Fridolinus

CONCERNING SAINT FRIDOLINUS, ABBOT OF SECKINGEN IN GERMANY,

ABOUT THE YEAR 540.

Preliminary Commentary.

Fridolinus, Abbot of Seckingen in Germany (Saint)

Section I. The location of Seckingen. Writers of the Life of Saint Fridolinus: sacred veneration.

[1] Among the Rauraci, an ancient people on the river Rhine, neighbors of the Helvetians, there are in this day the illustrious city of Basel, and above it the destroyed Augusta Rauracorum, commonly called the village of Augst; near which, upstream on the river, are four cities, The location of Seckingen. subject to the House of Austria, called the Forest Cities: Rheinfelden, distinguished by the title of a county, Seckingen, Laufenburg, and Waldshut. Of these, the city of Seckingen, also called Secanis, by others the island of Secanica, and Sancio and Sacconium, The Church and territory of Saint Fridolinus. venerates as its patron and founder Saint Fridolinus the Presbyter, and has its principal church dedicated to his name, in which his sacred body is still preserved. The territory of Saint Fridolinus is also the name of a small island opposite it; for Seckingen too is situated on a larger island of the Rhine.

[2] His deeds had formerly been written down and kept among the people of Seckingen, but having been lost in a certain incursion of pagans, The ancient Life, they would have fallen into deep oblivion had they not been transmitted to another monastery on the bank of the Moselle built by Saint Fridolinus. We therefore give those found there by the monk Balther and committed to memory, Found by the monk Balther in the ninth century and rewritten: and inscribed to Notker, who was formerly his teacher at the monastery of Saint Gall. This is Blessed Notker the Stammerer, whose Martyrology we cite very often in this our work. He lived in the times of the Emperors Otto the Great and Otto II, to whom he was related by blood. Therefore the monk Balther, the writer of the deeds of Saint Fridolinus, also flourished in the tenth century. More recent writers also report that Notker composed a Life of Saint Fridolinus, which we believe happened by mistake on account of this work having been dedicated to him. This Life exists among the people of Saint Gall, written on ancient parchments, which Colgan published in the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae for this March 6, but disfigured with many errors through the negligence of either copyists or typesetters. We therefore sent it to Seckingen, making use of the assistance of the Reverend Father Ernestus Bidermann, who was residing at Innsbruck as preacher to the Most Serene Archduke Sigismund; to whom, on October 7 of the year 1664, Franciscus Carolus Brandenberg, Canon and Custos of the collegiate church, returned it with the reply that the Life of Saint Fridolinus was contained and expressed just as they had received it from ancient tradition and other authors, and that nothing appeared which contravened the truth. However, the Life was returned with none of the aforementioned errors removed, which we ourselves endeavored to correct lest tedium and nausea be produced in readers.

[3] Part of this Life was published by Blessed Peter Damian, Bishop of Ostia, Part published by Blessed Peter Damian, created Cardinal in the year 1058, in a sermon he delivered on the Translation of the body of Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, procured by Saint Fridolinus -- which sermon, with our annotations, we published on January 13, after the Life of the same Saint Hilary. This author asserts, however, that the Life of Blessed Fridolinus, in which this history is reported to be found, did not come into his hands, but that what was written by him he learned through the report of a brother's testimony -- namely, that portion of these Acts that pertained to that Translation had been transcribed for him. Various abridgments excerpted from this Life exist; Manuscript abridgments and those by various authors. one of these we received from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Bodeken in Westphalia; another, found in ancient codices, was published by Melchior Goldast in volume 1 of Rerum Alamannicarum, part 2; another was printed in the year 1561 in the Breviary of the Church and diocese of Constance; another was reprinted in the Breviary of Basel and in Basilea Sacra. Castaneus, Bishop of Poitiers, attests in his Notes to the Litanies of Poitiers, published in the year 1612, that this same saint has held a place in the Breviary of the diocese of Poitiers for many centuries. A distinguished encomium was also published by Franciscus Guillimann in book 3 of Rerum Helveticarum, chapter 6, Gaspar Bruschius in his work on German Monasteries, Judocus Coccius on King Dagobert, chapter 6, and others.

[4] Various authors published the Life of Saint Fridolinus in the German language, among whom Peter Canisius of the Society of Jesus, a man outstanding in learning and holiness of life, is to be counted as principal. Hermann Crumbach, himself also renowned for published books, translated this from German into Latin. The Life published in German by Peter Canisius. Canisius testifies in his preface that he used very many ancient books recording his deeds, which not only the people of Glarus and Seckingen but his old friends from various other places had transmitted to him. This work is divided into thirty-one chapters, each of which, in the manner of homilies, is adorned with very many passages cited from Sacred Scripture and the holy Fathers, with examples from other Acts of Saints also inserted: by all of which either the due veneration of the saints and the truth of these Acts is proven against heretics, or the practice of the principal virtues is proposed for imitation by orthodox Catholics. These are most worthy of the press, but beyond our purpose; therefore we report below the few things that are not indicated in the Life by Balther. Another Life in German was published in Helvetia Sacra by Henry Murer, And by Henry Murer: a professed member of the Charterhouse of Ittingen, from which we append two miracles from the last years after the death of Balther.

worked in the last centuries after the death of Balther; the rest are transcribed from the Latin Acts or from Canisius. Various writers of histories published in German also touched on the deeds of Saint Fridolinus, such as Christianus Urstitius in book 1 of the History of Basel, chapter 21, Mention of him in other historians: Johannes Stumpf in his great Chronicle of Helvetian Affairs, book 12, which treats of the Rauraci in chapter 9. Finally, Aegidius Tschudi in his work on Alpine Rhaetia, chapter 12, Fortunatus Sprecher in the Chronicle of Rhaetia, books 2, 3, and 8, Martin Crusius in part 1 of the Swabian Annals, book 8, chapter 9, and Matthaeus Merian in the Topography of Alsace, page 36, where he also presents the city of Seckingen engraved on copper, as also in the Topography of Helvetia at Glarus, in whose description on page 37 he makes honorable mention of Saint Fridolinus. Murer also cites Johannes Jacobus Grasserus and Johannes Gulerus on Helvetian Affairs, which we have not seen.

[5] That Saint Fridolinus ended the course of this life with a most blessed death on the day before the Nones of March Sacred veneration on March 6. and fell asleep in the Lord, the Acts testify in book 2, numbers 7 and 8. On which day his feast is celebrated by the Breviaries already cited, and confirmed by various martyrologies, such as the Trier manuscript of Saint Martin, the Cologne Martyrology printed in 1490, the Doctrinale Clericorum printed at Lubeck in the same year, Hermann Greven and Molanus in the Supplement to Usuard, Canisius in the German Martyrology, Felicius, Ferrarius, and others. The words of Molanus are: "At Seckingen, the deposition of Fridolinus, Abbot and Confessor." Galesin adds: "whose deeds are read as both holy and marvelous." The English also celebrate him in their Martyrology; the Irish in the Catalogue of Principal Saints published at Liege in 1619, and in the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae of Colgan; the modern Scots as well, in Camerarius and Dempster in the Scottish Menologium. Finally, because he was an Abbot, the Benedictines have inscribed him in their Fasti: Wion, Dorgan, Menard, and Bucelinus with a very lengthy encomium. Again on the following day, March 7, Dempster records the Elevation of Saint Fridolinus.

Section II. The age, monastic profession, homeland, and writings of Saint Fridolinus.

[6] The Acts indicate a single chronological marker: namely, that Saint Fridolinus was Abbot of the Pictavian monastery of Saint Hilary in the time of Clovis, King of the Franks; Saint Fridolinus under Clovis I and all affirm with one accord that this King was Clovis I. But that they would place this in the year 490 or 495, we in no way consider probable. Clovis reigned, according to the chronology we have established elsewhere, from the year 479, having been created at least toward the end of that year; and he embraced the faith of Christ in the year 494. But at that time the city of Poitiers with the rest of Aquitaine was subject to the Goths, whose King Athalaric was defeated by Clovis in the region of the city of Poitiers in the year 507, After the year 507, made Abbot at Poitiers, and Aquitaine was subjugated to himself. Therefore the approach of Abbot Saint Fridolinus to King Clovis must necessarily be assigned to this year or the next two, during which the latter survived; and what is narrated thereafter about the King must be assigned to the successors of Clovis. He restored the church of Saint Hilary and placed his relics in a more magnificent setting. He departed thence toward Germany and first dwelt by the Moselle, then in the Vosges Mountains, afterward at Strasbourg, and in these three places he erected churches to Saint Hilary with monasteries, Afterward he dwells in various places: remaining there as long as these were being completed. Then, proceeding through the Kingdom of the Burgundians, he visited the monasteries erected in it, and arrived at the cities of Glarus of the Helvetians and Chur of the Rhaetians or Grisons, and again built churches to Saint Hilary. After all these things had been accomplished, which require many years, he came to the island of Secanica, whence, having been driven out by blows, He approached King Theoderic: he went to the King and by his donation obtained possession of the island. The name of the King is not expressed; whom we think was Theoderic, son of Clovis, King of the Austrasians, which can and should be asserted without any doubt. There he lived for many years, and the daughter of his host, whom he had baptized, he is said afterward to have established as the first nun, when he erected a canonical congregation of nuns on that island. Meanwhile it is recorded that the aforementioned King died -- whom we have said was Theoderic, who departed this life in the year 533; Under King Theodebert he died, whose son Theodebert then succeeded him, surviving in the kingdom until the year 548, about which time Saint Fridolinus seems to have migrated to Christ.

