Heldrad

ON BLESSED HELDRAD, ABBOT OF NOVALESA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 875

Preliminary Commentary.

Heldrad, Abbot of Novalesa in Italy (St.)

Segusio is an ancient town in the Subalpine region, Secusia to later men, but in present times Susa, fortified with a very strong citadel at the confluence of two rivers for guarding the barriers of Italy: from here, as far as Mount Cenis, which divides France from Italy, very well known for the throng of those traveling to and fro, The monastery of Novalesa in the Subalpine region the valley of Susa stretches along the second of the aforesaid rivers; a third part of which, besides other estates, Abbo the Patrician is read to have assigned to the monastery of Novalesa, in the time of King Pippin: which Abbo Francesco Agostino della Chiesa, in the Chronological History of Piedmont, endowed in the 8th century: makes the first Marquis of Susa. And there is extant, in confirmation of a foundation of this kind, in Ferdinando Ughelli, volume 2 of Italia Sacra, a diploma under the name of Charlemagne, suspect to us for various reasons: above all, because in it Charles entitles himself the Great; because he professes that it was made by him with regard to his son Hugo, a monk in the same coenobium; because he confers on the aforesaid monastery, in France, the Monastery of St. Medard, the Church of Blessed Mary of Montmartre, and the Abbey of St. Nicasius at Reims; finally, because it includes some estates which were given to Novalesa only after the death of Abbot Frodoin; to say nothing of other faults of the subscriptions and clauses, which a reader skilled in matters of this kind will easily observe, so as to judge that this diploma is either wholly fictitious, or interpolated in many ways: as has happened to very many other Instruments of this kind through those who, with the permission of Princes, restored the original parchments destroyed by age, fires and ruins.

To which, however, as to what is principal in this matter, concerning the time of the restoration of the Abbey of Novalesa, we more readily give credence, whether founded in the 6th century? than to those who suggested to Benedict VIII, when he was about to confirm its possessions to the coenobium of Breme, sprung from that of Novalesa, that the monastery of Novalesa had been built in the time of King Theoderic by Abbo the Patrician. Hence, however, the aforesaid Agostino, and from him Ughelli (in whom the bull of Benedict is read entire, given in the year 1014), wrote that there were two Abbos, both Patricians; of whom one founded the Abbey while the Divine Benedict was still living, the other, about two centuries later, restored it, after it had been destroyed by the Lombards under Duke Rodanus, breaking into Gaul through the valley of Susa around the year 575, when Bonitus was presiding as Abbot of Cassino: Godo having been appointed the first Abbot, whom Abbo himself, having become a monk, is reported to have succeeded; meanwhile St. Arnulf is reported by Agostino to have been crowned with Martyrdom at Novalesa in that irruption of the Lombards: which is plainly uncertain to us, since we find nowhere any trace of him being religiously venerated there under the name of martyr, either in the life of the Abbot or after his death. But of Heldrad, both Saint and Abbot of Novalesa around the year 845, we have as witness Filippo Ferrari, the cult of Blessed Heldrad in it, whom Bucelinus transcribed, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, citing the tablets and proper Office of the Church of Novalesa, bringing forward these things at the 12th day of March: Aldradus, Abbot of the Order of St. Benedict at Novalesa, an Alpine town, is venerated in the region of Piedmont near Segusium: his body rests in the sacred building of the same town, where there is a coenobium of the same Order, and it has veneration on the day mentioned above.

Of this matter, however, we have not only Ferrari as witness; but we also bring forward old Acts (which he says are contained in the Office, but confesses that he did not obtain them), sent in the year 1654 by the Reverend Father Giovanni Giacomo Turinetto, Rector of the College of Turin; from which it is established that he died after thirty years of rule on the third day before the Ides of March, in the reign of Louis, son of Lothar, to whom twenty years in the Empire are given from his father's death up to 875. These Acts were written not long after the capture of Jerusalem by the Christians in the year 1099; as is clear from number 25, where the author says that he had heard, in the presence of William, Abbot of Breme, by the author of the Chronicle of Novalesa. what those had narrated who, on returning from that expedition, had escaped shipwreck by the invocation of Blessed Heldrad, from whose mouth he received these things. The same author wrote the Chronicle of Novalesa, and carries it down to the first years of the twelfth century; in which he speaks thus of Blessed Heldrad: This one too (Hugo, son of Charlemagne) having died, the most excellent Father Heldrad is set over the Abbey: and so we have taken care to write most devoutly, in his praises, the life of this Father in our times, as much as we could gather from his miracles and virtues, both seen and heard or read, by which the Lord deigned to work through him.

