids has come to you, whose name is called Consortia, who will restore to your daughter her former health; see to it, however, that you willingly grant her whatever she shall ask of you." When therefore the King had awakened from sleep, his faithful men being called, he narrated all that he had heard through the vision, and said: "Go and search out the handmaid of God shown to me beforehand, wherever you may perchance find her, and bring her to me." When she had been found by them, and, to those questioning, had indicated her name and country, they speedily brought her in to the King. She wept while she was being led, and prayed, fearing lest she should be desired by the King, who had so carefully ordered her to be sought. But when she had come into the palace, the King rose from his throne, and going to meet her, said: "Pray for me, handmaid of God, and restore to my daughter her former health, as the Lord this night deigned to reveal to me." And when she said that she merited no such thing, since to do such things belongs to the Saints: nonetheless the King, certain of the Lord's promise, made her enter the bedchamber, where the girl lay seized by fevers.

[13] Compelled therefore, she prayed on bent knees with tears: then rising, she greeted the girl saying, "Peace be with you." To whom that one, who had now seemed to have lost the faculty of speech, recovering her spirit, answered: she heals his daughter: "I know that peace is with me, since I have merited to see you: for immediately as you entered the palace, the fever by which I was tormented left me, and behold I have been made well. I beg therefore that you bless me, and refresh me with your foods, on which you daily feed." The handmaid of Christ therefore gave her a fragment of barley bread, and almond nuts: for this was her daily food.

[14] But the King, hearing that his daughter had recovered, she obtains from the King free power of disposing of her own affairs. quickly came in to her, and said to St. Consortia: "Whatever you shall ask of me in my kingdom, shall be done for you. Gold also or silver, as much as you shall wish, I gladly bestow." But she, prostrate at his knees, said: "I beseech you, my Lord King, that what you promise me you bestow upon the poor, and that you permit me—what above all I ask—to remain without anyone's disturbance in the begun purpose of Virginity: and that whatever I have bestowed or shall bestow on places sacred to God, or on my servants, may by your munificence remain ratified." Assenting gladly to her petition, the King granted what she had wished; sending letters by his faithful men, that all might know that if anyone should plot any evil against her, he would incur the offense of so great a Prince; but if she should wish to do anything concerning her own properties, it would endure unshaken for all time. And thus the handmaid of God returned to her own.

[15] Not many days after, the King Lothar being dead, one of the chief men of the palace, Hecca by name, was sent by Sigebert, who had succeeded his father in the Kingdom, Again desired in marriage, to set in order the Province of Marseilles o. While he was doing this, the devil, taking a certain one of the inhabitants of the place as the instrument of his fraud, said to him: "There is in these places a certain girl, exceedingly beautiful, Consortia by name, born of noble parents, of whom she alone survives, having many possessions and innumerable monies p and abundant servants, and she has not known a man." Hearing this, Hecca, having sent ahead a boy to announce that he would come, came in haste to the handmaid of God. And when he had greeted her with simple words, after their conversation they took food. Meanwhile, gazing at her rather closely, admiring her beauty q and the prudence of her speech, so great a fire of concupiscence blazed up in his heart, that he could scarcely restrain himself. But by no means revealing his mind to her, he returned in haste to the King. To whom, when he had reported that all the things for which he had been sent had been prosperously done, he added: "My Lord King, there is in those parts a girl without a husband, who, having lost her parents, dwells alone on their estates, whom I beseech, if I have found grace in your eyes, that you permit me to take in marriage."

[16] When he had obtained this as he had asked, he sent to St. Consortia a messenger with one of the boys who attended the King, she answers modestly: to indicate to her that she had been granted to him by the King; so that she should prepare herself for nuptials to be celebrated on the thirtieth day. She, hearing these things, exceedingly saddened, answered: "He who resists power, resists the ordinance of God. I am the handmaid of the King, I cannot resist his power: but whatever he shall command I will strive to fulfill." Rom. 13. 12. Now she said these things of the true King, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. But the messengers, supposing that she said it of King Sigebert, returning, narrated what they had heard to him who had sent them; who, filled with much joy, prepared himself, that he might come to her more quickly.

