Mary of Oignies

CONCERNING BLESSED MARY OF OIGNIES

IN THE DIOCESE OF NAMUR IN BELGIUM.

IN THE YEAR 1213.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Mary of Oignies, in Belgium (Bl.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

§. I. On her cult, the threefold elevation of her Body, and her Relics.

The monastery of Canons Regular of Oignies, of the Order of St. Augustine, commonly Oingnies and Oegnies, founded around the year 1192 at the river Sambre in Gallo-Brabant; Her body raised from the place of first burial is distant nearly an equal interval of four miles from Nivelles and Namur, once of the diocese of Liège, now of Namur. Not far from this monastery, Blessed Mary spent the last years of her life at Oignies, and in the year 1213 on the Vigil of St. John the Baptist migrated to the Lord; of Nivelles indeed by birth, but from the place of her burial and cult commonly called of Oignies. The Life, written around 1216 by James of Vitry, of whom soon, does not indicate the place of her first burial, which perhaps was in the common cemetery of those Religious; whether, however, there, or in the church itself, it then seemed good to bury her; around the year 1226; yet, the new church being completed around the year 1226, James, now Bishop, invited to dedicate it, made the first Translation of the sacred body; concerning which the very old Chronicle of the place, written in French in a rude idiom, has thus: "and the aforesaid Master James of Vitry, who was Legate of Pope Honorius, when he consecrated the church of Oignies, raised the bones of Lady Mary of Oignies, and consecrated them; and of these he placed some in the said church in little chests blessed by him, with other Relics of the Saints; and

he granted great Indulgences to all of both sexes who with a pious heart by pilgrimage should visit that holy woman, and bestow something of their faculties on the fabric of the church."

[2] Arnold Raissius, when in the year 1636 he had reprinted the "Cœnobiarchia of Oignies," or the Catalogue of the Bishops of Oignies, published by Francis Moschus in the preceding century; added to it both many other things and especially a Catalogue of the Relics, among which the chief are an entire rib of the Prince of the Apostles Peter, the lower Jaw of St. Barnabas, part of the foot of St. James the Greater, a Tooth of St. Andrew the Apostle, a Tooth of St. Servatius, Bishop of Tongres, a little bone covered with flesh of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, by James of Vitry: from which a great quantity of a divine liquor flowed, as the eyewitness Lord Simon, then Prior, reported; an entire joint of the hand or foot of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, one joint of the thumb of St. Martin of Tours. Now it is credible that most of these Relics were conferred on that place by James himself, and so placed in new caskets that to them were added smaller particles of the body of Lady Mary. translated to a more decent place in the year 1333, But of the rest and chief bones John Molanus must be thought to speak, in the Births of the Saints of Belgium, where he says that James of Vitry decently replaced the Relics in a stone sarcophagus, which afterward in the year 1333 were more decently replaced at the side of the church, yet within the same stone sarcophagus, where the same are held in it in 1595, as the aforenamed Francis Moschus testifies, in the Preface to the History of Vitry. But the Doctors of Douai, by whom the second edition of Molanus's Births was prepared in the year 1616, and in the year 1608 by the license of Paul V. noted that, after Molanus wrote those things, it was obtained from the Apostolic See that the body should be placed upon the altar in a silver reliquary: which was done in the year of the Lord 1609 (rather 1608), whence now every week a Mass with chant is held in her honor.

[3] Here we have a threefold translation; the first, made within the 13th year from her death, by a kind of canonization, believed at that time to suffice, and perhaps not made without the express consent of Pope Honorius III; It is credible that Honorius III was aware of the first Translation, since it is likely that the Legate, accustomed to give the Pontiff by letters an account of all his acts of chief moment, by no means failed in his duty in this part. The second translation happened, John XXII holding the Roman Chair at Avignon, but John of Eppa that of Liège, of the second John XXII; who founded his monasteries for the Minors and Preachers at Liège, but for the Crutched Friars at Huy, certainly a Prelate of great religion: but it is not credible that that Translation was made either without him, or that he did anything without consulting the Roman Pontiff staying so near in Gaul. From this time, therefore, and by their authority I would believe was assumed what, by the testimony of Molanus, is extant in the monastery of Oignies, an Office of the Handmaid of Christ Mary of Oignies, whose beginning is at first Vespers "With solemn dance"; and to the same is to be referred also the Prayer, which, as wont to be recited as in the Liturgy, and under either the old Office was assumed, and received from Raissius's Belgic Hierogazophylacium, Henschen reported in his Notes; yet I could not hitherto find it there: "Be propitious to us, we beseech you, O Lord, your unworthy servants, through the glorious merits of St. Mary your Virgin of Oignies, who rests in the present church; that by her pious intercessions we may be protected from all adversities." Molanus adds that there is no public use of the aforesaid Office, because she is not canonized; namely by that solemn Canonization, and for the same cause they do not call her Saint, but Lady, "Dame Marie": yet she is held in the highest honor, since in the Martyrology is read, "On the eighth of the Ides of May" the first coming of Lady Mary to us, concerning which in the Life at number 97.

[4] But that more common usage of calling her Lady Mary does not exclude the title of Saint or Blessed, which, attributed to her with the Ordinaries knowing and not prohibiting, is proved from the aforesaid, and also from the old Martyrologies among us at the 9th of the Kalends of July, the first of which, of St. Lawrence of Liège, has thus: "In the territory of Nivelles, the village Oignies, the falling-asleep of Blessed Mary of Oignies, handmaid of God: whose Life, pleasant in the telling and distinguished with various virtues, James of Vitry wrote, (afterward) Bishop of Acre and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church." Another, of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels: "Likewise the Deposition of Blessed Mary of Oignies in Brabant, whose Legend Master James of Vitry, afterward Cardinal, described." Greven the Carthusian in his additions to Usuard: "In the diocese of Liège, of holy memory Mary of Oignies, whose most holy Life a man worthy of God, James of Vitry, Bishop of Tusculum, Cardinal, described." Finally the manuscript Florarium of the Saints of the same antiquity: "The Natal of Blessed Mary of Oignies, whose Life full of virtues James of Vitry, Bishop of Tusculum and Cardinal of the Roman Curia, follows with a distinguished style. She first underwent a chaste marriage, in which, living most perfectly, she so advanced that she deserved to be honored with miracles and divine revelations. She was buried in the monastery of Oignies near Nivelles, in the diocese of Liège, in the year of salvation 1213, in the 37th year of her age." I omit the more recent Fasti: but these older ones I have produced, because it appears that the collectors of each, each using his own phrase after reading the Life, did not write one from another, but followed the common and widespread fame throughout all Brabant of her remarkable holiness, and the known cult at Oignies, on account of which she was everywhere called both Saint and Blessed.

[5] Now as for what pertains to the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Office, but the new Lessons composed, although they were not in use when Molanus wrote; yet I think they ceased to be employed not long before the Council of Trent: and that the Bishop of Namur, John Davin, ordaining the proper Offices of his own diocese, and having them printed in the year 1619, was the more easily induced to suffer to be inserted into them three proper Lessons concerning her for the second Nocturn, according to the rite of the reformed Roman Breviary, with also a new Collect of this kind: "O God, who gave your handmaid Blessed Mary an angelic life in the way, that among the Angels you might raise her up in the fatherland; grant us by her imitation to serve you devoutly on earth, and by her intervention to glory with you in heaven: through our Lord Jesus Christ." Of this Collect and of the Lessons themselves the author, or at least the first approver, is reckoned to have been Davin's predecessor, Bishop Francis Buisseret, from the year 1602 to '14, in which he was translated to the Archbishopric of Cambrai: by the command of the same who last raised the bones. namely the same who (as the Sammarthani say in Gallia Christiana) raised upon the altar the body of St. Mary of Oignies, namely in the year, as above said, 1608, and that by the license of the Apostolic See. And this is the third and last Translation, more solemn than the prior ones, whose Acts after the Life we shall give in Latin from the printed French: here let it please to learn the aforesaid Lessons, as a brief summary of the whole Life.

[6] Mary, born at Nivelles, a town of Brabant, from her earliest age gave not a few indications of her future holiness, among others the exercise of assiduous prayer, in which often, lulled not by sleep but by Angelic choirs, she passed the night. In the fifteenth year of her age given in marriage by her parents against her will, In them is praised the chaste marriage of Mary, she so kindled her husband with zeal for chastity and piety, that thenceforth she deserved to have him as a coadjutor and companion in her chaste purpose and the institution of her life: for by mutual consent, their faculties distributed to the poor, they betake themselves to a village near the town to minister to lepers. She was affected with such compassion toward the sick that she sometimes passed whole nights among them sleepless: whence, as her merits healed very many ill-affected in body, but more in mind, she was eminent with a singular grace against the spirit of blasphemy and despair. But as men experienced the efficacy of her prayers for help, so also the demons for torment; for she uncovered their snares to others, and what sometimes she could not by prayers, she conquered by adding fasting.

[7] Furthermore she was of admirable abstinence, abstemious from flesh and wine, using for her food only herbs and vegetables, most rarely little fishes, and for the greater part of the year bread and water once a day around evening, the rigor of her life, and these most sparingly: nay, several days she consumed beyond the powers of nature without food, on the last and first day of the fast no less apt for labor. But to the fast for the chastisement of the body she added other works of piety more to be admired than imitated; with equal charity, equal vigilance, equal solitude and silence: of which she was so studious that she recognized she had especially obtained from heaven this, that she should migrate to heaven without the pains of purgatory.

[8] She excelled in the gift of tears, and obtained it for others: distinguished moreover with the gift of prophecy and the sevenfold gift of the spirit. a happy death. But hating the frequency of men who flocked to her, she migrated to Oignies, a place before unknown to her, but divinely shown, and measured out the last quarter of a year with eleven refreshments, and those most sparing. And the last fifty-three days she protracted, hungering only for the body of Christ with a nausea for the rest: at last, near to death by the disease with which she had been afflicted, raised up by the Lord, and as if emerging from the whirlpool of miseries, among those Saints to whom, when well, she had been familiar, among the Virgin Mother of God, by whose admonition she sought and received the holy oil, among Christ Himself too, who fixed the sign of His victory at her feet; she broke into songs, the common enemy of the human race being seen and likewise put to flight: and as if singing a victory into the hands of Christ standing by, the "alleluia" sung and thanks given to God the Father, she commended and gave up her spirit on the very Vigil of the Lord's Forerunner, in the year of salvation one thousand two hundred thirteen; but of her age about the thirty-sixth.

§. II. On the images, Relics, and Profession of Blessed Mary.

[9] Her image, says Molanus, is painted on the altar and in other places: Images on the altar and in the church of Oignies, and her tomb on the day of her Coming and of her death is adorned; and on those days the concourse to her memorial is more frequent. But also some Parish-priests have said the Sacrifice of the Mass concerning her, yet without chant, lest they should seem to celebrate publicly one not canonized. Of images of this kind we have two, one with a more emaciated face, and on the page turned we represent them; the one older and indicated by Molanus, of her standing with a Rosary in her hand and her head radiated, with this Inscription: "Blessed Mary of Oignies, pray for us": but in face she appears here more emaciated, such as from much fasting she was when she died. The other more recent and now placed in the altar in place of the other, which in the year 1642 the famous painter Craeyers of Brussels made, showing Mary kneeling before the altar without rays, with Christ

appearing to her from above among the Angels; the other with a fuller and most beautiful face but he painted her herself with a fuller and more beautiful face and as if a young girl, as he had read in the Life that she was commended for the beauty of her face. I, having obtained a copy of that last one expressed in living colors, that I might gratify the most illustrious Lord Trazegnies, Provost of Nivelles, most devoted to that Blessed one, had her effigy alone, without other accessories and radiated, sculpted from it, to which the above-said older one could be joined. But Lord John Chrysostom de Monpleinchamp, Royal Orator at Brussels, asserted to me that that latest one seemed to him more like the one which he himself had seen at Nivelles painted for the years of her marriage in a secular habit with a black Brabantine veil, which they commonly call "Huka."

[10] The same Lord de Monpleinchamp suggested to us that it is held at Nivelles by so constant a tradition that Mary surpassed all the girls of that town by far in the comeliness of her face and the bearing of her whole body, at least as long as she lived at Nivelles: and when we think she was painted there with the huka, so that as often as the people of Nivelles wish to commend someone for singular beauty, they commonly say she is another Mary of Oignies; nay, even now one most beautiful one there is scarcely called by any other name than that, according to the tradition of the people of Nivelles because she so perfectly reproduces the lineaments of the face expressed in the picture placed above the natal house of Mary: wherefore I would have thought it worthwhile to give a copy of this too, which I think was the first of all, if I had found a convenient painter. As for what pertains to the habit, the Saint at Oignies used that with which her pictures represent her, according to the history of the Life at number 37, a white woolen tunic with a simple cloak of the same color: and the older prototype at Nivelles. but that the Beguines with whom she lived there commonly used such, cannot easily be determined, since they have ceased to exist for some centuries, except that upon certain very old sepulchral stones there appear certain ones similar to our Saint, as to dress, as the above-praised Prior of the place writes.

[11] From the images I pass to the Relics of Mary, from which the aforecited Catalogue of them takes its beginning, which are piously and religiously kept in the Gynaeceum of Oignies. The Catalogue, in this manner: The shift wont to be carried to women in labor, "In a silver bier skillfully wrought, the body of the most glorious Mary of Willebroek, commonly called of Oignies, virgin and married. Her woolen shift, a singular remedy for those laboring in childbirth: likewise her knife, and part of the staff with which she supported her feeble limbs." So he, in the year 1636, in the same words which eight years before he had used in his Belgic Hierogazophylacium, page 383; yet not under the title of the Gynaeceum of Oignies, a little knife, and part of the staff. but "at Oignies on the Sambre in St. Nicholas of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine," of which difference I take no other reason than that in the latter place he corrected the former, being taught that no Beguinage survived at Oignies.

[12] Molanus, as to the shift, preceded Raissius, writing thus: "Mary is invoked by those laboring in childbirth, who through her woolen shift are often freed: The joint salutary to the feverish, likewise by the feverish, to whom from the Relics of her sacred body a joint enclosed in silver is offered to be kissed." This Master James had plucked from the sacred body when he first composed it for burial, and always religiously carried it with him hung from his neck, as is read in the supplement to the Life at number 16; where also is narrated how much good came thence to Hugh, Cardinal of Ostia, and to Hugh the Cardinal, afterward Gregory IX. afterward Pope Gregory IX; so that it can scarcely be doubted that this man, made Pontiff, and keeping with him James created Cardinal, added something to the cult, instituted by James after the first elevation of the body as if by the Legate of his predecessor; although I find nothing certain about it.

[13] There remains to be examined the title of Virgin, which the Collect placed above at number 3 attributes to her, In the old Collect she is called Virgin, and for holding which, and also for referring it into the Roman Martyrology, and for obtaining the faculty of reciting the Office and Mass, by the rite which is customary concerning Virgins, the people of Oignies thought supplication should be made, after the Decree of the sacred Congregation had emanated, forbidding the Office and Mass concerning those whose names are not inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. On that occasion, namely, three new and more prolix Lessons were composed for the feast of translation on October 12, to be proposed to the Sacred Congregation, in the first of which these things are said: "Fourteen years old, her parents compelling, she indeed underwent the yoke of marriage; but chiefly with this intent, that, withdrawn from their too harsh censure and commands, she might run the course of the zeal of virtue… Her hard exercises were hidden from her husband (to which she gave leisure by night, namely using another bed,) but the gleaming splendor of her virtues could not long lie hidden; whence, following the purpose of his holy wife, and approving her sounder counsels, both keeping the bed immaculate, entered upon a continent and almost Angelic life."

[14] The husband's name was John, with whom that Mary lived long continently, and it is likely that he too remained such even after the marriage, his Life makes undoubted: but that he never at all used the marriage, not even in the first days, neither the Author of these latest Lessons dared expressly to assert, nor can anyone now (I think) certainly define. Yet it can be that Mary, imitating St. Anastasia, by various pretexts avoided the payment of the conjugal debt; until, not much time being thus spent, as is said at number 13, "the Lord regarded the humility of His Handmaid, and heard the tears of the suppliant; while John was inspired to have Mary, whom before he had as a wife, as one commended to him." For he can be said to have had her as a wife, even though he had not yet begun to use her, as long as he had the will of using her, or had not yet confirmed by vow the purpose of continence; as it happened to St. Elzear, brought to make such a vow only after 15 years of his virginal marriage. although the Life does not say it expressly, It can also be that the writer of the Life was ignorant of Mary's unsullied virginity (she keeping that secret to herself); or condoned it to the modest humility of her surviving husband, lest he should betray him. Finally, John being dead, not only after the Life, but even after the supplement was written, Giles the Prior, most familiar to the Saint and conscious of the same secret, could have brought it to light, for the commendation of both; and used the title of Virgin in composing that Collect; for it is not an unlikely conjecture that he was the author of the Office, composed in hope of obtaining Canonization or for the use of private devotion.

[15] I know that the Author of the Chronicle of Andres, in volume 9 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, writing in this 13th century in which we are engaged, and that title could perhaps be attributed to her long continence, excuses the opinion of his people about St. Rictrude, widow of Marchiennes and mother of four holy children, as though they have and venerate her body, though on a different day, under the name of St. Rotrudis the Virgin; by saying that the title of Virgin does not contradict his assertion, because she who spurned a second marriage, and wholly betook herself to a celibate Life, in the holy purpose of widowhood happily completed the remainder of her life, will not lack the merit of virginity. But far be it that I should believe the people of Oignies turned to that, as long as the truth of that title can be saved for Mary otherwise. Yet I prefer to abstain from it in the front of this Commentary, as also from the title of Beguine, which the Author of the supplement to the Life, equally contemporary, seems to ascribe to her, when at number 25 he says that James of Vitry "appeared more glorious to the Belgians by spontaneously giving up of his own will the lordship of a most ample city in parts overseas, made poor from the Eastern wealth, also that she became a Beguine at Oignies, and by choosing rest in the humble place of Oignies, among the sheep of the Beguines, than he could be to the Romans, now made Bishop and Cardinal." For although this regards the second sojourn of James at Oignies, after the Bishopric of Acre abdicated by the permission of Honorius III, Mary having long since died: yet since she herself, whom her country keeps painted with the huka, that is, the black woolen veil of Brabantine matrons; is not only painted at Oignies, but also in the life at number 72 is read to have her head covered with a white veil, namely linen, after the manner of Beguines; it can be believed that she embraced their institute, bound by no solemn vows, as soon as she had come to Oignies.

[16] Nor does it greatly oppose, that in the same Life at number 37 it is said she there used a white habit. that over a rough hair-cloth sack she had only a white woolen tunic with a simple cloak of the same color, but our Beguines have both black; for nothing prevents that they who lived under the direction of Canons Regular, where these used the white color (as even now they use it at Oignies), themselves too used it. But much less can it oppose, that the Beguines of Oignies are understood from the supplement at number 10 to have used in one house a common table with the mother of the Prior Giles as if Superior; but Mary seems to have lived solitary with one little maidservant. For the present custom of our Beguines too has it, that either in one dwelling more or fewer together; many also, especially the more honorable and senior, have a separate house with a maidservant ministering to them.

§ III. On the Life and its writer, and on the Author of the Supplement.

[17] The Life written by James of Vitry, James of Vitry, born at Argenteuil on the Seine in the diocese of Paris, attracted by the fame and holiness of Blessed Mary of Oignies, leaving his Theological studies and the city of Paris, came to Oignies; and adhering to that Blessed one, by her instinct and exhortation professed the monastic life among the Canons Regular; a man of great knowledge and prudence. He wrote the illustrious deeds of Mary in two books at the request of Fulco, Bishop of Toulouse, who in the year 1212, driven from his city, in 2 books, had visited her lying at the last; and was still staying in Belgium or at Paris, soliciting aid. And James wrote, as in most things an eyewitness (for he was also present at her death), and also other things, which he had received from Mary herself or from persons most well-known to her and to him. James also wrote in quite elegant speech, as Cantipratanus speaks in the Life of St. Lutgardis, book 3, chapter 14, as those times bore, and no other than that in which he wrote the books of the Eastern and Western History; so that it is a wonder that Laurence Surius thought it necessary to polish the style here and there a little, for the sake of learned readers.

[18] Henschen left that Life to be given in its original phrase, namely from various manuscripts, one of ours, which once belonged to Cornelius Duyn of Amsterdam, another of the monastery of Rouge-Cloître of Canons Regular near Brussels, and a third communicated to us by Aubert Miraeus, most learned especially in Belgic and monastic antiquity. The Life thus prepared by Henschen, and illustrated with some Notes; I collated with the manuscript of the monastery of Oignies itself of more than two hundred years, communicated to me by the above-praised present Prior (as is read on its first front) lent to the Reverend Father Felix Lenglet in the year

1636, who was about to speak or write concerning that very Saint. The same Life, though not word for word, of old Vincent of Beauvais inserted into his works, in book 30 of the Speculum Historiale, chapter 10 and the 30 following; and St. Antoninus, part 3, title 19, chapter 12; whom others later followed.

[19] To that lucubration of James of Vitry, digested into two books, not three as Trithemius thought, with the Supplement of Brother Nicholas Cantipratanus, we subjoin a Supplement from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, collated with the edition of Arnold Raissius: who among the Peristromata of the Saints, published at Douai in the year 1630, and again after the aforementioned Cœnobiography and Lipsanography in the year 1636, proceeds under this title: "There follow certain deeds of the admirable and God-beloved Mary of Willebroek, otherwise called of Oignies, which she did both in Life and after death: which indeed are omitted in her Life, not of Thomas, written by the Reverend man Lord James of Vitry, Bishop of Acre, afterward of Tusculum, and Cardinal of the Apostolic See; but afterward supplied and completed by the venerable and devout religious Brother N., Canon Regular of the monastery of Cantimpré." Whether these were thus written in the 13th century, or are of the editor Raissius himself; we cannot doubt that the letter N indicates not only in general, as now mostly, but in particular the name of the writer, namely Nicholas: since in the Proem he himself does this, after the manner of his century, and so by no reason here can it (as it seemed to Molanus, Moschus, and Oldoinus) be understood Thomas Cantipratanus, who from that monastery afterward passed to the Order of Preachers, although he in his book 2 of the Apiarius, chapter 54, number 18, described certain things word for word from it.

[20] The Life was written a few years after the death of Mary, while the Author was still staying in Gaul, preaching the Cross against the Albigensians, before he set out into Palestine, which seems to have been done around the year 1217. The Supplement was composed at the request of Brother Giles of Walcourt, the first Prior, written before the year 1240 and ends with an address to James, now Bishop and Cardinal of Tusculum, that he should return to his former humility at Oignies, the glory of the Roman Curia despised, in which his zeal for preaching, as if dead, lay torpid, which could be most usefully exercised in the diocese of Liège. But he died (as I shall soon prove) on May 1 in the year 1240; but Giles is said to have died when he had ruled the house of Oignies for 41 years, begun to be founded according to the traditions of the place around the year 1192, by three brothers, says Fisen in the History of the Church of Liège at that year, Henry, Giles, and John: to whom another Giles joined himself, all his fortunes being conferred on the same. And since he seemed to be eminent both in the knowledge of divine things and in the example of life, he was set over the new family, with the dignity of Prior. Hence in the Catalogue of Priors, which is extant in the same Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège at January 5, collected by Francis Moschus toward the end of the 16th century, the death of Giles is placed at the year 1233. But as nothing compels us to believe that Giles of Walcourt was present at the very first beginnings of the new undertaking, much less was ordained Prior with things not yet fully established; so we seem about to err in nothing, by deferring the beginning of the Priorate by some years, and so also the end, so that we may thus determine that Giles died not much earlier than James. But that we may so determine, the Author of the Supplement compels, when at number 25 he speaks thus: "Gaul without pomp [had] a Cardinal never inglorious: but Spain merited one (and this recently, as I hear) three years ago."

[21] Turn and reverse everything, you will find none of whom you can verify this, except St. Raymond Nonnatus, [three years having elapsed from the promotion of St. Raymond Nonnatus to the Cardinalate] of the Mercy of the Redemption of Captives; and he, in the Lessons of the Office approved under Alexander VII for August 31, is said to have died on the last Sunday of August in the year 1240: but thus he would have lived not only after Giles, but even after James aforesaid: nor will the concurrence of Sunday and the last day of August be had, which seems to be kept from the perpetual tradition of the Order. But that concurrence is found in the years of Christ 1231 and 1235: and Panvinius too, affixing the third creation of Cardinals to the year 1234, by the single letter R designates someone, passed over by the genuine Ciacconius, and Arnold Wion in book 1, chapter 87, thinks him to be St. Raymond, who had obtained the approval of his Order from the same Pontiff in the year 1230. which seems to have been done in the year 1234 Hence, having set out a third time into Africa, the Saint at last remained as a hostage, tortured for eight continuous months; but redeemed, and illustrious for miracles; and therefore created Cardinal in his absence, while, called to Rome, he set out on the way, fell sick at Cardona and died. But this death I find deferred on no other foundation than that more recent writers conjecture Raymond's promotion to have been made at the fourth Creation, to which Ciacconius ascribes the year 1237, Panvinius more accurate the year 1240. But thus the supplement, of which we treat, would have been composed in the year 1238; and Giles, surviving after that year, would have been elected Prior scarcely seven or eight years after the first beginnings of the house; but in fewer, if it were lawful to believe that St. Raymond died in the year 1231; so that his two journeys into Africa preceded the confirmation of the Order, or 1230. and the last immediately followed it; whence after eight months returned, and soon named Cardinal, he died on August 31, on which day these things will be more fully discussed.

[22] To the aforesaid Life and Supplement, written with such faith and certainty that nothing more faithful and certain can be desired; An Appendix concerning James the writer himself, we subjoin an Appendix concerning James of Vitry himself, from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, containing some deeds of his Life. Instead of this there is found in the Oignies manuscript another Appendix, from the Life of St. Lutgardis, book 3, numbers 5 and 8, under the same titles under which they are read there; yet not as a part of the Supplement, set forth through 23 Chapters, whose number those two added ought to have increased, if the Author of the Supplement had wished them added to this. But he could not have wished it, who in another Appendix, from the Life of St. Lutgardis, except about twenty years after the first writing: because that Life, written by Cantipratanus after the death of the Saint, who died in the year 1246, was not revised and interpolated until after the year 1254, perhaps not before the year 1260 of that century: but the Appendix is written from the Life already interpolated, as appears. But if either this man or some other wrote that Appendix, not contemporary with the Saint herself or with Cantipratanus, but much later, who in the 14th or 15th century wrote the codex (for the character in which it is written presents no greater age than two centuries), of another much later man are the first words, nowhere to be found in the Life of St. Lutgardis, thus beginning: he is wrongly said to have died in the year 1243 "In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand two hundred forty-three… James of Vitry… migrated from this world." Yet this year, nay 1244, Andrew Hojus, Doctor of Douai, wrote in the Life of James to Francis Moschus, as he prefixed it here to his History published at Douai in the year 1597. Into a similar error Ciacconius seems to have fallen, by others 1244, although in his first edition (against the Author's mind) the year 1240 is read noted. For how is he not to be believed to have wished some later number noted, who reckons James among the Cardinals present in the year 1241 at the Election of Celestine IV. And this being observed, the Recognizers of the work substituted the number 1244, nay our Oldoinus has James also present at the Creation of Innocent IV, made in the year 1243, on the 10th of the Kalends of October, as if by oblivion omitted here by Ciacconius, because he saw this to be consequent from the number, wrongly indeed noted before the history, but which he believed true without discussion.

[23] Alberic, Monk of Trois-Fontaines, then living and writing (whose long-sought Chronicle at last our friend Jacques Baron le Roy found and redeemed), and from him the Author of the Great Belgic Chronicle, at the year of salvation 1240, since he is evidently proved to have died the last of Pope Gregory, thus and more truly has: "Likewise in the aforenoted year, Master James of Vitry, formerly Bishop of Acre, then Cardinal of Tusculum, died at Rome on the Kalends of May: whose bones, after some time, were translated to Oignies of the diocese of Liège, and there honorably buried." Certainly Gregory himself, in a Letter given in the same year on May 12, treating of the Tusculan denied to the people of Jerusalem, calls him of good memory; and the Life of St. Lutgardis, in the year 1240. published on June 16, book 3, number 5, is understood to say that she saw the soul of the deceased borne to heaven on the fourth day after, at nearly the same time at which she had begun the last seven-year period of her life and fasting, having died in the year 1246. After this Appendix, however, something is added, but without a title, from an older Author, writing from the mouth of Conrad, Abbot of Villers from the year 1209 to 1214, afterward General of the Cistercians, and finally Cardinal until the year 1227, in which he died.

LIFE

By James of Vitry, then Canon Regular, afterward Bishop of Acre, and finally Cardinal of Tusculum.

From various manuscript Codices.

Mary of Oignies, in Belgium (Bl.)

BHL Number: 5516

BY JAMES OF VITRY, FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE To Fulco, Bishop of Toulouse. On the illustrious holiness of several women of the diocese of Liège, of one only of whom the Life is written.

[1] The Lord commanded His disciples to gather the fragments, lest they perish. John 6:12 What is it to gather the fragments after the supper, but to recall to memory after death the examples of the Saints, that the baskets may be filled; that is, that the poor and the little ones may be refreshed by the examples of the Fathers? Matt. 15:27 For the little dogs too eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their Masters. By the example of the holy Fathers Whence formerly the holy Fathers, of the talent committed to them, always having before their eyes the sentence of the strict judge, for the benefit of those following, reduced to writing the virtues and works of the preceding Saints, that they might strengthen the faith of the weak, instruct the unlearned, incite the slothful, provoke the devout to imitation, confute the rebellious and unfaithful. Among whom, to omit innumerable others, let us behold the holy Father Jerome, with how great labor he learned the Lives of the Egyptian Fathers, of Jerome with how great diligence he retained them by heart, with how great benefit of readers he committed them to writing, gathering wood from various places, that he might minister material for the fire on the altar of the Lord. Nor perhaps with less zeal the harper of the Lord, the organ of the Holy Spirit, Blessed Gregory, and he writes of Gregory reduced the virtues and examples of the holy Fathers of Italy into one volume of the Dialogue; as if gathering ashes, after the sacrifices of many, to be laid up in a clean place, that is, to be reserved in the pure minds of the faithful, that by the various examples of the Saints, as by the sandals of those eating the Paschal Lamb,

their feet might be protected, and those who by the bare and hard ropes of the precepts, if they were alone, might perhaps be injured; with old rags added, that is, with the works of the old Fathers, might more easily be drawn from the pit with Jeremiah. For many are incited by examples who are not moved by precepts.

[2] stirred up by the Bishop of Toulouse, Whence, when the holy and venerable Father, Bishop of the Church of Toulouse, driven from his city by the heretics, had come to the parts of Gaul to seek help against the enemies of the faith, and at last had descended even into the Bishopric of Liège, as if drawn by the odor and fame of certain persons serving God in true humility; he ceased not to admire the faith and devotion, especially of holy women, who with the highest desire and reverence venerated the Church of Christ and the Sacraments of holy Church: which in his parts were either utterly cast off or made little of by almost all: and he greatly desired that certain things which he saw and heard, lest they perish, should be gathered as fragments. For you know, holy Father, Pastor of Toulouse, he admires the virtue of the people of Liège, nay, of the whole church of Christ, in our days a pillar of strength (for to you is my discourse, by whose command and by whose reproof of my negligence I dared to attempt the present little work), you know, I say, that when you came to our parts, it already seemed to you to be as if in the land of promise. For I heard you narrating that you had left Egypt in your parts, and passing through the desert, found the land of promise in the parts of Liège. For when in your parts you had known many from our parts signed with the Cross, fervent in faith against the heretics, having wondrous patience in tribulation, abounding in works of mercy; nay (as you told me) certain women mourning more for one venial sin than men in your parts for a thousand mortal ones, you would marvel; coming to our parts, as you had heard, so you saw, nay more than you had heard; and so you could scarcely believe it, unless you had known it by ocular faith through experience.