Further, the last year of Louis II or the Younger, which was, as has been said, 875 of the Christian Era, his predecessor Hugo, son of Charlemagne, or the next-to-last preceding, leads back through thirty years passed to 844, in which the Chronicle of Saint-Bertin, published from our copy by André Duchesne in volume 3 of the Frankish writers, narrates how Hugo, Priest and Abbot, son of the former Emperor Charlemagne, was killed with very many others in that unexpected encounter in which Pippin, son of the former King Pippin, meeting in the district of Angoulême the army hastening from France to Charles, who was besieging Toulouse, the leaders having been killed, either captured the rest, who took to flight before the encounter, few scarcely escaping, or let them go despoiled and bound by oath. Of which Hugo and his brothers Drogo and Theoderic, Thegan, a contemporary of the same Emperor, writes in the Deeds of Louis the Pious, that he ordered his brothers, namely those born of the concubines Regina and Adelluida, to be tonsured in order to mitigate discord, and to be instructed in the liberal disciplines in the year 818; whom he afterward honorably established: to Drogo he gave the Bishopric (of Metz), and to Hugo Coenobitic monasteries: the richer ones, namely, Novalesa above all with the right and title of Abbot; we can suspect that the others were those which in that spurious diploma of Charlemagne are falsely subjected to the monastery of Novalesa, perhaps for this sole reason, that they had been assigned to Hugo by his brother the Emperor. From what has been said, however, there necessarily fall the things which the Chronicle of Novalesa records about the aforesaid Hugo, born after the year 800: as if his father (who Einhard testifies took the aforesaid concubines to himself only after the death of his third wife Luidgard, who died in the year 800) had commended him as a boy to Abbot Frodoin to be brought up, immediately after the defeat of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, in the year 774: and with regard to the same son, a monk there, nay Abbot, had given the estates which are named, whereas he himself died in the year 814, Hugo not yet having passed the years of boyhood. Nor is there more likelihood in this, that his father Charles conferred on Hugo the Abbey of St. Medard of Soissons, and that Hugo himself, famous for virtues in it, was also famous for miracles after death, and was honored with the public cult of the Saints: he, so far from having died at Soissons in that monastery of his, that no memory extant there or anywhere else speaks of Hugo buried there: whether also Abbot of St. Medard. and he could not have held that Abbey while his father lived, nor even held it after his death, unless perhaps some part of the revenues with a title of lower note, namely of Dean or Prior: or certainly after the death of Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis, in the year 842: if indeed it is true, what the Sainte-Marthe brothers report in the Catalogues of Abbots, that the prefecture of this monastery also was assigned to the same Hilduin by the Emperor Louis, and restored again after a three-year exile; which last, as it is wholly uncertain, so the translation of the Relics of Sebastian and Gregory made from Rome to the same place by the aforesaid Hilduin altogether persuades that the first is true, since he would by no means have deposited so great a treasure in a coenobium foreign to his jurisdiction.

Some fragments of the Chronicle of Novalesa have been published in volumes 2 and 3 of the Frankish writers from an ancient manuscript, established by his brother Louis? which Pierre Monot formerly had in his possession: the earlier part of which contains the deeds of Abbot Frodoin and of Charlemagne, mixed with not a few fables; and the things among them that concern Hugo seem to have been devised on the occasion of his having been placed in this monastery by the command of his Brother Louis to learn letters under Abbot Amblulf; on whom the same Emperor conferred the Valle Baudonisca with the castle of Bard (which in the rejected diploma of Charles is said to have been given at the request of Louis and Hugo), and, on Amblulf's death around the year 820, the title and dignity of Abbot; subjecting to him from time to time various other Abbeys in France, as they happened to fall vacant by the death of Abbots; and that in so great a number that Claude Dormay, who most recently wrote the history of Soissons, says that Hugo was for this reason commonly called the Great Prefect of the monks. the successors of Blessed Heldrad, The aforesaid Hugo having been taken from among the living, Heldrad, as we said, is substituted. Then Eirardus and Demontius govern the Abbey until the year 906, as Agostino has it from the aforesaid Chronicle, which we greatly wish to come out entire, as one that will have great credit in the things which the author narrates as done in the 11th century after the foundation of the monastery of Breme, either as an eyewitness of the events or instructed by eyewitnesses.

For under Abbot Domnivertus, who was the third after Blessed Heldrad, the monastery having been destroyed by the Saracens who had crossed the sea to Fraxinetum to dwell there, the monastery of Novalesa was also burned, the two monks who had remained for its guard having been killed; so that I strongly doubt whether the slaughter of Arnulf does not belong here, and whether the former devastation under the Lombards was not invented to catch at the glory of a more ancient origin, Abbots of Breme in the 11th century, just as the first Abbo the Patrician, founder of Novalesa under St. Benedict, was invented. But Domnivertus, through fear of the Saracens, withdrew with his monks to Turin with the treasure and the books: and there he and his successors Pellegrinus and Gezo resided, until Adalbert, Count of Ivrea, after the beginning of the eleventh century, founded and endowed the Abbey of Breme, and granted it to Abbot Gottifredus, to whom the diploma of Benedict cited above is addressed: to Gottifredus succeeded Odilo, nephew of Odilo of Cluny, and another Heldrad: on whose death a certain ambitious monk, Oddo by name, greatly disturbed the state of that monastery: until, he having been removed, the Abbey was given to another much better man: with which words Duchesne indicates that the Chronicle of Novalesa ends (from which, divided into six books, the fragments have been published), with that solemn clause of the ancients, explicit. That other much better man we believe to be William; the one whom these Acts mention toward the end: and under whom we suspect that the writer of these Acts himself was a monk there; since in the Chronicle he often names it this our Abbey: but the Church of Novalesa, from which it proceeded, our most holy mother.

