Cadroe

CONCERNING SAINT CADROE, ABBOT OF METZ IN LORRAINE,

IN THE YEAR 988.

Preliminary Commentary.

Cadroe, Abbot of Metz on the Moselle (Saint)

Section I. The Acts of Saint Cadroe, and the Walciodorensian Prelature before his acceptance of the Monastery of Saint Clement.

[1] We know from Flodoard that the Synod of Duisburg was convened in the year nine hundred and twenty-seven, against those who, having attacked their Bishop Benno in ambush, had castrated and blinded him with sacrilegious brutality, Albero, Bishop of Metz, in the year 927, so that he might be less fit for conducting the pontificate; which two years earlier he had been compelled to accept, having left the Alps in which he had led an eremitical life: after the Synod had struck all the authors of so execrable a crime with the thunderbolt of a deserved excommunication, in place of Benno it appointed as Bishop Albero, "a nobleman," says Flodoard, referring his beginnings to the following year. And indeed he was noble by the distinction of his illustrious lineage, being the brother of Frederick, Duke of Lorraine: but far nobler by the virtues worthy of that rank, of which he gave an outstanding specimen in the very first year of his administration, restoring the rigor of ancient discipline and monastic observance to the monastery of Gorze, most celebrated in the entire diocese; concerning whose reform we treated at length from the Life of Saint Guibert, on February 27, Section 2, before the Acts of Blessed John, And then other monasteries, in the same place after Abbot Agenold. Nor did he accomplish less elsewhere afterwards, and especially in the sight of the city itself, from which it was barely half a mile distant — another monastery, whose administration is read to have been entrusted to Saint Cadroe, and whose beginnings are related in this manner by the Sainte-Marthe Brothers in volume 4 of Christian Gaul, page 267.

[2] And then the most ancient monastery of Saint Clement, "The tradition is that Saint Clement, Bishop and Apostle of Metz, erected an oratory there under the invocation of the Prince of the Apostles, which in the course of time became so celebrated that it served as the mausoleum of the first bishops of the same see: and Urbicius of Metz erected a more august basilica under the patronage of Saint Felix: whence it comes about that in old documents the name of the Abbey was manifold: for it was called both the monastery of the Basilicas, and from the oratory of Saint Clement and the church of Saint Felix built above it, sometimes Saint Felix and Saint Clement; but now it is simply inscribed as Saint Clement." (Namely after a new one arose within the city through the work of John Gerardini around the end of the previous century, which barely extended beyond halfway, when Charles V besieged Metz as Emperor, the former monastery had been destroyed, and the monks were forced to seek a domicile within the city.) "When secular Canons had served in it for a long time, He reduces it to regular observance in the year 938, they were ejected from that sanctuary on account of their intemperate morals, and Bishop Adalbero I, distinguished by the brilliance of his achievements, restorer of Saint Clement's, having brought monks from the Abbey of Luxeuil, around the year 938, with the basilica, cloister, and other regular buildings — consumed by age — changed and adorned to a more spacious structure, introduced the cenobites of the new congregation into this place."

[3] So much from them: they then append a catalogue of Abbots, accurately compiled by a certain ascetic of that monastery from charters and parchments, Saint Cadroe is placed in charge of this, and communicated by Pierre de Crochets, Prior of Saint Arnulf: from the same man, now Prior of Saint Clement, or else from another of the same surname and family, those documents were procured for us in this ninth year after the publication of Christian Gaul — the year of restored salvation 1665 — which we shall produce below. In this catalogue the first Abbot established is Cadroe or Cadroetus, a Scot by nation, summoned from Luxeuil on account of his piety; and his Life is said to be found in the Legenda, which states he flourished at Luxeuil with Otbert and Maximinus as companions around the year 929. We have, by the kindness of Dom Romuald Hancart, Prior of the monastery of Andain (Saint-Hubert in the Ardennes), from the manuscript parchments of that place, the Life of that Saint, written approximately twenty years after the death of the Saint by the monk Reimann, or Ousmann (for the copies vary), to the venerable Father in Christ Immo — approximately, I say, twenty years after his death: for the author prefaces by saying that he was commanded to describe something of the deeds of the blessed man Kaddroe, Whose Life, written shortly after his death, we give, as if he had been familiar with that man, though he knows nothing of his deeds except by hearsay: by which words he would seem to have sufficiently indicated that his age was such that he could have been familiar with the blessed man; unless this same thing were more clearly established from the prelature of Abbot Immo: for whether he was Immo, Abbot of Gorze, who is named with this title in a charter of Emperor Henry around the year 1006, in the Sainte-Marthes; or another of the same name from Walciodorus, who is written to have held the prelature from the year 990, each is known to have closely approached the year of Saint Cadroe's death: the latter especially, being the immediate successor of Saint Forannan, as we shall say.

[4] We also have from the monastery of Saint Clement at Metz itself the beginning of those same Acts, transmitted to us, From which it is clear he was summoned from Walciodorus, divided into nine readings (which were customarily read on the feast day): so that we can by no means conceive what that Legenda is which brings Cadroe from Luxeuil, a companion of Otbert and Maximinus, and indeed around the year 930: at which time Cadroe had not yet even thought of leaving his homeland. For no mention is made of the monastery of Luxeuil in these entire Acts; but as soon as Cadroe crossed to Gaul, he is said to have gone to Péronne, to the tomb of Saint Fursey, to consult about the place where he should serve God, and was directed by him to the matron Hersendis, who showed him a place in the Forest of Thérasche sacred to Saint Michael: where he lived with his companions under the obedience of Maccalan, who was one of them, until, touched by a desire for the monastic religious life, Macalan was sent to Gorze to Agenald, and Cadroe to Fleury to Erkembald: having been formed by their instruction and recalled by Hersendis, Maccalan was commonly ordered to preside over both the Michaelite and Walciodorensian monasteries, while Cadroe was to hold the office of Provost at Walciodorus under the aforesaid Abbot; who, finding the double charge not suitable for himself, released Cadroe from his obedience, and compelled him to govern the Walciodorensians with full authority: which he did, until he was retained at Metz by Adalbero and accepted the Abbacy of Saint Clement, with another Prelate substituted for him at Walciodorus.

Section II. The Age of Saint Cadroe. Whether He Succeeded Saint Forannan at Walciodorus?

[5] And he died in the year 988, Thus far the Acts collected in summary, which, in order to be arranged in true chronological order, it will be useful to determine in what year Cadroe departed from this life. This we can establish as the year of the common Era 988. For in that year Emperor Otto II, as Dithmar attests near the end of book 3, held an assembly of Italian princes at Verona, and setting out for Rome a few days later, having left his venerable mother in the city of Pavia, he fell gravely ill and died on December 7: so that it is credible that in February of this very year, the Empress Adelaide, heading for Italy in the company of her son, arrived at Neheristein on the bank of the river Rhine, whence sending envoys to Metz, she asked the man of God Kaddroe to come to her out of charity. He came: he stayed four days and two with the Empress, and on his return, seized by illness, the veteran old man, after the seventieth year of his life and the thirtieth of his pilgrimage, A decade after Saint Macalan: (the Sainte-Marthes, agreeing with us on the year of Christ, say incorrectly the 79th of his life and the 32nd of his rule) put off mortality, having survived by a full decade his companion and Abbot Saint Macalan; at whose death the twelve-year appendix attached to the chronicle of Flodoard, by one who was then living, concludes with these words: "In the year 978 the man of the Lord, Maccallin, an Irishman by nation, on the vigil of Saint Vincent the Levite and Martyr, left the transitory life which he held in contempt, and happily began to live with the Lord, whom he had served unceasingly while he still lived: the aforesaid Abbot rests buried in body in the church of the Blessed Archangel Michael, whose abbey, while he remained bodily in this world, he governed with pious moderation."

[6] We treated of Saint Maccallin or Maccalan on January 21: and since in the catalogues of the Abbots of Walciodorus, Cadroe and then Maccalan were written as having succeeded Saint Forannan, we left undecided And that neither succeeded Saint Forannan, whether credence should be given to this so ancient writer

against the Walciodorensian Chronicle, compiled and extended beyond the year 50 of the thirteenth century; in which he is written to have died in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and ninety: and the same Cadroe is said to have been from the group of twelve companions of Saint Forannan, who in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and sixty-three, leaving his own land, [In the year 963, first brought there, twenty-three years after the founding of Walciodorus,] entered the monastery of this dwelling — as is read there: and much earlier, when it had been written: "In the year nine hundred and forty-four, the ninth of Otto I, the foundations of the church were laid, and everything completed in beautiful workmanship in the space of three years," shortly after it is added: "In that time, when a period of twenty-three years had passed, Forannan came from the regions of Scotland, admonished by an angelic command."

[7] While we now consider these things again, we can neither persuade ourselves Whence the contrary error in the Walciodorensian Chronicle? that the interval of twenty-three years between Forannan's arrival and the beginnings of the monastery is fictitious; nor can we believe Colgan, when he promises to show on April 30 that Forannan was the leader of the expedition by which Cadroe and Maccalan came to Lorraine, in the year, as he establishes, 946. What then? We shall give credence to the Walciodorensian Chronicle in what concerns the origin of the monastery and its principal patron and, as it were, first Abbot: but we shall say that the error concerning Cadroe and Maccalan arose from the fact that they had from ancient tradition that the aforesaid Saints had also once been Abbots of their monastery; and since they did not have sufficiently verified Acts or dates for them, nor knew anything distinctly about those who had governed before Forannan, they believed that all the successors of Forannan had been companions of his pilgrimage: and concerning the earlier time they wrote thus: "Moreover, when the church was established under the authority of the Roman Majesty, the aforesaid Count Eilbert received from the same Roman King the gift of investiture of that place and the abbey, and... held it for twenty-three years." Then, after the passing of Blessed Forannan, they added the following about Blessed Cadroe:

[8] "Blessed Forannan, therefore, who was the first to apply the norm of regular discipline in governing the same Walciodorensian monastery with his companions; The Saint's eulogy from the same source, after his passing, from the same group of twelve companions, the ruler of justice and lover of holy conduct, Blessed Cadroe, was placed in charge of the same Walciodorensian Church. He, wishing to follow in all things the teachings of his predecessor of blessed memory, meditated on the law of divine exercise. Therefore, elevated there, he obtained the rule of rigor and rectitude, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and eightieth" (in the more recent manuscript is added "second," and so also the Life of Forannan, written a hundred and seventy years after his death). "He, however, on account of the authority of his holiness, And his veneration at Metz, the excellence of his well-ordered conduct, and the moderation of his prudent discretion (lest his light be hidden under a bushel; but that the Church, illuminated by the ray of his splendor, might be enlarged by the amplification of his teaching), was regularly appointed Abbot of the Church of Blessed Felix at Metz, and by the assent of all pertaining thereto was legitimately constituted lord of that house. Hence therefore the grace of heavenly generosity shows what manner of man he was, which, pouring forth its mercy abundantly, so filled him with manifold distinctions, that from the great benefits of miracles which the Lord's piety manifested through him in His working, a not inconsiderable volume is preserved in the church of Blessed Felix and among the Walciodorensians. For there in the church of Blessed Felix, in veneration of his dignity, an altar was built by the elders, where the day of his deposition is solemnly celebrated each year."