[7] But under which Order he placed the said congregation of nuns might be inquired. Bucelinus in part 2 of Germania Sacra has the following on page 81: "Seckingen, formerly a most noble convent of Benedictine Virgins on the waters of the Rhine, founded by Saint Fridolinus, a disciple of Saint Remigius and Saint Benedict, which was afterward converted into a college of canonesses." But he triumphs more in his Menologium for March 6, Was he a Benedictine monk? where in his long eulogy he asserts that Saint Fridolinus first enrolled among the disciples of Saint Remigius and afterward followed Benedict himself, that great archduke of monks, and made the greatest progress in both. So that a time favorable to this conjecture might be found, nothing is reported about Saint Fridolinus's residence in the Pictavian monastery of Saint Hilary, nor is it indicated that he was previously Abbot of monks there, who were even older than Saint Benedict himself. Furthermore, there is no trace of any communication with either Saint Remigius or Saint Benedict; indeed, the latter is known to have at that time been just beginning the monastic life far away in Italy among the monks of Subiaco. As for the claim of Wion, Born from Ireland: Bucelinus, and others, following Leslie, that he was the son of King Conran of modern Scotland -- this is plainly wrong, since the Acts most clearly report that he was born in Ireland, which is called Lower Scotland; and nothing is known about his origin or deeds except from these Acts and perhaps a few traditions of the people of Seckingen or Glarus, which we shall discuss presently. Meanwhile Dempster, in book 6 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, chapter 515, makes Fridolinus a distinguished writer Did he leave books written by himself? and enumerates the following books left by him: Certain Exhortations, 1 book; Precepts for Monks, 1 book; To the People of Augsburg, 1 book; Acts of Saint Hilary, 1 book. Others also mention his exhortations. But on what foundation, let them see for themselves. The credibility of Dempster in similar matters is everywhere suspect, as he is accustomed to narrate as facts what he dreamed the saints could have done. He did not found Reichenau: Thus he also makes this same Fridolinus the founder of the monastery of Reichenau or Augia Dives, which Saint Pirminius built in the eighth century, as is evident from his Life on November 3. He claims that Fridolinus built another monastery in Burgundy, seizing upon the foundation that the Acts say he directed his journey through the monasteries of the Kingdom of the Burgundians. Did he preach to the Burgundians and people of Augsburg? Cratepolius also asserts in his booklet on the Saints of Germany that Saint Fridolinus preached the Gospel at Augsburg in the year of Christ 490 and converted many people to the faith of Christ. Which, as it is plainly false in the time assigned, so the rest of the account is suspect amid the silence of the ancients.

Section III. Excerpts from the Acts published by Peter Canisius. Other matters submitted by Canon Brandenberg.

[8] From the ancient traditions of the people of Seckingen and Glarus, Canisius has the following in chapter 26: "The college of nuns on the island of Seckingen, founded by Saint Fridolinus, although at the beginning it was tossed by great calamities, The eminence of the Abbess of Seckingen, was nevertheless increased with such great temporal and spiritual growth that it obtained the highest eminence of dignity: not only endowed with royal munificence by the greatest men and princes, by kings and emperors, but also adorned with great privileges. So that the city of Seckingen, the region of Glarus, and Laufenburg were subject to the Abbess of Seckingen, and acknowledged her as a Princess; whence the Most Excellent Counts of Habsburg, afterward Archdukes of Austria, received the city of Seckingen and Laufenburg with other lordships and estates from her as her feudal clients. Authority over the people of Glarus: It was also a received custom that the inhabitants of Glarus would annually send envoys to Seckingen and bring an honorary gift to the Abbess as to their Lady, who formerly served as bearers carrying the reliquary of Saint Fridolinus around the church. It can also be proven by the most ancient, signed, and authentic documents that formerly the Abbess used to journey to Glarus every four years and to select from the magistrates of that region the ten most honorable and upright men to govern the country and preside over councils and courts of justice. If she were prevented by infirmity from going there, the business was conducted through envoys. And if not even these were designated, meanwhile the people of Glarus were freed from paying tributes and levies. This peaceful administration long flourished, so that the Emperor alone was considered the protector, nor would he delegate his authority to another governor. Afterward the Counts of Homberg and the sister of Conrad, Duke of Swabia, donated ample possessions to the convent; when there were also serfs bound to the place, who were called 'the servants of Saint Fridolinus.' Those places were under the Roman Empire until the time of Emperor Frederick Augustus, who donated them to Count Palatine Otto of Burgundy; thence the Counts of Habsburg and the Austrians received them; finally, in the year 1350, the people of Glarus with the governor of the region joined themselves to the confederated Swiss." So much for that. Stumpf cites Austrian instruments in which they confess themselves feudatories of the Abbess of Seckingen; they are dated in the years 1454 and 1459.

[9] Canisius again in chapter 29 shows that the people of Seckingen frequently experienced the patronage of Saint Fridolinus, whose annals record many and illustrious victories that they won through his patronage. The people of Seckingen obtain a victory: In the year 1415 the people of Basel besieged Seckingen for three weeks, inflicted great ruin upon the city walls and houses of the citizens with continual bombardment, and shortly after returned to the siege with greater forces; but again they were compelled to depart with nothing accomplished. Another ancient codex narrates that as often as they went out to battle with their banner unfurled (as happened very frequently), so often they obtained victory without bloodshed and without the loss of a single citizen -- which they always attributed to the patronage of Saint Fridolinus, whom they were therefore accustomed to call their Lord, Host, and principal Advocate. The same is read in Murer, and much of the foregoing in Stumpf.

[10] Canisius finally in chapters 30 and 31 asserts that the mother parish of Glarus was erected from the foundations by Saint Fridolinus, and that Saint Hilary was given to it as patron of the entire region. Wherefore the ancient people of Glarus joined Saint Fridolinus to Saint Hilary, The people of Glarus venerate Saint Fridolinus, and as a sign of their grateful hearts they preserved his image with great honor both outside and within the city, and impressed it on their pennants, banners, shields, and the seal of the city. They were accustomed every year to recall his anniversary with festive joys, to go to Seckingen, and to venerate his sacred ashes. They obtain a victory. Furthermore, they were accustomed to honor another procession in the month of April with the greatest attendance of both ecclesiastics and laity, so that thanks might be given to God for the remarkable victory obtained at that time of year, when three hundred and fifty inhabitants of that region routed fifteen thousand of the enemy. The entire series of the event is also read at length to the people, in which Saints Fridolinus and Hilary are frequently named as Patrons and Advocates. The insignia of the city of Glarus with the image of Saint Fridolinus are presented by Urstitius on page 67.

