Cunegonde

ON SAINT CUNEGONDE, EMPRESS, VIRGIN, WIFE, WIDOW, AND FINALLY BENEDICTINE NUN, AT KAUFUNGEN AND BAMBERG IN GERMANY.

AROUND THE YEAR 1040.

Preliminary Commentary.

Cunegonde, Empress, Virgin, Wife, Widow, and Benedictine Nun (Saint)

BHL Number: 3816

Section I. Sacred cult assigned to various days. Sacred relics.

[1] Bamberg, in earlier centuries Babenberg, is a distinguished city of Franconia, situated in the heart of Germany, enlarged by the Emperor Saint Henry and his wife Saint Cunegonde (to whom, while they lived, it was a delight) with magnificent churches and monasteries, and adorned with an episcopal see.

which was subsequently exempted from all archiepiscopal jurisdiction by Pope Clement II, Bamberg adorned by Saints Henry and Cunegonde; who had previously been the second Bishop of this city, and was directly subject to the Apostolic See. But nothing so greatly completed the most ample adornments of this city as the grant of the patronage of the said Saints and the deposition of their most sacred relics there. These honors are augmented both by the numerous miracles wrought at those relics and by the sacred cult and veneration granted by the Apostolic See. These things will need to be chiefly explained on 14 July, the day on which Saint Henry, having left the earthly Empire, migrated to the heavenly kingdom. Meanwhile, certain matters that pertain separately to Saint Cunegonde must be set forth on this 3rd of March, on which she too exchanged this mortal life for an eternal and immortal one.

[2] There is a Martyrology of Usuard formerly augmented for the churches of Germany, her birthday inscribed in the sacred calendars on 3 March. such as was sent to us in a manuscript written about four hundred years ago, which was preserved among the books of Nicolaus Scheld at Hagenau. In it, after Saints Marinus and Asterius, the following is read: "On the same day, of Cunegonde the Empress"; and then is subjoined the birthday of Saints Emeterius and Chelidonius, Martyrs, whom we have already treated. In the manuscript Florarium is added: "and Virgin, who flourished in the year of salvation 1003." We shall treat below of her age and year of death. Hermann Greven flourished about two hundred years ago, having died in the year 1480, who in his additions to Usuard writes thus: "Of Cunegonde, Virgin and Empress, daughter of the Count Palatine of the Rhine. She, serving Christ in virginity with her husband Saint Henry, first of that name among Emperors, full of good works, rested in peace." In the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490, the following is recorded: "On the same day, of Saint Cunegonde the Empress, who was the daughter of the Count Palatine of the Rhine and was joined in marriage to the Emperor Saint Henry, who were both Virgins and preserved their virginity to the end of their lives and rest buried together in the city of Bamberg." We shall inquire below about her father, Count Siegfried. The Martyrology of the Church of Basel has the following: "At Bamberg, Saint Cunegonde the Augusta, who was distinguished for the integrity of her body, charity toward the poor, and monastic observance." Her feast in the diocese of Basel is celebrated on the fifth day before the Ides of September, as will be said below. Felicius and Galesin, who extols the greatness of her miracles, Molanus in his additions to Usuard, Canisius in the German Martyrology, and finally the present Roman Martyrology, adorn her with their eulogies; into which the following eulogy has been inserted: "At Bamberg, Saint Cunegonde the Augusta, who, married to the Emperor Henry I, having preserved her virginity with his consent, enriched with the merits of good works, rested in a holy death and after death was renowned for miracles." Gelenius inscribed her in the Cologne calendars, Miraeus in the Belgian ones: the latter says she was born as the daughter of a Count on the Moselle; the former asserts that the Cologne territories were illuminated by her presence.

[3] Saint Cunegonde died in the monastery of Kaufungen, where, having become a nun, also in monastic calendars, she lived for fifteen years in the habit of the Order of Saint Benedict. It was situated near Kassel in Hesse and belonged to the diocese of Paderborn and the jurisdiction of its Bishop, as our Brower clearly demonstrates in his notes to the Life of Saint Meinwerk, number 69. Hence John Trithemius rightly assigned her to his Order in Book 3 of his work On Distinguished Benedictine Men, chapter 259. Her name is also inserted in the manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of the Holy Savior: "The death of Saint Cunegonde, Empress and Virgin; she rests in Bamberg." Wion, Menard, Dorgany, and Bucelin also inscribed her in Monastic Martyrologies, the latter with a longer eulogy taken from the Life; the former ones transcribe the Roman Martyrology, to which Wion badly added this beginning: "At Bamberg in the monastery of Kaufungen," which we have said was situated outside the diocese of Bamberg.

[4] The same veneration is confirmed by the ancient Office, which was formerly accustomed to be recited and chanted on 3 March in various churches; and in various Breviaries. in which not only are six proper Lessons assigned for Matins, but all the antiphons, hymns, and responsories also represent her deeds. That Office was printed at Brussels in the year 1484 from ancient Breviaries, together with her Life. A similar one is found in the Passau Breviary of the year 1505 and the Bamberg Breviary reprinted in the year 1575. But the Proper Offices of the churches of Regensburg, Salzburg, Freising, Eichstatt, Vienna, Passau, and others, printed in this century, all prescribe that the Office should be recited from the Common of Virgins, except for two or three Lessons of the second Nocturn taken from the Life. The Collect likewise in some is prescribed from the Office of the Common of Virgins; in others a proper one is prefixed.

[5] Another day sacred to the veneration of the same Empress is 9 September, on which day in the printed Bede -- that is, as published by later authors under his name -- Translation on 9 September. the following is read: "On the same day, of Saint Cunegonde the Virgin." The Cologne Martyrology cited above reports thus: "In the city of Bamberg, the Translation of Blessed Cunegonde the Virgin." Greven adds "and Empress." Similar entries are found in the manuscript Florarium and the German Martyrology of Canisius. In the manuscript Benedictine Calendar of the Holy Savior, it is said that she was afterwards a nun of the monastery of Kaufungen. Wion had found the name in the Salzburg Calendar and inserted it in his Martyrology with these words: "At Salzburg, of Saint Cuneburg the Virgin." But that her cult among the people of Basel was more celebrated is indicated by the Martyrology of that Church, which begins thus: "On the fifth day before the Ides of September, in the diocese of Basel, of Saint Cunegonde, Virgin and Augusta, who, married to the Emperor Henry I, serving Christ, perpetually cultivated virginal chastity; flourishing in the renown of this praise and enriched with the merits of good works, she rested in the Lord, renowned also for miracles after death that attest to her sanctity. At Bamberg her feast is celebrated on the fifth day before the Nones of March." But also on that 9th day of September, her cult is observed at Bamberg with a solemn Office, with six Lessons together with antiphons and responsories fashioned from her Life. The translation of the same Blessed Cunegonde is assigned to 22 May in certain manuscript additions to Hermann Greven. and 22 May:

[6] A third solemnity is assigned in the manuscript Florarium to 29 March with these words: Canonization on 29 March, "The Canonization of Saint Cunegonde, Empress and Virgin." It is likewise recorded in the Bamberg Breviary with this rubric: "On the Canonization of Saint Cunegonde, at first Vespers, after the prayers and collect of the ferial office, the Antiphon, verse, and collect are said which are assigned, as again at Matins and Lauds. If this feast falls on Palm Sunday or in Holy Week, let it be anticipated on a suitable weekday before Palm Sunday. If it falls on a feast, in the week, or during the Octave of Easter, other rubrics are prescribed." In the Life formerly printed at Brussels, the feast of the Canonization is said to be celebrated on 9 September, which we have already shown to be that of the Translation. The Bull of Canonization is dated the third day before the Nones of April, which was the fifth day after the completion of that solemnity. On that day we do not find her memorial inserted in any Martyrology. A fourth solemnity is observed at Bamberg on the Kalends of August on account of the first miracle wrought by her on that day, related below in the Life, number 17; memorial on 1 August. on account of which, in the Office of Saint Peter the Apostle in Chains, a Commemoration of Saint Cunegonde is assigned in the Breviary with a proper Antiphon and Collect. The great bells are also rung, and other extraordinary ornaments are displayed. On that day Maurolycus and Felicius made mention of Saint Cunegonde, and, citing both, Wion also, but doubtful whether what they report is true. Molanus also on 2 May mentions "Saint Cunegonde the Virgin at Erschel," whom our Gamansius considers to be an Ursuline.

[7] A catalogue of the relics of Bamberg was formerly printed, in whose first class are the triple pallium, robe, and girdle of Saint Cunegonde the Empress. Relics at Bamberg, In the sixth class is preserved a glove enclosed in a goblet (which the Acts below at number 13 record as having adhered to a ray of the sun) and the ring with which she was espoused. In the ninth class are displayed her head, arm, and hand. In the tenth class there is a large casket, adorned and locked, with the inscription: "In this silver sarcophagus are the relics of Saint Cunegonde." We ourselves were also at Bamberg in the year 1660 and saw the treasury of the Cathedral Church on 14 September, and in it a most beautiful statue of Saint Cunegonde in gilded silver, representing the upper half of her body, in whose breast the head of the holy Empress was enclosed. Among the relics that were translated to Portugal and deposited in the church of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Lisbon, at Lisbon, some are said to be of Saint Cunegonde the August Virgin, as we said on 25 January among the Saints passed over and assigned to other days, page 612. But that an arm of Saint Cunegonde is preserved at Vienna in Austria is indicated by the Lipsanography of the Cathedral church sent to us from there. at Vienna, at Cologne, At Cologne, in the treasury of sacred relics that are exposed for public veneration in the chapel of Saints Willibrord and Boniface of the Batavian College, Gelenius reports in his Colonia, page 616, that certain relics of Saint Cunegonde the Empress are found. at Andechs. The monastery of Andechs likewise, on the Holy Mountain among the Bavarians, has relics of Cunegonde, whose catalogue Beyerlinck published in his Theatre of the World under the title "Relics."

Section II. Various Acts of Saint Cunegonde.

[8] Since for about two hundred years the art of printing had become known to the whole world, various persons were found who either published separately Lives of Saints extracted from ancient manuscript codices, or arranged for them to be printed collected in a single body. Life published in 1483 and 1485. Thus in Italy, Boninus Mombritius of Milan published two huge volumes on the Lives of Saints, without indicating the year of printing, which was later observed from common practice. There was also found in those times in Lower Germany one who would collect and publish Lives of Saints in a similar manner; which work was first published at Cologne in the year 1483, and two years later at Louvain, and was called the Legenda Nova, by Molanus the second part of the Legend. In this, on folio 35, there is the Life of Saint Cunegonde the Empress, and afterwards by Surius: which Lawrence Surius, taking it from there, published in volume 2 of his Lives of Saints for this day, 3 March; and he asserts that this Life was written seriously and faithfully, although the author suppressed his name -- or perhaps it was lost through the carelessness of copyists. The author at number 6 considered it worthwhile by whom and when was it written? not to withhold the service of his lips from her, Saint Cunegonde, by whose providence he daily received the nourishment of the body -- implying that he was either a monk in some monastery built by her, or perhaps a Canon in the Church of Bamberg, or certainly a Priest or Cleric of another grade. The time also at which this Life was written is indicated there: namely, when the holy Church had received sufficiently and worthily written accounts about the life and virtues of Saint Henry and the miracles wrought after his passing, when the same Henry had been inscribed in the Catalogue of Saints by Pope Eugene III in the year 1152, with a solemn Canonization. Indeed, if the miracles reported at number 17 were written by the same author,

after the year 1189, in which those events are said to have taken place, it is necessarily established that he flourished; and the end of this Life is placed in the said edition at that number. The same Life is inserted in the Bamberg Breviary, partly for 9 September, partly for this 3rd of March; but nothing about those miracles is presented in them, but with the funeral and burial, an end is imposed, as also in the Blabeuren manuscript; which are nevertheless found in the manuscript of D. Baunach, concerning which we treat below, from which our Gamansius submitted to us various readings.

[9] Just as in the Roman Church the pious custom prevails that on the feasts of Saint Peter the Apostle a commemoration of Saint Paul the Apostle is made, and conversely on the latter's feasts the memory of the former is recalled, published elsewhere in the year 1484 so in the Church of Bamberg these most holy spouses Henry and Cunegonde are not separated, nor is any feast of one of them celebrated without the invoked suffrage of the other. Perhaps with this in view, the Acts of Saints Henry and Cunegonde were printed together, then from these Acts the Lessons to be recited on their feasts, after which the rest of the Office with the proper Mass is assigned; and finally epitaphs and epigrams about these Saints are added, for whose invocation various prayers are subjoined. We have a booklet of this kind printed at Brussels in the year 1484, from which, translated here, the words of the prologue will indicate what the mind of that author was; it begins thus:

Since we are commanded to praise God in His Saints, with this prologue: who can never be praised enough by us -- for "great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised, and of His greatness there is no end" -- and to elucidate the merits and virtues of the Saints tends to the praise, honor, and glory of the Holy of Holies Himself: hence the most Christian Emperor Saint Henry, that glorious ornament of Confessors, and his wife the most noble Virgin Saint Cunegonde, although they seem to be sufficiently extolled with worthy panegyrics of praise in a certain ancient Legend once published about their lives and deeds, yet since I have observed that very many in modern times are greatly affected with most burning love and sighing desires of the heart regarding the veneration of the said Saints, assenting to the sedulous entreaties of certain persons who urged me, I thought it useful not indeed to change entirely the aforesaid Legend, compiled of old in a truthful style, but in many of its places to add something to it from various things, namely only from what I was able to find here and there in various Chronicles suitable for this work, and for the dignity of so great a subject matter, to augment it somewhat, in uncultivated speech perhaps, but in truthful content. But since I have proposed not to forge new things but to confirm ancient ones and add new things to them, it was fitting here to prefix this brief new prologue.

Thus it reads there. These insertions chiefly pertain to the Life of Saint Henry, whose first chapter sets forth his genealogy, traced from Otto, Duke of Saxony, father of Henry the Fowler, King of Germany, and this man's sons are established as Otto I the Emperor and Henry, from whom were descended Otto II the Emperor and Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who were cousins; the sons of these were Otto III the Emperor and Saint Henry, who from Duke of Bavaria became Emperor after the death of the latter. It suffices to have indicated these things here, to be examined more precisely on 14 July. But the Life of Saint Cunegonde is the same as that which we said was published in the above-cited Legend, reprinted in its entirety with very few words changed here and there. What is then appended we wished to add below separately as an Appendix.

[10] another found in manuscripts. Rebdorf, in the diocese of Eichstatt, not far from the city itself, is a monastery of Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, founded in the year 1166, in which there is a library filled with ancient records. From it we have a copy of the Life of Saint Cunegonde, which Jacob Gretser published from that library in his Divi Bambergenses, published by Gretser: printed by the Sartorius press at Ingolstadt in the year 1611. The same, with the former rejected, was inserted in the third edition of Surius. Our Johannes Gamansius also found it in the monastery of Budecum of the Canons Regular in Westphalia, in a manuscript Passional for the month of March, and from it transmitted various readings. In this collection, the letter of Saint Cunegonde to the nuns of Kaufungen and the prologue to the miracles wrought after her death are lacking. But on the other hand, miracles omitted in the previously cited editions are described, which are narrated from number 18 to the end. Who wrote this Life, whether one and the same person, or whether someone rather arranged the earlier Life with the addition of the last miracles and the omission of certain things as we have said, in his own manner, is not clear to us. by whom and when collected: Martin Hoffmann composed the Annals of Bamberg, which Gretser had in an as-yet unpublished form, and who says that in them this work is attributed to Nonnosius the monk. Mention is made below at number 26 of Pope Innocent III, whence it is clear that this author flourished after the year 1200.

[11] Another old manuscript codex on the Life of Saint Cunegonde exists at Bamberg, from which Frederick Forner, Vicar of Bamberg, a man distinguished for having published very many books, sent a copy to the said Gretser. Gretser acknowledges that the copy of the Rebdorf codex was augmented from this Bamberg transcript by him and supplemented in more than one place; miracles added: and in his Notes he published from it various miracles, which we also subjoin to the second Life, collated with the manuscript of the Reverend D. Johannes Baunach, Dean of Saint Stephen's at Bamberg, from which several lacunae are filled. The process for the Canonization of the most holy Cunegonde began to be pursued principally with Pope Celestine III. But since he died on the night preceding the 6th day before the Ides of January in the year 1198, his successor Innocent III inscribed her in the Catalogue of Saints on the third day before the Kalends of April, in the third year of his pontificate, Bull of Canonization. the year of Christ 1200, and Gretser published the Bull of this Canonization, dated the third day before the Nones of April, found in the manuscript Annals of Bamberg, in his Paralipomena to the Life of Saint Henry and Saint Cunegonde, and we give the same from him, collated with the Bamberg manuscript of the Friars Minor.

[12] The aforementioned Johannes Gamansius submitted another treatise, transcribed from a double Bamberg codex, namely that of the Cathedral library and of D. Johannes Baunach. A manuscript sermon about her is omitted: It contains a sermon on Saint Cunegonde composed by a certain Magnus or Master Conrad; which we omit, because it contributes very little to the historical matter. It suffices here to have indicated its opening, which is as follows: "From the throne proceeded lightnings and voices and thunders." Apoc. 2:5 As it is written: "The mouth of the wise man is in his heart, but the heart of the fool is in his mouth." Ecclus. 21:29 Whence: "The fool multiplies words," Eccles. 10:14 and "a parable is unseemly in the mouth of a fool. But the wise man at the beginning of his discourse is the accuser of himself," etc. Prov. 18:17

[13] Among more recent writers, several have written the Life of Saint Cunegonde, from whom I insert here this brief eulogy from the Bavaria Sancta of our Rader: "Cunegonde of the Moselle, daughter of Siegfried, the ruler of Metz, wife of the holy Henry, Eulogy from the Bavaria Sancta, vindicated the flower of virginity, which she had vowed to God, when it was brought under suspicion by her husband through the envy and arts of the most impure enemy, the evil spirit, by the very grave trial and judgment of glowing-hot plowshares. For the flame feared to injure her who had preserved her marriage bed and her modesty unharmed for God and her husband. Nor content with this most beautiful virtue, by which she equaled or surpassed the Empress Pulcheria, wife of Marcian, after the death of the Emperor Henry, having taken the sacred veil in place of the crown, she renounced by solemn ceremony all human affairs and emancipated herself entirely to Christ the heavenly Emperor in the Benedictine family, in a convent of Virgins once built by herself at Bamberg. Enrolled in heaven, she left to the earth such an example as all posterity still admires, but no one at so great an eminence imitates." In the notes subjoined, he cites Arnold Wion, whom he followed in his error, establishing that she became a nun at Bamberg, whereas we have said above that this happened at Kaufungen near Kassel in Hesse, in the diocese of Paderborn. We shall treat of Siegfried presently. Saint Pulcheria Augusta is venerated on 10 September. We published on 10 February, among the praises of Saint Scholastica the Virgin, the encomium of Hieronymus Dungersheim, another published in the Life of Saint Scholastica. in whose fifth chapter illustrious imitators of Saint Scholastica are set forth, and in the first place Saint Cunegonde the Augusta is presented, and a fairly extended summary of her life is inserted.

[14] We have another treatise, transcribed from a manuscript codex of the Bamberg library of the Carmelite Fathers, which we examined there. A manuscript account of the innocence of Saint Cunegonde is omitted, It contains an account of the innocence of Saint Cunegonde, proved by fire. The author is anonymous, and seems for his own devotion to have wished to adorn that innocence of hers with fitting praises, with the material taken from the Acts of Saints Henry and Cunegonde as described by older writers; which, however, he did not read accurately and frequently departs from the truth. We therefore omit that account here and give in its place what Mutius narrates in Book 4 of the Chronicle of Germany in these words: "Henry had not touched his wife; she in turn, desiring to preserve her chastity, had agreed with her spouse; and so both were leading a celibate life. Satan, who has never rested, nor rests, nor will rest before the consummation, rendered Queen Cunegonde suspect to the Emperor of the crime of adultery. This related from the Chronicles: etc. Henry accuses her: why does she feign chastity before men? A graver judgment awaits her; the Lord, who made hearts and eyes, sees all things, even if she deceives men. The most chaste Virgin, with a modest and humble countenance, firmly denies it and says that she rejoices that she has the Lord as witness, with whose testimony she is content, etc. But in order that this scruple, which Satan had cast into Henry, might be removed, it was agreed between them that the Queen should walk upon glowing-hot iron. After she invoked the name of the Lord, that for the sake of His glory He would prove the innocence of His handmaid, with a glad but most modest brow, with bare feet, she trod upon the iron just now drawn from the fire and still red, as many times as those who were present as witnesses of the miracle wished, which God wrought with His Virgin handmaid. Those who write that this was devised by Henry at the impulse of Satan, in order to compel his wife, whom he had never known and with whom he had resolved never to have relations, it does not follow what they infer (I might almost call them calumniators), that there is sufficient indication that Henry was a tyrant rather than a holy King. Why do they not consider by what and how many temptations the Saints of God have been tempted by Satan, and not rarely induced somewhat?"

Whence this suspicion about his most chaste wife arose in Saint Henry, the author of the Chronological Compilation relates: "At the instigation of the devil, who was envious of her virginity, she was vehemently defamed with the crime of adultery. For the cunning devil, transforming himself into the form of a handsome soldier, for three consecutive days in the morning was seen by many coming out of the bedchamber of Saint Cunegonde." Martin Hoffmann in the Annals of Bamberg: "To establish faith in this miracle, a chapel was built in that place, and

the relics of the two plowshares, Relics of the plowshares. enclosed in the sarcophagus of Lord Henry by the Bishop and Clergy of Bamberg, have been preserved hitherto in the Cathedral Church with the reverence that was due.

Section III. The lineage of Siegfried, father of Saint Cunegonde; her brothers, blood relations, and connections by marriage.

[15] That the most holy spouses Henry and Cunegonde were born from the most noble blood of their exalted parents, the Acts below disclose. The father of Saint Cunegonde was Siegfried, Concerning Saint Henry and his Saxon ancestors, the matter is less controverted among authors, and we have touched briefly upon his forebears above. The greater difficulty lies in the family of Saint Cunegonde, which we explain here briefly. Her father was Count Siegfried, who in the year 963, having made an exchange with Wikker, Abbot of Saint Maximin near Trier, I, made Count of Luxembourg in the year 963, acquired for himself and his heirs the castle of Lutzilnburg, from that place thenceforth called the first Count of Lutzilnburg, or Luxembourg. This charter of exchange was published by Miraeus in his Notice of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 61, and by Andre du Chesne in his Genealogical History of the Families of Dreux, Bar, Luxembourg, Limburg, and Plessis, page 4 in the Proofs, where he subsequently traces the descendants of Siegfried. Siegfried had as brothers Gislebert and Godfrey, Counts in the Ardennes, brother of the Counts in the Ardennes, whose names are recorded in the said charter. From Count Godfrey descended Adalbero, created Archbishop of Reims in the year 968, and Counts Henry and Godfrey, who, noble in blood and powerful in birth, are said to be from the land of the Lotharingians, and Godfrey had assembled the Hainaulters and Ardennese for the siege of the castle of Warcq. from whom the Dukes of Lower Lorraine; Thus the ancient sources in Chesne, page 6. From the said Count Godfrey in a direct line descend the Dukes of Lower Lorraine and the Margraves of Antwerp: Gothelo the Great, Godfrey the Great, Godfrey the Hunchback, who having died without children, was succeeded by Godfrey of Bouillon, born of his sister Ida, who after the conquest of Jerusalem was made King there.

[16] But to return to Siegfried, who having married Hadeswicha as his wife, begot several children, mother Hadeswicha; among whom were daughters: this Empress Saint Cunegonde, and another married to Gerard of the Counts of Alsace. From Gerard's brother, Count Adalbert of Alsace, in a direct male line descended Theodoric and Philip of Alsace, Counts of Flanders, a sister most nobly married, and likewise all those who at this time are Dukes of Lorraine, divided into various branches. From Landelin, Count of Altenburg and Windisch, a cousin of the same Gerard, the Habsburgs and Austrians descend, down to the present Emperors and Kings of Spain and other Archdukes of Austria, concerning whom the Reader may consult the Origins of the Families of Alsace, Lorraine, and Austria published by Jerome Vignier. Finally, a daughter of the said Gerard was Jutta, the first Abbess of the monastery of Kaufungen, who had among her nuns her own great-aunt Saint Cunegonde, as is read below in her Life at number 12.