[9] "And so at the beginning of its establishment or constitution, the Walchiodorensian Church is known to have had such governors of souls, And the times of governance at Walciodorus confused, through whose patronage not only those present, but also succeeding posterity, is mercifully enlightened; and through their intercession the hope of the wretched is continually revived, remission of sins is granted; consolation of the sick, restoration of the weak, and a harbor for the shipwrecked is found before the clemency of the Creator and Reformer. Therefore this man, distinguished by holiness in all things, about to receive the reward of the heavenly gift, having laid down the burden of the flesh, put off mortality and in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and ninety-eighth" (he meant to write eighty-eighth) "migrated to Christ; where, as we piously believe, he enjoys everlasting life with the most blessed spirits of the heavenly court. Then from the same company of noble companions of the Lord Forannan there arose a man of praiseworthy life named Macalan... and because he merited this by the testimony of his life, also in the basilica of Blessed Michael at the same time he undertook the governance of souls and the care of all pertaining thereto, and is honored with the name of Abbot... and in the year nine hundred and ninety he passed from this world in the basilica of Blessed Michael... Meanwhile from the community of the Walchiodorensian Church, the Lord Immo is appointed as successor and is placed in charge of the same churches... who, laying down the weight of the flesh, happily migrated from this world in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and ninety-five, and the fourth of his rule."

[10] So far the Chronicle: it is then silent about the years in which, after Godfrey was expelled, The successors of Forannan, Theoderic was appointed as successor, and, removed from the living, gave place to Erembert, who was taken by the common law of mortality around the year 1033: which to us is a clear argument that the author, mistrusting his own chronology on account of the inserted Cadroe and Macalan, deliberately concealed how many years the three successors sat: whence we hardly doubt that Immo immediately succeeded Blessed Forannan, and that not four but fourteen years of governance should be attributed to him: Whether the Abbey of Saint Michael belonged to these? but whether he had any right over the monastery of Saint Michael we rightly doubt. Certainly no mention of it as connected with Walciodorus is made in that entire chronicle, while the difficulties arising from a similar connection with the Hastierians are touched upon at length and frequently: indeed, we gather from volumes 2 and 4 of Christian Gaul that they always had different Abbots (except for that brief period in which Macalan presided over both in common, and that long before Forannan's time): where from the cartulary of Saint Peter the Living of Sens, Leothericus, Bishop of Laon, who died in the year 1052, is found to have bequeathed five altars to Amalric, Abbot of Saint Michael in Thérasche: so that this Amalric must have held the fourth or fifth place after Maccalan; whose subsequent Abbot-successors down to the year 1286 are enumerated in order in the aforesaid volume 4. Where also from an old manuscript cartulary, Radulf, Bishop of Laon, is read in the year 945 to have publicly endorsed the restoration of the chapel which, built in the forest of Thérasche for Saint Michael the Archangel but overturned by the injury of time, the liberality of the matron Hersendis had rebuilt.

[11] Let this year be compared with the thirty-second year before the year 988, in which Cadroe died, In the year 945 Macalan and Cadroe arrived, (for since the author of the Life, content with a full and round number, passes over the excess of the smaller number, we can accept it from the Sainte-Marthes, and assign to the pilgrimage in general what they write were years of governance), and we shall find that Saint Cadroe was directed to Hersendis with his companions at the same time that Hersendis restored the said chapel; which foundation was followed in the same year by the Walciodorensian foundation through her husband Eilbert, who it is by no means credible, in the secular habit (which he maintained until death) and the conjugal life (which he is nowhere read to have relinquished), arrogated to himself the authority of Abbot over the monks gathered at Walciodorus; nor that the author of the Chronicle meant to signify this: but only that he had care of them as patron and founder: just as also of those whom he established in the other six monasteries erected and endowed by himself and his wife. If however monks were introduced there from the very beginning, and not clerics or pious men serving God in another manner: just as in the first and principal of the said monasteries — the monastery of Saint Michael, I mean — Saint Maccalan and his companions were established: whom we rightly judge to have been merely Clerics up to that point (otherwise they would not so easily have exchanged the Rule of Saint Columba the Abbot for the Benedictine one), and to have remained there thus for some time, To preside at Walciodorus before Forannan, until the desire for monastic perfection seized them, for which Macalan was sent to Gorze and Cadroe to Fleury to learn — the former to Agenold, the latter to Erkembald: each of whom is known to have barely lived to the year 962. But at that time Forannan had not yet arrived, and yet Cadroe had long since been transferred to Metz; for the Sainte-Marthes prove from an original document that in the year 955 he received the church of Saint Andrew with its rights as a gift: indeed, scarcely had Forannan arrived there when Adalbero put off this mortal life, after thirty-five years from his promotion, as these Acts have it, and more precisely the Chronicle of Saint Trudo, in whose monastery he is recorded to have died and been buried in the year 964 of that century, on February 23; whence no mention of him is made in the deeds of Saint Forannan, but only of Theoderic: whereas the principal part of the Acts of Saint Cadroe belongs to the pontificate of Adalbero.

Section III. The Prelature of Saint Cadroe at Metz, and His Veneration.

[12] Therefore we grant the living Cadroe three or four years at Saint Michael after he arrived there: He is called to the Abbey of Metz, and one or two for monastic training, so that around the year 950 of that century he and Maccalan began to attend to both monasteries, forming them in the discipline they had learned: and Maccalan indeed transferred Walciodorus entirely to Cadroe in that very year or the one immediately following, who was thence summoned to Metz in the fifty-fourth or fifty-fifth year, bringing some with him from Walciodorus, as you have at number 20, and appointing over those who remained a Father according to their will: who, although he afterwards deviated from the path of rectitude, it mattered little to him. For this place was being divinely prepared for Blessed Forannan, who would apply to it the norm of regular discipline, whence (passing over others who, crossing to other places, had established nothing durable in perpetuity) he would deserve to be called the first founder of the place: just as Cadroe is reckoned the first among the Abbots of Saint Clement, although Adalbero had already summoned some monks there from Luxeuil beforehand, and perhaps also an Abbot, if it is true that Adalbero restored this monastery, as the Sainte-Marthes say, in the year 938 — sixteen or more years before the summons of Cadroe: yet this we shall not easily believe, until it is proved by firmer testimony, since our Acts, on the contrary, testify that Kaddroe accepted as a charge the place renowned for the bodies and relics of many Saints, but by then already reduced to nothing, overcome by the prayers of those requesting.

[13] Concerning the bodies of the holy Bishops Victor, both Leontii, Where his and other relics are, and Sperus buried there, and discovered in the year 1142, from a most ancient and autograph parchment which is preserved together with the relics, we shall treat on June 22, on which day Saint Aprincia is venerated, disinterred together with the aforesaid and enclosed in the same shrine: a copy of which parchment was sent to us by Father Alexander Wiltheim, who traveled from Luxembourg to Metz to advance the hoped-for documents about Saint Cadroe; he wrote that he venerated his complete head there; which is exhibited separately in a separate case through transparent glass to the view of those who come:

the rest of his relics are preserved in a common reliquary with others, made of gilded copper with metallic pigments inlaid in the old manner; a fuller description of which we shall give on the said day in June. There is now, however, no altar dedicated to Saint Cadroe in the new church: Feast on March 6, yet they write that his feast is solemnly celebrated in it each year on March 6: which is announced in the reading of the Martyrology at Prime in these words: "At Metz, at the basilicas, the birthday of Saint Cadroe the Abbot": whence Baldwin Willot transferred him into his Belgian Hagiologium, not without errors; the chief of which is that he says he advanced from the Abbey of Saint Felix to govern Walciodorus. On the same day a summary of his Life, having seen and cited the Acts which we produce, is found in Bartholomew Fisen among the Flowers of the Church of Liège: yet in such a way that, adhering to the Walciodorensian chronicle, he makes him the successor of Saint Forannan: which error he does not dare to correct even in the eulogy of Maccalan on April 30; although he confesses that the Life of Kadroe expressly asserts something different, and that the reckoning of events and times stands with it. A memorial in the chartulary, There remains a memorial of the same Saint in two documents found among the charters of the monastery: one of Otto III, around the year 991, in these words: "And we grant such protection and guardianship as our father of good memory, Otto, the most invincible Caesar, in the time of the Abbot Cadroe of holy memory, deigned to concede to the aforesaid monastery": the other of Pope Calixtus II, around the year 1123, who at the request of Abbot Adelo, takes the monastery under the guardianship and defense of the Apostolic See, and decrees that it remain in the same liberty in which it was established in the time of Emperor Otto by Bishop Adalbero the First, at the petition of Abbot Cadroe.

[14] After Cadroe's death, the governance of this monastery was taken up by Abbot Fingenius, His successor Fingenius, an Irishman by nationality, say the Sainte-Marthes; whom the fact that the care of three monasteries at once was entrusted to him shows to have been a religious man of great authority among princes. For in the year 992, Adalbero, the second of that name as Bishop, committed to Fingenius the monastery of Saint Symphorian, which he had raised from the foundations on a most pleasant hill to the south, next to the city walls; and around the end of that same century the Abbey of Saint-Vannes in the suburb of Verdun was added to this. The reason for Adalbero's erecting the first monastery under the invocation of Saint Symphorian seems to have been not only the ancient celebrity of the place, ennobled by the burial of four Bishops of Metz — Papulus, Goericus, Godo, and Felix II — before it was destroyed by barbarian incursion; but also the desire for monastic peace and quiet, for which the separation of the foreign Scots or Irish from the native Lorrainers, Also Abbot of Saint Symphorian of the Irish, who had hitherto lived mixed together in Saint Felix's, could be believed to be of no small benefit: for this seems to be the sole reason why in the diploma of Otto III, by which this foundation is confirmed, it is provided in such express words: "that the first Abbot, named Fingenius, an Irishman by nationality, whom the aforesaid Bishop has now appointed there, and his successors, shall have Irish monks, as long as this can be so." That Fingenius was not appointed first Abbot of Saint Symphorian in such a way as to yield the former place to another is evident from the fact that he was honorably buried there, having died in the year 1002 with a reputation for sanctity, and is recorded in the necrology of Saint Clement at October 15. After his death, each place had its own separate Abbots, whom the Sainte-Marthes enumerate: among whom you will perhaps not unreasonably wonder that no name henceforth occurs that is Irish: whence you may suspect that not long after his death, the Irish, imbued with institutions different from the Benedictine, ceased to flock there.

Section IV. What Was Saint Cadroe's Homeland: Who Was the Author of the Life?

[15] Here indeed, since Maccalan is called Irish, Fingenius Irish, and the monks Irish, Under which name also the Scottish Albanians, a vast field opens up for the Irish to rise up against the present-day Scots: whom we indeed favor against the ravings of Dempster and authors like him, yet we love the truth more than their disputes: nor do we see how the form of speech just mentioned prejudices either party, each wishing to claim Cadroe for themselves: for just as in this age, when the Scottish kingdom in Britain, having extinguished the Picts, prevailed, whenever the name of Scot or Scotland is heard, no one conceives of Ireland or an Irishman unless he is versed in history and has become accustomed to distinguishing times and appellations: so formerly neither the Franks, the Germans, nor the Italians, to whom in the beginning the only Scotland known was the same as Ireland (as we shall show on March 17 in the Acts of Saint Patrick), sufficiently distinguished the Albanian Scots from the Irish: especially since even the Albanian Scots at that time still boasted of their Irish origin; and had not yet been taught to disdain their ancient homeland in favor of the new one, in which the Picts still held the greater part.

