CONCERNING BLESSED JOHN THE SHEPHERD
OF MONCHY-PIERREUX IN ARTOIS.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
A PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Blessed one's country, age, burial, elevation, cult. By whom and when the Life was written.
John, the Shepherd in Artois among the Belgians (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR C. J.
There are three Monchy to be found in Artois and the territory of Arras; one, of S. Mary or Our Lady, commonly Monchy Notre Dame, separated from Arras by three Belgian miles toward the summer setting of the sun. Three Monchy in Artois; Another, called "in the wood," Monchy au bois; just as far distant from Arras toward the South. The third, Pierreux, to the inhabitants and dwellers Monchy Pierreux, and more commonly Monchy Preux. It is distant likewise to the East a mile and a half or a little more. Of this Monchy is our discourse here. Concerning the origin of the name and the situation of the place these things notes the learned man Ferreolus Locrius in the Belgian Chronicle, which should rather have been entitled "of Arras" or "of Artois," published in the year 1616, page 569. The site of Pierreux and the origin of its name The Genius of the place and its situation gave the name to the district. Here a mountain stands out: it produces rocks or stones; and hence Pierreux ("stony"); in the Gallic word Moncy preux, as if Mont icy pierreux ("Mountain here stony"). To others this allusion pleases, that from a village, called Reux, situated just beside it (whence Monchy pres Reux, contracted Monchypreux) it received its nomenclature. The same writes that the most famous Monastery of Hasnon, situated on the bank of the river Scarpe, claims for itself the lordship of the place. And hence perhaps its Monks had a care above the rest of writing the Life of John, of which afterward. That village, says Rayssius in the Auctarium to the Natales of Molanus, set upon a mountain, is seen from the walls of our city of Douai, near the gate of Arras: in whose temple (so he had said at the beginning) the sacred bones of B. John the Shepherd are piously and honorably kept in a casket upon the altar of the same Saint, which we have several times venerated. Near his altar is seen a beautiful mausoleum, of twin cenotaphs of marble work, concerning which presently also more from Locrius, whence he himself drew.
[2] Mention of the Blessed Man is made by Guilielmus Gazet, in the Ecclesiastical History of Belgium; Aubertus Miraeus, in the Belgian and Burgundian Calendars; Arnoldus Rayssius aforenamed, in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium; Balduinus Willot of the Society of Jesus, in the Epitome of the Belgian Hagiology, The Authors who mentioned John. who on the 24th day of June (to which also by the aforesaid his solemnity is noted) thus writes: At Monchy Pierreux is honored the body of B. John the Shepherd. The Author of the Life is a Monk of Hasnon, which, as he himself advises at the foot of his autograph, he composed in the Year 1500. The age of the Blessed one or the time of his death he nowhere indicates: yet he writes that there assisted the dying man, and said many laudable things about him, whose Confessions he had often heard, to the surrounding people, the Bishop of Arras, named Peter. But who was that Peter the Bishop, among the seven of the same name, who are read to have ruled the Church of Arras before the year 1500? Certainly he must have been either Peter Masoërius, who from the year 1374 to 92, or Peter Ranchicurius, who from 1463 to 99, presided. That the first of these was contemporary with the Blessed one, Locrius thinks by this reasoning, which, because it contains also some things not mentioned elsewhere, I add in full.
[3] It is a loss, he says, that the Author of the Life escaped knowing, or did not know, by what storm of time John flourished. Did he flourish in the 14th century? This only he left to conjecture, that there assisted the dying man Peter Bishop of Arras, administered the Sacred rites, and pronounced a eulogy upon his death. But who was that Peter? For of that See I reckon him the eighth of this name (he meant to say the sixth, as below). If however, as it is, conjecture is here to be made; I would think Peter Masoërius, sixth by such name (as he truly was), to be designated, whose death falls in the year 1391. And I am led to this, because in the said secular year 1500 some old men still survived, to whom the memory of John was; and they pointed out with a finger, and variously interpreted, the little shrine, the little field, the prodigious nut-tree, on the southern slope of the mountain, near the public road, things which they had seen. The nut-tree John himself had planted; and concerning it there is such a report, and there survive even today eyewitnesses; that on the return of the yearly natal day of John the Baptist of the Lord, when on the eve it was wholly bare of leaves, and lacked all ornament, the following day it appeared, furnished and adorned both with leaves and fruit, in the eyes of all: pilgrims would flock together and pluck them in memory of the Blessed one: and when the little field, on account of the multitude of those flowing thither, was often choked by these approaches; hence, by I know not what evil fate, a cause arose for cutting it down by the roots. Which if true, certainly it must be admitted that Masoërius was contemporary with John. For no other Peter (if you except Ranchicurius, who departed from the living in the year 1490) occurs in the series of Bishops, unless you ascend to far higher times.
