ON SAINT BABOLENUS
ABBOT OF FOSSÉS IN GAUL.
7TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the Acts of the Life to be omitted, and the miracles to be related.
Babolenus, Abbot of Fossés in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHORS G. H. & D. P.
Various men in the seventh century of Christ, illustrious for the observance of the monastic life and for sanctity of manners, flourished, called Baboleni, S. Babolenus of Fossés, another than the one of Stavelot, Bobuleni, or Papoleni; whose deeds were, among certain writers, mingled and confused among themselves, and attributed to one and the same person. Of these, two, ascribed to the tables of the Martyrologies on this 26th of June, greatly increased this confusion. Of these, the one, of Fossés in the territory of Paris, upon the river Marne, was the first Abbot of the monastery; the other shone as Abbot of the monasteries of Stavelot and Malmedy among the Ardennes: whom in my Diatribe on the three Dagoberts, Kings of the Franks, book 2, chapter 18, I judged distinct and disparate. I had not yet then obtained the fourth volume of Sacred Italy, elaborated by Ferdinand Ughelli; in which, after the Bishops of Bobbio are related, the Abbots also of the same title are referred to, who there first cultivated the said place. There, after SS. Columbanus, Attala, and Bertulf, and the one of Bobbio; there is placed as the fourth Abbot Bobulenus; but this one I did not sufficiently separate from the one of Fossés, whom however it plainly appears to have been quite another, and to be distinguished from the two others. Nay, in the same place, in the charter by which S. Columbanus delivered the monastery of Bobbio to S. Gregory the Great, there subscribed in the third place Bubulenus, monk and Priest, and in the seventh place Bobulenus, monk and Priest, if indeed both the subscriptions and the charter itself stand; while the 4th year of the Pontificate is joined with the 3rd Indiction, whereas it was the 11th or certainly the 12th Indiction. Whatever be the case of that charter, it is certain that some one of those Bobuleni, or Baboleni, was Abbot of Bobbio; to whom, and to S. Waldebert Abbot of Luxeuil, Jonas inscribed the Lives of SS. Columbanus, Attala, and Eustasius. Moreover Ughelli, in the Preface concerning the Bishops of Bobbio, at column 128, especially praises the monastery of Bobbio, because there the bodies of SS. Columbanus and Attala, Bertulf and Bubulenus, the Abbots, rest; and in Wion's Benedictine Martyrology at the 31st of August it is celebrated, that in the year 1482 there was made at the monastery of Bobbio a Translation of the holy Abbots of the same place, Columbanus the first, Attala the second, Bertulf the third, Bobulenus and Camugellus. In like manner the people of Fossés and of Stavelot have the Bodies and Relics of their Saints.
[2] Another at the same time lived, a builder of several monasteries, whether also from Theodulf Babolenus, is uncertain. at least surnamed Bobolenus, concerning whom at the Life of S. Eustasius Abbot of Luxeuil, illustrated by us at the day 29 of March, these things are read at number 16: In the suburb of the city of Bourges, a venerable man Theodulf, surnamed Babolenus, built monasteries by the rule of Columbanus, abounding in all religion; the first on an Island upon the river Molinandra, where he gathered a band of Religious men; another, by name Gaudiacum, not far from the little river Albetus; the third, of the Virgins of Christ, in a place called Carrantonium, upon the said river Molinandra; and likewise another of the Virgins of Christ, near the town of Nevers, he built under the same Rule. These things Jonas, the monk of Bobbio, who added the said Life of S. Eustasius, together with the deeds of Attala, to the Life of S. Columbanus, without any mention of the monastery of Fossés, either because he did this before that monastery was built; or, established in Italy, knew nothing of it; or because he was unwilling to mention a foundation made after the times of S. Eustasius, and therefore pertaining nothing to him. The times indeed and the neighboring places seem to agree well enough, so that the same Bobolenus might have obtained from Blidigisilus, Archdeacon of Paris, the said place of Fossés, and there have been the first Abbot of the monastery then built: but that this really was done, notwithstanding that silence of Jonas, I would not wish to decide, and I prefer to leave it to the judgment of others.