[3] For you saw (and rejoiced) in the gardens of the lilies of the Lord many bands of holy Virgins in various places, who, the carnal allurements despised for Christ, the riches too of this world contemned for love of the heavenly kingdom, especially of Virgins, in poverty and humility adhering to the heavenly Bridegroom, sought a slender living by the labor of their hands, although their parents abounded in much riches. They themselves, however, forgetting their people and the house of their father, preferred to endure straits and poverty than to abound in ill-acquired riches, or to remain among the pompous worldly with peril. You saw (and rejoiced) holy matrons serving God, with what zeal they preserved the modesty of young girls, and instructed them in their honest purpose, that they should desire only the heavenly Bridegroom, with salutary admonitions. The widows themselves too, serving the Lord in fasts and prayers, of widows, in vigils and the labor of their hands, in tears and entreaties, as they had formerly striven to please their husbands in the flesh, nay so the more strove to please the heavenly Bridegroom in the spirit; frequently recalling to memory that of the Apostle: "The widow who lives in delights is dead": and that holy widows, who share in the necessities of the Saints, who wash the feet of the poor, who pursue hospitality, who are intent on works of mercy, merit the sixtyfold fruit. 1 Tim. 5:6 You saw (and rejoiced) holy women also, and of married matrons, devoutly serving the Lord in matrimony, instructing their sons in the fear of God, keeping honest nuptials and an immaculate bed, for a time giving leisure to prayer, and afterward returning to it again with the fear of God, lest they be tempted by Satan: for many, with the consent of their husbands, abstaining from lawful embraces, leading a celibate and truly Angelic life, are worthy of so much greater a crown, the more, placed in the fire, they did not burn.

[4] You saw too, and admired, nay greatly detested, and detested those detracting from them: certain shameless men and enemies of all religion, maliciously defaming the religion of the aforesaid women, and barking with canine rage against morals contrary to their own: and when they had nothing more to do, they feigned new names against them, just as the Jews called Christ a Samaritan and the Christians Galileans. Nor is it a wonder: for the Egyptians abominated sheep: and dark and malicious men deride the simplicity of the innocent, amid drinks and feasts, amid drunkenness and gluttony tearing apart the life of the abstinent. who meanwhile were stable in faith, Whence when a certain holy man, while he still served the Lord among the Monks of St. Bernard in the Abbey which is called Aulne, and from simplicity doubted what kind of men and women they were, who were called by certain new names by the malicious; received in prayer this answer from the Holy Spirit: "They will be found stable in faith and effective in works." From then that old man adhered to them with so great love that he could not bear that anyone should speak evil of them before him. patient in persecutions: But they with wondrous patience endured reproaches and persecutions, frequently recalling to memory that of the Gospel: "If you were of the world, the world would love what was its own. John 15 And again: The servant is not greater than his Lord: if they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also."

[5] But since it is written, "By their fruits you shall know them"; which truly adhered to God, was sufficiently learned in the devastation of the city of Liège. Matt. 7 For those who could not flee to the churches and in the devastation of Liège choosing to die rather than be violated, threw themselves into the river, choosing rather to die than to incur the loss of chastity. Some even, leaping into dung-pits, preferred to be extinguished by the stench than to be despoiled of their virginity. Yet the merciful Bridegroom so deigned to provide for His Brides, that in so great a multitude there was not found any one who incurred death of the body or detriment of chastity. they were preserved by God: But when one of the holy women was perilously laboring in the river, two of the enemy, coming to her with a little boat, drew her into the boat, that they might foully mingle with her. But what did the chaste one do among the lions, the lamb among the wolves, the dove among the hawks? She preferred to be submerged again in the river than to be corrupted: from the boat she leaped among the waves; and when the boat from the force of the leaper was submerged, those two together, submerged, perished, but she, by the grace of God, without damage of body and soul, the river complying, came to the bank. To wonders more wondrous succeed. When a long and intolerable famine, for three years, in the kingdom of France and in a great part of the empire had so prevailed that men and women everywhere through villages and fields died of hunger; even those likewise in the long famine, who before had been rich, were forced to beg publicly and perish of hunger; there was not found in so great a multitude of holy women, in the whole Bishopric of Liège, although they had before left all things for Christ, any one who either died of hunger or was forced to beg publicly. But now let us descend to individual persons and individual miracles. I invoke your holiness as witness; for with your eyes you saw the wondrous working of God, and in diverse persons the divisions of graces.

[6] For one of them received from the Lord, you most certainly proving it, so great a grace, that she perceived in many persons the sins of men and to one of them hidden sins were revealed: which were not covered by true Confession: and while she announced hidden sins to many, inviting many to Confession, she was, after God, the cause of their salvation. You saw also some women so dissolved with such special and wondrous affection of love toward God, others languished with love that they languished from desire, nor could rise from bed for many years, except rarely; having no other cause of infirmity than Him, by desire of whom their souls being melted, sweetly resting with the Lord, the more they were comforted in spirit, the more they were made infirm in body; crying with the heart, although from modesty they dissembled otherwise with the mouth: "Stay me with flowers, compass me with apples, for I languish with love." Cant. 2 Of one too wondrously and sensibly, while the soul melted from the greatness of love, the bodily cheeks, attenuated, were dissolved. To many too from the honeycomb of spiritual sweetness in the heart, or abounded in spiritual taste there redounded the savor of honey sensibly in the mouth, eliciting sweet tears, and keeping the mind in devotion. But a certain one had received so great a grace of tears, and an abundance of tears that as often as God was in her heart by thought, a little stream of tears flowed from her eyes by devotion, so that the traces of tears appeared on her cheeks from the custom of flowing: which yet did not empty her head, but with a certain fullness cherished the mind, sweetened the spirit with a sweet unction, recreated the body too wondrously, and with the holy force of the stream gladdened the whole city of God.

[7] But others were so rapt out of themselves with such drunkenness of spirit, others ecstatic, that resting in that holy silence almost the whole day, while the King was in His couch, there was in them neither voice nor sense for any external things; for the peace of God so surpassed and buried their senses that they could not awake at any cry; they felt no bodily injury at all, even if they were vehemently pricked. I saw one, who for nearly thirty years was so guarded by her Bridegroom in the cloister with such zeal, a certain one for 30 years a recluse, that outside the cloister there could be no going out for her, even if a thousand men strove to drag her by the hands. For she often tried to go out, with some even dragging her: but in vain, because she would sooner be torn apart. I saw another, who, while she was frequently rapt out of herself five and twenty times in a day; who even, with me present, was rapt more than seven times, as I believe; in whatever state she was found, in that she remained immovable until she returned: nor yet, however much she was inclined, did she fall, a familiar spirit sustaining her. Her hand sometimes hung in the air immovable according to the disposition in which it had been found: who, when she returned to herself, was filled with so great joy that, the remnants of her thoughts keeping a feast day, she was forced to show her interior joy by bodily clapping, like David leaping before the ark, according to that: "My heart and my flesh have exulted in the true God." Ps. 83:3

[8] others were refreshed from the Eucharist: But some, in the reception of that bread which descended from heaven, perceived not only refreshment in the heart, but a sensible consolation sweeter than honey and the honeycomb in the mouth, while the flesh of the true Lamb redounded with wondrous savor from the jaws of the heart, which they filled, even to the jaws of the body. But some ran after the odor of so great a Sacrament with so great desire that they could in no way long be without it, receiving no consolation or rest, but utterly failing in languor, unless their souls were frequently invigorated by the sweetness of that food. Let the unfaithful heretics blush, who deny of this food

the sweetness, perceiving it neither by faith nor by heart. But I knew a certain one among the holy women, who, while she vehemently desired to be refreshed by the flesh of the true Lamb, the true Lamb Himself, not bearing her to languish longer, offered Himself to her, and thus, refreshed, she recovered. I saw also another, concerning whom the Lord worked so wondrously, that when she had long lain dead, before her body was buried in the ground, the soul returning to the body she revived; one reviving performs wondrous penances. and she obtained from the Lord that, living in the body in this world, she might endure purgatory. Whence for a long time she was so wondrously afflicted by the Lord that sometimes she would roll herself in fire, and sometimes in winter would stay long in icy water, sometimes even was forced to enter the tombs of the dead. At last, after the penance performed, she lived in such great peace, and merited such grace from the Lord, that, often rapt in spirit, she conducted the souls of the dead even into purgatory, or through purgatory without any injury even to the heavenly realms.

[9] But what need is there to narrate in diverse persons diverse and wondrous varieties of graces? since in one precious and pre-excellent pearl I find the fullness of almost all graces, who among others, like a carbuncle among other stones, like the sun among the stars, wondrously shone forth: whose fame, less than the truth of the matter, The Author writes of the virtue of Blessed Mary admirable above the rest, led you specially to our parts: whose virtue, at your first entrance to her, you wondrously experienced in yourself. For when, now for nearly forty days eating nothing at all, she had awaited her blessed passing, now near, with desire and cheerfulness of mind, and you had seen many wonders of her life; with what affection you could, you asked me to reduce her Life to writing, before she passed to the Lord; as one who had been her familiar, and had committed many of her virtues to memory; and not only her Life, but also those of other holy Women, in whom the Lord wondrously works in the parts of Liège. But although you said it was very profitable to you and many others, if against the heretics of your province you could publicly preach those things which God works in the modern Saints in our days; yet I did not consent to commit to writing the virtues and works of those who still live, because they would by no means endure it.

[10] Lest, however, I should seem to have been wholly disobedient to your Holiness, aided by your prayers, compelled by your desire, incited also by the benefit of many readers, I undertake the present work; that I may gather twigs with the Apostle, with which I may warm both myself and others; although I do not doubt that I shall be bitten by a serpent with the Apostle. Acts 28:3 But neither was he injured by the serpent, nor do I fear to incur any damage from the bites of detractors; for although the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God; yet on account of the animal envy of many, I will not desist from the purpose I have begun for the benefit of many. For there are certain animal men, not having the Spirit of God, prudent in their own eyes, who wish to perceive nothing but what they can prove by human reason: but whatever they do not understand, they deride and despise. 1 Thess. 5:19 Against whom the Apostle says: "Do not extinguish the Spirit, do not spurn prophecies." But they extinguish the spirit as much as in them lies, and spurn prophecies: because they despise all spiritual persons as if insane or idiots; and reckon prophecies, or the revelations of the Saints, as phantasms or illusions of dreams. Is. 59 But the hand of the Lord is not shortened; nor was there ever a time from the beginning in which the Holy Spirit did not work wondrously in His Saints, either manifestly or secretly: for the unguent which descends from the head to the beard, and from the beard to the edge of the garment, even to the hem, that is, to the Saints of the last time, descended. Ps. 132:2

[11] We therefore, the things which we saw and knew, and for the most part learned by experience, to the honor of God and His handmaid, and the consolation of the friends of the same handmaid of Christ, and that from sure knowledge. will report a few of many. For we cannot gather all the wonders of her life, since through the many years in which she devoutly and faithfully served the Lord, scarcely any day or night passed in which she did not have some visitation from God or His Angels, or the heavenly Saints, with whom was almost all her converse. But that the reader may more easily, in so great a variety of things, find what he seeks; in the individual following chapters digested in order, I have noted titles, by which, as by certain keys, the understanding will be referred to what follows; and all confusion removed, the reader's mind, as by stars shining between, may be illumined.

NOTES OF G. H.

BOOK I.

The exterior conduct of her life, and her full conversion to God.

Chapters.

CHAPTER I.

Her childhood, marriage, continence, persecution, compunction.

CHAPTER I.

[11] There was in the Bishopric of Liège, in the village which is called Nivelles, a certain young girl, in life and name gracious Mary: who, born of not mediocre parents, Born at Nivelles, although she abounded in riches and many temporal goods, yet transitory goods never allured her mind from her childish years. For she was so cast forth as it were from the womb in the Lord, that never, or rarely, as is the custom of girls, did she mingle with those playing, nor showed herself a partaker with those who walked in levity; keeping her soul from all concupiscence and vanity; already by divine auspice presignifying in childhood what kind she would be in advanced age. Whence frequently, still in childhood, she prays by night: she bent her knees before her bed at night; and offered to the Lord certain prayers which she had learned, as the first-fruits of her life. For so from infancy compassion and piety grew with her, and she loved religion as if by a natural affection; that when the Brothers of the Cistercian Order once passed before the house of her father, she, looking up and admiring the habit of religion, stealthily followed; and when she had nothing more to do, she set her feet in the footsteps of the Lay-brothers or Monks from desire. But when her parents, she rejects more elegant garments. as is the custom of the worldly, wished to adorn her with delicate and elegant garments; she, saddened, rejected them; as if it were read naturally impressed on her mind, what Peter the Apostle says of women: "Whose adornment let it not be outwardly the plaiting of hair, or the wearing of gold, or the adorning of garments or vestments": and Paul the Apostle: "Not in twisted curls, or gold, or pearls, or costly garment." 1 Pet. 3:3, 1 Tim. 2:9 Whence her parents, seeing it, and deriding the little girl, said: "What kind will our daughter be?"

CHAPTER II.

[12] Envying, therefore, her happy acts, when she was fourteen years old, they joined her in marriage to a certain young man. But then, removed from her parents, In marriage she leads a life of too great rigor she was kindled into such an excess of fervor, with such a fight she chastised her body and reduced it to servitude; that frequently, when she had labored with her hands a great part of the night, after the labor she prayed a very long time: but the remainder of the night, as often as she was permitted, upon stolen boards, which she had hidden at the foot of the bed, she passed with a little sleep. And because she did not openly have power over her own body, she secretly carried under her shift a most rough cord, with which she was vehemently bound. Nor would I say this to commend the excess, but to show the fervor. But in these and many other things, which she did by the privilege of grace, let the discreet reader attend, that the privileges of a few do not make a common law. more to be admired than imitated. Let us imitate her virtues; but the works of her virtues we cannot imitate without a private privilege. For although the body must be compelled to serve the spirit, although we ought to bear the stigmata of our Lord Jesus Christ in our body; yet we know that the honor of the King loves judgment, nor does a sacrifice from the plunder of the poor please the Lord. For the necessities are not to be withdrawn from the poor flesh, but the vices are to be repressed. What therefore we read that certain Saints did by the familiar counsel of the Holy Spirit, let us admire rather than imitate.

CHAPTER III.

[13] But when she had thus lived in matrimony with her husband, named John, for no long time; the Lord regarded the humility of His handmaid, and heard the tears of the suppliant. For her whom before he had as a wife, John was inspired to have Mary as one commended to him. The Lord commended the chaste handmaid to the chaste man; that she might have a keeper for solace, and that she might more freely serve the Lord, He left her a faithful provider; and he who before by a certain natural sweetness of spirit had clung to the holy

purpose of his wife, as is the custom of other men, did not contradict, but quite kindly, compassionating her labors, endured them; he chooses to live with her in continence. he was visited by the Lord, that he might not only merit a celibate and truly Angelic life by being continent; but might imitate his companion in her holy purpose and holy religion, distributing all things for Christ to the poor.

[14] But by how much carnal affection he was divided from her, by so much the more was he joined to her through love by the bond of spiritual matrimony. The fervor of his age being repressed, Whence the Lord afterward appearing to His handmaid in a vision promised that He would restore her companion to her in heaven, as if the marriage were repaired, who out of love of chastity had withdrawn himself from carnal commerce on earth. Let the unhappy ones blush and tremble, who outside matrimony pollute themselves with unlawful minglings; since those two blessed young people, abstaining from lawful embraces for the Lord, overcame the impulse of fervent youth by the fervor of religion. They extinguished fire with fire, and merited triumphal crowns: to whom the Lord gave in His house and within His walls a place, and a name better than from sons and daughters, while, after the manner of the blessed Martyrs not burning in the fire; beside the abundance of pleasures, they devote themselves to the service of lepers, slaying their own will; thirsting beside the river; hungering amid feasts, they fixed their flesh with the nails of the fear of the Lord; nay, utterly casting themselves down for the Lord, they served certain lepers near Nivelles, in the place which is called Willebroek, for the Lord for some time.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

[15] The demons saw and envied: the worldly and kinsmen saw, despised by their kinsmen, and gnashed their teeth against them; and those whom before, rich, they venerated, they contemned and derided, made poor for Christ: vile and abject they were held for the Lord, and the reproaches of those reproaching the Lord fell upon them. Do not fear, handmaid of Christ, with joy and worldly honor put behind you: to the insults of the Cross, with your Christ, your Bridegroom, approach: it is good for you to be abject in the house of the Lord, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. You have lost the favor of your relatives, you have found the favor of Christ. You have lost the love of your kinsmen—by no means: for they never loved you, but your goods: for as flies follow honey, wolves corpses; so that crowd follows the prey, not the man. You are good, O Lord, to those breathing in you, true to those awaiting you. Your handmaid contemned the kingdom of the world and all its adornment for love of you: but you have rendered her a hundredfold in this world, and eternal life in the future. For let us behold with how many gems of virtues, like a solid vessel of gold adorned with every precious stone, you have adorned your precious friend: with how many miracles you have decorated her, abject and mocked by the worldly.

[16] Mary meditating on the passion of Christ, The beginning of her conversion to you, the first-fruits of her love, was your Cross, your passion. She heard your report and feared, considered your works and was terrified. For when on a certain day, prevented and visited by you, she considered the benefits which you, merciful, showed to the human race in the flesh; she found in your passion so great a grace of compunction, so great an abundance of tears, expressed in the winepress of your Cross, she is overwhelmed with tears: that the traces of her, tears copiously flowing down upon the pavement, showed through the church. Whence for a long time after this visitation of her, she could neither behold the image of the Cross, nor speak, nor hear others speaking of the passion of Christ, without slipping, from a failing of the heart, into ecstasy. Whence, that she might sometime temper her grief, and restrain the river of tears; leaving the humanity, she raised her mind to the divinity and majesty of Christ, that in His impassibility she might find consolation. But whence she tried to restrain the force of the stream, thence wondrously a greater force of tears arose. For when she attended how great He was who endured such abject things for us; again the grief was renewed, and her soul was renewed with new tears in sweet compunction.

[17] But on a certain day before Good Friday, when, with Christ's passion now imminent, she had begun to slay herself with the Lord with a greater shower of tears, with sighs and sobs; admonished by a Priest to restrain them, one of the Priests of the church exhorted her, as if blandly reproaching, that she should pray with silence, and restrain her tears. But she, as she was always modest, and busied herself to obey all with dove-like simplicity; conscious of her impossibility, having gone out secretly from the church, hid herself in a secret place remote from all, and obtained from the Lord with tears that He would show the aforesaid Priest that it is not in man to restrain the force of tears, when, the spirit blowing vehemently, the waters flow. When therefore that Priest on the same day celebrated Mass, the Lord opened, and there was none who could shut; He sent forth the waters, and they overturned the earth. For his spirit was submerged with so great a deluge of tears she obtains the same for him too. that he was almost suffocated: and the more he tried to repress the force, the more with the shower of tears not only he himself, but also the book and the linens of the altar, were drenched. What should that improvident one do? that reproacher of the handmaid of Christ? by experience with shame he learned what before through humility and compassion he had not wished to know. After many sobs, pronouncing many things disorderly and with interruption, he at last scarcely escaped from the shipwreck; and he who saw and knew it bore witness. But then, a long time after the completion of the Mass, the handmaid of Christ, returning, in a wondrous manner, as if she had been present, reproachfully related whatever had happened to the Priest: "Now," she said, "you have learned by experience that it is not in man to restrain the force of the spirit, the South wind blowing."

[18] But when through days and nights continually her eyes led forth issues of waters, and her tears were not only on her cheeks: nor does she suffer any harm from them. but lest they should leave mud from tears on the pavement of the church, they were received in the linen cloth with which she covered her head. She used many such veils, which it was necessary to change frequently, while the dry succeeded the wet. But when, with compassionate affection, after long fasts, after many vigils, after such great inundations of tears, I asked whether, her head being emptied (as is wont to happen), she felt any injury or pain; "These," she said, "tears are my refreshment, these are bread to me day and night; which do not afflict the head, but feed the mind; torment with no pain, but gladden the soul with a certain serenity; do not empty the brain, but fill the soul with satiety, and soothe it with a certain sweet unction; since they are not extorted by violence, but freely given to drink by the Lord."

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

CHAPTER II.

Her Confession, satisfaction, fasts.

CHAPTER VI.

[19] But now let us briefly see concerning her Confession after compunction. I invoke God as witness, Living without graver sin, that never in all her life or conduct could I perceive even one mortal sin. But if perchance she seemed to have committed any small venial one, with such grief of heart, with such modesty and blushing, with such contrition she showed herself to the Priest, that often, from the vehement anxiety of her heart, she was forced to cry out after the manner of a woman in labor: although she so guarded herself even from small and venial things, that often through fifteen days she could not find one disordered thought in her heart. And since it is of good minds to acknowledge fault there where there is no fault; frequently fallen at the feet of Priests, she confessed certain things, accusing herself with tears, in which we could scarcely abstain from laughter, she grieves greatly for the most minute errors: such as certain childish words, which she grieved, recalling, to have idly said in her childhood.

[20] But after she had emptied out what are childish; she busied herself to guard her soul with so great fear, her senses with so great diligence, and her heart with so great purity, always having before her eyes: "He who neglects small things falls little by little." Eccl. 19:1 For neither an idle word, nor a disordered look, nor an indecent bearing of the body, nor an immoderate gaze, nor an unbecoming or disordered gesture of the body, could we ever or rarely observe in her; although often from the immense joy of her heart, while she could scarcely contain herself, with a little excess, her face cheered, by exterior gesture of the body she was forced to show the jubilation of her heart; either by breaking into a modest laugh from the serenity of her heart, or by receiving someone of her friends coming, with a little and modest embrace, the affluence of her kindness; or by kissing the hands and feet of some Priest from intense devotion. Yet, returned to herself as if after a certain drunkenness of mind, while she strictly reckoned all her acts in the evening, recalling them; if she weighed that she had exceeded the measure even in the least, with admirable contrition of heart, Confession made, she punished herself; there frequently trembling, where there was no fear. In this alone, and she frequently confesses them: seeking solace for our sloth, we sometimes reprehended her; that more frequently than we wished she confessed the aforesaid small things.

CHAPTER VII.

[21] But now after her Confession let us subjoin with how great and how wondrous penance she immolated her body to the Lord; and let us see with how great love and wondrous delight, embracing the Cross of Christ, she was tortured in the flesh. That first lesson of the scholars of Jesus Christ, that first document of the Evangelical discipline: "He who will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me"; she frequently turned over in her heart; and by these as three steps she busied herself to follow Christ. Luke 9:23 she perfectly renounces herself and all things: For not only had she denied others' goods, desiring nothing of another's: not only her own, by renouncing all things to all; not only her body, by afflicting it; but herself, by utterly renouncing her own will. She had denied herself, by subjecting herself to another's will through obedience; she took up the Cross, by chastising her body through abstinence; she imitated Christ, by casting herself down through humility.

[22] But, the spirit being tasted, all carnal delight grew so insipid to her; that when she sometime recalled to memory that, after a certain most grave sickness which she had, she was compelled by necessity to use flesh and a little tempered wine; from a certain abomination of the past delight, afflicting herself, she had no rest in her spirit, until she wondrously recompensed the past delights, of whatever kind, by the torture of her flesh.

For, as if inebriated by the fervor of her spirit, from the fervor of her spirit she tortures her flesh. loathing her flesh on account of the sweetness of the Paschal Lamb; she cut off with a knife not a few pieces, which from modesty she hid in the ground: and because, inflamed with an excessive fire of love, she overcame the pain of the flesh, she beheld one of the Seraphim standing by her in this excess of mind. But the places of the wounds, when her body was washed in death, the women found, and marveled: but those who from her confession had known the aforesaid, understood what it was. Those who venerate, admiring, the worms of Symeon gushing from his wounds; who admire the fire of Blessed Anthony, with which he burned his feet; why should they not also be astonished at so great a fortitude of a woman in the fragile sex, who, wounded by charity, and invigorated by the wounds of Christ, neglected the wounds of her own body?

CHAPTER VIII.

[23] The handmaid of Christ excelled with so great a grace of fasting, that on those days on which, for the recreation of her little body, it was necessary for her to come to supper, toward evening she eats herbs and fruits as to a medicine; she ate once and a little in the day; in summer, toward evening; in winter, at the first hour of the night. She did not drink wine: she did not use flesh, but fish never or rarely, and then she ate the smallest: she was somehow sustained by the fruits of trees, herbs, and vegetables. The blackest and roughest bread, of which scarcely dogs could eat, she ate for a long time; so that, on account of the excessive roughness and hardness, her jaws were lacerated within, and blood was elicited from the wounds, which blood the memory of Christ rendered sweet to her. with black and hard bread. By the wounds of Christ her wounds were soothed; and by the sweetness of the heavenly bread, the austerity of the roughest bread was sweetened. On a certain day, while she refreshed her body by eating, she saw the ancient enemy wasting away with envy: and when he had nothing more to do; he insulted her, saying: "Behold, O glutton, you fill yourself too much." For she, worn out and constrained by long fasts, sometimes labored in eating; and grieved that her cold and constricted stomach, as if rejecting food, swelled at a little food. But she, knowing the cunning and frauds of the enemy, who willingly would disturb the one whom he knew to be God-fearing, that she might fail from excessive abstinence; tried to eat, deriding him, so much the more, the more the venomous serpent was thereby tormented. For whether she ate or fasted, she did all to the glory of God.

[24] But she fasted for three years continuously on bread and water, Often living on bread and water, from the feast of the holy Cross until Easter: yet she suffered thence no detriment to her bodily health or the work of her hands. But when in her little cell within the church, in the evening or night, she refreshed her little body with a little bread and water only; from the beginning of the blessing to the thanksgiving, certain of the holy Angels, assisting at her sober supper, she sees Angels before her, as if by a luminous ladder, ascended and descended: from whose presence she had so great consolation and so great exultation of spirit, that the spiritual refreshment surpassed all sweetness of taste. But St. John the Evangelist, and St. John the Evangelist: whom she loved with wondrous affection, while she took food, sometimes came to her table; in whose presence, from the affection of devotion, the sensible appetite was so emptied that she could scarcely take a little food. For the bodily delights which she had withdrawn from herself for Christ, the Lord recompensed in the mind, as it is written: "Not by bread alone does man live." Matt. 4. But in the strength of this food she often fasted for eight days, but sometimes for eleven, namely from the Ascension of the Lord to the Coming of the Holy Spirit, eating or drinking nothing: and in a wondrous manner neither did her head ache at all, for many days she abstains from all food: nor on this account did she leave off the labor of her hands. She was no less capable of labor on the last day of the fast than on the first: nor, if she wished on those days to eat, could she, until the sensuality, which had been as it were absorbed by the spirit, returned, so to speak, to itself. For as long as her soul, copiously overflowing with a certain spiritual refreshment, was so full, it allowed her to receive no refreshment of bodily food.

[25] Sometimes too, in sweet and blessed silence resting sweetly with the Lord for thirty-five days, she perseveres for 35 days in silence, she used no bodily food, and could utter no word at all for some days, except only this: "I want the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ": which received, in her silence she remained with the Lord on each day. But she felt in those days her spirit, as if separated from the body, to be so in the body, as if it lay in a vessel of clay; but her body to surround and clothe her spirit as a garment of clay. For thus abstracted from sensible things, and rapt above herself in a certain excess. she cannot bear the smell of flesh or wine. But at last, after five weeks returning to herself, she opened her mouth: and, the bystanders marveling, she spoke, and received bodily food. But after this for a long time it happened to her that she could in no way bear the smells of flesh and of any frying or of wine, except when after the Body of Christ she took wine in the ablution: then without any burden she bore both the smell and the taste. Also when she passed through various villages, when she went to a certain Bishop, that she might receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, the smells did not burden her, which before she could not bear.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

CHAPTER III.

The assiduity and efficacy of her prayer, even in driving out demons.

CHAPTER IX.

[26] But by how much she macerated her body with fasts, by so much the freer her spirit grew fat in prayers. Continually she prays to God Her body by fasting was attenuated, and her soul was more comforted in the Lord. For she obtained from the Lord so great and so special a grace of praying, that by days and nights she never or rarely relaxed her unconquered spirit from prayer. For without intermission she prayed, either with silent heart crying to the Lord, or by the office of the mouth expressing the affection of her heart. For from the altar of her heart so continually smoke of spices ascended in the sight of the Lord; that even while she worked with her hands, while she put her hand to mighty things, and her fingers grasped the spindle, she had a psalter placed before her, from which she sweetly uttered Psalms to the Lord; even while working: by which, as by certain keys, she coupled her heart to the Lord by a certain wondrous experience, lest it should idly wander. But when she specially besought the Lord for someone, He answered her in spirit. For from the fatness of devotion her spirit, glued to the Lord, sweetly grew fat in prayer, when the Lord granted the same the things asked: for from the elevation or depression of her spirit, she often perceived whether she was heard or not.

[27] But sometimes she offered prayers to the Lord for the soul of a certain deceased man: and it was said to her: "Do not pour out prayer for him, because he is reprobated by the Lord." For, pierced with a lethal wound, he had miserably died in a tournament, and was delivered to eternal fires. But when on a certain day she was in her cell, praying for a dead man she understands him to be damned, beside the church at Oignies; she saw a multitude of hands before her, as if of suppliants. Then admiring and not knowing what this was, her other prayers to be sought by the souls of Purgatory: struck a little with fear, she fled to the church. The next day, when she was in her little cell, she saw again the same hands, and was terrified: and when again she fled to the church, she was delayed by hands holding her. Then she, running to the church as to a tabernacle, that she might consult the Lord; asked the Lord to certify her what these hands wanted of her. To whom it was answered by the Lord, that the souls of the deceased, who are tormented in purgatory, were asking the suffrages of her prayers; by which, as by a precious unguent, their pains were soothed. For she, from the sweetness of contemplation, sometimes intermitted her accustomed prayers, sometimes too could neither open her mouth, nor think of any other than of God.

[28] But she was wont, for the sake of pilgrimage and prayer, almost every year to visit the church of Blessed Mary of Heigne, where she received great consolation from the blessed Virgin. She visits the church barefoot, even in winter, But that church was distant from her place by two great miles. But when winter had bristled more vehemently, with bare feet without any injury to herself she walked through the frost up to the church. And when, with only one maidservant accompanying, they did not know the way, which is very twisted and woody; a certain light going before her, and showing the way, she never went astray. But when on that day she ate nothing at all, and watched the whole night in the church; and on the following day too, while she returned, took no food until evening; yet she completed the way without any difficulty, the holy Angels sustaining her on the right and on the left. For the Lord had commanded His Angels to keep her in all her ways; and to carry her in their hands, lest perchance she should strike her foot against a stone. But when once on the same way a vehement rain threatened in the clouds, and she had no rain-garments with which to receive the inundation of waters; she, looking up, saw as it were certain stars, complying with her by holding back the rain, and thus in the rainy time returned wholly untouched. and the rain suspended:

[29] But sometimes, while her holocaust in praying became fatter than usual, and her soul was filled as with fat and richness, she could not cease from prayer: whence by day and night, bending her knees a thousand and a hundred times, she saluted the blessed Virgin: amid praying she bends her knees a thousand times, and continued this wondrous and unheard-of office of devotion for forty days. First without intermission, in a vehement spirit, six hundred times she bent her knees: second, reading the whole psalter standing upon her feet, also reading the whole Psalter, through each psalm with bent knees she offered the Angelic Salutation of the blessed Virgin: but third, the South wind blowing more vehemently, three hundred times at each genuflection striking herself with a disciplinary rod, to God and the blessed Virgin, and chastising her body. she immolated herself with a prolonged martyrdom: but with the three last strokes, for the seasoning of the others, she elicited copious blood: but at last, fifty times bending her knees, she simply consummated the sacrifice. These

things she performed, not by human power, but with Angelic protection sustaining and lifting her up. How great was the virtue of her prayers, they often experienced, Using great power over the demon, not only men for help, but demons for torment: whom she so pressed, and as if drew with certain ropes, that they were compelled, forced by the burning of her prayers, to come to her; sometimes gnashing their teeth against her, sometimes as if howling and complaining of her, sometimes too as if supplicating. For when any of her familiars was vexed by some temptation, the precious pearl of Christ, moved with the spirit of compassion, did not cease, until by the weight of her prayers the author of wickedness was overwhelmed, she comes to the aid of her tempted friends: and the poor and needy was snatched from the hand of those stronger than he.

