Wulfram

ON ST. WULFRAM, BISHOP OF SENS, AT FONTENELLE AND ABBEVILLE IN GAUL,

YEAR 741.

Preliminary Commentary.

Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, at Fontenelle and Abbeville in Gaul (Saint)

Section I. The sacred cult of the day of his Death and first Translation: the Life written, another interpolated.

[1] St. Wulfram distinguished various places by his holier way of life, and first, having left the court of the Kings of the Franks, he was appointed Archbishop of the city of Sens on the River Yonne, which then, having mingled with the Seine, flows down to Paris: St. Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, the Bishops of which city were subject to the Archbishops of Sens down to our own times. The people of Sens still honor St. Wulfram their Archbishop on March 20 with an ecclesiastical Office of nine Lessons, as they call them. We shall discuss the period of his tenure below. The other and principal place is Fontenelle, the celebrated monastery on the River Seine below Rouen toward the Ocean, he dies a monk at Fontenelle: called after its first founder St. Wandregisel, commonly St. Vandrille: to which St. Wulfram, having left his Archbishopric, withdrew, and as a monk holily completed his life on this March 20: already having become famous for his expedition to the Frisians, and the conversion of these people to the Christian faith through his preaching and miracles. His sacred memorial is inscribed under the 20th day of March in various and ancient manuscript Martyrologies. Of these, the Augsburg Martyrology has only the bare name Wulfrannius: inscribed in manuscript and printed Martyrologies: in the Paris Martyrology of our Labbe, the title of Confessor is added, which the Laetian manuscript calls him a Saint. Usuard wrote: "On that day, St. Wulfrannus, Confessor." The manuscripts of the Vatican, St. Peter's, Arras, Utrecht, and many others agree. The Martyrology of the Carmelites of Cologne: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, St. Wulfrannus, Confessor." Nearly the same is found in Bellinus and Maurolycus. But the manuscript of Ado of St. Germain des Pres: "On the same day, St. Wulfrannus, Archbishop and Confessor." The Centula manuscript: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, the burial of Wulfrannus, formerly Archbishop of Sens and Confessor." The Utrecht manuscript of St. Mary: "In the district of Rouen, St. Wulfrannus, Bishop of the city of Sens." Our ancient codex also under the name of Bede: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, St. Wulfrannus, Bishop, a man distinguished in miracles and learning." We omit to list others, both printed and monastic, of Wion, Menard, Dorgan, Bucelin, the Canons of Ghent, and the Gallic Martyrology of Saussaye. In the Roman Martyrology these words are found: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, St. Wulfrannus, Bishop of Sens, who, having left the bishopric, died there renowned for miracles."

[2] There exists in Surius the Life of St. Wulfram, and indeed, as is added, written by Jonas, a monk of Fontenelle, his contemporary, The Life written and attributed to Jonas exists in Surius, and dedicated to the most holy Prelate of the city of Therouanne and Abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle, Bainus, and Molanus adds in his notes on Usuard that it is seriously written. Bainus was installed around the year 700 and died in the year 707: his successors are said to have been Benignus, St. Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen, Lando, Teutsindus, Wido,

Ragenfridus, Wando, Austrulphus, who presided from the year 750 and following. Meanwhile, the author of the Life in Surius, chapters 4 and 5, names the last two Abbots, that is, forty or nearly fifty years after the death of Bainus. We have observed similar errors intruded everywhere on February 9 in the Life of St. Ansbert, from Abbot of Fontenelle to Bishop of Rouen, and on March 1 in the Life of St. Suitbert, Bishop and Apostle of the Frisians at the same time. Therefore we diligently sought out a Life not stuffed with these foul errors: and we discovered that the one Surius published exists widely in manuscript codices, and various manuscripts. even those written several hundred years ago, and we have the same from the manuscripts of Saint-Bertin, Thosan, Abbeville, two others on our own parchments, and others transmitted from the manuscripts of the monastery of Saint-Amand and Vauluisant in Burgundy. Finally, another distributed into eight Lessons, formerly customarily recited at Matins, which we had previously rejected as contracted, we judged to be the best of all, and we give it as plainly consonant with the truth. At the end it says, the other is omitted: St. Wulfram died on the 13th day before the Kalends of April, and was first buried in the church of Blessed Paul the Apostle, and afterward translated to the basilica of the holy Apostle Peter, and placed in the eastern part, another is given from a manuscript. where he still shines with signs and miracles. Only these matters concerning the time are indicated there. In the Chronicle of Fontenelle, in volume 3 of the Spicilegium published by Luc d'Achery, certain things described by Harduin. chapter 15 it says that Harduin, a Priest in the cell of St. Saturninus the Martyr, built by Blessed Wandregisel, an old man and full of days, was buried in the year 811, not unskilled in the art of writing, having left behind many volumes written by his own effort of Sacred Scripture and Homilies of the holy Fathers, also a book, one volume, of the Lives of Saints Wandregisel, Ansbert, and Wulfram, Confessors of Christ. the art of writing perhaps taught by Ouo the Frisian, The author of the interpolated Life in Surius asserts that he has his information from the Frisian priest Ouo, who, he says, "survives still among us, and skilled in the art of writing, has written many codices," and died around the year 750 under Abbot Austrulphus. Ouo could have taught the art of writing to Harduin, who is reported to have assumed the clerical habit at that time in chapter 13 of the Chronicle of Fontenelle, and at the same time could have handed down the Life of St. Wulfram to be written.