[17] The brothers of the same Saint Cunegonde, and sons of Siegfried and Hardeswicha, are established as six. brothers: Henry, Duke of Bavaria, Henry of Luxembourg, created Duke of Bavaria by Saint Henry in the year 1003, who having died in good old age in the year 1025, Emperor Conrad conferred the Duchy upon his son Henry; as is narrated in the Life of Saint Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn, by a contemporary author, chapters 14 and 97, in our Brower, and in both places Henry is called the brother of the Lady and Empress Cunegonde. Frederick, Count of Luxembourg, The second son of Siegfried is Frederick, Count of Luxembourg, from whom were successively born Gislebert, Conrad I, William, and Conrad II, Counts of Luxembourg. Conrad was succeeded by Henry, Count of Namur, son of Ermenson, sister of the said William; these are treated by the aforementioned Chesne and Miraeus. The third son of Siegfried is Deoderic, or Theodoric, Bishop of Metz, whom Sigebert in his Chronicle for the years 1004 and 1009 calls the brother of the Empress Cunegonde, Theodoric, Bishop of Metz, and Dithmar more than once writes that he was the brother of Henry, then Duke of Bavaria, of whom we have already spoken. The fourth of the sons of Siegfried is Adalbero, or Athelbero, Adalbero, called by the same Dithmar the brother of the Queen, Chaplain of Luidulf, Archbishop of Trier, whom Saint Henry rejected when he sought that bishopric, and spurned his beloved wife and the rest of his own familiars who were soliciting for the same bishopric. Gislebert, The fifth is Gislebert, called by the same Dithmar an excellent young man and brother of the Queen, who was wounded and killed by the Lombards in the Pavian sedition. Finally, a son Siegfried is mentioned, to whom Archbishop Gerbert wrote Letter 51, Siegfried. whom Chesne thinks died in his youth before his father, as did many others, because Siegfried the father and Hadeswicha the mother, in the charter of donation made in the year 993 to the monastery of Saint Maximin, assert that they give those things for the remedy of their own souls and those of their children, namely both the surviving and the deceased.

These things about the kinship and connections of Saint Cunegonde are fairly certain and explain the most noble blood of her exalted parents indicated in the Acts.

[18] Crantzius, Book 4 of his Saxonia, chapter 30, Cuspinian in his History of the Emperors, Hermann Greven, and the author of the Cologne Martyrology cited above, and the author of the Account of the Innocence of Saint Cunegonde, call her father Siegfried, Count Palatine of the Rhine; [Why is the father Siegfried called by more recent writers the Palatine of the Rhine?] nor does Andre du Chesne greatly disagree, because the Ardennes region extended to the Rhine; he prefers, however, to call him Palatine of the Moselle, and considers it most certain if he is called Count of Luxembourg. But in our judgment, these writers, who were more than three hundred years removed from those times, seem not to have sufficiently distinguished a younger Siegfried from the earlier one. Laach, or of the Lake, not far from Andernach near the Rhine, is a wealthy monastery, founded by Henry, Count Palatine of the Rhine, with the consent of his wife Adelheid; perhaps on account of the younger Siegfried? Marquard Freher treats of it in Part 2 of his Palatine Origins, chapter 9, and presents the tenor of the foundation, which he transcribed at the monastery itself. Those things were enacted in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1093, and among the witnesses of the constitution are named Hilbert, Archbishop of Trier, Siegfried the stepson, and others. But when Henry died while the work was in progress, the stepson Siegfried, likewise Palatine of the Rhine, completed it, whose truncated document is presented there. The Emperor Henry IV also adorned this foundation with his own privileges, in which among other things these words are contained: "After the death of the aforesaid Count Henry, Siegfried, who succeeded him in the County Palatine, gave from his patrimony Mylen in Brabant, Ouerhouen, and Geneheiden to the monastery of Laach." But Freher warns or also an older one? that a distinction should be made between this Siegfried, whose wife was Gertrude, and another more ancient Siegfried the Palatine, who is said to have inhabited a castle, now ruined, not far from the monastery of Laach, which they call Hohen-Simmern, and to have died in the year 754, and to have had as his wife the Duchess of Brabant, named Genevieve, whom on the advice and calumny of a certain knight he wished to hand over to the fire; but that she, exposed with her little boy in a vast forest and found safe and unharmed after several months without any human aid, and preserved by God as a sign of her innocence, gave occasion for the building of a church in honor of the Virgin Mother of God, in which Freher found that document. This Genevieve will have to be treated on 2 April, on which day she is found inscribed in certain calendars as a Saint.

[19] These things about those Palatine Siegfrieds, on whose account the father of Saint Cunegonde could have been called Palatine of the Rhine; whom Elias Reusner in his Supplement to the Genealogical Basilikon, page 177, Other things written about Siegfried by more recent authors, and less approved. makes the first Elector of the holy Roman Empire among the seven, in these words: "Siegfried, originating from Lotharingian Moselle, son of Conrad the Wise, Duke of France and Lorraine, who had as his wife Liudgard, daughter of Emperor Otto I, and grandson through his son Otto, is said to have first held the Electoral Palatinate. Their children are given as the Lady Cunegonde, wife of Emperor Henry II, who died on 3 March of the year 1039; Henry, endowed by his brother-in-law the Emperor Augustus with the Duchy of Bavaria, successor to his father in the electoral honor; and Richsa, wife of Mieszko II, King of Poland." And then through the granddaughter of the said Henry, Irmgard, and her daughter Elisabeth, the present family of the Counts Palatine of the Rhine and Dukes of Bavaria is traced. And these things are asserted as beyond doubt without any proof. Emperor Otto I, father of the said Liudgard, at the urging of this Count Siegfried restored the monks in the monastery of Echternach, as will appear below, and in his diploma calls him "the venerable Count Siegfried, our faithful man," not grandson, or son of his daughter, not blood relative, kinsman, or by a similar name of dignity, which he would undoubtedly have done. Of similar quality are the things assumed by Bertelius, to be cited presently, when he traces Siegfried's lineage from Reginar I, Count of Hainault, through his son Gislebert, Duke of all Lorraine, and the latter's son Ricuin. Nor should Paul Langius and Glaber, the Cluniac monk, be accepted without proof, of whom the former makes Henry, the brother of Saint Cunegonde, a great-great-grandson of Charlemagne, from whom he was distant by more than two hundred years; the latter pronounces Siegfried Duke of the Saxons. But we do not wish to dwell on these, because no arguments are adduced to prove the assertion. Something will be said about the Electoral dignity, long afterward instituted, on 16 March in the Life of Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne.

[20] Johannes Bertelius, in his History of Luxembourg, page 24, thus extols the piety of the parents of Saint Cunegonde: He was devoted to virtue and the Catholic religion: "This Siegfried, the first of the Counts of Luxembourg, was a man most outstanding in prudence and virtue, likewise most skilled in the waging of war, and at the same time devoted with a singular spirit to the cult of the Catholic religion. In evidence of which, as soon as he received the castle of Luxembourg into his power, he raised from the foundations a certain chapel under the patronage of the inviolate Mother of God Mary (which now bears the title of Saint Michael the Archangel) next to the same castle... In the time following, Count Siegfried, being entirely devoted to protecting, indeed even to augmenting, ecclesiastical affairs, was requested as Advocate of the neighboring Imperial monastery of Echternach, and he executed that office with great praise and the applause of all, for the benefit of the Church itself. administrator of the Abbey of Echternach, And since he was a most zealous defender of true and ancestral religion, observing that at Echternach there were not professors of the monastic life but secular Canons, and these of very dissolute, indeed even scandalous morals, under an equally vicious Abbot, he strove above all to bring a remedy to so great an evil." But on the other hand, Caspar Brusch in his Chronology of the Monasteries of Germany records that the Counts and Dukes themselves as Advocates presided in place of Abbots, and of these last Siegfried the Count succeeded in the administration of this Abbey. "At this man's urging," he says, he arranges for it to be restored to Benedictine monks: "the Emperor Otto, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign and the twelfth of his Empire, that is, in the year of the Lord 972, expelled the Canons from this place, gathered together a congregation of monks, and appointed as their Abbot a certain Raginer." Miraeus published the complete diploma in his Notice of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 65. The act took place at Magdeburg in Saxony, in the presence of all the Princes of the kingdom, when they had been

Canons had been in this place for 125 years. Thus Brusch. These things are related more fully by Bertelius, who adds a portion of an ancient charter found in the archive of the monastery of Echternach, which reads thus: "I, Siegfried, unworthy though I am, yet elevated with the honor of Count, considering that from a royal gift I received the Abbey of Saint Willibrord as a benefice and have directed it with authority for many years..." These things were enacted in the year 997. The rest is missing, he founded a confraternity of lepers: in which perhaps are contained illustrious donations made to this monastery toward the end of his life. Bertelius suggests that it redounds to the commendation of Count Siegfried that he himself instituted the confraternity of lepers, which endures to this day in the town of Echternach, and generously endowed it from his own goods.

[21] Above all other sacred places, he seems to have loved the monastery of Saint Maximin, where he chose burial for both himself and his wife; He conferred donations on the monastery of Saint Maximin, and many years earlier he offered it an illustrious donation of various properties, which after his death would pass into the use of the monks. The diploma of this donation, very ample and a testimony of most pious hearts, was published by Miraeus, Book 1 of the Belgian Diplomas, chapter 25, and by Chesne cited above in the Proofs to the Luxembourg Family, page 7. It was enacted in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 993, Indiction 6. Other things which he wished to be donated after his death to the Church of Saint Peter at Trier and to the Church of Saint Peter at Trier. are found in the same Chesne, page 5.

Section IV. Chronology of the life of Saint Cunegonde. Various benefactions.

[22] Born, raised, and instructed in the holiest of morals by these most pious parents, Saint Cunegonde was also perhaps joined in marriage with Saint Henry, Saint Cunegonde married to Saint Henry, then Duke of Bavaria. For in what years they died, or when this wife was given to him, is not clear. Upon the death of Emperor Otto III on 23 January of the year 1002, Saint Henry was elected King at Mainz on the 8th day before the Ides of June, acclaimed, blessed, and crowned. then crowned King on 6 June in the year 1002, "Having celebrated the days of his ordination and received all who came into his service, the King again crossed the Rhine with a very great multitude, through eastern France into Alemannia, that Hermann might bow his head, as the rest had done, to the royal Majesty... From Alemannia he withdrew into France, a land uniquely dear to him, and having tarried not many days in France, he went into Thuringia; thence proceeding, he came into Saxony... These things strenuously accomplished, as the King hastened from Saxony into the realm of Lotharingia, at Grona his wife met him, the Lady Cunegonde by name, already existing but soon in fact to be Queen. She is crowned Queen at Paderborn on 10 August: For thence coming to Paderborn on the feast of Saint Lawrence, she was acclaimed, blessed, and crowned, and Cunegonde became 'Kuninga,' which in Latin can be interpreted as 'Royal,' or 'Queen.'" Thus Adelbold in his Life of Saint Henry. Add that "Kunigunda" signifies "royal favor," for "Kuning" or "Kunic," derived from "kunnen" (to be able), is the word for King, and "gund" or "gunst" means favor. Concerning her coronation, the following is read in the Life of Saint Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn, in Brower, chapter 12: "In the same year, while the new King celebrated the Nativity of Lawrence in the city of Paderborn, the Lady Cunegonde, his wife, as was thought, but in truth his sister through emulation of chastity, there received from the aforesaid Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz, the dominion of the royal consecration, which came to the same Church by the mercy of God as an increase of honor and advancement of great adornment."

[23] But when Bishop Rethar of Paderborn died on the day before the Nones of March in the year 1009, Meinwerk was ordained as his successor Bishop at Goslar in the presence of Saint Henry, who nominated and procured the appointment. [At the Queen's urging, various possessions are conferred on the Church of Paderborn in the year 1009.] "Continuously pressing upon the King to come to the aid of the Church committed to him, which had lamentably suffered a fire, according to the promise by which he had committed it to him, the King mercifully assented, and pitying the poverty of the aforesaid Church, he conferred upon it many goods, both in estates and in other resources, with a generous hand and full charity, for the love of God and the constant and most devoted service of the Bishop dear to him. Moreover, staying frequently in the city of Paderborn, he proved himself a helper and cooperator in its works and endeavors, with the venerable Queen Cunegonde favoring and urging in all things, who always had no less willingness than ability in enlarging and improving the Churches of God." These things are found in the same Life at number 17, as are the following at number 24. "In the year 1014, the King, about to set out on an expedition to Italy to receive the consecration of Emperor from the Apostolic Lord, commanded the Princes to assemble at the castle called Gronden. But Bishop Meinwerk, about to go on the expedition with the King, and in 1014: complained of the poverty of his Church and urgently sought an expense for the journey suitable to his labor, and through the intercession of Queen Cunegonde ... he obtained Berneshusen, situated in the district of Lisga, in the County of Count Udo... On the same day, place, and year, through the intercession of the oft-mentioned and with all merit to be mentioned Queen Cunegonde ... he obtained a certain royal estate called Maranga, as also to the Church of Merseburg, situated in the district of Marangano, in the County of Count Bernard." Dithmar, who had then been appointed Bishop of Merseburg through the procurement of Saint Henry, about to describe the Roman journey of the King and Queen, writes thus at the end of Book 6 about the gifts offered to his Church (and we do not doubt that this was through the intercession of Saint Cunegonde): "For King Henry augmented our Church with many benefits, above all with divine ornaments, and from all the estates which he had in Thuringia and Saxony he handed over to us two families. He gave a Gospel adorned with gold and an ivory panel, and a golden and gemmed chalice with a paten and a straw; likewise two crosses and covers made of silver, and a great chalice of the same metal with a paten and straw together. Whatever had been neglected in the estates by my predecessors, he renewed by his command." Similar benefactions were bestowed upon many other churches.

[24] The same Dithmar at the beginning of Book 7 thus describes the coronation of both at Rome by Pope Boniface VIII: Saint Henry is crowned Emperor and Saint Cunegonde Empress at Rome: "On Sunday, the 6th day before the Kalends of March, of the year 1014, Henry, by the grace of God the renowned King, flanked by twelve Senators, of whom six walked mystically with shaven beards and the others with long beards, bearing staffs, came with his beloved wife Cunegonde to the Church of Saint Peter, where the Pope was waiting; and before he was introduced, having been asked by the same whether he wished to be a faithful Patron and Defender of the Roman Church and faithful in all things to him and his successors, he replied with a devout profession; and then he received from the same the anointing and the crown together with his consort. But the former crown he ordered to be hung above the altar of the Prince of the Apostles. On the same day the Pope gave them a lavish banquet at the Lateran." Thus it reads there. What was done on this journey in various sacred places, such as at Monte Cassino, Cluny, and elsewhere, because they pertain to the Life of Saint Henry and no particular details about Saint Cunegonde are mentioned, we omit here. In the following years, when the Emperor sought the Oder, "after our men," says Dithmar, "crossed the Elbe, they dwell in Saxony: the Empress and I, proceeding with her to Merseburg, awaited the Emperor's arrival in these parts... And after many events intervened, the Emperor and his consort were honored with great gifts by Gero, Archbishop of Magdeburg; and departing thence the next day, on the third day, that is, Sunday, they arrived at Halberstadt, where Bishop Arnulf magnificently received them and kept them with him for two nights. On the third night, having proceeded to Quedlinburg, they were adorned with no less glory by the venerable Abbess Adelheid. On the fourth day, a monastery on the western hill, where nuns serve the heavenly Spouse in monastic habit, was dedicated by Bishop Arnulf in the presence of the Emperor The Queen falls ill at Kaufungen in Hesse: on the 3rd day before the Kalends of March... Queen Cunegonde, departing from the Emperor at Frankfurt, when she came to the place called Capungun, fell ill, and there she then promised the Lord that she would build one monastery to His praise." That was the occasion of the founding of the monastery of Kaufungen in Hesse near Kassel, as said above.

[25] These things occurred before the year 1018. About the episcopal Church and the dignity procured for the city of Bamberg, and the two monasteries built there, the Life below treats. It is pleasing to add what we ourselves saw at Bamberg, on the mount of Saint Michael in the abbatial church: namely, the dowry, her golden Cross, or Morgengabe, given by Saint Henry to Cunegonde -- a golden Cross of the most ancient Greek workmanship, as could be recognized from the inscriptions and images; likewise the girdle of Saint Cunegonde and two crowns of gems belonging to her. girdle, two crowns, We also ascended to the palace of Saint Cunegonde, worth seeing more for its pleasant situation than for its structure, and now entirely in ruins. In the upper part of this wooden building, her chamber still survived, together with the place of the heated room; chamber, both such as would befit the most modest virgin of the common people. From here there was a view into a small chapel in which she had been accustomed to attend the sacred rites privately; chapel, where her wooden seat of wondrous simplicity was also displayed. seat, We also entered the church of Saint Stephen, which is of the Canons Regular, built and endowed by the same Empress, which was then being raised from the foundations in the most elegant workmanship. From the old structure only the wings or arms of the Cross survived, where in the right wing at the lateral entrance Saint Cunegonde was depicted with that platter painted effigy, which Andreas Brunner in Book 9 of the Annals of Bavaria thus describes: "Preserved also," he says, "until the German Peasants' War was a crystalline platter among the treasures of the Monks' Mount, crystalline platter, which the same holy woman had left unguarded in public, heavy with silver, whence it was reputed that she had faithfully paid the workers their wages from it, with avarice chastened by present examples if even one farthing's surplus had adhered to a wicked fingernail. Among the ornaments and protections with which Henry consulted for the eternity of his work, he is also said to have added by singular indulgence that the great Officers of the supreme Empire should extend to the Bishop of Bamberg through Vicars the same honorary services which they render in adoring the Emperors, and that this should be a sort of likeness of Imperial prerogative -- a privilege undoubtedly without precedent, which posterity in admiration called the Silk Thread of Lady Cunegonde; and the silk thread: but destined to be for the city as a wall of bronze and a pledge of perpetual serenity." Thus Brunner.

[26] From the Life of Saint Meinwerk, these things are to be referred to Saint Cunegonde: "On the day of the Kalends of March, in the year 1021, through the intercession of Pope Benedict, Benefactions rendered to Saint Meinwerk, of the Empress Augusta Cunegonde ... he obtained the County in Limmedeshusen." These things are treated at length in chapter 71; and in chapters 77 and following, the following is related: "Bishop Meinwerk, hastening to complete the monastery he had begun, invited the Emperor to Paderborn for the Nativity of the Lord, with the sanctuary vaulted ... and urgently demanded from the Emperor the royal estate of Ervete ... Who, having resisted long and much, at length, by the perseverance of the Bishop, of the Empress, and of the chief men,

compelled by their insistence, he produced the privilege, and approaching the altar, he legally offered to the Blessed Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, and to Saints Kilian and Liborius, and to Bishop Meinwerk standing by and his successors, the estate of Ervete, situated in the district of Westphalia." And in chapter 116, this epiphonema is given about Saint Meinwerk: "Thus the man of God, animated by the hope of heavenly goods, and in all things aided and supported by the counsel and assistance of the most Christian King Henry, second of that name, first Emperor, and of the venerable Empress Cunegonde, began this monastery, where he resolved to await the last trumpet, out of love for the monastic life, with the greatest devotion," etc. The Emperor himself also bestowed very many benefactions upon various churches for the sake of his own salvation and that of Saint Cunegonde. Thus, founding the College of Canons of Saint Adalbert at Aachen in the year 1018, and to the College at Aachen: he asserts: "Since we know beyond doubt that it pleases God to institute and exalt the places of the Saints, for the remedy of our soul and of our beloved wife, the Empress Augusta Cunegonde, and also of our parents, and also for establishing under divine protection the state of our kingdom, we endow with all liberty the Church in honor of Saint Adalbert, Martyr and Bishop, founded by us on the mountain adjoining our seat at Aachen," etc.

[27] At last, engaged in similar holy works, Saint Henry was called by the Lord from the prison of the flesh to receive the unfading crown. When he perceived that the day of death was imminent, [She remained an untouched Virgin, by the testimony of Saint Henry himself on his deathbed:] having summoned to himself the parents and relatives of the most blessed Empress Cunegonde and also certain chief men of the realm, he took her by the hand and commended her to them with these words worthy of remembrance: "Behold," he said, "her who was consigned to me by you, indeed through Christ; I reconsign her to Christ our Lord Himself and to you, a chaste Virgin." Thus the various Acts of Saint Henry, both handwritten and hitherto published in print, made a widow in the year 1024, to be elucidated on 14 July, the day on which he carried the flower of his virginity to heaven in the year 1024, and was buried in the Church of Bamberg, which together with the bishopric he had built there. Pope Eugene III placed him in the catalogue of Saints in the year 1152, and in his rescript concerning his Canonization these words are found: "Placed even in the legitimate marriage bed (which is recorded of very few), he preserved the integrity of chastity to the end of his life." The rest is explained below in the Acts of Saint Cunegonde. She, being very solicitous for the eternal salvation of her husband Saint Henry, continued to commend his soul to the prayers of others, becomes a nun in 1025, and at length, after a full year spent in mourning and widowhood, on the very anniversary of the passing of Saint Henry, having laid aside the royal purple, she assumed the monastic habit in the monastery of Kaufungen and survived for fifteen years in her holy resolution, as is found below at number 14, and all the Acts, both handwritten and published in print, agree on these fifteen years. Therefore she necessarily lived until at least the year 1040. Since it is asserted that she departed this life on the 5th day before the Nones of March, dies in the year 1040, or the following one. if this occurred in the said year 1040, four months and eleven days were lacking for the completion of that year. If she is established to have died in the following year, 1041, she would have survived beyond the fifteen years already indicated by seven months and twenty days. We leave the judgment to the reader.

[28] Canisius in the German Martyrology assigns only twelve years spent in the monastery and asserts the year of death as 1037. In the same year also, Trithemius in his Chronicle of Hirsau records chronological errors of authors: that Saint Cunegonde died, formerly Empress, who, when the Emperor Saint Henry died, had despised the world for the love of Almighty God, and receiving the habit of holy conversation in the monastery of Kaufungen, had remained with the holy Virgins of Christ as a nun, herself also a Virgin, until death. Thus he records, without assigning any years of monastic life. For the following year 1038, Marianus Scotus writes thus: "The Empress Cunegonde died on the 5th day before the Nones of March and is buried at Speyer" -- where there is a second error, since she was buried at Bamberg. Lambert of Schafnburg deviates even more, referring the death to the year 1033. Peter Cratepolius, in his booklet on the Saints of Germany, did not wish to omit Saint Cunegonde, in whose eulogy he writes that the Emperor Lord Henry died in the year of the Lord 1022, and that Saint Cunegonde thereafter, having left the world, served the Lord God for twelve years in all piety and humility in a monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict which she herself built at Bamberg -- where many errors are heaped together. Jerome the Camaldolese monk, in the Life of Saint Romuald which we published on 7 February, reports in chapter 8 that he was summoned to Saints Henry and Cunegonde when they were setting out for Rome, and concludes that narration with this epiphonema: Did she live forty years from the beginning of the marriage? "This Emperor Henry and his wife Cunegonde both remained Virgins and, leading a celibate life on earth for forty years, rested in peace" -- namely, from the marriage entered into until the death of Saint Cunegonde, who was the last to rest in peace.

LIFE

From various manuscripts and ancient editions.

Cunegonde, Empress, Virgin, Wife, Widow, and Benedictine Nun (Saint)

BHL Number: 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008

CHAPTER I

Acts of Saint Cunegonde in her married life. Virginity preserved. Monasteries built.

[1] From the illustrious blood of their parents and from the rank of imperial nobility, two flowers of unfading glory shone forth to the world: namely, the holy Henry, Saint Cunegonde married to the Emperor Saint Henry. surnamed the Pious, the most glorious ornament of the Roman Empire, and his most worthy consort of pious memory, Cunegonde, Augusta and Empress. This same blessed and God-beloved Cunegonde, united to the earthly Emperor bodily, not carnally, consecrated her virginity to the heavenly King, which she preserved to the end, with the consent of her chaste husband, God being witness. This was afterward made manifest by divine testimony, lest the light should lie hidden in darkness, when He permitted her to walk upon glowing-hot plowshares and to pass through unharmed, she lives in virginity: to confound the enemy of virginity and to stop the mouth of those speaking lies against the Virgin of Christ.

[2] But how this happened must not be passed over, for the common edification, that we may be instructed by examples of chastity and moved by the admiration of divine secrets, understanding how for those who love God all things work together for good. For temptation could not be absent from such and so great goods. She washes away the infamy cast upon her at the devil's instigation, For the devil, envious of all good things, when he could not wound the undefiled marriage bed, thought to defile it with the malice of jealousy and at least to injure the reputation of her upon whom he could not inflict the wound of corruption. Therefore, at the devil's instigation, she was made suspect of a crime, she who had known no stain of corruption. But because it is cruel to be negligent of one's reputation, for the sake of purgation she chose for herself that judgment of the glowing plowshares which is known to have been instituted because of the hardness of men. And when the beloved of God was being led to that judgment she treads upon the glowing plowshares unharmed: as a sheep to the slaughter, she groaned and said: "Lord, God, Creator of heaven and earth, who tests the reins and hearts, judge my cause and deliver me. For I invoke You today as witness and judge, that I have never known either this Henry who is present, or any man, by carnal union." Having said this, while all who were present were amazed and weeping, she trod upon the glowing plowshares with bare feet and passed through securely without the affliction of burning. Thus Almighty God preserved the bond of chaste love, approved her innocence, and provided the guard of humility for her integrity.