[3] Andreas du Chesne, in the first volume of the Writers of the history of the Franks, page 658 and the six following, The Life is found from a Ms. but is omitted selects very many things from the manuscript Life of S. Babolenus the Abbot, and adds that a copy is extant in the Library of the monastery of S. Germain des Prés, which we once, through the labor of Guillaume Thiersault, a Priest of our Society, took care to have described; on account of its enormous errors: but, having examined it maturely, we judged it to be nothing else than a most inept heap from the Acts of various Baboleni, conflated into one person, written in the 11th century, that is about five hundred years after the death of S. Babolenus of Fossés, by a certain Monk of that monastery: who however, toward the end, adds miracles, some of which he asserts that he himself saw; and various things concerning the cult and translation of the body; which, since they merit some credence, alone shall here be published by us. [If anyone should seek the Acts themselves, he will find them published from the Ms. of Fossés by our Pierre François Chifflet, in his most recent work, which he entitled the Concord of Bede and Fredegar. and because they have already been published by Chifflet; This is a new and most accurate edition of the History of the English Nation, illustrated with a notable Dissertation on the years of Dagobert, of which Dissertation Chapter 6 these Acts constitute: which he endeavors to excuse, and to evade the distinction asserted by us and others: but in vain; since in the Notes, letter I, he is compelled to confess that the Author confused Audobertus with Agilbertus, and, pouring himself out with an almost poetic license, to talk foolishly.] But what especially in those Acts is to be rejected, Mabillon endeavors to define in volume 2 of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of S. Benedict, page 590 and following, and Charles le Cointe in volume 3 of the Ecclesiastical Annals of France at the year 638 from number 98 to 125, and at the year 640 from number 33 to number 42. Jacobus Bruelius, Monk of S. Germain des Prés, in the Appendix to the Antiquities of Paris from page 37, published from the aforesaid Ms. codex a compendium; in which the aforesaid le Cointe shows graver errors committed, and at 648, number 98, concerning the first author writes thus: An anonymous fabulist, who wrote the Deeds of the Kings of the Franks, he often follows and praises. But although it teems with so many errors, and is only indicated it is not to be wholly rejected, but needs a diligent and altogether severe examination, to which we shall devote our labor, lest false things be taken for true, true for false; then he rejects most things as inept, and begins from those which are read in Andreas du Chesne, with the Prologue and the three first Chapters omitted, which are also rejected by Mabillon. Lest therefore I do what is already done, I refer the benevolent reader to the aforesaid two authors; to whom it will please to compare their excerpts, and judgments concerning them
with those things which the former two published: but what concerning S. Babolenus of Fossés the two others, last praised, think can be believed, let us relate in their very words.
[4] What sort of man the one of Fossés was, in the opinion of le Cointe, Concerning his country and age, le Cointe thus judges at the year 640, number 38. Babolenus therefore, who was the first Abbot of Fossés, ought not to be confused either with Bobulenus Abbot of Bobbio, nor with Papolenus Abbot of Stavelot, was by country an Italian, and put on the monk's habit in the monastery of Bobbio: he survived S. Columbanus, who built the monastery of Bobbio, by about sixty years: for he ceased to live while Theodoric reigned among the Franks; and therefore he can scarcely be thought to have been taught by Columbanus himself. With the license of Abbot Bertulf (whose death falls in this year of Christ 640, on the fourteenth of the Kalends of September), having departed from the monastery, he came into France this same year; and when he was pouring out prayers to God at Paris in the basilica of the most blessed Virgin, he was asked by Audobertus, the Bishop of that city, who he was: and afterward he was presented to Blidegisilus the Deacon and to King Clovis, to whose desires that he might comply, he suffered himself to be set over the monastery of Fossés with the title of Abbot. These things le Cointe. But what he has concerning Italy and the monkhood of Bobbio, and of Mabillon. we would wish to be proved, since he himself distinguishes this one of Fossés from the Abbot of Bobbio. Mabillon also, at number 13 of the Life of S. Babolenus, added an epilogue with these words: From what has been said, it is understood what thou mayest attribute to Babolenus Abbot of Fossés. He seems to have been summoned from the monastery of Luxeuil or perhaps Solignac, to govern the monastery of Fossés, built by Blidegisilus Archdeacon of Paris in the second year of Clovis the younger or the following. Behold things plainly opposite, and brought forth only from this conjecture, that the said monasteries were then celebrated. But Mabillon continues: What is said concerning the building of the monastery of Fossés, the Privileges and Donations related by Bruel, is not far from the truth. But these are rejected by le Cointe, as wrongly written, at the year 638, number 101 and following. Then at number 23 he asserts that the Precept of Clovis is recited by Bruel with some corruption, which he emends, as also at the year 640, numbers 40 and 41, he emends the corrupted copy of the donations of Blidegisilus. John Launoy, in his Assertion of the Inquisition into the Charter of Immunity of B. Germain, part 4, chapter 10, sections 1 and 2, attacks what is recited concerning the privilege of Fossés in the Life of S. Babolenus, and judges these things to be reputed fictitious. Le Cointe cites Launoy at the year 642, number 45; and adds that it is no more worthy of credence, that S. Babolenus is set down as also Abbot of S. Vincent at Paris; since this was Babo, altogether to be distinguished from Babolenus.