[30] But one of her chief friends was sometimes tempted by the noonday demon walking in darkness, the more perilously, the more subtly. For that cunning enemy, transfiguring himself into an Angel of light, as if under the appearance of piety, in dreams appeared familiarly to the aforesaid friend of his; sometimes reproaching him for certain vices, sometimes too fraudulently admonishing him to do certain good things; promising an antidote, that he might more secretly insert poison. The serpent first gently exercised his honeyed tongue, that afterward he might fix his tooth, and at last, like a water-snake, tighten his tail. But when now faith was given to him as a speaker of truth; then, after the manner of a sophist, that betrayer strove to mix the false among some true things, fraudulently obscuring the evil by the admixture of good. But at last his machination came to this, she uncovers the deceit, that that Brother would have incurred a miserable confusion; had not the handmaid of Christ, the Holy Spirit revealing, perceived the simulation of the cunning sophist. And when she said that it was not a revelation from God, but a deception of a wicked spirit; he on the contrary, by his own spirit, not the Holy Spirit's, answered: "Since that spirit has done me so many good things, has also foretold so many true and future things, he in no way wishes to deceive me." Then she, fleeing to her accustomed arms of prayers, and compels him to confess to her. watered the feet of the Lord with weeping, knocked at heaven instantly with prayers; nor did she rest, until that impious one, with great groaning and shame, stood before her, while she prayed by night in her cell. But she, beholding him with a certain false splendor; "Who are you," she said, "and what is your name?" But he, with countenance haughty as it was, regarding her with grim eyes; "I am," he said, "whom you, accursed one, by your prayers compelled to come to you, for you take away my friend by violence. Dream is my name; for I too appear to many in dreams, and especially to Monks and Religious, as if Lucifer; and they obey me, and by my consolations fall into pride, reputing themselves worthy to be visited with Angelic and Divine discourses. My friend too, whom you have taken from me, I would have made to deviate, according to the will of my own, from some good purpose." Which was so learned by the outcome of the matter, for the eggs of asps were broken, and the fraudulent counsels of the malign one were afterward manifestly opened.

[31] But there was a certain young girl in a certain monastery of the Cistercian Order, among the Nuns serving the Lord under the habit of religion; From the spirit of blasphemy whom the ancient serpent envied so much the more, the more he had seen her undertake the purpose of so arduous a way in a fragile sex and youthful age. And when he had known that simple virgin to be God-fearing and humble; that he might cast her down into despair through pusillanimity and disordered fear, he attacked the innocent little virgin with blasphemies and unclean thoughts. But she, as she was timid and not accustomed to such things, at the first threshold of the thought believed she had lost her faith, and for a long time with great grief resisted; but at last not bearing it, and opening to no one the wound of her heart, that she might receive a medicine, from pusillanimity fell as if into despair. driven to despair, For the enemy had so depressed her mind that she could say neither the Lord's Prayer nor the "Credo in Deum": but she would not confess her sins. And if sometimes, by blandishments or threats, she confessed some as if forced, she could in no way be induced to ask pardon from the Lord. She could not be present at the Sacraments of the church; she would not receive the Body of Christ: she frequently tried, from perturbation, to kill herself; she spurned the word of God and the admonitions of salvation; all good came to her in hatred; the devil vomited many words of blasphemy through her mouth. nor helped by her own, And when by her pious Sisters many prayers were poured out for her to the merciful Lord, they could not yet extort their dove from the jaws of the devil, nor could they immediately cast out this kind of demon by fasting and prayer; not because the merciful Bridegroom spurned the pious prayers of so many holy Virgins; but because He reserved that kind of most atrocious demon to be overcome by His spiritual handmaid; who by the efficacy of her prayers would perforate the jaws of Leviathan, and powerfully draw the prey from his mouth.

[32] When therefore that young girl was led to the handmaid of Christ; she, as she was overflowing with the spirit of compassion and the honey of spiritual sweetness, kindly received her; not only into her cell, by the liberality of hospitality; she kindly receives her: but into her heart, by the spirit of charity. And when she poured out many prayers for her to the Lord, that wicked one was unwilling to leave the one whom he thought he firmly held. Then she, immolating herself more to the Lord, for forty days with tears and prayers fasted, eating nothing at all, after prayers and a fast of 40 days yet with intervals, so that twice or thrice in the week she was refreshed. But at the end of the fast, that most foul spirit, leaving the Virgin, was compelled to come to the handmaid of Christ with grief and confusion, miserably bound and punished by an Angel of Christ; so that he seemed, as if his bowels vomited out, the demon supplicating her miserably to carry all his inward parts upon his neck: for what the Lord works invisibly in the spirit, He sometimes shows visibly by exterior signs. Then he, groaning and supplicating that she would have mercy on him, and enjoin penance on him, besought the friend of Christ: for he said that he was compelled to do whatever she should enjoin on him. Then she, as she never presumed anything of herself, nor wished to do anything without counsel, called to herself a certain familiar Master in whom she trusted. And when he counseled her to send him into the desert, and that he could never harm anyone until the day of judgment; there came up a certain other man quite familiar and intimate with both: and when he had learned the matter; "By no means," said he, as he was more fervent from the impulse of a vehement spirit, "shall that betrayer thus escape; command him to descend at once into the depth of hell." he commands him to go into the depth of hell. She commanding, and he descending with a howl, so great a cry of the infernal spirits arose, as she heard in spirit, while she perceived a great and powerful prince coming: whence the handmaid of Christ was greatly astonished, and rendered thanksgivings to the Lord. The aforesaid Virgin, freed at the same hour, Confession made, received the Body of Christ, and giving thanks to God returned to her home. But when, after many vigils and prayers, she rested on her little bed, the devil appeared to her under various forms, gnashing over her, and cursing her: "To your own harm," said that impious one, "may you rest; may you have rest with us in hell; for I am no less tormented by your rest than by your labor, and tortured by your prayers." But she, smiling, the sign of the Cross made, compelled him to withdraw.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

f The same: "pour in."

CHAPTER IV.

Her vigils, dress, labors undertaken. The composure of her countenance and limbs.

CHAPTER X.

[33] That strong and prudent woman reputed the loss of idle, nay precious, time grave and intolerable; Sparing of time, for the days pass, but do not return; they slip away, but do not come back. Whence the loss of time wasted is irrecoverable, nor, like other bodily things lost, can lost days be restored. Whence with the highest zeal she guarded herself, lest she ever pass any hour of the day or night idle, as much as was permitted to her. For she rarely slept by night, she sleeps little and rarely; knowing that sleep is left to us mercifully by the Lord not for merit, but for the recreation of human infirmity. For by sleeping we do not merit, because we do not have the use of free will. Whence, abstaining from sleep as much as she could, she served the Lord in nightly vigils the more devoutly, the more freely, and without any noise of bystanders: for the virtue of abstinence, drying the body by attenuating it, and the fire of love burning within, drove all drowsiness from her. she is recreated by the song of Angels: The sweet songs too of the Angelic spirits, with whom she often spent the nights sleepless, banished all sleep from her eyes without any trouble of the body. For, the frequency of men removed, through the nightly vigils an army of blessed spirits was present as companion, whose sound wondrously, as of a multitude of camps, soothed the ears with a certain sweet harmony, shook off all torpor, recreated the head, besprinkled with wondrous sweetness, excited the mind with devotion, inflamed the desire to praise and thanksgiving; "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord," frequently repeating, by her example she invited others.

[34] Let them attend to these things, and let the miserable and foolish women mourn, who with the songs of their lasciviousness kindle the fire of lust, and with their breath make the coals burn, and therefore, strangers to the song of Angels, perish in their vanity; whose laughter shall be turned into mourning, joy into eternal grief, song into howling: to whom is promised by the Lord, instead of a girdle a rope, instead of a sweet smell stench, instead of curling hair baldness: but our Mary, trampling the dances of vanity and all the pomps of Satan for love of Christ, more happily and sweetly merited to be present at the joyful dances of the holy Angels. Is. 3:24 And since she guarded the precious Relics of the Saints, with which the church of Oignies is copiously provided and adorned, by nightly vigils

watches; she keeps vigil at the Relics of Oignies; those same Relics, keeping a festive night with her, and as if applauding their keeper, gladdened her spirit with wondrous solace. But in her last sickness, consoling her with compassionate affection, they promised her patronage with God and a reward for her labor and guardianship. But she had a bed with only a little straw in her little cell, in which yet she rarely rested: for more frequently sitting in the church, her head inclined to the wall, recreated with a little sleep, she returned to the sweet labors of vigils.

[35] Yet the time of her sleep did not pass wholly without fruit; or she dreams only of pious things: for sleeping with vigilant heart, and retaining Christ, to whom by waking she had clung, in her heart, she dreamed of nothing but her Christ: for as the thirsty, while he sleeps, dreams of fountains of waters that he drinks; as the hungry considers, imagining, dishes set before him; so she had always before her eyes in dreams Him whom she thirsted for. For where the love is, there is the eye, but where her treasure is, there is her heart also, as Christ says of Himself: "Where I am, there shall my minister be also." Frequently too, as the Lord admonished Joseph and other Saints in dreams, so He visited His handmaid with many revelations, lest sleep should pass idle; as the Lord promised through the Prophet: "Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." John 12:26, Joel 2:28 Sometimes she was permitted to rest in her cell; but sometimes, especially with great solemnities imminent, she could find rest only within the church in the presence of Christ. And then for days and nights it was necessary for her to remain there: she is admonished by her guardian Angel concerning rest and vigil nor was it in her choice or free will for the most part, either to rest in her cell, or to remain in the church. For it was necessary for her to obey her familiar Angel, deputed to her for guardianship, as her own Abbot: because sometimes, when she was afflicted with excessive vigils, he admonished her to rest: but when she had rested a little, by rousing her he led her back to the church.

[36] By whom vehemently inciting her and ministering strength, from the feast of St. Martin until Lent, at a certain time her soul so clung to the pavement of the church; that, whether she sat or lay, between herself and the bare earth she could receive nothing at all, not even a little straw, so to speak. The pure earth, or wood laid crosswise before the base of the altar, she had in place of a pillow, while she slept. But in that winter so great a cold had prevailed, so great a frost had invaded the world, that even in the holy chalice, and she is cherished in the cold. while the Priest celebrated, the wine sensibly and suddenly (as I remember) was constricted into ice. Yet she neither felt the cold; nor did her head, the holy Angel mercifully putting his hand beneath, ache even a little. Woe to you who sleep and are wanton on your couches, and in beds of ivory; who use soft things, dead and buried in your pleasures: who lead your days in goods, but in a moment shall descend to the last things of hell; where beneath you the moth shall be spread, and your covering shall be worms. Behold, to the handmaid of Christ, because she devoutly served her Lord, the earth serves, lest she be worn by hardness; the winter spares, lest she be tortured by cold; the holy Angels minister, lest she be injured in anything. But against you senseless ones the world shall fight for the Lord: for the creature shall be armed for vengeance against its enemies, which, serving its maker, against you shall grow hot into torment.

CHAPTER XI.

[37] She who was clothed with the fleece of the immaculate Lamb, who was adorned within with the nuptial garment, who had put on Christ within, cared not for exterior adornment: Guarding in dress against filth and finery, yet she used moderate garments, because neither affected filth nor exquisite cleanliness ever pleased her: for she fled finery and filth in equal manner, because the one smacks of delicacies, the other of glory. Knowing, however, that Blessed John the Baptist was commended by the Lord for the roughness of his garments; and that Truth Itself says, "Those who are clothed in soft things are in the houses of Kings"; she did not use a linen shift next to the flesh; she uses rough but white garments, but a rough hair-cloth sack, which is called in the common tongue "Estamine." Matt. 11:8 A white woolen tunic, with a simple cloak of the same color, without any joining of furs, or any lining, she had for clothing; not unaware that the Lord, after the ruin of our first parents, veiled their nakedness not with precious garments or artificially dyed, but with garments of skins. Content with the simplicity of these garments, because she burned within, she feared no cold without; nor did she ever need material fire, by which cold might be repelled in winter: but in a wondrous manner, when the rougher winter constricted the waters with icy cold, as she fervored in spirit within, so without in body, especially while she prayed, she grew warm; so that her garments sometimes sweetly gave forth the fragrance of her aromatic sweat. and these simple ones, even in winter: Often too the smell of her garments was like the smell of incense, while she offered prayers to the Lord from the thurible of her heart. What say you to these things, you superfluous and pompous women? who adorn your carcasses with a multiplicity of garments, and with your trailing garments; who show yourselves degenerate and bestial, decked all around like the likeness of a temple: your garments are eaten by moths and stink, which were afterward held in place of Relics. the garments of this holy woman are held for Relics and give forth fragrance. These are the precious garments, overcome by no cold, however thin they were; and therefore sanctified on account of the cold, but on account of the sanctification, after her death, are diligently kept by the devout, and honored with the affection of piety.

[38] The prudent woman knew that the Lord had enjoined penance on our first parents after sin, and through them on their children, namely, "In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread." Gen. 3:19 Whence with her own hands, as long as she could, she labored; that she might afflict the body through penance, By the labor of her hands she suffices for the living of herself and another. that she might minister necessaries to the needy, that she might acquire for herself too food and clothing (inasmuch as she had left all things for Christ). But the Lord had conferred on her so great a power of working, that, far exceeding her companions, she was able to provide for herself and almost for another from the fruit of her hands; diligently attending to that of the Apostle: "He who does not labor, let him not eat": for she reputed all exercise of labor most sweet; while she observed that the only-begotten Son of the most high King, who opens His hand and fills every animal with blessing, was nourished by gain from the labor of the hands of Joseph and the poor Virgin. 2 Thess. 3:10 In quiet, therefore, and silence, according to the Apostle, working with her hands, she ate her bread: for in silence and hope was her strength. But so greatly did she flee the crowd and noise, She keeps silence from the feast of the Cross until Easter, so loved quiet and silence; that at one time, from the feast of the holy Cross until the Lord's Easter, she kept silence, uttering almost no word. Which kind of silence the Lord so accepted that, the Holy Spirit revealing, on account of this above all things, she obtained from the Lord to fly to heaven without Purgatory. From which it is clear how great is the vice of loquacity, which was for her in place of purgatory. since silence is so pleasing to the Lord: since a tongued man shall not be directed in the land of the living. But at last, multiplying every day the talent committed to her by skillful trading, and on each day ascending from virtue to virtue by Jacob's ladder, when she was placed on high, and as if set on the highest step, having left all sensible things under her feet; her sensuality was so absorbed by her surpassing spirit, that now, except the food which does not perish, Christ occupying her wholly, she could not work. Ps. 39:12. Whence, as if a veteran, although free from all working of the hands, she gave leisure thenceforth only to the Lord; with which liberty Christ endowed His handmaid.

[39] The interior composure of her mind her exterior gesture, and the composition of her external parts, showed. Bearing a wondrous grace in her countenance, The serenity of her countenance did not allow the joy of her heart to lie hidden. But with wondrous moderation she tempered the cheerfulness of her heart with the gravity of her face, and somewhat concealed the joyousness of her mind by the simplicity of her modest face. 1 Cor. 11:5 And since the Apostle says, "Let women pray with veiled head"; the white veil with which she covered her head hung before her eyes. With her head inclined and her face cast to the earth, with slow and sober step she humbly walked. But so greatly, from the fullness of her heart, did the grace of the Holy Spirit shine back in her face, that many, spiritually refreshed by her aspect, were provoked to devotion and tears; and reading in her countenance, as in a book, the unction of the Holy Spirit, they knew that virtue proceeded from her. But it happened on a certain day that a certain kind man, familiar and friend of religious persons, Guido, formerly Cantor of the church of Cambrai, when for the sake of visiting her he had turned aside from his way; but a certain one of his companions, who had not yet perhaps learned by experience how much the visitation and familiarity of the good confers on pious minds; her mocker as if deriding the pious labor of the aforesaid devout man, said: "For God's sake, Lord Cantor, what do you seek? why do you desert your way in vain? do you wish, with boys, to follow and catch flying flies or butterflies?" He, as he was mild and patient, did not for this leave his proposed journey; but devoutly approached the handmaid of Christ, from whose presence on another occasion he had perceived no little consolation. But while he spoke to her, his companion, as is the custom of the worldly, as if making little of such conversations, was intent on the other side on various and idle conversations. And when he was now affected with weariness by waiting, he came to the Cantor, to admonish him to hasten. And when perchance he fixed his eyes on the face of the handmaid of Christ, suddenly and wondrously changed in mind, he was dissolved into so great an abundance of tears, that scarcely for a long time after could he be removed from the place and from her presence. Then the Cantor, although the other from modesty wished to lie hidden, attending and knowing the outcome of the matter, rejoicing, and in turn deriding his companion, said: "Let us go, why do we stand here? Perhaps you wish to put the butterflies to flight." But he, after many sighs and tears, scarcely at last could be torn away thence, saying: "Forgive me, for before I did not at all know what I was saying: but now in this holy woman I have perceived the virtue of God by experience."

[40] But when at a certain time her little body could no longer bear the fervor of her spirit; after a great sickness she fell into a great sickness. For so greatly did the pious Father subject His daughter, whom He loved, to the scourge of discipline, that the members of her body were wondrously tortured: for as if in a circle her arms were agitated from pain, and with her hands

she was forced to beat her breast. 2 Cor. 12 But when for a time the force of the infirmity rested a little, then, returned to herself, with so great joy she gave thanks to the Lord, she receives greater strength from God: who scourges every son whom He receives, that in her that of the Apostle was manifestly fulfilled: "When I am weak, then am I stronger." But after the Lord, as gold in the furnace, had proved His chosen one by this infirmity; fully refined and polished, she afterward obtained from the Lord so great a strength in fasts and vigils, and other labors; that even strong men could scarcely sustain a third part of her labor. Sometimes, however, when any of her friends labored under some affliction, or succumbed to some temptation; then she, made infirm with the infirm, was burned with vehement grief with the scandalized; and then often felt her aforesaid disease particularly in some of her members. But immediately, by a new kind of miracle, a Priest being called, at other times she is healed by the sign of the Cross made by a Priest: when the Priest made with his finger the sign of the Cross over the place of the infirmity; the infirmity, as if dreading the virtue of the holy Cross, fled to another place. But the sign of the Cross being made again and again, the wandering and fugitive disease did not dare to await the weight of the Cross any longer; but at last, by a wondrous and unheard-of kind of hunting, departed wholly from the body of the handmaid of the Crucified. For, gazing with the eye of faith on the bronze serpent, freed from the bites of the serpentine disease, she rendered manifold thanks to God and the holy Cross.

[41] But not only in her countenance, from the gaze, did many distil the grace of devotion, but from mutual conversation she instilled sweetness to some, by her conversation she instills devotion, not only spiritually in the heart, but sensibly they received as it were the savor of honey in the mouth. The hard and slow to believe will hear, and will murmur: but those who have experienced divine consolations of this kind will easily acquiesce when they hear. Cant. 4 "Your lips distil a honeycomb, my spouse; honey and milk are under your tongue." Whence when a certain man great, although small in his own eyes spoke to her one day, who from abundant humility and intense charity had come to her from very remote parts; from the sight of her he received so great consolation, but from her word so great sweetness, that through that whole day no savor of material food could expel from his mouth the honeyed savor which he had received. Whose name, of a holy man, I have purposely kept silent, because he is wondrously tortured by his praises, and like gold in the furnace is proved in the mouth of those praising. Yet from this it came about that the pious consoler of souls greatly relieved the bitterness of His servant exiled for Him. also to Fulco, Bishop of Toulouse. Why are you confounded with shame? Why are you angry with me? Who named you? I have only set forth your exile. Were there not many exiles besides you, many Bishops of Toulouse too, both before you, and able to be after you? Ought I, on account of your modesty, to have kept silent the praises of the handmaid of Christ? What is it to you? What have you which you have not received? It is not your glory, but Christ's. For neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now therefore cease to murmur against me. They are not yours, but the Lord's, which I have said; although they are both God's who gives, and yours who humbly receive; and the handmaid of Christ's, by whose merits the Lord relieved the troubles of your pilgrimage. But now let us put an end to this first little book, in which we have spoken of those things which pertain to the exterior man and are exercised sensibly without; that, as if a midway diet being completed, before we pass to the interior and subtler things, we may breathe a little.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

BOOK II.

On the interior life of Mary and her holy end.

CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER V.

The fear of the Lord; defects avoided even the least: poverty and humility desired.

CHAPTER I.

[42] Now therefore let us subjoin how great the glory of the King's daughter was within, and with how great a variety of virtues she was surrounded and adorned within by the Father. Mary full within, For many daughters in our days have gathered riches; this one alone, as we believe, surpassed them all: for whom her Father composed an ankle-length tunic, of many colors, painted with every kind of virtues, decorated with all the flowers of the Lord's gardens. But since we cannot number one by one all the stars of this splendid firmament, all the flowers of this pleasant meadow, all the varieties of her virtues; let us have recourse to the original causes, from which as from fountains all her goods flowed, namely to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit; For the Lord filled her with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord. The spirit of wisdom made her affluent in delights and fervent in charity; the spirit of understanding, contemplative of higher things; the spirit of counsel, provident; the spirit of fortitude, patient and long-suffering; the spirit of knowledge, discreet; the spirit of piety, affluent with the bowels of mercy; the spirit of the fear of the Lord made the King's daughter cautious and humble.

CHAPTER II.

[43] Let us first see concerning the spirit of the fear of the Lord: for the fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom, but the keeper of all goods. from the fear of the Lord But although perfect charity cast out all fear, that is, the punishment and anxiety of fear, from the King's daughter; yet she, from the fullness of love, was so God-fearing; used such caution in all things, not only works, but words and thoughts; that she neglected nothing, even small. For she frequently attended to what is written: "He who neglects small things will fall little by little." For she feared all her works, foreseeing the Lord always in her sight, and in all her ways thinking of Him, she avoids the most minute sins: lest perchance in anything she should displease. Is. 28:1 For she knew that although one avoids great things, he can yet be overwhelmed by sand: for Absalom perished hung by the multitude of his hairs, and a multitude of venial sins from contempt, while they please or are neglected, leads to eternal destruction. There was in her, therefore, a chaste fear in the heart, like a breast-band, which would constrict the thoughts; in the mouth, like a bridle which would repress the tongue; in work, a goad lest sloth should grow torpid; in all things a rule, lest she should exceed the measure. That fear, like a broom, purged the heart from duplicity, the mouth from falsity, but the works from all vanity. For she, like an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain, easily received nothing but Christ, and the things that pertain to Christ. she seeks Christ in all things: Christ was to her meditation in the heart, word in the mouth, example in work. For I never remember to have heard a worldly word from her mouth. But she would scarcely say one clause in speaking, without frequently inserting Christ too as a seasoning.

[44] But so greatly had the holy fear of the Lord occupied her mind, that when she was at Willebroek near Nivelles, she frequently had herbs which are not sown and other things growing of their own accord gathered, that she might make herself a pottage thereof: lest perchance she should eat what was snatched by a beast, that is, the alms which plunderers and usurers are wont to give to the houses of lepers. For she abstained not only from things unlawful, but restrained herself from many lawful things too; lest by laxity of freedom she might in any way decline to things unlawful.

[45] But so great a love of poverty had she conceived from the spirit of fear, burning with great zeal for poverty, that she scarcely wished to retain even necessaries. Whence on a certain day she proposed to flee, that among strangers, unknown and despised, she might beg from door to door, that naked she might follow the naked Christ, the cloak of all temporal things left with Joseph, the water-pot with the Samaritan woman, the linen cloth with John. For frequently attending and recalling the poverty of Christ, for whom, born, there was no place in the inn, who had not where to lay His head, who also had not money whence to pay tribute, who chose to be fed by alms and received in others' lodgings; she was sometimes kindled with so great a desire of poverty, that, taking with her a little bag in which she might put alms, and a little cup whence she might drink water, or perchance receive pottage if it were given her while she begged; clothed in old rags, she desires to live abroad by begging: she could scarcely be held back by many tears of her friends. For when she had bidden her people farewell, and the poor little one of Christ wished to undertake the journey in such a habit, with her little bag and cup; so great grief and so great weeping arose of her friends who loved her in Christ; that she, as she overflowed with the bowels of compassion, could not bear it. Constrained therefore by two, having the desire to flee and beg with Christ; she chose rather to remain on account of the brothers and sisters, to whom her absence seemed intolerable. She did, therefore, what she could. For she afterward remained in so great a love of poverty, that she sometimes cut the cloth on which she ate bread, or the linens, retaining a part, distributing a part to the poor.

[46] Woe to you who join house to house, and couple field to field even to the end of the place: not only contemning riches, who cannot be filled with money, nor can take fruit from it: who lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, where thieves dig through and steal; always gathering, and always wasting away with want. What was ever lacking to this poor little one of Christ, who always fled riches, and yet always had whence to distribute to others? She always loved poverty, and so much the more copiously the Lord always supplied her necessaries

ministered. But not only from the spirit of fear did she spurn riches, but by poverty of spirit she was always small in her own eyes. With such humility she cast herself down, that she reputed herself as nothing: and affecting the highest humility: and when she had done all things well, she not only said with her mouth, but felt in her heart, that she was as if useless; esteeming herself inferior to all, she never presumed anything of herself, reputing all superior to her. When the Lord did her any good, she imputed it to the merits of others. Never seeking her own glory, but referring all to Him from whom all goods proceed. She judged herself most unworthy of the goods which she received: contemning no one however infirm or sinful, she despised herself alone, and held it as nothing to be despised by others, through infamy and through good fame: on the right and on the left she was surrounded with the shield of truth: as her darkness, so also her light: she was neither depressed by reproach, nor lifted up by her own praises.

[47] But from abundant humility she always, as much as was in her, desired to lie hidden. Whence when, from the jubilation of her heart, and from the fullness of grace, she could not be concealed within herself; desiring to lie hidden, sometimes she fled to the neighboring fields or thickets, that, avoiding human eyes, she might keep her secret to herself and in the ark of a pure conscience. Sometimes, however, compelled by the prayers of friends, or specially sent by the Lord to someone, or incited by the affection of compassion to console the faint-hearted; out of many things which she felt, she reported a few with humility and modesty. O how often she said to her friends: "Why do you question me? I am not worthy to feel such things as you seek." How often she answered the Lord as if with murmuring: she is divinely compelled to help others: "What is it to me, O Lord? send whom you will send. I am not worthy that I should go, and announce your counsels to others." Nor yet, the Holy Spirit instigating, could she resist serving the benefit of others by announcing some things. For how many of her familiars did she forewarn in dangers? How often did she uncover to her friends the hidden snares of malign spirits? How often did she strengthen the faint-hearted and those wavering in faith by the miracles of divine revelation? How often did she admonish men not to accomplish what they had thought only in their mind? How often did she relieve with divine consolations those already falling, and almost despairing?

[48] Why then do you blush, O timid one? Why do you withdraw so many goods from the needy, O greedy one? Why, from excessive humility, are you drawn away from the edification of your neighbors? Was it for your sake, who clung as if inseparably to God, and did not need revelations of this kind, that God showed you so many and so great things, and not rather for the advantage of those who believed you and needed your help? Alas! how many and how great things you suppressed, yet she conceals many gifts of God, by which both the infirm could be strengthened, and the slothful incited, and the unlearned enlightened, and the Lord wondrous in His Saints could be shown. Why then do you hide the talent? why do you not show your Christ to the world, who is in no way diminished to you, if He be shared by others? Did you not sometimes, when the King led you into the wine-cellar, cry out from drunkenness, "Why, Lord, do you hide yourself, why do you not show yourself as you are? For if the world knew you, it would now no longer sin; but would immediately run after the odor of your unguents." But blessed be God, who blunted your avarice by His liberality, and revealed your hiding-places, willing or unwilling. For when, the must of your fervent spirit now seething, you would burst unless you had a vent; when you could no longer bear the burning of the fire without some evaporation; then at last the truth was extorted from a pure and drunken heart; except when, rapt in spirit, she revealed some things. then, belching forth wondrous and unheard-of things from your fullness, from the book of Life, if we could grasp them, you read to us many and wondrous lessons, suddenly turned from disciple into mistress. But when, like a mighty one overcome by wine, awakened after sleep you returned to yourself, then either, forgetting what you had said, you were silent; or if perchance you recalled some things to memory, then confounded with shame, you judged yourself garrulous and foolish; and marveling what had happened to you, you asked pardon from the Lord.

[49] At a certain time, when we asked her She is moved by no vainglory. whether from human praises or divine revelations she felt at least some tickling of vainglory; "In respect," she said, "of the true glory which I desire, all human boasting is nothing or can be reputed nothing." For she was founded on such great truth, solidified with such great gravity in the Lord, was so full of true goods, was so fattened and refreshed with spiritual feasts; that, as one amid various dishes of delicacies, if an insipid and tasteless dish were set before him, would, before he was satisfied, reject it; so she, on account of the sweetness of eternal goods, not only did not admit all worldly glory, all vanity of human praise, but rejected it with a certain abomination of heart. For as Christ cannot be sweet to him to whom the world is still sweet; so the sweetness of Christ had so claimed her whole mind, that nothing but Christ was savory to her.

NOTES OF D. P.

CHAPTER VI.

Piety toward the Lord, aids given to the dying and to souls both purging and in peril: diseases cured.

CHAPTER III.

[50] Not only through the spirit of fear did she guard herself from every appearance of evil; but by the spirit of piety she was prone to every good. For she held the exercise of the body as of small account, From the spirit of piety in respect of piety, which according to the Apostle is useful to all things, having the promise of the life which now is and of that to come. 1 Tim. 4:8 For in the lamp of her heart she continually kindled the fire of charity with the oil of mercy; lest perchance, found with the foolish virgins without oil, she should suffer repulse from the nuptials of eternal joy. She busied herself, therefore, according to her power, to fulfill outwardly all works of mercy, from abundant piety of heart. But above all works of mercy she was wont to assist the sick, she exercises works of mercy: and to be present at the death or burial of the deceased, where she very frequently perceived many of the heavenly secrets, the Lord revealing. But on a certain day, when a Sister of the Brothers of Oignies labored at the last; she, when she was in her little cell, perceived a multitude of roaring demons knowing that demons had flown to the dying woman, around the bed of the sick Sister, when now the commendation was being made for her, whom they thought to be dead and present. Then she, as if forgetting her accustomed gravity and innate modesty, ran to the bed of the sick woman, and opposing herself to the unclean spirits, not only fought with prayers, but also drove them off with her cloak as if they were flies. But when those impious ones terribly resisted, and wished to claim the soul of the Sister as their own; then she, no longer bearing it, cried out for her Christ, and incessantly invoked the blood of Christ which He shed for souls, and the death of the Crucified. she tries to drive them off with prayers and her cloak: But when those roaring ones, prepared for food, assailed that soul with many calumnies; she at last, receiving confidence from the Holy Spirit (not: where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty), answered: "Lord, for this soul I go surety: for although she has sinned, she has confessed her sins. But if perchance anything remained in her through negligence or ignorance, although she cannot speak, yet you have left her still the time of contrition."

[51] The Brothers perceived only her voice and gestures against the demons, these being conquered and poured out devout prayers to the Lord for the soul of their Sister. At last, the demons conquered and confounded, and the holy Angels coming, she, rendering praises to God, returned to herself and rested; and resuming her cloak, which she had thrown off in the fight, returning to her little cell with modesty and fleeing, the door shut, lay hidden. Not long after, when on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul she devoutly supplicated the Lord for that soul, and was solicitous about the state of her for whom she had gone surety; Blessed Peter showed her that soul, vehemently afflicted in the pains of purgatory. But Blessed Peter revealed to her both the pains and the causes of the pains: for she was tortured with vehement heat, she understands that she is tortured in purgatory, because she had loved the world and the pleasures of the age too ardently. Sometimes she was tortured with the greatest cold, because she had been slothful to every good, and especially because she had corrected her sons and her own family too negligently: she was moreover miserably distressed with thirst, because in her life she had given herself to excessive drinking: she also sustained the greatest discomfort of nakedness, because she had been superfluous in garments. and she helps her with prayers. Then the pious handmaid of Christ, as she wholly overflowed with the bowels of piety, especially toward those who were tortured in purgatory, was not only content with her own prayers, but acquired for her from others many suffrages of prayers and Masses.

[52] On another occasion, when a certain religious widow, who had long served God in holy widowhood, She saw the blessed Virgin assisting another dying woman, and kept her daughters whole in holy virginity for the heavenly Bridegroom, labored at the last at Willebroek near Nivelles; she saw the blessed Virgin assisting the holy widow, who, fanning her as with a certain fan, mercifully tempered the fervor of the heat with which she was tortured. But when her soul now wished to go out of the body, the crowd of lying-in-wait demons, by no instance of prayers, was willing to depart; until the heavenly Key-bearer, with the banner of the Crucified, cast them out confounded. But when that widow was now dead; and that the Saints were present at the funeral, the handmaid of Christ saw the blessed Virgin with a multitude of heavenly maidens, singing psalms and praising God around the body, as if divided into two choirs. But when the Priest performed the funeral rites of the deceased in the due manner, then the high Priest with the multitude of Saints completed the Office, as it seemed to her, and wondrously the triumphant Church responded to the militant Church. that the soul was in purgatory, But when her body had been handed over to burial, the handmaid of Christ saw her soul, because she had not yet been fully purged in this world, consummating in purgatory what was lacking to her. For her husband had been a merchant, and had acquired certain things by fraud after the manner of merchants; he had also received into his lodging certain ones of the household of the Duke of Louvain, who spent much in his house of unjustly acquired goods; and because she had not yet made perfect restitution of such things, she said that she was still detained in purgatory. for whom she had satisfaction given by her daughter. Which when it was announced to her daughter, a devout Virgin, Margaret of Willebroek, and her Sisters, they acquired many prayers for her, and according to their power

made restitution. Whence not long after the soul of the widow, purer than glass, whiter than snow, more splendid than the sun, appeared to the handmaid of Christ; when now, rejoicing and giving thanks, invited she ascended to the eternal feasts; and as if holding the book of Life (as it seemed to her) in her hands, made a scholar of the highest Master, she ruled it.