[11] Canon Brandenberg in the aforementioned letter indicated the following: "Saint Fridolinus left relics of Saint Hilary at Seckingen, namely his thumb, where also a chasuble, knife, staff, and other items besides the body of Saint Fridolinus himself are displayed. About the year 1330, a great fire consumed the church and monastery of Saint Fridolinus at Seckingen. In the following years, Albert, King of the Romans, of the House of Austria, came to Seckingen with many princes of the Empire, both ecclesiastical and secular, especially the Bishops of Strasbourg, Basel, and Constance, to assess the damage from the fire The body preserved in the fire: and especially to venerate the body of Saint Fridolinus, which by a great miracle had been divinely preserved unharmed from the flames. There they found the sarcophagus, or rather the bier of the sacred body, deposited beneath the altar, burned on its upper part, but otherwise entirely intact with the relics inside. Therefore, as a perpetual memorial of the miracle, Enclosed in a casket, they left that same tomb, however much its upper part was burned, together with the rest, everywhere bound with iron plates and fastenings and a dense network of nails, for posterity. But when during the great storms of the Swedish War that same sacred tomb could only with the utmost difficulty be transported, on account of the weight of the boards and ironwork, and was left at home with no less danger, on account of the sudden incursion of the enemy, the Princess Abbess and her colleagues, both canons and canonesses, frequently deliberated how the sacred treasure might be compressed into some compact little chest, so that more easily and safely, in case of necessity, it could be secretly carried away and transferred to a safe place. This, however, was always an obstacle: that the fear held everyone that, if perchance with the help of blacksmiths (without whom it seemed impossible that it could be opened), the bonds were loosened, it would be made public that the sacred body was no longer present, which we suspected was intact, but reduced to ashes. But when in the year 1637 the Duke of Weimar, hostile to the Rhenish regions, clashed more frequently with Werth, In the year 1637 the body was found therein. we thought it worth some effort to try whether by our own private strength and industry we could open the sacred treasure, examine it, and arrange it in a more convenient repository. Therefore, with the consent of the Princess, only two priests, the senior canon and myself, endeavored to remove the mass of the sarcophagus, which was placed on high, that is, in the middle of the high altar, and to lower it onto the table or surface of the altar -- unequal indeed in strength to so great a mass, nearly losing heart. But behold, I know not by what means, with what ease we set down the sarcophagus on the altar without great difficulty, and from there to lower it from the altar to the pavement succeeded happily as we exerted ourselves. With the senior canon grasping the front part of the sarcophagus on the pavement, I, still standing on the altar, was trying to hold back the rear part with as much force as I could, lest it crash violently onto the pavement. When behold, suddenly the nails and fastenings came loose; the plates remained in my hands, and the sarcophagus slipped down. At that point a little door immediately appeared through which a hand could be inserted and the sacred relics touched. We found therefore the sacred body wrapped in a double covering: on the outside was an elegant Babylonian tapestry interwoven with gold, burned somewhat by the fire -- since the upper part of the sarcophagus was almost entirely carbonized; on the inside was a cloth of cotton. Beside these sacred items lay a slip of paper, no wider than a hand, by which the aforesaid Most Serene King attested the sequence of the examination made in the presence of the bishops and princes, and that that tomb had never been opened in nine hundred years except for that very cause and occasion, and that he had surrounded that sacred tomb with ironwork, though burned, and thus left it for posterity as a memorial of the miracle. Certainly from that time as well, that is, for three hundred years, the tomb had never again been opened, except for that necessity and the dangers of the Swedish War in the year 1637." Stumpf also treats of the aforesaid fire and the arrival of the Emperor Albert.

LIFE

By the monk Balther of Seckingen.

From the Saint Gall Manuscript.

Fridolinus, Abbot of Seckingen in Germany (Saint)

BHL Number: 3170

By the monk Balther, Author.

BOOK I.

Prologue of the Author

To Notker, most blessed in the Wisdom of Doctrine and the sanctity of his merits, Balther, the lowest little servant of the servants of God.

[1] Already for some time now (as you well know), when I ceased to devote myself to scholastic discipline in the monastery of Saint Gall at the feet of you and the other Masters, Balther educated in the monastery of Saint Gall and when it befell me -- much more by the compulsion of poverty than by any lack of a master -- to my loss (for thence a fountain of wisdom, poured out through all the provinces of all Europe, and flowing most sweetly by God's gentlest nod, had made itself drinkable to all up to this time), it seemed good to me that, deprived, as I have said, of such happy consolation, I should approach the Masters of Western Gaul, although as a companion of vagabonds in begging, with all shame set aside. He wanders through Gaul: Hoping, however, anxious and tearful, to find there some refreshment in the sadness of both hungers -- for when the flesh, having been slightly afflicted for a time, again uses an abundance of riches sufficiently, it quickly happens that it grows weary of those things for which a little before it had longed exceedingly; but the thirsty mind, the more it enjoys the sweetness of inner delights, the more it is constrained toward their sweetness not by weariness but by love. Having thus undertaken this matter, when by wandering I had traversed the borders of Gaul on a long course even to the confines of Spain for the love of learning, although I made little progress in it, and having stayed there for four years, I at last determined to revisit my homeland and the familiar company of my homeland. It happened that on my return I went, for the sake of prayer, to a certain monastery called Helera, situated on the bank of a certain Moselle; At Helera, a monastery built by Saint Fridolinus, he is kindly received: which I had learned through the report of the Brothers of that place that Saint Fridolinus had built there in honor of Saint Hilary. Having there discovered the order of this matter, I became somewhat more joyful, so much so that I entirely forgot I had come there as an exile; because I rejoiced not as a stranger in the pious consolation of those Brothers, but as any worthy native who enjoys familiar fellowship among others in the house of his lord.

[2] Then the Father and provost of that monastery, when he learned through me the certainty of my profession -- that I was a hereditary servant of those Saints of whom I have spoken above, namely Hilary and Fridolinus -- brought before me the virtues of each inscribed separately in their own volumes. Seeing these, I rejoiced, and still cautiously examining the open volumes, He finds there the Life of Saint Fridolinus, I remembered that at Seckingen, to which I do not blush to acknowledge that I belong by servile right, the virtues of the one, namely Saint Hilary, were present written in a certain volume; but the Life of the other, namely Saint Fridolinus, was lacking. For the book itself in which that same saint's Life had been written Lost among the people of Seckingen, had been carried off from there when the aforesaid monastery was devastated by the incursion of pagans of old. Even now there survive many who not only saw but frequently read that same book before it was lost, as I have said; and thus they declare it to be true, just as it is now narrated by me. After one of those aforementioned booklets, which I did not doubt was missing at the aforesaid place, was altogether refused to my petition to take it away with me, and neither ink nor parchment was available for me to copy it, I quickly sat down, recited it, and retained in memory what I needed, He commits it to memory, partly the words with the subject matter, partly the subject matter without the verbal construction, so that when my return was completed, the same deeds that I had read there might through me be committed to writing for the memory of others. Beginning diligently to read this aforementioned book, I found the title inscribed to "Saint Fridoldus"; And from the badly formed name, and from this it was doubtful to me whether this writing was about our Patron or about some other person called Fridoldus, not Fridolinus -- except that afterward it was shown to me on another page He recognizes it to be his from the relics of Saint Hilary. how the same saint had carried relics of Saint Hilary from a certain city of Gaul called Poitiers, in a small casket, to a certain island in Alemannia surrounded on all sides by water, and there, commending himself to the faith of the people, had built a certain monastery in honor of Saint Hilary on the same island of the river Rhine, in which that same aforementioned casket (as you know) still hangs to this day.

[3] Since, however, the whole of it (as is clear to you through this letter, O Father) will seem to have been spoken and written by me only on the testimony or certain authority of some man of good quality, in whom trust should be placed -- He defends himself against detractors: I who cannot deny that I am the author of the whole thing (though the charge is one of falsehood); although in the rewriting of this little work I add or take away nothing deceitfully concerning the substance of the matter, except only the verbal construction (which I confess I have written in a style far too rustic, preferring to have my rusticity criticized in this regard rather than the truth of the matter remain unknown): I think that any lover of truth, attending to the quality of my brevity, will say in objection that it is apocryphal and that this copy should be rejected by the condemnation of the Masters, because it is supported by no one else's authority, but is written merely by free choice alone. Moreover, I have no doubt that another, with unjust jaws, as though befouled by so much soot, will say that I am by no means an author of truth, but a false compiler of some fabricated thing. Wherefore, And he implores the patronage of Notker: O most pious Father and Doctor, commending myself to your invincible faith, I pray that by your most sure judgment it may be tested and approved whether this present booklet, together with the song that I composed in praise of Fridolinus through the musical art, should be destroyed by the burning of flames, or henceforth be preserved for the service of God. For I am better pleased to be reproved by your most gentle correction than to be confounded by the envious indignation of others. I wish you a perpetual farewell."

(a) The occasion for the construction of this monastery is indicated below in chapter 3, where we shall treat of it.

(b) Incaustrum, that is, ink; in Italian, Inchiostro; in French, Encre.

CHAPTER I.

The life of Saint Fridolinus in Ireland and his departure from it.

[4] It is not doubted that Blessed Fridolinus was born in the remotest parts of Lower Scotland, which is indeed called Hibernia by the Scots themselves, Saint Fridolinus, sprung from a noble family in Ireland, and extends the borders of its expanse all the way to the Ocean. He was so eminent and illustrious in the generosity of his parents that even the more powerful men of that kingdom were glad to be counted among the kindred of such a relative. For this, not undeservedly, seemed to them to have been a great honor, since they did not doubt that they could merit the advancement of every good thing through his merits. And the solemnity of this nobility he took care to adorn in himself, being especially diligent and eager with no idle zeal for good works, lest he himself should utter, either by speaking or by mental pondering, that saying of the Psalmist: "What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption?" For he gloried not so much in the ostentatious kinship of his family as in that adoptive and heavenly genealogy of the elect, He prefers heavenly nobility: concerning which in

the Gospel it is read: "Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." Psalm 29:10 Matthew 12:50

[5] He abounded in worldly wealth and riches, famous above almost all who dwelt in that kingdom, and showed himself so cheerful and joyful in all things by the display of so great liberality that not only did the richer sort always smile upon his precious gifts, He generously spends his riches on others: but the poor too daily applauded his alms with a grateful countenance. For to both, as much as he could, he was generous and distributed appropriately to each. The excessive cupidity of the former, which his own means could not extinguish, he endeavored by giving precious things to render somewhat more mild, lest it boil over beyond measure; the praiseworthy poverty of the latter, by which they burned so eagerly for the happiness of worldly prosperity, he mercifully sustained, lest they fail entirely in the complaints of adversity. 2 Corinthians 9:7 And thus presenting himself as a cheerful giver, whom according to Scripture God loves, he was made all things to all, that he might gain all.