[5] Concerning the death of S. Babolenus, and his virtues and burial, these things are read toward the end in du Chesne: At length King Chlothar, when he had vigorously governed the kingdom for a short time, Other things related concerning his death forestalled by an untimely death, in the fifth year left the Principality to his brother Theodoric. But the holy man of the Lord, Babolenus, when with much labor he had built the aforesaid monastery, gathered there many Brothers, ever devoutly serving Christ. And when he knew that the day of his death was at hand, he chose for himself as successor a most reverend man, by name Ambrose. Which done, while he lived among mortals, he was passing to Christ by holy virtues. Shining moreover with sacred deeds, he was devoted to the immortal King. Who, exercised in all the commandments of the Lord, and made worthy of heavenly glory, on the 6th of the Kalends of July departed from the world, joined to the choir of the Saints, and in the joy of the Angels exults before the Lord. and his burial. And his holy body was buried toward the Northern side, beside the Church of the holy Mother of God built by himself, in a precious sarcophagus of stone: in which for many years it lay becomingly buried; where the Lord our Jesus Christ works virtues by his merits, to the praise and glory of his name. These things there: from which le Cointe refers the death of S. Babolenus to the year of Christ 660, which is the fifth of Chlothar; whom I once demonstrated, and perhaps first, to have reigned not four years only, but fourteen. But Mabillon places the death of S. Babolenus at the year 670, in which, after the death of Chlothar, Theodoric began to reign; to whose reign Babolenus came, le Cointe also holds at the place above related. The said Mabillon adds: Babolenus, buried near the church of B. Mary, was renowned for miracles, to be related below. The Author merits far greater credence in these, since he testifies concerning those things which were not so far removed from his own age, and which he had in part seen with his eyes. The body of the Saint, together with the Relics of S. Maurus the Abbot, The sacred cult. is religiously venerated by the people in the Church of Fossés, which in the century just past passed to secular Canons. The name gave way to the place S. Maur des Fossés from the 9th century, when the Relics of S. Maurus, disciple of S. Benedict, were brought thither in the Principate of Charles the Bald: which place is seen about three miles above Paris, upon the river Marne, enclosed around by an island. Concerning S. Maurus and his Translation and the situation of this place, we have treated on the 15th of January. Let the Reader further consult what we there subjoin concerning S. Papolenus of Stavelot.
[6] Thus far Henschenius, rightly hesitating to retract the disputations of le Cointe and Mabillon, Writers most known throughout all France. The Martyrology of the Ven. John Fleming. It pleases, however, to declare the distinction of the three aforesaid Saints in the words of the Venerable Father and Martyr Patrick Fleming, because I think him less known; and I would wish to find occasion to praise one well deserving of the Saints. By country he was an Irishman, and professed the stricter observance of the Franciscan Rule in the year 1631. Having set out to Prague to begin there a convent of his observance and nation, when the Saxon Elector burst plundering into Bohemia, swollen with the Leipzig victory; and destined Prague the capital of the kingdom, unprepared against violence, for plunder; compelled by the chief men to depart from the city, in the company of other illustrious persons, intercepted on the way by a furious band of heretic peasants, on the 7th day of November was slain with cudgels; one who would most deservedly have augmented the Franciscan Martyrology of Arthur a Monasterio, if he had had knowledge of him here. But that death was first described, twelve years after that Martyrology was published a second time, and together with a synopsis of his former Life was prefixed to his sacred Collectanea concerning the aforesaid S. Columbanus, brought to Louvain; where Thomas Sirinus, the designated successor to John Colgan in carrying on the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, found them in the year 1667 and fitted them for the press; of which we have only the first quarter, and we eagerly await the other months. But, alas! Sirinus died upon his laborious work, nor has he yet found a successor, who, amid the straits pressing the most Catholic nation, can struggle through to the publication of those already prepared or to be further prepared.