[16] About Maccalan, however — whether he was a Scot or an Irishman — since no argument appears for the Scots, Saint Cadroe is not proved to have been Irish, we do not wish to dispute by conjectures; and much less about Fingenius, whom Colgan gratuitously said came here as a companion of Saint Cadroe on a pious pilgrimage: for Maccalan could have come from Ireland with Cadroe for the sake of teaching the Scots, and Fingenius could have left his homeland at any other time. As for Cadroe, Colgan adduces nothing by which he can disprove the evident authority of what is said here: among which, however, we do not wish to count the fact that at the tomb of Saint Columban (by which name the most famous Saint Columbanus or Columba, Abbot and author of the monastic institute among both Scots, and through them propagated also in Gaul, Germany, and Italy, buried on the island of Iona, is renowned) — that at this tomb, I say, Cadroe is said to have been obtained by his parents' prayers, and handed over to the old man Bean for learning the first rudiments of piety and letters, and that his foster-parents and his own parents lived not far from there, can be proved from number 6 of the Life. We do not wish, I say, to take all these things for the Scots: because besides this Columban there were many in Ireland, and his bones had perhaps already been translated to Down at that time, and buried in the same tomb with Saints Patrick and Brigid: But sent to Ireland for the sake of studies, although the devotion of pilgrims did not therefore cease to visit the island of Iona reverently in his name. But with this matter left open, as I said, we are compelled to deny Cadroe to Ireland; because at number 8 it is reported that as a youth he was sent to Ireland and shut up in the mill of learning at Armagh by the old man under whose instruction he had grown up; and thence returning, having crossed the sea, he came back to his same instructor Bean — which things cannot be true unless you conceive of Ireland as separated by the sea from the region that was Cadroe's homeland; or imagine Ireland to be different from itself.

[17] Which, returning thence, he taught the Scots, But what of what follows? "And throughout all Scotland he faithfully distributed to his fellow-servants the wheat of wisdom entrusted to him." I confess I would understand Ireland by the name of Scotland, according to the usage of earlier centuries, unless it were clear from the context that the author, wherever Scots were, conceived of Scotland, as was then beginning to be done by most people: for "although the Scots," he says, "have many thousands of tutors, they have not many fathers; for in the disciplines of the arts this man begot them" — will the Irish wish this, although we confess it is said with exaggeration, to be understood of their Ireland? In which as many monasteries as there were, so many schools of sciences and letters were counted, to which pupils flocked from all sides — from England, Wales, and Scotland: so much so that at that time Ireland seemed to be the public university of the British Isles. But our author says more, when he gives the reason why he attributes to Cadroe the glory of erudition, even profane, brought to the Scots: for, he says, "from the time" — that is, before the time — "of his coming, no one of the wise had crossed the sea, but they still lived in Ireland." This indeed goes beyond the truth; but nevertheless it avails to show that Cadroe is to be praised for this — that from Ireland, where he had studied, he crossed the sea to impart to the Scots the wisdom which had hitherto seemed to dwell in Ireland alone. The homeland of Cadroe was therefore either the new Scotland, or the island of Iona near it — the seat of Saint Columba, Apostle of the Scottish Albanians: and the arena and field for unfolding his teaching, and from which he made his crossing to us, was principally that region which the Scots, sprung from Ireland, held in Britain, and therefore by no means rejecting the name of Irish and Hibernians; especially among foreign nations, among which that name was held in the highest esteem for wisdom and sanctity; while that of the Scots, as distinct from them, was held in little.

[18] Since, however, under that name a new monastery near Metz had been granted to them, Drawing their descent from Ireland, and Scots brought from everywhere were most well known throughout the entire diocese, the author of this Life thought it worthwhile to borrow the origin and antiquity of the nation from someone who called himself skilled in Irish antiquity; and to preface these Acts with that entire fabric of fables (which someone had thrust forward as true history more confidently than learnedly): how unfortunately this turned out for him will be shown by the fact that there are almost as many errors as there are proper names, and most grave errors not only against historical truth but also against topography; on account of which and the interspersed fables, we have preferred to expunge that entire excursus, lest it cause nausea in our reader and create prejudice against the better part of this Life, which we believe to be otherwise most worthy of acceptance: it is enough that these things are read as printed in Colgan, who laboriously tried to excuse the deficiencies, explain the obscurities, and correct the errors.

[19] From whom he crossed by land journey to Wales, Colgan, when collecting all the arguments by which the Albanian Scots seemed to be able to prove that Kadroe was either born among them, or at least crossed from them to here, could have not passed over in silence one very effective argument for this purpose from the very description of the journey at numbers 13 and 14: where the Scottish King, seeing that he accomplished nothing by dissuading and entreating, prevailed upon his subjects to let the Saint go, providing the aid of clothing and horses; "who by the guidance of the King himself came to the land of the Cumbrians, where King Douenald presided over that people, a kinsman of the man." Thence he was conducted to York, and afterwards to London, and was summoned to Windecastra to King Edmund: and through the Archbishop of Canterbury he was led to the port from which he was to set sail — he who had hitherto traveled by land; and indeed from modern Scotland (for from the old one the journey would have had to be made by ship) to Wales on horses furnished by the people and the King. Since all these things cohere in such a way that, Having left his parents among them, as far as the force of the text is concerned, the same region from which Cadroe departed was also the dwelling-place of his parents, who are themselves said to have approached their son to deprecate his departure: and since not only on the island of Iona but in many other places of modern Scotland, Saint Columban had churches dedicated in his name: it could very easily have happened that our author interpreted the terminus of the Saint's votive pilgrimage as his tomb, from his own imagination, and not

from the faithful account of those who knew the matter more exactly; or that, having been obtained at the tomb on the island of Iona, he was brought by his parents, who lived nearby, to a church or monastery named after the same Saint within Scotland.

[20] Nor is there, as Colgan thinks, no weight at all in the fact that the King was Constantine III of Scotland, but rather the greatest; Under King Malcolm, while in Constantine O'Neill (whose son Aidus, the future King of Oileach, is said to have been killed in the year 1009 in the Irish Annals) there is little support for the opposing view. For the latter neither reigned in Ulster, and it could be asked whether he was even born at this time in question: the former, although he is said by William of Malmesbury, book 12, chapter 6, to have fallen in that battle which the Westminster chronicler and others say was fought in the year of grace 937 by Aethelstan, King of the English, against Anlaf the Dane — nevertheless nothing else would follow from this than that the Lotharingian author did not have so clear a knowledge of the chronology of the Scottish Kings, or rather that he who dictated these things to the author took Constantine for Malcolm. But since no mention of this Malcolm is made in English writers before the year 945: and except for the Malmesbury chronicler, so unskilled in Northumbrian affairs that we have proved on this day, page 445, that twelve Kings of that nation were passed over by him, And with Constantine then likely still alive: all the ancients are silent about Constantine being killed in the battle: while the Scots, following John Mair, History of Britain, book 3, chapter 2, say that Constantine, defeated in battle and having shamefully lost the Welsh lands which the Scots had held since the days of Gregory, who died in the year 893 according to Leslie, for fifty-four years, afterwards returned to Scotland, held the royal scepter for four years; and finally, having become a religious at Saint Andrews, remained there for five years until his death. Since, I say, the Scots say these things, and Colgan does not deny them, it appears that he has far too carelessly made his calculations, by which he established that Constantine died in the year of Christ 943, when by this reckoning he lived until 946: and even after laying down his kingdom, a King could still be called such by a foreign writer.

[21] Certainly it is far more plausible that Cadroe was escorted to Wales by a King who was already a monk than by Malcolm, who then held the kingdom as a young man. In the time of Domnall, King of Cumbria. "Moreover, King Douenald then presided over that people, a kinsman of Cadroe." Behold another argument for the Scots, not unobserved by Colgan; but who tries to obscure it by the frequent intermarriages he invents between the Scoto-Britons and the Irish, all the more because no King of Cumbria of this name is found at that time. But if Colgan did not find him, we find him in the Westminster chronicler, writing thus at the year 946: "In the same year Edmund stripped all Cumbria of its wealth, and having deprived the two sons of Dummail, King of that province, of the light of their eyes, he granted that kingdom to Malcolm, King of the Scots, to be held from him." It is well known, even to those who have only read Colgan, that the names Douenald, Domnald, and Domnall are one and the same among the Irish and the Scots.

[22] It remains for us to say something about the author of the Life which is to be given next. And first it seems certain that he should be addressed by the name Reimann, as our copy has, or Ousmann: The Acts were written by a contemporary monk, for so Colgan reads in his copy, transcribed in the hand of the Abbot himself, Dom Nicolas Fason. For although in the prologue it reads "to Immo, from Rei- or Ousmann," so that it might seem almost a surname: yet since the use of surnames in that century was nonexistent or very slight (as is evident in all catalogues of Abbots and Bishops, whence even today they do not use them in their official writings), and since the customary formula of letters at that time, after the name of the person to whom one writes, presents the name of the writer: we do not doubt that through the carelessness of copyists the oblique case was written instead of the nominative. Moreover, by the indication of the Germanic name, the author is recognized to have been neither a Scot nor an Irishman, but one of the native monks: and not from the monasteries of Saints Clement or Symphorian; for otherwise he would not have needed to excuse himself that, being little familiar with the holy man, he could recount only things heard. From this very excuse, however, we gather that he was not only a contemporary of the Saint (which the age of Immo, to whom it is inscribed, sufficiently proves), but was living in such a place And in a nearby place, where he was thought either to have known the Saint more intimately, or could have had from nearby the documents necessary for writing such a work.

[23] Wherefore we think he lived in one or the other of two monasteries — namely, of Saints Vincent or Arnulf — closest to the city of Metz and therefore to the monastery of Saint Clement itself: for in these, under the care of Bishops Theoderic and Adalbero, studies of both virtue and letters flourished equally, as is evident from the fact that John, Abbot of Saint Arnulf, at this same time wrote the Life of Saint Glodesindis, and the Acts of Blessed John, Abbot of Gorze, who bore the same name as himself — if he did not complete them, he at least left them perfected in the first three parts, prevented by death. Although indeed, as we said, there were at this time two Immos — one Abbot of Gorze, the other of Walciodorus — and there was great familiarity between Cadroe and Blessed John of Gorze, as is evident from this Life at number 24: we nevertheless believe it was rather the Walciodorensian's concern At the request of Immo of Walciodorus, that these Acts be written; both because Cadroe presided over Walciodorus for some years before Forannan came there (of whom, however, it is remarkable that no mention is ever made), and also because the Walciodorensian Chronicle makes this probable, where it says of the miracles which the Lord deigned to work through Blessed Cadroe, a not inconsiderable volume is preserved in the Church of Blessed Felix and among the Walciodorensians; which volume is either this very Life which we produce, or rather a compilation of miracles performed after his death: and if the Walciodorensians took care to have a copy of this, they ought to have been much more concerned to have the Life of their sometime Abbot.

LIFE

by Reimann, or Ousmann

From the Hubertine Manuscript.

Cadroe, Abbot of Metz on the Moselle (Saint)

BHL Number: 1494

By Reimann.

DEDICATION OF THE WORK

To the venerable Father in Christ, Immo^a ... Every good in the supreme good.

[1] When I pledged to obey you, Father, you imposed upon me something which, unless I had promised to do anything whatsoever, I would rightly have refused: for you commanded me to describe something of the deeds of the blessed man Kaddroe, as if I had either attained some mastery of learning, or had been so familiar with that man; whereas neither does talent suffice me, nor do I know anything of his deeds except what I have heard. To this is added that you compel me, a rustic, to make words among rhetoricians: the subject matter, which will be profitable to some, will offend many by the crudeness of its style. But since you promised to keep the document between us, I obeyed as best I could. If, however, it should fall into the hands of some, the subject matter will excuse the style, which, even among rivals — should there happen to be any — will be entirely free of envy, since I myself would receive in a good spirit if someone should improve and augment it. For the rest, let no one blame us too much regarding the situation of the islands and the names of the regions, lest by pointing out the ignorance of another, he show his own foolishness; let him rather read the histories, so that he may recognize that we have said true things.^b Fare you well, blessed Father, here and forever.