[6] After he was separated from the breasts of his beloved nurse and from the cradle of infant tears, as is the manner of children, he clung so keenly to the delightful treasuries of literary studies that he seemed to strengthen the age of his tender frailty not so much with mother's milk as, suspended at the breasts of wisdom, He devotes himself to literary studies and the sciences: to sweeten the vivacity of his mind with heavenly dew. For he utterly spurned entangling the tenor of his praiseworthy understanding in the captious and argumentative devices of sophistical and syllogistic declarations, lest while he might incongruously appear as some posthumous heir of Pythagorean and Platonic wisdom, he should be proved not to have shown the friendly intimacy of the Supreme Wisdom to himself -- as it is written: "All wisdom is from the Lord God." Sirach 1:1

[7] Then, breathed upon from above by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he preferred to present himself wholly as a faithful servant to God under the office of the clergy rather than, placed amid the affairs of this world, to serve the devil under the jurisdiction of the laity. Having embraced the clerical state, And raising the keen edge of his mind from earthly to heavenly things, he set before himself this verse as an example: "A friend of this world is constituted an enemy of God" James 4:4. Thus therefore, since out of love for the heavenly life he set aside the uncertainty of worldly things and, having scorned all the flower of the world, devoted himself as a diligent minister to the service of God, he undertook to travel through nearly all the cities of his homeland and many surrounding places, He persists in preaching; with this purpose: that by the office of his preaching he might firmly establish for God the Catholic faith, separated in those parts from the rite of paganism. And it is certainly not to be believed that he usurped for himself the sacrament of such a ministry by any presumptuous boldness of unlawful audacity; but rather, much more, that having been elected by the grace of God under the testimony of the bishops and the attestation of all the clergy, together with the acclamation of all the surrounding people, he doubled the talents entrusted to him by the Lord. For he was without doubt one of those faithful servants who received money to be returned with profit from their own Lord when he went on a journey; since he preferred to hear from his Lord, namely Christ, the desirable words of thanks with interest rather than to endure the unworthy and horrible rejection of that wicked servant who presumed to return his Lord's money without profit.

[8] Then, having been elevated with the desirable honor of the clergy as he wished, and having been so glorified by the office of preaching, as was said above, that among all the princes of the Scots he was not merely loved as some honorable cleric and priest, Seeing himself honored, but was held in the highest episcopal honor as a bishop and was regarded with affection; it seemed to him good and useful to spurn entirely all the flower of the age out of love for the name of God, committing not to oblivion what is written in the Gospel: "Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple" Luke 14:33. Therefore, distributing each and every good and possession of his own property, not only to his relatives and kindred in an orderly and wise manner, but also bestowing them upon many others sorely afflicted by dire poverty, He distributes all his goods to the poor: namely orphans, ecclesiastics living under the honor of each order, and others whose number extends to infinity, he fulfilled what was said by the Psalmist: "He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever" Psalm 112:9.

[9] When all this had been carried out in order, as has been said, this man of such great dignity was instructed by a mission to not be slow to set aside, for the name of God, with persevering mind, the affinity of fatherhood and the familiarity of kinship and the native and pleasant sweetness of his homeland. And this is proved to have happened to him in no other way than as it was once commanded to Abraham, that he should go out from his land and his kindred. Now therefore this soldier of such great fidelity persevered constant and immovable under this heavenly command, not hesitating but insisting on faithfully carrying out, having left everything behind, what the Supreme Highness had enjoined upon him, He resolves to leave his country and friends: although to which parts of this world his journey appointed by God was directed, he was entirely ignorant. But as he thus unexpectedly set out on the course of his journey, what sort of and how great a noise of weeping was heard there, no one can relate to another either by movement of the tongue or by the sharpness of a pen. For there the diverse populace lamented having lost the bestower of diverse gifts; He sees the great mourning of all: and the vast universality of the ecclesiastical order in that kingdom wept not so much for the absence of his company as it grieved at the lack of his preaching, which was so to be desired, because the holy Church, established in those parts for the service of God, was at that time governed by him as by some most firm pillar. How great and what manner of honor or service the clergy of the bishopric would supply him, it is not necessary to say, since the bishops themselves could scarcely with all their strength approach his way of life even in the slightest. Even the Primate of all Scotland desired especially his salutary counsel, lest without his advice the Divine Majesty should be offended in those matters that were to be corrected in the secular sphere under judicial law.

[10] Who doubts how or in what manner he was besought in vain by those whom he loved in God -- the poor, namely orphans, widows, and the rest of the common people of both sexes -- especially when he grieved that his intended journey should be delayed while he embraced his dear parents? For this multitude of the poor, since they followed him weeping for a long time, he at times, having fixed his staff of sustenance in the ground and leaning upon it from above, with a resolute spirit strengthened lest he should return on account of their entreaties or blandishments, He gently consoles them: did not cease to comfort them with gentle and mild words, and to scatter the seeds of heavenly life generously and healthfully. At other times, having taken up the path of his journey, he urged them not to impede further the journey he had begun in the name of God, saying: "O my dearest ones, not only my kinsmen but fellow citizens and sweet nurturers, is it not already known to you, as I believe, that no pageantry of secular life is permitted to draw me back from that exile of pilgrimage that has been committed to me from heaven as a journey to be undertaken? Why do you hinder me, whom the whole world, if God alone does not resist, is not able to hinder?"

[11] Thus exchanging the reciprocal love of mutual affection, they arrived at a certain sea that stretches between the borders of Lower Scotland, of which mention was made above, and Upper Scotland, Accompanying him to the sea in hope of his return, of which we need not speak now. Having arrived there, as was said, and wearied by the unwelcome fatigue of so long a journey, and wishing to relieve themselves somewhat by resting, they decided that for the sake of charity they should at least stay with him through the night and obtain the space of the following day, and then at last, if it were possible, they should all congratulate themselves on having waited to recall him more wholesomely homeward. For this alone remained to his companions as a ground for confidence of this kind: that the one whom all the pleasant allurements of the world had previously been unable to subdue might be compelled to yield by the perilousness of the sea. Passing the space of the night in such hope at that place, they scarcely and doubtfully arrived at the desired dawn of the following day, grieving at this: that the entire universality of their race mourned for him as though a surviving posthumous child, so that they hoped, after his departure, to be able to find no one of his quality like him.

[12] Meanwhile, when the brighter rising of the sun from the eastern quarter was already driving away the darkness of nocturnal gloom and, illuminating the whole world with the splendor of its rays, was supplying to mortals everywhere the accustomed outpoured light, they entreated only this: that he should either quickly hasten his return homeward, or if this could by no means happen, that at least he should not deny the grace of his blessing to them as they departed. When they were making such requests, he rose from prayer, to which he had devoted the entire space of the past night. And entering upon a profound evangelical discourse, he narrated how the Son of God was incarnate, born of the Virgin Mary, He exhorts them and gives his blessing: and why He entered the toilsome whirlpool of this world -- namely on account of our sins -- and that He would suffer for us the most shameful death, suspended on the gibbet of the cross, to rise again on the third day without corruption. Then, having received the grace of his overflowing blessing and having obtained the leave of his salutary permission, they set out on the sorrowful journey of returning home.

[13] But nevertheless they paused a little from the path of their begun journey, so that they might observe the stormy business of his sea voyage through the inscrutable paths of the surging ocean, looking on from a distance. As they watched long, he crosses the sea. And they desired to gaze upon him so long until the aforesaid man, departing from their eyes, should be so far away and should extend such distances of air and furrows of sea from them that thenceforward their sight, as though blocked, would no longer suffice to follow him by looking. And thus they parted from each other: he from the sea, they from the shore of the sea itself, raising their right hands on high and bidding a mutual final farewell -- they grieving at the familiarity of their homeland, he rejoicing at the weariness of exile.

CHAPTER II.

At Poitiers he translates the relics of Saint Hilary; he restores the church.

[14] Meanwhile, when by the grace of God, having set aside the peril of the sea, he was now joyfully enjoying the desired harbor of shore-side safety, he was worthily received into the hospitality of a certain man of good quality, and there, with some days of rest granted to his weary limbs, he stayed for a time. He diligently inquired about the manner of life of that nation, in what condition or by what custom of manners it maintained itself, and whether, having rejected the pagan rite, it worshipped the God of heaven. He lands in Gaul: Then, as he learned from the report of his host himself and of certain others, that some of them duly worshipped and honored the God of heaven, while some others also served idolatries in pagan worship most wickedly, he chose, stripped of fear and undaunted, clothed in charity, He preaches the word of God: to scatter the seeds of faith among the people.