[7] To this Patrick, at the instigation of Hugh Ware, predecessor of Colgan, had contributed much material from Italy, of which that part which I mentioned sees the light, and in it, at the Life of S. Columbanus, a Commentary, where at number 2, treating of Babolenus, the fourth Abbot of the monastery of Bobbio, he excellently distinguishes him from others, and especially from the one of Fossés, his judgment concerning the three Baboleni. of whom we treat, thus. Babolenus, who governed the Abbey of Bobbio, lived and died at Bobbio, in which until now his bones, enclosed in a stone monument, are preserved; which, together with the sacred Relics of other Saints of his monastery, in the year 1481, on the 31st of August, were solemnly translated in the same city, in the presence of the Clergy and people, by the Bishop of Bobbio. But that one, who is read to have approached S. Remaclus, remained with him thereafter; then after his death received the government of the monastery of Stavelot: in which place (says Molanus) his Relics also rest, and he has an altar consecrated in his honor, and a double major feast. From these and many other tokens I seem to recognize clearly enough that it is not rightly done in the Lessons of the monastery of Fossés, that the founder of the monastery of Bourges (add, and Rector of Fossés) is confused with Bobolenus Abbot of Bobbio, and the successor of S. Remaclus among the people of Stavelot.
[8] But this the Author of the Life does, who therefore is, like the others, rightly passed over by Henschenius: nor does he do this only in the Life itself, [What should be thought concerning the apparition of the one of Fossés to be related here?] forgivable on account of the long duration of the elapsed time by an error, but also among the Miracles, where greater credence is thought to be merited, he mingles something which renders his and their credence suspect, as Henschenius noted only in passing, Mabillon dissembled, but I think should be declared more distinctly. It is that at number 9, where Babolenus, appearing to a Monk devoted to him, and holding out the book which he bore in his right hand, bids him read; but he, as it seemed, found this Chapter: How the holy man governed Bobbio; and soon, turning over other things also, and finding the miracle of the blind man enlightened, read the whole through; and so, waking up … After some days he committed the Miracle to writing, and narrated to many what had befallen him. If at least some such thing were read in the Life of S. Columbanus, it could be thought that the Saint appearing offered this Life, as of his former Master, to be read, although it does not appear to what end. But since not only from that, but also from the likewise written Lives of SS. Attala, Eustasius, and Bertulf, disciples and successors of Columbanus, that miracle of the blind man is absent; what else could the Saint have wished to be revealed to that Monk, than that he had governed the monastery of Bobbio, and in it had enlightened a blind man? But if this can in no way, as it cannot, be said; it remains that that whole narration is either a dream, born from the revived phantasm of a preconceived error, or a pure fiction; and it remains to be wished that a graver Author be had even of those things which are otherwise probable.
[9] Further, I find a Letter, written by Father Guillaume Thiersault in the year 1654 to Bolland. He had asked to be made more certain concerning the presence of the body, The casket of the body at Fossés. and namely of the head of S. Babolenus in his monastery of Fossés, if perhaps among the people of Stavelot there were at least the head, among the people of Fossés the body; and so the controversy might be settled. And he received a reply; that a chest is had, that at least the body is contained in it no one doubts; that nevertheless it has long been that it has not been opened: and that the secular Canons, who at the beginning of this century succeeded into the place of the Monks by the mandate of the Bishop of Paris, are too little curious of such things to be able to teach anything. Now, the dispute of both Abbots being composed, an inquiry of this kind is less necessary; and it will be more useful for us to be taught, if anything has been innovated concerning the aforesaid chest in these last forty years: or if any new miracles, and more certainly proved, have happened. Our Chifflet, of whom I made mention above (for here he could not see the work of Henschenius himself, having died the same year in which it was published) refuses to follow that distinction, from the fact that three bodies of three Baboleni are shown: For weak, he says, is the argumentation, since it has been ascertained by experience that very often, if peoples do not lie, certainly they err in claiming the Relics of Saints
to themselves. But that error arises no more frequently from any other source than from the synonymy of several persons, nor is it more easily excused than by the diversity of several being asserted and demonstrated: wherefore the argument is not to be cast aside with contempt, but eagerly seized, by which alone the simplicity of our forefathers in confusing several is best freed from blame.