[4] Thus Locrius: to whom indeed I, in that which he chiefly takes upon himself to demonstrate, that Masoërius assisted the dying John, Or rather in the 15th? would not dare to assent; even if he posited that the death of John happened only one or another year before the death of Masoërius. For this man, by the opinion of Locrius, died in the year 1391, fully a hundred and nine years before the Life of John was written; in which the author more than once mentions; that then, that is, when he was writing in the year 1500, there survived men who had known the man, and had themselves beheld him working miracles. So in the first part, concerning the Miracles wrought by the living man, it is read at number 2 concerning a woman, who in that year 1500 was still living; that for three years she had been blind, was led to the holy Man, and illumined by his prayers. Similarly at number 6 there attest in the same year survivors, many worthy of faith, who saw in the sight of the same holy Man the deaf hear, etc. These many, who saw and even experienced in themselves the Miracles of the holy Man still living, if they be referred to the Episcopate of Masoërius, must have lived, to say the least, to the years 120 of their age, which is not credible. Besides, if eyewitnesses asserted to Locrius, writing in the year 1616, that they saw the nut-tree planted by John, as Locrius himself narrates; it must have had an age of two hundred and more years, when it was still living, and bore fruit; and then, it did not wither with age, but was violently cut down: which length of age, I know not whether anyone has hitherto attributed to nut-trees.
[5] I would prefer therefore to think, even from the very arguments which Locrius brings forward for himself, that to the dying John there assisted, not Masoërius, but Ranchicurius, It is shown that the latter is more probable. who, having begun his Episcopate from the year 1463, could some time after have assisted John, and even have heard his Confessions, either as already Bishop, or also before the Episcopate in a lesser dignity as a Priest. For he was of Arras, or at least born in the diocese. John therefore would have closed his last day before the year 1470: thence flowed thirty years before his Life was written. Which space of time is long enough, to reconcile all things that have been written about him; and which cannot easily be reconciled, as is plain from what has been said, if that space be extended to a hundred and nine or ten years. Nor will it seem marvelous, that after thirty years many survived, who had known John living: but it would be marvelous and scarcely credible, that many survived, after a hundred and nine years. The nut-tree too, planted by John, can have grown green and flourished a hundred years, two hundred it scarcely can.
[6] The Author of the Life, as he left nothing written concerning the year or day on which John died, John's burial. so neither makes he mention of his burial. Concerning this we began to speak from Rayssius, what he took from Locrius: but let us rather hear the words of this man himself. Locrius says: The body of the deceased John, on the right of the Odeum or Choir of the Church of Monchy, was wholly committed to the earth, a cell having been excellently prepared for receiving it. Above you may behold a royal mausoleum, of twin cenotaphs of marble work, of which one four Lions, lifting it up on their shoulders, remove and distinguish from the lower one, the monument, two as it were Cherubim appearing in the midst on either face. They say, that a certain Oudartius, by title a Count, took care to have this work made, for the sake of health hence received. And he continues: But for the rest, by other prodigies, of which not a few are seen painted on the walls, growing more and more frequent even into these times, it seemed good to bring out and elevate the sacred pledge; to be given to a shrine and an altar. It was given; and today the holy Head is in that new one, and therefore (who would doubt it?) more elegant. The Feast it has on the twenty-ninth of August, when John the Baptist falls by the Herodian sword: and another, which is to it especially and chiefly famous, on the Natal of the same Precursor of the Lord. It is incredible, how great a concourse of peoples to the John of Monchy then flows together. The village scarcely holds the men, says Rayssius: and he adds in the Hierogazophylacium, printed twelve years after the publication of the Chronicle of Locrius, page 370: In the village of Monchy Pierreux, near Arras, there is to be seen a casket upon the altar in which are stored away the Bones of B. John the Shepherd, who in a marvelous manner, being invoked, comes to the aid of those seized with hernia: of which thing the belts, hung up opposite the altar, give proof. His Life, faithfully described by a certain Monk of the Hasnon monastery in the year 1500, we have brought out of darkness and neglect into light in the year past, that is 1627, and published in print.