^a Colgan: "to Immonius Ousmannus."

^b Namely, about to describe the fabulous origins of the Scots, he believed he had to preface these things: we have cut away that appendage from here; let whoever wishes read it in Colgan.

PROLOGUE.

[2] God's piety showed itself to men, The piety of Almighty God, knowing that human nature ceaselessly yearns for transient things, in order that it might at last be able to aspire to things that endure, at the appointed time, by right of incomprehensible and eternal counsel, appeared with grace, instructing us: that, denying impiety and worldly desires, we might live soberly and justly and piously, and, having dispelled the darkness of ancient error, enter the gates of life with exultation. Tit. 2:12 And lest anyone in the desert of this exile, seeking the homeland, should falter, He said: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." Matt. 11:28 And lest you seek an unknown path, He said: "I am the way." But what reward awaits the traveler, He showed, saying: "If anyone enters through me, He proposed His Saints as an example, he will be saved." John 10:9 Therefore, the promiser of this covenant, in order to animate toward the hope of life the sharers of our frailty and mortality, roused to the path of salvation, wished to continually set before the weakness of the infirm a mirror of example: of whom many, instructing very many in righteousness by their word, now shine like stars for perpetual eternities: very many, by the example of their deeds, have brought others to the harbor of blessedness, and have labored in the house of God, who everywhere meets as a cheerful rewarder those who toil for Him, each as he was able.

[3] Repeatedly, new ones in the succession of ages: But since the sluggishness of our present age — in which charity has grown cold from the abundance of iniquity — has become so torpid that it not only does not collaborate or attend to those who labor, but does not even take care to examine the deeds of those who formerly labored in the vineyard of our householder, which were written down for our consolation; the unfailing generosity of God always finds those whom it may bring forth: so that, if we neglect the reading of the former, we may be aroused by the sight of the present. Whose monument of good works, even if it has few imitators, it is fitting that it should have writers: because the hand of the Lord will not be too weak to add some thereby at some time to His service, the reward of eternal recompense being safe for those who persist in this: which many desiring, for our advancement — upon whom the ends of the ages have come — transmitting not only things seen but things heard, have offered in the house of God gold, silver, and precious stones: and we, who have barely attained goats' hair, they have brought to this point, that, if we are slow to follow those who should be imitated — as if a blind man wished to point out the way — we may dare to describe someone who ought and can be imitated; and if we are not worthy enough, we may at some time provide material for the pen to those who are willing and able.

CHAPTER I.

The Birth and Education of Saint Cadroe.

[4] There was therefore a man of royal blood, endowed with extraordinary wealth, named Fochertach,^a who obtained a wife similar to himself in riches and nobility, named Bania, In which Cadroe, of noble lineage, who in the flower of her youth had borne sons from a former husband, but after being joined to this one, remained barren: whence after many supplications to the Saints, which she had brought to the most pious ears of Almighty God, she visited with her husband the merits of Blessed Columban;^b and she was not disappointed in her wish. For when they had spent the night at his tomb with fasting and prayers, they had barely fallen asleep when they both saw themselves, each holding lighted candles. While they joyfully observed these, they suddenly marveled that they were compacted into a single light: and behold, a man of resplendent appearance appeared: "Your tears, O woman, Promised by Saint Columban, have stained my garment, and before the face of God

your prayers have stood, and He who granted Samuel to the praying Anna, and gave conception to Rebecca at the petition of Jacob, has commanded that you conceive and bear a son named Kaddroe, a future light of the Church, who according to the virtue of his name will ascend as an invincible warrior^c in the camps of the Lord, setting himself as a wall against the adversary, ready to stand in battle for the house of Israel." Awakened therefore from sleep, they congratulated each other with thanksgiving on the vision, and not uncertain of the promised mercy, they returned home with exultation; that they would receive such an offspring became a common joy.

[5] Meanwhile the woman conceived and bore a son, to whom according to the Lord's command she gave the name Kaddroe. The fame of the newborn boy had filled the neighboring nations; as is the custom of the country, a noble crowd rushed in, diverse in sex and age, each one eager to raise the boy.^d The mother therefore, He is entrusted to a divinely designated nurse, guarding against the enmities of so many nobles — that is, of those making requests — replied that she could not withhold him from whomever God should command him to be given. She happened to have lain down on her couch, when amid such throngs sleep crept upon her, and barely gently diffused through her limbs, it caused her to see as it were a hawk circling around the house, and, all others being set aside, settling upon the head of a certain matron. Awakened then, she narrates to those standing around what she had seen. Then indeed, by the common counsel of all, the child is handed over to the matron for nursing: and taken into the woman's house, he was weaned. His father, already perceiving in his tender nature his future industriousness, was trying to raise him in secular affairs.

[6] Now the boy had a kinsman^e named Bean, Then to his kinsman Bean, who asked for him, who from his earliest age rejoiced in the service of Christ, vigilant in prayers, intent on alms, a guardian of himself: who, if it were possible, wishing to draw all to Christ, turned to God and devoted himself with all his prayers for the boy's salvation. Soon the most merciful divinity was present, and addressing the old man in a vision, commanded that the boy be demanded back from his father for schooling. The old man obeyed and approached the man about the matter. The father refused and laughed at the old man as if he were deluded. But commanded again to repeat the matter, he revisited the boy's father, disclosed the commands, and insisted that the boy must be returned to Him who had given him. Then the man resented being importunately harassed by the man about what he did not wish to be demanded back — that the old man erred in judgment — that he could not part with a son generated for him in the old age of his mother through a promise — the staff of his parents' old age — whom so great a family awaited as their Lord.

[7] And so, when the old man withdrew without success, the Lord visited the boy's mother, and she conceived again and bore a son named Mattadan:^f and the Lord further admonished the old man: "Go," He said, "say to the boy's father: Come, man, And compelling the unwilling father to this, I demand from you the boy, commanded by God, who has substituted another in his place: and if he refuses, tell him that the wrath of divine punishment threatens." Without delay, he approached the man to address him about the matter; and to the one refusing: "Yield," he said, "lest the severity of heavenly vengeance assail you as you resist. And if you ascribe to me that I say this unbidden from my own mind: as a sign of the anger threatening you, the horse which is your best one dies." Marvelous swiftness: the words were still turning on the lips of the old man when the stable boy announced the death of the horse. Hearing this, terror seized the man and he stood rigid, He is committed to him for instruction, and warmth left his bones: at length, however, weeping and unwilling, going with the mother to the tomb of Blessed Columban, offering the child to God who was asking for him, he handed him over to the aforesaid old man to be raised. The old man therefore took charge of the boy and instructed him in the Divine Law as best he could. Already infancy had passed, and approaching adolescence, he surpassed his contemporaries by the keenness of his sharp mind.

[8] Meanwhile certain persons driven by a pestilent spirit were devastating the former foster-parents of the child; who, unable to resist, approached the young man About to avenge the injury done to his foster-parents, and laid open the complaint of their misery: for it is the custom of the country that if anyone raises a nobleman's child, he thereafter seeks his help in all things, no less than from the parents. To inflame the young man to their aid, they said: "When we raised you, if we had taken sheep or horses, nourished by their milk and better able by horses' carriage to avoid the fury of enemies, we would not be succumbing to plunder and devastation in your presence." Bean happened to be absent when the young man, moved to action, seized his arms and, calling out to his companions, determined to pursue the enemies. And already they stood at the bank of the flooding river, across which the enemies were, He rushes to arms, and the use of boats was being sought; and one of the number of his companions, a Cleric by order, appointed as the young man's guardian, reported this to the old man when he returned. Then indeed, clapping his hands and dissolving into tears: "A fine guardian," he said, "I left you for the young man."

[9] When the other offered the excuse that he had not been able to restrain him, Bean said: "Break off the delay; and compel him to wait for me." But when the other said the young man would absolutely not desist from his undertaking, the old man, producing the Gospel he was accustomed to use, said: "Take this; Bean stops him, and adjure him to wait for me." The Cleric preceded, bearing the old man's commands with the sign, and, although the young man was weeping and protesting, he compelled him to stand on the bank. Bean followed, and inquired the cause of the young man's anger: the latter related the matter and said it was impossible for him to allow the suffering of his foster-parents to remain unavenged. But the old man soothed his fierce spirits: and when he would not yield, the old man said: "Regarding this, then, seek the will of Him to whom you pledged faith: and, so that you may know, he opens the book which he had received from him, and seized upon the first verse he found." It was: "If anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back." But since this did not satisfy him, he turned the page again and encountered a passage contrary to the young man's intent, which was: "All who take the sword will perish by the sword." And restrains him by showing him the Gospel, And when he turned it a third time, he met: "Wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you asked me; should you not therefore also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I also had mercy on you?" Luke 6:30 Matt. 26:52 And since he could not contradict these, Matt. 18:32 he returned in peace with the man of God, and devoted himself more attentively to reading and prayer.

[10] On a certain day, the old man had placed his weary limbs on his little bed, and Kaddroe was resting with his companions not far away, And admonished by a vision, when the Virgin appeared to the man of God, the brightness of her face surpassing the brightness of the sun; so aged that you would not think her of our time, although she appeared young, clad in a sevenfold garment into which was woven everything that can be said and thought: whom the old man, marveling, asked who and whence she was. Then she said: "I am Wisdom, who dwell in counsels and am present among learned thoughts, and I have come to take this young man for myself." Prov. 8:12 The vision had vanished from the eyes of the beholder, and the young man is seized with a love of learning: you would have thought he would die unless he were handed over to secular studies. The man of God understood what he had seen, and having prepared what was necessary for the journey and the schools, he sent the youth to Ireland,^g who shut himself up at Armagh in the mill of learning, not afraid to seek worldly letters after divine doctrines, He sends him to Ireland for the sake of studies, so that, more brightly polished by these, he could more expertly produce and examine what he had once learned; since he read that Plato, the philosopher of the nations, summoned by the fame of Jeremiah, had gone to Egypt, and having compared words with the same Prophet, had discovered the one God above all, whom he had previously not known.

[11] He is therefore instructed, and far surpassing his contemporaries and fellow-students, he traversed every corner of the gymnasium of wisdom under her own guidance.^h What more? Whatever the Poet sang and the orator said, whatever the Philosopher thought — he experienced: nothing escaped him; whatever has been investigated by anyone through number, measure, and weight, touch and hearing, he absorbed; finally, the hidden courses and paths of the stars he designated with the pen more skillfully than Egino, than whom I know not whether anyone more distinguished exists in the hierarchy of heaven: and thus instructed, having crossed the sea again, he returned to Bean; The Scots receive him as master upon his return, and throughout all Scotland he faithfully distributed to his fellow-servants the wheat of wisdom entrusted to him: for although the Scots have many thousands of tutors, they have not many fathers: for in the disciplines of the arts this man begot them. Whence, because his lips have instructed many, affliction will not be joined to him: for from the time of his coming, no wise man had crossed the sea, but they still dwelt in Ireland. The old man rejoiced that the young man was making progress, and that in all he attempted, he had no equal.

^a In Colgan's copy Foitheach, in ours Fochereach: the Rheims manuscript is more correct: for Colgan shows, although he had not seen it, that the name thus written was familiar to the ancient Scots, and therefore ought to have been written thus.