MIRACLES
From the Ms. Codex of S. Germain at Paris, collated with the edition of Chifflet from the Ms. of Fossés.
Babolenus, Abbot of Fossés in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 0887
FROM A MS.
Therefore, as we promised in the Proem of this work, we determine to insert into this page worthy things, which concerning so great a man, by the truthful sayings of the ancients, with truthful and probable assertion, we have partly heard from them and partly seen with our own eyes.
[1] After, by the nod of the merciful God, the excellent Confessor of Christ Babolenus had migrated from this unstable light to the heavens, The body buried beside the church, and his most holy body, worthily, as was fitting, as has already been premised, had been committed to the earth beside the church of the holy Mother of God; little by little that wall, to which it adhered, began from day to day, by divine power, to open itself, and to enclose within itself the stone sarcophagus in which the holy man lay. Therefore, after no long space of time had passed, and the wall of the church being thus divinely perforated, it is miraculously transferred into the same; so that never a little stone fell thence; the body of the holy man passed within the same, near the altar of the Mother of God, with its own stone sarcophagus, the opening remaining perpetually in the wall as a testimony. Let this therefore not seem incredible to anyone, because nothing is impossible to God: for He himself who will bid all the bodies of the dead, the Angelic trumpet sounding, to rise up through diverse places, and who, being born of her, did not take away the integrity of His Mother, and who, rising again, entered to the Disciples through closed doors; could most swiftly grant this also to His own faithful friend. For thus speaking to His faithful He promised: He that believeth in me, the works that I do, he shall do, and greater. John 14. 12. This therefore was done by God, to make manifest the merits of the blessed man; that the limbs, which in His service he had most vigorously subdued by affliction, might be transferred within the oratory, which he had built by his own labor, by the working of divine power. Thence therefore his body was raised after many years, then by the Monks into a new basilica, by the pious zeal of the Monks there serving God; and translated into another Basilica (which, built with more elegant work by the religious Abbot Benedict, and dedicated by S. Aldric Archbishop of Sens and other Prelates) on the seventh of the Ides of December.
[2] But since we have made mention of the dedication of the church of the monastery of Fossés, it pleases indeed to weave briefly into this our work, what we have heard related by truthful persons, or what we have found written in the church itself. For on that night which preceded the day of dedicating the Basilica, a very memorable thing happened, and not unworthy of relation. For the same blessed Archbishop, on the very night which we have mentioned, when in the same church he had gone to pray after his accustomed manner, the day before the dedication, it was seen consecrated by Angels. and, prostrate on the ground, was now pouring out prayers and tears more at length to the Lord; saw, in a special manner, the holy Angels, as Jacob once elsewhere, descending from heaven, and going round, hallowing, and blessing the whole court and church about; that the same place might become so much the more fitting for the divine praises to be there perpetually rendered, the holier it was; nor would it now be doubted that God had chosen in it a special dwelling for Himself, to whose hallowing He had assigned Angelic dignity. Into this church therefore were brought the limbs of S. Babolenus, in which the monks were ever gathered, rendering to Christ the duties of praise, that they might not be defrauded of the assiduity of the divine office.