[15] From there, taking up his blessed journey, after he had traversed the borders of Gaul by traveling around and had planted the Catholic faith of the Holy Trinity in the hearts of believers, it happened that among other places he came to the city of Poitiers,

and there he stayed for a long time in the camp of Saint Hilary, He remains at Poitiers in the monastery of Saint Hilary: for no other reason than that, with God granting it and the merits of Saint Hilary himself interceding, he might receive some small portion of his body for the consolation of his pilgrimage -- not a diminution of merits, but a diminished severing of bodily quantity.

[16] While therefore he devoted himself there to his holy prayer through the assiduities of many vigils, together with chaste frugality, [He is admonished by an appearing saint to translate his body and restore his worship:] so that what he ardently desired might come to him from God, it was revealed to him universally on a certain night through a vision, as if Saint Hilary himself visibly appeared to him, saying: "Brother, your prayer has been heard; and I, insofar as the ability is mine, through the merits and intercessions of the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, ever Virgin, and by the intervention of all the Saints, do not cease to assist your prayer in the sight of the Divine Majesty; because God Himself has chosen you so that you should restore His worship in this place and should not delay in placing the limbs of my little body in a holier part of this little church. This has been reserved for you by God as a great reward." Then, consoled by the happiness of this revelation, waking wholesomely from sweet sleep, exceedingly joyful, rising from the straw of his bed, he entered the church and did not cease to give thanks, as was fitting, to God and to Saint Hilary, day and night for a long time. For what he had previously, as a supplicant, taken care to request through the unflagging persistence of prayers and fasts, he now rejoiced that God had granted him to obtain -- attributing this not to his own merits but to the grace of Almighty God.

[17] When therefore in praises of this kind, as was said, he was pressing upon God for no small time with a contemplative devotion more than usual, and was consuming his flesh by mortifying it beyond measure through the affliction of incredible abstinence, certain Brothers of that same place, men of good quality who reverenced his fraternity with the love of exceedingly great affection, asked him what the reason was that he was mortifying himself beyond what human nature could endure. When they cautiously inquired about such things, since he neither wished nor was even able to conceal the aforesaid matter, he told them everything: He communicates the revelation made to him: what he had desired there and what had happened to him from heaven. They in no way resisting his prayers and not at all reluctant in regard to what had been divinely promised and granted to him, they inquired how or when this should be done after God's approval. He in turn answered, saying that he would do nothing -- whether concerning the restoration of the church or concerning the translation of the most sacred body -- without the counsel and permission of the Bishop and the aid of the King, namely Clovis, who at that time possessed imperial power far and wide.

[18] From there, after a short time, having received an opportunity to go to the Bishop, he gathered together his most intimate and most loving friends, He goes to the Bishop: so that together with their unanimous counsel he might proceed there, and whatever he needed to say or advise might be done in common with them. When they had arrived there, the Bishop himself and the entire clergy, having received him with fitting honor, loved him readily and deservedly as a brother and holy man. He is honored by him and the citizens of Poitiers. For by that same Bishop and the other inhabitants of the city of Poitiers, his holy prayer was so greatly loved that they did not cease to frequent the same place, namely the monastery of Saint Hilary in which he dwelt, out of love for his preaching.

[19] When therefore these things, which are written a little above, were communicated by the aforesaid man and his most intimate friends to the Bishop, and it was made known to him how by revelation it had happened to this elect one of God, he gathered together the elders from the entire order of the clergy and very many seniors dwelling in that same city, and proceeded to that aforesaid place where Saint Hilary rested bodily. There, with that same holy man elected Abbot by all, He is elected Abbot of the monastery of Saint Hilary. he entrusted to him all that seemed to pertain to that place, speaking thus: "Brother and Lord, all that has been enjoined and commanded upon you by divine revelation to be done, whether in restoring the church of the Saints or in translating the sacred little body of our Patron, do not wish to delay or put off any longer. For I am ready, if it please you, to give you myself and all my possessions in aid."

[20] Meanwhile, while the holy man most strenuously resisted accepting the power of governing that place, and attempted to withdraw himself from it by many excuses (which it would be far too long to narrate), and this was by no means granted to him, he asked the Bishop to go with him together to the King's clemency, lest such a matter should be begun without his aid. When the Bishop had consented to his holy request in this matter, he laid down the staff of pilgrimage, accepting -- though compelled -- the rod of correction, not solely for the augmentation of his own honor, but much more for the improvement of others, with God's grant. Then the Bishop and the Abbot together, having set out on the agreed journey, arrived before the aforesaid King Clovis: the Bishop, as was fitting, on horseback; the Abbot, as was his custom, on foot. When this was immediately announced to the King, He approaches King Clovis, namely that the said Bishop had come there together with the aforesaid Abbot, the King, glad at the Bishop's arrival and made exceedingly more glad because he had merited to see the face of such a man whose holiness had so often been proclaimed in his presence, quickly rising from his imperial throne, hastened with a great throng to meet him, and received him He is honorably received; with a fitting embrace, together with the Bishop, with due honor. And immediately, after they had enjoyed familiar conversation together for a little while, they decided to attend to the delights of a banquet. There, as is the royal custom, with very many princes seated at table, a certain miracle occurred through the merits of this man which must not now be passed over.

[21] For when the King, while dining, ordered a certain stone vessel of glassy color, marvelously adorned with gold and gems, to be brought full of wine, it happened that he himself first took up the same vessel, afterward offered it for drinking to this holy Abbot (although the latter did not wish to drink wine); and it fell from his hands, I know not by what accident, onto the table, and from the edge of the table it was broken into four pieces. When this happened, one of the cupbearers, as quickly as he could, running there, gathered the pieces together A broken vessel is restored by prayer; and gave them to the King. The King, somewhat saddened by this -- more on account of the observation of those reclining at table than for the loss of the vessel -- yet with a cheerful countenance said to the Abbot: "Lord, for the sake of your love this vessel has been reduced to nothing, for unless it had been brought to you by me, it would by no means have fallen from my hands and been lost. Know therefore what God may do through you for the praise and honor of His name; and so that some of these reclining here, who still serve idolatries in the pagan rite, having spurned the faith of the Holy Trinity, seeing this, may not delay to believe with us in Almighty God." Thus cautiously admonished, the holy man, wringing deep sighs from his heart for the frailty of his flesh, but trusting exceedingly in the mercy of God as was his custom, received those same four little pieces and, just as the fracture itself showed, joined the fragments together into their former state. And clasping the vessel thus joined in his hands, leaning for a brief moment with bowed face and arms upon the table, he prayed to God. When his prayer was quickly completed, he returned to the King the vessel so perfectly restored and made whole that no one could discern any sign or trace of the fracture. What praise was rendered to God by all who saw this, not only by Christians but also by the pagans themselves (of whom a great company was present), it is not necessary to say. In that same hour, when the King and the rest rose from the banquet and gave thanks to God as was fitting, all who were known to be present there, deceived by pagan error, confessing the faith of the Holy Trinity, were baptized by the Bishop in the sacred water of baptism.

[22] When these things had been accomplished, as has been said, the King, joyful and exultant, proceeded to his chamber; the Bishop and Abbot, praising God, went to their lodging. When they had spent the night inquiring there and awaiting the next day, and had celebrated the offerings of the Mass with the King present, the same Abbot asked the King that a place for speaking privately with him, together with the Bishop, might be designated. He receives funds for restoring the church of Saint Hilary: After this was granted to him by the King as he requested, he told him everything -- how and in what manner it had been divinely revealed to him concerning the restoration of the aforesaid place and the translation of the most holy body of Saint Hilary. The King, understanding all this with attentive mind, on account of this man's speech seasoned with heavenly salt, and having recognized the good will of the Bishop in this matter, gave thanks to God from the depths of his heart; moreover promising that he would voluntarily grant whatever he should desire in gold or silver or other precious things for accomplishing this. Gladdened therefore by such permission, with divine providence ordering all things, generously enriched with a great sum of money for accomplishing the aforesaid matter by the same King and his faithful men, he returned together with the Bishop, bearing that care above all -- that with God's help he might accomplish the appointed work as quickly as possible.

[23] Therefore, when the restoration of the church, together with the translation of the most holy little body, was being accomplished with the Bishop helping beyond his means after the divine concession, and also with the other inhabitants of that city, He translates the relics of Saint Hilary: and the same holy man Fridolinus was selecting for himself, separately, the relics of the same Saint Hilary which he had formerly so ardently desired, to be carefully bound together in a single small casket; it happened that when all this had been accomplished, two presbyters from overseas regions, namely his kinsmen, came to the Bishop of that city. When they were asked by him whence and why they had come and of what profession they were, He is visited by two presbyter kinsmen. they replied that they came from Northumbria, a certain region of the English, and were seeking their near kinsman named Fridolinus, and that they, though unworthy, enjoyed the priestly ministry. Having received them with honor, he sent them through his messenger to the lodging of the kinsman they were seeking. When, beholding him with the desired sight, they recognized him, they could hardly address him for sorrowful joy. For this often happens when any beloved friend, long sought, is at last found under extreme desperation: that from a joyful heart an unavoidable weeping is wrung forth by joy. When he, looking at them intently, recognized them to be his kinsmen, and from their sure report discovered that they had come there for love of him, he embraced them, as was fitting, with fatherly embraces, received them into his dwelling, and carefully inquired about everything -- what sort of or what manner of affairs were going on among the princes of his region. In the midst of this and many other things that were narrated, they long employed sacred conversation with one another.