Over this, restored again, Peter is read in Francesco Agostino della Chiesa to have been set as the first Prior, The Priors of Novalesa, in whose favor Humbert, Count of Maurienne and Marquis of Italy, confirmed the privileges from the donation of this monastery in the year 1093: and thereafter the successors of Peter are named from the instruments of the archive of Novalesa, down to Philibert Maurice Provana, son of Giovanni Francesco, Count of Frossasco, who is today Abbot, says Ughelli, the first after Antonio Provana: who, having recovered the Abbatial dignity, was afterward Archbishop of Turin, says Francesco Agostino, consecrated in 1631, died in 1640: subject to the Abbey of Breme, since which time the Abbots render obedience to the Apostolic See alone: whereas before the Prelates of Novalesa, content with the sole title of Priors and Lords, had professed subjection to the Abbey of Breme, which still flourishes today at the town which is called Breme near the Po, where there is now the very strongly fortified Arx Monachi, as the often-cited Agostino teaches all these things in chapter 16. It is wonderful that he did not wish to treat of this Abbey and its Abbots, which we judge to be marked not more than fifty miles below Turin on the Po, and to be called Breme on the maps; and to have as its nearest cities Alessandria, Casale and Vercelli, at an interval of eight, ten or twelve miles. But Ughelli, in the Bishops of Turin, says that Abbot Gezo brought the monks back to Novalesa in the year 987, and brought them back thither from Turin: but this agrees neither sufficiently with the tablets of the Breme confirmation, where it is said that it was first built at Novalesa, and afterward, when the persecution of the Saracens was imminent, by the zeal of Adalbert, the Marquis devoted to God, was transferred to the town which is called Breme, a congregation of Regular brethren having been gathered there: nor with the age of Peter, the first Prior, as is put forward, certainly after the restoration. Wherefore we would rather believe that this restoration belongs to the times of William of Breme.

LIFE

Brought to light from manuscripts by the Reverend Father Giovanni Giacomo Turinetto.

Heldrad, Abbot of Novalesa in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 2445

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE

[1] To the praise and glory of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, we do not fear to relate the things which we have learned of Blessed Heldrad by truthful narration, under the attestation of faith and Christianity. For although, weighed down by the multitude of sins, we live as strangers from the merits and conversation of the Saints, and far cast away; yet, in the hope of the glory of the sons of God, by no means doubting the resurrection of all flesh, we hope that through purity and the confession of our offenses we shall at some time come to their fellowship. And because the divine Scripture instructs us, saying: It is good to hide the counsel of the King, but to make known the works of God is best and salutary, we fear it is dangerous to our salvation if we do not take care to commit to writing those works of God which we have learned from the faithful to have been wonderfully performed through Blessed Heldrad.

CHAPTER I

The course of his whole life.

[2] Blessed Heldrad, then, ^a was born of no lowly parents in his Gallic fatherland, which is called Provence, and, that it may be said with certainty, he was a burgess and native ^b of the town of Amboliacum, fenced on every side by the Alpine mountains: In Gaul noble indeed in race, but nobler in virtue of soul. Now it usually happens that nobility of race begets ignobility of mind: but it was not so in Heldrad, the holy man; who, having changed the trappings of the world and laid aside the buskin of high birth, desiring to cleave to Christ the more meanly and abjectly the more illustriously he had lived in the world, enriched by the poverty of the supreme King, born of a noble family himself made poor for Christ, conformed himself to the poor. While still, then, covering the soldier of Christ under the lay habit, in the same village from which he had drawn the origin of his flesh, he built a church dedicated to the merits of Blessed Peter, and made some dwellings for the reception of guests. He also laid out there a most beautiful garden, from which all who came could have food. But while, as cares grew more frequent, he was compelled to think of one thing after another, he spends his ample resources on divine worship, he took care to distribute the not small substance left to him by his parents, partly to churches, partly also to the poor. This having been received into the bosoms of Christ's poor, released and free from the bonds of that age in which that time of life, given to youthful flames, is wont to be entangled, he escaped naked from the shipwreck of this world.

[3] and from desire of a more perfect life, Looking round about with the eyes of his mind, searching more sagaciously within the most worthy sanctuary of his thought, whether anywhere he could find a worthy place where the Rule of the monks and a stricter observance might flourish, and religion abide more solicitous in the offices: and going round Gaul, he traversed the Province familiar to him, and, passing through the Aquitaines, came to the Spains: thence, gliding back, he returned to Italy, where he learned from the report of many that there was an outstanding coenobium, called by its ancient name Novalesa, because the beginnings of a new light and the commencements of holiness are known to have arisen and been founded there, which Ambulfus ^c ruled with vigilant and skilful discipline: under whose venerable governance most worthy hosts of five hundred monks were serving the Lord. he becomes a monk of Novalesa: At the arrival, then, of this most holy man, the same ruler of the aforesaid coenobium, the instinct of the Holy Spirit teaching him, besought him graciously to be received by him; and he was received even more worthily than he asked. Accordingly, received and kept within the cloister of the monastery, gathering with every effort the things that are worthy of monks and suited to their studies, and, like a most prudent bee, storing up all the best things within the hives of his heart, being in a short time instructed according to the rule, he penetrated most studiously with swift flight whatever the Rule of St. Benedict, the edicts of Columban, and the writings of Basil ^d contain.