[3] But lest the sarcophagus of the Saint be soiled by any uncleanness, The form of the monument, it was becomingly covered with plaster, and placed upon twin stone columns of the height of two cubits. In the wall also, which is reported to have been at his head, a stone is held inserted to this day, in which were found inscribed letters, which could scarcely be read by anyone, by the obliteration of long age and the incursion of rains. But at length, deciphered with the utmost difficulty by some of higher ingenuity, his name was found, with the term of the 6th of the Kalends of July, the day of death, the 26th of June, read in the wall, most certainly described. From which it became clear, that he without doubt migrated to the heavens on that very term, although, through the several overthrows of that place, he had been consigned to oblivion until that day. For the testimony therefore of this thing which we have aforesaid, what we saw in the childhood of our age, we set forth. For we beheld the wall pierced through, and the sepulcher of the holy man placed between the altar and itself, until the same church was overthrown by Adelerius, the Precentor of that place, afterward Abbot of Melun, for the sake of repairing it. and therefore the 7th of December is believed to be the day of the Translation. But his other solemnity, which is celebrated with festive observance both by the devout Brothers of that place, and also by all the inhabitants of the island itself, on the 7th of the Ides of December, is doubtful to none, but that it is of his Translation, which is known to have been made through a space of a hundred and fifty years and more. In which indeed it was established by the Rectors of the church of Fossés from of old, that the boats, running about around the island itself, should pay a tax, on account of the merit of fishing, which they commonly call Restes. Which arrangement is believed to be thus made, that on the same day a copious refection of fish or other dainties might be plentifully prepared for those celebrating the Translation of the holy man.
[4] Further, in the aforesaid church of the Mother of God, in which the same chief Confessor lay buried, Oil was wont to flow from the mausoleum, oil for many days and through the courses of years flowed from the stone of his sacred mausoleum, with which the sick, oppressed by various languors, being anointed, were straightway restored to their former health. But when Christ was working this to the praise of His name and for the declaring of the merit of the holy man: it happened that on a certain day a Priest, veiled with the sacred vestment, approached thither; and improvidently rendered the very garment with which he was clothed, dipped in the same liquid. though it afterward ceased, Which the minister of the altar perceiving, inflamed by the goads of anger, which knows not how to keep measure, soon uttered a useless word with malignant mouth, namely that it might not be the will of the most kind Jesus Christ and of His holy Mother and of the renowned Confessor Babolenus, that any more of that liquid of oil should flow henceforth and thereafter forever. Whose most wretched voice the effect straightway followed: for the liquid ceased, and the stone dried up. Lest therefore this ever seem incredible, we bring forward into the midst as testimony certain religious men of the Monastic Order, who affirmed with most true assertions that they had seen and heard these things; namely Hubert surnamed the Bald, and also Bernard called Beyond-the-rule, whose life is known to have been sufficiently probable. But because we have brought forward the testimony of two, in strengthening these a third is substituted, since in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Scripture testifies that every word stands. the elders, and two from eyewitness, testify. For in the monastery of S. Maur, which is called Glanfeuil, there was a certain religious cenobite by name Odulcricus, being, like another Moses, a hundred and twenty years old and more, who asserted that he had thus seen it many times. Therefore, that the envious tooth may be repressed, let also a fourth witness be brought in, Adicus, a certain monk older than these, who affirmed that he had seen these things over a long time. With such and so great signs of virtues being adorned, the most blessed Confessor of the Lord, Babolenus, shows himself to live with Christ and His Saints. At his sepulcher also, or where his holy limbs remain, very many benefits are bestowed upon the sick by his merits, and especially fevers, or the discomforts of those suffering [or] carrying are relieved. f
[5] How great therefore is the severity or vengeance that exists in him against those contrary to his own or to himself, must be told by us in the narration of the present pen. An Abbot injurious to the Saint is punished, There was a certain Rector of the church of Fossés, called Robert in baptism, contrary to S. Babolenus at all times; who raised himself into such great pride against him, that he overthrew the altar consecrated to his name. Moreover he added this, that an altar ought likewise to be set up for himself, and multiplied the insults brought and the reproaches. But the avenging right hand of God did not long endure the reproaches against the Saint: for in that year, taken and bound with chains, by command of King Henry he was shut up in prison. But how he escaped thence, and by what counsels he was accused, is rather to be kept silent than set forth. His helpers also in the overthrow of the altar were likewise taken and dispersed, made a derision and a song of reproach to the people. And the aforesaid Abbot shamefully lost the Pastoral honor; and he who would not willingly obey his predecessor, namely S. Babolenus; for the merit of his negligence was given over to such mockery, and so what he had ill committed did not pass by unpunished: for thereafter he lived in mourning, made an example to posterity, that they should not henceforth admit such a crime against S. Babolenus.