^b The cult of Saint Columban The chief bearer of this name is the Apostle of the Scots and Picts, buried on the island of Iona or Hy: Saint Blathmac, who brought his body back there and concealed it, suffered martyrdom in the year 823: but how long it remained hidden under thick turf, as Walafrid Strabo writes, is uncertain. Colgan thinks it was translated to Down before Cadroe was conceived: which however would not prevent the tomb from being in veneration: or even a particle of relics or at least a cult in some church of Albanian Scotland, to which the mother might have resorted for prayer, and which is here somewhat inaccurately called a tomb.

^c "Cath" means "battle" for the Irish, and "roe" signifies the place of contest, says Colgan, and he would prefer "Cathoer" which sounds like "warrior." Otto III wrote Cadroelem, some write Cadroetus: in these Acts always Kadroe.

^d The custom of entrusting children to foster-parents He who describes Irish customs in Camden, I. Good, testifies that it still obtains among them today that it is a reproach to raise one's own children: but they eagerly vie for the care of others' children, especially of the nobler sort, even coming from a distance: and they devote themselves to this with such zeal that the foster-children afterwards value their nurses and foster-fathers more than their parents: and the customs that flourish today in Ireland must all have long flourished also among the Albanian Scots descended from Ireland.

^e Perhaps an uncle: for he was much advanced in age, whence he is called "old man" a little below: yet he cannot have been extremely aged, since he was still alive when Cadroe had passed his fortieth year. Colgan says seven or eight Beans are enrolled in Irish calendars: and confesses that on January 1 he had not written a single word about the Bean who, famous in the time of Patrick, is honored even now with a celebrated cult in Ulster, and appears to have his chief feast on December 16, as he himself teaches on February 11 in the notes to the Life of Saint Canoc: he refers the reader to the Kalends of January, as if he had there treated at length of the other Saints of that name. But whence does he assume that Bean, Cadroe's instructor, was enrolled among the Saints, or was an Irishman?

^f That this name was frequent among the Ulster nobility, from which the Albanian Scots trace their descent, is proved by what Colgan heaps up on this passage: but it contributes very little to his purpose, since both Scots had in common, as in language and origin, so also in names, for a long time.

and origin, so also names were common for a long time.

^g Unless Colgan shows us some Ireland outside of Ireland, he will not extricate himself from this passage: just as neither from the following, where it is said that he brought the studies of letters to Scotland, having crossed the sea again — studies which had hitherto contained themselves within Ireland. Armagh, moreover, is the metropolis of Ireland, established by Saint Patrick.

^h There is much rhetorical amplification in these things: and in what follows, where he describes the Scots as destitute of all cultivation of letters in Albany up to that time, let the reader recognize and pardon the hyperbolic exaggeration.

CHAPTER II.

Admonished by a Divine Oracle, He Leaves His Homeland and Takes the Monastic Habit at Fleury.

[12] Meanwhile time was passing, and the man of God prayed that the Lord might direct the young man into the way of salvation: Bean is taught by a heavenly vision, nor was the mercy of God distant, which always hears those who invoke it in truth. When, wearied by the vigils of one of the nights, after the hymns he had placed his limbs on his bed, as sleep had often begun pleasantly in the morning, sleep stole upon the old man: he had neither fully fallen asleep nor was he fully awake, but, caught up into a certain ecstasy, he saw a gathering of great men taking place; and marveling at them, he hoped they would do something great. Then one of them, more reverend than the rest, said: "It is fitting to augment the service of the eternal King, ordained from the ages, and you," he said to the rest, Cadroe destined for the religious soldiery "are to enroll from among these young men who rest here certain ones who must leap before the Emperor — He who 'comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills' has directed them: and He commands this one who looks upon us to show them what they must leap over." Bean is therefore led, and he sees three caverns dug in the earth, of which the first and second were of no small size, the third of immense depth with excessive horror and immense breadth: the farther bank of this was full of splendor and joy.

[13] The old man does not hesitate to inquire what these things meant; and the answer was that these young men must leap over them, if they wished to have the Emperor's favor. But to the old man, fearing danger for Kaddroe, that magnificent man said: "Do not fear: for they will leap, though unequally; Destined to be trained abroad, but this one for whom you most fear will precede more happily." "And lest you think the command vain, attend to what the caverns signify. The first therefore is the voluntary renunciation of possessions, the second the leaving of one's homeland, the third the practice of monastic life. And the farther bank of that exultation is the attainment of everlasting life." The vision therefore disappeared, and the old man is roused from his bed. Not many days had passed when the Lord Himself said to Kaddroe: "Go forth from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house, and come into the land which I shall show you, and I will make you a leader of my people, and I will raise you above the height of the clouds, and I will feed you to inherit Jacob, your father."

[14] The young man, awakened, is seized with a love of pilgrimage, and leaving all things, he enters upon the path of pilgrimage. Who, in his undertaken resolution of pilgrimage, Rumor had spread the news, and sorrow and mourning invaded all, rich and poor alike. Every age and every condition came running, and as if the ruin and devastation of all Scotland were approaching, a tearful acclamation arose from all: "Why do you abandon us, Father, or to whom do you leave the fruit of your labor? Why has it pleased you to go abroad, when we are all strangers before God, and we lament (as you teach) that our sojourn in Cedar is prolonged? Look, we beseech you, at the fruit you can produce by teaching so many, and those to whom it is necessary to impart the help of knowledge. Do you not attend, in the vision of John, to what the eternal word of the Father warns you? 'Let him who hears say: Come.'" Rev. 22:17 Moved therefore by these tears, he lingered there for a while, and then rose up within himself. After many prayers, confirmed in his purpose. Nearby flowed a stream of very strong current, beside which, as often happens, the mass of a certain tree had grown up. Therefore at night, with God alone as his witness, going thither, having stripped off his garments, in the utmost horror of cold he cast himself into the river, and lest he be carried headlong by the force of the current, he held with his hand a rope which he had tied around the tree; and he remained there as long as it took to complete from the one hundred and eighteenth to the one hundred and thirty-third psalm.^b

[15] Meanwhile, as winter was passing, the seas grew calm, and he set out again on the path of his proposed pilgrimage. Then indeed sorrow and mourning again seized the entire region; and as all came running, the King who presided over the country, Constantine^c by name, came running to detain the man. Part of the journey already completed, Kaddroe had entered the church of Blessed Brigid^d to pray, when a noble and common crowd, summoned from various parts, filled the church: all with one voice asking that he not abandon the homeland. And yielding to no one's entreaty, Turning to them, he replied to the King and all only this: "I shall not desert you, since wherever I shall be, I shall have your memory." Then the clamor of the people was raised, and placing the relics of the Saints before him, they begged him to yield to their adjuration. But he said: "If you have brought the relics of the Saints for this purpose, that you might restrain me from my intended resolution, ask their intercession together with me, that they may deign to show whether I have undertaken the way of salvation: for Christ, Not even to his parents' when He proposed His rewards to those leaving father and mother, brothers and sisters, made no mention of your counsel. Also to Abraham, because obedient to God he went out from his land and from his father's house, it was accounted for righteousness." It being therefore in vain for the King to labor with the people and to promise the greatest things while he would not yield, his parents, moved and swelling with reproach, said: "If we cannot prevail by prayers, we will restrain him with iron chains and prison." "This," he said, "is in your power; but as long as I am in chains, I will neither drink nor eat."

[16] By chance a certain Abbot, named Mailedarius,^e had come with the King; who, being a man of equitable counsel, said: "If we cannot turn this man from his intended resolution, let each of us, as he can, provide assistance for the journey, He is equipped for the journey by the King and the people, that we may be able to be sharers in the reward of his labors." Then all, vying with one another, providing gifts of gold and silver, clothing and horses,^f dismissed him with the blessing of God, and by the guidance of the King himself, he came to the land of the Cumbrians. King Douenald presided over that people, and because he was a kinsman of the man, he met him with all joy, and keeping him with himself for some time, conducted him to the city of Loida,^g which is the border of the Norsemen^h and the Cumbrians; and there he was received by a certain nobleman Gunderic, Through Cumbria, by whom he was brought to King Erichus in the city of York:^i the King had a wife who was a kinswoman of the lord Kaddroe himself. Departing thence, he sought the city of London,^k and was received and stayed with a certain old man named Hegfrid.

[17] At night, through carelessness, the city itself caught fire, and with the greater part already consumed, He comes to London, the victorious flame was licking what remained. Then indeed God wished to declare what merit Kaddroe had with Him. He was asked by the old man to help the perishing city by praying; and trusting in the Lord, running between the fire and what remained, he turned to the Lord and said: "Everything that exists serves You, Lord: command therefore the terrors of the raging flames to cease." He said this briefly, and raising his hand, he commanded the fire to go back. You could see the flame, He quenches a sudden fire in the city, as if twisted back by the force of the wind, gradually dying by fading away. Thus, with all rejoicing, the city was delivered. These are Your works, O God, who, glorious in Your virtues, for the glory of Your name — You who once commanded the fire that had broken out against the murmuring people to be swallowed up at the prayer of Moses — now through Your servant Kaddroe freed the city from the flames.

[18] The fame then flew abroad, and filling the entire region, reached even the King, who was in the city of Winchester,^l About to set sail, he is driven back by a storm, Edmund by name. He immediately asked the man to come to him, having summoned him, and asking him to be with him for some time, delighted by his conversation, he had him escorted through the Archbishop of that city, named Otto, to the port called Limen.^m There therefore, having boarded ships and heading for the open sea, they were called back to shore by a rising wind: and trying the sea again, they were returned to the shore almost with shipwreck. Do you think, Reader and Hearer, that God does not wish this man to cross the sea? Did not Paul, sailing to Rome for his crown, barely escape shipwreck, winter, and famine?

[19] With all troubled, sorrow seized Kaddroe; and night rushing in had closed the day, and he forced his limbs, worn out by grief and fasting, into bed. He is ordered to send away his nephew. A man standing beside him therefore addressed him thus: "All these who are with you will not be able to cross the sea, lest they cause you trouble on the way of God which you have entered. Persuade therefore your nephew and some others to return with him; and then, having crossed the sea, the farther shore will receive you joyfully." Rising therefore, he related the vision to his companions, and ordered the said young man, having given him transport and provisions, Having crossed, he visits the tomb of Saint Fursey, to return: and so, casting off, with full sails they reached the port of Boulogne, and traveling by land they came to the Monastery of Péronne:^n and there the lord Kaddroe implored the mercy of the Lord and the merits of Blessed Fursey, that he might show him a place to dwell. When night came, Blessed Fursey appeared to him in a vision. When he inquired who he was, he declared his name: he revealed that he had come because he had been invoked by him, and commanded him to change his location. Not far away was a matron named Hersendis,^o renowned for nobility and wealth, He is received by Hersendis at Saint Michael's, full of the ardor of holy devotion. And because she was childless, if she found any men of holy pilgrimage, she planned to receive them and do good to them for the sake of the Lord Savior.

[20] Therefore, having heard of the arrival of the pilgrims, she was immediately present, begging and urging them to deign to come to her. When they said they were seeking a place prepared for them by God apart from the world, where they could serve the Lord by living from the labor of their own hands, she joyfully showed them a place in the forest of Thérasche, sacred in the name of Blessed Michael.^p When they found it suitable to their wishes, He subjects himself to his companion Saint Macalan, and remained there after the matron had enlarged the church and built houses, by common counsel — for they were thirteen — they decided to choose the lord Kaddroe as their Lord and Father. Since he could by no means be compelled to this, joining others with him, they made Macalan,^q a man of the highest goodness and his companion in pilgrimage, their ruler. And living there thus for a long time, they were nourished by the benefactions of the aforesaid matron. Meanwhile, as the desire for devotion grew, they began to aspire to the monastic Religious life. Whence by the will of God, He takes the monastic habit at Fleury, that lady directed Macalan to Gorze, namely to the training of the venerable Agenald; but Kaddroe to Fleury, where Erkembald, a man of great religiousness, presided. Both therefore having attained what they desired, Macalan made his profession as a monk under Father Agenald: and Kaddroe

on the day of the conversion of the Apostle Paul, at Fleury, before the lord Erkembald, put on the habit and mind of a monk.