[53] But when a certain holy and blessed old man, who from his boyhood had persevered in his innocence and virginity, was now near to death, namely John of Dinant, surnamed the Gardener; She sees Angels assisting John of Dinant as he dies, who had left all things for Christ, and by his example and holy admonitions had acquired many souls for the Lord, while she was present, assisting him in his infirmity; saw a multitude of Angels assisting and rejoicing over the old man: she felt also a wondrous sweetness of odor, whence from the immensity of joy she could not contain herself: for she greatly loved him, and held him as if for a father. And then it was revealed to her by the Holy Spirit that that old man, who had done such great penance while he lived in the flesh, had also patiently sustained so many opprobriums and persecutions for Christ, and that he was in heaven without purgatory, had lived so justly, so God-fearingly, and had also gained so many souls for Christ; flew free to the Lord without any trouble of purgatory. Whence she, as often as she passed before his tomb, which is at Oignies, humbly bowed herself. But afterward, when she labored in her last infirmity, by whom too she, dying, is visited. the soul of the holy old man, with a certain other friend of hers deceased, namely Brother Richard of Manechan-chapel, was spiritually sent to her by the Lord for the sake of visiting and consoling. But the handmaid of Christ was very compassionate, and bore pious bowels toward the sick, around whom she sometimes spent sleepless nights.

[54] But when the Mother of the Brothers of Oignies labored under a most grave and long infirmity, and she sometimes assisted her to console her; Bearing the heavy breathing of the dying woman, she, as an old woman nearly a hundred years old, and now near death, had a most heavy breathing. But when on a certain night the holy woman could scarcely bear her breathing without great grief of heart: she nonetheless, assisting her near, as if by violence extorted from herself to remain. she is recreated from heaven with a sweet savor and odor: And when, no longer able to bear it, she nearly fainted, the Lord regarded the humility of His handmaid, and put into her mouth a savor as of precious aromatic wine, and she felt a most sweet odor as of burning incense, with that savor, for nearly three days; so that no savor of food could expel the aforesaid aromatic savor.

[55] But on many sick the Lord conferred not only consolation and patience from her presence, various and most grave diseases but frequently the Lord restored bodily health by her merits. For some ruptured boys were brought to her: who, when she laid her hands on them, were healed. A certain boy near Oignies labored with a perilous sickness: for through his little ear blood continually flowed from his head: and when he could be cured by no medicinal art, by the medicine of her prayers and the laying-on of her hand he was restored to perfect health: whom his mother brought to the church, and gave thanks for her son to God and His handmaid. But a certain woman, at her touch, was restored to health from a very perilous disease, namely an abscess of the throat, which is called quinsy. Likewise a Clerk too, who was sick at Oignies, named Lambert, was cured of the same disease by her touch. she cures by the mere laying-on of hands A certain Priest of Nivelles, named Guerric, told me that when he labored under a most grave infirmity, and now all the physicians despaired of him, nor was there any who promised him health; he came to the handmaid of Christ, and by many prayers obtained that she would lay her hand on him. But on the same night it seemed to him in sleep that the blessed Virgin came to him, after whose departure he was restored to health. Another Priest too, a humble and devout man, and her spiritual Father, Master Guido of Nivelles; after the handmaid of Christ touched with her hand the perilous swelling which he had in his throat, was perfectly cured. A certain one too, of whose infirmity all despaired, he too, when he had tried many physicians, and had profited nothing, and awaited nothing but death; at the touch of her hair received health.

[56] But why do we linger over small things, when so many great and wondrous ones still remain? yet more solicitous for souls: for although it is pious to come to the aid of the diseases of bodies, yet it is far and incomparably greater to expend care on the health of souls: for no sacrifice pleases God more than zeal for souls. But she was always glad, always cheerful, always remaining in the jubilation of her heart, except when the cloud of grief, the peril or fall of souls disturbed her mind. In this alone (that I may speak by her leave), while she had no measure, she mourned anxious, grieved desolate, took no food, drove sleep from her eyes, sometimes cried out after the manner of a woman in labor. With how great grief, think you, was she wounded, when the roaring demons, gnashing their teeth, rushed in troops upon the Congregation of holy Virgins, she greatly grieves at the dispersion of a certain convent. in the little village which is called Manni; where they devoutly served God. But at last when she saw the impious and envious demons, as if having obtained their wish, dance for joy, at the ejection of the holy women: then she, crying and wailing, could scarcely sustain herself from grief of heart.

[57] On another day she saw the greatest army of wicked spirits, In the devastation of Liège, who, as if bloodied after a battle, with proud and pompous din were returning from the devastation of the city of Liège, and still with haughty countenance threatened greater evils. And not long after came messengers at Oignies, who announced that the city of Liège was destroyed, the churches despoiled, the women violently oppressed, the citizens slain: nay, they reported that the enemy had plundered the goods of the whole city. Then perchance there was present at Oignies a holy man of honorable conduct, and of good opinion even among the wicked, the lamp of the whole Bishopric, Doctor and spiritual Father, Master John of Nivelles: who, when he had perceived the worst rumors, dismayed in mind, grieved incomparably, John of Nivelles being greatly afflicted and especially because he doubted with paternal solicitude concerning the holy Virgins, whom he himself had acquired for the Lord by preaching and example, lest perchance they had been violently oppressed, as some falsely said. He grieved not much for the loss of temporal things, who always reputed temporal things as dung; but the holy man, specially and excellently adorned with the gem of all virtues, mourned inconsolably the violation of the churches, the destruction of souls. The father wept for his sons, the patron for the churches, the friend of the bridegroom for the Virgins, she herself remains unperturbed, whom he had betrothed chaste to the chaste Bridegroom. But the handmaid of Christ, the rumors heard, was not much disturbed; and those who knew her marveled with how great affection she loved the modest virgins who in the city of Liège devoutly served Christ; but she was both forearmed and prevented by the Lord. For the pious Father knew that His daughter, unless she were forearmed in this, would be confounded with excessive grief. And when the Brothers of Oignies, after the manner of Clerks, greatly feared, because it was said that the enemy were coming into their parts; she in all these things remained unperturbed, as being divinely comforted. and without fear, the holy Angels consoling her, and on earth announcing peace to men of good will. But she felt great peace and quiet about the house of Oignies, as if certified in spirit, both of the peace of her own, and of the incorruption of the aforesaid holy Virgins: nevertheless it seemed to her that the earth trembled, and that it complained that it fed men, who opposed themselves to their Creator with so monstrous a crime.

[58] But it happened at a certain time that a certain Knight, noble by birth from his parents, On account of a knight converted by her, and vigorous in soldiery, and given to the vanities of the age, namely Ywan of Zoania, divinely inspired, and aided by the admonitions and prayers of the holy woman, the world left, was converted to the Lord. Then the wicked and unbridled demon, and wondrously confounded, appeared to the handmaid of Christ; complaining, and with threatening countenance raging against her like a huge dog, she suffers the insulting devil: said to her: "O insolent one! O our enemy! O our adversary! the greatest damage I have lately received through you: for you have taken from me one of my special ministers." But afterward, when the same Knight had persevered for some time in his good purpose, it happened one day that he ate in the house of a certain host and creditor of his, a rich Burgher of Nivelles while he was in the world, and from familiarity with the worldly in whose house he had very often lived too worldly, and made superfluous expenses (as is the custom of Knights). For he could not easily be separated from his familiarity, to whom he was still bound by debts. But while that host set before him many and delicate dishes, while they feasted splendidly; the wicked enemy, watching a suitable time of temptation, raised a mound, that he might take the fortified city. He recalled to his memory the glory which he had had in the world, the melons and garlic of Egypt; and the pots of flesh, that cunning tempter brought back before his eyes.

[59] But when he now wavered in mind, and Satan as it were sifted him like wheat; the merciful lover of men, knowing that he wavered, who permits no one to be tempted above his power, who does not extinguish the smoking flax, and does not break the bruised reed, announced to His handmaid in spirit how that Knight, since he had not avoided the company of the worldly, fluctuated with a languishing mind. And when, with wandering mind still deliberating many things with himself, he sat at table; behold, the messenger of the handmaid of Christ, waiting secretly at the door, as soon as he could speak to him, announced that he should immediately come to his Lady. she confirms him, called to her: And when he had come to the place where the pearl of Christ stayed outside Nivelles; he found her as if languid from sadness and anxiety of heart; and watering with a flood of tears the feet of the Crucified, which she had embraced. Then he, marveling, and dismayed in mind from modesty, while he asked the cause why she mourned; "Deservedly," she said, "I mourn: for you I grieve: for your misery my soul is troubled; who, having begun with the spirit, are made perfect by the flesh and propose miserably to be consumed; who, the hand put to the plow, look back with Loth's wife, ungrateful and unmindful of the benefit, and of the superabundant mercy of Him who freed you from the burning of this age, while others perished." Then he, returned to himself, wholesomely pricked with compunction by the miracle of so great a revelation; "Forgive," he said, "my pious Mother, and pray for me a wretch: and I promise to God and to you,

that henceforth I will constantly remain in the service of Him who recalled me through you." But when the world retained him in some part, and, still entangled in many secular affairs, frequently compelled him to go to the courts of the Powerful: then his former companions, his kinsmen too and familiars, mourning him as if dead, nay pointing him out with the finger as if a monster, some deriding, some softening with blandishments, some striving to exasperate and break him with insults and injuries.

[60] Certain satellites of the devil too pulled the noble man, unaccustomed to such injuries, knowing that the same man was assailed with reproaches, by his cape or hood. But he, opposing wondrous patience to all these as a shield, was sometimes, after the human manner, somewhat confounded. But when he returned home, like a sheep snatched from the jaws of wolves, after so great a shipwreck he had recourse to the solace of his spiritual Mother. Who, wondrously divinely inspired, related, with prophetic spirit, both the reproaches said to the Knight of Christ, and the opprobriums of those reproaching Christ, and the hour in which he had been somewhat disturbed. "Alas," she said, she renders him constant by her prayers: "at this hour you needed help, and I then offered prayers for you to the merciful Lord; that He might grant you, by His imitation, to despise the prosperity of the world, and to fear none of its adversities." By which miracle and the solace of the handmaid of Christ he was so comforted, that neither wind nor rain could overturn his house founded upon a firm rock. For he was frequently driven to fall: but the Lord, by the merits of His handmaid, put His hand beneath, lest he should slip.

[61] the snares prepared for the fall of her friend Sometimes, when she was at Willebroek, and saw the demons by cunning machinations preparing hidden snares, that they might take some of her friends whose fall could generate the greatest scandal to the simple; then she, when the enemy had now bent his bow, that he might shoot in the dark at the upright of heart, not content with tears or prayers, began a fast; knowing that this kind of demon is not easily cast out, except by fasting and prayer. she breaks by fasting: But when through forty days she had humbled her soul in fasting; then at last the Lord, compassionating His handmaid, and no longer bearing her affliction, showed that He had freed her friend by her merits; and opened into how great a pit of sin her familiar friend would have fallen, had not the enemy been overwhelmed by her fasts and prayers. Woe to us, who have lost so great a solace in this misery, so great a safeguard in temptations and tribulations; unless He recompense us in heaven for what we have lost in this exile. But although against the various and manifold languors of souls the instance of her prayers was an efficacious medicine; against the spirit of blasphemy and despair she was eminent with a singular grace. And whereas among all others that spirit is the most wicked in assailing, she was the most powerful in succoring.

[62] It happened once that a certain Monk of the Cistercian Order had so great a zeal for innocence and purity, A Monk striving in vain for the state of innocence although not according to knowledge, that he strove from fervor of spirit to come as it were to the state of the first parent. And when for a long time, with very much but vain labor, afflicting himself in abstinence and vigils and prayers and tears, he could not recover the first state of innocence; he first fell into weariness and sloth. For he wished to take food, but to feel no sensible delight while he ate: he strove not only to repress, but utterly to extinguish the first motions of sensuality: he strove also to keep his life in perfect purity without any venial sin. But when, the noonday demon instigating, he aspired to the impossible, nor could in any way, however much he labored, come to that to which he tended; at last he slipped from sadness into the pit of despair; so that he in no way hoped to attain salvation in the state of corruption in which he was; and thence fallen into despair, inasmuch as he thought venial sins, which we cannot wholly lack in this life, to be mortal: whence he was unwilling in any way, even on those days on which it is instituted in the Order, to receive the Body of Christ. Behold to how great a misfortune, to how great and how miserable a ruin, under the appearance of good that ancient enemy had drawn that simple soul; which, sick, fled the medicine, and which, having once renounced its own will, had cast from itself the yoke of obedience.

[63] But that I may relate the fable not fabulously, nor insert false things falsely; this Monk, who tried to come to the state of the first parent, to what is he likened, but to a certain frog; which, seeing an ox of great strength and beautiful size, wished to be likened to it, and to come to its size. Then it began with great effort to stretch, dilate, and inflate itself; but in vain: for not even if it had burst could it have attained the size of the ox. But that Brother, while he wished to raise himself above himself, fell miserably below himself through despair. But when a certain pious Abbot, a friend of all good men, had learned the disease of his soul; whom she heals, sent to her by the Abbot. although he and many others had poured out prayers to the Lord for the Monk, yet the enemy prevailed; who, without ceasing, tortured the one whom he had bound with a strong snare. Then the Abbot, friend of the holy woman, inasmuch as he was by no means ignorant of her virtue, which he had sometimes felt in himself by experience, had the Monk brought to the handmaid of Christ. And when she supplicated the Lord for the Monk with tearful sighs; in a wondrous manner, while before the introit of the Mass the Monk said the "Confiteor," and she more instantly poured out prayers for him, black pebbles, as it were, seemed to fall from the mouth of the Monk at each word of the Confession. Then she, perceiving in this vision that the obstinacy of despair and the blackness of sadness and grief had left the Monk; rendered thanks to the Lord, who does not will the death of sinners, but rather that they be converted and live. But the Monk after the Mass, as if returned to himself from a far region, received the Body of Christ, and, the salutary medicine taken, perfectly recovered.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER VII.

By the spirit of wisdom Mary is given the gift of penetrating divine things with discretion, and of keeping peace with men.

CHAPTER IV.

[64] Since in fleeing evils, through the spirit of fear, and doing good through the spirit of piety, By the spirit of knowledge she keeps the mean, there is need of the caution and circumspection of discretion; the Father of lights, whose unction teaches us concerning all things, illumined His daughter with the spirit of knowledge: that she might know what and how it was to be done or avoided, and might season all her sacrifice with the salt of knowledge. For evils are near to goods; and often, while we avoid one vice, we slip into the contrary: as when one flees superfluity, he often falls into avarice; or when he avoids the finery of secular clothing, he glories in the filth of his garments. For vices sometimes present the appearance of virtues, whence they more perniciously deceive their followers, because they cover themselves under the veil of virtue. For under the pretext of justice cruelty is exercised, and remiss sloth is believed to be meekness: often that is done from negligence of the body, which is believed to be done by indulgence. attributing to God what is His and keeping peace with men, But she, declining neither to the right nor to the left, with wondrous moderation pursued the middle and blessed life or way. For she both rendered to God what was His; and kept the peace of her neighbors as much as was in her. Not only with the peaceful, but even with those who hated peace, she was peaceful; prudently conducting herself among men of a depraved nation, made all things to all, that she might gain all for God. Whence both two brothers of hers according to the flesh, and certain others, although before given to the world, her brothers transferred to the Cistercian Order; divinely inspired, and aided by her prudent admonition, leaving all things, transferred themselves to the Cistercian Order.

[65] But sometimes, when more sweetly and more pleasantly, as one spirit made with the Lord, she clung to the same Lord with the glue of fear; we announced to her that she was torn from contemplation on account of strangers that some from remote parts had come for the sake of seeing her, and were hastening to return. Cant. 2:7 For although the Lord had adjured us by the roes and harts of the fields, not to rouse or awaken the beloved unless she herself wished; yet because she never wished, but always thirsted to lie with the Lord at noonday, we sometimes from a certain confidence roused her. But she, the coming of strangers heard, lest perchance she should scandalize anyone, from that sweet joyousness of contemplation, from the embraces of her Bridegroom, doing violence to herself, tore away her spirit with so great grief; that sometimes, as if her bowels were burst, she vomited or spat pure blood in great quantity; but she suffers it violently, preferring to be afflicted with this martyrdom, than to disturb the peace of the Brothers, and especially of pilgrims. Sometimes, however, when by the Holy Spirit revealing she had foreknown the coming of some, although still far off; fleeing to the fields or neighboring woods, we could scarcely through the whole day find her hiding. Sometimes, however, for the benefit of some needy ones, with none but the Holy Spirit inciting, she was compelled to break off her sleep. "Go," said the spirit: "for not from curiosity, but for cause of necessity, someone awaits you." But although as regards her neighbors, not only the good, but even the difficult, she kept peace with wondrous discretion; yet toward herself alone she seemed to us sometimes indiscreet, casting herself down too much, always using the highest discretion. and afflicting herself beyond measure. Yet she was so much the more discreet concerning herself, the more she presumed to do nothing of herself, except familiarly taught by the Holy Spirit. For she would not dare to pass one day without refreshment of food,

unless she most certainly knew herself, the sensuality absorbed, to be rapt above herself. Sometimes, however, that she might keep the peace of those assisting her, she tried in such a state to take something; and could take nothing at all, but from grief nearly fainted.

[64] Whence she afterward obtained so great a prerogative of liberty, that no one now dared to say, "Why do you do so?" Sometimes she ate on Fridays And since her life exceeded human reason, left by a certain special privilege to God and to herself, she judged all things but was judged by no one. But the Holy Spirit frequently showed her a reason in things to be done or omitted which we could not attain by human sense. Whence when for some time she took food three times in the week, she ate on Friday, eating nothing at all on Sunday; likewise on Thursday she utterly abstained from food. And whereas it seemed to us rather reasonable that on Friday, which is the day of penance, she should not eat at all, but on Thursday or Sunday should take food: nay because the day of penance is the day of the Lord's death, she answered me once, on Thursday and Sunday she abstained from food, "To sensible things I do not descend without labor, while I interrupt the joy of contemplation by taking bodily food. But on Thursday, which is the day of the Holy Spirit, and on Sunday, on account of the joy of the Resurrection, content with spiritual refreshment, satisfied with eternal feasts, I keep the whole day a feast, while by no use of sensible refreshment it is necessary for me to descend to lower things." Which heard, I, opening my mouth no further against her, was silent; and reputing my reason as nothing, was humbled in my own eyes: but wisdom is justified by her children.

[67] But although she did not cast off sinners through indignation, but rather through compassion frequently drew back many from the way of perdition by prudent admonition; she abhors sins and sinners; yet most of all her spirit abominated the sins of men, and the cohabitation or familiarity of the wicked, never presumptuously trusting in herself: for evil conversations corrupt good morals; and the Lord commanded His disciples, when they entered a city, to inquire whether there was anyone in it, in whose lodging they might more honorably and safely stay. Matt. 10 Whence it happened once that, for the sake of visiting some familiars of hers, when she was staying at Oignies, she had gone to Willebroek, and on her return, passing through the middle of Nivelles, she recalled afterward to memory the sins and abominations which the worldly frequently do in that village; and conceived so great indignation and abomination in her heart, that from grief she began to cry out: and a knife being asked from her maidservant, when she was outside the village, she wished to cut the skin from her feet, because she had passed through places in which wretched men provoke their Creator with so many injuries, exasperate Him with so many crimes. And when she grieved not only in mind, but, what is more wondrous, sensibly in the feet, with which she had trodden the aforesaid places; scarcely at last, when she had many times dashed her feet against the ground, could she rest.

[68] But the prudent and discreet woman was sufficiently instructed in the divine Scriptures; accustomed to hear sacred sermons gladly, for she frequently heard divine sermons, keeping the words of sacred Scripture in her heart: for frequenting the thresholds of holy church, she sagaciously stored the sacred commands in her breast. And since a good understanding is to all who do it, what she devoutly heard, she busied herself to fulfill more devoutly by work. Whence, when in her last sickness, now almost utterly failing, death near, and someone in the church made a sermon to the people; then, her spirit reviving at the word of God, she raised her ears to unwilling death, prepared her heart, related too to the bystanders some words of the sermon. But so greatly did she love the Preachers and faithful Pastors of souls, that, constricting their feet after the labor of preaching with wondrous affection, even with them unwilling she had either to kiss them long, or, when they withdrew, cried out from anxiety.

[69] she obtains from the Lord a suitable preacher, But by many tearful sighs, by many prayers and fasts most instantly asking from the Lord, she obtained that the merit and office of preaching which she could not actually exercise in herself, the Lord would recompense to her in some other person: and that the Lord would give her for a great gift one Preacher. Which given, although through him the Lord, as through an instrument, sent forth the words of preaching; by the prayers of the holy woman He prepared the heart, conferred strength of body in the labor, ministered the word, directed the steps, prepared grace and fruit in the hearers by the merits of His handmaid. and helps him by prayer, For for him every day, while he was in the labor of preaching, she supplicated the Lord and the blessed Virgin, saying the "Hail Mary" a hundred times, as Martin prayed while Hilary preached. But her Preacher, whom she left present at her death, she most devoutly commended to the Lord. For when she had loved her own, she loved them to the end.

[70] she repels a demon under the appearance of a Pastor: On a certain day, while she was in a certain orchard at Willebroek, the devil appeared to her, as if in the likeness of a Pastor: for then that impious one had gathered many soldiers, who on the next day were to be at a tournament, near the village which is called Trazegnies, and that night had their lodgings at Nivelles. And when that veiled impious demon boasted himself to be a Pastor; "You are not," she said, "a Pastor: but our Masters, who preach the word of God, and faithfully feed our souls, they are the true Pastors." "I," said that wicked and proud enemy, "have more flocks, and more obedient to me, than those Masters: for I know them, and they follow me and hear my voice, and follow me at my will." Then she could no longer bear that he should usurp to himself the name of Pastor, who leads his kids through the pastures of vanity to the pastures of eternal damnation, where death miserably feeds upon them: but groaning and compassionating the wretches, the demon left, she fled to the church: and a great time after, while she recalled to memory that most wicked Pastor, she could not abstain from tears.

[71] But although she was taught within by the unction of the Holy Spirit, and by divine revelations; she profits greatly by the testimonies of sacred Scripture, yet she gladly heard outwardly the testimonies of the Scriptures, which wholly accorded with the Holy Spirit. For although the Lord, illuminating His disciples within, could instruct without voice; yet teaching outwardly by the office of voice, He expounded also the Scriptures to them, to whom He said: "Now you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." John 13:10 She therefore from day to day was more washed to cleanness by the discourses of divine Scripture, edified to the adornment of morals, illumined to faith: if yet faith can properly be said in her, because the Lord revealing invisible things, she perceived them as if visibly with ocular faith. For sometimes when she was in a certain little village, which is called Itere near Nivelles, and in her presence a certain boy was being catechized at the door of the church; in Baptism she sees the demons' departure, she saw the unclean spirit departing from the little one with great confusion. And when they lifted the boy himself from the sacred font, her eyes were opened, and the Holy Spirit's coming; and she saw the Holy Spirit descending into the soul of the boy, and a multitude of holy Angels around the reborn infant.

[72] in the Host the appearance of a boy, But frequently, while the Priest raised the Host, between the hands of the Priest she saw the appearance of a beautiful boy, and an army of heavenly spirits with no little light descending. But when, after the Confession, the Priest received the Host, she saw in spirit the Lord remaining in the soul of the Priest, and illumining him with wondrous brightness; or, if he took it unworthily, she saw that, the Lord withdrawing with indignation, and the state of the one sacrificing: the soul of the wretch remained empty and dark. But although she was not present in the church, but in her cell, with her eyes covered according to custom with a white veil, prayed; when Christ in the uttering of the holy words descended on the altar, then she, wondrously changed, felt His coming. in extreme Unction the presence of Christ. But when, she being present, the sick received the Sacraments of extreme Unction; she with a multitude of Saints felt Christ present, who mercifully strengthened the sick man, expelled the demons, purged the soul; and transfused Himself as if in light through the whole body of the sick man, while his diverse members were anointed.

NOTES OF D. P.

CHAPTER VIII.

By the spirit of fortitude Mary is fortified against adversities, and by the spirit of counsel she acts and advises considerately.

CHAPTER V.

[73] But since it profits little to avoid evils through the spirit of fear, Forearmed by the spirit of fortitude against adversities, to do good through the spirit of piety, to have discretion in all things through the spirit of wisdom; unless through fortitude we resist impending evils, keep our goods through patience, persevere to the end through constancy, await the reward of eternal life through long-suffering; her Father, His treasures opened, adorned His daughter with the fourth precious stone, namely the spirit of fortitude, and forearmed her against all adversities; that she might neither be broken by the impulse of adversity, nor lifted up by the blandishment of prosperity; that she might sustain insults with tranquility, that she might render evil to no one for evil; but oppose blessing to cursing, kindness to impiety. She rendered good for evil, did not answer those calumniating, prayed for her persecutors: persevering in her purpose through constancy of mind, bearing all things equanimously through firmness of soul, undertaking difficult things spontaneously through magnanimity, not fearing impending discomforts through security: through sure confidence having a sure hope of leading a good purpose to a good end, through magnificence giving completion to a holy and illustrious purpose.

[74] But not only in persecutions or scourges did she have patience, but in tribulations she rejoiced, and embraced the discipline of the Lord with great desire. Whence when in her last infirmity, with joy she receives the disease, she had now labored gravely for nearly forty days, and we asked her whether the pain of her infirmity turned to weariness

in any way; "Nay," she said, and she wishes it to be increased: "I would wish, if it pleased God, that this quarantine should begin anew"; and what is more wondrous, she added, that she had never seen a sick person without desiring his infirmity, however great it was. Woe to you who bear the Cross of the Lord under compulsion; who cast off the discipline of the Lord; who, while you murmur against the scourge, bite like a raging dog the rod of the Lord striking; who double the pain of the body by the pain of an impatient heart. But this precious gem of Christ, by the exultation of a disciplined heart, was afflicted as if insensibly, was sweetly tortured: for the interior sweetness anointed the pain without, and by lightening soothed the weight of the infirmity. But sometimes, nor does she desire that prayer be made for her relief when from the pain of paralysis she cried out, and was forced to beat her breast; a certain familiar of hers, compassionating her, lay hidden in a certain place, and supplicated the Lord for her. Then she, feeling her infirmity somewhat lessened by the pious prayers of the devout man, "Go," she said to her maidservant, "and tell that man to cease praying for me: for the medicine of his prayers causes detriment to my discipline, when I am better." But when sometimes she was vexed by some affliction, a certain one of her friends grieved secretly only in his heart over her vexation. Then she, knowing the secrets of that heart by the Lord revealing, sent her maidservant to him, saying: or that there be grief for her, "Tell him not to grieve for me any more: for his affliction aggravates the grief of my heart: for I cannot bear that he should grieve for me": for she was more burdened by the griefs of others than by her own infirmities.

[75] But not only through the spirit of fortitude had she patience to resist adversities, she so had her flesh subject to her spirit, but also to abstain from all carnal allurements. For she had so chastised her body, and reduced it to servitude, that at her nod the body obeyed the spirit, contradicting in nothing, excusing itself by no pretense: nor did it murmur against the Lord, but imitating the fortitude of her Lord, never grew torpid with sloth, never or rarely failed her body in labor. But so greatly had that young girl, that tambourine-player, dried up her body, as if stretching it between the two woods of the Cross; that never for several years had she felt even the first motions of lust rise up against her. From which she had so great a confidence even among men, that she esteemed all like herself from the abundance of innocence and pure simplicity. Whence when a certain familiar friend of hers, from too great an excess of spiritual affection, once pressed her hand, although with a chaste mind he thought nothing base; yet he felt, as a man, from that too great nearness, the first motions rise up in him. And when she was wholly ignorant of this, so that she did not even know of the first motions. she heard a voice from on high, namely, "Do not touch me," nor yet understood what it meant. For God, mild, and compassionating our infirmities, was unwilling to confound him with shame before the holy woman: yet He wished, as one zealous for the chastity of His friend, to guard it, and to chastise him on account of the imminent perils. Whence when she said to him, "I heard just now a certain voice, but what it means I wholly do not know; namely, 'Do not touch me'": he, understanding what this was, both guarded himself henceforth more diligently, and, giving thanks to the Lord who was unwilling to uncover his infirmity, withdrew.

CHAPTER VI.

[76] But through the spirit of counsel, doing nothing precipitately, nothing disorderly, doing all things diligently, providently, and with deliberation, Instructed by the spirit of counsel although in all things to be done or omitted she awaited Him who would save her from pusillanimity of spirit and tempest; omitting nothing through pusillanimity, yet performing nothing tempestuously, nothing inconsiderately, nothing with impetuous mind. In all her ways her eyelids preceded her steps; and most prudent, doing all things with counsel, lest after the deed she should repent even a little. For what could she do without gravity, without maturity of counsel? whose mind He had filled, whose soul He inhabited, who says of Himself: "I, wisdom, dwell in counsels, and am present among learned thoughts." Prov. 8 But although she used inwardly the familiar counsel of the Holy Spirit, although she was sufficiently instructed in the divine Scriptures; yet she subjects herself to the judgment of others. yet from too great abundance of humility, lest she should seem wise in her own eyes, she did not disdain gladly and devoutly to subject herself to the counsels of others, renouncing her own will.

[77] Not without prayer premised Many too of her familiar friends, who had frequently experienced her divine prudence, dared to do nothing great without her counsel: for what she could not by human reason of knowledge, she knew divinely inspired, prayer premised. Whence when a certain friend of hers, content with his mediocrity, serving the Lord in humility so much the more securely the more he was withdrawn from human eyes and removed from worldly pomp; and was required by a certain Noble to be his master, who would copiously provide him with horses and garments and many other goods; he consulted the holy woman what he should do. But she, as she never presumed anything of herself, prayer premised, after she returned from the secret chambers of the divine counsels, answered: she gives counsel, "I saw a black horse prepared for you in this matter, which neighed toward hell, and an army of demons applauded: remain therefore according to my counsel in this vocation in which you have been called by the Lord, lest through ambition and the pomp of the age you give occasion to the devil."

[78] But another among her friends, the dearer to her the more humble, when he had one Prebend moderately sufficient for himself, conquered by many prayers received another, which was both greater in dignity and more abundant in revenues. And when he, as he was quite devout and well-mannered, consulted the handmaid of Christ whether he had offended God in this matter; she, after her manner seeking a little delay in answering, at last divinely inspired, and by divine revelations certified without any scruple of doubt; "I saw," she said, "a man clothed in white garments, and quite expedited for running, overlaid with a black cloak, and burdened with a useless load." When she had said these and other like things; he, who had already foresensed in himself from the Lord that which she divinely uttered; retained the first one, sufficient for himself, and the other, without delay, lest he should ambitiously occupy the place of another, a prudent man and fearing God, and acquiescing in wholesome counsel, resigned. she dissuades the exchange of a slender Prebend for a better one, Forgive me, brothers, who join dignity to dignity, and couple Prebend to Prebend. It is not mine what I have related, but Christ's revealing: spare the handmaid of Christ, do not detract from the innocent. For in what has she injured you, if she wholesomely counseled her friend, if she related the truth which she heard from the Lord? But you perhaps more often, while you turn over Gratian, either never look at this little book, or, after your manner laughing, repudiate the visions of the handmaid of Christ as phantasms or dreams: for the Pharisees, when the Lord disputed about avarice, and said that the rich could by no means enter the kingdom of heaven; not only derided Him, but judged Him as if insane.