(a) Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, departed this life in the year 367 on January 13, as was then said in connection with his Life.

(b) That is, the part of the monastery fortified like a camp against hostile attacks, and in which guests were received.

(c) Clovis I began to reign from the year 479, at least toward the end; he embraced the Christian faith in the year 494. But when King Alaric of the Goths was defeated in the region of the city of Poitiers in the year 507, he subjugated Aquitaine, as was proved elsewhere.

(d) Adelfius, Bishop "from the city of Poitiers" -- or, according to others, "from the city of Ratiatum," or "from Ratiate," so called from the Ratiatensian district of the Pictavian region, about which see Gregory of Tours, chapter 54 of On the Glory of the Confessors -- subscribed to the Council of Orleans in the year 508 or the following one. This Adelfius should therefore be considered the Bishop of Poitiers at that time. The people of Basel wish to read "Bishop of the Rauraci" and claim him as their own.

(e) Blessed Peter Damian asserts in his sermon on the Translation of Saint Hilary that the monastery was in the suburb, but is now enclosed within the city walls, commonly called the "Basilica of the Greater Saint Hilary," because there is another which is commonly called "Saint Hilary of the Cell." In the latter, Saint Hilary is believed to have lived and died; in the former he was buried near his wife and Saint Apra, his daughter, as was said more fully in connection with his Life.

(f) Concerning the destruction of this place about the year 409, when the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi entered through Aquitaine into Spain, we spoke in the same place in the Acts of Saint Hilary. Moreover, afterward the Pictavians were under the Goths, when they could not restore it.

CHAPTER III.

Commanded to depart for Germany, he builds various churches in honor of Saint Hilary.

[24] After the same holy man had dined happily with them and had commended himself to his bed on that same night, fortified with the sign of the holy Cross, Admonished by the appearing Saint Hilary to betake himself to Germany: Saint Hilary appeared to him for a second time, addressing him thus: "Brother Fridolinus, why do you delay to fulfill what you promised to God and to me, when you merited to separate for carrying with you a certain part of my body? Therefore do not tarry here any longer, because it is granted by God to your nephews that after your departure they should not cease to provide for the service of God in this place." Then when the same man of God, Fridolinus, diligently inquired, as was permitted to him, where he commanded him to go, the answer was given to him that he should not delay to hasten the course of his journey to a certain island of Alemannia, surrounded on all sides by the waters of a certain river called the Rhine, and there commend himself to the faith of its inhabitants.

[25] Meanwhile, when he had awakened, stupefied by this sacred vision, a messenger of the Bishop came, saying that the Bishop had been struck with an irremediable paralysis in all his limbs. Coming there quickly with his nephews, he found him so weakened in all the limbs of his body that no movement was perceived in him except the vital breath, which he was still drawing faintly from his chest. Then the holy Abbot Fridolinus, He restores the sick Bishop to health, trusting in his accustomed medicine, namely the clemency of God, prostrated himself in prayer. When the prayer was completed and he rose, drenched with the anxious effusion of sweat and the marvelous flow of tears, the Bishop likewise rose up with him, saying that he felt or had nothing wrong in any of his limbs. When such grace of God was so openly and visibly displayed there, both of them, the Bishop and the Abbot, together with the others who were present there to prepare for the funeral, praised God.

[26] Then in the morning, when he disclosed to the Bishop everything about how Saint Hilary had been revealed to him in a vision that same night, commanding him to hasten his step without delay to the place indicated, the aforesaid Bishop, stupefied at such a vision, grieved so greatly that he did not care to retain life after his departure. For not only he, but the entire clergy and the leadership of the whole kingdom, so greatly lamented the absence of his fatherly presence that not even the inhabitants of his own region would have grieved so much when they saw such a Patron departing from them. What more? [He bids farewell to the Pictavians, and despite their resistance proceeds to Germany,] The one whom the sweetness of his own kingdom, or the most pleasant affinity of parents, or the delightful possession of his paternal inheritance could not withdraw, unless he should accomplish what was enjoined upon him by the divine Majesty -- how or by what blandishments could that place and its inhabitants, among whom he dwelt as an exile, succeed in preventing him from fulfilling what he did not doubt must be accomplished at God's command? Having taken leave and permission to depart through the holiness of prayer before God and Saint Hilary, when he gave the kisses of peace to the Bishop, he entrusted to his other friends, in their sure and promised fidelity, his most dear nephews of whom we spoke above -- whom, compelled by divine command, he was leaving not only as exiles but as orphans, lacking his fatherly care. And so he was surrounded by all the people of the city of Poitiers, so that, resisting their clamor and compassion, he could barely extricate himself from them to take up his step of departing thence.

[27] Having also taken up his journey in this manner, carrying with him the relics of Saint Hilary, He goes to the King: he first approached the aforesaid King and revealed to him everything that had happened to him by divine agency. From the King he received authority so that wherever he should find the aforementioned island -- which was still entirely unknown to him -- he might freely do everything he wished there in the name of God. Having received such authority and obtained the grace of exceedingly great consolation, he departed joyfully from the King. Going on from there, he came to a certain river called the Moselle, and there, having built a certain monastery in honor of Saint Hilary on the bank of the river, He raises three churches to Saint Hilary, he did not wish to stay longer than was needed for this monastery -- of which we spoke above in the preface of this booklet -- to be completed. Proceeding thence through certain hollow mountain valleys, on a certain mountain called the Vosges, he similarly built a church in honor of the same saint. When this was completed there, he went to a certain city that in Latin is called Argentina, in which also he built a church in honor of the same saint.

[28] When he departed from that same city, he directed his journey through the monasteries of the Kingdom of the Burgundians into a certain region called Rhaetia, for the purpose of visiting the Bishop of Chur. When he stayed in that city called Chur for a time, until he had built a church there in service to Saint Hilary, he inquired from the inhabitants of that city whether they knew of any island anywhere, surrounded by the channel of the Rhine, still uninhabited and uncultivated by human inhabitants. They replied that they knew of no other without human habitation except one only, which they acknowledged was not yet well known to them. He comes to the island of Seckingen: But nevertheless they indicated where that island was and by what road he should come there. When, after innumerable fatigues of so long a journey, he at last barely arrived there, wandering, he was made so joyful that he entirely forgot that he had previously endured any hardship.

[29] Immediately therefore, hastening in with eager stride, he entered that same island without questioning the surrounding people, solely for the purpose of investigating whether a place suitable for building a church might be found there. Taken for a thief, The citizens without delay, and the inhabitants dwelling round about, when they saw him in that place, wandering here and there as if idle, rushed there greatly angered, demanding of him why he had dared to enter that island so imprudently and to wander there like a lurker among cattle, Beaten with whips, he is driven out: in the manner of wolves. And they drove him out, beaten harshly with whips, beyond the excuse of his outlay.

[30] When they thus resisted the aforesaid holy man with great hostility, not once but very often, and promised him no hope of resting there, he again went to the King and from him received that same place -- from which a little before he had barely escaped as a fugitive with his life intact -- as his own dwelling, By a royal donation he receives possession of the island. through a charter confirmed by the King's own hand, to be possessed in perpetuity by himself and his posterity. For it was not doubted that from ancient times the place pertained to the royal authority. Fortified with such a gift, as well as the glory of another honor, by the aforesaid Emperor, who loved him greatly, the King caused him to return to that same island through his envoys, with this stipulation: that if anyone should wish to act in any way against this imperial grant, or should presume to dispute with Saint Fridolinus over this same place, he should be punished by death without any delay of excuse.

[31] Up to this point, O diligent reader, know that I have not deceitfully invented this booklet but have only rewritten it, and that nothing of my own has been added except only the rustic verbal construction. I profess that I composed this for no other reason than that the same book in which this saint's deeds were contained, having been lost long ago in an incursion of pagans on that same island, was revealed to me while I was a pilgrim in Gaul -- whether the same book or a copy of it. Whence this history was obtained. But this is certainly not known to me for sure, whether it was the same. But this I affirm without doubt that I know: that when the book was denied to me for taking away with me, and I did not have writing instruments to copy everything down, I committed to memory the substance of the account found therein, as was said in the preface of this book or booklet. The rest that follows here, know that I learned from the truthful report of certain persons living on that same aforesaid island. For thus, while I inquired more carefully there, they professed that they doubted whether some of the following miracles -- which I did not find in that aforesaid book (for a certain part of it at the end was missing from my sight) -- were true; but they affirmed that they knew others to be true through the certain narration of their forebears.