[3] Placed therefore in the highest dignity, she strove to conceal the glory of her continence beneath the cloak of the earthly empire, so that she might the more earnestly, the more effectively she could, advance what, with God inspiring and aiding, she intended to accomplish for His praise. At length, after the new Church of Bamberg -- a most fruitful planting of hers -- she cooperates with her husband in building the Church of Bamberg, which she fashioned most beautifully with that most zealous cooperator of hers, Henry, in the place of Bamberg, as can be seen to this day, under the patronage of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and of Saint George the Martyr, she built a monastery under the Rule of Saint Benedict to the north, in honor of Saint Michael the Archangel, adorned with no less zeal with the gifts of estates and various ornaments. and two monasteries: Finally she founded a third toward the south, under the Order of Canons, under the title of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, of small design indeed but of greater workmanship, from her own patrimony. To dedicate this church she asked Pope Benedict, whom the aforesaid God-worthy Emperor Henry had invited to confirm the Bamberg pontificate, to come. And she herself, singing with the Psalmist: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of Your house" Ps. 23:8, bestowed diverse gifts upon the same Church according to imperial munificence in various church ornaments. All of which the Apostolic Lord himself, so that the memory of the foundress might always flourish there, and lest they ever be removed by fraud, violence, or theft, confirmed on that very day with the severe binding of his ban and with the authority of seventy-two Bishops who were present there.

[4] Likewise, she magnificently built a monastery in honor of the Savior and His most victorious Cross in the place called Kaufungen, She builds the monastery of Kaufungen, and most becomingly established there a congregation of handmaids of God serving God according to the Rule of Saint Benedict. Furthermore, with the imperial majesty cooperating with her in all things, she adorned the same monastery with every ornament. Before the principal altar she set up an icon of gold and most precious stone; and adorns it with various gifts: golden and silver chalices, platters, pitchers, palls, chasubles, veils, curtains, copes interwoven with gold and precious gems, and other utensils and vessels of the ministry -- she bestowed upon the same Church with such zeal and at such sumptuous expense that whoever beholds them does not cease to marvel greatly at the royal munificence and the wonderful devotion of both the Emperor and the Empress toward God.

[5] Besides these principal and primary churches of her foundation, what conventual church, what monasteries do not glory in their donation, either enlarged in estates or adorned with ornaments? with Saint Henry she restores various churches: For they rebuilt some that had collapsed from age, and restored certain others that had been destroyed and reduced to nothing to their former or to a better state. And as prudent Virgins they poured out the oil of their mercy upon various recipients, so that they might rightly say: "We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place." 2 Cor. 2:15 O marriage joined not by pleasure but by good will! O holy matrimony, where there was one faith of inviolate chastity, where one spirit of mercy and truth, where the same willing in virtues and the same unwilling in vices -- where neither the first nor the second could be distinguished, both live by holy consent: since the second willed what the first willed -- where an equal spirit in the manifold effects of their works showed equal affections in the two. What I should call these nuptials, I know not. One thing I know: that our region at present knows not their like, since they made themselves eunuchs for

the kingdom of heaven, not expecting the offspring of earthly fruitfulness, they received from God a celibate generation; from whose mouths the praise of God will never fail. Matt. 19:12 "This is the generation of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob" -- who, living in Christ, mortifying their members for Christ's sake, dying upon the earth, now reigning with Christ, see the good things of their Lord in the land of the living.

p In the manuscript Passional of Bodecum: forty; but the names of those who subscribed are missing.

q Kaufungen monastery. Kaufungen -- Dithmar in Book 7 of his Chronicle calls it Kapungum, the inhabitants commonly Kafungum or Kaffungen -- not far from Kassel in Hesse; Martin Hoffmann in Book 1 of the Annals of Bamberg, in Gretser, asserts that Saint Cunegonde established this monastery from a vow with her own money in the year 1018.

r Icon. "Icona" is used for "icon" by Caesarius, Book 7, chapter 21, and others. In the ancient Lessons "Iconia" is read.

s These things are explained in the Life of Saint Henry and his diplomas.

CHAPTER II

Acts in widowhood. Monastic life.

[6] Since the holy Church has received sufficiently and worthily written accounts about the life and virtues of the pious and holy Henry, the most Christian Emperor, and his various works of mercy which he performed in the house of the Lord, and also about the signs and miracles Prologue of the writer. which God wrought through him after his death, now my mind is pricked and it comes to my thought to briefly set forth the life of our memorable Virgin Cunegonde and to commend it to memory in writing, so that, looking upon themselves by her example, whatever virgins, whatever true widows, may consider her manner of life to be the pattern of perfect life. For we have thought it unworthy of us, but rather worthwhile, not to withhold from her the service of our lips, by whose providence we daily receive the nourishment of the body.

[7] When therefore her Henry, the most patient guardian always of her chastity, having in his last breath restored her as a Virgin to her own, just as he had taken her in Christ, was translated to the heavenly joys for which he continually sighed, she devoted herself wholly to the Lord, as always. When Saint Henry died, Cunegonde as a widow devotes herself to pious exercises: She did not cease to invoke his presence for her chastity, her necessity, her salvation, and for his Churches, and for the children whom he had gathered for her in Christ -- to invoke him by vigils, to press on with prayers, by day to lead the active life with Martha, by night the contemplative life with Mary. With what generosity of almsgiving, with what persistence in prayer she labored for the soul of her blessed deceased husband, whoever wishes to know can discover in the following page, which she herself composed and wrote by her own hand (for she was most skilled in letters, as in other arts, in adorning sacred vestments with gold and gems).

[8] "Cunegonde, by divine dispensation, Empress in name only, to her specially beloved Congregation at Kaufungen, whatever befits just affection. I would bear the burden of my own adversity more easily, as I reckon, to the nuns of Kaufungen, if I could see your affairs safe and unharmed. For although my mind is shaken on all sides by the stormy waves of cares, yet the anchor of your remembrance is not torn from the depths of my heart. And although you are far removed from my eyes, you never depart from my soul. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The calamity of grief, or the distance of remoteness? Indeed, even if the use of lost resources were granted, this will would be proven by the performance of deeds. Yet that little which we still hold by God's will as a remainder, we do not wish to be foreign to your admonition, so that through the sharing of our smallness the greatness of our devotion may be revealed. For a mother, if she has little, gives little to her children. Behold, these small gifts of modest expense are sent to you for the refreshment of the flesh, so that you may refresh the soul of the Elder, she commends the soul of Saint Henry, your father, with the continual nourishment of prayer; since so many prayers of the just, unanimously continued, can greatly prevail with God, as James attests: 'The continual prayer of the just man avails much.' James 5:16 He also, that just Lord who loves justices, does not refuse to hear the equity of supplication; but to you, unwearied intercessors, making remembrance of the aforesaid dear one, He will give the reward of salvation which He Himself promises, saying: 'He who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved.' Matt. 10:22 And you see that it is a good work, also pleasing in the sight of God, if you pray not only for those who, placed in this life, have done you many good things, but also for those who have done none. I beseech you, therefore, never to cast from your hearts the one who loved you as his own and wished this place to flourish through your service. Be also mindful of my necessity, always merciful in gladness of heart, according to the Apostle's word: 'Let love be without dissimulation.' Rom. 12:9 And let your minds grow more and more into a certain solidity of mutual charity, so that in the day of tribulation His ears may hear your cry, who says: 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in their midst.' Matt. 18:20 Which I exhort you by every means to merit, through the grant of Him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen."

[9] At length, with Conrad succeeding her in the kingdom, she herself, unburthened of secular cares as she had long desired, on the very anniversary of the death of Saint Henry, summoned Archbishops with Bishops to the dedication of the Church of Kaufungen. She renounces the world: There, during the solemnities of the Mass, most becomingly adorned with every imperial ornament, before the principal altar, the Virgin devoted to God came forward, and there offered to God an incomparable treasure, she offers a particle of the holy wood of the Cross: a Cross of the Lord's wood, small indeed in material but very great in power. And when the lesson of the Gospel was read, in which the little one merited to receive Jesus, looking up at him who had ascended the tree of the Cross, and to receive from Him a blessing, she put off the royal purple and, having received the priestly blessing, put on she receives the monastic habit: the garment of religion, a darker tunic which she herself had worked with her own hands. And while many wept for themselves but rejoiced for her, who had already condemned the world in her garments, her hair -- which to this day is preserved in honor of her in the same monastery -- was cut off, and a veil was placed upon her by the Bishops. Pledged with the ring of faith, she sang joyfully: "My Lord Jesus Christ has set a sign upon my face and has pledged me with His ring."

[10] Thus consecrated as the bride of Christ the Spouse, when she had joined herself to the most holy fellowship of her daughters, she did not set herself above her daughters as a mother; but in all services she showed herself a servile person -- she performs the lowliest duties: yet in such a way that, while she did all things, she fled the ostentation of each, lest she should receive her reward in this present world. She worked with her own hands (for she was considered inferior to none in adorning vestments with gold and gems, whether in stoles or in girdles), knowing that it is written: "He who does not work, let him not eat." 2 Thess. 3:10 Either praying or chanting psalms, she spoke to the Spouse. She hastened to the thresholds of the church, almost unseen. devoted to prayer, Nothing was more pleasant than her severity; nothing more severe than her pleasantness. Sad in laughter, gentle in sadness. The brief span of life she compensated with eternal memory. The same place was hers for prayer and rest; always the same garb; her body unkempt -- knowing that the delights of the body ought to be cast off, which a little later would be plowed by worms. You would always see her reading or listening to one reading. Great was her devotion toward her fellow-inmates, frequent her visitation of those lying ill, and to mutual charity. solicitous her consolation of the poor. Furthermore, we believe that she worked many miracles; but (because she always fled the favor of men and the oil of flattery) they were

suppressed; which, however, must be attributed not to a deficiency of virtues but to the carelessness of writers or the revolution of times. A few things, however, which we have found in writings or learned from the truthful account of the nuns where she served Christ, we have thought it worthy to insert here.

CHAPTER III

Miracles in her lifetime; death; burial.

[11] When after the frequency of prayer, amid the weariness of reading, the handmaid of Christ had relaxed her sleep-heavy limbs on a bed not piled with feathers but spread with a hair-shirt, the consecrated maiden who, as was customary, sat beside her reading the sacred codices, having extended the reading until nearly the middle of the night, closed her dimming eyes, and the lamp, slipping from her hands, caught the straw and she extinguishes a fire with the sign of the Cross: with its crackling roused the Sisters lying around. When a clamor arose from the commotion, the Virgin of Christ, shaken from sleep, when she beheld the flames struggling and crackling against one another around her, turned to the weapons of prayer, and with the sign of the Cross averted that burning without any harm to her garments. These are Your works, O Christ, who once confounded the Babylonian King in his fury and extinguished the Chaldean fires by Your power, so that Your children might be freed unharmed.

[12] It has pleased us to write down here another miracle, as astonishing as it is marvelous, in which you may learn the constancy of her spirit and the severity of her rigor. She had with her a daughter of her sister, named Jutta. Having raised her from her earliest years, she had instructed her in every discipline and also in the knowledge of secular letters. This niece, following her great-aunt with no less love of religion than of affection, she makes her niece Abbess: was also consecrated. When she saw her fully instructed in all things, and perceived her vigilance in prayers, her perseverance in fasts, and her patience in all things, with the consent and request of all, she appointed her the first Abbess of that same monastery. Then the Virgin mother, receiving her daughter, according to the holy admonition she had long held, she instructs her with pious counsels: repeating to her the discourses of the preceding Fathers, admonished her to say useful and God-pleasing things often out of zeal for salvation, to hear them frequently, not to abandon the accustomed paths of the religious journey, to tread down more and more the byways of errors and the devices of the devil; she taught that among the servants of God there is no communion between light and darkness, between truth and falsehood, between turpitude and honor; that she must carefully take heed lest, by pursuing vain things, she should cease to be a temple of God and become a habitation and monument of demons; to fix her eyes on the sight of God; to practice first what she taught, so that, with God's help, she might find the fruit of her teaching in heaven. Urging these and similar things upon her again and again with maternal zeal, she began to venerate her as already perfect in all things and as a teacher. But once the niece had obtained premature liberty, she began little by little to decline from her rigor, to desire softer apparel and more lavish food, which are the nourishments of vices; she rebukes her for falling from fervor, last in the choir, first at the banquet, she began to take part in the gossip of young women and to act more laxly in all things. For such levities, the holy woman of God frequently rebuked her in private between themselves and publicly before all, according to the Apostle's precepts, often admonishing, beseeching, reproving her; yet the niece, vainly relying on the patronage or familiarity of her great-aunt, was in no way amended. On a certain day, while she herself with the Convent followed the Cross (for it was the Lord's day), the Abbess was absent. Seeking her and finding her feasting with those of her own age in an inner room, armed with the zeal of piety, she struck her cheek with her right hand together with a word of correction; she inflicts a slap, and it received the imprint of her fingers, as a kind of seal, which she never lost for the entire time of her life. From this deed it is certainly clear leaving behind the trace of her fingers: that she endured this not only for her own sake but for the amendment of others, so that the sight of it might benefit others and turn them from their vices to a better state of life.

[13] Perhaps this too will be thought fabulous by detractors and incredible by the faithless: that the mute elements speak of her sanctity, which she herself wished, for the sake of humility, to conceal from men. For when, after the reading of the Gospel, she approached the altar according to her solemn custom to make her offering, she suspends her glove on a ray of the sun: drawing off the glove of her right hand, since there was no one present to receive it, she cast it from herself; and a ray of the sun entering through the cracks of the window received it and, as if serving her, held it so long until she, returning after the sacrifice, took it back. Something similar is read to have once been shown by divine power in the garment of the blessed man Goar: who, while he was despised from the seat of Rusticus, Bishop of Trier, was honored by the supreme Majesty through the ministry of the greater luminary. She was therefore capable of all merits, who merited to have the judge of all virtues.

[14] She survived for fifteen years in her holy resolution, to be admired by all as much for the grace of her humility as for the reverence of her religious life. in her final illness, vigorous in spirit, At length, from excessive abstinence from food and the incredible perseverance of prayer and vigils, she began to languish in body and, as the illness grew worse, to fail little by little. But while her limbs were contracted outwardly with pain, she was strengthened inwardly in spirit (for the praise of God was always on her lips). She called upon the holy Angels, whose life she had here and whose fellowship she now already enjoyed there; she entreated the Apostles and Confessors, whose faith and confession she had always held; she invited the choir of the Virgins of Christ to be present at her departure, she invokes the Saints: in whose emulation, while she lived in the flesh but beyond the flesh, she had preserved for Christ an undefiled marriage bed; she prayed that the help of all who serve God might be present to her, might come to meet her. Rom. 8:28 Truly, what is written -- that for those who fear God all things work together for good -- we saw confirmed in the death of so great a Virgin. She had not yet breathed forth her spirit, had not yet returned to Christ the soul she owed Him, and already flying fame, the herald of so great a grief, was assembling not only consecrated Virgins and men of various Orders, but also the peoples of the entire city for the obsequies of one woman. Psalms resounded, and the Litany for the departing soul, echoing on high, shook the whole house where the little holy body lay in their midst, arranged upon that noble hair-shirt of hers. Meanwhile, as was the custom, royal obsequies were prepared for her as for an Empress, not as were owed to a poor little Sister; she rejects the royal pomp for her obsequies: golden coverings were brought forth to be spread over the bier. Then you would see her turning her pallid features, which she had shown joyful before, to her mouth, refusing with her hand: "That garment is not mine," she said. "Take it away from here; this ornament is not for me. With these I was joined to an earthly spouse; with these, to a heavenly one. Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return thither. Wrap in these the vile matter of my wretched flesh, and place my little body in its own little casket near the tomb of my brother and Lord, the Emperor Henry, whom I see already calling me." Having said these things, commending her spirit into the hands of the Lord, she dies: her soul flew back to its Author and, long a pilgrim, ascended to its ancient possession -- while the earth wept that it had lost a common mother, but the heavens rejoiced that they had received a fellow citizen into their fellowship.

[15] And so, with that sacred body placed upon the bier, with a long line of nobles going before and many flowing together from all sides, together with that fellowship of the poor which was always so familiar to her, the blessed obsequies were carried all the way to the place of Bamberg predestined for her burial. she is carried to Bamberg with a great throng. Then indeed you would see cities left empty, countryside vacant, towns desolate, peoples running together from everywhere, mothers carrying their little ones in their arms, the sick lying on pallets hoping for the grace of health, each one counting herself blessed if it happened to be joined to the bier or to be overshadowed by it. At last the body, not without labor, was carried into the church of Blessed Peter the Apostle, and there received three days of obsequies worthy of her merits and benefactions. The children whom she herself had gathered there for Christ, now secure about their mother's peace but anxious for themselves, chanted psalms without ceasing, while they rejoiced that they had received her, who had been taken from them for a time, without fear of loss, in the hope of perpetual intercession; and the mother from heaven rejoiced, looking down upon the affection of her children. Thus the veiled sacred body, in sacred vestments, with the diadem of Christ placed upon her head, was placed in its own little casket on the right side, where it is venerated to this day. O happy Church of Bamberg, you have received the treasure that you had lost! The impudent and malicious tongue of detractors was confuted by the testimony of the eyes, while her virginity, approved by deeds, and her sanctity, testified by shining signs, were seen.

might be placed near her brother and Lord Saint Henry; a thing full of miracle was perceived and heard by all present. For when the mausoleum was opened, immediately a voice was heard from above, saying: "O Virgin, give place to the Virgin." Then at once, while all who were present looked on, Saint Henry, the chosen Virgin of God, lying in the tomb, moved himself to the other side and made room for his wife -- indeed, for the Virgin of Christ. as to Saint Severus his wife and daughter. Something similar is read to have happened with Blessed Severus, Archbishop of Ravenna, who, while after the solemnities of the Mass, with the people excluded from the church, he stood with only the sacristan of the church at the sepulchre of his wife and daughter, at his command the wife and daughter, moving apart from one another in the tomb, prepared a place for him. And he himself soon entered alive into the dug-out place of burial, and the sacristan, seizing his chasuble, strove to hold him back with a great cry. But immediately the sarcophagus, rolling of its own accord over the mouth of the cavern, closed the monument and, dividing part of the chasuble, left the same piece in the hand of the sacristan. And so with great joy and panegyrics of praise and much reverence and devotion of the people, that holy body of the blessed Virgin, veiled in sacred vestments, with the diadem of Christ placed beneath, in its own place on the right side of the Church, reverently associated with the remains of her husband, rests near him and with him at the same time, in much honor here on earth for the present; while the spirit of both, united to God, now and forever enjoys the ineffable sweetness of His vision in heaven. O happy Church of Bamberg, etc. We have given the double Life of Saint Severus, and of his wife Saint Vincentia and daughter Saint Innocentia, for the Kalends of February, in which these things related here are read.

CHAPTER IV.

Various miracles. Three hanged men freed; as many dead raised.

[16] Let the faithful Church, advancing in the Christian religion (which in the Gospel, by the Lord's own words, is called by grace the mother and daughter of God -- mother because by the example of holy action she begets children for the Lord; daughter because she is daily generated by the instruction of the holy Fathers for the Son of the Virgin, incarnate for the salvation of the world), take heed with the ears both of the mind and of the body of the salvation sent from the Lord, full of the effects of the heavenly Physician's remedy. After the Patriarchs and Prophets The Maker of the earthly fabric, grieving for the human race fallen through disobedience, in order to graft a new plantation bearing the fruit of eternal life -- namely, the primitive Church -- deigned to send Patriarchs and Prophets into the world, who, carrying out the office entrusted to them with the five senses of the body and the sixth, which is the spirit of Prophecy, preaching the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ and all things that were to be proclaimed concerning Him, some by the austerity of life, Christ comes, others by various deaths of punishment, faithfully fulfilled their service to Him whom they prophesied. Christ, the boundary of these, by the counsel of the eternal Father, for the liberation of mankind, proceeded from the womb of the inviolate Virgin, so that upon the plantation already begun, having sent the Apostles throughout the world and having fashioned from the blood poured from His own body a new Church, He might build it up; He sent Apostles, then Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, which, imbued with faith in the Holy Trinity and purified by the grace of Baptism, offered as first fruits Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins of the weaker sex but constant in spirit. Among whom Blessed Cunegonde, the flower of the Church of Bamberg, together with Saint Henry, who held the Empire of the Romans, under the appearance of marriage, served the immortal Spouse with the honor of chaste virginity. Whence the merits of her sanctity now appear throughout the world by manifest declaration: and among these, Saint Cunegonde, because in the place where her holy body rests, the sick, suffering from whatever infirmity, receive their health. But that we may be the most cautious witnesses to all things, to the lovers of truth who succeed our age and diligently inquire about these things which we write, we wish to explain, renowned for miracles after death: the Lord granting, as best we can, at what time the works of healing of the aforesaid Empress had their beginning.

[17] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1189, Indiction 2, under Tiemo, the thirteenth Bishop of the Church of Bamberg, in the fourth year of his pontificate, by her intercession are freed: on the feast of Saint Peter in Chains, lest we should doubt the sanctity of the aforementioned Virgin, we were certified by the experience of signs. For while the people had assembled in the usual manner at the aforesaid place for the sake of prayers and vigils, there was present a certain demoniac from the village a demoniac, called Dierrut, who, recognizing neither piety nor abhorring wickedness, had burned his own son by fire. He, bound with harsh ropes, at the sepulchre of Saint Cunegonde began to grow so calm that, freed from the furious disease, he praised Almighty God, and to her, by whose patronizing merits he recognized that this had happened to him, he, with the crowd that stood present, acclaimed the due praises. While these things were being done with the solemn devotion of both Clergy three crippled persons, and people, three crippled persons -- one from the suburb, from the hospital of Saint Giles, who was rolled about more by creeping than by little stools; another from the house of Conrad, Provost of the Cathedral; the third likewise from the house of Otto, a Canon of the same Church -- being placed upon the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin, were raised from the pain of one affliction by the one hand of divine healing.

[18] A paralytic woman, and another nun who limped on one foot, a paralytic woman, two lame persons, and a lame man from the castle called Giet, after a momentary prayer scarcely completed, were healed on that very night. A boy who had such softness of limbs two boys: that he was thought to be almost without bones; another from Licendorf, consumed by an ugly wasting -- they received the power of walking and the faculty of speech, which they had entirely lacked. a girl with sciatica: A girl with sciatica from Gisenvelt, not yet placed upon the sacred tomb because of the crowd; a boy lacking the use of his feet from the contraction of nerves; a girl from Nuremberg with the sole of her foot curved upward and her knee contracted; two lame persons: likewise from the same district a girl having a withered hand -- one having a withered hand: all were healed amid prayers and vigils.

[19] A certain man, convicted of furtively stealing a horse near the river Werra, in the village called Wasegen, was condemned to hanging. Placed in the torment, with what voice he could, he called upon the ears of Blessed Cunegonde the Virgin, whose speedy aid he sensed was present to him. For by divine power, when the people had departed, the bonds of his hands were loosened, three hanged men. and he himself, taking down the noose from himself, returned to the city and set forth to all his deliverance, giving glory to God and to his saviouress. He was brought to us by their faithful testimony and was inscribed at the census of five denarii, as his parents had formerly vowed for him when he was condemned. Among us also, not dissimilar to this, a sign appeared concerning a certain servant who, while he was ensnared, was thought by all to be dead. For after he had voided his urine, which is a sign of death in such torments, he was restored to unhoped-for safety and life in the presence of all who stood by. In a similar manner, at Rottenburg, an imperial castle, two were freed, and this was brought to us by the attestation of many.

[20] I am about to tell of marvelous things (but nothing is impossible for God) and perhaps things incredible to our age; but the entire city of Bamberg was not without knowledge of this deed. A woman from the nearby village of Elrin placed her wailing infant, who had died within forty days without baptism, upon the tomb of the blessed Virgin, not without hope of resurrection. Dead persons are raised: I call to witness Him who is the firstborn from the dead, who raises the dead: when the wretched mother of the dead child, redoubling the name of the holy Virgin Cunegonde, had poured forth many tears, an infant not yet baptized, she lifted from the sepulchre alive the one she had placed there lifeless. Who could restrain himself from tears, who from praises? There was one voice of all, as a great throng had gathered on the Saturday: "What manner of woman is this? How holy! How dear to God! She makes the lame run, the blind see, the mute speak, and dead limbs also come back to life! Blessed the womb that bore her; blessed by the Lord the breasts that nursed her; from her blessing such great gifts of graces have flowed forth to a world now perishing."

[21] Another sign, not unlike this one, but with a different outcome, was celebrated in a three-year-old boy in the village of Grunberg, who from morning until evening lay suffocated in a muddy pond, a boy suffocated in a pond, where he was found by women beneath bundles of flax and lifted up, and carried home with a great escort of wailing women. There, with the parents holding mournful obsequies through the night, when in the morning the Priest stood ready to perform the duty of burial, the people who were present, who had already seen and heard many things about the signs of Blessed Cunegonde, entreated with great hope of being heard that her presence might be at hand for them. In a wondrous manner, the boy began to move his ring finger, and to the amazement of all, after the space of one hour, he rose up well. Of this deed, first the Priest himself under his stole, then eight knights under oath, with the boy himself placed in their midst, together with the whole gathering of his parish, came to us as witnesses.