[79] But that I may relate the great deeds of the holy woman without respect of persons, I will not spare even myself, she of her own accord confers a remedy on the writer namely I will relate the history of my own unhappiness. While, though unworthy, I began to preach the word of God to simple laymen, and did not yet have the exercise or custom of making a sermon to the people; always fearing for myself, lest perchance I should fail in an unfinished sermon; I gathered many things from everywhere, and, many being gathered, I wished to bring forth in public whatever I had in mind: [For the fool brings forth his whole spirit, but the wise man reserves it for the future.] And when I confounded myself with so great prodigality, returning to myself after the sermon, I incurred as it were a certain weariness of mind, because I seemed to have said many things disorderly and incompositely. to the threefold temptation which he suffered while preaching: And when sometimes the handmaid of Christ saw me depressed by the cloud of the aforesaid sadness; I from modesty refused to reveal the cause to her, and, what was more miserable, when someone, as if I had spoken well and subtly, commended me, gladly listening (as is the custom) after the sermon, in this I received some consolation. I blush to publish my baseness, but I have not dared to hide the praises of the holy woman. Who, when she once called me to her confounded by the cloud of the aforesaid sadness, and as a confusible workman; wondrously opened to me the double wound of temptations with which I was secretly wounded. "I saw," she said, "the likeness as of a clouded man, covered with a superfluity of hair: but a certain bedecked harlot, splendid with certain rays, going around him blandly gazing at him: but having made the circle several times, casting one of her rays toward him, she put to flight part of the darkness." At this her parable, I at once most certainly perceived myself laboring with a threefold disease. For the haired superfluity generated sadness for me: but the bedecked harlot, that is, elation, by the rays of flattery, conferred on me a miserable solace. With what praises, O holy woman, to extol you I know not, who were conscious of the secrets of God. Not in vain did the Lord open to you the thoughts of men, but to your prayers He conferred the power of healing languors.

[80] But when she was familiar with a certain good and holy young woman, named Heldewidis, who was a Recluse at Willebroek, whom she greatly loved, likewise she counsels a certain Recluse, and like a mother nourished as a daughter in the Lord for nearly twelve years; when that young woman was tempted by some affliction, she opened the temptations and thoughts of her heart to the same young woman, who marveled how she knew her mind, and forearmed her against imminent temptations long before they happened. But when that Recluse had the greatest consolation from the presence of Master Guido, who was then Chaplain in the church of Willebroek: (since the things that happen suddenly induce greater perturbation) she foretold to her half a year before, forearming her for the future. before that Master, with his Brother John, was to depart from Willebroek, forewarning her with many exhortations, that she should bear in peace the absence of those whose presence she greatly loved. Of a certain religious woman too, named Beselene, who had long ministered religiously and faithfully to the handmaid of Christ, from whose presence the aforesaid Recluse had great solace, she foretold long before, that she would depart from her ministry, and that she should bear without perturbation what the Lord had provided. But sometimes a certain Master, when he was in France, had proposed to come to the place of Oignies. by the spirit of prophecy, And when one of the Brothers of the same house proposed to go even to Paris, to bring that Master; "Wait," she said, "and do not hasten, for the messenger whom the Master sends to us is already on the way." And so by her counsel that Brother remained, and awaited at Oignies, until he came, that messenger whom she had foretold by prophetic spirit would come. When

but the aforesaid Master had set out for Rome, to visit the thresholds of the Apostles; rumor falsely reporting, his friends believed that he was dead, and grieved. by which too she knew of his absence. And when some wished to celebrate Mass for him; "He is not dead," she said, "but lives, and on such a day will return alive and well; he has departed from Rome." But with all marveling, and deferring the suffrages of the Masses, as she announced, so the outcome of the matter proved.

* otherwise Helindis

* otherwise Besele

CHAPTER IX.

By the spirit of understanding she contemplates divine things: she knows absent and future things.

CHAPTER VII.

[81] Adorned, therefore, with these jewels, the daughter of Jerusalem, illumined by these aforesaid gifts of the Holy Spirit as by luminaries; her heart purified, through the spirit of understanding she dwelt in heavenly things. [By the spirit of understanding she penetrates to contemplate the divinity itself:] For her soul had so chosen suspension, that often, while she flew higher for a whole day, sometimes even for several, not beaten back by the rays of the sun to lower things, she beheld the sun of justice like an eagle. By the rays of this sun, dried up from all moisture of sensible things, purged from all cloud of corporeal images, without any phantasy or imagination, she received in her soul simple and divine forms as if in a pure mirror. For, the sensible forms banished from her, the uniform and invariable species of supercelestial things, the more they approached the highest, simple, and invariable Majesty, the more purely they resulted in her mind. And when her subtle and attenuated spirit, consumed by the burning of pious love, like a little wand of smoke from spices, penetrated above the heavenly things; and as if walking by certain steps in the region of the living, through the streets and squares sought him whom she loved; now delighted by the lilies of the holy Virgins, now recreated by the fragrant roses of the holy Martyrs, sometimes venerably received by the senate of the holy Apostles, sometimes associated with the companies of Angels; when she had ascended through all the steps, when she had walked through all the places of paradise with a rejoicing soul, when she had passed through all things; she at last found Him whom her soul ardently desired; there at last she perfectly rested, there she remained immovably fixed: but forgetful of all things behind, she could no longer pray for friends however dear, nor even think of the holy Angels; and leaving all the Saints as if behind her, she clung to Him whom she ardently thirsted for.

[82] But when she inspected the book of Life more closely, she perceived many things in it through the spirit of understanding. Whence three years before men were signed against the heretics of the Province, she foresees Crosses fallen from heaven, she said that she saw Crosses copiously descending from heaven upon a multitude of men. Yet no mention was yet made in our parts of those heretics: and then frequently in spirit, as if complaining, the Lord had said to her that He had lost almost that whole land, and the slaughter of Christians: and that He was cast out from those parts as if an exile. But when the holy Martyrs of Christ, who from zeal for the Crucified had come from distant parts to avenge the disgrace of Christ, came to the place which is called Montjoie, and there were slain by the enemies of the Cross of Christ; she, although she was removed by such great spaces of lands, saw the holy Angels rejoicing, and carrying the souls of the slain without any purgatory to the heavenly joys. Whence she conceived so great an ardor for this pilgrimage, at which she wishes to be present, that she could scarcely be held back, if she could in any way accomplish it without scandal to her neighbors. And when, as if laughing, we asked her what she would do there if she should arrive; "At least," she said, "I would honor my Lord, confessing His name there, where so often the impious denied Him by blaspheming."

[83] But when a certain familiar of ours and friend of our house at Oignies died, signed with the Cross; and a man signed with the Cross having died she saw a multitude of demons, as if roaring, prepared for food. And when she rebuked the demons, and commanded that they withdraw from the minister of Christ, who was fortified with the banner of the Cross; they maliciously imposed many crimes on him, and objected that he had not proceeded in truth. And when she supplicated the Lord for the sick man; she saw a certain luminous Cross descending upon him, protecting him on every side. she knew a part of purgatory remitted: And although that man, prevented by death, had not completed his pilgrimage; a great part of purgatory, because he had the will, nor was it owing to him that it had not been done, was remitted to that man signed with the Cross, as the Lord revealed to the holy woman.

[84] But a certain friend of ours, noble by birth, but nobler by faith, devoutly serving God, and leaving all things for Christ as much as was in him; had a certain wife, very worldly and contradicting his purpose. And when he greatly feared lest the bad wife should eject him from his house; (for there are three, as Solomon says, which eject a man from his house, smoke, a leaking roof, and a quarrelsome and bad wife) the holy woman, compassionating the young man, offered many prayers to the Lord for his wife; a pious man solicitous for his vain wife, and blandly consoling that noble man, foretold that his wife would soon be converted to God: which we both knew was done, and rendered thanksgivings to the Lord. she predicts she will soon be converted: For she too, perfectly despising the vanity of the world, as before she had been contrary to the pious will and purpose of her husband, so afterward she promoted and as if by preceding drew the one whom before by impeding she drew back. On a certain day, when a certain Canon of the church of St. Gertrude at Nivelles labored under his last sickness, and at what hour a certain one will die, the Brothers of Oignies wished, for a just cause, to know the day of his death. And when they told a certain layman of Nivelles, who was then at Oignies, to depart, and to announce to them when the Canon died; "If you wish," the holy woman said to him, "opportunely to announce what is enjoined on you, you must depart in the morning and undertake the journey." And when he on the next day entered Nivelles, the bells were already being rung for the dead man.

[85] On the night of Tuesday, which is before the Beginning of the fast (Ash Wednesday), She sees demons sad departing from a tempted woman: when worldly men are wont to give themselves to revelries; she saw some demons returning sad and confounded from a certain religious woman: who indeed had gravely assailed her with temptations, but the Lord succoring had by no means prevailed. But when after this it was asked of the woman how it had been with her; "I," she said, "was vehemently burdened, but at that hour I was freed by the grace of God." And she knew that at that time she had seen the demons withdraw confounded. But a certain Priest once celebrated Mass in her presence; she knew Mass to be offered for her, and because she frequently prayed for that Priest, he proposed, since he had nothing greater to give her, lest he should seem ungrateful, to celebrate that Mass for her. And when the Priest had finished the Mass, she said to the Priest: "That Mass was mine: for today you offered the Son to the Father for me." And when he marveled, and asked how she had known this (for the Lord God alone knows the thoughts of men), "I," she said, "saw a most beautiful dove descending upon your head on the altar, which, as if flying, extended its wings to me; and I knew in spirit that the Holy Spirit was transferring that Mass to me."

[86] But when Priests celebrated Masses worthily and devoutly, likewise who celebrate it worthily for her: she saw the holy Angels rejoicing, and cooperating with the Priests with great cheerfulness, and they regarded those same Priests with kind countenance, and venerated them most devoutly. Woe to the wretched Priests, companions of Judas the betrayer; who again, as much as is in them, crucify Christ, and account the blood of the testament polluted; who, with polluted hands, impudent eyes, venomous mouth, impure heart, while they irreverently approach the reverend Sacrament, offend the holy Angels assisting, and from the salutary medicine miserably acquire death for themselves. Sometimes, when a most dear friend of hers was ordained Priest at Paris, she, absent in body, absent she knew the things done at Paris in the ordination of a Priest, present in spirit, how and in what manner it was with him, while he was anointed Priest, and the place of the ordination, and the habit of the Priest, and the mind of the ordained man, and thus saw all things; and related to the marveling Priest, as she had seen. And when she sent him certain letters by his messenger to Paris, and his first Mass, she wrote among other things certain things which that Priest could not understand until they were completed. These, namely, or like to these: "A new tree has now flowered, whose first fruits the Lord has destined for me." But when the Priest had proposed to celebrate his first Mass in France, it happened, as it pleased the Lord, that at Oignies, in the presence of the holy woman, he first celebrated. to be done before her.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER X.

By the spirit of wisdom Mary is drawn to taste the sweetness of God, in the feasts of Christ and the Saints.

CHAPTER VIII.

[87] But that the prudent Artificer might lead His work, the high Priest His temple, the excelling King His daughter, to the summit of perfection, with the seventh gift of the sevenform Spirit, as if for the seasoning of the others; He honorably decorated and excellently adorned her; namely with the spirit of wisdom, which is first in dignity, but last in completion. To Mary tasting the sweetness of God by the spirit of wisdom By the savor of this wisdom she saw and tasted that the Lord is sweet: when, as with fat and richness her soul was filled; and when from the table of the Lord with Joseph she was inebriated at noonday, affluent in delights, leaning upon her beloved; when from the lips of the Bridegroom she ate milk and honey; by the gift of this mellifluous wisdom her heart was affected to the marrow, and her words were sweetened, and all her works were fattened with the sweetness of spiritual unction; for she was mild in heart, sweet in mouth, suave in work, drunk in charity. But she was so drunk and abstracted from sensible things, that sometimes, when we rang for None or Vespers, as if waking she asked whether it was still Prime. Sometimes, when in bed

she had lain for three days continuously, all time seems to her most brief. and had sweetly rested with her Bridegroom; from the sweetness of excessive joyousness those days slipped by so stealthily, that it scarcely seemed to her that she had lain for one moment. But with a wondrous variety of affections she sometimes hungered for God, sometimes thirsted for Him. And since it is written, "Those who eat me shall still hunger, and those who drink me shall still thirst"; the more she felt the Lord, the more her desire grew: she was distressed, cried out, and supplicated that He would remain; and as if embracing between her arms she clasped Him lest He should withdraw, and with tears besought Him to show Himself more to her. Eccl. 24:29

[88] But sometimes for three days or more, as it seemed to her, she clasped Him as a little one staying at her breast, she venerates Christ seen under various forms and hid herself, lest she should be seen by others. Sometimes with Him, as with a boy, kissing; sometimes as a mild lamb, beside her bosom; sometimes as a dove, for the solace of His daughter, the pious Son of the Virgin showed Himself. Sometimes as a ram, having a shining star on its forehead, going around the church, He visited His faithful (as it seemed to her). For as to His doubting disciples the Lord showed Himself under the appearance of a pilgrim, as when He sent Blessed Thomas to the Indians, He took the form of a merchant; so to His friends for solace under a friendly appearance He deigns to show Himself: as, by the testimony of St. Jerome, St. Paula, when she came to Bethlehem, according to the variety of feasts, saw Him as a little one lying in the manger. But in the various solemnities of the Lord, as if configured to His solemnity, He showed Himself to her; as at the Nativity, as a boy sucking the breasts of the Virgin Mother or wailing in the cradle; and then she was affected toward Him as toward a boy, having various affections according to the various showings: and so every year the festivities were renewed. On the feast of the Purification she saw the blessed Virgin offering her son in the temple, and Simeon receiving Him between his arms; and in this vision she exulted from joy no less than if she had been present when this happened in the temple. But on this festivity sometimes, when her candle had long been extinguished in the procession, suddenly it received a most clear light, with none but God kindling it. But in the passion sometimes the Lord appeared to her on the Cross, but rarely, because she could scarcely bear it. When some great solemnity approached, sometimes she felt the joy eight days before, and so according to the course of the whole year she was changed in various ways, and wondrously affected.

[89] But when the feast day of some Saint was imminent, that Saint announced his feast to her; the Saints revealing their own things to her, and on his day, coming to her with a multitude of heavenly companions, visited her; so that with that Saint through the whole day her spirit rested with joy. But from the familiar and frequent conversation of the Saints, as someone knows how to distinguish one of his neighbors from another, so she distinguished one Angel or Saint from another. Sometimes too some Saint, wholly unknown in these parts, announced to her his feast, which was held in remote parts, that she might rejoice on his solemnity. Even with no one announcing she distinguished by the palate of her heart feast days from non-feast days, because the solemn days savored sweeter to her than the simple ones: for she celebrated the feast days written in her mind, and impressed on her heart as in a Martyrology. Whence when she was once in the church of St. Gertrude, in the little village which is called Lenlos, she rings the bells for St. Gertrude, and a certain feast of St. Gertrude the Virgin was to be on the morrow, and the Priest of that village did not notice that feast; she, feeling in her mind the solemnity imminent, could now no longer contain herself. And when the Priest did not appear, or another to ring the bells, as is wont to be done in the preceding vespers of feast days; she rose from her place, and began to ring the bells as she could. Which heard, the Priest, marveling, and running to the church, said: "Why do you ring as if it were a feast? when we are not accustomed, unless it be a feast, to ring at this hour." whose day the Parish-priest had forgotten to indicate: Then she, modest and timid; "Forgive me, Lord," she said, "for it is a great feast, but I do not know whose it is on this night: for I already feel this church to be filled with joy." Then the Priest, the Calendar opened, found that on the morrow there was to be the feast of St. Gertrude.

[90] But she had so many and so great consolations from the Lord, she perceives many divine consolations. that although she was not, as happens, sometimes intent on any external things for recreation; she could always sit in one place without the company of anyone, without sloth or weariness. But sometimes, while she was in her little cell, she heard the most sweet voice of the Lord saying: "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am greatly delighted." But when she was rapt out of herself, it seemed to her that she held her head upon the knees of the glorified Christ. Sometimes, with some of the Angels announcing, she was saluted by some of the heavenly Saints. When she prayed before the altar of St. Nicholas, There appear to her, St. Bernard winged, sometimes it seemed to her that milk flowed from his Relics. She saw also sometimes certain rays going out from the image of the Crucified, and reaching to her, and as if penetrating even to her heart: in all which she greatly delighted, and in a wondrous manner her spirit was comforted in such things. There appeared to her sometimes Blessed Bernard, Father and lamp of the Cistercian Order, as if winged, and he expanded his wings around her. And when she had sat long with him in the corner of the church, and she asked of what kind these wings were, he answered; that he, like an eagle by sublime flight, had attained the sublime and subtle things of divine Scripture, and the Lord had unlocked to him many of the heavenly secrets. But since she held in great veneration, and St. John the Evangelist in the form of an eagle. and loved with special love St. John the Evangelist, it happened that she confessed a small venial sin to a certain Priest, with many tears and groans. And when that Priest asked why she so flowed with tears; "I cannot," she said, "restrain my tears." For she saw a certain eagle above her breast, which dipped its beak as in a fountain in her breast, and filled the air with great cries; and she understood in spirit that Blessed John was carrying her tears and groan to the Lord.

[91] Sometimes she saw a certain Priest devoutly celebrating with tears; she sees Christ in the Eucharist, and it seemed to her that a certain dove descended upon the shoulder of the Priest, and that a most clear fountain gushed from his shoulder. Sometimes she saw the Son of the Virgin, as a boy with the greatest brightness around the pyx in which the body of Christ is placed. And when we asked of what kind the brightness was; she answered, that as much as the light of the sun exceeds the light of a candle, so much or more that brightness exceeded the brightness of the sun. But when some Relics were brought to our church; she in spirit foresensed the coming of those very Relics, and the whole night exulted with the holy Relics, and saw Christ rejoicing and the other Relics, she exults at the coming of Relics, as if with exultation and veneration receiving the new Relics: but whether they were true Relics, her spirit wondrously perceived. But from the little Cross, which is in the church of Oignies, in which they have part of the wood of the holy Cross, she saw a very luminous ray, and as of heavenly brightness, going out. But a certain familiar of ours, and friend of our house, among other Relics which he had, found the bone of a certain Saint without letters: but whose Relics they were he did not know. And when he had brought the Relics to her that he might be certified; and she knows whose they are; she in spirit perceived the virtue and truth of the Relics. And when she prayed that God would show her whose they were; there appeared to her a certain Saint of very great merit and illustrious. The woman asked the Saint, "Who are you?" But he did not name himself, but described four letters before the eyes of her mind. And when she retained the letters by heart, but did not know what they meant; a certain Clerk being called, she told him the letters, namely A. I. O. L., and asked what they meant. But he, putting together and joining the letters, answered what A. I. O. L. meant. Then she clearly knew that the aforesaid Relics were of Blessed Aiolus, who is held in great honor at Provins in Champagne.

[92] But when from desire of the eternal fruition, the only solace of all her grief was from love of the divine vision, for the delay of eternal beatitude, she languished in this exile; yet the one and highest remedy and singular solace was to her the manna of the heavenly Bread, until she should come to the land of promise. In this the anxiety and desire of her heart was tempered: in this all her griefs were soothed, and her spirit was strengthened: in this highest and pre-excellent Sacrament she patiently sustained all the troubles of this pilgrimage, overcame all the labors of this desert, made little of all the defects of this misery, invigorated by this food. The holy Bread confirmed her heart; the holy Wine, gladdening her mind, inebriated it; the holy Flesh fattened her; the life-giving Blood, by washing, purified her. Of this solace alone she could not long be without. It was the same to her to live and to take the body of Christ: it was death to her to be separated, by abstaining, longer from this Sacrament. For now in this world she had learned by experience in the most Holy Sacrament. what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. John 6:54 He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life." This saying was not hard to her, as to the Jews; but sweet: for she felt all delight and all sweetness of savor in receiving it, not only inwardly in her soul, but also in her mellifluous mouth: and often under the appearance of a boy, under the savor of honey, with the odor of spices, in the pure and adorned chamber of her heart, she happily admitted her Lord. And when she could no longer bear to thirst for the life-giving Blood; sometimes after the solemnities of the Masses, she demanded that she might at least long look upon the bare chalice upon the altar.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

CHAPTER IX.

The coming of Mary to Oignies, and her pious preparation for death.

CHAPTER IX.

[93] But since we have painted the precious jewels of this King's daughter, the fragrant garments of this bride of Christ, although not sufficiently, yet according to our power; we now hasten to the hems of her garments, namely to her blessed passing; that we may offer to the Lord the tail of our victim. When for a long time at the often-mentioned place, which is called Willebroek, she had immolated herself to the Lord; from the nearness of the neighboring village, which is called Nivelles, she could no longer bear the frequency of men running to her from devotion, who desired to give leisure to God alone. Divinely admonished to migrate to Oignies, And when she had often and with many prayers supplicated the Lord that He would provide His handmaid a place suitable to her purpose, and persons who would humbly condescend to her desire according to God; the place of Oignies was shown to her in spirit, which she had never before seen; of which too, on account of the novelty and poverty of the house, there was then scarcely any mention among men. But long deliberating with herself, she did not know what kind of place it was: but trusting in the Lord's promise, long before she came to the place, she received leave from her husband John, and his brother her spiritual Father Master Guido, as a daughter of obedience, to visit that place; and to stay there, if it pleased. But they, lest they should sadden her, whom they loved in the bowels of charity, easily granted it: for God too inspired them to grant it; nor did they in any way think that she should remain in such a place, which she had never known, nor had any familiarity with those staying in the place.

[94] Then she, God leading, undertaking the journey to the place destined for her, she is led there by St. Nicholas, when she was still some space removed; Blessed Nicholas, the Patron of that place, came to meet her with great exultation, and led her even to his church. But she marveled much on that day, when she was still on the way. For she felt a great solemnity of St. Nicholas to be present in her heart, for she was not ignorant that the feast of Blessed Nicholas is wont to be celebrated before the Nativity of the Lord, and not in May, in which it then was. Yet on the day she came the Brothers of Oignies were keeping a great feast of his Translation. But when she first came to that place, on his translation, May 9. in a wondrous manner she recognized both the disposition of the place and the Brothers of that house, as God had before shown her; and perceived that it was the feast of St. Nicholas; and foretold that in that same place she would close her last day: she also afterward secretly showed me the place in the church where, deceased, she should have her tomb, which the outcome of the matter afterward proved. For in the place of Oignies, although many afterward tried to lead her back, she paid the debt of nature by dying, and in the part of the church which she had foretold to me, although some wished it to be done otherwise, was buried after her death.

CHAPTER X.

[95] But after she had gone out from her land and from her kindred, the Lord commanding; after she had sat under the shadow of Him whom she had desired, so much the sweeter, the more securely; how great goods the Lord did her in that place, how often more copiously than usual He visited her with the consolations of the holy Angels, There she abounds in heavenly consolation, how often she had familiar conversations with the mother of the Lord in the church, how often the Lord Himself appeared to her in person, I could neither conceive in mind, much less explain in speech. But the nearer the term desired by her approached, the more the last year of her temporal life drew near, the more abundantly the Lord opened to her the treasures of His supereminent generosity. But when the last year, which the Lord had promised her, was imminent, which too she could not from joy conceal (for six years before she had foretold it to Master Guido of Nivelles, and to us frequently had foretold both the year and time of her death, with desire of the near beatitude. not expressing the day, however). Then she now could no longer contain herself; but panted, sighed, cried out from desire, as if impatient of delay, while she embraced the Lord; "I do not wish, Lord, that you depart without me. I do not wish to stay here any longer: I desire to go home." And in a wondrous manner, while thus rapt out of herself she was distressed with vehement desire; from the fullness of her heart she seemed almost wholly to be burst in body: and when she returned to herself, she could not for a long time after stand upon her feet. But from the fervor of her spirit, while crying out she was drawn out of herself, she seemed as if fiery in face: and what is more wondrous, while she was in that excess of mind, with the rays of her eyes unbeaten, she was able to gaze at the disc of the material sun. Then drunk she could not be silent, but cried out; "It has been said to me by the Lord, that I shall go into the Holy of Holies. O how sweet a word! Tell me, Clementia, what is the Holy of Holies?" For so her maidservant was called, from whom in her drunkenness she asked the meaning of the word, which neither knew: yet that word she frequently repeated, for it sweetly savored to her heart. And when, returning to herself, she marveled that she was rapt above herself more vehemently than usual; it was said to her: "Do not marvel, this is the last year: now no more time remains to you." And she heard the voice of the Lord saying to her and calling her: "Come, my friend, my spouse, my dove, and you shall be crowned." But sometimes, incited with a vehement spirit, and more forgetful of herself than usual, from the fullness of her heart she said among many other things: "The garments of the King's daughter give forth fragrance like spices, and the members of her body have been sanctified by the Lord like precious Relics."

[96] But in the year in which she passed to the Lord, when I, from the office enjoined on me by the Legate of the Lord Pope, to preach and to sign those whom God should inspire against the heretics, was preparing myself; she asked me when I proposed to return. And when I answered that I would make a long delay; "I," she said, when as yet before Lent she had no infirmity at all, She makes her testament, "leave you from my testament, what I wish you to have after my death": for now she had foreseen her death, as has been said, long before: and she told me that the dissolution of her body was imminent. And because she did not know when I would return; she hastened to make her testament; leaving me the strap with which she was girt, and the linen handkerchief with which she wiped her tears, and certain other small things, she foreknows that her disease will be long, dearer to me than gold and silver. But when the time of the desired sickness was imminent and approaching, the time of the last infirmity; she said to her maidservant, a certain devout virgin who ministered to her; "I fear lest I be a burden to you and others: for by a long and grave infirmity I must pass from this world to the Lord. Who will be able to assist me so long?" For she always feared lest by occasion of her anyone should be burdened: whereas rather almost all grieved that they could not more often assist and minister to her. But she foretold that on a certain Monday she would lie dead upon the earth. and that she will remain unburied on a Monday, on which thereafter she fasts. Whence through the whole year she nearly always fasted on that same Monday, so that she ate nothing at all on it.

[97] But the more her time approached, the more incessantly day and night she busied herself to serve and please God. Whence from the feast of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin until the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, she took bodily food only eleven times and in a small quantity; and for nearly the whole of the last three months. always rejoicing, and awaiting her nuptial day with exultation. But Blessed Andrew the Apostle, who bound the Cross of the Lord to himself with so great love that he would not descend from it, she held very familiar, and among the other Saints loved most. But that blessed Apostle of Christ, She is comforted by St. Andrew: before her last infirmity foretold to the handmaid of Christ: "Trust, daughter, for I will not desert you: for as I confessed the faith of Christ, and did not deny it; so on the day of your passing, assisting you before my God, I will confess you, and bear witness to you."

CHAPTER XI.

[98] Now the promised time was near, which she had anticipated with many tears, demanded with many groans and sighs. And behold, suddenly there came a sound, and the voice of the turtledove was heard in our land, the voice of exultation and confession, like the sound of one feasting and jubilating, for three days she sings most sweetly like the sound of the Most High God. For God wiped away every tear from the eyes of His handmaid, and filled her heart with exultation, and her lips with melody. For she began to sing with a high and clear voice, nor did she cease for the space of three days and nights to praise God, to give thanks, to weave a most sweet song about God, about the holy Angels, about the blessed Virgin, about the other Saints, about her friends, about the divine Scriptures, rhythmically with sweet modulation: nor did she deliberate whether she would find sentences, nor delay to arrange those found rhythmically; but as if they were written before her, the Lord gave her in that hour what she should speak. Jubilating with continual cry, she neither labored in thinking, nor interrupted the song in arranging. But one of the Seraphim, as it seemed to her, expanded his wings over her breast: by whom ministering and sweetly assisting, the song was inspired to her without any difficulty. But when she had cried out the whole day until night, her throat became hoarse, so that at the beginning of the night she could scarcely utter any voice. But the Prior of our house rejoiced, even to hoarseness, because on the following day, namely Sunday, worldly men are wont to come together to our church from various parts: who, if perchance they heard her incessantly singing with so sharp and high a voice, could be scandalized thereby, and reckon her as if foolish. For the sons of the age, sons of grief, do not marvel if anyone cries out from anguish or pain,

as happens with a woman in labor: but they are astonished and marvel, if anyone, crying out from joy, cannot from the fullness of his heart be silent. But the sons of joy, when they hear such things, neither murmur nor are scandalized; but with all humility venerate the great deeds of God in His Saints.

[99] But morning come, our tambourine-player began to play the harp higher and clearer than usual: for the Angel of the Lord that night had taken away all hoarseness from her throat, putting into her breast an unction of wondrous sweetness: and so, her arteries repaired and her voice renewed, through almost the whole day she did not cease from the praise of God. which removed, she continues in her song, Only the men heard the voice of exultation and the harmony of modulation: for the doors being shut, and all excluded, our Prior and the woman's maidservant had remained with her in the church; and these could not understand many of the heavenly secrets which she said: but some they understood; but few, alas! could they retain. of the Holy Trinity But first with the highest and supreme tone she began her Antiphon from the holy Trinity, praising for a very long time the Trinity in Unity, and the Unity in Trinity, and interweaving wondrous and as it were ineffable things into her song. Expounding too certain things of the divine Scriptures in a new and wondrous manner; setting forth many and subtle things of the Gospel, of the Psalms, of the new and the old Testament which she had never heard. But from the Trinity she descended to the humanity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, and the Saints: thence to the blessed Virgin, hence pronouncing many things of the holy Angels, and of the Apostles, and of the other Saints following. she commends her friends, At last, as if in the last and lowest point, saying many things of her friends who are still in the world; and commending them to the Lord one by one in order, she poured out many prayers for them to the Lord: and all these she uttered rhythmically and in the Romance tongue.

[100] But she said among many other things, that from the light of the holy Trinity the holy Angels had understanding; but from the light of the body of the glorified Christ, in the holy souls they had fruit and exultation. she asserts that new workmen of the church are to be given: She constantly asserted too that the blessed Virgin was already glorified in body; and that the bodies of the Saints which rose in the passion never afterward returned to dust. She said too, and at it greatly rejoiced, that the Holy Spirit would soon visit His church, and more copiously than usual through the universal Church send holy workmen for the fruit of souls, and would illumine the world for the greatest part. She said too, when she sang of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, whom she called the Rosary of paradise, that while he prayed in death, the Lord gave him St. Paul as a gift: and when Blessed Paul, crowned with martyrdom, gave up his spirit in death, St. Stephen was present, and offered the spirit of blessed Paul to the Lord, saying to the Lord: "This great and singular gift you have given me, and I render it to you with manifold fruit."

[101] And then for a certain preacher whom the Lord had given her, she prays for her preacher, supplicating the Lord much, and pouring out many prayers, she asked that the Lord would preserve him until she should die, that she might offer his spirit to the Lord in death, that the one whom the Lord gave her, she might carry back to the Lord with interest at the end. And in a wondrous manner, announcing all the temptations of her preacher, and almost all his sins which he had once committed, she besought the Lord to deign to keep him from such things. Our Prior heard it, who knew the conscience of that man, and had heard his Confession; and approaching him said: "Have you told your sins to Lady Mary? For so while she sang she related your sins, as if she saw them written in a book before her." The song of the blessed Virgin, namely the "Magnificat," expounding rhythmically and in the Romance tongue, she sings the Magnificat she very frequently repeated, and found much suavity and sweetness. But when, as if at the end of the song, she had come to the canticle of Simeon; and the Nunc dimittis then she most devoutly commended to the Lord her friends, male and female; namely the religious women who stay in the city of Liège; and praying for their peace, through each clause she repeated the first verse of the canticle, namely, "Now you dismiss"; likewise when she prayed for the Religious of Nivelles, and for many others staying in the Bishopric of Liège, she always repeated "Now you dismiss."

NOTES OF D. P.

CHAPTER XII.

The last disease, the pious death.

CHAPTER XI.

[102] But the three days of jubilation having elapsed, she had her bed prepared in the church before the altar; and returned to herself, the Brothers being called, she said: She has her bed prepared before the altar: "The Lamentations went before, while I mourned for my sins, the Song went before, while I exulted and jubilated for eternal things; behold, there follows the Woe of infirmity and death. Never henceforth shall I eat, never henceforth shall I read in this book": and handing to the Brothers the little book which she had, in which she was wont to sing the prayers and certain songs of Blessed Mary, she patiently submitted herself to the discipline of the Lord, and awaited her blessed end in silence and hope with joy.

CHAPTER XII.

[103] But in this infirmity she labored gravely without, she is recreated by heavenly visitations, but again sweetly rested. For the Saints, who in the state of health had frequently assisted her, more frequently visited her in her infirmity, for Christ frequently appeared to her, and as if with a compassionate countenance regarded her; and the mother of the same Christ assisting her almost always; and among all the others Blessed Andrew the Apostle, coming to her more often, conferred on her the greatest solace, and rendered as if insensible to her the pain of her infirmity: the holy Angels too assisted her, and devoutly ministered. Whence when on a certain night she was thirsty, and now could not by herself rise or walk from too great weakness; two holy Angels sustaining her, and leading her too to the place where the water was kept, and leading her back, she drank, and without any labor returned to her bed. even in receiving Unction: But when, the blessed Virgin forewarning, she received extreme Unction, all the Apostles were present in person: but blessed Peter showed her the keys, and promised that he would open her the gate of heaven: but Christ fixed the sign of His Cross, the banner of His victory, at her feet. And when she was anointed in the various parts, in the receiving of the Sacrament she felt the working of the Holy Spirit with the greatest illumination of that part.