[4] At that same time, then, a King, Lothar ^e by name, of the progeny of Charles, was governing excellently the bounds of the Italian kingdom, very strenuous in arms and intent on good works, and there, Ambulfus and he gave alms very frequently; he honored more attentively and endowed more often the aforesaid coenobium, outstanding in holiness: among whose very great gifts is a place near the mountains, called ^f Pagnus by name by the inhabitants of Italy, which, as a royal privilege of virtue, he bestowed on the aforesaid coenobium of Novalesa, in which a number of three hundred monks, illustrious in religion, was at leisure for Christ in assiduous studies. And when Ambulfus, the venerable Pastor, departed this life, ^g by the consent of all Hugo, son of Charlemagne, is established in the supreme seat: and, Hugo having died, he is created Abbot: who exalted the nobility of his race by nobler merits, and, as long as he took part in human affairs, worthily taught his subjects by words and works. But when ^h Hugo had died, the monks with one voice of all established the aforesaid Heldrad as their Abbot. Pressed with words, he refused; exhorted by examples, he resisted; but drawn by force, he consented. For he knew that one and the same abjection is deserved by him who, invited, long resists, and by him who, not invited, thrusts himself in.

[5] Having then obtained the venerable governance of rule, who or how great he was, both our eloquence gives way, having led his life splendidly, he foreknows its end: and the multitude of his virtues surpasses human powers for narrating. For he was illustrious in the wealth of virtues, known for the abundance of wisdom, filled with the overflowing of kindness, adorned with the flowers of a studious mind, safe in the rosy vigilance of chastity, and, to say it generally, for as many spaces of days as he lived, with so many privileges of charisms did he adorn his life. For the Saints have this as their own, that, while still oppressed by the weight of the flesh, they already begin to foretaste and to taste what or what kind of joys they will receive after death. For on the fourth day before, leaving his dwelling of clay, he should fly free to the heavens, with cheerful face and placid gaze of mind, having called to himself all his disciples, whom he had graciously enslaved to the service of Christ, had taught by sacred examples, and had raised by holier oracles to hope for better things, he indicated to those standing by, even in his presence with worthy supplication, that he was being dissolved.

[5] What groans were there, what tears, and how many sighs were poured forth by him to Christ, that, leaving the left-hand road, he might hold without stumbling the right, by which the elect are to be led to the prize of the heavenly calling; and lest the malignant party, kindled by the torches of envy, should be able to put forward any delays, and set the nets of its malignity before the feet running after the Lord. For the affection of the inner man wrung out tears, which the violence of love poured forth from the inmost bowels of the heart. The pupils groaned for their master: they were saddened at the present departure of the Father, whose glory they believed would be outstanding. Finally, having raised his eyes to heaven, and he dies piously: whither his spirit had always been intent, and having recovered his strength a little, he asked for the viaticum of the Lord's Communion and received it most worthily: and so, amid the hands, tears and groans of his disciples, he gave back his soul to God. Blessed Heldrad lived under monastic discipline seven years, and presided thirty. All of which he adorned with the titles of Christianity, enriched with the excellence of holiness, and praiseworthily exalted with the summit of virtues. He died on the third day before the Ides of March, in the reign of Louis, son of Lothar ⁱ, and was buried at Novalesa, his beloved Coenobium; where he flourishes with miracles, shines with benefits, excels in healings, is present in powers, the Lord Jesus Christ granting it, whose honor and glory, virtue and excellence lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER II

Miracles performed in his life and after death.

[6] Having run through in some fashion the life of the most blessed Heldrad, we have touched on nothing at all of the miracles performed by him, fearing lest what had been said too little by us should be taken away from his glory. Nor is he believed by us to be of less merit for this, that we wish to compose a book of its own for the multitude of his miracles. For many and wonderful are the things which he did either in youth or after taking up the warfare of Christ: but through the devastation of the gentiles ^a and the sloth of the writers they are known to have been blotted out by oblivion and torn away from memory by vices. So God did not wish to take away a few of his miracles from our knowledge, so that from the least things graciously performed greater ones may lie open to the understanding: but to one for whom a few do not suffice, many will be of no profit. I shall therefore set about and apply my zeal to explaining the things worthy of relation, which he performed not only when already wholly joined to God and linked to the hosts of the heavenly citizens, but also those which, while still shut in the prison of the body, he praiseworthily performed with God's help.

[7] While, then, Blessed Heldrad was still breathing the vital airs, and was already ruling Novalesa, his beloved coenobium, with pious governance, serpents hostile to the monks, he is said to have ordered some of his men to build dwellings fit for monks in the valley of Briançon. The disciples, therefore, setting out in obedience to the commands of their most holy master, were eager to carry out the commands quicker than said, and the precepts with the near foot of obedience. For when the Brethren came there, they found a place fit for the dwellings of monks: which they adorned with churches, built up with buildings, and from the abundance of cells called it the Monastery. That valley indeed was fit for the capture of game, altogether most abundant in fishing, but exceedingly full of serpents: whose infestation the aforesaid Brethren being unable to bear, they returned to the Father, reporting what they had done and what they had suffered. he shuts them in, But he, having soothed them with gentle admonition and anointed them with gentler words, kept them with him a few days and ordered them to press on with the works begun; promising that he would follow them without delay. The venerable man, then, coming to the place and finding a multitude of serpents, gathering them into one by divine power, commanding them to follow him as he went before with the staff which he held in his hand, and leading them in a mass into a slightly hollowed place, set a boundary for them by the support of his merits, designating that they should never go out anywhere further. Behold a wonderful thing, and to be wondered at with every regard. The place is established, the exit is designated, the serpents obey the man whom they knew to be loved by Christ: and what the servant of God promises with his mouth, this the serpents keep in deed.