(a) In Peter Damian "Gallinaria" is added, which we have corrected and judged should be read as "Secania," as is evident from what follows.

(b) Above, number 1, called Helera, or Hilariacum, says Bruschius, and this is believed to be the monastery of Saint Nabor. The brothers of Sainte-Marthe err by more than two hundred years when they say it was founded by Saint Fridolinus with the endowment of Bishop Sigeboldus of Metz and dedicated in the year 714. But Meurissius, On the Bishops of Metz, page 151, reports that Hilariacum was founded from the foundations by Sigibaldus, dedicated in honor of Saint Paul, and enriched with revenues and privileges in the year 734, so it is found in an ancient parchment manuscript of this monastery. Either therefore Helera and Hilariacum were different places, or when the first monastery was destroyed, it was rebuilt by Bishop Sigeboldus or Sigibaldus of Metz.

(c) Argentina, called Argentoratum by earlier writers and Strateburgum by later ones, commonly Strasbourg; which we have proved to have had its own bishops at that time in the Diatribe on the Three Dagoberts, book 4, chapter 4.

(d) Those which had begun to be built in the fifth century by the holy brothers Romanus and Lupicinus in the Jura Mountains, and by their disciples in neighboring places, were preeminent.

Consult the Acts of Saint Romanus on February 28, and of Lupicinus on March 21.

(e) Bruschius in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Chur calls him Puricius or Pruricius.

(f) The same Bruschius says that church is now dedicated to Saint Martin. Sprecher in the Chronicle of Rhaetia, page 223, asserts that traces of the church and the adjacent cell can still be seen.

(g) Theoderic, King of the Frankish Austrasians, son of Clovis, as was proved above.

BOOK TWO.

CHAPTER I.

The monastery of Seckingen built, and miracles wrought.

[1] After the aforesaid holy man Saint Fridolinus received, as has been said, this above-mentioned island from the King as his own dwelling and had safely entered it, as he had always desired, it happened that he hung a certain small casket, full of the relics of Saint Hilary, He places the relics of Saint Hilary at Seckingen on a tree. which he had been accustomed at all times to carry hanging from his shoulders, on the branch of a certain tree, until he might grant some inevitable repose of slumber to his weary limbs -- having previously been exceedingly fatigued by the weariness of a long journey, walking around that place solely for the purpose of finding where he could fittingly build a church. Meanwhile, when he rose with his limbs somewhat refreshed, as human nature required, for the customary prayer of the highest dignity, he was so greatly astonished that he retraced his steps a little; for he saw the enormous mass of that same tree, on which the aforesaid casket hung, inclined all the way to the ground, Soon it was inclined to the earth: and he marveled that all the branches from the lowest trunk to the top seemed to have humbled themselves in a cluster before God -- the tree itself, however, not uprooted but bent downward in the manner of a pliant willow branch... Is it not a wondrous thing that a holy man, supported by no strength of the flesh, had so long carried From this he understands that the place was divinely designated for him: that which the great strength of the tree itself was in no way able to sustain? When that elect one of God saw this, he knew without doubt that he was to remain there; and giving thanks to God, he took up the same casket and departed happily from there, seeking hospitality. There still survive many who have very frequently seen the stump of that same tree.

[2] From there, needing hospitality, when he entered with his disciples the house of a certain man of good quality He seeks hospitality: named Wacher, the wife of that same man came to meet him, not only asking what he wanted but, with a very furious mind, rebuking him, she addressed him thus: "I wonder, Brother, why, having passed by the other dwellings in this village, you come only to me, when you see that our buildings have been entirely consumed by fire, except one little house in which my husband and I barely find rest by dwelling in it. He is harshly rebuked: And you are not content to go alone, but you wander about with an assembled multitude of others -- I know not whence you or they come -- not at all knowing what straitness of hunger constrains us this year." While she was saying such things, He bears it patiently: and he was patiently listening, her aforesaid husband came and, having somewhat softened his wife's anger, received him with pious love, because he had recognized that the dignity of exceedingly great holiness was flourishing in him. And he immediately loved him so greatly that on the next morning he asked him to baptize his daughter, whom his wife had borne that same night, and to raise her from the font of sacred baptism. When his wife became very angry at this, He baptizes the host's daughter: because such a foreign and famous man was chosen as her co-father, her husband increased her anger further by granting to this holy man a great part of his inheritance and possessions. But afterward, when the praiseworthy piety of this man became known to the aforesaid woman, she too entrusted to him the daughter whom he had raised from the sacred font, so that, imbued with the holy studies of letters and consecrated with the divine veil, she might henceforth remain in the service of God on the aforesaid island. This woman, The first nun there: as is reported, was regarded as the first nun in that place, whose father and mother and other relatives showed great charity to this same holy man.

[3] Going on from there, when he approached a certain man who was using the baths, for the purpose of obtaining some aid for the service of God, He receives aid from a man miraculously admonished: and the man absolutely refused to do this, it happened that as the saint was already departing, the aforesaid man could not get out of the baths until he recalled the saint and donated to him a certain part of his inheritance, and moreover asked him what else he wished, so that he might give it to him.

[4] Meanwhile, after some little space of time, when the aforesaid King had died and the same holy man Fridolinus was reducing the aforesaid still-wooded island to open ground, having cut from the roots the forest of dense trees He suffers new harassments from the inhabitants, and cleared the unfit thicket of thorns, as seemed proper to him, it happened that the same people became rebellious against him from whom, as was said above, he had lamented in the King's presence that he could not endure such great injuries. For they promised without doubt that they would act in such a way that no such foreign and exiled man would dare to enter that same place, which they affirmed pertained to themselves by hereditary right. Then, when such threats and harassments were very frequently hurled at him, it was agreed among their common friends that, with both parties coming together in one place, what was good and useful should be adjudicated. This judgment was appointed to take place on that bank where now the greater flooding of the same river overflows the island. For at that time the entire river, namely the one called the Rhine, maintained the course of its channel not there but on the other side; The judgment to take place on the bank of a shallow channel, nor was any part of it diverted there, except rarely -- namely when snowmelts from the Alpine ridges, liquefying through the fervent heat of summer, entered the same river through the hollow mountain valleys. But it had never at that time swollen to such a great flood that it would long be necessary to use a boat there.

[5] Thus indeed the elect one of God, distressed lest he be deprived of such hope, having no confidence except in God, day and night did not cease to propitiate the Divine Majesty for himself, so that on the appointed day, with all assembling for such a judgment, the invincible and glorious power of His greatness might be shown. Then on a certain evening, because on the following morning that aforesaid judgment was to take place... he at last went out from the island alone, sad indeed, yet trusting in God's mercy. At the place mentioned above, where the aforesaid river, having spread somewhat wider and more freely by a certain flow, extended against that same place, he immersed in that water, with the help of a certain friend of his, some fir trees, just as they still appear there, saying thus: "May God Himself, who created all good things in heaven and on earth, turn this water against His enemies, so that henceforth they may not be able to cross to destroy this place so insolently as they did before." Having done this, he returned, By prayer he turns the course of the river to the opposite side: and spent that entire night keeping vigil in prayer. In the morning he saw the channel turned to the other bank, which on the previous day had appeared so dry that the foot of no one crossing it would have been moistened. Moreover, he heard his enemies on the other side not only praising God but also crying out to him to pray for them, lest they incur divine vengeance.

[6] From there, rendering praises to Almighty God, when he built a church without any contradiction on that same place in honor of Saint Hilary, He builds a convent of nuns: and established a canonical life for nuns there, he had with him a certain disciple of great ferocity whom he himself had raised from the sacred water of baptism. When this disciple determined to build a prison-like structure for the same congregation, everything that was built by day was destroyed from heaven during the night. But yet his Master was of such great gentleness A truly gentle man, that when boys, as is the custom of children, climbed the branches of trees to gather fruit, he would stand by the trunk and watch for their descent, so that more gently placed upon his own back, they might have no fear of falling. And when they fled from his aforesaid disciple, he said to them: "Flee, O wretches, flee lest he come who will condemn you without mercy."

[7] This man of such great holiness, when he had lived happily in God for many years, and in the same island, having assembled a congregation of nuns, many miracles were shown through him by the bountiful divine grace, Renowned for miracles, he dies on March 6: passing through the boundary of this light that is common to all mortals under the inevitable condition, he ended with a most blessed death on the day before the Nones of March, destined to live forever with Christ in heaven, for which he had never ceased, while dwelling in this life, to yearn with the highest effort of all his desire, advancing from virtue to virtue.