[104] But certain of her friends and acquaintances, who had long since died, her friends already dead come to her were sent to her for consolation. John of Dinant, who already reigned with Christ; and Brother Richard of Menehen-chapel, a good and holy man in his life, who yet was still in purgatory. A certain one too, about to seek help from the handmaid of Christ, and souls of purgatory: appeared to her in that infirmity, who was tortured with the greatest torment in purgatory: for he sometimes had both the name and appearance of religion, and showed himself in a state of perfection; but after this, returning to the world with the scandal of many and the opprobrium of religion, he contracted with a certain woman, who likewise had long shown a life of perfection, who made void her first faith. But above all he said he was tortured because he had injured the church of God by scandalizing it. But when, for the sake of visiting her, the holy Bishop of the See of Toulouse sometimes came, before the Bishop of Toulouse she resumes strength, she received from the presence of the Bishop the greatest consolation, and even strength of body for a time; but the holy Virgin lifted her up as if in the air toward the holy Bishop, as it seemed to her. And when the same Bishop celebrated the solemnities of the Masses in the same church at an altar consecrated to the blessed Virgin, she saw in the receiving of the Sacrament as it were a white dove, which put the holy Eucharist as if into the mouth of the Bishop, and transfused into him the greatest brightness within, and illuminated his soul, she knew, the Lord showing it.

[105] But when in her infirmity she could eat nothing at all, taking the sacred Host often, nor even could bear the smell of a little bread, she easily and frequently took the Body of Christ; which immediately as if liquefying, and passing into her soul, not only comforted her soul, but without delay relieved her bodily infirmity. But it happened to her twice in her infirmity, while she received the body of Christ, that her face, as if with certain rays of light, shone. And when we sometimes tried whether she could take an unconsecrated host, she cannot receive an unconsecrated one, she immediately abhorred the smell of the bread. And when a small part had touched her teeth, she began to cry out,

to spit, and as if her breast would burst to gasp, and to send forth sobs with great anxiety. And when she had long cried out from pain, and many times washed her mouth with water, a great part of the night passed, she could scarcely rest. But never, however weak she was in body, and thus for 53 days eating nothing however emptied and exhausted her head (inasmuch as she ate nothing at all for fifty-three days before death), yet she always endured the light of the sun, never closed her eyes against the brightness of the light; yet she remains of sound brain: and (what is more wondrous) when beside her and as if at her ears we sang in the church with a high voice, when we rang the bells long and strongly, when too we erected a certain altar to be consecrated by the Bishop of Toulouse, with many masons striking with hammers beside her; she could never be burdened by any tumult which she knew to pertain to God or to His church. For as she herself asserted, when we compassionated her; that sound did not injure her head, nor strike her brain, but she immediately received it into her soul with great suavity.

[106] But her friends and acquaintances came and flocked from various parts, that they might visit her. And when we spoke of some absent ones, who had not come to her; she foretells various future things, of some she said: "These I shall still see"; but of others she said: "I shall never henceforth see them in this world": and so we knew it happened. But a certain noble woman, once wife of the Duke of Louvain, who, the world left, had passed to the Cistercian Order made a nun, had seen her a long time before her death, when she still stayed at Willebroek. And when she departed from her and said: "Lady, I do not know whether I shall henceforth see you": the holy woman said, "You shall still see me." But when she, who stayed removed from our parts toward Cologne, had heard that the holy woman now labored at the last; "I trust in the Lord," she said, "that I shall still, as she promised me, see her." Which so happened: some of which, when these things were written, were not yet fulfilled, for when she came to us, the bells were already being rung for the deceased: yet she was present when she was washed and buried. But she said secretly to one of us things which were to happen after her death, as we knew, the Holy Spirit revealing and promising. Which, on account of the scandal of the weak, we have thus subjoined, that when they shall have happened, they may easily be weighed from the Scripture. But meanwhile we have sealed the discourses, and gladly closed them, or are kept silent, because perhaps very many will pass, and knowledge will be manifold. But certain things which God reserves for the advantage of posterity, unless they immediately see them happen, they might begin to murmur, saying with the Jews: "Command, command again, wait, wait again." Is. 28:10 But certain things we have already seen happen, as of the place in which she lies buried, and of the garments sanctified and honored on account of the cold, and of the Monday on which she lay dead upon the earth: or are only obscurely indicated. which, because they happened as she foretold, the rest we most certainly expect to come. Namely of the song of a new solemnity, on account of the voices of Angels heard, promised to her by the Lord; of the miracles, on account of the brightnesses which she saw, as has been foretold, that in great brightness God frequently appeared to her; of the double fast on two solemnities, on account of the two-day fasts (for frequently after two days on the third she took food); of the proper and venerable image, for she frequently venerated the image of the blessed Virgin by supplicating.

CHAPTER XIII.

[107] But when her hour approached, the Lord showed His daughter the portion of her inheritance among the Brothers, She sees the place in heaven prepared for her and she saw the place prepared for her by the Lord in the heavenly places. She saw and rejoiced, the loftiness of which place, the greatness of which glory we could in some way estimate, if we had been able to retain the precious stones and the virtues of the gems which she wondrously described, and the names too of the stones which, the Lord showing, she named. But because it is written: "The eye has not seen, O God, besides you, the things which you have prepared for those who love you"; we cannot comprehend; but we can only comprehend of how great glory she is worthy, who so devoutly served the Lord, who so ardently loved Christ; whom too the Lord singularly honored on earth with so many privileges. Is. 64:4 On the Thursday before the day of her passing, when we were present and assisted her in the evening, she could not speak to us, nor turned her eyes to us, but with her eyes fixed immovably on heaven (for she lay outside her cell under the open air) her countenance began to grow bright with a certain serenity. Then she from joy for a very long time, as if smiling, began to sing I know not what with a low voice: for now she could not raise her voice. But when I had approached more closely, from joy she sings, I could understand only a little of her song, namely this: "How beautiful you are, our King, O Lord." And when she had long remained in such great joy, singing, laughing, and sometimes clapping with her hands; at last returned to herself, as if anew returning to the sense of the infirmity which before she did not feel, she began to groan a little. And when we asked her what she had seen, she could or would speak to us only a little. "Wondrous things," she said, "I would tell if I dared." But on the evening of Saturday, when now the nuptial day was imminent, the day of joy and exultation, namely the day which the Lord made, the day which the Lord had foreseen, provided, and promised to His handmaid, the Lord's day, the day of the Resurrection, the day of the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, on which too, as it is said, the holy Evangelist John passed from this world, although the church is wont to celebrate his feast at another time; then the handmaid of Christ, even on the last night, who now for fifty-two days had eaten nothing at all, with a sweet voice began to sing "Alleluia": and almost that whole night, as if invited to the feasts, she was in jubilation and exultation.

[108] But on Sunday Satan appeared to her, as if lying in wait for her heel, and after Satan was cast off, and vexed her much: for she began somewhat to fear, and even to ask help from the bystanders. But she, resuming confidence in the Lord, and strongly crushing the head of the dragon, and fortifying herself with the sign of the Cross; "Go back," she said, "Filth and Foulness": for she did not call him Foul, but Foulness. He withdrawing, she began again to sing "Alleluia" and to give thanks to God. But the holy evening approaching, she dies with her countenance nothing changed, before the feast day of St. John the Baptist, around that hour at which the Lord gave up His spirit on the Cross, namely around the ninth hour, she too migrated to the Lord, never changing the cheerfulness of her countenance or the face of one exulting by any pain of death: nor do I remember that even in health she had a greater serenity of countenance, and showed a greater appearance of alacrity. Nor, as is wont to happen, after death did she appear pale or dark in face; but with an angelic countenance white with dove-like simplicity, and a clear face, she incited many to devotion in her death and after death. Many too, sweetly watered with a copious flood of tears at her death, with the solace of those present, perceived themselves visited by the Lord by her merits, as a certain holy woman in the Holy Spirit had foreseen and foretold, that those who came together at her passing would perceive much consolation from the Lord. But when after death her sacred little body was washed, and with her body greatly attenuated. it was found so attenuated and worn out by infirmity and fasts, that the spine of her back was contiguous to her belly; and as if under a thin linen cloth, the bones of her back appeared under the little skin of her belly.

[109] After death too she did not desert those whom she had loved in life; but returning to some, and frequently addressing holy women too of proved life, she taught her friends in things to be done, and forearmed them in dangers, with sure and secret signs, removing all doubt from their hearts. To some of her friends too she obtained from the Lord by her prayers, as we believe, both the splendor of wisdom and the fervor of charity. She appears to various persons for their benefit, Whence a certain holy Cistercian Monk saw in sleep, after the passing of the handmaid of Christ, that a golden chalice went out from her mouth, with which she gave drink to certain of her friends. A certain other related to me that he had seen in sleep her body, as if changed into a most splendid precious stone. But in the year of the Incarnation of the Word one thousand two hundred and thirteen, on the ninth of the Kalends of July, in the year 1213. on the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, on the Lord's day, around the ninth hour, the precious Pearl of Christ, Mary of Oignies, around the thirty-sixth year of her age, was carried to the palace of the eternal kingdom: where is life without death, day without night, truth without falsehood, joy without sadness, security without fear, rest without labor, eternity without end: where the mind is not made anxious by cares, where the body is not afflicted by pain, where the torrent of divine pleasure fills and satisfies all with the spirit of full liberty: where also we shall know, as we are known, when God shall be all in all, and our Lord Jesus Christ shall have delivered the kingdom to God and the Father; who with the same Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, through all ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES OF D. P.

SUPPLEMENT

By the contemporary author Brother Nicholas, Canon Regular of the monastery of Cantimpré.

From the manuscripts and the edition of Arnold Raissius.

Mary of Oignies, in Belgium (Bl.)

BHL Number: 5517

BY BROTHER NICHOLAS, A CONTEMPORARY, FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

PROLOGUE.

To the Father in the Lord, in all things most Reverend, Giles, Prior of Oignies, Brother N., humble Canon of the monastery of Cantimpré, Greeting in the author of our salvation, Christ Jesus.

Asked by some friends and brothers of your Charity to write those things which the venerable James, formerly Bishop of Acre, but now Bishop of Tusculum, and Cardinal of the Roman Curia, Vitry confessing that he had written scarcely a fifth part of the matters, omitted very many things concerning the Life of the venerable Mary of Oignies; I indeed long deferred to do this, since I feared exceedingly to incur the mark of presumptuous audacity; especially since that man is of such great knowledge and providence, of such great discretion and holiness, that to add anything to his sayings would seem the height of folly. But when some of those, who learned this from his truthful mouth, more frequently inculcated it to me resisting, that he was wont more frequently to say that he had by no means reduced to writing a fifth part of the deeds of the Handmaid of Christ; lest he should bring upon readers loathing of excess, or the incomprehensible greatness of revelations and miracles, which in the hearts of believers is an odor of life, in the hearts of unbelievers is an odor of death; convinced, I say, by this reason, I yielded to the prayers of the suppliants: prudently indeed at that time; but this is not to be feared in these times, when indeed in the parts of Lotharingia the ardor of holy religion has prevailed, and in almost all the Christian borders the most illustrious vow of the Handmaid of Christ has shone forth. With Ruth therefore hastening, let me hastily set about to gather those things Nicholas consents to add some things, which in the broad field of the Life of the Handmaid of Christ escaped the industrious hands of that great reaper. Receive therefore, holy Father, Prior Giles, the work, sufficiently remarkable as to the deeds, which concerning the friend of your Love, to the praise of Christ and the glory of His Handmaid, with fear indeed and reverence I have set about to write. But if anywhere it happen that I have erred as a man, you yourself will correct it: for he is a perfect man who does not offend with the tongue; but I am not, because I am a sinner. May your kind and sincere Paternity fare well, and may Christ the Lord, mindful of me in these things, keep you safe.

CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER I.

Things done with James of Vitry. The conversion of a merchant: and miracles done in him and his son.

[2] When therefore Master James of Vitry, afterward Bishop of Acre, but now Bishop of Tusculum and Cardinal of the Roman Summit, had heard within Gaul, at Paris, the name of the blessed Handmaid of Christ Mary of Oignies; the Theological studies left, in which he fervored immoderately, he induces James of Vitry to dwell at Oignies; he came to Oignies, where then she had newly transferred herself. The handmaid of God, devoutly receiving his pilgrimage, exacted from him by the instance of her prayers that, Gaul left, he should remain with the Brothers of Oignies. This is he of whom, his name kept silent, in the book of her Life the venerable James himself relates, that the Lord had given his handmaid a certain preacher, whom in her death she commended to the Lord with many prayers. number 56 The handmaid of Christ therefore compelled the said venerable man to preach to the peoples, to recall the souls which the devil tried to take away: she compels him to preach, and there shone forth in him that special miracle, that by the prayers and merits of the most blessed woman he attained in a short time to such eminence of preaching, that in expounding the Scriptures and in the destruction of sins scarcely anyone among mortals could be equaled to him. And rightly: that he who for love of the Handmaid of Christ had left his country, kindred, and Paris the mother of all arts; divine grace might render to him the summit of all knowledge and mastership even in the present. Asked therefore by the Brothers and specially by the Saint of God, he ascended the grade of the Priesthood, though worthy of a greater. And when from the city of Paris, where he had been ordained, he came to Oignies; the Handmaid of Christ met him with the Brothers, and to be initiated into the Priesthood; while he was still far off on the way. But he, sitting on his horse, descended to meet those coming, and, as in such cases is the custom, they kissed his hands anointed with the sacred Chrism. He proceeding with the Brothers, Lady Mary with a certain Reiner, a noble and religious man, following, kissed the steps of the one going before, in which he had placed his feet, her knees suppliantly bent. Which the said Reiner perceiving, reproached her and said: "What do you do, O Lady? If those going before saw this, what would they say? she foretells that he is to be raised on high Desist, I pray, desist, do not do it." And she: "No," she said, "for I cannot, vehemently compelled by the spirit, which now reveals to me within, that God has chosen him among mortals to be more gloriously raised on high, that through him He may wondrously work for the salvation of souls."

CHAPTER II.

[3] Concerning this too, when she and the venerable Prior Giles of Oignies spoke to one another; "Truly," she said, "the Lord has sworn, and He will not repent, that He will raise this man, and that he would be a future Bishop in the Holy Land: in the parts overseas of the Holy Land, to an Episcopal Chair." And the Prior: "Be silent," he said, "my Lady, do not say such things, for these would not, if anyone heard, redound to your honor. When could these things happen?" To whom she: "So," she said, "it will be, but I shall not see it, but you will see it, and will be saddened; but your sadness will be turned into joy, when you see him return from those parts to this place, and live privately with you." Which said, the said Prior trembled with horror, and weighing the words of the speaker, namely Bishop of Acre. silently awaited the outcome of the matter. The same venerable James too she is said to have forewarned concerning the aforesaid word, thus adding: "Do not oppose," she said, "the divine judgment, if any honor be offered you in the parts overseas, since through you there the Lord has disposed to work His work for the salvation of souls." Scarcely after these things did the time of four years pass, when, the venerable James himself being elected and consecrated Bishop of Acre, the word of the blessed woman appeared fulfilled. But she herself, as she had before foretold, before these things happened, migrated from this life. But before we come to the things which were done at her death, let us first report some things besides those even which Bishop James described in the book of her Life, to the praise of the name of Christ.

[4] It happened therefore at that time when that handmaid of Christ shone with an angelic life on earth, that a certain merchant, very rich and given to secular acts, She converts a merchant from the town of Nivelles, came to her at Willebroek with other citizens for the sake of visiting. Without delay, when she saw him, she understood the man to be a future vessel of election: but he immediately drank such grace of perfection in the mere countenance of her, that he perceived the knowledge of himself wholly without cloud, and felt the Spirit of God wondrously working in him. After this, Confession made, he often returned to that mother of his salvation, and grew in virtues, and the grace of God redounded in him: and not long after, the Cross taken, who, signed with the Cross about to set out against the adversaries of Christ, the Albigensian heretics, while he made a journey with certain fellow-villagers of his, men foolish and impious, and reproached them for their filthy and unchaste talk; and said that pilgrims of the holy way ought not to give attention to such things, but to attend to prayers or exhortations for knowing and meriting God; boldly reproves obscene speech: they, gravely indignant at his rebuke, gravely assailed him with cursing tongues and insults: but he, full of the grace of God, confounded their follies with wondrous and infinite reasons. Wherefore, vehemently moved, they disposed to kill him in revenge for their confusion: which when a certain familiar and companion of the way had learned, he indicated to the man that, unless he desisted from rebuking those impious ones, he most certainly foreknew that he would be killed by them. To whom he, kindled with a wondrous heat of martyrdom, said: "Now I will rebuke them the more; and would that it might come to pass, that for the truth of my Lord Jesus Christ I be killed by His enemies." But the Lord was unwilling that they, though impious, be stained with the blood of a just man, nay rather to bring them to the knowledge of the truth through his exhortation; and to keep safe the man whom the Handmaid of Christ had foretold would return in peace. Having returned therefore to his own home, she explains to him, returned, the pains of purgatory: when on a certain day he had come to the woman herself for the sake of edification, and a discourse had arisen between them about the fire of purgatory; she, undertaking to set forth what she felt about this, said: "Worthily certainly and justly that fire was constituted by the Lord for the purgation of souls not purged by penance in the world; that, because no evil passes unpunished, by this penalty, though most grave, the souls of penitents might be temporally purged according to their works, that they may pass without spot and wrinkle to those eternal seats with the Blessed." Then that man said to her: "Is that fire so grave as is said?" And she: "Incomparably," she said, "graver: for I tell you that that purgatorial fire is so much graver than our material fire, as our material fire than a figural fire painted on a wall." Hearing this he trembled with horror; and troubled in spirit cried to her with a grave voice: "And I," he said, "what shall I do, Lady? I forget the gehenna of eternal fire from the horror of purgatory." And she: "Be comforted," she said, "be comforted in the Lord your God."

[5] Saying these things, she ordered him to enter the church which was nearby: who immediately rising from his place obeyed the one commanding, and prostrate before the holy altar contemplated, with fixed gaze of mind, the pyx which hung on it with the body of Christ. Without delay, when he was fixed in spirit, he was fixed also in eyes; and he saw, and behold the pyx, moved from its place, approached the one praying, and stood still nor returned: and after a little, again moved from its place in which it had stood still, a second time approached the man, and stood still nor returned. But a third time, when the moved pyx again approached, suddenly the eyes of the seer were dulled, the eyelids drawn down, and rapt to contemplation within, he saw hidden and secret things, which it is not lawful for man to reveal. Thence returned to himself, yet not wholly, he quickly ran to the mother; and evaporating the burning of the divine fire; "I," he said, "my Mother, will love God without discretion." And she: "By no means," she said, "friend, by no means": and the Handmaid of Christ added, "I felt, at the hour in which I saw you

depart, she knew it being absent, that Christ would show you good things. Indeed afterward when the pyx had approached you a third time, since a white dove went out of the pyx, with its wings cherished your face with a gentle breath, and so made its passage through your soul to me. But also no less attend to what I see: for behold the Lord Jesus, holding a white Cross in His hand, renders you testimony; that by the perfect will, with which you desired to suffer for His truth, you have been made His Martyr; and He promises you therefore, that after death, without any or quite little penalty of purgatory, you will pass to the heavenly kingdom." As she said these things, the man observed that this was at that time in which, rebuking his fellow pilgrims on the way for foolish talk, he received opprobrium from others and the threat of death; and soon, poured out in the praise of Christ, and foretells him to be free from purgatory: he also magnificently blessed His Handmaid.

[6] At another time too, when that man had passed to more remote parts for the sake of trading in those things which he needed for the opportunity of the time; the same man sick it happened that, made infirm with grave trouble in some part of his body, he could neither go forward nor return. And when he presumed more certainly of death or of a long languor; encompassed with anguish, he at last deliberates this within himself in mind; namely that it was better (although with labor) to seek again his country, and beside his blessed nurse either to await death, or to be afflicted with languor; than in a strange land without any mother-solace either to be ended by death, or to be detained by a long infirmity. Deliberating this more secretly with himself, he leans propped on a staff; and, although with grave labor and very small stages he did this, yet he completes the difficult journey. And when at Oignies he had found the handmaid of Christ, from his infirmity set forth and the cause of his coming, the spirit moving him within, he prays the Saint of God to give him something of the relics of her hair, by which he considered himself, without any hesitation, to be healed of his infirmity. Soon she, her hand thrust into her hair, her hair given she heals: with wondrous ease drew out a quite great part of her hair, like a leaf. Seeing this, he shuddered at the deed, lest the Saint of God by doing this should suffer some injury. To whose thought she answering; "Do not fear," she said, "I suffer no injury." Saying these things she rose, and left the man alone. So when he received solitude, he applied the Relics to the place of the infirmity; and immediately, within a moment of time, all the pain fled. Astonished at which deed, the man by genuflection seeks health; and feeling nothing, sets about to restore his accustomed penance, which, by saying "Hail Mary" in frequent genuflections, he had relaxed for eight days on account of his infirmity. Without delay, scarcely had he fulfilled the last genuflection, when she enters; and congratulating the cured one, with the spirit of prophecy added: "A while ago," she said, "I went hence, and left you alone, that you might be cured and recover your accustomed penance, which, the infirmity constraining, you had laid aside." At whose words that faithful man, vehemently marveling, not only was astonished at the swift cure of his infirmity; but also was astonished at this, that she could so suddenly know the hour at which this was done, or what he had done meanwhile.

[7] These things thus done, the man, well, goes out home; and returning found his son, by the same the injured little son is healed, whom he had as a little one, gravely wounded in the head. But he could not be kindled with the fire of fury, who, lately returning from the Saint of God, still grew warm with the fire of the divine spirit. Nay rather, thinking that from this too he had found occasion of a greater miracle, turned to God with a faithful mind, he said: "O wondrous God, behold even now declare the merits of your Handmaid in the case of this misfortune." Soon calling his wife companion, he orders her to wash the wound of the boy's head foul with blood. But she, taking up the boy, and setting about to wash away the blood with water; while doing it, when she saw the open horrid wound, not able to bear it, she left the boy. To whom the father, full of faith, running, immersed the proved Relics of the Saint of God's hair wholly in the open wound. A wondrous thing! When the praying father attended to the outcome, as if for a moment he grows dull in his eyes. His sight restored, wishing to behold the deed done, he sees the wound reduced to a scar, the blood which flowed absorbed; and instead of rosy gore, as if a drop of dew lying open in the closing of the wound. The boy is alive still; he has grown into a man; we saw the place of the wound, and so subtly drawn back to wholeness, that although a long scar is well perceived, yet it is inspected as if the trace of a needle. and the hair appears as if quickened. The same man relates of the Relics of the same hair a very great miracle; for when he on a certain day (as he often was wont) held those Relics of the hair of the Handmaid of Christ, of which we have spoken, upon a silken cloth in his lap, and prayed the Lord; he saw them with a gaze. And behold the hairs themselves quickened, and in that manner in which such a thing could, rejoiced with one another: nor did this wondrous vision remain a little space indeed, but for nearly a whole hour; and so, the virtue lulled, the heap of hairs settled.

NOTES OF D. P.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles wrought in her life, revelations.

[8] The same Religious man related another miracle widely divulged through the countries. The Saint with her companions It happened that he and another truly faithful man made a journey with that venerable Mary and her Handmaid, for the sake of pilgrimage. As they went, therefore, a cloud being congealed into waters threatened to rush down huge showers, and the sky was overcast with foul gloom. But while the rest feared, rain impending because they were far from the habitations of men; the Handmaid of Christ, her eyes raised to heaven, with wondrous grace of countenance, asked something from the Lord, which none of those who only saw her praying heard; but anyone can conjecture, according to the outcome of the matter, what her soul by its worthy merits obtained. It happened that, when grave rains descended almost everywhere, so that the earth foamed; yet the way by which the Saint went with her companions, on each side, right and left, for about cubits, so remained immune from the rain; that not even one drop seemed to fall upon them. This seen, the companions of the journey, gazing at one another, yet could speak nothing meanwhile, astonished at the divine miracle. But then, the inundation ceasing, that faithful man, of whom we have said very many things, asked by those who went with him, alone questions the handmaid of God, what or whence was in the thing shown the miracle. Then she: "Have this," she said, "as a secret; she is preserved by St. John the Evangelist, I saw John the Evangelist of Christ in the air, who by the command of almighty God protected us from the inundation of so great a rain." Therefore let no one be moved with a scruple of unbelief against him who related to us such great miracles of the handmaid of Christ.

[9] The Sambre is a very wide river of Lotharingia, nearly eighteen paces, which flows past the village of Oignies on one side with a vast diffusion. and beyond the Sambre she is suddenly transported. This river, since on account of its width it has in those parts no bridge by which a passage may be offered to travelers; it happened on a certain day that the Handmaid of Christ, wishing to proceed to a certain oratory, most dear to her for the sake of prayer, which is situated beyond the river, took the journey by the straight path to the river. Which when a certain man perchance beheld, he marveled that the woman directed her step to the unfordable waters, especially since there was neither a bridge in the river, nor did he see a boat prepared by which she might cross. The man therefore, having cast his eyes around, if perchance he might see a boat, when he saw none present, turning his eyes back to her, as if about to judge her insane, saw her going: and behold, in a moment of time the Handmaid of Christ, transported across the river, made her journey. Seeing this the man, astonished, was terrified; but we too marvel at the hearing, namely that a woman with dry footsteps walked over the dissoluble element of the waters, as if over dry land. But that I may make full faith for readers, I will immediately join to this chapter a nearly similar miracle in the deeds. Andrew is a lay Brother in the monastery of Oignies, a man indeed, although a layman, yet proved in religion. He, with religion not yet taken up, at nearly the same time at which these things were done, standing on this side of the bank of the said river, saw the Handmaid of Christ returning from the aforesaid oratory beyond the river. Coming therefore to the bank of the river, when she saw the man standing opposite on the other side, she cried out to him: "How," she said, "shall I cross?" And he: "On the side," he said, "of this bank there is no boat; but I see one on the side of that bank where you stand, but how I may have it here I do not at all see." Saying this, the man cast his eyes around, if perchance anywhere he might see a boat on his side. And when, beholding none, he bent his gaze toward himself; he sees, and behold that boat, which he had just seen on the other bank of the river, as if in the twinkling of an eye transported before his feet by the divine nod, was available to ferry across the handmaid of Christ. Then the man, nearly fainting from astonishment at the matter, when, astonished, he had thought of her for whom these things were done, conceived confidence in his mind; and entering the boat, first crossed to the handmaid of Christ, then, having received her into the little boat, transported her across the river.

[10] The venerable Prior of Oignies, therefore, hearing that his carnal sister, in the fourth mile from the monastery, was gravely sick, hastened to go thither. But on the second day, when to

Terce the Prior had by no means returned; on the feast of the Holy Trinity the handmaid of Christ began to fear lest on so great a solemnity, which then had shone forth—that of the holy Trinity—she should be frustrated of the office of the Masses. The other Brother Priests, by the command of the then Bishop of Liège, were visiting the various parishes of the country. The devout woman therefore, disturbed, besought the Lord with tears, that He would send back the Prior to celebrate. Without delay, when now the noon hour was at hand, rising from prayer, she came to the mother of the Prior and the other religious women who there served the Lord; who were already preparing themselves at table to eat, and she said to them: "About to eat, do not yet sit down at table; for the Prior will come to celebrate": she foretells that Mass will be celebrated, saying this she returned to the church. Then the mother of the Prior, as an old woman nearly a hundred years old, already grumbling at the word of the Handmaid of Christ, said to the rest: "Sit down now and let us eat. Will he at this hour, when my son comes weary from the journey, celebrate Mass?" To whom the Sister women: "Lady Mary," they said, "said he would come, nor do we believe that she would easily lie." With which she, gravely indignant: "Did your Lady Mary ever lie? Sit down, I say, and eat." But when the Sisters, believing in the words of the Handmaid of Christ, nonetheless waited; the old woman herself, sitting at table, began to eat. And scarcely had she, eating, put her hand to her mouth a fourth time, when the handmaid of God, feeling the Prior coming, seizing the rope, rang the bell. And soon the Prior, having entered, and asking nothing, celebrated the solemnities of the Masses. Then the old woman, rising from table, exceedingly confounded, after Mass asked and received pardon for the insult from the Handmaid of Christ.

[11] But so greatly did the blessed woman believe her Christ faithful, that she doubted nothing of His answers in spirit or revelations, never deceived in revelations: and rightly. Concerning her the Reverend Bishop James testified with truthful mouth, that, having in all her revelations the discernment of spirits, she was never at any time in matters of this kind deceived by the enemy of the human race. This was great; and truly specially great, and the greatest above all the wonders of her deeds we reckon it. For many in the parts of Lotharingia, where there is the greatest abundance of holiness, I have seen and known, Religious men and women, whose visions too and secret visitations I have received, as a man brought up in those parts; but no person among all, this one only excepted, whom I have not known to have been sometime deceived. What then? Are the revelations of God in all things to be made little of? By no means, nay certainly greatly to be venerated, and he who spurns them despises Christ revealing. But when we uncover the cunning of the enemy, we forearm the hearts of the hearers in such things, and gloriously extol the handmaid of Christ excepted from these.

[12] Toward the souls which were in purgatory very compassionate, she was much solicitous in spirit over the soul of her mother now deceased, but this from the flesh, as will now appear. This one, therefore, on account of the alms frequently made to the poor, and on account of a certain honest mode of life, solicitous for her mother's soul in which she too had lived, herself worldly among the worldly, she indeed hoped could be saved, yet so as if through fire. But when, doubtful, she sometimes feared, since the judgments of God are a great abyss, she asked the Lord to make her certain in what state of damnation or salvation the soul of her mother had passed from this world. And when she poured out many tears over this, it happened on a certain day that the venerable Giles, Prior of Oignies, performed the solemnities of the Masses, and beside the altar, as if at the feet of the Lord, Mary sat. As he performed it, therefore, the Handmaid of Christ, struck with horror, sees; and behold a certain dark spirit stands near her. Soon, the fear put to flight by the sign of the Cross, she boldly asks who this was. And he: "I am," he said, "your mother, for whom you have asked." To whom the daughter: she understands her to be damned. "How is it with you, mother?" Then she: "Ill," she said, "your prayers will be able to help me nothing, since indeed the prisons of hell hold me damned forever." Soon the daughter, with a groan more grievously raised, "Alas," she said, "mother, what is the cause of your damnation?" To whom she: "I was nourished," she said, "and lived in those things which had been acquired by usuries and unjust trades; conscious to myself of the evil, I did not take care to restore what was taken away, I did not heed whatever was against the precepts of God, but having entered the tortuous ways of the world, I, wretched, thought it unworthy to decline from the footsteps of my forebears. I did not repent in these things: but exchanging a fruitless life for death, I perished from the future life of the age." Saying these things she suddenly disappeared. But the Handmaid of Christ, all things considered in order, even in her lost mother, blessed the just judgment of God; nor did she weep any more for the one handed to perpetual death, through whom she had taken the beginnings of her flesh: because the intellectual reason of her soul, which the Almighty alone created, subject to God the judge of all, accorded. The said Prior Giles likewise heard the one questioning and the one answering, but did not see the spirit of her interlocutor.