[22] A girl drowned in a well. A seven-year-old girl in the parish of Lieberstat, while carelessly drawing water at a well, was drowned by an unhappy fall. When the people had returned from the Rogation processions to their homes (for the Rogation days were at hand), lifting her dead from the well, after a vow made to the memory of Blessed Cunegonde, they marveled that she whom they had long lamented as dead was living, not without divine praises. In this raising of three dead persons, since we have also learned, by the most truthful approbation of witnesses and by the presentation of the children themselves, that two other bodies were likewise restored to life at the invocation of the same holy Empress, who, unless the Holy Trinity, appears to have wrought these things, who according to the signs which it works has promised to its own that they would afterward do these and greater things?

CHAPTER V.

Other miracles. Epilogue of the author.

[23] We have thought it not unworthy to commit to the memory of mankind that most celebrated deed, most famous with the chief men of the realm standing by, wrought upon a mute person before the eyes of all. A mute person is healed at the translation of the body. For the event happened thus:

Christ wished to work so clearly through His handmaid that it could be hidden from almost no one. King Philip, for the sake of his own confirmation, but meanwhile also because he believed it would win him more favor, had summoned an assembly for the translation of the blessed Virgin. A certain mute servant had come in the company of worthy men from Pogen, whose baggage he carried, because they themselves were also penitents. When the Queen was about to proceed to the Church and was being received in solemn fashion by the Clergy as was the custom, a confused clamor of the people arose -- not for a man about to die in vain, but acclaiming praises to one already living with her Christ. I call Christ and His Apostles to witness: this man, who previously, being mute, had known no language, was answering each question fluently in his own tongue.

[24] What shall I say about a brute animal, whose innate gluttony of rapacity, while it was snatching its prey, grew calm from its fury as if it had sensed the name of Cunegonde invoked against it? For a wolf, prowling around the sheepfolds in the evening by the ingenuity of its nature, carried off into its lair a little child incautiously left before the doors. But the mother of the child, roused by the cries of the others who had been terrified by the wolf, stirred all her fellow citizens to grief by much wailing, beating her breast with clasped hands. While all judged it useless to pursue the beast because night was approaching, the mother, taking refuge in the church, having the bells struck three times as if for a dead person, did not cease throughout the night to call upon the ears of the Virgin there for the preservation of her son. a little child is snatched from the jaws of a wolf: When morning came, that nursemaid of the forest, emerging, brought back unharmed the little child it had carried off and placed it in a furrow where the oxen had plowed the day before, carefully wrapped in its little skin garment, and sitting beside it, kept guard. When it saw the farmers and their plows now approaching, as if secure about the child's rest, it departed tamely. While they pursued it with shouting, as is the custom, the servant who was goading the oxen, looking at the skins, said: "Behold, the coverings of the child whom the wolf carried off." Running up, they found the little one sleeping, untouched, radiant of countenance; and considering these things not without great wonder, they reported them to the citizens and the mother. She, flying to the spot and bursting into tears for joy, inquired where and how he had been. He, in the simplicity of his age, said: "That dog who carried me away, gently licking me, composed me in his bosom and made me sleep the whole night."

[25] These miracles which we have now briefly related, and many others which we pass over to avoid the fault of prolixity, lest, like a leech, we kill by excess the reader whom we have kept attentive thus far -- let us set forth a sign wrought by divine operation upon a young servant of about sixteen years. He, with the rest of his limbs well disposed according to the order of nature, was so agitated by a great affliction in the principal part, which is the head, that without ceasing he would be dashed against the wall if it was near, a young servant miserably vexed for sixteen years, strike his chest with his chin, beat his shoulders against the time-keeper, never remaining in the same state, scarcely ever uttering words or sometimes taking food or drink. If he happened to sleep, having collapsed on the ground, you would see his head now striking the earth, now pounding the sky; and what is pitiful to say, while he was fled by all because he was horrible to see, he desired to be seen by each. This man, known more by reputation than by sight, a Jew mocking in vain, when he came to us, was sustained for some time by begging alms among the houses. When the chief of the synagogue saw him, he said to the Christians: "If your Cunegonde heals this man, she will be able to attach me to Christ and to your faith." But what the Apostle says, "The Jews seek signs" 1 Cor. 1:22, was shown in this Jew. For the sufferer, on the third day of the week of the Lord's Resurrection, while he was pressed in a salutary sleep upon the sepulchre of the health-bringing Virgin, he is healed: touched by a certain invisible hand, departed healed from there, with the greatest admiration and praise of all. But the unhappy Jew did not depart from his perfidy, destined to endure eternal fires.

[26] I shall append in conclusion that which was, however, not the last of her signs. Earth from the sepulchre is changed into frankincense and grains. Since earth collected by the faithful around her sepulchre was frequently reduced to the likeness of the most brilliant frankincense or of the purest grain, Pope Innocent, in a sermon to the people held in the Lateran Palace, commemorating the merits of her life and the distinction of her miracles, added: "Rightly, dearest brothers, that dust with which the sod of this most holy Virgin is covered, buried in the debt of humanity, is reduced to frankincense and grain -- she who, under the frail sex, while she lived, restraining herself from what was lawful and abstaining from what was unlawful, offered to the Lord an unblemished holocaust, and rich for Christ, poor for herself, daily feeds the poor of Christ under the profession of various orders and sexes. Rightly, therefore, she shall be inscribed in the catalogue of Saints, who always strove to imitate the life of the Saints. We have therefore appended to this our sermon the Collect composed by us, together with the Office of the whole Mass, and we have directed that it be sung in all churches in honor of so great a Virgin by Apostolic authority."

[27] Let it suffice to have said these very few things about the virtues and signs of the most holy Virgin Cunegonde to your most prudent charity, among innumerable ones; which, if anyone were to unfold at length, the page itself would fail sooner than the material. O blessed one! O one to be proclaimed! who despised the kingdom of the world and all the ornament of the age for the heavenly ornament; who, legally united to a royal spouse but not carnally, chose Christ as her Spouse; who, proving her virginity amid the royal marriage chambers, trod upon fires in order to purge the evil of infamy cast upon her by the envious; who, since she did not expect offspring destined to die, her chaste generation, never to suffer the loss of succession, endures, since the Church in her children through her almsgiving always receives an increase of divine praise; many miracles wrought, whom frequent signs declare to be alive even after death with her Christ, whom she loved, in whom she believed, whom she cherished. At her memorial, the blind receive sight, the dead receive life, the mute receive speech, stopped ears receive hearing.

How great, therefore, do we believe her to have been, who, while living, with no witness, while she avoided ostentation, practiced virtue alone, when we have seen with our own eyes that she wrought such great signs after death before the eyes of all? Let us therefore transfer within ourselves these signs which we admire outwardly, and let us correct our life and morals, so that if we do not merit the fellowship of the Virgin, after the slopes of vices it may be our reward to have escaped so great a punishment of sins through the Virgin.

[28] This booklet teaches the deeds of the Virgin Cunegonde; Yet it is silent about more that should be said, while the skiff Fears to be swamped in the flood: the beast that touches the mount shall die. But what the tongue is silent about, the signs speak for the Virgin, Which speak so frequently of the fame of her praise. When to the blind, the mute, the lame, the desired cure Of health comes; when languor departs and fever retreats, repeatedly they are celebrated: Life returns, and the wan skin regains its color. This He could give to virginity, who can do all things, Who is able to move mountains and give to faith. Married to a man under the law of the husband, the Virgin wills to lie hidden, A bride pledged, yet inviolate to the spouse, And she chose to have Christ as her husband within her heart. The Virgin keeps faith; the matter was proved clear by fire. Learn the celibate marriage, where there is no pleasure; Those who keep lawful rights without commingling Weigh as nothing all things that will soon be in ruin: Here, sowing seeds of sorrow in the hope of fruit, They shall reap lasting joys and follow the Lamb in white.

We pray to you, most holy Virgin, most glorious Empress, Prayer. who have sprinkled the earth with the works of your mercies and the heavens with the flowers of your virtues; Prayer of the author. stand by those of yours who are tossed about in the world, drive away with your prayers the stormy tempests of adversaries, and make all who are devoted to you, with vices driven out, rejoice perpetually in your benefactions and merits; and let all who write or faithfully read the text of this lesson not be deprived of the fruit of the devotion they have gained. Amen.

VARIOUS MIRACLES

from the Bamberg transcript published by Gretser, collated with the Baunach manuscript.

Cunegonde, Empress, Virgin, Wife, Widow, and Benedictine Nun (Saint)

BHL Number: 2005

from the Bamberg manuscript.

[1] While therefore these things were being done with the solemnity of the Clergy and the devotion of the people, a certain crippled man brought from the suburb, from the hospital of Saint Giles, was asking for health, Three crippled persons are healed, and being mercifully heard, he obtained what he asked. When the fame of the signs had spread throughout the whole place of Bamberg, a crippled man from the house of Provost Conrad of the Cathedral, desiring health, although nature had gone astray in his limbs, nevertheless crawling as fast as he could, cast himself upon the venerable sepulchre, where he found from the Lord the health he desired. Hearing this, also a crippled man from the house of Otto, a Canon of the same Church, came as fast as he could to the place of the sepulchre, hoping to be helped by the benefit of grace, as the others had been; where we attest that help was given without delay in Christ. Again, so that the virtue of wondrous sanctity might shine forth in the aforesaid Virgin, another man, who by a similar disease had lost the natural sensation of his limbs and lacked the power of walking, seeking the aid of a cure, felt the swift effect of health.

[2] Soon, with all the people resounding the praises of God, a certain paralytic woman, not unknown to the inhabitants of the aforesaid place, a paralytic woman, asking with tears for the power of the heavenly remedy, found the desired aid. Hearing these things, another woman, limping on one foot, who had exchanged her secular garb for a mourning habit, although she was impeded by the slowness of her debility, two lame persons, entered, and finding full health for the hope of healing, which she had fixed in her soul with burning desire, she walked with a quick step. Furthermore, when the neighborhood had tasted the fragrance of this good report and people were flowing together from various places, a lame man from the castle called Iech, after a momentary prayer scarcely completed, received grace with the utmost speed.

[3] Likewise in our diocese, a noble woman from the castle called Wikenfeld, enduring an immoderate pain, afflicted with a great headache, because she could not be healed by any remedy of physicians, commending herself to the heavenly physician, was restored to her former health. But in order that the greatness of the cure might become more widely known to the churches, we endeavor to set forth, as best we can, certain of her infirmities from which she was despaired of by all medical reasoning, beginning from the principal part of the body. For she suffered from Cephalalgia, that is, a headache, so vehemently that, having cast off her veil, she could endure neither the finest thread nor her own hair. Since, therefore, so great a pain very frequently assailed her head, all the regions of the head -- namely, the mouth, lip, eyes, eyelid, and tongue -- were so distorted that each of them changed its natural station to a position contrary to nature. Such hiccoughing also seized her that it was thought to be a presage of death. with paralysis of the arm, The enemy of health, paralysis, had rendered her right arm so feeble that it entirely lacked its natural function; and she was tormented by an ailment of the womb, against all hope of recovery. Concerning the rest of her infirmities,

we refrain, lest less credence be given to what we have said. But this must by no means be passed over in silence: that the aforesaid woman, without giving thanks, was preparing on the third day after receiving her cure to return to her home; when the paralysis returned to her arm, and suffering a relapse: and until she rendered thanks to God and Cunegonde for the benefits of all her cures, she was forced to remain longer, held by an invisible chain of fever. Moreover, such a miracle occurred that, with her arm incomparably vexed and placed upon the tomb, no rest was granted unless the head of Saint Henry was applied, nor was she given the ability to withdraw her hand, until her brother was summoned and assented to her vows, and the most powerful Lord of all, appeased by votive prayers, granted her free departure with complete health.

[4] There were also two boys present there, of whom one had such softness of limbs suffering from softness of limbs, that he was thought to be almost without bones; he was suddenly made firm and walked. The other, from Lycendorf, had been so consumed by a wondrous wasting of the little body that from birth until the age lame and mute: which is called the planting of teeth, he entirely lacked the power of walking and the use of speech. He, receiving the health of both, regained his step and spoke.

[5] A girl suffering from sciatica from Gisfeld, while she sighed and panted with desire to visit the sepulchre of the holy Virgin for the grace of healing, suffering from sciatica, and yet could not push herself forward because of the crowd, suddenly received the medicine of heavenly grace. In our city, a disabled boy, a lame boy, the son of a certain vine-dresser, lacking the use of his feet from the contraction of the nerves, was also made well there. two bent persons, A certain woman from Sezzelach, bent over from a long-standing infirmity, was raised up by the merits of the blessed Empress. A certain girl from the town called Nuremberg, with the sole of her foot curved upward and her knee contracted, suffering from a withered hand, obtained her healing. Another girl also from the same town, having a withered hand, devoting herself to prayers and vigils at the sepulchre of Saint Cunegonde, having been divinely granted the flexibility of nerves and joints, blind, lame, bequeathed her shorn hair as a testimony of her healing, as she had learned from many who had been cured.

[6] In Haldenstat, a girl lacking sight was illuminated twice; three mute persons, and another woman received her power of walking. A mute man from Stetefeld, a mute man from Lichtenfels, and a mute woman from Meingouwe received speech. The daughter of a steward in Forchheim received her power of walking, and with her hands made dry by paralytic weakness, having regained some vigor, she applied food to her mouth. Another girl from the same town, bent over excessively with curvature, having been made a partaker of the divine gift, so as to follow human nature, looking upward, was raised up without delay. lame and paralytic, bent over.

[7] We have also thought it worthwhile to add this: that the dust The dust of the sepulchre heals a wound, which is pulled from the sepulchre of the most holy Empress by the hands of the sick for the sake of healing is, upon reception of health, converted into pure wheat. Indeed, lest we should think this incredible and contrary to nature, we have ascertained the truth of the matter by a certain and manifest indication. For a certain peasant, suffering from a cancerous wound in his mouth, used such dust as an ointment, and having obtained health, it is changed into wheat, brought back the dust, transformed into the appearance of wheat, to the church under the testimony of worthy men. There is also, so that we might become more evidently certain from it, a certain man from Beiersdorf and several others from Nuremberg, who, affirming with an oath that the same had happened to them, and showing the nature of the earth changed into the true appearance of wheat, brought it to the aforesaid place. Still another such wonder, for those not yet believing, so that doubt might be cut off: a woman with dim and failing eyes, in hope of healing, used the moistened dust; and she found it also turned into the nature of wheat, and the small amount of moisture she had added, increased. Wherefore, very anxious about what to do, she at last resolved to have a profitable advantage in saleable goods. She concealed for a long time what had been divinely done, until, occupied by the distresses of fevers, she conjectured that the pain had come to her from this. Furthermore, when the people had gathered in the church to worship, the woman, taking counsel, displayed the memorable sign that had occurred; and because she had kept it concealed for a long time, she sought the indulgence of sins with a pouring forth of tears.

[8] One having a withered hand is healed. On a certain Sunday, while the solemnities of the Mass were being celebrated, the withered hand of a certain boy was restored to vigor. On the Assumption of Saint Mary, three signs were wrought upon a certain boy from Gundolsheim, the son of a certain miller: that the mute boy spoke, mute, deaf, and lame, hearing was poured into his ears, and he used the movement of his feet. But this, marvelous to relate, must not be neglected: that in our place of Bamberg, the wife of a miller, vexed by an evil spirit, was led to the tomb of the aforesaid Virgin; and immediately the demon, having gone out, entered her stepdaughter, a demoniac, and again returned to herself. It should not be passed over that a certain woman, suffering from the iliac passion, confessed that she had received her health. suffering from the iliac passion, When these things had been more widely published, a certain lame man came from the village called Wertheim; he, by the mercy of God and with Saint Cunegonde's favor, recovered the health he desired, and a maidservant, leaning on a staff because of the weakness of her foot, two lame persons, found the desired aid. From Veldin, a blind woman was found worthy to experience the grace of illumination. blind,

[9] A certain lame man from Kastl, in the Bavarian cloister of monks, when the fame of the miracles had become known to him, lame, resolved to come, carried out his resolve, and received his health; but because he was unknown and could not have sufficient testimony, since he had not been seen before, he was not received among those who were cured; but, afflicted with blows, he went away confused, as if a deceiver. But after he returned to the aforesaid cloister, he related everything that had happened to him, from which he turned many of lighter mind to laughter, but also forewarned many of the sick that none of them should dare to come to the place of Bamberg for the sake of healing without witnesses. a paralytic woman, A paralytic woman from Gisenwinde, supplicating the Lord with humble vows, and, as it is right to believe, with her preceding merits availing before God and Saint Cunegonde, with the infirmity yielding, was made whole. A mute woman from Sachsendorf, speaking not with her tongue but with her heart, a mute woman, asked for aid, that her tongue might be opened and that which nature worked in others might work in her; and immediately she obtained the desired gift.

[10] A certain man from Stadelhofen, deprived of the use of his tongue, seeing the effect of health in others, prayed more intently with his heart that he too might merit to be among the number of those healed; that he prayed this there is no doubt, since he was heard. a mute man healed a second time, But because he became mute in his thanksgiving, he again lost the grace of speech. His parents and fellow villagers, astonished, at once led the mute man back, and while they were on the journey, his mouth was opened and he spoke. From Michsendorf, a crippled boy, and a woman from Holfeld disturbed by the same affliction, two crippled persons, when they were brought for healing, both were helped in their necessities by the Lord and Saint Cunegonde. two blind women, A blind woman from Ratelsdorf and another from Dieboue, grieving for the loss of light, prostrate in prayers, were illuminated by the patronage of the most holy Empress. A certain mute man from Limpurch, when he had spent the night in prayers a mute man, and at dawn was preparing to return home, endowed with divine grace and freed from his infirmity, spoke correctly. From Bodenstein, a woman out of her mind and shaking her trembling head, with the devotion of the people supplicating on her behalf, sick with a headache, was completely freed from the distress of both afflictions.

[11] Blessed Cunegonde, wishing to have more witnesses of her sanctity, looking with mercy upon a mute girl from Abenberg, a mute girl, by loosening the bond of her tongue, restored her to the office of speech. From Neunkirchen, a lame girl, approaching the authoress of propitiation with copious tears, entreated inwardly that she might deign to have mercy on her; a lame girl, and with the door of benevolence opened to her, she felt that the prayers she had poured forth had not been poured forth in vain, because losing entirely the mark of infirmity, suffering from swelling of the hands, with her step made firm, she began to plant her footsteps. A certain maidservant from Vochendorf, suffering from the swelling of her hands, fell to her knees in prayer; and it happened that the swelling decreased and health returned most swiftly to each joint. A certain servant from Eisch, deprived of the use of his tongue, finding no tardy aid, made use of speech; a mute man, whence we wish him rightly to have as companions those whom we have named in the present work. From the place of Wurzburg, a certain lay sister, afflicted with weakness of the hand, afflicted with weakness of the hand, having regained vigor, was made joyful; and the delight of those looking on was increased.

[12] A certain boy, lacking hearing, was healed with the swift effect of health -- not responding to signs a deaf boy, or to a great shout by speakers, but rather he gave an answer to a soft voice. Two other boys were also healed of other infirmities through the aforesaid Virgin. two sick persons, As the sign of so memorable a thing increased everywhere, flying like the sun through the heavens and filling the globe, among the innumerable persons afflicted with various infirmities, a lame man, a lame man was raised up by the heavenly medicine through the intercession of his pious helper. When this was heard, a blind man, desiring to be illuminated, came among the thousand throngs of people flowing in, and by the patronage of the holy Virgin, in which he trusted, having lost his blindness, was worthy to receive his sight. a blind man. Indeed, a girl who had only one hand, wishing to experience proof of this, humbled herself with fervent affections; and, abundantly aided by the cooperating vows of the people, she felt the wonderful efficacy of sanctity with the granting of health. a lame man, Likewise a lame man, more diligently embracing and watering with tears the venerable sepulchre of the glorious Empress, recovered his health by the aid of Saint Cunegonde. a paralytic man. Likewise a paralytic man, eager to recover the spent vigor of nature and raising his voice, prayed from the depths of his heart that he too might merit to enjoy the joy that the healed ones enjoyed; and immediately, being heard, he was made well.

f The same: Velodin.

APPENDIX

From the Life printed at Brussels in the year 1484.

Cunegonde, Empress, Virgin, Wife, Widow, and Benedictine Nun (Saint)

BHL Number: 2009

[1] Many others also were healed there from various afflictions; and to this day, whenever the faith of those who ask seeks the remedy of healing, the Lord does not cease to show us the glory of His miracles through the merits of His Virgin. Furthermore, it is most fitting to briefly insert in the present page a certain miracle and magnificent benefit which the Almighty and merciful God, even in these present times, deigns to bestow daily upon anyone in need through the prayers and glorious merits of the same blessed Virgin. The tunic of Saint Cunegonde preserved at Bamberg. For the aforesaid Church of Bamberg reverently preserves the tunic of the same Saint Cunegonde the Empress. This tunic is reported to be of such power that, when reverently applied or put on any pregnant woman who, in the difficulty of childbirth, confidently implores the patronage of the same Virgin, it benefits women in childbirth, it immediately confers the prosperity of an easy delivery and most perfectly frees and protects her from such danger. Whence it is the custom of that city that pregnant women, when the time of their delivery is at hand,

as is customary, going to the church; after the confession of sins, they fortify themselves with the sacred body of Christ, having touched or put on by them and at length approaching the relics of the holy Virgin, they touch or put on the aforesaid tunic with all reverence and devotion. This tunic, indeed, most splendidly studded with gleaming gems and innumerable pearls, doubtless out of reverence for the Virgin, is denied to no one, but is offered without any respect of persons to all who are in need and request it.

[2] The feast of this most blessed Virgin is observed at different times in different places. For some, The feast is celebrated: in March, such as in Basel, observe the feast of her death on the third day of the month of March: for then, as we have said above, this Virgin passed from the prison of the flesh to the Lord. Others, however, as in the city and diocese of Bamberg, festively recall the day on which the same venerable Virgin was canonized. This feast falls on the day after the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: or September 9, for then she is said to have been placed in and added to the catalogue of Saints by the Roman Church. Afterwards, however, for the greater veneration of this most holy Virgin and the greater devotion of the people, her body together with the body of her spouse, the holy Emperor Henry, was raised from the ground the body placed in an altar and elevated in an altar: and there, enclosed in a golden casket adorned with gems and precious stones, as it is honored and frequented by the faithful to this day, it was placed for the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen.

Prayer for Saint Cunegonde.

Cunegonde, Empress, Virgin, Wife, Widow, and Benedictine Nun (Saint)

Hail, most worthy offspring of royal stock, noble and well-born Empress, Saint Cunegonde, immaculate Virgin. You are the shining lamp of the married, the mirror of widows, the glory of virgins, the norm of religious life, and indeed the teacher of piety, gentleness, humility, and of all honor and discipline. You, at last, in every age, state, and order of your life, like precious spices, giving forth the most fragrant aroma of every virtue and sanctity, were singularly and ineffably pleasing to the Most High Himself, who is the fount of goodness and the Holy of Holies, while you still remained on earth. Whence also, having cast off the burden of the body, crowned with double garlands of unfading wreaths, for the perfection of your fourfold state -- namely of marriage, widowhood, virginal chastity, and holy religious life -- you have not undeservedly merited to be joined to the eternal King Himself, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Bridegroom of Virgins, by the indissoluble bond of the sweetest charity in heaven, and inebriated by the ineffable sweetness of the vision of Him, you do not cease to sing forth that new canticle, to be sung by Virgins alone, in the choir of Virgins with sweet melody. Therefore do not forget us in heaven, we who are still weighed down by the manifold affliction of the flesh in this wretched life, you who were always the pious mother and consoler of the poor and orphans on earth. Wherefore, O sweetest Patroness and Advocate, do not refuse to beat unceasingly upon the ears of your Beloved, our Lord, with your pious prayers, that in His mercy, with your glorious merits interceding, He may direct us in the way of His commandments in this life, and at last crown us with His Saints and elect to enjoy the beauty of His glory in our homeland, where He is praised by all the citizens of the heavenly court for ever, Amen. Verse: In your splendor and your beauty, go forward, prosper, and reign.

Collect.

LET US PRAY.

O God, who among the other wonderful works of Yours have so exalted Saint Cunegonde the Virgin, adorned preeminently in every state with the beauty of virtues, that she would not lose the flower of virginal chastity in marriage, and in widowhood, having assumed the religious habit, she might shine forth to us as an example of all holiness through the sanctity of her life; mercifully grant that, as we desire to praise her worthily, we may be strengthened by her interceding merits to imitate the examples of her life, according to our frailty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

BULL OF INNOCENT III CONCERNING THE CANONIZATION OF SAINT CUNEGONDE.