[8] When Blessed Fridolinus was building the convent of nuns at Seckingen, there were two full brothers who excelled in nobility and riches at Glarus, one named Urso, the other Landolphus. Of these, Urso, seeing the holiness of Saint Fridolinus, He receives possessions from Urso, donated to the convent of Seckingen a portion of the possessions that were his, with the full consent of his brother, and confirmed his donation with instruments duly secured. After this alms was promised, Urso died. After his death, his brother Landolphus seized for himself against justice all the possessions donated by his brother to the aforesaid convent. When Saint Fridolinus had long resisted before the judges Which were occupied by the brother after Urso's death: and had not succeeded in obtaining his full right, it was said to him that if he wished to have an end to his lawsuit, he should present in the trial the donor of those possessions, so that the testimony of the witness might properly and legitimately approve the donation made. Blessed Fridolinus accepted this sentence and asked the Landgrave, whose name was Baldeberch, to assign a certain day and a place of judgment for himself and his adversary on the aforesaid matters. Having obtained these, Blessed Fridolinus came to Glarus, [He raises him from the dead and presents him before the tribunal to bear witness to the truth:] and standing over the tomb of Urso, having opened the tomb, calling him by name, trusting in the power of Christ, he raised him and, taking him by the hand, led him from there six miles to the town called Rankweil, where he found the aforesaid Landgrave presiding over the judgment, and the adversary present, and a great multitude of opponents. There Urso, having been raised, said to his brother Landolphus before all: "Brother, why have you despoiled my soul by seizing the possession that pertained to me?" He replied: "Best of brothers, I restore your portion to you; moreover, I add my own portion to the same convent of Seckingen." When this was done, Saint Fridolinus led the deceased back to the tomb He receives doubled possessions. from which he had brought him. In testimony of the deed, these verses were written down on the spot:

"These brothers give estates to Fridolinus for the Lord; After a long time, one denies them when the other is buried. The worthy one raises him as witness and leads him kindly; The crowd trembles with fear; the Saint redeems his rights."

Blessed Fridolinus, after many distinguished signs of virtue and illustrious deeds, fell asleep in the Lord on the day before the Nones of March. Let us now come to certain other miracles of his that occurred after his most sacred death.

(a) The following words, lacking any good sense, were here interposed: "and as anyone weighed down by an exceedingly heavy burden succumbs, burdened to the last day."

(b) Clarona, or Glarona, commonly Glarus, one of the thirteen cantons of the Swiss, near the above-indicated Rhaetia and its city of Chur. The people of Glarus at this time live mixed as regards religion, of Catholics and Protestants.

(c) Urso, says Canisius in chapter 24, the elder by birth, being captivated by the manner of the man of God, was initiated by him in the rudiments of Christianity.

(d) Others write Baldebrecht.

(e) On account of the repeated mention of the day of death, this miracle seems to have been added afterward, and perhaps by the same author, when he had been informed of it by others.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles wrought after death at the tomb.

[9] A certain man, miserably weakened from his earliest infant years by an irremediable paralysis, led his life for many years without the functions of life. In him, with his body always lying there as though a dead corpse, only the soul survived, barely palpitating, and in the whole mass of his near-dead carcass only the eyes were recognized as living, and they were shown to be like sentinels of dead limbs. For the tongue, first shaken by the movement of no volubility, was unable to produce any voice by the striking of air. For the voice denied the passage of its sound from the lowest chest-pipe through the palate for the uttering of words. The digital connection of his hands, withered and limp through corrupted nature, did not render the service due to his body; nor did the foot, lacking its own tread, sustain the languid structure of the limbs, since the whole mass of his frame was so torpid that almost no movement prevailed in it. Meanwhile, while the wretch was so debilitated, the feast of Saint Fridolinus arrived. Therefore, as an innumerable throng of people rushed from all sides to his basilica, as very often happened, to implore his clemency, the same paralytic was brought by his parents into the same church. A paralytic is cured: There, while all were attending the sacred solemnities of the Mass, the aforesaid man, lying prostrate upon the tomb of the same saint, was so restored to the long-desired health by God's grant and the interceding merits of Saint Fridolinus that in that same hour he enjoyed the service of his hands, the touch of his fingers, the step of his feet, and the posture of his whole body. When this renowned and manifold miracle was accomplished, as has been said, what praise there was from the clergy and all the people needs no narration.

[10] Moreover, another miracle that we know was performed by him we dare not pass over. For at a certain time, when a certain abbess, the daughter of a certain king, was staying with her father in that same place, it happened that the royal palace in which they were caught fire. The King himself, having assembled his household servants and the rest of the common people there, hastened to extinguish the fire of the conflagration, lest the church that was nearby should be consumed. Then his aforesaid daughter, the ruler of that place, running to the church, prostrated herself upon the tomb of Saint Fridolinus, with the clear purpose and resolve that she would not depart from there, even if she should end her life entirely consumed to ashes. When the church itself was nearly entirely consumed by fire, so that all fled from it, A fire is extinguished: utterly despairing of being able to extinguish it, Saint Fridolinus himself was seen by the King and the others to have come with his priestly mitre and to have wiped away all the inflammation of the fire from the roof of the basilica in such a way that not even any darkening of soot appeared there. With these and many other miracles shown from heaven through his merits -- namely among the blind, the deaf, the mute, the lame, and those oppressed by various diseases -- we can also narrate another miracle that we know has occurred very often.

[11] Therefore a certain incursion of pagans, as often happened, visited that same place, and when all had fled, they left behind only the sarcophagus of Saint Fridolinus with his most sacred little body. During incursions of the pagans. And after a little while, when a breathing space had been granted them to recover their strength, a certain servant of his own, named Wenilo, did not hesitate to expose himself to the danger of death for love of his Lord while he lived, The body is carried away from the miraculously opened tomb: uttering these words, strengthened not in the manner of rustics but with the confidence of a man of good quality: "I do not care to live any longer if I see my Lord burned by the pagans." Fortified by this hope, running back, he entered the church and, kissing his tomb, prostrated on the ground, he addressed him thus: "Lord, Lord Fridolinus, by the Almighty I beseech you either to arrange that I, your servant, be immediately slain by the approaching pagans, or to allow yourself to be carried away from here with me." Having said this, he lifted from there a certain very large stone, of such great size that it would take six men to lift such a weight from there. Then, having uncovered the same mausoleum, he placed upon his own shoulders the bier in which so sacred a treasure lay, and thus laden with so sacred a burden, he reached the others, not at all feeling the weight of the load, because without doubt he was being carried by the one whom he was carrying. Then the clerics together with the nuns, hastening to meet him, received him most joyfully, praising God and his holy merits. Afterward, when very many of the clerics and noble laymen tried to carry him to a certain castle, he became of such great weight that they could not advance even one footstep. When they had tried this for a very long time with many taking turns, It becomes easily transportable for his own people, otherwise immovable. at last very few of his own clerics and his own nuns came forward and carried him so lightly that they seemed to themselves to feel almost no heaviness at all. And this is proved to have occurred not only once at that time, but even still, whenever the pagans come into this kingdom and he is carried out of the church, it happens that he sometimes makes himself so light for his bearers that they profess to feel no weight at all; at other times he makes himself so heavy that they are unable to go farther with his weight.

(a) Some neighboring lord or minor king is understood.

(b) Stumpf reports that in the year 938 the Hungarians invaded this island and were repulsed by a certain farmer called Hermiger; to which times what is here related can perhaps be referred.

MIRACLES

From the German Life by Henry Murer.

Fridolinus, Abbot of Seckingen in Germany (Saint)

[1] The honorable Jacobus Wyssius, a citizen of Bremgarten in Aargau, A boy is healed from great debility, had begotten from his lawful wife Margareta Seggin a son who was afterward so weak in body that within a year and a half he could neither stand nor walk -- and his loving parents wished to spare no expense, to the sorrow and groaning of those under them. When, on the advice of good men, they brought the same son to Seckingen to the tomb of Saint Fridolinus and poured out their pious and Christian prayers, behold, by the wondrous working of God through the patronage of Saint Fridolinus, this boy, who had come there tied to a horse, soon set himself to walking on foot, having obtained the long-desired health, to the great joy of his parents and gratitude shown toward God and Saint Fridolinus.

[2] A similar miracle occurred in the year 1572 to a ten-year-old boy, Another from a grave illness. the son of a certain innkeeper of the city of Baden at the sign of the Angel, named Salome Hofmann. This boy had been afflicted for twenty weeks by a most severe illness and for two months could not be moved from place to place except by the hands of others, nor could he be helped by any human remedy. When the illness was growing daily worse and, on the advice of good men, a vow had been made to carry him with an annual offering to Seckingen to Saint Fridolinus, the boy unexpectedly rose during the night and, having set out for Seckingen, came to the church. There the priest, at the mother's request, touched and rubbed him with the sacred vestments in which Saint Fridolinus used to celebrate Mass (for they are still preserved there) and with his abbatial staff, joining sacred prayers with the invocation of Saint Fridolinus. When the sacrifice of the Mass had been completed, the boy raised himself up and asked to be allowed to go alone to the inn; and he went there in good health, to the great wonder of all.