[6] There existed moreover another certain Monk, Robert of Le Mans, he too so called, likewise a Prior wishing to diminish his celebrity, exercising among the Monks the office of Prior; who, agitated by the goads of envy and hatred, burned with such great indignation against the Saint of God, that he sought to annihilate the festivity of his Translation, which is the 7th of the Ides of December, saying that it was done with no reason; especially since for it the Octaves of S. Andrew the Apostle seemed to be dismissed. Having thus spoken, and delaying not long, he fulfilled his wish. For in that year, on the very day of the Translation, he appointed four Lessons of the Apostle, and decreed that the eight remaining be of the Confessor. But the Saint of the Lord was patient over this: but yearly, the same solemnity returning, he commanded all to be done of the Apostle, saying that a certain Babolenus was dead, and that a feast ought not to be solemnized by anyone concerning him. The others favoring his wish obeyed him as Master and Prior. But this the avenging right hand of the Lord did not long endure, because he made the feast of the B. Apostle to be kept, not so much from devotion, as from envy and elation. And so when the same Dean not long after had gone to the necessities of nature, and had striven more than usual in that work; suddenly (so to speak) the doors of his belly were opened, and almost all his intestines came forth: and so, carried back to his bed by the hands of others, with very great pain he survived not many days; made an object of stupor and admiration to all, who saw the vengeance wrought in him with such swiftness. And so, made more wretched than the wretched, while he did not come to his senses, he lost his life with pain.
[7] A certain Hilduardus also, a Cenobite of Fossés, and a Precentor, bearing the office of Precentor in the same church, was indeed a man of venerable gray hair, but many times uttered words of arrogance against the Saint of God. But when on a certain occasion by the faithful Monks the passing of the holy man was being celebrated on the 6th of the Kalends of July; and the nocturnal office
having already been in part chanted, the twelfth Lesson was being concluded by the Abbot or by the Prior, with four Brothers, as is customary, standing before the altar, and resounding most loudly in jubilation of voice with the organ the Responsory, "The Holy Confessor of the Lord"; the day shone upon the earth, while they persevered in singing with melody. Then suddenly the aforesaid Cantor, moved by the gall of anger, sprang into the midst, and behold the Israelite, violently seizing the Responsory, began to chant, but did not prevail against them. Whence, when he saw himself overcome, and the Choir held another than what he had begun, not, as the Scripture bids, with finger laid to the mouth, but with silence importunately or irregularly broken, he heaped many revilings upon S. Babolenus, swearing that, as long as he lived, he would not allow the inventions of a certain Odo i (for he had been the author of this work) to be sung in the same church: and soon he returned to his bed, and with his head wrapped up fell asleep.
[8] And behold suddenly the holy man stood before him, and there appeared shining like the sun, he is reproved by that one appearing. and with these words, as the same man afterward related, said to him: Hilduardus, look upon me. But he, thinking himself called by some Monk, with head raised looked back. To whom the Saint: Knowest thou who I am? And as he, trembling, did not answer: Know thou, said the Saint, that I am Babolenus, whom thou hast today reproached in the sight of all, on account of the Lord's and my service. Why dost thou strive to take away the honor which God gave me on earth? But he, when he could not bear the Saint's countenance, reclining his head on the bed, covered himself again. But the Saint of the Lord said to him; Because with an oath thou hast said that my service should no more be done while thou survivest, know most certainly, that thou shalt by no means be cheated of thy vow; for this year thou shalt die the death. Thus he spoke, and soon disappeared. And he too, straightway seized by a grave infirmity, rose hastily from the bed on which he lay, relating all that had been said to him, to the Prior and the other Brothers. For on that day he threw himself with all effort into the service of the Saint, thinking to be reconciled with him: but it profited him nothing. For on the third day, weighed down, he lay on his bed, nor rose thence, until on the twenty-sixth day, entering the way of all flesh, he met his death.