[7] This edition of Rayssius we have not yet seen; but we had long ago, even before that edition, a copy of the autograph in the voluminous manuscript Work of Franciscus de Bar (as he names himself in more than one place) Prior of Anchin, Whence the Life is here given, a learned man and of very much reading, which through many years up to the beginning of the 17th century he compiled, and laboriously arranged into 8 quite thick tomes (each comprising two parts, except IV and VII) and so into 14 separate and large volumes. Concerning which Work and its Author we noted some things also in our third tome of June, page 910 and following, in the preliminary Commentary
concerning B. Odo at number 2, where also we gave to be read the title of his first tome, first part. In the same Work's tome VI, part II (in which the monastery of Hasnon on the river Scarpe, among other things, is illustrated at length) we have at folio 173 the Life, which we here give, under this title: Here begins the Life of B. John of Monchy Pierreux, whom they say to have been a shepherd of sheep in the aforesaid village of Monchy, of the lordship of Hasnon. And the life being described, there is appended at the foot: It is found written in the book of the life of the aforesaid Saint, at Monchy Pierreux near Arras, in the year of the Lord 1500.
[8] The day of John's happy passing is equally unknown as the year, as Rayssius too confesses. Yet his solemnity is kept every year especially on the very feast of S. John the Baptist, and on what day the Saint is honored. on the 24th of June, to which we have already seen above that it is ascribed by the Hagiologists: it is also kept somewhat on the Beheading of the same Baptist, the 29th of August; not because John our Saint is known to have died on either day; but because from the similarity of the name of John the Precursor, they were assumed for him: and the greater solemnity prevailed on the 24th of June, than on the 29th of August; because that day, the people being free from servile work, is more open to a freer access for the solemnity. Making an end of describing, the song which in Rayssius in the Hierogazophylacium page 29, in praise of John, on account of his pastoral life, sang long ago the most famous man and royal professor of Histories in the Academy of Douai, Andreas Hojus:
You too, John, dweller of the Monchy rock, Increased the number of the Saints, one of the shepherds, O race grateful to heaven, and almost equal to ethereal Minds! to whom the guarding of the harmless fold And, far from the city, the silences of a pious life were pleasing. To these alone an Angel offers himself to be seen in a most brilliant light; And bids them, the woods being soon left, to hasten To Bethlehem, and to recognize the divine Word, And to celebrate the praises of God, and to demand peace. Help us, O Saint, and grant us to enjoy a like peace.
[9] The Life, which besides a brief eulogy, given to John by Bishop Peter, comprises almost only miracles, and a few deeds; we have distributed into two Parts, of which one, concerning those things which the blessed Man wrought while living; the other, what he wrought dead.
LIFE
By an anonymous Monk of Hasnon, composed in the year 1500. From our manuscript Codex.
John, the Shepherd in Artois among the Belgians (B.)
BHL Number: 4418
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
PART ONE
Miracles done through the Blessed one, while he was living.
Let both the present of the modern faithful of Christ, and the posterity of those to come, know, that once, Peter Bishop of Arras assists the dying man, at Monchy Pierreux, situated in the diocese of Arras, there was born a certain man, named John, a layman indeed, yet nonetheless faithful in Christ, who in the aforesaid village throughout the course of his temporal life from youth most holily remained; to whom testimony was borne by Peter once Bishop of Arras, who, assisting at Monchy, while the holy Man was passing from the world, testified before the whole people there assisting, that the aforesaid holy Man was of most honest conversation, and had happily preserved the contemplative life under lay teaching by divine admonition; saying, that the aforesaid John of Monchy, by not knowing the contagions of carnal concupiscence, had escaped, while he lived, the stain of snowy modesty; affirming also that he had found in no writings the life of any of the Saints of God holier or happier, and praises him. and truer in the love of Christ, than the life of the blessed Confessor Nicholas: for the Confessions of the aforesaid John he had often heard. But this testimony, probable enough, is on the part of the Lord more strongly and effectually approved. For the Lord gave great brightness in his life and after his death, so that he illumined the blind.
[2] For it happened on a certain day, while the holy man John aforesaid was living in the body, that a certain Burgher of Arras, while he was riding with several others, God willing, was darkened in his own eyes. But he cried out to his companions with a loud voice, saying that his eyes were utterly darkened. While he lived, he illumined the blind, But being led to John at Monchy Pierreux, by his most holy intercession with God he departed with eyes illumined. Likewise a certain woman, named Gilla, still living and remaining at Monchy, in a thundering time, the sky opening, God willing, was suddenly darkened in her own eyes. But she suffered this kind of blindness for three years. And being led to the aforesaid man, by the prayers of the Saint she departed illumined by the Lord.
[3] he expelled demons. He gave him also to drive away demons. For it happened at that time that a certain noble man was vexed by a demon (whose name, on account of the length of time, in the country is given over to oblivion) and was brought to the holy Man upon a certain cart; who by the prayers of the holy Man returned to his native place with health and wisdom recovered. Many others also (as those still living and worthy of faith testify) vexed by a demon, were made, at the departure of the demons, as it were lifeless in the sight of the holy Man, and filled with good sense.