[17] Meanwhile the handmaid of God, devoting herself to fasts and vigils, prayed saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, she flees to God; who have hitherto kept me immune from all pollution; Lord, whom from my adolescence I serve with all devotion; do not abandon me, that there may not prevail against your handmaid that ancient serpent, who deceived Eve by the blandishments of words and by the beauty and sweetness of the forbidden tree: for you do not abandon those who hope in you: but make me to attain immaculate to the fellowship of your Saints." And so great a sadness was in the handmaid of God, that from anguish of spirit she was almost lifeless. When therefore, afflicted with such weariness, one day with a single little handmaid, having entered the above-mentioned Oratory of St. Stephen, she had prostrated herself in prayer with weeping, it happened that she fell asleep: and behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to her in a dream, saying: "Consortia, why are you afflicted? The Lord whom you serve will not abandon you: strengthened by the Angel, for the spouse whom the King sends to you will not reach you. Therefore, a banquet being prepared, call the poor, and order a burial to be prepared in this very place where you recline, in which you may bury him who wishes to usurp the bride of Christ for himself. For there are three days, and it will be announced to you that he is coming. You therefore, the message being heard, will go out to meet him with the poor, singing psalms: and when he beholds this, he will perish for joy by his own sword r."

[18] Waking, the handmaid of Christ says to her handmaid: "Did you not perceive someone speaking to me while I was sunk in sleep?" To whom she said: "I saw an unknown man, clothed in white garments, she goes to meet the suitor, whose voice, speaking with you without moving his lips, sounded in my ears, but I in no way understood him." St. Consortia understood at once that the Angel of God had appeared to her, and for joy said: "I give you thanks, good Shepherd, for you do not abandon your handmaid; but free her from those who persecute her." She did therefore all the things which the Angel of the Lord had commanded her. Now the third day had come, and behold one running ahead announces that, on the farther bank of the Durance,

her spouse is standing. She goes out to meet him, clothed in festive attire, surrounded by a throng of psalm-singing poor. Hecca, seeing these things, and she buries him pierced by his own weapon. incautious for joy, goes out of the boat, and his feet slipping, pierced by the lance which he happened to be holding in his hand, falling, he expired. Perceiving this, the handmaid of God, that it had been fulfilled just as she had heard from the Angel, giving thanks to God with tears, lifted his body, and, wrapped in linen cloths, buried it in the place which she had prepared for him. For his boys, leaving the body unburied, returned in haste to the King, and announced what they had seen.

[19] That day was the King's birthday, and his sister, whom holy Consortia had cured from her infirmity, Henceforth left to herself reclining near the King, when she saw him saddened by the message, asks of him the cause. When the King had narrated to her what he had heard, she answered: "I think that the girl on whose account, as I hear, Hecca perished by so sudden a death, is herself the sacred Virgin Consortia, who, coming hither from the Province of Marseilles while our father was living, freed me from fevers by her prayers. See therefore that no ruin befall in your kingdom on her account, if you rashly permit anything to be done against her: for your father loved her greatly." When therefore the King had ascertained, and had found that it was she, he sent letters to the Prince of the aforesaid province, commanding that no one be troublesome to St. Consortia: but that it be permitted her to use the privilege which her father had granted her.

[20] From that day therefore the Lord gave so great a grace to his handmaid before men, that all held her as if one of the Angels. and renowned for miracles, For she was placid in countenance, sweet in address, and adorned with the gems of all virtues; she calmed the angry with a single word, she recalled the discordant to concord. There had grown also in her the largesse of the heavenly gift in the showing of signs; she put demons to flight from possessed bodies, she gave light to the blind, she restored former health to the sick, and through her the Lord worked many other wonders, which it is long to narrate.

[21] But when the Lord wished to transfer her from labors to rest, she is warned of her impending death; he appeared to her in a vision saying: "Consortia, most faithful steward, you have been faithful over a few things, come that I may set you over many. It is time that you rest from your labor, and receive the crown which from your adolescence you have acquired through many tribulations; and on the eighth day you will come to me: a choir of Virgins will meet you with a multitude of Angels, receiving you with welcoming hands as you enter into the joy of your Lord." And when she had awakened, giving thanks to God, having held a banquet for three days, she called the Priests and the poor. and dead is buried. The faithful neighbors also were present, and, distributing all her substance, she said: "Know, my fathers and brothers, that my death is imminent; for on the fifth day, according to what the Lord has signified to me, I will go out of the body: pray, I beg, for me, that the power of darkness may not meet me, but that, received by the Angels of light, I may be led into the rest of the Saints; bury my little body in the Oratory of St. Stephen." After these things, seized by fevers, on the day which the Lord had foretold to her she migrated to the heavens, and was buried, as she had asked, in the Oratory which she herself had built.

ANNOTATIONS BY D.P.

p These things, so exaggerated, do not stand in the way that the Saint, her parents being dead, as is said above, distributed all her movables among the poor, the estates of course being kept, and a fitting service for them, for the uses of the place founded by her.

q Even at thirty, as it now is fitting she was, an extraordinary beauty could have remained, especially in the eyes of an avaricious man, and (which is likely from the office committed to him) by no means young, and perhaps for some years a widower.

r "Sword," that is, "weapon": for below it is said he was pierced by his own lance; and I remember having read such a case elsewhere too.