[8] While the illustrious man was keeping the Angelic watches by night, a certain dumb man had come to his sacred thresholds, speech to a dumb man, asking for the speech of his mouth and that the bond of his tongue be loosed. But the household of that coenobium and the boys, thinking that he was pretending and so deceiving them, driven by threatening words and afflicted with blows, when they now achieved nothing, cast him out of doors. But he, whose conscience was conscious of the deed, and whose mind was burning with the desire of speaking, turned himself wholly to Christ, and, coming to the tomb of the Saint, prayed in his heart, slept, received words, and, restored to his former health, returned joyful to his own. At that same time a certain man named Ubertus likewise came, limping on both feet, walking to a lame man and beat upon the Father with groans, and besought him with sobs that he would confer walking on him and grant him health. And the Man full of God, whose mind, while he lived in this world, always overflowed with the bowels of mercy, quickly regarded the one praying, and, appearing to him in a dream, restored as quickly as possible to their former health the members held by long infirmity. By such benefits, then, often bestowed upon the infirmities of many, he who presided brighter than the sun in heaven began to be urged as illustrious in this world.

[9] About the same times a certain woman had come, seeking help at his coenobium: he restores milk to dried-up breasts, for she said that the abundance of milk had been taken from her, her sins and very many crimes demanding it. And when she had persisted for a long time in assiduous prayers, visited by him in a dream, she was ordered to return to her own house: for before she had completed a stade on the way, she began fully to pour forth milk, and her breasts to swell, so much that the abundance of milk poured out was wetting her bosom. A miracle is also reported, outstanding among many, that he very often bestows very many benefits not only on men but also on cattle. For ^b the people of Pagno in the Italian fatherland very often bring candles fashioned in the shape of beasts of burden, in his honor, to the sacred lights of the same church. Wonderful to say! while they pray and pay their vows to Blessed Heldrad, the beasts left at home are restored to their former health, and are given back safe to the uses of their masters. ^c

[10] The very great solemnity of Blessed Peter had come, to which a dumb boy came from a hidden province, who had never had the proper speech of his mouth: and while he spent the night at the tomb of the Saint, as a special favor Heldrad, the most holy man, came to him in a dream, who, opening his mouth, loosed the bond of his tongue. About the same times a certain pestilent plague was laying waste throngs of men the plague is checked: and herds of animals, so that five or eight funeral biers were carried through the churches and the cemeteries together: their kinsfolk turned to the Lord, and besought the suffrage of the most holy Heldrad, that they might be saved from those deadly afflictions. On a certain day, therefore, they came with one mind to the church of Heldrad, offering him a silver chain most humbly as a gift on account of this slaughter. He, regarding those who prayed, and protecting those who besought, from that day onward they were rendered unharmed.

[11] When this Saint, by the debt of fatherhood, bore the care of almost five hundred Brethren, and provided all things necessary for that Congregation, and showed himself imitable to all in holiness and religion and honesty of morals, yet was never withdrawn from the sight of the Creator; he signified without doubt that he was to be numbered with those Angelic spirits to the assemblies for restoring peace who, although they are sent on offices, are yet never separated from the inner vision of the Almighty. At a certain time, then, at the instigation of the Devil's savagery, so pernicious and so lamentable a discord arose in the parts of Turin, that each, if he could not do it secretly, openly seized the goods of others; neither were Ecclesiastics spared for the sake of religion, nor women; innocence availed nothing for children, nor did venerable age for the old: and this madness had grown so much that they contrived ambushes not only against strange travelers, but exercised the same ambushes also against their kinsmen and fellow-citizens. And the powerful, who ought to have repressed the crimes of the lower, lay likewise under the same wicked deeds.

[12] And so, on account of these dangers, it seemed good to the Bishops and other Religious men that a Council should be gathered, ^d in which, by holy decrees, as has been said before, the impious should be ruled by the governance of the holy laws, and the cultivators of piety and justice might lead an undisturbed peace. A spacious and pleasant place, then, is decreed for this Council, which, beside the river Po, is called by the inhabitants ^e Veraria. Further, it pleased not only that men from very many provinces should be summoned, but, for the fear of God and greater reverence, the bodies of the Saints were carried to the aforesaid place. the Relics of St. Heldrad are brought: Among the other bodies of saints of most illustrious fame, then, the body of the most holy Heldrad was carried to the same place. Fame flies about, and swiftly announces to all that so great a patron is present. While, then, all who were present were flowing together with great running to the most holy Relics of this eminent Father, so great a multitude of men thrust itself upon the bridge of the Po itself that the bridge fell. And when many, plunged in the waters, despaired of life, it came about that a certain woman, who burned principally with love of this Saint, a woman sunk in the waters, and had come from the desire of seeing St. Heldrad himself, held down by the frailty of feminine nature, breathed out her spirit under the vast waters. And when her sons were seeking their mother along the banks of the river, and were crying out to St. Heldrad with plaintive wails, the clothes of the dead woman, which were being carried disordered by the dashing of the waves, appeared from afar.