Published from a Bamberg manuscript by Gretser.

Cunegonde, Empress, Virgin, Wife, Widow, and Benedictine Nun (Saint)

from a Bamberg manuscript.

Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our venerable Brother Theumo, Bishop, and to our beloved sons the Chapter of Bamberg, greeting and Apostolic blessing.

[1] Since according to Evangelical truth no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that all who are in the house may see; it is equally pious and just that those whom God crowns and honors in heaven by the merit of their sanctity, we should praise and glorify on earth with the duty of veneration: since He Himself is rather praised and glorified in them, who is praiseworthy and glorious in His Saints. Matt. 5:15 For godliness has the promise of the life that now is and of the life to come, as the Lord says through the Prophet: I will make you renowned among all peoples, for praise, glory, and honor; and as He Himself promises: The just shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Deut. 26:19 Matt. 13:43 For, in order to manifest the power of His virtue marvelously and to work the cause of our salvation mercifully, He frequently honors on earth His faithful ones, whom He always crowns in heaven, working signs and wonders at their memorials: by which heretical depravity may be confounded and the Catholic faith confirmed.

We therefore, Saints are honored by God with miracles: dearest ones, render as great thanks as we can, though not as great as we ought, to Almighty God: who in our days, for the confirmation of the Catholic faith and the confusion of heretical depravity, evidently renews signs and powerfully changes wonders, causing them to shine with miracles who have held the Catholic faith in heart, in word, and also in deed.

[2] Among whom, Cunegonde of blessed memory, Roman Empress Augusta, who while living formerly in the world was preeminent in great merits, now living in heaven shines with many miracles, so that her sanctity may be confirmed by certain indications. For although for someone to be a Saint before God in the Church Triumphant, final perseverance alone suffices, as the Truth testifies, saying: He who shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved; And again: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life; nevertheless, for that same Saint to be held as such among men in the Church Militant, two things are necessary: the virtue of morals and the virtue of signs, namely merits and miracles, so that both these and those which together with virtues confirm sanctity: may mutually attest each other. Matt. 10:22 Rev. 2:10 For neither merits without miracles nor miracles without merits fully suffice to bear witness among men to sanctity: since sometimes the angel of Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, and some do their works to be seen by men. But also the magicians of Pharaoh once worked signs, and the Antichrist will at last work wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the elect might be led into error. Exod. 7 Matt. 24 But when sound merits precede and clear miracles follow, they provide a certain indication of sanctity, so that they may lead us to the veneration of the one whom God shows to be worthy of veneration by both preceding merits and subsequent miracles. These two things are more fully gathered from the words of the Evangelist, who speaking of the Apostles said: And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord cooperating and confirming the word with the signs that followed. Mark 16:20

[3] Now when the merits and miracles of the aforesaid Empress had come to the hearing of our predecessor, Pope Celestine of good memory, The matter of canonization was treated before Celestine III, as you reported them, so that he might form a more certain knowledge of them, he committed the investigation of them by Apostolic letters to our venerable Brothers the Bishops of Augsburg and Eichstatt and the Bishop of Wurzburg of good memory, and to our beloved sons the Abbots of Ebrach, Langheim, and Heilsbronn: after whose death the miracles began to be so manifestly revealed and multiplied that, from their evidence as well as their frequency, her sanctity is proclaimed by all as if it were notorious; as was recently disclosed to our Apostolate from many testimonial letters of Bishops, Abbots, Provosts, and Princes, as well as many others.

[4] Therefore, coming to the Apostolic See on your behalf, our beloved sons D., Abbot of Michelfeld, Gundelus the Dean, Conrad the Custos, Marcus the Archdeacon, Hermann the Subdeacon of your greater Church, Lupold the Deacon of Saint Stephen's, having sent legates again, Burchard the Deacon of Saint Mary's, Henry the Priest of Saint Michael's, Henry the Subdeacon of Saint Mary's, humbly besought us and our brethren that from the fullness of the power which Jesus Christ granted to Blessed Peter, we would deign to inscribe the aforesaid Empress in the Catalogue of Saints, decreeing that her memory should henceforth be celebrated among the Saints by all the faithful: since this sublime judgment pertains only to him who is the successor of Blessed Peter and the Vicar of Jesus Christ.

[5] We therefore, recognizing that this judgment is indeed the most sublime to be judged among all other judgments, wish to apply full caution in its examination. And for this reason we bound the aforesaid persons by the obligation of an oath, so that they would tell us the pure truth in this matter. They, having sworn, said that, an examination of virtues having been made, as they knew from both widespread fame and solemn written records, Blessed Cunegonde had been joined in matrimony to the holy Emperor Henry, but had not been carnally known by him. Whence, when the Lord Emperor was in his last moments, he said to the Princes and relatives concerning her: As you gave her to me, so I give her back to you: you gave her a Virgin, and I return her a Virgin. She therefore consecrated her virginity to the Lord and preserved it intact: so that when, at the instigation of the enemy of the human race, a certain suspicion once arose against her, she, to demonstrate her innocence, walked upon red-hot plowshares with bare feet and passed through unharmed.

[6] Likewise the holy Emperor Henry and this illustrious Empress Cunegonde founded and endowed the Church of Bamberg from their own resources: benefits conferred on the Church, which with all its appurtenances, out of the fervor of the devotion they had toward the Apostolic See, they offered to Blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, paying him an annual census as a sign that it is of the right of the Roman Church. But they also conferred many other benefits on pious places and venerable churches, making Christ their heir.

[7] These and other things they related concerning her merits; concerning miracles they asserted that in their presence and sight, at the memorial of this Virgin, the blind recovered sight, the lame their step, the mute their speech, and miracles, and the deaf their hearing, and others afflicted with various diseases frequently and evidently obtained full health: and what is of marvelous novelty and a new miracle, dust taken from her tomb was often converted into wheat.

[8] We therefore, having been made more certain of her many and great merits and miracles not only by testimonies but also by witnesses; since according to the Prophet, God is to be praised in His Saints; the canonization is accomplished: by the counsel of our brethren

and of many Bishops present at the Apostolic See, we have inscribed the same blessed Virgin Cunegonde in the Catalogue of Saints, and have decreed that her memory should be celebrated among the Saints. Ps. 150:1 Wherefore we admonish and exhort your whole community in the Lord, commanding by Apostolic letters, that what we have solemnly and cautiously established, you should humbly and devoutly observe, so that by her merits and prayers we may obtain indulgence before the most merciful Judge.

Moreover, we have composed the Collect and other prayers to be said in her commemoration, which we have thought fit to write below on this page. Prayer. prayers are prescribed. Almighty and merciful God, who exclude no sex from Your glory and shut out no condition, we humbly beseech You that, just as You have conferred upon Blessed Cunegonde Your Virgin, after the summit of earthly Empire, the throne of the heavenly kingdom: so by her merits and prayers, You may also bestow upon us Your servants the rewards of eternal happiness. Through our Lord.

Secret. We offer to You, O Lord our God, a sacrifice of praise, imploring Your clemency that through the power of this Sacrament, with Blessed Cunegonde Your Virgin interceding, You may both free us from sins and protect us from dangers. Through our Lord.

Postcommunion. May the Sacrament of human redemption, which we have offered in honor of Blessed Cunegonde, render us acceptable to You, O Lord, so that through this which we have both received from what is Yours and You have accepted from what is ours, we may always live in union with You: Who with the Father. Given at the Lateran, the third day before the Nones of April, in the third year of our Pontificate.

CONCERNING SAINT GERVINUS, ABBOT OF CENTULA IN PONTHIEU, IN THE YEAR 1073.

Preliminary Commentary.

Gervinus, Abbot of Centula in Ponthieu (Saint)

[1] Centula is a town of Ponthieu in Belgica Secunda on this side of the river Somme, where a noble monastery of the Benedictine Order was built by Saint Richarius, as will be told in his Life on April 26, from whom the town also took its name, so that it is commonly called Saint-Riquier, in French Saint Ricquier. Concerning the monastery, not a few things were mentioned on February 18 in the Life of Saint Angilbert, its seventh Abbot. The twenty-third was Saint Gervinus, in the times of Henry I and likewise Philip I, Kings of France, Saint Gervinus, Abbot of Centula, in the eleventh century of Christ. Ignatius Joseph a Jesu-Maria, a Discalced Carmelite, relates in chapter 99 of book 1 of his Ecclesiastical History of the city of Abbeville that his Life was written by Hariulf, a monk of the same place. Whether it exists anywhere in its genuine and complete form, we do not know: what we present here is excerpted from a manuscript book which John de Capella of Centula composed in the year 1492 and entitled A Brief Chronicle of the Deeds and Acts of the Lords and Holy Abbots of this Sacred Monastery, Life from the Chronicle of John Capella: and of the Most Sacred Church of Our Patron Saint Richarius, etc., as we said more fully in the Preliminary Commentary on the Life of Saint Angilbert, section 7, numbers 63 and 64. He follows chiefly the common Chronicle of the same place, as he frequently cites it, which I believe was for the most part written in the French language, on account of certain French words inserted here and there: but he had also consulted other public instruments, letters, charters, Apostolic bulls, etc. Perhaps also the writings of Hariulf: yet he is not very accurate in ordering the chronology. Concerning Hariulf himself I have some suspicion: yet I will not conceal it. whether anything was written by Hariulf? There was a contemporary of this Saint Gervinus, another Gervinus in Flanders, first a monk in the monastery of Saint Winnoc, then the second Abbot of Oudenburg, whose Life Hariulf, his successor, is said to have written, as can be seen on April 17 in Molanus's Nativities and Miraeus's Belgian Fasti. But just as two Saints named Gervinus could have existed at the same time, so also could two writers named Hariulf: yet we do not positively assert that they were different persons.

[2] James Malbrancq, our colleague, also narrates much about Saint Gervinus in volume 2 of his work on the Morini, using certain other monuments (as it seems): likewise Ignatius Joseph in the already cited chapter 82 of his History of Abbeville. The Sammarthani also mention Gervinus in volume 4 of Gallia Christiana under the monastery of Saint-Riquier, and in volume 2 under the Bishop of Amiens named Gervinus, the same Gervinus praised by other writers, as does Adrian Morliere in Antiquities of Amiens, book 2, who testifies that he is called Gerin in French, and calls him a holy man. Gervinus is also mentioned by others to be cited presently.

[3] He is called absolutely Saint Gervinus by Ignatius Joseph, Claude Robert in Gallia Christiana, the Sammarthani, called Saint, Andrew Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology on March 1, where he celebrates him with this eulogy: inscribed in Martyrologies, March 1, On the same day, Saint Gervinus, Abbot of Centula of Saint-Riquier in the district of Amiens, who, chosen to succeed Ingelramnus, the worthy panegyrist of the same Saint Richarius, showed himself a most worthy heir of so many holy men who had presided over this monastery, and faithfully warring for Christ and instructing his subjects with all pastoral vigilance in His service, hastened, having put off mortality, to the blessed enjoyment of Him for which he had long yearned. The same Saussay afterwards on April 17, on which day in his Martyrology he had recorded the feast of Blessed Gervinus of Oudenburg, following our native hagiologists, in the Supplement to his Martyrology reported the one of Centula, April 17. with these words: At Centula of Saint-Riquier, the deposition of Saint Gervinus the Abbot, whom Christ deigned to call to heavenly joys before Easter, while he was occupied during Lent with special exercises of virtues and guarding his life with all purity. But the Sammarthani report that Gervinus of Centula died on March 3, or the fifth day before the Nones: which seems to be able to be confirmed by the following reasoning. March 3,

[4] On Ash Wednesday he signified to his brethren that he had received permission from the Blessed Mary to pass to the Lord, and he commended his spirit to them, having publicly confessed his sins. In the first week of Lent he was deprived of the use of his tongue. Then each day a certain religious man chanted the Psalter before him. Afterwards, having been fortified with extreme unction, he began to speak again and in some measure recovered. on which he appears to have died, But when the illness again grew worse and he seemed to be approaching his end, he was carried before the high altar, as he had previously requested, and there amid the prayers of his brethren he died a holy death. These vicissitudes seem to require a space of not a few days, and especially those words: Each day a certain religious man chanted the Psalter before him, and this after he had been deprived of the use of his tongue in the first week of Lent: so that it seems credible that he lasted to the end of the second week. Malbrancq, on what authority I know not, says he died in the second week of Lent, and indeed on a Sunday: Third Sunday of Lent. which we think should be understood of the Sunday Reminiscere, which follows the second week.

[5] That Sunday in the year 1073 fell on March 3, Easter being on March 31 of the same month. And in the same year the same Malbrancq, in the Chronological Table prefixed to volume 2, year 1073, writes that Gervinus died, although in chapter 63 of book 8 he seems to place his death in the year 1074, as do the Sammarthani. But how could he, as has been related from the Life, have lived at least to the end of the first week of Lent, or even, as it seems to us, of the second; not 1074, yet according to the Sammarthani's own opinion have died on the fifth day before the Nones of March, that is, on Monday after Quinquagesima Sunday, when in the year 1074 Ash Wednesday fell on March 5 and Easter on April 20? Even less does it agree with the notes expressed in the Life nor 1071: that Claude Robert reports he died in the year 1071, unless his death is deferred beyond the middle of March, since Ash Wednesday fell on March 9 and Easter on April 24.

[6] If anyone contends that this ought to be explained according to the old Gallic custom, by which the beginning of the year was reckoned from Easter, so that consequently the March which according to the modern reckoning would be said to have been of the year 1072, was actually 1071; he indeed cannot be refuted from the given chronological markers, but much more ought the matter to be explained by this reasoning: that in chapter 5 of the Life it is stated that Gervinus II was elected Abbot on the tenth day before the Kalends of November in the year 1071, which is proved from the Life, and that in the following year his uncle, Saint Gervinus, died at the beginning of Lent: for the following year according to that method of reckoning began only on the next Easter Day, which was April 8: and thus the second day of February of the following year after that October 23, or the tenth before the Kalends of November, will be of our year 1073, which we are endeavoring to establish: for the fourth month from that October was still of the same year 1071; but what was of the year 1072 was then according to the modern reckoning 1073.

[7] John Capella seems to establish the beginning of the governance undertaken by Gervinus II in the same year. For he says that when, by the decision of Pope Urban II in the year 1096, he had been ordered to relinquish this abbey, which he held together with the Bishopric of Amiens, and the time of his successor. he nevertheless variously prolonged the matter to another year, and attempted to render subject to the Church of Amiens what he had held exempt for twenty-four years, just as his predecessors had, without exaction. But those twenty-four years are correctly reckoned from March 1073 to the beginning of 1097, when the people of Centula first learned of the sentence passed against Gervinus II and the power given to them to elect a new Abbot.

LIFE

from the Manuscript Chronicles of Centula.

By John Capella.

Gervinus, Abbot of Centula in Ponthieu (Saint)

CHAPTER I.

Saint Gervinus's monastic life, governance of Centula, preaching, relics of Saints adorned. Epitaph of his predecessor Ingelramnus.

[1] Gervinus, the twenty-third Abbot of this sacred monastery of Centula, and the first of this name, was a native of the region of Laon. He was first a Canon of Rheims, a great orator, Saint Gervinus a Canon at Rheims, and well educated: in his youth he left the canonry and became a monk at Verdun in Lorraine: and before he entered the religious life, then a monk at Verdun, he possessed all the substance of his deceased father and mother: and he had only one sister, named Roselina, whom a certain knight named Haymond took as his wife.

[2] And at that time Richard was Abbot at Verdun, who on account of his character appointed him his Chaplain, and took him with him on pilgrimage to Jerusalem: and on his return he was elected the twenty-third Abbot of this monastery, afterwards Abbot of Centula,

in the time of William, King of England and Duke of Normandy: and in the time of Pope Leo X, who had him cited and summoned personally to the Roman Curia, because he was preaching the word of the Lord without license and without Apostolic authority. And when he appeared, appointed Apostolic Preacher by the Pope, he was authorized by the same Pope Leo to preach the word of the Lord anywhere in the world, because he was a kinsman and neighbor of the said Pope, who was born in Lorraine.

[3] And on his return he rebuilt the chapel of the Blessed Mary in the crypt, and brought back with him innumerable relics of male and female Saints of God, from whom he receives relics, whose names are not described here, because they are declared in the Chronicle on folios 86 and 87. And above the high altar he encased sixty reliquaries, declared in the same place. In the said crypt toward the south he had twenty reliquaries encased, and with these adorns various chapels and altars: and he built in the said crypt an altar of Saint Richarius, which he adorned with sixteen reliquaries: and in the aforesaid crypt on the northern side, twenty-eight reliquaries. And he had the said chapel dedicated on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of November. Likewise he had the chapel of Blessed Lawrence dedicated, near the cloister. Likewise he had the chapel of the Blessed Confessors Magdegisilus, Caidocus, and Adrian dedicated: and on the other side, the chapel of Blessed Margaret, Virgin and Martyr.

[4] he procures books: Likewise this Gervinus had the entire library transcribed, in which he assembled thirty-six volumes of books of sacred Theology and others: and besides this he renewed all the books of the Church and the Legends of the male and female Saints of God. And in his time, Guido, Bishop of Amiens, an epitaph is placed for his predecessor who had previously been Archdeacon of the said Church and a disciple of Ingelramnus his predecessor, wrote the following verses above the tomb of the said Abbot:

He whom this tomb covers, the most holy Ingelramnus, Was the Pastor and Abbot of this monastery, Leader of the flock, the Church's ... renowned hope of life; He lived in the world, pure both in the world and in the Lord.

Abbot Ingelramnus conferred not a few things upon this our place, He who is seen here ... in white writings, likewise another, He built the church of Saint Vincent and of Saint Benedict, He prepared it with columns and strong supports: He restored the Paradise from its foundations: containing his benefactions, He had the table of the altar of Peter composed, He also had twin thuribles cast from silver: The book of the Gospel and the Life of Saint Richarius His zeal wonderfully adorned with silver: A chalice, illustrious through his zeal, is also seen To be held, with fitting praise to match itself: He preserved the lands, and redeemed those that had been seized, Such as Noyers, Gapennes, and Brugiacum: While he draws the false ones so as to conquer things contrary to peace, Maligned by many, having suffered many unjust things, and adversities endured. The things I have related above, and very many more I have composed. That it was so done, the Divine knowledge knows. The books which he himself renewed exceed all number: Moreover those which he himself repaired exceed all number. By such things and others, the rewards of the heavenly kingdom, As is hoped, he has merited, Reader, which we pray we too may attain. This was the final end of his labors: Dying, he restored the church of Holy Mary, Whose intercessions before the Lord may profit us.

And the same Lord Bishop wrote many other things in prose about the passing of his master, Lord Ingelramnus.

Brower narrates that in the year 1026, Archbishop Poppo of Trier, having obtained leave from Pope John, with the same Simeon as companion, since he was experienced in the roads, together with leading members of the clergy and nobility, perhaps with Poppo, Bishop of Trier, undertook that long and difficult journey out of religious zeal... and so attentively examined each and every place of the Holy Land that he spent nearly a full three years on the matter: and at last returned to Trier near the end of the year 1028. Gervinus could have been attached by Richard to this band of pilgrims, and commended to the Bishop himself and especially to Simeon. I fear, however, that even this chronology of Brower is not solid. For when Simeon, having followed Richard and Everwin into Europe as we have said, came to Rouen, he found that Duke Richard of Normandy had already died, as Everwin himself acknowledges in Simeon's Life: and he died, as William of Jumieges writes in book 5, chapter 17, in the year 1026. Therefore around that time those two Abbots had returned from the Holy Land, and not long after Archbishop Poppo set out for the same destination, at what time did Poppo go there? but not before autumn, since he ordained Bruno (later called Leo IX when he was made Supreme Pontiff) Bishop of Toul on September 9 of the same year. Gervinus could therefore have gone there with the former, or with the latter, or certainly with others afterwards.

CHAPTER II.

Properties of the monastery of Centula recovered by Saint Gervinus. Relics of Saint Vigor the Bishop solemnly translated; some given to others.

[5] And as was said before, the said Ingelramnus, through whose merit and intercession the church of Scabelleville was granted to us, obtained well-expressed letters and charters; notwithstanding these, after the death of Richard, Duke of Normandy, Saint Gervinus resists those wishing to seize the monastery's property, and his children Richard and Robert, brothers and Dukes for a short time, being left behind, and with William, their brother but having the defect of birth and illegitimate, reigning as King of England and Duke of Normandy, at the insistence of the Abbess of Montivilliers, who was of his kindred, a dispute was raised over the same church, and an impediment was placed against us, and the said Abbess wished by force and violence to appropriate the said church to the use of the said monastery of Montivilliers and for her own Church's use.

[6] For which reasons the said Gervinus personally brought the charter and the broad and ample letter of the said Richard, aided by the authority of the Duke of Normandy: showing the aforesaid endowment and donation. By which the said Gervinus found favor, and was authorized in the eyes of him and many others. And in the town of Argenteuil near the Seine, the said William ratified to the said Lord Gervinus the aforesaid gift, and in perpetuity by his charter in the year of the Lord 1048, requesting that he might have something from the body of Saint Vigor: which the said Gervinus assented to and promised, and gives him some relics of Saint Vigor: because otherwise he would not have been able to obtain the said confirmation of the said church of Scabelleville. And he took with him the deeds, acts, life, and death of Saint Vigor, and again established his feast to be solemnized on the second day of the month of November, as his predecessor Ingelramnus had also done.

of most holy life, named Revenard, guardian of the rule and the church, during whose solemnity a sick man is miraculously healed. was lying upon his pallet, oppressed by extreme illness at the time of Matins: who in his sleep heard and saw in spirit a certain old man adorned in pontifical vestments, who said to him: Why do you sleep at this hour? Arise, hasten, and attend my solemnities. Rising up suddenly, he entered the Choir with the Brethren at the twelfth hour of the night, healthy and cheerful, and related all these things to the Brethren openly and publicly, and chanted with the others the Ecclesiastical office of the said Saint.

[8] And at the aforesaid time a certain wealthy and noble man, named Volusianus, had founded the church of Cerisy, [at the same Duke's request he gives a certain church another bone of Saint Vigor,] in the diocese of Bayeux; because Saint Vigor at that time had overcome a certain venomous dragon and had bound and conquered it with his ecclesiastical stole, as is more fully contained in his sacred Legend; the said King of England and Duke of Normandy again sent to the said Abbot Gervinus a certain herald of his, named Garius, so that he might obtain from us the principal bone of the right arm of the said Saint Vigor: which was granted out of fear. But with rash daring the religious of the said place tested it by casting the said bone into a furnace of burning fire: which, unharmed by fire, is adorned: which remained unburnt, not stained, nor harmed by the fire, and at present it is honorably encased in gold and surrounded with gems. And from that hour a certain man possessed by a demon an energumen freed: was made free in the said church. And thence the said Saint is invoked against accidental fire: which he well showed in the year 1475, on the day of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, as will appear below in the chapter of Lord Peter le Prestre, Saint Vigor, patron against fire: the forty-fifth Abbot of this monastery.

[9] Concerning the translation of the body of Blessed Vigor, it should be said that immediately after the aforesaid events the said Gervinus devoutly gathered together many Bishops, Abbots and Prelates, religious, devout, and renowned men of the entire region on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, and translated the body of the most holy Confessor Vigor openly and publicly, the relics solemnly translated by Saint Gervinus on March 21. and gradually displaying to the people the individual bones, and by name from one casket to another casket of silver and gold, adorned with gems and precious stones, and he himself inscribed around the casket the following verses:

Know, reader, Vigor the conqueror of the world: He who is the conquered vigor takes away the blows of peril, Tamer of flames, who suppresses the fires of the world: Lest they consume us, restrain the flames of hell.

[10] And all these things were done in the time of Henry, the son of Robert: which Henry founded the church of Blessed Martin-des-Champs in Paris. And then Ingelramnus, the first Count of Ponthieu, son of Hugh of Abbeville, reigned -- not a Count, but our Advocate, and it was his honor and glory to be called our Defender, by the title of the Advocacy. He, with the help of our subjects and feudal men, slew the Count of Boulogne by the sea, and took his widow and relict as his wife. Properties taken from Centula and others restored to them by Saint Gervinus. And because she was a Countess, he styled himself Count: and the said Count begat from her Hugh, Count of Ponthieu, who by force and violence seized from us the fief of Portes and Noieres: he begat four sons, of whom the first was named Ingelramnus the Fair, who on the day of his father's death restored to the aforesaid Abbot Gervinus the said towns of Portes and Noieres, and made a charter. The aforesaid King Henry reigned thirty years and died in the year of the Lord 1061, and left his son Philip as King.

CHAPTER III.

Saint Gervinus's piety, zeal, honor shown him by the Supreme Pontiff and Kings, properties donated by nobles.