^a He had already passed, namely, the 40th year of his age.

^b On this custom of singing psalms in cold waters, see what will be said on March 17 in the Acts of Saint Patrick.

^c John Mair writes that this man became a monk at Saint Andrews in the year 941 and lived there for five years: therefore it was not he but Malcolm who presided over the country; which should be pardoned in a foreign writer.

^d Not that Brigid whom the Irish venerate as born and buried among them, who flourished in the age of Saint Patrick: but she Saint Brigid of Abernethy who, much younger than the former, was a kinswoman of Granerd, King of the Picts, lived at the end of the seventh century, and is buried and venerated in Scotland at Abernethy; whence Andreopolis (Saint Andrews) is barely fifteen miles distant, where Constantine is said to have been a monk. See what we said in Section 7 of the Acts of the first Brigid on February 1.

^e Colgan finds two Malodarii, of whom one is named on July 16, the other on October 25, in the Irish Martyrologies: that either one is meant here, he himself does not dare to assert, nor would we dare to believe him if he did.

^f Douenald, Domnald, or Domnal is one and the same name: the Westminster chronicler mentions this King at the year 946, and calls him Dummail.

^g Camden, in the borders of Northumbria beyond the Pictish wall, at the northern bank of the Tripall river, marks a vast forest, "the forest of Lowes," which we seem to be able to interpret as "the forest of Loyda," and to believe that the name remained to the place from a city, once celebrated but now extinct.

^h There is no reason to suspect that it should have been written "of the Northumbrians"; although it could so have been written: for it is established that at that time the Danes (whom Irish writers everywhere call Norsemen) held Northumbria: with whom the English Kings waged many and frequent wars: thus Malmesbury wrote "the borders of Normandy and Britain."

^i More correctly Evoracum, or Eboracum, the Archiepiscopal see of northern England. Erichus, King of Northumbria Malmesbury calls Erichus "Iricius," book 2, chapter 7, whom Colgan wants the Northumbrians to have made King after Edmund expelled their two Kings Analasus and Reginald in the year 945, for which he cites Roger of Hoveden as a witness; but the latter writes that this rebellion was raised under Edred, Edmund's successor, between the years 947 and 955 — which, however, does not prevent his being called King by anticipation, since he could have had a princely residence and jurisdiction at York under the rule of his predecessors: he was subsequently the last of the Northumbrian Kings.

^k Otherwise Longdonia, now London, the royal city, extending along a long stretch of the bank of the Thames: whence the name was also made; as if you were to say "the long city": for "dun" formerly, "town" today, is "city," and in compounds nearly "ton," with which ending there is scarcely any more frequent in England.

^l Today Winchester, otherwise Wintonia, not Wigornia (as Colgan incorrectly says), for that is Worcester. Both, however, are west of London — Worcester indeed declining toward the north, at a distance of nearly seventy miles; Winchestria toward the south, about fifty miles distant; beyond which, at twenty-four miles, is Wilcestria or Wiltonia, from whose city — not, however, from the bishopric of Winchester — Odo was promoted to the Archbishopric of Canterbury: he who is here said to have escorted Saint Cadroe to the sea, perhaps accompanying the King's court; Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury which seems to be the reason why the author here wrote Otto as the Archbishop of this city, which otherwise had its own Bishop distinct from Odo. Made Archbishop by Aethelstan around the year 947, he shone with wonderful sanctity in that See for twenty years, as will be seen from his Life to be given on July 4: meanwhile see Malmesbury, book 1 on the deeds of the English Pontiffs, chapter 1.

^m "Once a most celebrated port," says Camden, "until the sands cast up by the sea blocked it: The port of Limen to be reached from London at thirty miles distance, but from Dorouernia or Canterbury only eight: it is λίμην in Ptolemy, Portus Lemanis in Antoninus and the author of the Imperial Notitia; to whose convenience the former Westhythe owed its growth; then after it was destroyed, Hythe, still an honorable town: and from here the crossing to Belgian Gaul was most convenient."

^n Today Péronne, a border town of Picardy on the river Somme, about fifty miles distant from the port of Boulogne: so that, if you except the excursion to Winchester to the King, the Saint kept the most direct route from Scotland to the borders of Hainaut, and the writer is found to have followed the most accurate information in this part as well: Saint Fursey is venerated on January 16, where see what we said.

^o In the Walciodorensian Chronicle she is called Herinsindis everywhere, wife of Count Eilbert, and foundress together with him of many churches in Thérasche.

^p In the diocese of Laon, on the bank of the river Oise, above Hirson. The Sainte-Marthes cite the diploma of this place, restored by Hersendis, at the year 945: so that the pilgrims arrived at an entirely opportune time, whom we believe to have departed from Scotland in this or the preceding year.

^q He is called Maccalinus by Flodoard, and is venerated on January 21, where we treated of him.

CHAPTER III.

The Walciodorensian and Metzian Prelature: Various Miracles.

[21] When the time had therefore elapsed, the oft-mentioned matron sent to Gorze,^a praying with all affection the lord Agenald Made Provost of Walciodorus, that Macalan might be able to return to the place once chosen: and having returned, he governed the place he had received. The place was above the river Meuse, called by the ancient name Walciodorus.^b Summoning him thither, he established the monastic order, and appointed the lord Kaddroe, Soon Abbot, brought back from Fleury and resisting with every effort, as Provost. Not many days had passed when Macalan saw that the care of both places exceeded his strength, and joining the petition of many to his own salutary counsel, he begged the lord Kaddroe not to refuse to accept the title of Father in the place of Walciodorus. The man was struck with violent amazement and, resisting beyond what can be believed, refused. But as they persisted, lest through humility he cause scandal to the brethren, and with Otto,^c then King and later Emperor, compelling him, he barely consented to accept the title of Abbot.

[22] The fame of his holy conduct therefore, spreading far and wide, He receives many into the monastery, invited many to the contest of the Holy Rule. Many rejoiced to reach the harbor of the monastery from the shipwreck of the world: among whom a nobleman named Girerus, fleeing to Christ, had laid aside the belt of military service and, having professed as a monk, served in the monastery. It is the custom of monks to serve one another devoutly under charity: whence this man with his companion had been ordered to labor in the kitchen duty. He heals a wounded hand by a miracle, When he gladly accepted this, in order to do some work, he seized a knife that lay nearby, and immediately, with a spirit of wickedness intervening, he struck his own hand and bloodied it with a serious wound. Running therefore and prostrating himself at the feet of Father Kaddroe, he showed his bloody hand and indicated the injury he had done. The Father, having compassion on him, and making the sign of the Cross over the site of the wound, ordered him to go back to the duty assigned. And departing with a blessing, as the pain receded, he was suddenly amazed to find his hand restored to its former health; and returning, he gave thanks for the health obtained: but the enemy of vainglory commanded him not to tell anyone.

[23] Moreover, the aforesaid matron, burning with holy desire, besides the places we have mentioned, had raised from its foundations a certain place called Buccileum,^d Received in the Buccilian convent, in honor of Blessed Peter, and had gathered there a choir of Virgins for the service of God; among whom a spirit of error had seized one and was tormenting her. Like a wild beast therefore she was seized and thrown into chains. This provided the occasion for Father Kaddroe to visit the place: they met him with joy, and received and venerated the Father, and among other things they disclosed the misfortune of the Sister, and begged him to help the captive. Hearing this, he was deeply grieved and seized the shield of faith against the ancient enemy. Meanwhile, as the sun was setting, the day drew to a close, and a bed was prepared for him to rest in a house next to the church by the handmaids of God. While the old man was resting, by wise counsel the wretched woman was brought and placed in that house. He liberates a nun possessed by a demon. The wicked spirit, grieving at being placed where it did not wish, had filled the cell with shrieking through the girl's mouth; when Father Kaddroe, roused and disturbed by the commotion, rebuking the spirit, said: "Depart, deadly one, depart, and cease to torment the creature of God." Wonderful to tell! The man of God had barely completed his words when the impure spirit, giving a roar, was expelled through the foul parts of the body by a flow of the belly, and filled the cell with an intolerable stench. "What is this, accursed devil — you who would exalt your throne above the stars of heaven — who do not dare to endure a man speaking upon the earth, a worm and future ashes? It has rightly befallen you, that you who boasted that man, deceived by your counsel, was exiled from his homeland, are yourself cast out from your seized dwellings by pilgrims through the power of the word."

[24] By Bishop Adalbero, Rumor therefore had carried his name everywhere, and all nations spoke of the man's virtues. Adalbero, a noble Bishop, nobly governed the noble See of Metz: and when fame brought him many things from various parts, it also brought the name of this man; and as he was a lover of religious men, he summoned the venerable men Agenald^e and Ansteus to himself, inquired about the man, and asked how he might reach him. The already mentioned venerable men, having learned of the desire of the Lord Bishop, often spoke with the man of God about it. It was a solemn day on which the festive memorial of the Blessed Martyr Gorgonius was being celebrated, and with peoples flowing together from everywhere, the man of God Kaddroe himself had also come. Finding therefore the opportunity, they set forth the Bishop's wish to him and, prostrating their prayers before him, they requested that he deign to remain with them. He is placed in charge of the monastery of Metz. But who would not love the earthly company of those who had already merited eternal dignity in the heavenly camps? Overcome therefore by the prayers of the supplicants, he consented and accepted as a charge the place situated not far from the city of Metz, renowned for the bodies and relics of many Saints, but by then already reduced to nothing.

[25] And because, as we have already said, he had taken on the care of souls, he brought some with him from Walciodorus, and appointed over those who had remained a Father according to their will: who, although he afterwards deviated from the path of rectitude,^f it did not matter much to him: for the Lord, when He spoke through Ezekiel about the wicked who are not converted, said: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; you shall hear the word from my mouth, and you shall announce it to them from me. Ezek. 3:17 But if you have announced it to the wicked one, and he is not converted from his wicked way, he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul." He therefore attended to the care of the place he had received, and labored as he could to raise it from ruins and ashes. And restores the place. He was visited daily by the citizens, men came running with women: to whom, as he was diffused in the Lord's charity, he strove to impart

the words of life and the counsel of souls. For who came to him sorrowful and did not return joyful? Who did not benefit from the sweetness of his goodness? The choirs of Clerics, Monks, and Virgins honored, venerated, and loved him as a Father. For when any one of them stumbled on the way of salvation, was he not burned with the pain of compassion? How great was his solicitude for those in danger, and his care for the sick? You would think he was affected by another's loss, while he rejoiced with the joy of others as if it were his own.

[26] Meanwhile it happened that he visited Walciodorus, and as time passed, the annual day of Blessed Gorgonius^g the Martyr was returning, While on a journey, and that he might be able to attend, he was making his way back with Wultmarus,^h Abbot of the monastery of Ghent, and Aledranus,^i Abbot of the monastery of Gembloux. And they were already passing the castle of Briey, and they were urging that they eat earlier than the old man was accustomed to: and when the man of God would not agree, they happened to be traversing a pleasant place watered with plants and streams. "If," they said, "we leave here fasting, we shall fast longer for want of water." The man of God, turning to them, said: "Brothers, it is written: Eccl. 10:16 'Woe to the land whose King is a child, and whose princes eat in the morning.' Water here and everywhere is in the hand of God, who has promised that nothing will be lacking to those who fear Him." They consented unwillingly and went on fasting for a while.