[4] he healed those laboring with the stone, Many others also, whom natural stones of the disease had obstructed the passages of the urine, were utterly freed from their infirmity, by the intervention of the holy Man, as a certain man of Monchy, Americus by name, and a certain other, called John: the first is truly known to have emitted two such stones, the second one.
[5] he gave speech to the mute, God also at his intercession made the mute to speak, as a certain youth of a certain village, which is called Lanim, Americus by name, who, brought by his father to the aforesaid holy Man, first spoke with him, then to his father, and also to others while he lived thereafter: who indeed had before been unable to speak, while he had lived. Likewise a certain woman, having her mouth abnormally placed toward her ear; unable indeed to speak, was brought before him: who, touching her mouth, by the grace of God restored it to its proper place, whose setting is said, like a broken stick, to have marvelously creaked.
[6] A certain man also of Monchy, Hugo by name, being on the roof of his house, which had caught fire; wishing to defend it from the fire, not taking precaution for himself, he extinguished a fire by the sign of the Cross, consequently was caught by the fire. But when he looked around and saw himself hedged in by the fire, he feared, if he should leap into the fire, to be burned, and, if he should rush onto the ground in the village, to be killed by the fall. But crying out with a loud voice to the holy Man John, his neighbor, he humbly implored his help. But he, arriving there, the sign of the Cross being made, utterly drove away the fire from that house, as if there had never been there any burning at all. Master Gerardus also, of the Village which is called Noyelles-des-hommes, was cured of a certain grave infirmity in his sight.
[7] These and so great miracles, and certain others also to be told, which are very few in respect of the rest, given over to oblivion by the long lapse of time, God deigned to work through His servant John for the salvation of the people. he performed many other things. Of these indeed the moderns especially recall. The Lord deigned, by the intercession of the holy man John of Monchy, while he lived, to grant the benefits of health to the sick, held by various languors. For as many worthy of faith attest, who saw, in his sight the deaf hear, the mute speak, the blind be illumined, the contracted and impotent be raised, the corrupted be set right, those with the stone be cured, those vexed by a demon be healed, the sick with that infirmity which is called the Wolf (which is naturally incurable) be cured by the grace of God; and also those kindled by an infernal fire, and likewise the sick, ailing with infirmities of every kind, be happily freed from their pains by the prayers of the holy Man.
[8] There attest also those still living and worthy of faith, that the aforesaid holy Man foreknew those things which he had not heard, Having gone on pilgrimage to S. Giles nor seen, except by the inspiration of divine grace. For it happened on a certain day, while the holy Man, then being on foot, was on pilgrimage to S. Giles, with several others being of Monchy, he stood in the middle of the way, and said, "Monchy has been robbed by plunder: and you, O companions! have lost your beasts and all your cattle." But this was said in the village which is called Marceanis, which distant fourteen ... from Monchy, is situated near the rock of Amadulli. The companions thereupon smiling, because he was a youth, and so far removed from the village, departed forthwith: yet they noted the day and to S. James, and the place where he had said these things. But when they returned to their native place, they found everything just as they had heard from the holy Youth. But this, as is said, was the first experience had of his most happy sanctity.
[9] Likewise it happened afterward, while he was on pilgrimage to S. James in Galicia, with several indeed who were born of Monchy; when he had reached the term of his pilgrimage, and was now returned only eight days, he announced things done far off. rising in the morning from the bed where he had rested by night, he said: "O Companions! it is to be mourned: for the people of Monchy are all greatly disturbed, by a certain fire, this night burning the whole village of Lilia." But they, noting the day and hour of this saying, when they returned to Monchy, found it just as the holy Man had said.
[10] Likewise a certain woman of the village which is called Waencourt, Maria by name, unmarried, pregnant; feigning herself to be swollen with sickness, came to the aforesaid holy Man, asking, that he would free her from her swelling by the grace of God. A woman, deceiving the holy Man, But he, turning away his eyes, said: "Woman, depart. For you have mocked me: but this you have done to your own misfortune. Depart; you will soon repent of having feigned before me." But she withdrawing thence shamefully, after she came home, had her eyes utterly choked of light. But afterward, herself repenting of the sin, she is punished with blindness, she returned to the holy Man, beseeching him humbly, that for her he would mercifully implore the Lord, that the Lord might consent to restore her sight to her. But the holy Man, touching her eyes, and she repenting receives her sight. restored to her by the grace of God, before several there assisting, brightness. These open miracles especially taken, and also countless others commonly received (namely the sick innumerable, laboring in every kind of sickness, to be cheerfully revived), the Lord, by the intercession of the holy man John of Monchy, preserving the flower of snowy modesty, deigned to lavish upon the languishing.