[11] It should be noted that the said Gervinus very frequently visited the sacred places of the kingdom of England, and our towns and possessions. In going and returning he was received with honor by Edward, King of England. It happened that when he entered the royal palace, The same is honored by Saint Edward, King of England, the Queen came to meet him, and in the English manner by way of greeting wished to kiss him, as is the custom of the country. The said Gervinus denied her the kiss of peace: at which she was troubled, and regarded it as a very great scandal, and conceived in her mind a revenge against the man of God, complaining to the King and his retinue about such a public refusal, the Queen offended by the denied kiss, and she withheld the gifts that had been intended and prepared, nor was she well disposed toward him. When these things were shown, through the King and the clergy she was pacified, recognizing that religious men, Bishops, Abbots, and Prelates are dead to the world: and she gave him an Amice adorned with precious stones, woven with gold, soon pacified, so that nothing like it had been seen, and which he brought with him, and when celebrating Mass in pontifical vestments, he placed the said Amice upon his head, in the presence of Guido, Bishop of Amiens, the disciple of Ingelramnus. presented with a magnificent Amice: And because the said Guido was curious and fond of novelties, he insistently requested the said Amice from the aforesaid Gervinus, who did not deny it to him. But in its place he gave us two altars with the consent of his clergy, namely those of Arguebe and Mortenne, and gave a charter for them. But among us those are unknown, but they are so written and noted in the Chronicle. This Gervinus, through Guido, Count of Ponthieu, annulled a bad custom over our town of Maioc, frees the monastery from an unjust burden. namely that annually the said Count, in the name of the Advocacy, took from us twenty pigs: and he made us a charter.

[12] And at this time a certain Breton of noble lineage, named Ralph, beloved by King William of England, many things are given to him in England, gave us great possessions in England. And while the said Gervinus was traveling to obtain charters for them, the sea was stirred up beyond the usual measure, and thus safe passage was not available. But by his prayers the sea grew calm from its surging, while heading to them he calms a tempest by his prayers. and there was a silence in it from the storm, as appears more fully on folio 92. And by a royal charter he confirmed the following towns: Esparlais, Accre, Hultuf, Achotez, Arinchehaon, Mertefort, Asnanon, and Geuinc. And immediately the Count of Warenne gave us the town of Pagrane, in which there are liege men, mills, meadows, pastures, and arable lands: and we have a charter sealed with his seal.

[13] On his return the said Gervinus established several oratories: and among others the Priory of Vieille-ville near Luilly in the diocese of Amiens: and in the oratory he placed reliquaries of the body of Saint Lucian and his companions. And in the same diocese, in a secluded place, he built an oratory founded in the name of Blessed Gratian the Martyr: he builds churches and oratories: and in the forest of Eu (in French, Eu) one in the name of Blessed Martin. And at the hours when the divine office was being chanted in the church of Saint Richarius, when absent, he prays for the entire duration of the office: he always stood on bended knees in prayer, carrying relics of Saints with him, as if he were personally present in his said church first and foremost, sleeping little, continually fasting, continually celebrating Mass each day at sunrise. And on the nights of the Nativity of the Lord, on the day of the Passion,

Easter, on the night of the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Lawrence, the Assumption of Blessed Mary, he lives piously and austerely: All Saints, and Andrew the Apostle, before he ate or drank anything, in the church without interruption he read the Psalter of David. He drank pure water, and lay and slept upon a single bench. And notwithstanding all this, he appeared to all to be full of wine and splendid feasts, always cheerful, smiling, and not sad, of a ruddy complexion, and of a constitution well disposed in human terms.

[14] And sinners came to him in abundance, obtaining from him the Sacrament of penance and confession. kind toward penitent sinners: And in this church of Saint Richarius there was a suitable, fitting, and designated place, which was called the Place of Confession and Mercy. For which reasons he was personally summoned and cited to the Roman Curia: at which he appeared on the day assigned to him: and the Supreme Pontiff came to meet him, gave him the kiss of peace, questioning him about his preaching and confessions and about the reasons that moved him. He gave this response: Do not cease to free those who are being led to death. Prov. 24:11 And: To him who knows the good and does not do it, it is sin. James 4:17 and 5:20 And: If anyone causes a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, he will save his soul from death. he gives an account to Saint Leo IX, And: Charity covers a multitude of sins. When he heard these things, Pope Leo rejoiced, and gave him the Apostolic sandals: which he refused and rejected, and excused himself from wearing. 1 Pet. 4:8 The said Leo, who had previously been called Bruno, born in Lorraine, and Bishop of Toul, by whom he is honored: and consequently elected Supreme Pontiff, confirmed him as Abbot and Legate in the Western regions with a leaden seal. The said Pope Leo came to the Western regions and dedicated the church of Blessed Remigius at Rheims, he carries the relics of Saint Remigius. and for carrying the body of the said Confessor he requested and required the said Gervinus, together with three other holy men.

p In the cited Acts of the Council, it is said that Leo himself before the others, with the aforesaid Archbishops and Abbots, placing their shoulders beneath the bier of Saint Remigius, devoutly carried it forth while weeping, etc. Concerning this translation and the dedication of the church, treatment will be given in the Life of Saint Leo on April 19, and more fully on October 1 in the Life of Saint Remigius.

CHAPTER IV.

Saint Gervinus's miracles, and those of Saint Richarius in his time: the translation of Saint Angilbert performed by him.

[15] [The water in which Saint Gervinus's feet and hands were washed heals two sick persons:] While he lived, he shone with miracles. A certain paralytic woman requested and insistently required of Ralph, his disciple, that he give her to drink the water in which his pastoral footwear had been washed, and from it she received health. A certain child from the town of Eu in Normandy, named Oderis, who was attending the schools, was afflicted with great fevers: and when the said Gervinus was going to the oratory of Blessed Martin, which he had built in the forest of the same place, the child drank the water in which the said Gervinus had washed his hands, and was made well.

[16] The said Gervinus, together with many of his religious, saw and heard Angels of God descending from heaven, he sees and hears Angels singing: singing songs sweet and melodious beyond nature, perceiving a fragrance as pleasant as balsam: and with their bodily eyes they saw heavenly persons ablaze with fire, above the altar of the holy Savior, of Saint Richarius, and of Saint Stephen, and as they departed they gave praise to God and saluted the body of Saint Richarius, showing him a sign of immortality for the future.

[17] when the church burned, the body of Saint Vigor remained unharmed, And in the time of the said Gervinus, by an accidental fire the church was set ablaze, so that the lead roof was burned: and of all the relics nothing remained that had not been carried away, saved, and extracted by the religious, except the body of Saint Vigor, which remained in its place unburnt and unharmed, nor touched by the fire. And a certain household servant had climbed to the top of the tower and a certain servant amid the flames: to contain and extinguish the fire; falling downward into the midst of the fire and flame, he walked through to the body of Saint Vigor, unharmed, healthy, and unburnt.

[18] At this time a certain man from Tournai lay blind in the monastery of Saint Peter at Corbie, a blind man, admonished by heaven, receives his sight at Centula, and during the night he saw in spirit a certain ancient and elderly man saying to him: Go to the monastery of Centula, and you will recover your sight. This he did, and came to this place, and during the night this ancient one plucked out the hairs of his eyebrows, removing the heavy blood: and from then on he was healthy and seeing. But robbers on his return violated his sister: on account of which he became deranged, and the same man is healed of frenzy: and frenzy entered into him: and his attendants again brought him to this place, in which he was again made well.

[19] A certain other blind man saw during the night a brightness surrounding the body of Saint Richarius, and from that vision he was made seeing, and the darkness was cast from his eyes for some time: another blind man twice illuminated at the body of Saint Richarius: and because, ungrateful and not rendering thanks, he was going back, he became blind again. Having confessed, he saw the aforesaid vision of brightness, from which he again received the power of sight, and praising God and his holy Confessor Richarius, he departed well.

[20] A woman from Bussu, a paralytic, heard from her neighbors that the religious in procession were carrying the body

of Saint Richarius in the presence of the said Gervinus, a paralytic woman, vowing to attend the procession, is healed: to the church of Blessed Mary of Ailly. She devoutly vowed to come, and rising up healthy, she came with the others to the aforesaid church of Ailly.

[21] He translated the holy bodies of Saints Caidocus and Fricor, or Adrian, Confessors, and of Saint Angilbert: because in a certain church named Gorze, in Lorraine, the said Gervinus had found the deeds of Saint Angilbert, and had seen in the writings that out of great humility he had chosen burial at the door or entrance of the church, Saint Gervinus finds the body of Saint Angilbert, and knowing that it had been moved from its original place, he had men dig and search at the entrance of the Choir of this monastery, and in digging and searching the body of Lord Nithard, the twelfth Abbot and son of the said Angilbert, was found, buried in a coffin of elm wood with salt, and clearly there appeared a wound and gash on his head, which he had received in battle against the Danes, in which he departed this world: and having seen this, he had it replaced, and had them dig in the adjacent place toward the west: and the workmen, digging with their hoes, found upon the pavement four monosyllabic words: REX, LEX, LVX, PAX -- King, Law, Light, Peace: and those words were the first and last of his original epitaph. And on the advice of a certain elderly religious named Teudewaldus, they found without delay the most holy body: from which a most sweet odor breathes forth, and from the opening of the sepulchre there issued a most sweet fragrance, spread not only among those present but throughout the entire enclosure of the place: and they found all the bones placed in a mass and confusion, and wrapped in a silk pall of green color, not putrefied, but stored and translated by Lord Ribold, the tenth Abbot, from place to place. And from this investigation the said Gervinus was made certain: and he translates it, whence he established a second translation of the said Saint Angilbert to be solemnized, because by the said Abbot, out of fear of Saracen and pagan enemies, it had been placed there. And because the said Ribold had placed in the lead tomb a note, in which was contained that the body of Saint Angilbert rested there: and immediately he elevated the bodies of Saints Caidocus and Adrian, as well as of other Saints, and placed them in a silver casket or shrine adorned with precious stones.

CHAPTER V.

Saint Gervinus's illness, death, and burial.

[22] Here will be treated his death: that before the dissolution of his body, Saint Gervinus suffers from leprosy for four years: the Most High, who foresees all things, to supply the deficiencies of the said Gervinus, permitted by His providence that his body, formerly radiant, should be touched by leprosy, and in his final days he should suffer for four years; so that his lips and face were spotted and wounded supernaturally and with loathsomeness, in such a way that his voice was suppressed, and he could scarcely speak, neither did he rest, nor sleep, nor eat.

[23] It happened, however, that Philip the King, son of King Henry, he obtains from the King of France his nephew as successor: and father of Louis the Fat, came to the Duchy of Ponthieu: the said Gervinus, suffering thus, most humbly and in writing requested him that Gervinus, his nephew and godson, a religious of the monastery of Saint Remigius at Rheims, might receive the pastoral governance of this Church, believing him to be a holy man, fit and suitable. The King assented to this, and he was elected Abbot in the year of the Lord 1071, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November.

[24] And in the following year, on the second day of February, which is the day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the chapel of Blessed Mary in the Crypt, February 2, 1073, he celebrates for the last time: which the said Gervinus had built, he began to celebrate Mass with devotion, and held back by extreme infirmity, he could scarcely finish or complete it. When it was nevertheless finished, the weeping and grieving Brethren carried him back to his pallet. He said to them: Now I see and perceive that Brother Gervinus will celebrate Mass no more. And as the pain increased, on Wednesday at the beginning of the fast, which is now called Ash Wednesday, he gathered all the Brethren together and said: Now I have received permission from Blessed Mary to pass to the Lord. he obtains leave from the Blessed Virgin to die: And sitting on his pallet, he said: Brethren, I commend my spirit to you. And he wished to confess privately. When this was done, he wished to confess generally, declaring that he had sinned in eight cases, and he declared them openly and publicly. he confesses privately, Concerning which they were astonished, and said: Truly you were never a murderer nor an adulterer. To which he gave a kind response: Brethren, then publicly: if I did not commit them in act, yet I sinned in will: I was the cause of those sins, he imputes the crimes of others to himself: and I did not correct them, and in those ways I assert that I so committed them.

[25] And in the first week of Lent he was deprived of the gift of speech, and abandoned by all natural power. And each day a certain religious chanted the Psalter before him. And they saw from him a sign requesting extreme unction. he is anointed: When this was done, he in some measure recovered and spoke. And among other things they asked him insistently in what place he wished to be buried. On this matter he delayed and would not give a response. how he wishes to be buried: And because the Brethren continued to press him on that point, he said to them: You would not do what I have merited and what I desire. And he did not wish to say, but out of weariness he disclosed and said: After the separation of my soul, take a cord or rope and tie it to the feet of my corpse, and place it on the yoke of a horse, and let the corpse of me, a sinner, be dragged over the dunghills of this precinct and town, because I am not worthy to receive any other proper burial. At which all unanimously let out lamentation and weeping.

[26] He asked them that at the hour of his death they carry his body to the front of the Church and place the Cross there with the relics of the male and female Saints of God. Which they did, he dies before the high altar: and they carried him, still living, before the high altar and began to chant the Litanies. And as they were singing "Holy Mary, pray for him," because he could not speak, he drew out his right hand and raised it to heaven as a sign of devotion. And when that moment came, "Saint Richarius, pray for him," he raised his hand higher, and sitting and weeping, he cried out in a loud and intelligible voice: Saint Richarius, pray for me. When these Litanies were done and finished, the Brethren chanted: May Christ receive you, and he then gave up his spirit.

[27] And after he had entered the way of all flesh, the Brethren took water in a basin and stripped him after death he is found to be free of every trace of leprosy, and washed him. And the body was no longer found to be leprous, but pure and clean, fragrant and sweet: especially the male member, secret and natural, in which appeared all purity and chastity. But on the knees and elbows there was a certain hardness and coagulation of skin with hardened knees and elbows. and flesh, hard like stone, because upon these he always and continually devoted himself to prayers.

[28] at his funeral certain things are given to Centula: And when he was buried, present in the chapel of Blessed Mary, which the said Gervinus had built in the crypt, was Guido, Count of Ponthieu, who suddenly remitted to us the exactions which he had been taking upon Neuville, and over his tomb or sepulchre, said in a loud voice: I remit those exactions to the Church of Saint Richarius: an epitaph is placed for him. and between four marble pillars he had the following verses inscribed:

This illustrious Father, through whom the dark demon fell, A pious flower among the people, sleeps in this tomb: He who rightly climbed the steep ways of righteousness Was an assiduous mortifier of his body. A rule of virtues, a light of upright monks, From boyhood he remained with a virginal body.

And at this time Guido, Bishop of Amiens, kinsman of this Church, and at the time when the Lord Jesus shone with miracles through the prayers of Blessed Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens, fell asleep and rested in Christ.

And let these brief remarks about the life and death of Saint Gervinus suffice.

CONCERNING BLESSED FREDERICK, ABBOT OF THE GARDEN OF THE BLESSED MARY IN FRISIA, OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER, IN THE YEAR 1175.

Preliminary Commentary.

Frederick, Abbot of the Garden of the Blessed Mary in Frisia, of the Premonstratensian Order (Blessed)

[1] The monastery of the Garden of the Blessed Mary, commonly called Mariengaard, near the village of Hallum, two leagues toward the Ocean from Leeuwarden, the capital of Western Frisia, was founded and built in the year 1163 by Blessed Frederick, Blessed Frederick's Life was written by Sibrandt, the sixth Abbot, formerly the parish priest of Hallum, then the first Abbot of this monastery: in which, after he had gathered many religious men, in the thirteenth year of his governance, in the year of Christ 1175, he died a holy death, distinguished by many virtues in life and after death. Sibrandt, the sixth Abbot of the said monastery, who died in the year 1238, wrote his Life: we present it here from various ancient manuscript codices, of which several still survive, and we ourselves also possess one. Various summaries of this Life have been published by Molanus in his Nativities of the Saints of Belgium, Haraeus in his Compendium of the Lives of the Saints, Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology, Ghinius in his Nativities of the Holy Canons, Miraeus in his Belgian Fasti, Balinghemius in his Marian Calendar, and summaries published under March 7, these indeed under March 7, which is the day of his burial, although, as we find in the notes of Heribert Rosweyde, it is established from the documents of the Garden of Mary that he departed this life on the third day of the same month: feast day March 3, on which day the Premonstratensians venerate him with the Ecclesiastical Office, and indeed under a double rite here in Belgium, and also in Spain, as can be seen from the Order for reciting the Divine Office, frequently reprinted at Madrid.

[2] Moreover, as the above-cited Molanus notes, this place of Mariengaard was abandoned the monastery being deserted, when it pleased the Apostolic See to transfer the plantation of Frederick to the new Bishopric of Leeuwarden and to transform it into cathedral Canons and aids to the Bishop. Miraeus reports that this was done by Pope Paul IV in the year 1559. heresy growing strong among the Frisians, Then disturbances stirred up by seditious persons troubled most of the provinces of Belgium, with heretical instigators, especially Calvinists, who, driven by a kind of diabolical frenzy, drew away the people, previously faithful and peaceful, from the authority of the Catholic King. Orthodox religion having therefore been driven out of the borders of Frisia, the sacred remains of Blessed Frederick lay hidden among certain pious men, and were at length the body translated to the monastery of Bonne-Esperance: translated from there into Hainaut, to the monastery of the Blessed Mary of Bonne-Esperance, which is of the Premonstratensian Order and situated near the town of Binche, on December 7, 1617, and were received with solemn pomp by Abbot Michael Chamartus and exposed to the public veneration of the faithful: afterwards they were enclosed in a more ornate reliquary by Augustine de Felleries, likewise Abbot, and placed in the altar of Relics, then recently erected, in the upper casket on the Epistle side. The feast of the translation is celebrated each year on December 7 with a solemn office under a triple rite, its solemn veneration there: as they call it, just as the day of his deposition on this March 3. Furthermore, on all Wednesdays not impeded by another feast, a conventual Mass is celebrated in honor of the said Blessed Frederick.

[3] Chrysostom Vander Sterre celebrates him with this eulogy on March 3 in his Nativities of the Saints of the Premonstratensian Order: In Frisia, eulogy in the fasti for March 3. Blessed Father Frederick, the first Abbot and Founder of the Garden of Mary, of the Premonstratensian Order: who, shining far and wide with the glory of most illustrious virtues and miracles, after gathering most many sheaves of souls for God, most joyfully amid psalms and hymns rendered his most blessed soul to his Creator. Whose sacred body after death, fragrant with a most sweet odor, shone with many miracles after burial. But on December 7, the following eulogy is recited in the Martyrology among the Premonstratensian Canons of the monastery of Blessed Mary of Bonne-Esperance: At the monastery of Blessed Mary of Bonne-Esperance in Hainaut, the Translation of Blessed Frederick, the first Abbot and Founder of the Garden of Mary in Frisia, of the Premonstratensian Order, and December 7. when his sacred relics, adorned with many miracles, were placed with solemn pomp in the church of the said monastery and exposed to the public veneration of the faithful, in the year of the Lord 1617.

[4] The following writers of the Order also treat of the same Blessed Frederick, among whom the principal may be considered Sibrandt Leo of Leeuwarden, Sibrandt Leo wrote summaries of the Life, who, having professed the religious life in the monastery of Lidlum near Franeker, was thence expelled by heretics and ended his life in exile in the territory of Groningen in the year 1588. He wrote on the foundation of the monastery of the Garden of the Blessed Mary, and the Lives of the Abbots of the same monastery, as well as of the Abbots of Lidlum. We possess these works of his, not yet published in print, from which we append a Life of Blessed Frederick to the other, since it contains various items and other Premonstratensians, not so accurately narrated in the former. Next come John le Paige, a Parisian Theologian, in his Premonstratensian Library, book 2, pages 515 and following. Sigismund Kohel, Abbot of Luka near Znojmo in Moravia, among the Lives of some Fathers of the Premonstratensian Order collected by him: and more briefly Peter Waghenarius in his book on Persons of the Premonstratensian Order distinguished for holiness, page 173. Maurice du Pre in his brief Annals of the Order, and in German, Dionysius Mudzartius in his Ecclesiastical History of Belgian Affairs, each under the year 1175, and various others in passing. I will not pile up Frisian writers; one will suffice: Martin Hamconius, who in his work on the illustrious men and affairs of Frisia, folio 110, calls Saint Frederick, Abbot of the Garden of the Blessed Mary, famous for miracles and rare sanctity of life, and Frisian writers. and describes his miracles in verse on page 79, which, excerpted from there, are found in Pagius.

LIFE

By Abbot Sibrandt

from various manuscripts.

Frederick, Abbot of the Garden of the Blessed Mary in Frisia, of the Premonstratensian Order (Blessed)

BHL Number: 3150

CHAPTER I.

Blessed Frederick's pious youth. Priesthood. Pastoral care. Miracles.

[1] Frederick of revered memory, born in Frisia from the village of Hallum, then illustrious and very famous for its noble and distinguished men. He, then, having lost his father Dodo in early childhood, Frederick from boyhood formed to piety, was left as a very young child with his little sister to his mother: who was a God-fearing woman and took care to make known to the little boy the ways of life, namely to fear God, to love justice, to frequent churches, to devote himself to prayers, etc. She was called Suitburga: and the boy strove to fulfill all these things with no little diligence. While the other boys his age were playing, when he had been assigned by his mother to tend some sheep, he never mingled with them in their frolicking: but either he diligently chewed over the Lord's Prayer, or he raised up basilicas from clayey earth, built altars, and according to his childish age, as far as he could, strove to imitate in his own small way every ecclesiastical custom.

[2] At length, at the urging of the notables of the parish in Hallum, he was placed in liberal studies: he studies, with expenses wonderfully provided to his mother: and when his mother had begun to despair of the expenses on account of the poverty of the family resources, (wondrous to tell!) she found on the neck of a certain reptile, which happened just then to be crawling by, a silver ring, but twisted: which, when she had shown it to all the people of her village on a Sunday, lest by chance it had fallen from someone through negligence, and it was not recognized; she understood with full faith that it had been destined for the expenses of her son, from which day the woman never lacked funds for every need of her son. Now that he was assigned to the schools, he makes excellent progress: he began to respond to his constant studies with such great advances that the grace of God seemed rightly not to be in vain in him. For in a short time he began to surpass not only all his fellow students in knowledge, but also in every form of virtue and uprightness of character.

[3] After he had passed beyond the limits of boyhood, stirred by zeal not only for the liberal arts he goes to Munster in Westphalia: but especially for the Divine Scriptures, leaving his mother and homeland behind, he went to Munster (where he had learned that studies were then flourishing), and although he was preeminent in humility, yet out of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary he embraced chastity to the highest degree. [out of love of chastity he especially venerates the Mother of God, and Saints John the Evangelist and Cecilia:] He loved Blessed John the Evangelist above all other Saints on account of the excellence of his chastity, because as a young man he merited to be appointed guardian of Blessed Mary. He also deemed Blessed Cecilia, after the Virgin Mother, most worthy of special honor, on account of the unblemished purity of her chastity. He was endowed with such great chastity that to someone marveling at the austerity of his life, and especially at his continence, and asking whether he had ever felt illicit impulses within himself, he is reported to have answered with indignation: That no man ever carnally begotten is free from this punishment; how much more he himself, who was flesh and blood, not yet freed from the law of sin. For this reason he tamed his members with a hair shirt, wearing over it he puts on a hair shirt: the best garments he could.

[4] And since he did not cease night or day to commend himself to the patronage of Blessed Cecilia (to whose profession he had wholly devoted himself), at last Blessed Cecilia appeared to him, at the exhortation of Saint Cecilia appearing to him, and exhorted him to attend not only to his own advancement but also to that of others: for he had been preordained by God for this purpose. having returned to his homeland, For this reason, returning home, he turned over in his mind to what task he might best devote his efforts with effect. Since he had not yet been initiated into Holy Orders and therefore did not presume to preach, and yet saw that the harvest was great and the laborers few, he showed great piety and kindness toward the scholars he had gathered together from every quarter as best he could: he urges students to join piety with learning: and the grace he had freely received, he endeavored to impart freely to them. For he did not require of them merely progress in learning, but chiefly virtue and honesty. If he saw anyone sluggish in idleness or negligent, he corrected him most sharply. On ordinary days he rarely permitted them to be absent from the Divine Offices; on feast days, never.

[5] When he had now reached the lawful age, at the request of many he attained the order of the priesthood. he is consecrated Priest: At that time a certain Priest of the same name as himself presided over the Church in Hallum, an old man of good conduct: who, having heard of Father Frederick's advancement, he becomes colleague of the Pastor: sought to have him as his colleague and successor: and when he consented, he daily exhorted the people to all piety by teaching and example, he leads others by word and example: rebuking, reproving, insisting, in season and out of season, and diligently carried out whatever belongs to a good Pastor. And since his house was somewhat distant from the church, very often the devil at the morning hour, as he was hastening to the church, appeared to him in various monstrous forms to terrify him; now making an assault upon him, now hurling insults at him. But the athlete of Christ

would confidently sing the psalm, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" At which voice, with the sign of the Cross hurled against the devil, he puts the demon to flight with the sign of the Cross: he immediately vanished.