[27] To relieve his companions' thirst, he draws forth a spring. The hour of refreshment had arrived, and they had entered a part of a certain meadow: then the holy man, with his cheerful countenance, said: "Behold, Lords and Brothers, a place suited to our needs." And when they complained that they had no use of water, the man, knowing how to trust, said: "Do not despair; the hand of the Lord is powerful to give water to His servants — He who in the wilderness commanded the dry and waterless rock to flow with water for the complaining people." Nearby lay a grassy turf, which the man of the Lord approached and ordered to be dug around and lifted up. And as those present obeyed and pulled up the turf, water followed. But when the aforesaid men, sitting below, were waiting for the Saint of the Lord and did not know what he had done — and were already at the point of washing their hands and whatever else was needed with wine — disturbed by the murmur of a stream flowing down to them, they marveled at the abundance of water. This spring, remaining to this very day, testifies to what merit Kaddroe has with God. Returning therefore to his companions, when they praised the deed in amazement, he said: "The clemency of God Almighty has sent this water for your charity, that we may know that Christian poverty is always rich." Having therefore taken their meal, they completed the journey they had begun.

[28] Moreover, the business of the place entrusted to him required that he visit the County^k and speak with Frederick,^l then Duke: He leans his staff upon a ray of sun: when the man of God was sought and found in the designated place, Frederick rose with all humility to meet the servant of God as he came. And with the holy man returning the greeting most courteously, as they rushed into mutual embraces, the man of God, thinking one of his own people was following him, stretched the staff he was carrying in his hand behind him: but since there was no one to receive it, a ray of the sun was shining through the window, as often happens,^m which indeed received and supported the falling staff like some solid element, so that you could see the very elements willing to serve Kaddroe. But what wonder if creatures serve a friend of God, when the seeds of the earth nourish His enemies — seeds which the rain coming from heaven had nourished. From the oft-mentioned place of Walciodorus he was also traveling to Metz,^n and had ordered a young man whom he himself had raised to accompany him. He heals an injured eye. When this young man, almost at the midpoint of the journey, began to suffer a serious pain in his eye, with the sign of the Cross made over him by the Saint, he was soon well and rejoiced that the pain had fled.

[29] The same young man was also shaken by fevers, and after nearly a whole year, He drives away a fever, his entire body already wasted by the force of adverse health, he was struggling. The fever had left nothing to the wretch except the appearance of a man; his flesh consumed, his skin adhered to his bones. Meanwhile the holy man, as he was always entirely flowing with the bowels of mercy in the Lord, having compassion on the young man, happened to order him to sit beside him, and was holding a cup with a drink in his hand; from which, having drunk some, he extended the rest to the young man and commanded him to drink securely in the name of the Lord; and as soon as the sick man drank the potion, the fevers were put to flight, and he was restored to health, and is still a witness of the clemency shown in him. Also Lazarus,^o a monk of Scottish origin, lived with the man of God in the monastery. This man, touched by a most grievous misfortune, was tending toward his end: He prolongs the life of a dying man. on a certain day, when he was burning with the excessive heat of fever, with the pain returning to his heart, placed at his last breath, he despaired of escaping not merely the vicinity but the very presence of death. When the holy man hastened to him, he found him lying on the ground; he asked what ailed him. The other replied as best he could that he was near death; the Saint, handling him with his hands and fortifying him with the sign of the Cross, commanded him to rest a little in his bed. Without delay the sick man recovered, and having received his strength, he rose to his feet whole before the faces of those marveling, and showed how near the ears of the most benign Jesus were to the prayers of Kaddroe. For, as Scripture says: "He will do the will of those who fear Him, and He will hear their supplication." Ps. 145:19 For what did this man do but the will of God: for whom Christ was always on his lips, and peace always in his heart?

^a See what we said about this place on February 27, in the Life of Blessed John of Gorze: with whom our Cadroe was on intimate terms.

^b Commonly Waulsort on the Meuse, one Belgian mile above Dinant: and distant from the monastery of Saint Michael by seven Belgian miles, or twenty thousand paces — a fair day's journey.

^c Otto the First, crowned King at Aachen in 931, Emperor at Rome by John XII in 962, died 973.

^d Concerning the erection of this monastery, much is treated in the Walciodorensian Chronicle, and it is said to be two miles distant from Saint Michael: The monastery of Bucilly it is on the northern bank of the river nearest to the river Oise to the south, mingling with it between Vervins and La Capelle.

^e We showed that Agenald died in the year of Christ 962 or immediately before, in the Acts of Blessed John of Gorze, number 25. The Sainte-Marthes in volume 4 show that Ansteus, created Abbot of Saint Arnulf from being a monk of Gorze in the year 944, died in 960.

^f In the Walciodorensian Chronicle, Godfrey is listed after Immo, taken from the Church of Saint Remigius at Rheims, and finally expelled by his own monks for his insolence; nor is it reported how long he held the Abbey: one might suspect that he too was wrongly placed among the successors of Forannan, since some such person succeeded Cadroe either as Abbot or as Vicar: but we do not wish to dwell on conjectures based solely on prejudice.

^g He is venerated on September 9, having suffered at Rome with Saint Dorotheus. Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, translated his body thence to Gorze Saint Gorgonius the Martyr in the year 765; as Bishop Milo writes in his work on the passion, translation, and miracles of Saint Gorgonius, addressed to Immo, Abbot of Gorze, which we shall give in its time. See what we said about Saint Chrodegang on this day.

^h In the manuscript Chronicle of the Abbots of Ghent, or Saint Bavo, he is written as Womarus: succeeding Abbot Hugo in the year 955, he is said to have died in the year 982, on August 27.

^i Commonly Gembloux: Gemmelaus in the diploma of Otto in the year 946, in Miraeus in the Notitia of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 56: by which are confirmed the things which Saint Wibert or Gilbert had donated to the brothers gathered there by himself in the year 922, with Erluin established as Abbot. About this, Sigebert, a monk from the same place, writes in his Chronicle at the year 958: "Erluin, first Abbot of Gembloux, is deprived of the light of his eyes." Erluin, Aledranus, Alwin, Heriward, successive Abbots of Gembloux. Then at the year 987: "Tortured by a long martyrdom in long blindness, he dies." Whence Colgan, thinking Aledranus and Erluin were one and the same person, infers that these things happened before the year 958, since it is not probable that a blind man would wish to make a journey on foot: but if he had considered that a blind man could not have been useful for governing a monastery, and the example of Benno mentioned by us at the beginning, and the dissimilarity of names having nothing in common, he would rather have inferred the contrary — that Aledranus was substituted for Erluin, who voluntarily abdicated: and to prevent us from doubting this, there is Alwin, mentioned in the Sainte-Marthes as Abbot of this monastery and reformer of Lobbes, who died in the year 986, while Erluin was still alive: whom it is strange that the same Sainte-Marthes passed over, and put in his place Gilbert, indeed the founder, but not the Abbot — rather a monk in the monastery of Gorze: where he died in the year 962 and is venerated on May 23. Alwin was succeeded by his brother Heriward until the year 989.

^k Walciodorus is in the borders of Hainaut: Metz is closer to the Duchy of Luxembourg, then still a County: Colgan, however, prefers Bar on account of the following.

^l Frederick the Count, whom Archbishop Bruno of Cologne, brother of Otto the Great, placed in charge in his stead over the Lorrainers recalled to obedience in the year 959: who was thenceforth called Duke, and built Bar in the territory of Toul. The beginnings of the County of Bar. But we rightly doubt whether at the time these things were written, the title of County was yet attached to it: and much more whether it was already so celebrated that it could be understood simply by the name of "County," when perhaps the name of Bar did not yet exist, since it was derived from the fortress which around the year 970 was begun to be built, against the Bishop's will, as a "bar" or barrier against the French. To the Bishop, however, Frederick, by the decision of Otto the Great, handed over two abbeys in a condition of mutual exchange for the seizure of his property... so that he might peacefully possess what he had presumed for himself: thus the booklet on the successors of Saint Hildulf.

^m A similar miracle we gave in the Life of Saint Deicola on January 18, number 20.

^n From this frequent journeying to Walciodorus, we know that the care of this place was not laid down by Saint Cadroe until the arrival of Saint Forannan: especially since the one whom he had placed in charge in his own stead had deviated from rectitude: for that this did not long precede the arrival of Forannan is proved by the age of the Count raised by the Saint, namely after he returned from Fleury: which easily indicates a cohabitation of twelve or fifteen years.

^o In Colgan's copy Lassarus, a name familiar and frequent among the Scots, even among the Saints of that nation.

CHAPTER IV.

Other Miracles. Death. Burial.

[30] It is not necessary to praise the humility in him, for which he has already obtained the grace of God. To Blessed John of Gorze when ill, We commit to no discourse how great his sobriety was, because the pen has succumbed, overcome by the subject matter. The sparseness of his frugality will perhaps have few imitators. His patience was beyond human measure. Moreover, charity, which according to the Apostle is the bond of perfection, so shone in him that unless you have seen it, you would not believe it. But to say something of this by way of example: John, Abbot of the Gorzian monastery, a pillar in the temple of God (whose death, as someone has said, "the Carthaginian lions mourned, and the mountains, the wild beasts, and the forests proclaim"), with a severe bodily indisposition

was seized and lay in bed: and because he was a man of indescribable abstinence, with dry foods as was his custom when healthy, he was tormenting his weak limbs, driven by his spirit. Father Kaddroe, having heard this, He persuades him by his own example to eat meat, led by charity, had come to Gorze, and without the man's knowledge, had ordered a dish of meat to be prepared — something that could restore him to the children of the Church — and when the hour of refreshment came, a table was set before them. When John shuddered to touch the food that was brought, Kaddroe, knowing that charity does not seek its own things — he who had long ago resolved out of love of frugality not to touch even an egg — took the meat and ate it. When the man of God, John, saw this, no longer able to resist his command, he refreshed his weak limbs until he recovered. What then? Did not Kaddroe serve the charity of Christ in this too? Thence, having returned to his monastery, he took up again the shield of rigorous abstinence against spiritual wickedness.

[31] There is a place at Metz sacred by the name of Blessed Peter,^a in which a multitude of Virgins serves the Lord as best they can. Over these presided a Mother named Helvidis,^b almost incomparable in all her conduct and way of life from the very cradle. Under her blessed care, He expels a demon by the sign of the Cross, there was a certain Lady vexed by a hidden infestation of a demon, who, wherever it seized her, was dashed to the ground, grinding her teeth and foaming, and withered away. Against this infestation of the wicked spirit, therefore, the aforesaid Mother of those Sisters invited the help of Blessed Kaddroe. Who, prepared to give himself to everyone asking, went to the place with the Lord Udo, who had then come to him. But when the spirit of error in the Virgin could not be restrained, that physician, trusting in God, approached the bed of the sufferer with that companion of his, in the name of the Cross. And because that kind of enemy cannot be cast out except by fasting and prayer, when Kaddroe saw him armed with fasting and prayers, the spirit went out from the handmaid of God with a groan and did not attempt to return to her again.