NOTES BY C. J.
assuming the nature of poison, in the veins and arteries, when it could not be expelled, generates an anginous affliction in the throat, and a certain quasi-suffocation.
PART TWO.
Miracles wrought after his death.
[11] But there are also other miracles, after the death of the holy man John of Monchy, made manifest by the Lord before his marble tomb. For the contracted before his tomb were raised. As a certain man, Ramundus by name, conducting himself with little stools (for to go forward on his feet he was utterly unable), before his tomb in the sight of the people Cures, before the tomb of the Blessed one, was raised, praising and invoking God in His Saints, and blessing His name before the people for joy. Likewise a certain other man of Arras caused himself to be brought to the aforesaid Saint, carrying with him his contracted young son. [one] Which Youth, having suffered the contraction of his nerves for seven years, before the tomb of the Saint was raised in the sight of the Priest and of several Laymen also, then being in the temple; and advancing on his own feet to the altar, offered to God an oblation in honor of the Saint, rejoicing in the Lord. But his Father, beholding his son advance with feet raised, is said, from excessive gladness, and another to grow black with a marvelous pallor.
[12] Likewise a certain man of Arras, having eyes of a fiery color, contracted; unable indeed to perceive anything by them; before the tomb of the Saint was granted brightness of his eyes by the grace of God. Likewise a certain cobbler of Arras, having one of his eyes a third, blind; pierced by chance by an awl, before the tomb of the Saint recovered the health of his eye pierced by the awl. a fourth, harmed by a pierced eye; Likewise a certain deaf man of Douai, before the tomb of the Saint, recovered his hearing. Likewise a certain boy, son of a certain man of Gamapia, Acardus by name, suffering from the stone, brought to the aforesaid Saint, a fifth, deaf; while he went out on a festal day, before the people of God emitted one stone.
[13] Likewise Hugo, once remaining at Gamapia, surnamed of... had two sons, a sixth, laboring with the stone; who both being corrupted, both by the prayers of the aforesaid Saint (the one indeed while the Saint lived in the body, the other after his assumption) were by divine grace set right with health of body. likewise a sixth, Likewise a certain man of the village named Harticourt, corrupted, was before the tomb of the Saint, by divine grace set right. Likewise a certain boy of Arras, A seventh corrupted with a too horrible corruption, was brought into the chamber of David the Presbyter of Monchy, beside a certain chest, and an eighth contracted. in which the Bones of the Saint, for the blessing of the temple, were reposing; at that time, as now is, also visited. And David the Presbyter touched the place of the sick man's affliction with one of the Bones of the Saint: soon he, with creaking nerves, in the sight of David the Presbyter, before the Bones of the Saint was healed: whose testimony is truly borne by David the Presbyter himself.
[14] Likewise it is to be known, that a fire coming from heaven in the likeness of a spark, was seen very many times most certainly to descend through the air into the lamp, being above the tomb of the Saint; filling indeed the lamp with a blood-red color, and illumining the lamp itself with a precious light, A fire, sent down from heaven which to many beholders before was without any brightness. All these miracles, so many and so great, and even greater, manifoldly doubled, the Lord deigned to reveal to the Christian people by the intercession of the holy man John of Monchy. Very many also blind, given over to oblivion by the length of time, kindled the lamp. were illumined by his prayers; many also mute, speaking; deaf too very many, hearing; the contorted, sick, cast out, corrupted, innumerable, set right; those with the stone, the burning, the furious, infinite, were cured; the languishing with fevers, and the sick with all other languors, were cured. Simply indeed (the moderns worthy of faith still attest) the Lord, by the intervention of the holy man John of Monchy Pierreux, gave the sick of every kind to soundness. Blessed be the grace of the Savior Lord, who gave so great grace to John.
NOTES BY C. J.
A boy, prone, creeping with his wonted little stools, Sought Floriacum, and safe returns thence;
from the body of S. Benedict, as is to be read in tome 3 of March page 335 number 37. And in the same place page 325 letter B, someone, to whom, his knees being bent, his shins clung to his thighs, creeping on his buttocks and hands... hung his little stools on the lattices of the sanctuary: and being sufficiently cured, no longer asking for the little stools, but supporting himself with a staff, went to his lodging. More, if you please, of this kind you will find with us elsewhere; and not rarely they occur in the Writers of the Middle Age.
Acta Sanctorum: Appendix June IV