[13] The solemn day of some Saint was at hand, and it happened that the aforesaid Prior of Oignies, the Relics of the Saints and the silken vestments, which few and poor that house still had, being brought forth, prepared the altar according to the custom of solemn days. On account of the silken paraments of the altar burned But on the day, with Vespers now passed, the Prior, about to put back the silken vestments with the Relics, laid them on the altar; but since the hour of supper now pressed the Prior, he left the folded silken vestments beside the altar and placed a burning candle before the Relics of the Saints, and so hastened with the Brothers to supper. As they supped, therefore, the burning candle fell on the vestments and consumed them, burned up. By whose stench the Handmaid of Christ, through the opening of the window which was contiguous to the altar, roused to see what it was, ran to announce the misfortune seen to the Prior in the refectory. Who soon rising from supper, when he found the damage of the burning, tears being shed for such a matter, exceeded the measure of grief. Whom when the pious handmaid of Christ saw weeping, she foretells better things to the sad Prior compassionating his grief she groaned; and prostrate on the ground rose with tears, and said to the Prior with great confidence: "Be consoled, dearest Father, be consoled: this damage God will restore to you incomparably within ten years, and you will rejoice fourfold more for the ornaments to be obtained than now you are saddened for those lost. But alas for me! who, then by no means surviving, shall not see these things." Nor did God deceive her in His promise; for afterward, since the venerable James was elected Bishop of Acre in the parts overseas, he sent to the said Prior a whole Episcopal mitre, to be sent by the Bishop of Acre; with many other vestments of fine linen, and all the vessels of the altar, with various utensils of its ministers all fashioned of gold and silver. But the bearer of all these crossed the sea with such speed, namely within fifteen days, which was done that to many this seemed incredible. And this no wonder, not without a divine miracle, since indeed the time of ten years was pressing, in which this Handmaid of Christ had foretold these things would be fulfilled. But at the coming of those gifts it cannot easily be said how greatly the said Prior danced with joy; yet wholly forgetful of the words of the Handmaid of Christ. And when he had spent the whole day in joy, toward the end of the aforesaid 10th year. so that he did not seem to rest even an hour; evening now come, he began to accuse himself, that with immoderate gladness he had exulted for transitory things. Without delay: when, as it were for the fault contracted from disordered joy, he wished to superinduce the bitterness of sadness; suddenly it came into his recollection, what the Saint of God had foretold him, sad over the burning of the vestments, ten years before; namely that, the damage being incomparably restored to him, he would rejoice fourfold for the ornaments to be obtained, than he had been saddened for those lost. When he was mindful of these things, he immediately inspected the Calendar; and found twenty days remaining in the circle of ten years, in which she had foretold these things would be fulfilled: which when the Prior now certain observed, with trembling he rejoiced, astonished at the deed.

NOTES OF D. P.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles after death, especially in the spirit of blasphemy driven off.

[14] The time now coming on in which the blessed woman would migrate from this world, it happened that a certain religious and truly holy man, namely John of Pomerio so called, passed from this world. Of whose holiness the Prior, very well conscious, drew out his teeth from his mouth with pincers. And when the Handmaid of God heard the grating of the pincers from the place of prayer, Bearing it ill that the teeth of one piously dead were forcibly extracted, looking in through the window, which was contiguous to the place, and shuddering at the deed with feminine fear, mildly cries out to the Prior: "What is it," she said, "O Lord Prior, that you deal so cruelly with a dead corpse; so hard indeed I did not think you." And the Prior: "Know," he said, "my Lady, that if it happen that you die before me, I do nothing with this one which I will not do with you too, deceased." To whom she: "No," she said, "certainly, you will not do this to me, for I would close my mouth and clench my teeth, she denies that it can be done to her: that you could not do those things." Then the Prior, raising a laugh: "O how well," he said, "could you do this dead?" She, adding nothing to her words, betook herself to her place, the window shut. Not long after these things, therefore, a great time passed, when she, departing from the world, migrated to the God of life. Then the Prior of Oignies with some more intimate friends, transferring the body of the deceased to a secret place; laid her head bent back over his knee, and so, her chin seized with his right hand, but with his left twisting her forehead downward with force; but neither so could he prevail to open her teeth or even her lips, according to the word which she, living, had foretold. nor could it be done, Then, applying a knife and other iron tools, when he profited nothing, and now, his hope frustrated, disposed to replace the body in the bier; suddenly and unexpectedly it came into his recollection what the Handmaid of Christ, living, had before foretold him,

and what he too had answered her as if deriding. Soon therefore prostrate on the ground, with suppliant prayer he addresses the reverend body: "Truly," he said, "Lady, I wished to act foolishly, trying to make void your words. But indeed I do not remember, and yet if I had remembered, the words which were then uttered by you, I would have believed empty and ludicrous; but as now I see, none of your words shall pass into vanity. I ask therefore and beg your most gentle charity, yet to him praying she of her own accord imparts 7 teeth. that you suffer me to receive part of your teeth for the solace of my grief. And you indeed know, and truly so it is, that what I wished to do (although not in the manner in which I ought, because such violence, as truly now appears, did not befit your reverence), yet I was disposing to do for your honor and glory; from you, therefore, what I now demand, permit." A wondrous thing! Scarcely had the Prior opened his mouth in words of this kind; when behold the lifeless body, as if smiling at the words of the one praying, opens its mouth, and of its own accord shook out into the Prior's hand seven teeth in number. What of these wonders is more glorious? The miracle of this matter very many, who were present, still living, attested; of whose faith not even any unbeliever could easily doubt.

[15] In the time of the Lord Honorius, the third Pope of this name, when the venerable James, still Bishop of Acre, had come to Rome, he was most courteously received by Pope Honorius himself and the Brother Cardinals, especially by Lord Hugh, then Bishop of Ostia, and Cardinal of the Roman Curia, Hugh, Bishop of Ostia, a man indeed most worthy in all holiness. And that venerable Bishop of Ostia had for a long time desired to see him. Nor is it to be passed over, that when that Bishop of Acre had sent to the same Bishop of Ostia a precious gift and beautiful to see, namely a silver cup, heavy in weight, full of nutmegs; that man, a most constant refuser of every gift, immediately sent the cup back to the Lord of Acre, but retained the nutmegs, saying: "This fruit of nutmegs is the fruit of the East: but the silver cup is the fruit of the city of Rome." Elegantly indeed and truly he spoke. Therefore, after they could have a secret conversation with one another; the Lord of Ostia said to the Bishop of Acre: "Truly," he said, "dearest Brother, I greatly congratulate you on having come into these parts, for a long time now desiring to converse with you, and to unlock to you the secrets of my hidden things: which indeed I was disposing scarcely ever to make plain to any other. That, therefore, vexed by the spirit of blasphemy, some propitiation may be granted me from the almighty Lord, by the counsel and help of your prayers; I will pour out to you the whole secret of my heart: diligently weigh what I shall tell you. Know therefore that I am, with blessed Job, given by the Lord to the goads of the enemy; but so much the more gravely as he in body, but I in soul. The spirit of blasphemy so vexes my soul, and overwhelms it with various waves of temptations, and almost daily I am thrust even into despair: in this alone I receive a respite, and this yet the least, that while I sit with the Brother Cardinals in the Consistory for the due causes, meanwhile the suffering by which I am confounded ceases a little. But alas! when I return to my accustomed things, the goad of monstrous torment seeks me again; nor does it allow me to be refreshed for rest by any food, drink, or sleep: but my spirit exhausted by infinite thoughts, it forces my body, nearly bloodless, to wasting: and that nothing in me may remain undiscussed to you, this I most especially fear, lest, not able to bear so great a weight, I be wholly cast down from the state of the holy faith."

[16] These and like things the Bishop of Ostia pursuing with a grave groan; the Lord of Acre (as he is a man of pious mind) mingled himself too grave groans amid such groans of the blessed man: and entering the treasures of the Scriptures and of divine mercy, preached (but not to one ignorant of such things) those things which seemed apt and fitting in temptations of this kind. But since the Bishop of Acre himself, a prudent and experienced man, knew that in such cases it often happens that the mind of such persons, overwhelmed especially by the waves of temptations, does not suddenly grasp reason, unless it be confirmed by most evident examples; he added these things too, saying: "I had," he said, "before my Bishopric, in the parts of Lotharingia a most dear friend of God, who, by the prerogative of holiness and singular merit in her time, had obtained from the Lord a special grace in driving off the spirits of blasphemy: and there are in the book of her Life which I myself wrote very many examples of this matter. This same grace toward those invoking her, not only living in life, but even deceased, she retained. Taking therefore with you the book of her conduct, you shall read it. From a full breast, with confidence in the mercy of God and the holiness of His Handmaid I presume, that shortly from the temptation by which you fluctuate, you shall feel yourself relieved." Whose word the Lord of Ostia, embracing in exultation of heart, said to the Bishop of Acre: "Many admirable things concerning her, dearest Brother, I have perceived; but I ask, if there are any Relics of her with you, lend them to me, by the veneration of which it will be more pleasing to me to invoke that Saint as if present." by the Relics of Blessed Mary Then the Bishop of Acre himself, smiling exultantly at the one asking; "There is," he said, "her finger, laid up in a little silver case, constantly hung to my neck, which indeed in various perils and amid marine dangers always kept me safe unharmed. This therefore, if you command, take with you."

[17] Soon the Bishop of Ostia, receiving the offered thing gratefully, first watchfully applied himself to the reading of the Life of the Handmaid of Christ; and finding in it indeed wondrous hope and his own quiet, and the reading of her life conceived in his mind great confidence concerning the rest that remained. Without delay, when on a certain night he prayed alone before an altar which he had in secret; the torpor of his accustomed temptation began to creep upon his mind. Who immediately rising from the ground, took the finger of the Handmaid of Christ into his pious hands; which, pressing more tightly against his breast, he suppliantly invoked the handmaid of God and the suffrages of her prayers. he is freed: Without delay: the spirit of blasphemy and the torpor of mind utterly put to flight, he is illumined within with the light of heavenly grace: and tasting with the palate of his heart how sweet the Lord is, against the spiritual wickednesses from the hand of the Lord, by the prayers of His Handmaid, he received a shield of inviolable protection and security. But if he felt anything more there in spirit, if he received any secret revelation, he himself knows; but I not: but his secret to himself, his secret to himself: but it does not pertain to me, except to indicate to readers those things which I know for certain. Now therefore it is to be considered, why that man, of whom we have related such things, that man, I say, of most eminent holiness, the man whom almighty God (as we shall say in what follows) raised to so great a height; why, I say, He delivered him to the spirit of blasphemy to be tortured by such bitter temptations. But a most evident reason sufficiently occurs, but that such persons are thus proved for their advancement, if we adduce his predecessor Peter the Apostle, whom Satan sought to sift like wheat: and unless the Son had asked the Father for him, after the threefold denial his faith certainly would have failed. But he was to be instructed by temptation, that he might know how to compassionate the infirmities of his subjects, who was to be constituted the head of all Christians.

[18] But another most noble woman in the parts of Lotharingia I saw, the Author says he experienced it who, with wondrous ardor of spirit, the Cross taken, even to the holy land of Jerusalem, girt with an iron bond, and lacking vehicles, even walked with bare feet: whom you too, O venerable James, then Bishop of Acre, compelled to return to her country on horseback and shod. Without delay: when she returned, passing to the Cistercian Order, she left her home, infinite possessions, and sons. These things so manfully done for the love of Christ, she was so tribulated and goaded by the spirit of blasphemy, that she related to me with the greatest grief, that she was more tortured by that most prevailing temptation than she had ever been tortured by anything else. But was it to her damnation or to the detriment of her virtue? No. Virtue indeed is perfected in infirmity. For not long after, freed by the almighty Lord, she was endowed with so great a fullness of grace, that wherever she was in the circuit of the monastery, she knew without any hesitation the hour of the coming of Christ on the altar through the ministry of the Priest, however secretly it was done; and, a turtledove voice being made in her throat, she resounded with such modulation, in a Nun known to her, that no mortal could imitate her in the sound. Of these things I am a witness, who, celebrating in the place, heard that turtledove voice; and I saw in her another very wondrous thing. She was about to communicate in the Body and Blood of the Lord. Brought therefore in the arms of those sustaining her, she danced with all her limbs, and her face most full of graces, amid the playing, gave forth claps of such great sweetness, that it could not be doubted that she was called to the supper of the nuptials of the Lamb, in which the almighty Father joined heavenly things to earthly, the lowest to the highest, by invisible power. But why do I produce words at length? Many I saw, many I experienced tribulated by the spirit of blasphemy; nor indeed did I find one in all who was not only freed, but even after the temptation endowed with greater grace; but quite few are they who become worthy to see the heavenly secrets, who are not first by this temptation either purged or proved. And in this indeed a most worthy reason occurs, but now let the examples of the foregoing suffice. We have therefore a Pontiff who can compassionate our infirmities, in all things tempted as we also.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER IV.

Aids given to a certain Bishop and especially to James of Vitry.

[19] At nearly the same time a certain Bishop, whose name we do not dare to disclose, since he forbade himself to be named, To an Italian Bishop coming to her tomb Mary appears who had greatly loved that blessed and God-worthy woman Mary in life, came suppliant and devout to her tomb from the parts of Italy. And when on a certain night he kept watch at her tomb for the sake of praying; suddenly rapt in spirit he saw; and behold the venerable Mary, from the place of her rest, with her hands stretched out toward the holy altar and her knees bent, praying, supplicated the Lord for him. The manner of the remarkable vision therefore greatly gladdening the Bishop, for two

nearly two hours of the night he remained immovable. But on the next day, bidding the Brothers of Oignies farewell, he more secretly made plain to the Prior what had happened to him praying by night at the tomb of the venerable Mary: which indeed, received by the worthy relation of the same Prior, we have thought worthy to be inserted into this work.

[20] When therefore the venerable James, Bishop of Acre, had returned from the city of Rome to the Holy Land; and again, causes emerging, was sailing the great sea, tending to Rome; a sudden tempest arose, so that all who were with him utterly despaired of life. Then the venerable Bishop, stripped of his garments, was girt only with a goatskin; that if perchance the ship were dashed against the rocks, James of Vitry he might be able to immerse himself in the sea, and by swimming by chance reach land. In these straits, therefore, all who were in that ship being constituted, as each one's devotion bore him, some St. Nicholas, others St. Clement, and others other Saints invoked with prayers for their help. The Bishop of Acre, diligently remembering the Relics of the Handmaid of Christ, Mary of Oignies, which he always had hung at his neck, began to demand her patronage, saying: "O you, venerable Mother and Lady, you indeed loved me with a special love while I lived on earth; him invoking her, you too, although not so much as I ought, yet according to what the mode of my imperfection could, I loved in return. I therefore, set in these straits, by the prerogative of your merits implore your suffrages with prayers, I dispose to order my life far otherwise, and therefore I now dread to die in the death set before me." These and like things when the Bishop pleaded with anguished mind and trembling mouth; seized by a sudden slumber he saw the Handmaid of Christ saying to him: "Behold I am present your protectress, for you have called me. appearing she frees him from shipwreck Truly in life I loved you, but after life I cease not to pray for your salvation.

[21] Do not fear, this will not be the end of your life." As she said these things it seemed to the Bishop that the Handmaid of Christ led him into the church of Oignies; and to him ascending through the church into a higher vault, and reveals to him future things: she showed five altars set up, saying: "These four, in honor of the Saints whom the Prior of this place shall show you; but the fifth in honor of the holy and undivided Trinity by my admonition you shall consecrate." And designating the place with her finger, "Before this," she said, "altar Christ will give you, if you yourself shall wish, the rest desired, and there you will find what with much labor you have sought. But you, a man of your own will, my counsels and those of them who loved you spiritually, you never wished to acquiesce in; and always walked by your own, and not others', judgments." This rebuke being added, she immediately disappeared. But the Bishop, bringing his mind back to outward things, found the sea most peaceful and tranquil. Without delay: wholly poured out in the praise of Christ and His Handmaid, yet to no one did he indicate what had been revealed to him; wishing indeed to prove whether those future things would so be, which he himself foresaw revealed. But not long after, coming to Rome, he asked of Lord Honorius, he himself, freed from the Bishopric, the third Pope of this name, that he be released from the Bishopric: who, conquered by the instance of many prayers, released him. Released therefore, he came to Oignies, but the work of the church, which had been shown him in spirit upon the stone vault, he did not yet find done; who yet, hesitating nothing, silently awaited the outcome of the matter. While he therefore visited the widely adjacent regions of Lotharingia with diligent preaching, the venerable Prior Giles of Oignies, hastening to complete the work of the church, disposed that whole structure with five altars, as had been shown to the reverend Bishop in spirit by the divine nod. Which completed, the Prior commanded Bishop James that, coming, he should consecrate the church of Oignies, now finished, with its altars. And the Bishop, weaving no delays, came, and with the Prior and Brothers, he consecrates the church of Oignies with its altars: ascending through the church first seen in spirit upon the vault, found the five altars disposed in the order foreshown; and smiling at the work, with great exultation of heart he inquires of the Prior. "Whose," he said, "will be this altar set in the middle?" And the Prior: "Laboring," he said, "last year with a quartan fever, I vowed before the supreme Majesty, if I should recover health, that I would make this altar in honor of the holy and undivided Trinity. And I recovered what I asked, and I ask to pay what I promised." This the venerable Bishop, perceiving with the greatest admiration, filled with inestimable joy, magnificently venerating the so open outcome of the divine revelation in all things, was astonished. Soon, the altars consecrated, he indicated to the Prior and Brothers all the things which had happened to him in the aforesaid.

[22] When therefore the Reverend Fathers, the Cardinals of the Roman Curia, Lord Honorius the third Pope having died, had fittingly raised the aforesaid Hugh, Bishop of Ostia, a man indeed eminent in all virtue, to be Pope Gregory the ninth of this name, by divine ordination; the venerable Bishop James, very well (as we have said before) both friend and acquaintance of the supreme Pontiff himself, disposed to visit him: whence the Prior and Brothers, not a little saddened, began (as afterward, alas! it happened) vehemently to fear, lest the said Pope, having entangled him with some dignity, should detain him. When therefore the day was at hand, that the same Bishop should undertake the journey to the city of Rome, after the praises of Matins, when he had given himself a little to slumber; behold the venerable Handmaid of Christ Mary appeared to the Bishop in sleep, as if like one infirm. And when it seemed to the Bishop that he busied himself with great care to anoint her with oil as if gravely sick; she with a grim countenance, like one indignant, or by the appearing Saint, beholding the one busying himself, said: "You cannot indeed anoint me, since your Ordinary does not have the mode of my unction: but anoint our Prior with the Brothers, who from your departure, like me too, are gravely made infirm." Without delay: the Bishop awakened calls the Prior with the Brothers, and indicates what had been said to him by the Handmaid of Christ in sleep, yet nonetheless not recalled from his purpose, insisted with all care that he undertake the journey.

[23] When the venerable Prior Giles saw these things he grieved most impatiently, and over the impeding of the Bishop's journey, setting about to beseech the Handmaid of Christ, that blessed woman appeared to him in a vision, to whom too she said: "As the Bishop's journey is contrary to you, so doubt not that it is contrary to me too, and therefore I will not accompany him going; but three women accompany him, out of whose hands he will not escape. Let him alone therefore, let him do what he wishes, you cannot now recall him from his intention." Without delay: as the Handmaid of Christ said these things to the said Prior, suddenly the Bishop came up: by whose voice recalled from the ecstasy he related to him what Lady Mary, or be drawn back by the Prior beseeching, appearing to him in a vision at the very same moment, had foretold concerning his departure. Be astonished, Reader, behold the miracle. By these words nothing moved, the Bishop, smiling, added to the Prior: "And to me," he said, "Lady Mary said the same. I am nothing moved by such things, there is room enough in the doorways, I will return sooner than you hope. Be not troubled, dearest Brother. To confess the truth to your charity, it would be grievous to me, and to him much more grievous, that, visiting so great a friend in so great a change of affairs, I should not see him. Besides I do not believe, nay I certainly presume, that the Pope will by no means detain me, resisting, with him, as you fear." With these words, having consoled the said Prior and the other Brothers as he could, he set out for Rome; and as God revealed to the Prior through His handmaid, he was there seized by two women, namely the Bishopric and the Cardinalate; but the third woman, who she might be, at present indeed we cannot clearly know.

[24] Now therefore I must return to you, Bishop of Tusculum, Cardinal of the Roman Curia. Truly indeed, whence the Author's complaint about him, as anyone can observe in these things, the handmaid of God said most truly, attesting that you are a man of your own will, who indeed were so obstinate against such most evident revelations of that Handmaid of Christ, that you could in no way be moved from your own will. Let him see, Brothers, let that man of Tusculum see, whether by the mediating effect of his will he has profited, whether he has incurred any damage from it, whether he has meanwhile passed over anything to whom although it is glorious to be at Rome a Cardinal Bishop, which could have profited the honor of Christ and the salvation of desolate souls: those souls, namely, whom Jesus, the Prince of our salvation, redeemed with His own blood and the ignominious death of the Cross. Let him see, I say, his gain, let him consider in mind his advancement. The Bishop occupies a See in the Roman Curia, the Cardinal occupies it: he studies the Scriptures, as I hear; he is cherished by quiet; and in the parts of Lotharingia (to which, as we most certainly believe, he was sent back by the supreme Pontiff Christ as Legate from the parts of the East) souls destitute of counsel or help will tend to the lower regions. The greatest glory is to have a place at Rome among the Cardinals; but what is it to him and to glory? Christ, made the opprobrium of men and the abjection of the people, left us His example, that we should follow His footsteps. Nevertheless if he tends to glory, which is by no means believed; what glory greater than, when he has cast off glory, to find so great a glory, to which no glory among glories could be equaled? But lest perchance anyone observe the parable and its interpretation, and think that in this part I speak of the glory to come after this life. By no means; but let him believe that to be possessed in the future age hereafter. Now I wish to speak of the glory which this world covets.

[25] Let that Cardinal of the Roman Curia of Tusculum now answer me, let him compare his glory which he now has in his chamber, with that which long ago in the parts of Lotharingia, quite poor and private with himself, he had. yet it was more glorious, the Bishopric laid down I said poor, but wrongly: nay most rich. But neither is he now richer, or ever was. For what of necessaries was lacking to him there? and if in the most abundant supplies, which deservedly flowed to him, any defect had been suspected; there would undoubtedly be no hands which would not eagerly have taken care to fill it. Nor a wonder. Why? For the world was astounded at an unknown monster; namely that a Bishop of a most frequented city in parts overseas had of his own accord left his lordship; made poor from Eastern wealth, and in the humble place of Oignies among the sheep of the Beguines, whom indeed the Egyptians abominate, had chosen rest. to live humbly at Oignies: The world has many Bishops, and of an almost innumerable supply, Gaul with its amplitude scarcely suffices for the annual revenues of Cardinals: but the world has not often seen Pontiffs without a See, imitating Christ, who emptied Himself, that He might take the form of a servant. But Gaul never an inglorious Cardinal without pomp, but Spain merited one, and this recently, as I hear, three years ago. But him, with Christ as author, by the prayers of His Handmaid,

Mary, Lotharingia first had. as the Saint wished, "By the prayers of His Handmaid" I said: but I confess that I have spoken in doubt. For I do not know whether she still holds her prayers back in anger, because she had foretold that the Bishop's journey was contrary to her. Yet I believe that even if hitherto she has held back in anger, that on account of the most devout prayers and assiduous orations of the religious men and women in our parts to the Lord, perhaps the Handmaid of Christ has changed her speech, and prays the almighty Lord for his return: by whose intervention she will send him back, freed from the hand of two women, namely the Bishopric and the Cardinalate, to Gaul. Whom the third woman, as a certain one of ours expounded, and the Author wishes that he return, the Church of the Lotharingian part, as it were joined to him by his first devotion, will possess unto the age of his life by a marital bond. Nor is it a wonder, nay it is very consonant to divine law, the two being repudiated which he superinduced over the first, to seek again the first, and to cleave to her so much the more devoutly, the more he had separated himself estranged from her.

[26] For this is what you, most excellent Bishop, once placed in our parts, saw by divine revelation. Long before that venerable and truly worthy Lord Hugh, Bishop of Ostia, was raised to the Apostolic dignity; reminding him of a vision, you testified that it was seen to you in a divine revelation, that Blessed Pope Gregory, who indeed shows this very one who now is, both by name and by action, gave you two most beautiful birds, but dead; but blessed Lambert the Martyr and Bishop of Liège, gave one indeed, but much more beautiful and alive: this is also what that most blessed woman Mary of Oignies, a Prophetess indeed not false, foretold you of old in her life, namely that blessed Lambert the Martyr had placed a mitre on your head. in which St. Lambert offered a living bird, and St. Gregory two dead ones: Which without doubt we saw done: since the care of the whole Bishopric of Liège, as a mitre of power and administration, was fully committed to you: and this the gift of St. Lambert. But the temporal principality of administration did not pertain to him, which was a donation of the earthly Empire: yet from this too temporal support was administered to you, because no one ever served as a soldier at his own expense. But this bird of spiritual administration, displayed with the wings of contemplation, gleaming with the feathers of virtues, vivid with holy action, the holy Martyr Lambert and Bishop of Liège, through the holy prayers of the holy men and women, ceases not daily to offer you. Which of the prudent, which of your spiritual friends will be able to bear in peace, if so great a Martyr with so great a gift be confuted by you? The birds indeed which Blessed Pope Gregory gave you, although they are conspicuous with much honor, dead however, you testified were truly given you dead. Those birds certainly dead, dead you yourself said; and dead I recall them. But how are they dead? Why do they not live? If you discuss it, you yourself know me better. Tell then where is their life? Where is the vigor of vivid action, where the fervor of diligent preaching, where that copious, most efficacious, and most holy fruit in hearing Confessions, where the zeal and skillful care in extirpating vices: of these, as is the rumor in our parts, for at Rome in a double dignity either small or no opinion is now held of you there.

[27] O man specially fore-chosen among mortals by the Lord, ceasing in such things; who, although he burns within himself, as we wholly trust, with divine love; yet, placed upon a candlestick, gives light to all not! O beautiful and dead birds! Dead are the birds, I say; but how dead? truly those birds have a mouth, although dead, but they do not speak through you; because you are ignorant of the idiom of the country. They have eyes, but they do not see through you in discerning forensic causes; because your eyes are the pools in Heshbon, which are at the gate of the daughter of the multitude. They have ears, but they do not hear through you; he considers him as if dead: because your ears are open, not to the exactors of dignities, by which they oppress the poor sons of the Church; but to hear the cries of the poor and to reconcile to Christ those who, sons of wrath, tend to the lower regions. If then those birds given you neither see, nor hear, nor speak; what else is to be esteemed of them, but that they are dead? But if dead, why are they cherished in place of living ones? Beware therefore, holy Father, beware most Reverend Bishop, lest the dead birds beget you stench rather than honor. For it is recognized to be of the nature of things, that however beautiful the birds, if they lack life, they cannot last without stench. To us certainly nothing is more reproachful in our French than the proverb "Dead-hens." I beseech you therefore, holy Father, and with poured-out tears I ask, that you be not indignant at me saying these things. God is my witness and His holy Angels, that by these words, though quite hard, I am moved toward you for no other cause than from excessive charity. For with what charity I love you, with what sincere love I embrace you, He knows who knows all things. and he asks pardon for this his love toward him. For I had not yet attained the age of fifteen years, when, hearing you, not yet Bishop, preaching in the parts of Lotharingia, I loved you with such veneration that the mere hearing of your name gladdened me: from then with me the love of you perseveres undivided. Nor a wonder, since the things which we learn as boys somehow grow together with us. Forgive then, holy Father, forgive me, especially since I shall recall to your mind nothing but those things which you saw revealed long before. Nevertheless I wish, if by the mediation of these things which have been digested concerning your person, my affection, by the effect of its desire, can obtain your return, I shall not greatly care to be accused of the due folly, who presumed to provoke you, a Cardinal and Bishop venerable to the holy universal Church, with words although somewhat insulting, yet pious.

NOTES OF D. P.

A From Cantipratanus, On the Bees, book 1, chapter 9, §8, the same narrating more strictly, as we know received with indubitable faith, that this Bishop was Conrad, brother of Egino, Count of Freiburg, from a Canon of St. Lambert at Liège made a Monk, then Abbot of Villers, afterward Cistercian, finally of the Roman Curia Bishop Cardinal of Porto: of whose remarkable holiness there are §§2, 3, 4, and 6, whence is taken the last part of the Appendix from the Oignies manuscript printed by Raissius: he died in the year 1227. More concerning the same holy Cardinal see in Ciacconius of Oldoinus, and how, the Legation of Germany received from Honorius III, he continued under Gregory IX, and finally, following the Crusaders into Palestine, as Legate.

APPENDIX

On James of Vitry the writer.

From the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître.

Mary of Oignies, in Belgium (Bl.)

BY BROTHER NICHOLAS, A CONTEMPORARY, FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

[1] Meanwhile the holy man is believed at that time, in which he stayed at Rome, to have composed those solemn sermons both of the Time and of the Saints, He wrote sermons, which are kept to this day in the church of Oignies: the care of which Parish having been committed to him before his Bishopric, he became, on account of the holiness of her life, very familiar with the aforesaid Mary, conversing in the same parish: for whom too she, as is reported, obtained by her prayers a special grace of preaching. Whence he too, preaching the Cross against the Albigensians in France, he fervently provoked them to take the Cross against the Albigensians: by the suavity and sweetness of his eloquence provoked many and innumerable to take the sign of the Cross. He wrote besides the Life of the aforesaid holy woman, with which he wrote many good things about the holy women who in his time abounded in the parts of Liège, and sharply reprehended their detractors. He also composed another single volume, in which he inserted many things about the natures of things, especially about the wonders which are found in the parts overseas. He wrote also sermons on the work of the six days; and others, which he called Vulgar; and made several other good little works.

[2] Furthermore how great that holy man was in the eyes of God, another refusing to preach with him can be observed from the efficacy of his animadversions. For it is established that vengeance so swift several times followed upon those rebellious against him, that there is no doubt that he was a friend of God, who for his little servant was found to have so seriously been zealous. This a certain venerable Fulco proves, a Ghentian by nation, but a Canon of Lille. He, asked by the Reverend Father Master James of Vitry to preach with him the Cross against the Albigensians through Flanders, refused. And when he insisted through friends, that he would hear him in a business of the church so necessary and devout;

he refused a second time, and asserted that he would by no means do this. Then Master James, trusting that he feared a command more; "And I," he said, "command you by the authority which I exercise, that in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of all your sins, you undertake this business." To whom Lord Fulco, and not obeying even his command "By no means," he said, "will I undertake it: and I ask you that you no longer weary me about this." Soon Master James, gravely moved in heart, and almost wearied to tears, said to him: "Since indeed I could deservedly, by the authority committed to me, excommunicate you, and deprive of every benefice one now contumacious in disobedience; yet I will not, lest I seem to impose such a burden on so great a man. Nevertheless I ask God, who is the inspector of all hearts, that He render you useless, not only for this which you spurn, but utterly for every work." A wondrous thing! for soon as the holy man uttered these words, a quartan fever with a flux of the belly invaded him, God renders him invalid for all other things and until the end of his life for twenty-five years wearied him irremediably. And see, reader, the wondrous judgment of God concerning this man, since he was so great and such, that to him the Lord Jesus Christ before death appeared visible, as if recently stretched on the Cross, and foretold that he would die before the end of the month of August: for 24 years, yet the Lord in no way chose to spare him in this life, but for disobedience scourged him for so great a space of time.

[3] Moreover when the same reverend James preached the Cross of Jerusalem for the salvation of many in Brabant; it happened that, about to make peace on a certain day among mortal enmities, when he, the one who had suffered the injury first suppliantly, then prostrate at his feet once, again, and a third time, with a multitude of people present asked, and did not profit with the rebel; he, turning again to the people, said openly to all: "I attest you, that he who spurns us spurns also Him who sent us. Ask therefore the Lord, that He show such a sign in the obstinate man, by which it may be plain to all present, he by his prayers prostrates the one obstinate in hatred that he has acted as an enemy against himself in retaining hatred against his neighbor." Without delay: when the holy man completed his prayer, that wretched man, his eyes overturned, once, again, and a third time fell to the ground; and foaming gore from his mouth and pus, offered to all the greatest spectacle of horror and a warning. Then, the people weeping, and amends him. the reverend man, prayer poured out, raised the prostrate one: who soon most entirely restored to health, when he saw his enemy before him, as if about to ask of a most dear friend, with tears asked pardon; and rushing into his kisses, moved the hearts of all to tears and the praise of Christ.

[4] At last the venerable Man of God James, although by Apostolic authority he was raised to the Bishopric and Cardinalate; As Cardinal he benefits the people of Oignies, yet the poor school which he had left at Oignies he did not forget; nay rather, taking care to supply its poverty with Roman wealth, he sent many weights of gold from the city of Rome thither, that an abundance of wine might everywhere not be lacking to the Brothers and guests for necessity. and wished to be buried among them. Nay, although on account of his offices and ecclesiastical dignities, with which he was unwillingly entangled, he had to absent himself bodily from them while he lived; yet about to migrate from the present life, he had his body after death carried to Oignies, and buried in the same Church. Whence on the Vigil of the holy Apostles Philip and James he happily died; and after the third day his soul was seen in paradise by many who were surviving.