[32] Adalbero, the Bishop of most renowned sanctity, after the course of thirty-five years,^c having completed the course of his administration, had departed to the heavenly abodes; and Theoderic,^d a man of Imperial lineage and singular talent, acceded to the episcopal See by the common acclamation of all, as he had already been called by God by name:^e Dear to Bishop Theoderic, who, that he might surpass the nobility of his blood by the integrity of his morals, although occupied with the affairs of the world (for he could not otherwise provide for so great a city), had turned the intention of his mind toward the memorials of the Saints and toward building and restoring places: wherefore he transferred from wherever he could the bodies and relics of Saints into his diocese. He loved the conversations of the servants of God and cherished their company. Whence, out of love of God and of the lord Kaddroe, who had loved him uniquely, he increased the place of Blessed Felix^f with the benefits and estates He obtains much for his monastery, which those who serve Christ there use to this very day, and he venerated the blessed man himself as if he were a Father, and summoning him frequently to himself — because he knew the man had the spirit of counsel — he listened to him, and committed himself more attentively to the prayers of his charity, which he had proved by the testimony of such great virtues to be pleasing to God.

[33] Of these we would have thought we had already offered enough, were it not that we wished to avoid scandalizing the curious, who place sanctity in the estimation of virtues. Nor indeed would there be lacking something about this man whereby they could be satisfied, but we speak of a few out of many, lest we be charged with wearying the Reader. Charity compelled this man of God He frees his hostess from anxiety about preparing supper, to visit the aforesaid Mother of Virgins, who was staying at the place called Corruptala: when he had arrived unexpectedly, and the aforesaid handmaid of God said she had less readily available meat for the use of the men who had come with so great a man, and the man of God found her distressed about this, he called her to himself and said: "Be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of His virtue; and confess to Him who opens His hand and fills every living thing with blessing: for He can give what is lacking to us who trust in Him — He who once satisfied the complaining house of Jacob in the desert with the flesh of quails." With the words of the holy man, a dog, chasing a doe, knocked it down from the cliff adjacent to the monastery, and thus with its legs broken, it rendered service for the use of the man of God, and freed the handmaid of God from her present distress.

[34] Therefore, resplendent with these and such virtues, and daily desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ, Called to the Empress Adelaide, he heard from the Lord that the day of his death would not be far off. Meanwhile the Empress Adelaide,^g mother of the invincible Emperor Otto, inflamed with holy desire — as she loved with sincere love all whom she knew to be friends of Religion, so also this blessed man. Setting out therefore for Italy, she had arrived at a place situated on the bank of the river Rhine, called Neheristein.^h Whence, sending envoys to Metz, she begged the man of God Kaddroe to come to her out of charity. Approached repeatedly by the envoys, and compelled by the Lord Bishop Deoderic, although he was not unaware of the end of his days, out of charity — which indeed suffers all things — he did not refuse to set out; considering that he would achieve a good end to his life if he were found serving charity. While on the road, he called some brothers who were accompanying him and announced that his dissolution was imminent: He predicts his own death. and when heavy sorrow seized them, because they would lose all counsel, he consoled them saying: "The Angel of Great Counsel will not desert you, Brothers, unless you perhaps abandon Him. Receive the commandments of God with all eagerness, fulfill them in deed, and He will direct you in the way of eternal salvation. For the rest, my poor little body — if there is any place among you for my prayers — carry it back to the monastery and there commit it to burial: but if the Empress should attempt to detain me for some time, I beseech you, oppose it: for if it should happen that I depart from the bonds of the flesh in her presence, let your charity know that my poor little body will be deprived of burial in the monastery. For the rest, after my departure, if you wish to act with counsel, there are among you men of good counsel, whom you should always consult: and do not forget Mother Helvidis, because according to the littleness of my judgment, I have never found her equal in that sex. Greet the Lord Bishop and the rest of our friends from me, and for the love of Christ, entreat them to help my poor soul before God."

[35] He hastens to return. Meanwhile he came to the Empress: who, when she heard the man was arriving, ran to meet him with immense joy, and received and greeted him courteously. The man of God, when he addressed the Empress, said: "You know, Lady, why I have come here?" And when she replied: "Father, you have come out of love of charity," the man of God, with his cheerful countenance, added: "While charity indeed compelled me here, necessity itself also commanded me to come to seek permission to leave: but what that permission meant, he indeed knew, but the Empress by no means perceived." When he had spent four days or more with the Empress, and the woman of holy devotion did not wish to let him go, but insisted with her own prayers and those of the Bishops present that he remain with her for some time, he turned to his Brothers: Detained by the Empress, "Come, Brothers, act — and since the dissolution of my poor body is near, make haste to depart: do not yield to prayers, if you wish to carry my body back to the monastery." Four days had already passed, and the Empress insisted that he remain with her for two more days. He therefore consented, although unwillingly, and completed the two days as he had been asked. There was great joy that they had prevailed upon the man of God to stay this long. The hour of dinner had come, and the magnates of the realm with the Empress were reclining at the feast. While during the meal a great fire was kindled there, lest any danger might occur from the blaze, many had gone up to the roof and ceiling of the house.

[36] But behold, one man, having incautiously leaned on the floor above, slipped and fell to the ground, where the height of the structure was so great that he could not only have broken his legs, He cures a man who fell from a height, but could have been dashed to pieces over his whole body. The Empress therefore calmed the resulting tumult, and ordered the man to be carried into the house where Kaddroe was lodging. Brought in therefore and signed by the man of God, when he received a drink from him, he was restored to the most perfect health. Talk spread among the courtiers, and the name of the man of God was borne on the lips of all. When the man of God learned of this and bore it with displeasure, he could barely obtain that no one should speak further about it. And when the two days were completed and he wished to return to the monastery, and had already departed some distance with the Empress's leave, he was suddenly seized by a fever and soon deprived of his bodily strength. Calling the Brothers together, he commanded them to hasten the journey, so that if possible he might reach the monastery alive. He dies on the journey. But by the command of God, who has appointed the end of man which can by no means be passed, already a veteran old man, after the seventieth year of his life and the thirtieth year of his pilgrimage, putting off mortality, he entered the heavenly Capitol, to be crowned perpetually by the rewarder of his labors.

[37] He is laid out, as is the custom, on a bier; and I know not what circumstance had turned his body to the side: a certain Brother who was nearby had lain down, weary, and the Saint appearing to him said: "Brother, He appears after death, why do you not attend to how negligently I am placed in my bed?" Awakened, the Brother searched and found the body lying as we described: he corrected it as he had been asked. The Brothers, that is, his companions on the journey, full of sorrow, directed a lamentable message to the city. It cannot be believed what sorrow seized the entire city: they came out in rivalry to meet the body; an innumerable multitude from the city, towns, villages, and fields rushed forth: one was the voice of those mourning and lamenting together. And although they knew that this man was not to be mourned, who after the long contests of this life had entered into the joy of his Lord, nevertheless the memory of his goodness wrung from them the expression of lamentation. While being carried to Metz, he heals a man with fever. From the place, however, where the blessed man had passed, as the Brothers who were carrying the body went out, a certain man who had been suffering from a prolonged fever approached; and as soon as he touched the coffin, in the sight of the people, he departed well. He is meanwhile conveyed to Metz, and is received by an immense — though mourning — multitude of Clerics, monks, virgins, and common people, who had assembled from all the neighboring places, and conducted to the place of burial with the greatest display — I do not say of a funeral, but of a triumph — he was buried in the church of Blessed Felix, and lives with Christ forever and ever. Amen.

^a Founded in the seventh century by Saint Balderic, over which first his sister Saint Bova presided, then Saint Doda, her niece; about whom see April 24. The Sainte-Marthes say it was restored under the Rule of Saint Benedict by Adalbero, Bishop of Metz. Helvidis, Abbess of Saint Peter's, Metz

^b We doubt whether the Sainte-Marthes found the names of the Abbesses who followed Doda collected anywhere in the order in which they produce them: they seem to have arranged them by their own judgment, adding the day of death as found in the necrology of the place. Among these is Helvidis, who died on January 17, number thirteen in the Sainte-Marthes' order and assigned to the year 1160: but the order and year must be changed, if she is the same person treated here, which we entirely believe.

in the Sainte-Marthes' order, number thirteen, and assigned to the year 1160: but the order and year must be changed, if she is the same person treated here, which we entirely believe.

^c In the year 964, as we said in the commentary, number 11; and Claude Robert writes the same in Christian Gaul, whence it seems to be attributed to a typographical error that in his work Adalbero is read to have sat for 32 years.

^d The son of Duke Frederick from Beatrice, sister of Hugh Capet, says Claude Robert from Rosier, chapter 58. More certain is what Sigebert says at the year 964 — that he was a cousin of Emperor Otto, namely the Great.

^e Theoderic, Bishop of Metz This man, as it is read, examining the first letters of the names of all the Bishops of Metz, which an Angel of the Lord is said to have given to Saint Clement, and noting that some were annotated in gold, others in a baser metal, according to the quality of their merits: when he saw that the letter of his own name was marked in silver, he is said to have declared that he would do such great good during his episcopate that the very letter of his name would deservedly be annotated in gold: the beginning of which good intention he showed in the monastery of Saint Vincent the Martyr and Levite, founded on the island of that very city. So Sigebert: from which it appears why he is said to have been called by God by his name. He sat for 20 years.

^f The Sainte-Marthes understand Felix of Nola, a Presbyter; Colgan more correctly judges him to be a Bishop of Metz, Saint Felix, Bishop of Metz whose feast day recurs on February 21, where we said from Meurissius that his body was entombed in Saint Clement's, and that his arm still remains there, after his body was translated to Saxony by Saint Emperor Henry.

^g Colgan invented her as the daughter of King Edward of England, sister of Aethelstan and Edmund, also Kings of England, The lineage of the Empress Adelaide deceived by an ambiguous passage in Malmesbury, book 2, chapter 5, who speaks thus: "The brother sent Ethilda to Hugh; the same brother sent Edgitha and Elgisa to Henry, Emperor of the Germans; of whom the second he placed with his son Otto: the other with a certain Duke near the Alps." He worries, however, lest Malmesbury transposed the names, so that Ethilda is the one Henry gave to his son Otto, not Algisa. But he torments himself in vain, because that name is closer to Adelaide: for it is certain from the Chronicle of the Abbot of Ursberg that Adelaide was the daughter of Rudolf, King of Burgundy, and of Lady Queen Bertha, daughter of Burchard, Duke of Alemannia, whom, after Rudolf's death, King Hugh took in marriage, and joined his daughter to his son Lothair; Adelaide, left a widow by him, was afflicted in many ways by Berengar, who had expelled Hugo and obtained the kingdom of Italy, fearing the virtue of her singular prudence, so that he might either extinguish or at least obscure the glory of so great a splendor... "And since the virtue of the aforesaid Queen was not hidden from Otto, he determined under a pretended journey to proceed to Rome; and when he entered Lombardy... having faithfully sought the Queen's love, he joined her to himself in marriage, and with her obtained Pavia, which is the seat of the kingdom... and from her were born the firstborn Henry, the second Bruno, the third designated by the majesty of his father's name, whom even then the whole world hoped would be lord after his father: also a daughter distinguished by her holy mother's name." But what of Edgitha? The Ursberg chronicler calls her Edid, Edgitha, the first wife of Otto who, "born of the English race, was distinguished no less for holy religion than for royal power: she held the partnership of the kingdom for ten years, died in the eleventh, lived in Saxony for nineteen years, left a son named Liudolf and a daughter Liudgard, and was buried in the city of Magdeburg" — that is, ten years before Otto went to Italy to seek Adelaide, which Flodoard writes was done in the year 951.

^h If he was summoned from Metz to where the Rhine flows nearest to Lorraine, this place would be situated between Mainz and Speyer.