Gervinus

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.