[6] It happened that a certain young man, incited by the devil, at the morning hour stood at the grave of a certain woman, who had been buried the day before near the path along which the man of God came, he is terrified by a wanton youth, dressed in women's clothing, and attempted to terrify the man as he came by in whatever way he could. When therefore the man of God, after Matins had been rung, was hastening to the church and saw such a spectacle, thinking it was an evil spirit, he stopped, armed himself with the figure of the Cross. But as the youth remained, he marveled more and more and was terrified, for an evil spirit would not fail to be repelled by the sign of the Cross. The youth at last, seized with fear, for which the youth therefore suffered diabolical tribulations. was pursued by the man of God, and from that time the same youth had to endure diabolical tribulations as punishment for his sin: who, about three years before his death, being among the nobler men of the village of Hallum, received our habit, often expounding to us with tears the misery of his calamity.

[7] When his predecessor had died, he was unanimously elected by all as Pastor. He is elected Pastor, Although he greatly resisted, he had to yield at last to the importunity of those who insisted. Then indeed, rising to the voice of the Lord and girding his loins, with his feet shod in preparation for the Gospel of peace, devoted to fasting, prayer, he began more and more to chastise his body, continuing fasts with prayers and vigils with fasts. He was singularly devoted to the Blessed Virgin, veneration of Blessed Mary: so that each week, besides his private prayers, he celebrated a Mass of her in a private church. Whence the custom grew that even on the Saturdays of Lent, down to our own times, a Mass of the Blessed Virgin is sung with great devotion. he fasts strictly on Fridays, At that time he practiced such abstinence that on every Friday he abstained on bread and water, unless some solemnity or the presence of a suitable guest intervened; and in Lent: in Lent, however, he took food only on Sundays and Thursdays; the remaining days passed without food.

[8] It happened that on a certain Thursday in Lent, when the table had already been set, someone reported to him that a catechumen child from the neighboring village had died without the grace of Baptism. an infant dead without baptism, It was then the custom to reserve little children born during Lent as catechumens, to be baptized in the new fonts. At this word the man of God, greatly dismayed, thrust the table away from him, and imputing such negligence to his own sins, he went to the church, prostrated himself before the altar of Blessed Mary, having implored the aid of Saint Mary, and when he had contended with many tears and prayers, he added that he would neither eat nor serve until the little child was restored to life long enough to receive the grace of Baptism. And when he had risen from prayer, he went to the house of the dead child; and carrying with him a stole and book, he placed them upon the body of the deceased, and having invoked the clemency of the Savior and of the inviolate Virgin (without delay) he raises from the dead and baptizes: the child was restored to life: and immediately he conferred the grace of Baptism upon the child, who on the next day then happily ended this life.

[9] Nor was the holy Father without the spirit of prophecy. For when, pressed by the annoyance of cold, he used to enter a house neighboring the church, he foretold to the mistress of the same house that not many days hence, for her sins he predicts that a woman will be punished for her sins, (for the man of God had often instructed this family to be contrite for their sins, and to confess them, and to make satisfaction for them), she would be punished with a dire penalty, against which he counseled her to forestall God's mercy with pious works. A very few days having elapsed, therefore, the woman was seized with a most violent illness, so that from the greatness of the pain (for she was then pregnant) she gave birth prematurely: and she bore a son, whom after many years he associated with our congregation. To these misfortunes was added that she was also deprived of the sight of her eyes. Wherefore she sent to the man of God, that she might, being about to die, dispose of her affairs by his counsel. Then he said with a smile: to be healed afterwards: The Lord has chastised you with chastisement: but this time He will not deliver you to death: you will also recover the sight of your eyes, provided you take care to change your life for the better. In the course of time, health followed according to the word of the man of God, and sight was restored to the woman: who still survives and remains with our Sisters. The man of God was also accustomed, at the Nativity and Easter of the Lord, generous to the poor. to distribute liberally to the use of the poor whatever was left over from his food and clothing.

CHAPTER II.

Occasion of the monastic life. Monasteries built under his care: the Garden of the Blessed Mary for men, Bethlehem for women.

[10] From an act of charity he falls ill with kidney stones: It happened that the man of God fell into the disease of kidney stones: for when a certain pregnant woman had met him on the road in winter time, who had to cross a ford out of necessity but could not; he himself entered the ford first and, lifting her in his arms on the further bank, set her on the nearer side, so that, seized by the cold, with the disease of kidney stones pressing upon him, he was brought to extremity. Then, rapt outside himself, he saw in spirit the entire human race unanimously devoting itself to one work: and all were driving wagons loaded with wood. he is stirred by a heavenly vision, When he asked what was the purpose of so much wood, he received the answer: To heat the furnace of Babylon. The Blessed Virgin refreshed him, who was terrified by the novelty of the oracle, with the antidote of her customary consolation: Flee from the midst of Babylon, she said. When he did not know how to provide for his flight, he was taught by the voice of the Prince of the Apostles: Behold, we have left all things and followed Jesus; and He promised a hundredfold. Go therefore and do likewise. Then, having returned to himself, the man full of God understood that he had been seized by the aforesaid disease by divine will, so that he might be deemed worthy of the calling of the Saints. Although it had long been his intention to build, from the things granted to him by God, a hospice in which the poor of Christ might be treated more kindly to the life to be led in a monastery: and cared for more attentively; he judged nevertheless that the divine will should be preferred to his own, namely that he should live according to the canonical rule with some companions, with whom he might be of one heart and one soul, and nevertheless serve the poor as far as he was able.

[11] Meanwhile the devil, envying this holy resolution of the man of God, stirred up great strife among the notables of the parish of the man of God, he settles grave tumults that had arisen among the parishioners: indeed among relatives and acquaintances, so that on both sides they fought fiercely, and with each side occupying a part of the church, they fought until the church was set ablaze by fire thrown upon it, and some perished, intercepted by the flames. Wherefore the man of God spent much time and labor in restoring peace and repairing the church, which caused him no small impediment to the completion of his purpose.

[12] It also happened, after some years had elapsed, that a certain young man, who had been betrothed to a certain girl not yet of marriageable age, and was living in the house of her parents adulterous murderers, until the girl should grow up, that the girl's mother began to love the young man more than was proper, and leaving the legitimate marriage bed, had relations with the son-in-law betrothed to her daughter. And so that they might more freely indulge their affair, they agreed that while the husband was sleeping at night, through a double cloth inserted around the neck of the sleeping man, and passed through a hole, with the young man pulling, he should be suffocated. And so it was done. When therefore in the morning it was reported that the man had suddenly expired, and the funeral rites were being performed according to custom, after the Mass had been said they went to the grave, and the coffin was found to be much longer than the grave. detected by a wondrous portent The bystanders were astonished that the earth denied hospitality to a man whom they had known to be shorter in stature than his father, who had been received in the same grave before. And after much inquiry, with some saying this and others that, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the holy man ordered the funeral cloths to be removed and the body to be inspected, so that with the body laid bare, the truth might be laid bare at the same time: which was done. For immediately the signs of suffocation appeared so evidently that there was no room for dissimulation. When these persons were therefore cast into custody, without delay the body settled within the coffin. But at the prayers of the man of God, he saves them from death, the guilty were not deprived of life; but the woman was condemned to irremediable exile: and the youth, with his nose cut off and his genitals severed, was shut up in a certain monastery of the Cistercian Order. another punishment being imposed: When I was a boy I knew him, and as often as I saw him, I confess, I shuddered, and very many still live who were present at this spectacle.

[13] At last, by the Lord's calling, the mother of the man of God died at a good old age, at the burial of his dead mother, and he arranged for her to be buried in the church of Hallum next to the body of her husband. And when many relatives according to the flesh, but even more who were joined to him by spiritual kinship, were present while the body was being placed in the tomb; You know, said the Saint, brothers and dearest sons and daughters, that I have lived among you without complaint until now: if I have saddened any of you, I know not; for I am conscious of nothing against myself: he asks pardon for his faults, and if it is otherwise, I am moved to contrition, and I ask to be forgiven. Finally, it is your custom for each of you to bestow your temporal goods for the souls of your dear ones, so that the faults they incurred in time they may not expiate in eternity. But I, without prejudice to your custom, for her salvation he pledges himself to the Rule of Saint Augustine: deem nothing of those things which I possess worthy of offering for the soul of my mother: for this reason I sacrifice myself and offer myself to Jesus Christ the Son of God and to the Blessed Virgin, to serve Him perpetually, calling heaven and earth and your presence as witness, that from this day and henceforth I wish to live not according to my own judgment, but according to the Rule of Blessed Augustine, so that her soul may rest in peace.

[14] On the following day, therefore, having arranged his affairs at home, he hastened to the Bishop of Utrecht, humbly requesting that he clothe him in the canonical habit he is clothed in the Canonical habit by the Bishop: and grant permission to build a monastery of Clerics. The Bishop most kindly granted the man's request and promised to apply every effort. Having therefore given thanks, and having received the habit with the Bishop's blessing, he set forth. And first he turned aside to the Island of Saint Mary, a house of the Premonstratensian Order near Utrecht, he visits the Premonstratensians: and there with thirsting heart he drank in the holy customs and honorable observances pleasing to God. There also he had the Ordinal and a few other things copied which seemed to him expedient for the present. Having then taken leave of them, like a new recruit, clad in the breastplate of faith, he returned home and girded himself for the execution of his plan. having returned, he chastises himself more sharply: Then he began to afflict himself more sharply than usual, with the dryness of food, the harshness of clothing, and the sword of the tongue against the vices of mind and body. He besought each one, he counseled all in the name of the Lord, to be reconciled to Christ. He went about through

the lanes and streets, to see if he might find anyone whom he might win over. he helps others, And when he had given counsel to many who had confessed to him, that they should enter a cloister of Grey Monks, or Cistercians, who had happened to make a new plantation in Frisia (for he used to say that cloisters had been established for the purpose of enclosing sinners in them for a time, lest they be excluded from the Kingdom of God afterwards), and the man of God observing that only the rich and noble were received in them, he becomes the father of the poor: while the poor were turned away, or rather seeing that they were preserved for himself, he wished to become the father and patron of the poor.

[15] It happened, however, by the will of God, when the holy man was intent on gathering the poor to live with him, that a certain noble and powerful man from his village, Godescalcus by name, who had once incurred the guilt of homicide, Godescalcus, a powerful man, anticipating the others, having left behind his wife and children and arms, before the altar, before God and the multitude, made a solemn vow into the hands of the holy man. By which speech many were moved, namely by the conversion of such a man; they came to him from every quarter, both poor and rich, and others he gathers together: asking that he receive them and their possessions: which he granted with the most placid countenance, seeking nothing else but the honor of God and the salvation of souls. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and sixty-three, a Chapel was erected by him in honor of God, the Blessed Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist, in a flat and level place near the great sea. The place is very fruitful in the Garden of Holy Mary he erects a chapel: and very suitable for pasturing livestock, and he called the name of his place, around which he had already dug a ditch in the field, the Garden of Holy Mary. At the very erection of the chapel a great storm arose, so that some timbers collapsed: but at the prayer of the man of God it was mitigated. And on the very day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the first solemnities of the Mass were initiated, so that the Lord might draw to Himself all in this place who persevered obediently on the Cross.

[16] Then there came to him a noble woman, Syroeria, daughter of Ulbrand, the magistrate of Reysum, bringing with her much substance. Then also Lady Gertrud of Dresum, a devout Virgin, born of parents not of the lowest rank according to worldly dignity, he appoints Gertrud of Dresum over the devout Virgins: came to him after her return from the Holy Land and from visiting the shrine of Saint James the Apostle, bidding farewell to all her relatives and friends: whom he kindly received, and after a short time placed her over the other Virgins he had gathered, because she had great experience in affairs, and many nobles had already entrusted their little daughters to her care.

[17] Then there came to him certain God-fearing Clerics, namely Tadoco, Alard, Meinold, and Elsard, two of whom were uterine brothers, and others whose names God knows: he admits Tadoco, of whom Tadoco was a man very distinguished in eloquence and notable for the grace of preaching. Hence it came about that he attracted such a great multitude to himself that the new plantation could not hold them: the founder of two congregations: who, departing from the man of God, established a congregation on his own, which was afterwards divided into two: one of which was transferred across the Lauwers into Marne, and the other to Dokkum, to Saint Boniface.

[18] During the same period such a multitude of both sexes had flocked to the man of God that the structures he had built could scarcely contain them. Therefore it seemed useful to him to separate the men from the women: for which reason he purchased a certain place where the women's monastery now stands, he builds the monastery of Bethlehem for women. where he built a suitable church and the other necessary buildings, as far as means allowed: and he called the name of that place Bethlehem, out of reverence for the Blessed Virgin: in which, under the pious admonitions of the blessed Father, there was always such great concord, mutual charity, voluntary poverty, outstanding humility, and pure devotion, that you would have said you were beholding the beginnings of the primitive Church.

CHAPTER III.

Illness, death, burial. Miracles before and after death.

[19] Godescalcus, who was more zealous than the rest in working and a more fervent emulator of the professed Order, when he was lending aid to workmen in the construction of a certain building, suddenly collapsed and broke his leg. He heals a broken leg: This was reported to Father Frederick: and understanding the cause, while the man was rolling on the ground, he said: he frees another from the danger of drowning: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise whole and stand upon your feet. Without delay he arose, marveling at his sudden health. Likewise a certain Sister of Bethlehem, who at the instigation of the devil had left the holy congregation and was on the verge of drowning, was freed at the invocation of the man of God. another from sickness: Likewise when the holy man had come to the bed of another woman lying in great sickness, after prayer made to God for some time, she was restored to health.

[20] At another time, about to make a journey on the ice, he was heading alone toward Bethlehem. He came therefore to a pond around evening: about to go to Bethlehem, in the middle of which ran a break in the ice, so that without the aid of a plank no one could cross: and when he came to it, he circled about for a long time to see if anywhere a crossing might be available, before the darkness of night should withdraw the service of light. At length, after various thoughts of his mind, he stretches his cloak upon the pond, it occurred to him to stretch out the cloak he was wearing as far as possible in length and to cast it onto the further bank where it was narrower, so that it might be held by the crusts of ice, or at least by the reeds: and to spread the rest of it beneath his feet until, having become wet, it should freeze into ice, and thus serve as a bridge. For the water was flowing because of a stream nearby into which it fed, and crosses: and therefore could not be bound by frost. While the man of God lingered, he did not cease to invoke the clemency of the Savior. At length, fortified by the sign of the Cross, he intrepidly mounted the cloak, and as though it were frozen, he crossed over it dry-footed: and when he first picked it up, it was indeed damp, but after a little while it became entirely stiff. When he arrived at the Brothers in Bethlehem, who were still sitting by the fire, and giving place to the cold Father, the holy Father was asked how he had come to them, and he related the whole matter as it had happened. he minimizes the deed: Those who heard such things magnified God, who is wonderful in His Saints and works wonders in heaven above and on earth below. But the servant of God, seeing them exceedingly amazed at what had happened, forbade them, saying that nothing worthy of amazement had been done by him.

[21] When these and many other things had been accomplished by the holy man, and all things both external and internal were prospering for him: he falls ill in Bethlehem, it happened that the man of God, while staying with the Sisters in Bethlehem, was struck with a grave illness. Seeing therefore that his sickness was most severe, having called the Sisters to him, he gives counsel to the nuns: he admonished them concerning the preservation of concord and mutual love, as well as obedience, humility, patience, and all the observances of the Order, saying that he would see them no more in this life, and he wept. And they too wept, and were at the same time stunned at his departure. Having dismissed them with great blessing, he came to his church at Hallum, he visits his people at Hallum: where he immediately celebrated the Divine Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Furthermore, having arranged what was to be arranged there and having set things in order, he mounted his horse and returned home, with very many from his own parish following him. And when he was already on his way, as if inspired, he turned his horse and, bowing his head toward the monastery, as if exulting, he began to say: I give You thanks, Blessed Virgin, for all Your benefits bestowed upon me, and especially because, just as You granted me to celebrate the first Mass to Your honor in this church, so today You have caused me to sing the last: having returned to the Garden of the Blessed Mary, therefore with greater confidence I ask that You guard Your flock and defend it from all adversity, and free me from the dangers that press upon me, and deign to place me in eternal blessedness. he prepares himself for death: Having spoken thus, he returned home and took to his bed, yielding to his illness: and although he was very weak, he never ceased to pray and to impart counsels of salvation to those who came to him.

[22] Therefore, as the disease grew worse, when he now saw the day of his dissolution approaching, he had all his parishioners from twelve years of age and above summoned to him. he consoles his parishioners, As they stood by the bed and wept, he piously consoled them and asked that they never withdraw from the church in Hallum and the favor owed to his house, for which he exacted the oath of each one. and his subjects: And he paternally consoled his subjects, who were justifiably grieving beyond measure at the loss of such a Father, saying that he would never abandon them if they observed the mandates of the Order. One thing, however, he said, I ask, he asks that prayers be offered for him: that my memory be kept with the greatest care, because I have not done good to the poor as I ought, which you know happened because of your own need: moreover, the benefits of God will not fail you if you are zealous imitators of your father's traditions: supplement my deficiencies also with your prayers. Having said these things, turning to his accustomed prayers, he dies while praying: while praying and chanting psalms he rendered his holy soul to the Creator. When the little body was being washed, it was evident in the flesh how it had served the spirit, especially in that a fragrance of wondrous sweetness filled the nostrils of all

who were present. He died in the year of Grace one thousand one hundred and seventy-five, year 1175, and in the thirteenth year since the foundation of the house. He was buried in the chapel which he had built at the beginning of the foundation; he is buried: innumerable persons of both sexes flocking to his funeral rites, crying out with weeping and wailing that they had lost the Father of their country.

[23] After death, however, he shone with so many miracles that various persons suffering from various diseases and torments were freed at the invocation of the name of the man of God. a dropsical woman and other sick persons are healed: Thus a certain dropsical woman in the village of Medwecht was cured, so that many from various parts, hearing of this new thing, began to flock to his memorial for the cure of various diseases and to implore his intercession.

[24] When it happened that the tomb of the man of God was filled with water because of the dampness of the place, by divine revelation it came about the body is elevated, a memorial is built, that the stone of the sepulchre was lifted by certain Brothers and the water thrown out of the tomb, and they placed the body with the coffin in a more elevated place. Then, the body having been arranged and the sepulchre sealed, a memorial was built, as it is now seen. Around that time many sick persons, summoned from various parts of Frisia, flocking to the memorial of the aforesaid man of God, implored the assistance of healings. I cannot describe the kinds of healings paralytics, those with withered limbs, lunatics are healed: which the Lord effected through him, especially of paralytics, those with withered limbs, lunatics, and the like: so that, having become famous throughout all Frisia, he began to be honored by all more in death than in life. Thus he raised a boy from the dead in the village of Medum. two dead persons raised. Likewise in the village of Merrum a boy was raised from the dead.

ANOTHER LIFE

By Sibrandt Leo

Frederick, Abbot of the Garden of the Blessed Mary in Frisia, of the Premonstratensian Order (Blessed)

[1] In the year of the Virgin Birth one thousand one hundred and sixty-three, the monastery of the Garden of the Blessed Virgin at Mariengaard was founded by the venerable and God-beloved man, Lord Frederick Feikone, Pastor of the church in Hallum. Piously educated, Born in the aforesaid village of honest parents, his father being Dodo and his mother Sibrich: in his very youth, after his father's death, he was deprived of the support of his family: honestly educated by his widowed mother, he learned the first precepts of Grammar at Hallum: having been taught these, he studies, he went to Munster in Westphalia for the sake of studies, and was greatly devoted both to piety and to letters. Going more frequently to the monastery of the Island of Saint Mary, moved by the piety and purity of life of the monks, he embraced the very discipline of the Premonstratensian Order and strove wonderfully to promote it. Returning to Hallum, the Pastor Lord Feicho, worn out with age and moved by the young man's uprightness, ordered him to be consecrated to the priesthood. he becomes Priest and Pastor: Having obtained the priesthood, on the death of Feicho, he was declared Feicho's successor by common vote. Although elevated to this dignity, the seeds of the Order and piety which he had once received on the Island had not fallen from his mind. Therefore, in order that what he bore in his mind he might at last accomplish in deed, since he saw that because of the various wars, killings, and robberies of tumultuous men, and the burning of churches, men had not yet come to their senses, he began to admonish, to insist, and to exhort beyond measure to repentance, he exhorts his people to penance and virtues: declaring severe punishment with the threat of eternal torment; that salvation was prepared for all, provided that, having put aside the delights of the flesh, fraud, and envy -- the kindling of war -- and having done penance for their former deeds, they should imitate him as he followed in the footsteps of Christ.

[2] By this force of words, with the Holy Spirit cooperating, he so moved the minds of men that many, he receives companions for the monastic life: even those noble by birth and distinguished by notable deeds, having put aside the world and taken the white habit, professed the monastic life and submitted themselves to his discipline and that of the Order. The foremost among these is recorded to have been Goslichus, from the noble family of Gossinga, having left behind his wife by mutual consent, and his children and all his substance, offering himself wholly to Christ, moved by true zeal. Wibrand, fierce of spirit, famous for the glory of war, of the Camminga family from Blija, emulated this deed and did the same. Frederick, made more fervent by their daily influx and growth, prepares a retreat he obtains subsidies from pious Matrons: and determines a place for building a monastery. Since he could not accomplish this by himself, being destitute of means, he was supported by the assistance and munificence of the most noble matron Siu, mother of Renicius surnamed the Great, and of the noble Marchela, to whom the honorable matron Gertrud of Dresum, kinswoman of the Kempens and of Aesgo of Blija (whence the Camminga family), also came, providing the same grace in contributing resources as the aforesaid Siu.

[3] he erects a chapel: Supported by these as his patrons, the man beloved of God, in the year one thousand one hundred and sixty-three, erected a new sacred chapel to be consecrated to the Blessed Virgin and to Saint John the Evangelist, and in it, on the very day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he celebrated the first Mass. Among the other persons distinguished for piety who were eager to embrace and be initiated into the Order, he sends companions to build other monasteries: he received into his community three brothers at once, who, inflamed beyond measure with the ardor of faith, made great progress. Tacho, the eldest of these, having obtained leave from Frederick, departed, and from the community he himself created, two other monasteries of the same Order were established: one in the land across the Lauwers at Merne, the other at Dokkum near Saint Boniface. When the chapel was completed, the remaining buildings suitable for housing were added, so that they could accommodate very many persons. Hence, being more inflamed with the care of religion, taking with him Alard, Tacho's brother, he hastened to Steinfeld in the territory of the Eifel. Having communicated the matter with the Provost, he obtained all the institutes of the Order. He also visited Count Herman the Prior, he goes to Steinfeld: at whose sight, rejoicing, he left Cologne and returned home. As the multitude of men and women increased daily, seeing that the monastery was quite small for the needs of the time, and judging it less safe for both sexes to dwell in the same buildings, and lest so pious and arduous an enterprise should be defrauded of its splendor, either by the cunning of Satan or the calumny of wicked men, he builds a monastery for nuns: he obtained a place for building a small convent for the holy Virgins in Bethlehem, and when it was at last erected, he immediately transferred them there, and having hired men distinguished in learning and knowledge of Ecclesiastical chant, he took care that they were imbued with all necessary instruction. While the man beloved of God was exercising himself in these pious works, in the fourteenth year of his governance he was seized with a grave illness in Bethlehem, and perceiving by certain signs that the end of his life was near, he falls ill: he returned home. Having celebrated the Sacred Mass at Hallum, in his own monastery, in the presence of all, he closed his last day, and rests entombed in a raised sarcophagus in the sacred chapel founded by himself, he dies. in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and seventy-five.

CONCERNING BLESSED PETER JEREMIAH, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, AT PALERMO IN SICILY, IN THE YEAR 1452.

Peter Jeremiah, of the Order of Preachers, at Palermo in Sicily (Blessed)

[1] The Life of Blessed Peter Jeremiah was published from an ancient codex among the Lives of the Sicilian Saints by Octavius Caietanus, our colleague, but he adds that its diction ought to have been entirely changed. The author was a learned and prudent man, Blessed Peter Jeremiah's Life written by a contemporary: a member of the same Order of Preachers as Blessed Peter, who lived with him in the same monastery of Saint Zita at Palermo. Concerning himself, in note 7 of Caietanus's edition, the writer of the Life says: Immediately after Blessed Peter's death I had to go to the General Superior of the Order: and although I heard of many miracles at the sepulchre, I wished to commit to memory only those of which I was myself a spectator and witness. Which Caietanus seems to have found in a Prologue which he did not publish: and below in the Life at number 26 the same things are confirmed by these words: It was my intention to narrate these two miracles out of so many which I myself SAW. We present this Life distinguished and illustrated in our customary manner.