[9] Now since concerning the vengeance which through his servant Babolenus the divine power exercises The same appears to a Monk devoted to him, upon his adversaries we have spoken sufficiently; it remains that we tell in very few words how great is his kindness toward those devoted to him. A certain Monk many times sighed with desire to see the Saint: namely because he whom he rejoiced to have as Father and Pastor, and with whose love he was inflamed, he did not doubt that he would sometime be visited by him. To whom persevering in this, and on this account beseeching the Lord, the holy man appeared in a vision of the night, and beholding him with a kindly countenance, holding out to him the book which he bore in his right hand, said; Peace to thee; take and read. And when, as it seemed to him, he had received the book, and turned one leaf; he found this Chapter: How the holy man governed Bobbio. But soon, turning over other things, and finding the miracle of the blind man enlightened, he read the whole through: and so, waking up, the vision vanished from his eyes; and, returned to himself, after some days he committed the miracle to writing, and narrated to many what had befallen him. he frees another from toothache. But another, so vexed by the pain of his teeth, that from the excessive distress he thought death was imminent for him; trusting in the mercy of the Lord, approached the sepulcher of the holy man undaunted: and there, prayer having been suppliantly poured forth, touched the urn of the holy man with his diseased jaw: and so, the pain being put to flight by the merits of the Saint, he is made whole forthwith.
[10] Finally in the village of Fossés, there dwelt a certain young foreigner, deprived of the function of tongue and hearing, seeking his living by begging. A dumb and deaf man is cured. Who, while he lay on his bed by night, on the solemn day of the holy man, namely of his passing, while the Monks were chanting the nocturnal Office; saw the holy man standing before him, and commanding him that he ought to go to the church. And he began to cry out to his host, saying that he was made whole: and rising hastily, he gladly awaited the day. And when at the morning hour all had risen; his host, Fulco by name, put a rope on his neck, and so led him to the altar of the holy man: and there, the Brothers praising God and ringing the bells on account of this, he gave thanks to God for the health restored to him, before all. And the same young man was called Peter; to whom (as he afterward related to us) the holy man, who appeared to him, drawing his tongue from his mouth, put his fingers into his ears, and so restored to him speech and hearing. Behold, in this man we know a double miracle to have been wrought. Let the envious therefore come to their senses, who disparage this Saint of the Lord: let them blush and be confounded, who do not confess him to reign with Christ: let the obstinacy of the detractors cease, when through him they shall have seen and heard miracles to have been done.
[11] Altars consecrated to S. Babolenus, The memory therefore of this Father grew so great, that altars also were consecrated in his name through many places. There is indeed a village in the territory of Paris, namely placed between the castle of Gournay l and Lagny, which is called Champ, in which this venerable Father Babolenus and B. Fursey m built a church: for they were contemporaries, as we have received from forefathers narrating true things. Which, after they had built it, they called the Bishop of the city of Paris, Audobertus by name, to dedicate it. Which, dedicating it, he consecrated in it two altars, one in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the other in the name of B. Peter the Prince of the Apostles: and there they remained for no small time. But when the holy Fathers, namely Babolenus and Fursey, the Lord calling, migrated from the world, and obtained the heavenly seats as the reward of their good works; the aforesaid village, namely Champ, sustained a great peril of plunderers, and scattered and dissipated hither and thither the colonists who dwelt therein: whence it came to pass that the aforesaid church, with no one repairing it, was destroyed, and almost reduced to nothing. they remain unharmed by fire. But after the savagery of the devastators ceased, the colonists began to return to their own places, and to build dwellings, and the church was repaired by them; in which, in honor of B. Fursey, and also of S. Babolenus, two altars were consecrated, which endured there through many spaces of years. But, the mass of the inhabitants' sins demanding it, a great fire invaded the same village, so that no buildings remained in it, and moreover the church itself was burned up; and the veils of the altar of blessed Fursey were entirely consumed; but those of the one which had been consecrated in honor of S. Babolenus, when a multitude of live coals and brands had fallen upon them from above, remained wholly untouched. This therefore, good Jesus, Son of the living God, King of ages, thou didst will to be done to the praise and glory of thy name, that thou mightest show to men of how great merit B. Babolenus was. But in the Bishopric of Meaux, in the village of Fontenay n, an altar was consecrated in the name of B. Babolenus: which the Bishop of Meaux would in no way consecrate, unless great memory of him were held with him. Glory be to thee, O Christ, with the Father and the holy Breath, who dost so magnify thy Saints on earth, while by signs thou dost testify them to reign with thee in heaven, both now and ever and through infinite ages. Amen.