[13] her sons praying for their mother, she is restored to life: Her, then, the sons followed weeping for five miles, namely as far as that place which the natives call Molinas: and there, according to the will of God and the compassion of the blessed Confessor, they received back their dead mother. And when the sons threw themselves upon their mother's corpse, and imputed all their loss to the most holy Heldrad, they said: O Confessor of Christ Heldrad, we came to you with pious mind, that you might confer good things and prevent evil: we see that you have given us the contrary, and in return for good you have conferred evil, death in place of the health which we sought: these surely are not the recompenses of the Saints. And amid these words of bitterness, lifting the corpse of their mother, they carried it back to the Confessor of Christ and threw it under the very bier on which the most holy body lay. A wonderful thing! the woman revived from death, who, after she had been touched by the Relics, received the most entire health, and with her sons returned with joy to her home by the way by which she had come. O truly Confessor and disciple of Christ, whose footsteps you have now imitated in the showing of miracles. For as He brought back to life Lazarus, four days dead and stinking, so this man too restored to the joyful health of her former life a woman long lying hidden under great whirlpools.

[14] When a certain pilgrim woman was passing by the borough of Novalesa, on the day on which the feast of the most holy Father Heldrad was being kept, she took lodging at Novalesa; another violates his feast and while, weary from her journey, she had sat down there a little while, she began to sew together the ^f undergarments of her companion. But when the men of that place saw her working, they began to rebuke her with gentle voice and admonition, that she should desist from the work begun, and celebrate with the rest of that place the solemnity of so great a Father. She answered that she did not know the Saint, and did not keep his festival. What more? after she had finished her companion's work, turning to her own work, she took her shoes to mend them. But while she was gripping in her fist the awl with which she wished to sew, she wounds her hand, the nails began to be driven vehemently into her palm, and to be pressed together with such force that the tips now seemed to stand out on the outer part of the hand from the nails. And the blood running down from the wounding of them, she began to utter loud cries, and to cry out with great clamor and fear of him whom a little before she had boldly despised. Seeing this miracle, all who had flowed together to see the woman and, penitent, she receives it back sound: began to glorify the Lord and to entreat the most blessed Heldrad. And, counsel having been shared as to what they ought to do about her, they carried her to the Church of Blessed Heldrad, which was not far away, and all equally began to beseech him with tearful voices to have mercy on her. Their prayer was heard: for the pain is put to flight, the palm is stretched out, and, flesh filling up all the marks, that woman was raised to such soundness that, only the scars appearing, a greater health seemed to be in her. She, having made her thanksgiving, bound herself by this vow, that she would visit the church of the same Saint every year, as long as life accompanied her.

[15] a deaf and dumb boy is healed. We think another miracle also must be related. At the Paschal solemnity, when a certain boy had unworthily received the Lord's Sacrament, he went out into the fields, lost his sense and memory, and, made as it were a brute animal, was led home. When his parents inquired diligently of him how this had happened to him, they recognized that he had been deprived of the office of hearing and speaking. But because the fame of Heldrad was now spread far, they led the boy to his church; and there, when the parents poured forth prayers with fatherly affection, they received him fully restored inwardly and outwardly.

CHAPTER III

Other miracles.

[16] Since, of the things which are read in the holy Church, two things are set before writers, namely that they should fear to incur the charge of falsehood in what is added, and the divine judgment in what is withdrawn; as we avoid adding superfluous things concerning the miracles of this Saint, so too we by no means conceal the things which we know he undoubtedly did. It is reported in Gaul A sound mind is restored to a madman: that a certain nobleman, when he had had seven sons of most vigorous youth, their mother having died, took to himself another wife. But because stepmothers are wont to lay snares for stepsons, she is said to have given such a potion to her husband's seven sons that all were turned to madness: and while the others were wandering through the diverse regions of the world, the divine goodness directed one of them to Blessed Heldrad. And when the monks had seen him walking unsteadily, tearing his clothes, striking others, not sparing himself, moved by his unhappiness they shut him in the church of Heldrad himself, and on the next day received him back unharmed.

[17] As we also press on with the description of the memorable deeds of this most holy Father, it comes to our memory that, when his body had been carried for necessary causes to a Council gathered in Burgundy, at the place which is called ^a Aiguebelle, it met a man lame in both feet. When all the people besought him in supplication to deign to show his divine power there, the miracle performed showed of what great mercy this Saint was. a lame man is raised up: For at once he was made whole, and stood upright on his feet, and followed the body of Blessed Heldrad with sturdy step. Again, when a certain Priest had unworthily handled the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of the Lord, he incurred a weakness of his hand and whole arm. He, coming to Blessed Heldrad, sought his medicine, which was given without price, and after he had paid his vows, and bound himself before the altar of the Confessor himself to serve the Lord most honorably, he was restored to full health.

[18] Again, when the divine goodness had granted to a certain poor man, for the solace of his life, an only son, one at the point of death is saved, he began to fall sick: and at length, the trouble of the diseases increasing, that boy was brought to such sickness that, life now failing him, he showed every likeness of the dying. And when the spirit was now only fluttering in his breast to go out, his father, weeping pitiably for his son, came to the church of the holy Confessor: where, after he had prayed for a very long time, he received the boy, whom he already believed buried, as a solace of his old age for long times. When a certain young man had risen carelessly from his seat, he injured himself below the eyebrow on some obstacle. On which occasion, the blood, gathering in a mass around the eye, was turned toward the face. a lost eye is restored: But when worms, swarming out of the corrupted matter, were striving to darken not only the eye but also the brain, and no skill of physicians could heal it, he ran to St. Heldrad: and, entering his basilica, he felt at once so great a benefit that worms coming out of his head covered a part of the pavement with great force: and that hollow which the worms had filled a little before, the neighboring flesh filled, so that a little after no trace of that infirmity appeared in him.