[5] Thus far the Rouge-Cloître manuscript. Alberic, Monk of Trois-Fontaines, whom we mentioned above, translated in the year 1241. ending his Chronicle in the year 1241 of the body in fact translated, thus mentions it: "To Oignies was brought back the body of Master James of Vitry by his own mandate, and there his bones were honorably laid up." How greatly the memory of James is held in veneration at Oignies, Raissius teaches us, Some veneration of his Relics, when among the Relics of the place he numbers the Scourge, with which he paid penalties to himself; two Mitres, one of parchment, the other of silk; two pontifical Rings; an Agnus Dei enclosed in a golden casket; a crozier of ivory; a portable Altar filled with the Relics of Saints, all of which are reported to have been James's, a man plainly learned and pious, his image, and an indefatigable herald of the divine word. There too is kept his image, which painted from life (as is reported) I cannot believe on account of the garments of more recent form, and therefore I here omit to exhibit it. Andrew Hojus of Bruges, Doctor (?), ending the Life of James prefixed to his works, says that "there with the aforesaid handmaid of God, John the Doctor of Nivelles, Giles of Walcourt, Baldwin of Barbançon, the first two Priors of the place, separated from one another by no long interval, his tomb. he rests in peace." Raissius, after the Cœnobiarchia, professing to weave an Epitome of the same Life, adds of his own, as an eyewitness; "That he himself can be seen in Pontifical habit of black but skillfully sculpted marble, raised about three feet from the ground, in the exhibited copy of him."

NOTES OF D. P.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

made into a new chest in the year 1608 from the printed French.

Mary of Oignies, in Belgium (Bl.)

FROM THE PRINTED FRENCH.

[1] To the fourth Bishop of Namur, James Blaseus, translated to the See of Saint-Omer around the year 1600, in the following year was substituted, and on February 12, 1602, consecrated at Mons in Hainaut, in his native city, Francis Buisseret, Doctor of Laws and formerly Dean of the Metropolitan of Cambrai; Francis Buisseret Bishop of Namur afterward raised to the same Metropolis in the year 1614. He, going around his diocese of Namur, came also to the tomb of Mary; and from it drew such tenderness of devotion, that then, and as often as it happened that mention was made of that handmaid of Christ, he could not restrain himself from a shower of tears. Furthermore, that he might repay some return for his devotion, he began to revolve in mind concerning her elevation to be made. he asks of Paul V license to elevate the body of Blessed Mary, Wherefore he judged it to be no small part of his pastoral office to consult the supreme Bishop of the Church, Paul V, on this matter, and to supplicate him to permit him to elevate those sacred remains with solemn celebrity, and to expose them in public to be venerated by the people. Which obtained, together with a plenary Indulgence, to be gained by those who should perform the things required in the Bull, and should come together to this solemnity, he appointed the day October 12 in the year 1608, and ordered it to be published by the Parish-priests and other heralds of the divine word, through the whole diocese and the neighboring places. Thus far the Prior of Oignies Bernard, and chooses for it the day October 12, 1608. in his letter to me given on October 28, 1694, sending likewise the History of the Translation or Elevation, as it is held printed in French together with the Life.

§ I. The Pastoral letter of the Bishop of Namur, inviting to the future festivity.

Veneration has been given to the Relics of the Saints from of old; [2] Francis Buisseret, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Bishop of Namur, to all who shall see these, everlasting greeting in the Lord. It is established from the sacred histories that, from the very beginnings of the Church, the bodies of the Saints have been held in great veneration by the faithful Christians; and this too most clearly teach the fasts and vigils wont to be kept at their tombs, day and night with singular devotion; the altars erected over them; the Masses founded at the same by old custom; the temples, in their honor most magnificently raised throughout the whole world, in which they might be kept with greater honor and reverence; the vows, with the highest religion and zeal made, of visiting their churches and Relics; the pilgrimages instituted thither even from the most remote parts; finally the precious gifts and offerings, conferred there by the greatest Princes for perpetual memory. And indeed it was just that all these honors be given to the bodies of the Saints and their sacred bones: and this deservedly, since they not only were joined with their souls in this mortal life, were temples of the living God, members of Jesus Christ and dwellings of the Holy Spirit; but even now are most true instruments of the divine majesty, through which He deigns daily to work wonders for our salvation and the solace of the afflicted.

[3] From this cause it has come about that whenever they happened to be found in some vile and obscure place, or even before wholly unknown to men, God Himself revealing or otherwise

providing it, the Bishops and Prelates of the Churches considered it to be of their office solemnly to elevate them, hence the solemnly celebrated Elevations of them, and to transfer them thither, where the Clergy and People might follow them with worthy veneration. Thus the bodies of Saints Stephen the Protomartyr and others, which had long lain in an obscure and sordid place, Lucian the Priest being divinely admonished, as of St. Stephen, through John, Bishop of Jerusalem, the Bishops of the neighboring cities being convened, were translated with the utmost veneration into the holy church of Sion. Thus St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, SS. Gervasius and Protasius, the bodies of the holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius being found through an apparition made to him, translated them with great honor into that most beautiful church, which was afterward called by his own name: but the divine goodness deigned, by very many miracles wrought, to declare how pleasing to itself was such piety, exercised toward His Martyrs. Likewise too St. Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, St. Vedast the Bishop, stirred from heaven, invited St. Audomarus, Bishop of the Morini, to make the Elevation of his predecessor St. Vedast in the church of the Virgin Mother of God, in that place where now is the basilica with the most celebrated monastery, dedicated under his name: on which occasion Audomarus, blind, received the light of his eyes. Finally very many other Bishops and Prelates of various churches honorably translated the bodies of various Saints with the greatest concourse of the faithful peoples and the public exultation of all: and of others. which too they wished to be recalled by an anniversary, on the very days of such findings or translations.

[4] About to imitate the example of these, when we understood that the body of St. Mary of Oignies had now for some hundreds of years lain shut in a stone tomb, [When therefore the Bishop had found the wooden chest of Blessed Mary consumed in the tomb,] walled all around, in the church of the monastery and priory of Oignies, of the Order of St. Augustine of Canons Regular of our diocese; lest her sacred bones be corrupted by the lapse of longer time and the humidity of the place; we have thought it congruous to visit that place, and to open the tomb, as we visited and opened them in the presence of several Prelates, all the Religious, and many others: nor did we find it had happened otherwise than we feared. For since there had once been enclosed in that tomb a certain wooden chest, this was found so consumed by age, that not only were the sacred bones everywhere covered with dust, but even some of them lay immersed in filth, generated from the putrefied wood; yet all whole, as also her venerable head. But although in the same place they had always been honored by pilgrims, he resolves to elevate her bones thence, an Indulgence obtained for it who, running from everywhere, made their prayers and offerings of candles before the aforesaid tomb, and in a chapel built to her honor: yet because it was by no means fitting that these sacred vessels of the Holy Spirit should remain longer in so vile and sordid a place, with the danger of corruption; we appealed to Our Most Holy Father Pope Paul V, and signified that it was our purpose, with his license, to elevate them, and to transfer them to a more decent and honored place: who also, that the matter might be carried out with greater fruit and devotion, granted to it a plenary Indulgence.

[5] Furthermore, mature deliberation premised with the Prior and Religious of that monastery and our Vicars, which the Bishop orders to be promulgated, for October 12 we have chosen for making the aforesaid Translation the day October 12 next: and therefore we command all the Rectors of the parish churches and preachers of the divine word of our diocese, that they announce to the people the Translation to be made on the aforesaid day with a plenary Indulgence; and exhort their subjects and all their hearers to strive to gain the same, and at the same time to honor the sacred Relics of Blessed Mary of Oignies by their presence, carrying lighted candles in their hands in the solemn procession, in which they will be carried around, as we exhort to do, both all our diocesans and the inhabitants of others, and especially of the nearer places, showing through this office of Christian piety the affection of their devotion toward that holy Matron, who in life and after death illustrated this Gallic Belgium and our region with so many miracles, and shone before us with so many most beautiful examples of virtues: and that in this our age they may revive the fervor of the ancient Christians, who on such occasions sometimes broke the very walls of their cities, opened them in some parts, as anciently was the custom in triumphs, that they might attest their common joy, at the entrance of those sacred relics, carried on the shoulders of the chief Prelates, and of the greatest Emperors, Kings, and Princes.

[6] Nay rather, all of whatever order, condition, or sex prepared themselves much for those festivities with prayers and fasts, with humble confession of sins, that they might more worthily follow those sacred triumphs. persuading that all devoutly prepare themselves for it. Which we also desire to be done in our times, and we hope is to be done on the occasion of so singular a treasure which is offered, namely a plenary Indulgence: and therefore from the heart we implore the divine grace, necessary to us and to all who will come to the aforesaid Translation. In faith of which we have ordered the present letters, signed with our own hand, to be also corroborated with the seal of our secretariat. Given in our Episcopal Palace of the city of Namur, on the first day of September, in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and eight. It was signed: Francis Bishop of Namur. By the command of the Most Reverend Lord Bishop aforesaid, Vander Roest, Secretary.

§ II. Synopsis of the acts and things said by the Bishop before the Translation itself.

[7] The Bishop brought to Oignies on October 11 When the Most Reverend of Namur, on October 11 of the year 1608, had come to the Priory of Oignies, accompanied by many Prelates, Canons, and Nobles, and likewise a Doctor physician and Master surgeon brought from Namur; he proceeded toward the sacristy of the monastery church; and after some prayers poured out before the sacred Relics then, when he had taken them from the tomb, placed within his chest signed with his seal, he opened this: he revisits the Relics, kept meanwhile in the sacristy, and one by one bringing out thence all the bones, he had them recognized by the physician and surgeon, and a separate note applied to each: then he reverently placed them in two little wooden chests prepared for this, which too he corroborated with his seal. Afterward he appointed Religious and Priests, who should keep watch over them the whole night there in the sacristy: where the concourse of the people, which now from the first Vespers had begun to flow together, was continued until morning; and grew so much successively, although the weather was rainy, to be carried the next day to a platform in the marketplace: that the next day the church and monastery were continually full, and it was necessary to erect a platform in the public square, open on all sides and spread with hangings, to which the holy Relics, carried, could be seen by the almost infinite multitude of men, standing in the surrounding gardens and houses.

[8] On the same 12th day, although the very choir of the Religious was occupied even by laymen, where, after the Mass sung, he himself approaching, the aforesaid Most Reverend sang a solemn Mass of the Holy Spirit, the Reverend Abbots of Floreffe and St. Feuillien of the Premonstratensian Order assisting him: which finished, vested in Pontificals, as also the Abbots themselves, he proceeded straight to the platform, through the midst of the most crowded throng, surrounded by much nobility, and sitting beside the sacred Relics, began thus to address the people standing by: "The holy Catholic Church has always believed and taught that we not only can and ought to honor and invoke the Saints, he teaches the crowd gathered there that the Relics are to be honored. who are in heaven; but also to venerate their Bodies and Relics, kept on earth.

[9] This truth the sacred scriptures confirm to us. For in the book of Exodus, chapter 13, we read it written, that Moses, going out with the children of Israel from Egypt, was unwilling to leave there the bones of the Patriarch Joseph long since deceased, because among the Pagans they would be without honor: but he carried them out with him, to be handed over to honorable burial in the land of promise: and with the same regard God Himself buried Moses, as is read in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, than which no greater honor could be given to a dead body. In the fourth book of Kings, chapter 23, it is distinctly narrated by the example of the ancient Patriarchs, how the good King Josiah had destroyed the temples and altars which the Kings Solomon, Jeroboam, and others had had erected to idols, whence to the peoples was given occasion of idolatry; and it is added that the same King, the altars demolished, ordered the bones of a certain holy Prophet found there to be left and preserved: by which deed he signally honored them and showed they were to be venerated by the peoples.

[10] But although our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ chose to die an ignominious death; and of Christ Himself rendering His sepulchre glorious, yet He chose to have an honorable tomb, nay a glorious one, as the Prophet Isaiah foretold, that is, full of glory and triumphal; such as it was in the time of St. Jerome, who testifies that the Chief Men of the Gauls, the Britains, and of the very Indies, from all parts of the world came thither to him, to see and honor it; and that they perceived great consolations there, the pilgrims meeting in one from every nation and tongue, to sing praises to God there unanimously: where even now it is reverently kept by a great number of Religious of St. Francis, although it is itself under the power of the infidels. For the same cause the Lord declared the services of St. Mary Magdalene and her companions, bringing precious spices to anoint His body, to be pleasing to Himself; for He appeared to them and offered His feet to be touched and kissed, and made them the first messengers of His glorious resurrection.

[11] But what He approved to be done to His own body, and willing the same to be done to His Saints: He also willed to be bestowed on the bodies of His Saints, and their sacred bones, which He has and esteems as His own members. For He had them preserved and honored by the Christians of all nations throughout the whole world: and He Himself honored them with infinite miracles, not only for the advantage and benefit of those honoring them; but also that He might preserve them from corruption and the various perils to which the cruelty of tyrants exposed them, and of other impious men busying themselves in every way to abolish their memory upon the earth. For who preserved them from the flames, whose bodies therefore He often miraculously preserved when those who had given them to death wished them reduced to ashes; or from the waters, when they were thrown into the sea or rivers? Who restrained the wild beasts lest they devour them, cast to them as food, all being forbidden lest anyone presume to bury them in the ground? Nay, who roused even the most savage beasts to protect them from the injuries of men and other beasts? Who directed a dolphin to receive the body of St. Lucian the Martyr on its back as on a cart, as of SS. Lucian, Paul the Hermit, and to carry it to the other bank, where it might be honorably buried by the Christians? Who commanded lions to assist St. Anthony, to inhume the body of St. Paul the first Hermit? Who brought eagles to the body of St. Stanislaus, Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow and Martyr, lest other beasts touch those members which the impious King Boleslaus had had scattered through the fields, not content with the death inflicted on the Saint by his own hands; until the Canons of his Cathedral church sought and gathered them? And what is more wondrous,

who united them among themselves, so that no indication or scar of so cruel a butchery appeared in the reintegrated body? Who gave a single raven courage and strength to defend the corpse of St. Vincent the Martyr from the wild beasts to whom it had been given as prey; Vincent, as St. Augustine narrates in the second sermon on that glorious Martyr; adding that, thrown into the waters, it could not be submerged, nor injured by any other means. Who made a wolf of enormous size forget its natural ferocity and voracity, so that it embraced between its forefeet the head of St. Edward the King, as if clasping it with arms in the midst of a forest; Edward King and Martyr, the rest of the body prostrate on the ground without food and sleep, like a faithful satellite of its Prince; until his good subjects came, and joined the desired treasure, best preserved, to the rest of the body?

[12] Furthermore death itself (which is called pale, livid, and terrible, because it makes all things handed to its right such) who forbade to change anything of the color or form of very many Saints, who after death appeared with a face far more cheerful and splendid than they had been when they lived, as St. John Chrysostom testifies of Juventius and Maximus the Martyrs, Juventius and Maximus, who dead were to all an admiration, no less than St. Stephen living was to the Jews, beholding his face as the face of an Angel standing among them: which also happened to many others, and by name to this holy Matron, to whose honor we have woven the present sermon. St. Sulpicius, describing the death of St. Martin, Martin the Bishop, testifies that the body of the deceased presented the figure and form of a glorified body, that is, raised to the state of heavenly glory: but the flesh seemed purer than clean crystal, and whiter than milk, so that it seemed to present the appearance of a boy of seven years, although by living he had attained the year above eighty: which same St. Bonaventure also narrates of the body of St. Francis. Francis, Nay, even more wondrous things are read; namely that the earth, which in a short time consumes other bodies buried in it, has preserved the corpses of very many Saints whole for many years. For St. Jerome writes of St. Hilarion, that his body after ten months was found incorrupt and exhaling a sweet odor, Hilarion, as if it had been embalmed with balsam and spices. He who wrote the Life of St. Edward, King of the English, Edward King and Confessor, affirms that thirty-six years after his decease his body was found lively and full of moisture, moreover flexible and tractable as if it were alive; and that not only his bones and flesh had contracted nothing of corruption, but neither his beard, nor his hair, nor his garments.

[13] All these, and very many others of this kind, because their bodies were without doubt done through the omnipotence and at the command of Him who, not content to adorn the souls of His Saints with incomprehensible glory, before the church triumphant in heaven: wills the same too, before the church militant, to be venerable on earth. Nor let it be a wonder to anyone that He so wills it, which justice requires for many and weighty reasons. First because these were the vessels in which the sacred and fragrant unguents of the holy Spirit were stored, and the instruments through which God worked so many prodigies and so great wonders in the world. were instruments of divine glory, For if the pyx in which precious balsam was long stored is carefully kept, because it always keeps something of its fragrance; if the sword, with which King David slew the giant Goliath, was held in honor long after; nor without a certain reverence do we look upon the arms of great war-leaders, who manfully vanquished the enemies of country and faith; and the banners of the barbarians, repulsed by them, affixed to temples, as trophies and monuments of victories won: how much more is it fitting that these sacred bones be honorably preserved, which were the receptacles of that divine Spirit, companions to the souls of their labors, and which served Him so often for thrusting devils back into hell, and drawing out from his claws the souls already acquired for Himself from the people of God. Another reason is, that bones of this kind were companions of the labors of the souls now glorious, nay they themselves sustained the greater part of the penances which the Saints did in this world: is it not therefore also fitting that they be companions of their triumph and glory? which, while it is yet awaited to be perfectly communicated to them in heaven, meanwhile here let them begin to possess some little portion of it; which befalls them while He retains them here in such honor.

[14] and the sight of them is useful to us, The third reason is that which St. John Chrysostom touches on in his book on St. Babylas the Martyr, where he says that God has provided almost nothing more useful to us or more conducive to salvation than the Relics of the Saints. For nothing more avails, and more stimulates us to imitate their virtues, than their tombs and their bones laid up in them. For as soon as we approach there, there come to our memory their patience, charity, chastity, piety, and other virtues; and at the same time occasion is given us to think, with how great glory they are therefore crowned in heaven, whose bodies are so honored on earth; and that for a little of temporary and quickly passing tribulation they have acquired a reward with God, perpetual and unfading. Hence will come to us a great stimulus, or rather as it were wings will be added, by which we may be raised above ourselves; and let us trust that we shall be able to be as they, if we do as they: since they were constituted of the same nature as we, nor more than we exempt from temptations; but they overcame their own, as we too by their example can overcome ours.

[15] For these therefore and other causes, here passed over for the sake of brevity, but the tombs are workshops of salvation, God willed each to be honored in his own times, as we have already said: and therefore also He illustrated them, and illustrates them daily with so many miracles; making their tombs to be as it were certain workshops, whence medicines and remedies may be sought against any infirmities and diseases. There devils are tamed and expelled, the afflicted find help and solace, the blind receive sight, the deaf hearing, the mute speech, the dead life; the lame the faculty of walking rightly, the paralytic recover their former strength; and whoever, languid either in body or mind, through frequent miracles: feel the relief of their afflictions, and full of joy revisit their homes. Of such examples all the histories of the Saints are full. But what need is there to fetch them from farther, for those engaged in a most fertile garden of flowers and fruits of this kind? This good Matron, to whose veneration we have come together here, so deserved to be honored by her spouse Jesus Christ as long as she lived, and immediately from her death to the present day.

[16] But that I may select a few from many, I will only say such as are also done at the Relics of Mary. that by the touch of her hands and by her prayers she often cured diseases; and her hair, which is nothing but a certain superfluity of nature, applied to incurable wounds healed them; but one joint of her fingers, which Master James of Vitry, once her secretary and preacher, afterward Bishop of Acre and Tusculum, and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, had had enclosed in silver and carried about with him, often preserved him from great perils by land and sea. Another Cardinal too, called Hugh of Anagni, afterward Pope Gregory IX, agitated for a long time by the worst spirit of blasphemy, and now almost brought to despair; by means of the same joint, was freed from that most troublesome temptation, than which the devil has none worse and more atrocious (which I esteem greater and more wondrous than the miracles which we see daily done in restoring the health of bodies, by as much, namely, as the soul excels the body)—the soul, I say, of that Cardinal, who afterward so prudently ruled the Catholic Church, was withdrawn from that wicked spirit, wont to grant no part of rest to those whom it is permitted to torture, as those who have experienced it know: but the strength and power of that dragon this wise Matron crushed, in the manner which is read in her life; and she likewise helped many others, whose notice it will be permitted to draw from the same source, with all the circumstances of the aforenoted miracle.

[17] I conclude therefore and infer from the aforesaid, that her sacred Bones and Relics, which for nearly four hundred years lay hidden in a stone tomb, He declares therefore that he will transfer the Relics and which we have deserved to find whole, are worthy to be raised thence, lest perchance by the humidity of the place and the course of times they become subject to some corruption, and to be transferred to a more honorable place, that the Christian people, who long honored them prostrate before the tomb, offering votive candles and pouring out prayers, may be more readily excited to venerate them more propensely hereafter, and so may be able more copiously to participate in the merits of this excellent servant of God and most faithful spouse of Jesus Christ. But that all, who were not loath, and show them to all. not only from the surrounding places, but even from more remote ones, to flock here, retarded by no inclemency of the air, by no difficulty of the ways, from desire of assisting at this holy action, and gaining the Indulgences granted by Our Holy Father Pope Paul V; the help of the Holy Spirit being invoked, that we may become worthy to touch such sacred Relics, we will bring forth the individual bones openly to all, and will show them to this greatest multitude of the most Christian people, before we place them on the biers prepared for this.

§. III. Things said and done in the Translation itself.

[18] A Hymn being sung after a sermon of this kind, "Veni creator Spiritus" (Come Creator Spirit), He shows to the people one by one, the aforesaid Most Reverend proceeded to the blessing of the biers, according to the prescription of the Roman Pontifical: then receiving from the hand of the Archdeacon of his Cathedral the sacred bones one by one, he showed them to the people, as follows. First, raising the bones of the feet and shins, he pronounced these or similar words: "Behold the holy Relics of the feet of this holy Lady, the bones of the feet which on account of the ardent devotion which she had toward the salvation of souls, so often walked in the footsteps of the servants of God, of whom by prophetic spirit she knew that very many were to be brought to the knowledge of the truth for the service of God, as the history of her life declares. of the shins, Behold the shins, to which God conferred so much grace, that they could walk over the waters, as often as with dry garments and footsteps she crossed the Sambre, without fear of any danger."

[19] Bringing forth the bones of the knees: "Blessed," he said, of the knees, "are these sacred bones, so often bent down to the earth in honor of the most holy Mother of God: for she, from a peculiar instinct of the holy Spirit, from infancy had accustomed herself to bend and raise them repeatedly before her little bed amid praying; and so greatly profited in this pious exercise, that the number of genuflections often in one night exceeded a thousand and a hundred; with a rare and perhaps never-heard-of religion which she continued sometimes for forty days consecutively. Who therefore will not venerate these holy Relics, as instruments of the Holy Spirit for saluting so often the Virgin Mother of God?" But showing

also the ribs; of the ribs, "Who would not embrace," he said, "these sacred sides, bloodied with so many blows of rods, and worthy not only to be wrapped in silk, but also enclosed in gold and gems? But what honor will be given to the bones of the sacred belly (and saying this the Bishop showed them), to which so little nourishment sufficed, of the thighs, as is understood from her Life; since, besides the continual abstinence to which she was accustomed, from the feast of the Annunciation until the Vigil of St. John the Baptist on which she died, she ate only eleven times, and that quite soberly, nay rather within that brief space of time, she passed fifty-three whole days without any bodily refreshment at all, abundantly satisfied with the Eucharistic feast, while meanwhile with ineffable gladness she awaited her nuptial day? What will become of those insatiable bellies, as if made only to consume whatever the hands could gain, or even the very substance of the poor?"

[20] Then exhibiting the spine of the back and the bones cohering to it; "O sacred bones," he said, "so often reclined or rather wearied upon the hard ground, of the back and loins, without any fear of nocturnal cold or of icy roughness! For what some of you perhaps did once on this occasion, watching in honor of the holy Relics; that to her was almost daily, although in her little chamber she had a little bed, spread with a little straw: for she used it rarely, the Holy Spirit impelling her, that she preferred to take a very brief sleep in the church before her Bridegroom and the relics of the Saints, with only a thin cloth spread under her upon the pavement; but sometimes having the step of the altar for a pillow: which she sometimes continued from the Vigil of St. Martin until Lent. Who furthermore could narrate what the rest of her body suffered? especially when it pleased her Bridegroom to send upon her a paralysis, which for a long time greatly afflicted her; yet she herself was unwilling to be freed from it, for the heaping up of the merit of patience. Nay, when some of her friends, having once prayed God for her, had obtained some relief of the evil; she earnestly asked him not to pray for her any longer; 'Because,' she said, 'I feel that by as much as the torment is diminished, by so much is worn away of the merit of that scourge with which it pleased God to chastise me.'"

[21] Bringing forth the hands he said; "O most holy hands, which by their mere touch cured the perilous hernia of so many infants, of the hands and took away the disease of quinsy from those whose cure the physicians held desperate: this wise Matron cured both, by the mere laying-on of her hands: which moreover deserve to be commended forever from this, that like two wings they were so often raised to heaven, from the vehemence of the desire with which she sighed for the day that would raise her herself thither. How often too she expended them in exercising works of charity toward her neighbor, nor ever allowed them to cease from some useful labor, lest she should leave place for any idleness."

[22] Finally let us all venerate, as much as we can, her sacred head. and of the head, When the body of St. Anthony of Padua, thirty-one years after death, St. Bonaventure honorably translated, he found the tongue still, no less than when it lived, ruddy; and taking it in his hands, with abundance of devotion, suffused with a shower of tears, he said: 'O blessed tongue, which always blessed God, and taught others to bless! Now it is plainly perceived of how great merit you were with God': and kissing it a hundred times, he replaced it in its proper little case. The same I seem to myself able to say and do to this sacred Head, and with you so to salute it: 'O sacred head, which, according to the precept of the Apostle given to women, chose to be adorned not with twisted curls, or gold, or pearls, or costly garment, nor to seek beauty by hair let down more prolixly or raised more loftily than is fitting, but content with a simple white veil to be covered, appeared more gracious to the divine eyes. You deserved altogether to be esteemed and honored more by the Angels whose hair too, than any matron ever with all her womanly adornment could please vain men. But the King of Angels sufficiently showed how greatly He was pleased with your humble and modest dress, whose look, since one curl of your hair applied to an incurable wound healed it; and the simple look of your face spiritually refreshed the souls of those beholding it, exciting them to contrition, and eliciting abundant tears of penance. So too the words which proceeded from your mouth, savored in the mouth of the hearers as sweet as honey, and whose speech were so efficacious: as it happened to the Bishop of Toulouse, driven from his see by the Albigensian heretics; who, when he had come to visit you, felt such inward taste from your speeches, that through that whole day no bodily dishes could be savory to him, or extinguish the sense of the sweetness perceived.'"

[23] "Grant, O holy Lady, us too to taste little drops of the same sweetness; that, strengthened and animated for the rest of the time of our life, finally he invokes Mary, we may imitate your virtues, despise the honors, delicacies, and riches of the world, hold to abstinence, if not with that perfection with which you did, yet according to our powers and our weakness. Let us embrace your charity, follow your humility, love chastity, and give ourselves to the exercise of every kind of piety and devotion, shining in your most holy life: and let it be done for us through such imitation of you; and wishes for all the imitation of her, that as now we venerate your holy Relics, so we may see and honor you sometime in heaven. You lived upon earth only thirty-six years or thereabouts: but even now here lives and will live forever the fame of your holiness, wisdom, and the other virtues, with which your heavenly Bridegroom adorned and endowed you, as with so many pearls and precious stones: yet incomparably more you live, where now your glorious soul is, in that palace of the King of Kings, your Bridegroom, where is every good, without any admixture of contrary evil, that they may be made partakers of her glory. life without death, day without night, truth without falsehood, joy without sadness, security without fear, rest without labor, eternity without end; to which, by His goodness and mercy, and by the suffrages and merits of His Saints, may the Lord lead us, Amen."

[24] Then he places the head and bones in two reliquaries, Thus these holy Relics were wrapped in silken veils, and laid up in two reliquaries, of which one had been prepared for the head, the other for the rest of the bones; and these being well soldered by the goldsmith, a procession was instituted, in which they were carried on the shoulders of Prelates and other ecclesiastical Nobles. The first station was opposite that place where Mary of Oignies crossed the river Sambre, without a boat or any other human aid; where an altar was erected, which, the sky suddenly clearing, he transfers to the church, and certain prayers ordered by the Most Reverend were sung. The second station was ordered at the fountain, today called St. Mary of Oignies's, at the corner of the wood, where there is a chapel, because there she was wont to pray; and many devout pilgrims received and receive there relief of their afflictions, through her intercessions and merits with God. There came to the procession an innumerable multitude of people, which deserved to experience the divine favor, in that the rain, which had been continuous the whole night up to the end of the greater Mass; ceased at the very moment in which they proceeded to show the holy Relics; and the fair weather lasted as long as the procession: but this finished, the rains returned, and lasted that whole day.

[25] The procession having returned into the church, the Most Reverend Bishop of Namur imparted a solemn blessing to the whole assembly, and dismisses the people with a blessing. and decreed that a procession of this kind should be repeated each year thereafter in memory of the aforenarrated Translation: and, the two biers being left, exposed upon the high altar for the devotion of the people; the Most Reverend himself, with the Nobles and Prelates, passed to the place prepared for refreshing twelve poor old men, He orders too that that day be recalled each year, to whom His Most Reverend Grace himself with the aforesaid Lords ministered, which it is read was of old done by the Bishops on such occasions. After Vespers most solemnly sung, the aforesaid two reliquaries were laid up in the treasury: yet the devotion was continued through the whole octave, the faithful flocking from everywhere, and bringing back from the divine goodness no small fruit of their religion, in that they saw cured many sick and weak, and many miracles are done. who in the chapel of St. Mary of Oignies left their crutches, and other supports without which they could never have reached thither: which is attested also by many other evils cured there, concerning which the Most Reverend wished to be juridically informed, as the authentic acts drawn up thereon prove, which can sometime be brought to light, for the solace of the faithful and the confusion of the heretics.

§. IV. Certain more recent miracles.

[26] As we have now seen, the Author of the French Life, content to have mentioned in general the miracles wrought after this Elevation, did not satisfy the desire of one wishing to know certain things more distinctly; and therefore I asked the often-praised Prior of Oignies that, if any of more recent memory, either proved before the Bishop in process or afterward firmly attested, had happened; he would deign to gather them: but he answered on November 4, 1697, that there had been very many of these before and after the elevation, but those who heard or saw them neglected to note them or to transmit what was noted to posterity.

[27] "I will nevertheless bring forth here," said the Prior, "two illustrious proofs from our archives of the wondrous help of Blessed Mary, and the first indeed that which those who usefully experienced it, and the eyewitnesses, before the Reverend Lord Prior of Oignies, and the Deputy of the Bishop for the information of the miracles of the same Blessed one, before a Notary, deposed under the faith of an oath. Simona Grave, wife of Francis Bouchier, citizen of Armentières in Flanders, pregnant, sitting then perchance before the doors of her house, struck with horrible terror by the unexpected and headlong course of an ill-managed rider, falls into the extreme peril of childbirth: so that for five whole days, the industry of the matron-midwives by no means availing, relieved only by the extraction of the arm, in which the infant was baptized, almost overcome by unspeakable anguishes and pains, she protracted it: meanwhile the boy dies in the womb, and no hope at all of a natural birth shone forth, and every remedy escaped the physicians; so that they gave the judgment that the offspring should be cut up piece by piece. Which because the woman in childbirth shuddered at to the marrow, the cutting was suspended: but when, divinely inspired, the woman most devoutly invokes the help of Blessed Mary, whose rib, entrusted to her by the Parish-priest, she had faithfully applied to herself; another midwife sought from elsewhere, a little time after, happily receives the infant in her bosom, without a grave opening of the mother. But she, restored to health, about to render her vows to God and her benefactress, coming to Oignies with the notary and witnesses by a long pilgrimage, affirmed all things as they lie, a public instrument being drawn up for this on May 26, 1611.

[28] Behold for you another. Dominic Guilliaume from the village of Han in Lotharingia affirmed before the Parish-priest of Oignies and witnesses beyond all exception, that he, from an issue of the bowels, which they call hernia, to the thickness of one

cap, the surgeon herself attesting it, suffering, by a Mass from a vow and nine-day prayers, paid in honor of Blessed Mary of Oignies, felt himself wondrously and extraordinarily sound and unharmed, on July 4, 1653.

[29] "Chrysostom de Monpleinchamp, Preacher of the King, Chaplain to the Most Serene Electress of Bavaria, I swear on the faith of a Priest, that Lord Bidart, Canon Regular of Molonium, Parish-priest of St. Lupus at Namur, holily asserted to me, that for several nights the body of St. Mary of Oignies gave forth an intolerable din in his chamber, into which on account of the wars it had been brought; nor did the tumult cease, except after the chest was raised, filled with military booty, which had been thrust into the same chamber. In faith of these things I have corroborated these, signed with my own hand, with my seal. At Brussels, September 27, 1700."

JUNE 24.