[2] veneration and the title of Blessed: That veneration was shown to this man after his death with the appellation of Blessed is revealed in the same Life: also that his body was placed in an elevated marble sepulchre, and above it his likeness was depicted: whence Michael Pius gathers in book 3 of Illustrious Men of the Order of Preachers, chapter 18, that this Blessed man had a face full of cheerful beauty, with a high forehead filled with wrinkled lines, a concave chin, a somewhat snub nose with a rather small mouth. That he wore a cape with a small hood, and a scapular a full palm's width shorter than the cape itself: moreover, the same Pius adds that he is held among the Blessed of that island. The same things had been written before by Maurice de Gregorio, a Sicilian, in his Blessed Island of Sicily of the Order of Saint Dominic, and he places this Blessed man first before the rest. With the Martyrology of the sacred Order of Preachers, published in the year 1616 by order of Seraphinus Siccus, General Master of the Order, a list of certain Blessed Martyrs and Confessors of the same Order was printed, and among the Blessed Confessors the following is read: Brother Peter Jeremiah died at Palermo after many outstanding monuments of sanctity and miracles.

[3] That he is held among the Blessed is confirmed by Anthony of Siena in the Chronicle of the Order, books written by him: and in the Library of the Order he adds the following: Brother Peter Jeremiah, a Sicilian by nation, a man of clear intellect, eloquent in speech, conspicuous for uprightness of life, famous in his time for his sermons to the people and learned in every respect, wrote sermons on the temporal cycle throughout the year, on the Saints and for Sundays, on Penance and Sins, on Faith, on the Passion of the Lord, and twenty-five most complete and erudite Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.

[4] Maurice de Gregorio, a Sicilian, and Michael Pius report that this inscription was added to the sepulchre: epitaph: The bones of the most distinguished Father, Brother Peter Jeremiah, are placed in this sepulchre: to whom his learning and the sanctity of his life gave an eternal name, and brought glorious praise to the Order of Preachers: he died on the fifth day before the Nones of March, 1452, from Jesus Christ. Octavius Caietanus in note 8 to this Life refers to the said inscription and denies that it still exists, perhaps having been removed long ago, and that an eulogy substituted for it is now read there of this kind: Blessed Peter de Jeremia, of Palermo, of the Order of Preachers, rests here, famous for his learning and the glory of his miracles: who while he lived was the ornament of Theologians, second to none, as his manuscript and printed works demonstrate: and how great his merit is before God, those continual miracles testify which the Lord works through him. He happily fell asleep in the Lord on the Nones of March 1452. Indeed we think the fifth day before the Nones of March should be written: since Caietanus himself adds that this Life should be referred to this third day of March, and from the Chronicle of the Order and the manuscript records of the monastery he inscribed it in the Sicilian Martyrology with these words: At Palermo, in the monastery of Saint Zita, the falling asleep of Blessed Peter Jeremiah, of the Order of Preachers of Saint Dominic. Caietanus reports the same things, the name in the sacred fasti: as does

Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of Saints.

[5] Finally, an iron belt is preserved with veneration at Palermo in the same monastery: Iron belt: we saw it with admiration (these are the words of Caietanus) made of five circles or rods of iron, each the thickness of a finger: which iron belt Blessed Peter wore continually while he lived: for once put on, it was not permitted to be removed: for it was woven or fastened together with such skill that it could be neither tightened nor loosened. Indeed, the flesh of the growing youth grew over the iron: and so when he perspired, the sweat would flow out mingled with the rust of the iron. Nor could it be removed from the deceased until thirty days after his death, when the body had dried out. One circle removed from that belt one circle of it carried to Bologna. was carried by Paul Constabili, General Master of the entire Order, to Bologna, to the monastery in which Blessed Peter had laid the deep foundations of his virtues.

LIFE

Peter Jeremiah, of the Order of Preachers, at Palermo in Sicily (Blessed)

BHL Number: 6713

CHAPTER I.

The birth, studies, and religious state of Blessed Peter.

[1] Blessed Peter of noble birth: Peter Jeremiah, born at Palermo of noble stock in the year of salvation one thousand three hundred and eighty-one, had as his father Arduino, most learned in both laws and a Patron of the treasury, under the reign of King Alfonso of both Sicilies: his mother was a lady of the first rank, from the noble family of the Nigri. He cultivated Piety from his earliest years: he spent his boyhood not in games and jests, but in the study of Grammar and Dialectic. When he reached his eighteenth year, he was sent to Bologna, so that, following in his father's footsteps, trained in various studies: he might bring honor to his family with the same arts as his father. Having stayed there a full year, on account of the keenness of his intellect and the great effort he devoted to letters, he progressed to such a point that he far surpassed the other youths pursuing the same studies, and sometimes played the part of the public Professor in that Academy, whenever the latter was detained by illness or some other impediment, not without the great applause of his audience.

[2] While he was engaged in these arts with such great praise and did not relax his effort in learning, warned by the apparition of a condemned kinsman, he was divinely admonished to turn his mind away from them. For when he was keeping vigil in the dead of night as was his custom, intent on his studies, he suddenly felt the window being knocked at, to his great annoyance: at which, as happens, struck by fear, he first trembled, was uncertain about everything, and suspected all manner of things: then, when he had collected himself from his fright, he said: "Who are you, after all, who knock so annoyingly?" To which he heard the reply: "I am your kinsman, not unversed in both Laws. Many have used me as their advocate, but I did not take my own counsel, though others consulted me: and I, who even gave some people deceitful advice, did not wish, out of the greatest folly, to guard against the most hostile enemies of the human race, from whom it was most important to do so: and so I departed this life not as an advocate but as a defendant, about to pay eternal penalties for my ill-undertaken advocacy. But you, if you would listen to me, or rather to God Himself, by whom I am sent to bring you this message, flee the ornaments and insignia of this fleeting glory and of the doctorate." Having said this, he vanished.

[3] But Peter, who was nearly lifeless, as soon as he came to himself, counting this as the highest kind of benefit, immediately, most eager to obey the divine warnings, about to embrace the religious life: began to think about a new way of life. Therefore he determined to enter a religious family, wishing to dedicate and consecrate to God the purity which he had preserved intact up to that day. Indeed, in order to stand by his promises, not unaware of the insolence of the flesh lusting against the spirit, he ordered an iron belt weighing nearly fourteen pounds to be made for himself, he girds himself with an iron belt: by which he might subdue his body and restrain its depraved impulses.

[4] From there he went straight to Saint Dominic's and, throwing himself at the feet of the Superior, begged for the sacred vestments with tears. Having obtained his wish, he put off the old man and put on the new: He enters the Order of Saint Dominic: Nor was his father unaware of his son's resolution: immediately upon hearing the news, Arduino, seized with fury, set out for Bologna to drag the novice out by force and bring him back to Sicily, adorned with the Doctor's honor. But things happened contrary to what he expected. For when he had arrived at Bologna, he immediately asked the doorkeeper about Peter's health, saying that he was greatly consumed with the desire to see him, and begging and beseeching that he be allowed to speak with his son, for which purpose he had made so long and dangerous a journey. He was kindly heard: the matter was reported to the Superior, and Peter was given permission to speak with his father. he does not wish to speak with his hostile father: But Peter said: "Go, tell my father that I am well; there is nothing more for him to seek: let him only wish me well." Then immediately he went to the Superior, asked him to go and meet his father in person and console him; he himself was occupied with domestic and pious exercises, and could not give attention to this matter even if he wished, nor would he wish to even if he could. Admiring the youth's virtue and constancy, the Superior praised his resolve, then bade him be of good cheer, saying that he would satisfy his father. When the father saw that conversation and meeting with his son were denied him, he seethed, raged, and ranted: then he accused his son of impiety and the Brothers of boorishness. The Superior, on the other hand, warned him not to give too much to paternal love: nor to turn so quickly to insults: and since he was now too angry, he should go away, lay aside his anger, and come back to him again before leaving Bologna: it would turn out that he would not leave empty-handed and would return happy to Sicily.

[5] Indeed this matter caused no little distress to Peter, he allows himself to be seen: who for fifteen whole days sought help from God with prayers, fasts, and tears, no less anxious about his father's salvation than his own. But the same love called Arduino back to the monastery that had first summoned him from Sicily. Therefore a few days later he tried the unfinished business again, and having first complained in the gravest words about the injury, he asked again and again that, if he might not at least speak to his son, he might certainly see him: let them grant this to a man who had never deserved ill of religious men anywhere, let them grant to a father what they would not dare to deny even to a stranger. It was with difficulty obtained from Peter that he should allow himself to be seen from afar, from a corner of the cloister: and his father, gazing upon him, saw such modesty and piety shining in the youth's face that, immediately turning from anger to tears, raising his hands to heaven, he gave immortal thanks to God and wished his son well. won over to goodwill, he speaks with him: Afterwards, when he was about to return to Sicily, and permission for conversation was granted, he not only did not discourage him from his undertaking, but even exhorted him at great length to virtue and piety.

CHAPTER II.

Priesthood. Sermons. Reforms of morals. Apparitions.

[6] Made a Priest, But Peter, when he felt himself free from these troubles, began to guard against the snares of the demons much more vigilantly than before, to devote himself to prayers, and to take vengeance upon his own body, now with fasts, now with beatings. Having professed Religion in the year one thousand four hundred and one, he was initiated into Holy Orders to the incredible delight of all, and having completed the course of studies, since he wished above all to provide for the salvation of his neighbors, he began to deliver sacred sermons with the utmost earnestness and great stirring of hearts: he preaches with great zeal: very many were brought back to good ways through his efforts, and the confessions of many were immediately heard by him after the sermon. Saint Vincent Ferrer approved Peter's zeal in this kind of work encouraged by the words and example of Saint Vincent Ferrer, in the year one thousand four hundred and sixteen, when, two years before he departed from the living, he had come to Bologna to visit the body of Blessed Dominic: and when Peter, together with the other Brothers, approached to kiss the hands of the man of God, Saint Vincent, having been informed of the pious life of Peter Jeremiah, fixed his eyes upon him, embraced and kissed him, and exhorted him not to desist from what he had begun. Strengthened both by the speech and moved by the example of so great a man, Peter pressed the work more vehemently and followed in the footsteps of Saint Vincent Ferrer; he stirs all Italy with his sermons: so that in a short time he filled nearly all of Italy with the fame of his name, teaching and hearing confessions with the greatest fruit for souls. Sent in the year one thousand four hundred and twenty-seven by Master Brother Bartholomew Texerius to Sicily, to restore the discipline that had gradually lapsed on that island, he is summoned to the Council of Florence: and not without success. A few years later, he was summoned by Pope Eugene IV to the Council of Florence; and when the Pontiff wished to honor both his integrity of character and his eloquence, especially in confuting the errors of the Greeks, with many grades of honor, he could not be induced, with the modesty that characterized the man, to accept such adornment.

[7] he is made Visitor of Sicily: When the Council was dismissed, he returned to Sicily as General Visitor by Apostolic authority: having modestly discharged that office, he at length chose as his residence the monastery of Saint Zita at Palermo, he resides at Palermo, recently erected by certain Aragonese and Majorcan Fathers. He took as his companion Brother Peter of Majorca, a man of the highest intellect and proven virtue: zealous for poverty: he would attempt nothing without consulting him and confided all his secrets to him. And although the house could have been continually augmented with new estates, by the generosity of those to whom the fame of so great a man had reached, he most steadfastly rejected them, preferring poverty to riches, zealous for the more austere life.

[8] He then resumed the preaching office which he had intermitted for various reasons. It is marvelous what throngs of people of every age and station flocked to him: he preaches with great attendance, often, in order to satisfy the people, since the larger churches could not hold the immense crowd, he delivered sermons in the open area of the shore, or of the Palace, or before the doors of the great cathedral. For as he was a man of prudence and keen intellect, so he was fluent in speech and supremely effective in delivery: from his sermons, wondrous things followed. When he was preaching in the square of the great cathedral and had said much to this effect -- "As from the face of a serpent, flee from sin" -- turning his speech to angry men, he deterred them from that vice with a great voice and strong lungs. Ecclesiasticus 21:2 One man heard him who was lying in wait at the doors of the Palace, absent from the place of the sermon, to kill his enemy; for he was about two hundred and fifty paces from the place of the sermon. and amendment of men: And when he recognized that he above all others was the target of that speech, he immediately changed his mind and laid aside his enmities along with his anger: and he narrated the whole affair as it had occurred to Peter after the sermon was over.

[9] Not entirely dissimilar to this was the following. Peter was about to speak at the maritime fortress, and a great crowd of people had gathered there

early in the morning with thirsting ears: suddenly freed from hoarseness, but the flow of humor from his brain had nearly robbed him of the power of speech: yet neither hope nor courage deserted him, though his voice had. Several tried to dissuade him from his intention, to whom Peter replied: "Be confident: the Lord will give the word to those who evangelize with great power." And when he had ascended the pulpit so afflicted that he could scarcely utter the Angelic Salutation, yet even in the very exordium he used such a voice that he was heard not only from the sermon itself -- which would itself have been worthy of admiration -- he is heard by those at a great distance: but also by those who were about five hundred paces away: and these especially confessed that they had heard a preacher of God sent from heaven.

[10] These things contributed greatly to Peter's name and fame, and no less to winning the goodwill and favor of the citizens. And they venerated not only him as he walked through the streets of the city: he wields great authority: but many, especially merchants, went out to meet the Brothers of the monastery of Saint Zita with bared heads, and kindly supplied everything that pertained either to his use or to that of his brethren: to which services the man, not ungrateful, responded by giving counsel, settling enmities, and composing disputes.

[11] Although he ought especially to have rested from these labors, yet he rose at the Matins hours, and spent the rest of the time until the first light of dawn in divine meditations and prayers in the oratory. a soul appears to him It happened, while he was occupied with these things on a certain night, that he saw a certain Brother of his, who had died the day before, coming toward him, having come forth from his tomb, clad in mourning garments, and exhausted with great labor. he rescues a soul from the fire of Purgatory: When this apparition asked him to offer the Holy Sacrifice and bring aid to a man afflicted with the greatest torments of Purgatorial fire, Peter promised to do everything for his sake: and having fulfilled his promises, and having offered the Sacrifice of the Mass for his soul, the following night he saw the same man thanking him, and his soul departing as if from the sepulchre and hastening to heaven in the likeness of a white dove.

[12] Nor shall I pass over this, which is especially pertinent to this place. he sees souls being carried to heaven by Angels: By chance he was making a journey through Gebelrussa on the nineteenth day before the Kalends of September, which day is devoted to the Assumption of the Virgin; he found there a large crowd of people in the church of the Blessed Mary, who, as is the custom each year, had gathered there for the sake of religion. It pleased Peter also to linger for a while in that same place: when he rose from his prayers, he learned through a vision that Angels were descending into a certain cave and were wholly occupied in transferring souls from it to heaven. Having found in this an occasion for delivering a sermon, he wonderfully inflamed his hearers to the beauty of virtue: then he ordered the bodies of several women to be extracted from the cave, he has the bodies transferred: women who had been killed by robbers because of their zeal for preserving their virginity; since those women, as had been revealed to him, had preferred to lose their lives rather than their chastity.

in the Bull of Canonization to have died on Wednesday before Palm Sunday, the fifth of April, therefore in the year 1419, in which, with the Dominical letter A, Easter was celebrated on April 16. He is variously said to have died in the year 1418, because the French then began the year at Easter.

c Caietanus notes

that many monasteries of the Order were reformed: especially the Palermitan monastery of Saint Zita, the Catanian, the Mamertine monastery of Saint Benedict, the Alcamese, the Caccabese: if indeed all these were monasteries at that time, as is clear from the Palermitan one here.

of Lucca. Under her name, a hospice of the Lucchese had earlier been built at Palermo, which was then changed into a monastery of the Order of Preachers. Not far from there stood another church of Saint Dominic and a monastery of his Order attached to it. Fazello treats of these in the first decade of Sicilian Affairs, book 8, in the fourth part of the city of Palermo.

CHAPTER III.

His governance of the monastery of Saint Zita and of the novices. Miracles. Death.

[13] As Prior of the monastery of Saint Zita, it is incredible to relate how prudently and humbly he conducted himself in its administration: he administers the monastery with outstanding virtue: always found to be the same man he had been before: nor did he relax anything of his former zeal and pious exercises in the midst, as it were, of the great press of occupations. Never angry at anyone, kind to all: every night he assembled the community of Brothers: but in his reproofs he was gentle, in his admonitions effective, sweet in his manner of address: he wearied no one, he inflamed all to divine love. In short, he was such that all both loved him as a father and venerated him as a Bishop.

[14] On a certain Friday when he had nothing at home with which to feed the Brothers, rebuffed when in need, he was carried by a small boat to the tuna fisheries (they commonly call it Arenella, which is two miles from the city), and asked the owner, who was about to slaughter a great number of tuna, for something by way of alms. The man, not urbane, refused, and was moreover angry, receiving the innocent man with many harsh words, and complaining about the insatiable greed, as it seemed to him, of religious men. Peter bore the response with moderation: then, raising his eyes to heaven, he begged help from God: he trusts in God: he had done his duty, and had obtained nothing: therefore let God Himself, who was able, come to the aid of His own. His prayers were heard. He had scarcely departed from that place when the fish, all of them to the last one from his nets (they nearly filled out a thousand in number), avenging their master's avarice, escaped. When the man learned of this, and recognized Peter's sanctity, from the man previously punished, he immediately boarded a small vessel, followed the man, and, prostrate at his knees, earnestly begged him to pardon so grave an offense. The modest and prudent man marveled: and aided by prayers, then, lest the man be distressed, he said that he had suffered no injury; each man is master of his own goods. But the man begged again that he bless the sea and the fisheries: the man's request was granted. As he returned, the fishermen came out to meet him with congratulations, he receives alms: telling him to put away his sadness, that all was well, and the fish had returned. They were all caught and killed: and from their number some were sent to Peter: and to him, by no means forgetful of the benefit, the fisherman attributed all that he had caught.

[15] he hears one speaking softly at a distance: While he was walking about the cloister deep in thought, a certain merchant asked the Fathers whether Peter needed anything, in so low a voice that he could scarcely be heard by those with whom he was speaking; Peter, from the other side of the cloister, responded that he lacked only the grace of God and needed nothing else besides: which was done to the great amazement of all. Having experienced such great generosity from others toward himself and his brethren, generous toward the poor: and being by nature especially inclined to mercy, he devoted himself to relieving the poverty of the wretched. On the feast day of Saint Zita, he was accustomed to invite the poor to dinner and to wait on them himself: to be ready for beggars at the door, and sometimes, while sitting at table, to send away the bread set before him: to whatever extent a greater abundance of things was available.

[16] Nor was Peter's gentleness of spirit in pardoning injuries any less than his liberality in giving. It is a well-known report he pardons an injury, with a miracle: that when he had rebuked a man for his crime, he was struck with a slap and bore such great ignominy with equanimity. Immediately the arm of the one who struck him withered: at which portent the man, coming to his senses, begged pardon from the holy man and his prayers to God. When Peter had pardoned the injury, beseeching God, he restored by his prayers the former use and function of the arm.

[17] These things were accomplished mostly during his Priorate, and when he had resigned from it, he was appointed Master of Novices: whom he stirred by his example and speech to contempt for passing things and love for what is eternal. he directs the novices. But having gone to Catania for the purpose of preaching, he asked in the Chapter that he be allowed to lay down this charge, so that he might devote a freer effort to disseminating the word of God: and it was easily granted.

[18] While he was staying here in the year one thousand four hundred and forty-four, when fire had erupted from Mount Etna and was flowing toward Catania, at Catania he helps in the eruption of Etna: threatening destruction to the city, Peter was chosen, on account of his outstanding holiness, to carry the veil of the holy Martyr Agatha, with a procession of the clergy and the people, against the conflagration rushing toward the city; and the fire, reverencing both the mighty merits of the holy Martyr and the piety of Peter, turned its course elsewhere, and twenty days later was entirely extinguished.

[19] Having then returned to Palermo, when he had arrived at the monastery of Saint Zita, he heard a woman weeping and wailing: he raises a girl from the dead. when he inquired what the matter was, they reported that a girl had fallen into a well and had been pulled out dead. To this Peter said: "She is not dead." Then he ordered her to be carried to the church of Saint Zita, and having shut out all witnesses, after the space of one hour spent in prayers, he restored the girl to life and the girl to her mother, adding: "The girl was not dead, but sleeping" -- which we know Christ the Lord said about Lazarus and the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. John 11:11 Mark 5:39

[20] Nor was he lacking to the public welfare of the city, who was so concerned about private matters. The city was oppressed by a shortage of grain: the citizens, bereft of all hope, since grain could not be imported in a public crisis, either by sea, which was agitated by winds and storms, or by land, because of rain and rivers overflowing their banks, were presenting a danger to the Praetor and the Senators. These, struck with fear, took refuge with Peter, and set forth the calamity of their country, the unrest of the citizens, and their own peril. To them he said: "Put away your grief; before the sun sets, God will have provided, with grain imported in abundance into the city." Having consoled the men with these words, he dismissed them and gave himself to prayer: and as soon as he rose from prayer, turning toward the sea with a cheerful face, he saw a ship so battered by the winds he obtains a supply of grain by his prayers: that in everyone's judgment it was about to be dashed against the land and wrecked. Again prayers were poured out by him: soon the ship, beyond all hope, put in to port, and to the great joy of all freed the citizens from famine.

[21] While praying he was often seen raised up from the ground; when the Superior saw by night a brightness issuing from the cracks of his door, he is raised up while praying: thinking the cell was on fire, he broke open the door and found Peter intent on prayer, who, as if roused from sleep, had nothing to say, nor did he complain about the violence done to his door.

[22] Afflicted throughout his entire life by various diseases, and especially by a very great pain in his legs, he showed no outward sign of distress. Patient in illness: Indeed, whenever the pain was relieved, he was seen to weep, and when asked the reason, he replied: "I see God withdrawing His hand from me." Sent again to Catania to fulfill the office of preacher, he was received and heard by all as though he were a man fallen from heaven, but since his health was poor there, he was forced to return to Palermo to his own monastery, against the wishes of the Catanians, who wept at his departure.

[23] As the disease now grew worse day by day, and he was suffering severely from diarrhea and the greatest pain in his legs,

so that he was unable to stand, before he took to his bed he wished to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice. he celebrates his last Mass: When he had descended into the Sacristy, turning to the Fathers, he said: "This is the last one I shall offer." For the entire month that he lay ill, he gave many proofs of Christian humility and patience: so as to bring all to admiration, who never perceived even a complaining voice from him in the most severe pains: in which they would often hear him repeating: "Burn here, cut here, and spare nothing, so that You may spare for eternity." he is fortified with the Viaticum, When the Superior of the monastery brought him the most holy Viaticum of the Body of Christ, he received it with a speech so full of religious piety and so inflamed that the Brothers standing around him were unable to restrain their tears for the space of a quarter of an hour, though a feeling of joy was mingled with the tears. For they wept at the loss of so great a Father, but rejoiced at the certainty of his salvation. When he had been refreshed by the Eucharist, turning to the Superior, he asked to be fortified as soon as possible with the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, saying: "The time is short." and Extreme Unction: When this was done, giving thanks to God, with his eyes fixed on the image of the Crucified, and kissing His feet, he prayed in a low voice with tears: although from the time he had fallen ill he never seemed to cease from sacred prayers, as could be inferred from the movement of his lips.

[24] At length, when death was now at hand, he began to recite that Psalm, "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains," etc., in such a voice that it could be heard by all who were present, he recites Psalm 120: and when he had come to those final words, "The Lord guard your coming in and your going out, from this time forth and forever," and had said three times, "The Lord guard my going out," he dies a holy death: he brought to an end both the Psalm and his life at the same time, with the highest praise, leaving a great longing for himself in all, in the sixtieth year of his age, and the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and fifty-two.

[25] he is buried, still wearing his iron belt: The Brothers turned from their tears to washing the body of the holy man, as is the custom: here they found the iron belt so firmly embedded in his loins that they could neither pull it out nor cut it away with a file: and so they committed him to the earth. But thirty days after his death the body had to be exhumed because of the multitude of miracles and the throngs of people: the body is elevated: it was found intact and dried out: the belt was easily extracted: and not a few sick persons felt its salutary power.

[26] a sick person healed after a fall: It was my intention to narrate these two miracles out of so many which I myself saw. A certain man, with his neck broken and his brain spilled out because he had fallen from a window, as soon as he touched the bier and the body of the holy man, obtained his former health. A woman, who was suffering grievously from the pains of childbirth with the fetus turned the wrong way, so that either she or the fetus was in danger of death, when she heard of the death and the fame of the miracles of the Blessed Father, implored his aid, and a woman in childbirth. and immediately, safe and sound, she brought forth a living infant.

[27] a distinguished burial with his effigy is made: Moreover, the body of Blessed Peter was placed in the Chapel of the Rosary, interred in a marble sepulchre which rises six hand-breadths above the ground. Above the sepulchre his likeness was carved, and around it many of the miracles which he had performed while alive. After the man's death, veneration was shown to him, and from ancient usage the appellation of Blessed was given, he is called Blessed: and benefits were conferred upon mortals at his tomb. Through his iron belt, carried to the sick or to women in labor, God works many miracles, he is distinguished by miracles. who is wonderful in His Saints.