[19] A certain woman presumed rashly to enter the church of the most blessed Heldrad: a sinful woman is kept from entering the church: but because her prayer was execrable, she was repulsed from the door of that basilica and could not enter at all. Wherefore, turning to herself, and conscious of her crimes, she reflected that she had suffered this repulse for her sins. Taking to her course swiftly, therefore, she went to a certain religious monk; in whose ear having confessed all her sins, the burden of her old sins having been laid down through true Confession and contrition of heart, she was received into the basilica as into the most honorable bridal chamber of Christ. There was a certain young man in that village which [is] at the foot of the mountain on which the Church of the holy Archangel Michael is situated in worthy honor, who was so troubled by very frequent fevers that, whether in summer or in winter, he had no remedy of relief. And when the constant fever wasted him incessantly, a young man wasting with consumption, and had so worn him down that, all his sinews being emptied, it had wholly despoiled him of youthful vigor, he fell into another languor of long suffering, in which he could not be turned in his bed unless he enjoyed another's help; nor did he use the office of his own hands to taste anything. When he heard of the wonders of Blessed Heldrad, he began to beat upon the ears of his father with suppliant prayers, that he should carry him, now lifeless, to the basilica of so great a patron: for although his health seemed beyond hope, he wished yet to come to the most holy Heldrad.

[20] But the father, seeing him burdensome and troublesome to all through the weariness of his very long languor, devoutly stretching his palms to heaven, poured forth most pious prayers to the Lord, that at least the freedom of dying might be present to him to whom the faculty of living was not granted. Having said this, he put the body of his son, already for the most part dead before its time, upon a wagon, he is carried toward Novalesa, and, oxen having been yoked to draw it, they set out. And when they had come to the place which is called Valley of the Station, the church of St. Heldrad, which, placed on the summit of a rock, offers a long view to travelers, appeared to them. And again, when the sick man, lying on his back in the wagon, curiously inquired of his companions what these buildings were, he heard that this was the House of Blessed Heldrad, which he was seeking for his health. Exceedingly gladdened by this answer, he began to ask them to set him down on the ground and allow him to kiss the soil, and to send ahead an embassy of prayers to that most pious Saint, whose basilica he now saw from afar. Taking this saying ill (because they had often set him down for his needs), and having seen it from afar, they forbade him such a petition with harsh answers: and, wounding the oxen with sharper goadings, they went on their way more quickly.

[21] And when that weak man saw them hardened against his will, with such effort as he could, since he could not get down otherwise, he contrived a fall for himself. And when he fell from the vehicle, the earth received him gently, so that you would have thought that Blessed Heldrad had received him in his own arms. After he lay prostrate on the ground, as he had wished, and sang inwardly the little verse of David, My soul hath cleaved to the pavement; quicken thou me according to thy word; he also uttered with louder voice a prayer: Almighty God, whose coeternal son we have heard, and faithfully believe, appeared visibly on earth, enlightened the blind, he throws himself from the wagon, cleansed the lepers, cured the paralytics; and who through His blessed disciple Heldrad hast willed to renew these same miracles in our times also: I beseech Thee for me also, that Thou either bring back my soul to Thee from this laborious prison, or, if it please Thee, health being granted through the intervention of Thy blessed Confessor Heldrad, that I may be able to experience the office of living. Ps. 18, 25

[22] Having completed this prayer, he began timidly to raise himself upon his elbows and the joints of his hands, and, stretching himself out little by little, raised at length through all his limbs, he began to stand firmly on his feet. And he, suddenly stupefied by the miracle, believed that all that he saw was in dreams and not in the truth of the thing. But when he felt full vigor present in his limbs, and he receives health trying his step, he showed to those who saw him a manly walking, so that he became the leader of those whom a little before he had had as his bearers and the guides of his journey. And so, following him as far as the tomb of St. Heldrad, they invoked with worthy voices the Lord, who had willed to grant so great a patron to their ages. After some time, his parents having died without other children, he was established as heir. His kinsmen and neighbors, then, compelled him to take a wife: the same, having taken a wife, becomes crippled: but he, fearing to offend the holiness of so great a father, at first refused, and, as they demanded importunately, yielded, believed them, and took a wife. That very night on which he knew his wife, he was made so bent that he could not look at heaven except lying on his back, so that up to the last day of his departure he remained bent, the cure despaired of; yet he did not cease to frequent the thresholds of that church at the yearly return.

[23] But because the memorable deeds of this Saint are so numerous that they can by no means be set forth in our speech, we have restricted ourselves to writing only those which, manifest of themselves from the newness of the times, could not be blotted out by antiquity, nor could anyone gainsay them with any presumption. a serpent having entered the mouth of a sleeping boy, When, then, a certain father of a household had a boy subject to his authority, he directed him to Mount Cenis to pasture the sheep, where it happened that, while the sheep were pasturing, he fell asleep in the heat of the sun with some other boys. And when a serpent wandered through the shrubs near him as he slept, and saw him snoring with open mouth, as many do; allured by the sweetness of the milk with which he had been given drink, it soon entered his mouth and slipped down even into his belly. And it came about that when a certain

