CONCERNING BL. CLOTSENDIS THE VIRGIN,
ABBESS OF MARCHIENNES IN GALLO-FLANDERS.
From the Life of St. Rictrudis her Mother.
ABOUT 703.
CommentaryClotsendis, Virgin, Abbess of Marchiennes, in Gallo-Flanders (B.)
G. H.
Among the more illustrious holy Matrons of Belgium, deservedly to be reckoned is St. Rictrudis, from the death of St. Adalbert her husband a widow, and then Abbess of Marchiennes in Gallo-Flanders: whose Acts and miracles we set forth at length on May 12. In her Life, by the author Hucbald, Monk of Elnone, no. 10, these things pertaining hither are read: Daughter of St. Rictrudis, "There were given to them sons according to the blessing of the Lord… and there was to them a first-born named Maurontus, afterward Abbot and a holy Levite, and three other sacred Virgins; Clotsendis (of whom here we treat) after the death of her mother, Rectress of her monastery, instructed by St. Amandus, Eusebia and Adalsendis… Clotsendis the excellent Pontiff Amandus, because with sacred and worthy hands from the saving fount he received, in all things rendered worthy of God." Then at no. 17. St. Rictrudis, after professing to God the continence of widowhood, and after taking the holy garment of the Nun's habit, not content to offer herself only as a living oblation, holy, pleasing to God; also of the earth, that is, of her own womb, remaining a Virgin with 2 sisters, the sacred and chief offerings of the holy and individual Trinity
to the Trinity she offers as first-fruits, namely the aforesaid three daughters, white like doves, most acceptable victims to him; that, immaculate in heart and body, and keeping perpetual virginity, the Lamb, the son of the Virgin Mother, wherever he goes they may follow, with sincerity of heart and flesh, blooming with the flower of inviolate virginity in the body, and shining with the purity of inviolate truth in the heart; that they may be always without spot before the throne of God, singing to him a new song; that is, rejoicing with him about the incorruption of the flesh forever. Which song, although they can hear it, no one however will be able to say of the Saints, except that white throng of the undefiled.
[2] These things there. We said St. Rictrudis died about the year 688: to whom then as Abbess succeeded Bl. Clotsendis her daughter, by holy Amandus the Pontiff salutarily instructed, as the Author of the Miracles of St. Rictrudis, But how long Clotsendis the Abbess lived, is not sufficiently established. In the Collectanea of the Lord de la Barre, Prior of Anchin, it is said that, in the rule of the monastery, at least, she reached the fifth year of Childebert King of the Franks, or the year of Christ 703; she died about the year 703. and so she would have died two years after the death of St. Maurontus her brother, who at his Natale day, May 5, was shown to have died in the year 701. And since from his death for three hundred and twenty-two years Abbesses presided, as is indicated in the above-cited Miracles of St. Rictrudis, book 1 no. 14; one comes to the year 1023, in the following year of which, in place of the Nuns Monks were introduced, under Leduin the Abbot, as is established from the Chronicle of Marchiennes. Meanwhile Charles le Cointe, in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, prefers to transfer Clotsendis's death to the year 714.
[3] The Body is preserved at Marchiennes. In the said Anchin Collectanea it is said that she, with her sister St. Eusebia, has a place in the magnificent and most rich shrines of Marchiennes. St. Eusebia, her sister, was Abbess of Hamage, and thence her body to the monastery of Marchiennes was translated; and in the year 1133, into a new case, fashioned of gold and silver, conveyed, as at her Natale day, March 16, is explained, without mention of her sister St. Clotsendis. Yet that Marchiennes is even now adorned with her body, indicates Rayssius in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium, p. 292. There that her Relics are preserved write Molanus in the Births of the Saints of Belgium, and Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti on this June 30; and Molanus asserts, that her Natale from an old Martyrology is pronounced, yet in the divine Office not otherwise honored, whence he honors her only with the title of Blessed, but the eulogy with these words begins: "At Marchiennes of holy Clotsendis the Virgin." This following, Wion, Dorganius, Menard, Bucelinus, inscribed Clotsendis, with the title of Saint, in their Benedictine fasti, and with them Ferrari in his general Catalogue. The rest are to be seen in the Acts of St. Rictrudis, the mother and Abbess, whom in the same monastery she succeeded.