Frederick

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.

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

[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.