one of them had awakened after sleep, and had seen the tip of the tail still remaining in his mouth, crying out with a terrible gaping, he made his companions rise up with a rush: and they, roused from sleep, seeing what had happened, led that pitiable monster, pregnant with a wicked pest, looking upon all with a grim face for the inward pain, all the way to his mother. She, first (as is the way of mothers) torn and much confounded, brought him to the most glorious Confessor of Christ, Heldrad. it is cast out at the sepulcher, And so, long wearied with praying upon the pavement, they began to sleep. After some time, at the hour at which the monks, rising from sleep, are wont to ring Prime, the mother, awaking, saw before his mouth, wrapped in blood and corruption, the serpent coiled after the manner of snakes. Rising therefore with swift haste, she snatched up the boy and brought him to the monks. And they, coming to the church of the aforesaid Confessor, and casting out the diabolical pest, rendered no small thanks to God and to His most glorious Confessor Heldrad for his very frequent benefits. In which deed the most blessed Father Heldrad seems to have merited the fellowship of the holy Apostles, to whom it was said: Put serpents to flight, cast out Demons.

[24] At another time also another miracle happened in the aforesaid monastery, a sacrilegious presumption no less astonishing, when the solemnity of Blessed Peter was at hand, which is kept by the neighboring peoples with yearly devotion in public markets. When, therefore, on account of the throng of the people, guards had been assigned throughout the churches, one of the dependents of that monastery, coming to the oratory of Blessed Heldrad, ^b asked the custodian for the cymbola, but did not obtain it. At the instigation of the devil, then, without the custodian's knowledge, he presumed with furtive rashness to take the cymbola from the altar; but what was not manifest to the weak eyes of the custodian did not lie hidden from the eyes of the Overseer above. The stupid man rejoiced over his clandestine deed; a little after he was to be sharply struck by divine vengeance. he is punished, Going out rejoicing to the market, having bought a girdle, he bound his leg, and suddenly falling to the ground, his ham turned to his knee and his sole to his breast, he became as one dead. Wonders follow upon wonders. In the aforesaid miracle the faithful boy was raised up, from the highest devotion of faith: but in this one the unfaithful man was terribly laid low, from furtive presumption. All were vehemently astonished at the wretched man, and he is sent back to the sepulcher: declaring that he had committed something by which he had deserved the wrath of the Judge above. And when he had breathed again a little, he disclosed what he had committed. The people, therefore, took him up, carrying him back to the sepulcher of the blessed man, and, tears having been poured out for him in prayer, he was restored to his former health, and all who had heard and seen glorified the Lord, who magnifies Heldrad His servant, who, for the correction of others, had terribly struck his own dependent who presumed in that way in his church, had corrected him by striking, and by correcting had mercifully healed him. those returning from Jerusalem,

[25] Nor do we think that this is to be passed over in silence, that Heldrad the servant of God opened the harbor of safety to those suffering shipwreck at sea. After the city of Jerusalem had been taken, [c] and the most famous temple had been reserved for the Christian religion by the Christian contest, certain natives of Italy, returning thence with joy, were hastening eagerly to go back to their homes. And when, after some days, ploughing the seas with prosperous success, they had sailed happily, contrary winds standing against them, a strong tempest suddenly arose, so that they were in peril: but the sailors, skilled in the sea, cutting the ropes, with the sails slackened and the mast lowered, hoped to row more tranquilly. But, the storms pressing them, not even so did the tempest abate, nay, growing stronger and pressing them more vehemently, with the waves alternating, they were carried sometimes above the billows, sometimes to the bottom, and very often they were covered by immense billows, the ship being almost broken up by the impulse of the winds and the force of the sea: and they, as is the custom of those suffering shipwreck, casting their baggage into the sea, lightened the ship: but, invoking also, in the customary manner, Blessed Nicholas, who is wont as if by debt to bring help to those suffering shipwreck, they were by no means delivered.

[26] Having invoked the Saint, they escape shipwreck: Another ship was accompanying them, which was so sunk before the eyes of all that not even one was left and saved. Whence, struck with horrible fear, they gave no further effort, but, abandoning all the tackle of the ship, they watched to what end they would come. And when they now despaired of life, one of those in peril, to whom Blessed Heldrad had become known by hearsay alone, signing with his hands in silence, intimated to them that they should invoke the same blessed Heldrad. They indeed refused, because they had not even heard a word about him. But he, setting forth to them a man admirable for holiness and famous for many virtues, obtained from them with much persuasion and many prayers that they should invoke him. Crying out, therefore, the men said with one voice: O Blessed Heldrad, help us wretches, placed at the extreme end of life: and at once a most welcome breeze is given, the serenity of the air is restored, the strong tempest is calmed, the restless sea is pacified: and so, using prosperous sails, they returned with gladness on a happy course to their own.

[27] In those very days a certain little dependent of the often-mentioned Coenobium of Novalesa arrived, as the author learned from a sworn witness. and learned these same things from the mouth of that man with much attestation; from whose mouth we, having heard his assertion, which he swore in the presence of the venerable Lord William ^d of Breme and of the brethren serving the Lord there, have written them down. But lest this should perhaps seem impossible to anyone, since God is wonderful in His Saints, and works wonders more gloriously in the least things; the Lord hath done all things whatsoever He would in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps, and every tribe and tongue serve Him, and the winds and the sea obey Him, whose kingdom and empire abides without end for ages of ages. Amen.

c. In the year 1099.