[3] The ancient author says St. Wulfram was translated to the basilica of St. Peter, with no mention made of the translation of the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, Translation of St. Wulfram to the church of St. Peter, which are reported to have been translated simultaneously at the end of the extended Life, and indeed in the year 729: whereas the author of the Chronicle of Fontenelle writes that this translation took place in the year 704, on the day before the Kalends of April. The author of Appendix II to that Chronicle, whom we shall say below wrote around the year 1060, narrates the same without indicating any day. But the author of the first Life more rightly asserts that the body of St. Wulfram was elevated and translated separately, which we believe took place on the Ides of October: which day is said in the Miracles, number 18, indicated to have occurred on October 15 in ancient Martyrologies. to be celebrated with the festivity of so great a Patron. The Centula manuscript Martyrology, under the said October 15, has these words: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, the Translation of Wulfram, formerly Archbishop of Sens and Confessor." The Brussels manuscript of St. Gudula: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, the elevation and Translation of St. Wulfram, Archbishop and Confessor." Other manuscripts and printed Martyrologies also make mention. Among these are the Cologne Martyrology of the year 1490, and the supplement of Hermann Greven to Usuard. The monks of Fontenelle celebrate this solemnity with an Octave. Furthermore, in the ancient Salisbury Breviary in England and the Amiens Breviary in Picardy, the feast of St. Wulfram is celebrated on the said October 15 with an Office of nine Lessons. But the solemnity of the Translation of the bodies of Saints Wandregisel, Ansbert, and Wulfram, which is indicated in the said Chronicle of Fontenelle to have occurred on the day before the Kalends of April, is commemorated on the said day in the manuscript Martyrology of Duke Altemps, written when England and Normandy were under the same Kings: and into it are inserted many Saints of both regions. Likewise, the same Translation is intruded into the Lucca and Blume copies of St. Jerome's Martyrology: but in which century is not clear. In the manuscript Florarium, the Translation of St. Wulfram, Bishop and Confessor, is reported separately, as in the mentioned calendars under October 15: which is more consistent with the shorter Life cited above, which we judge to be of greater value in antiquity. In which, however, we fear that certain deeds performed in Frisia, where the eight Lessons were adapted to be recited at Matins, may have been omitted, which we add separately from the longer Acts. We then add the history of the Invention and illustrious miracles, History of the Invention and miracles, which were performed after that Invention in the eleventh century of Christ. The first part is given from the Appendix to the printed Chronicle of Fontenelle; the latter from two manuscripts especially, of which one was sent to us from Amiens by Dom Jean de Saint-Martin of the Feuillant Order, who died in Paris in the year 1662; the other we possess written in an ancient hand: some things were published in the year 1663 in the Office of St. Wulfram for the Church of Abbeville in the Lessons which are recited during the Octave in the month of October and on Thursdays throughout the year, as will be said below, when we treat of the body of St. Wulfram translated to Abbeville: where also the relics and cult of the same among the people of Ghent will need to be discussed. We also have a rhymed poem about St. Wulfram transcribed from a very ancient codex of Saint-Bertin, and of the Translation to Abbeville. but because there is nothing historical in it not reviewed elsewhere, we omit it for the sake of brevity.

Section II. The series of deeds performed by St. Wulfram, distinguished by the times at which they occurred.

[4] We attempted to unravel the chronological difficulties, which are found most entangled among authors from the founding of Fontenelle and its first Abbots, Saints Wandregisel, Lambert, and Ansbert, St. Wulfram is born, his father Wulbert, on February 9 in the Life of St. Ansbert, sections 3 and 4, where we deferred what pertained to St. Wulfram to this March 20, and shall now attempt to explain. And first, the Acts relate that his father Wulbert spent his life in military service at the court of Kings Dagobert I and Clovis II. Clovis succeeded his father Dagobert, who died on January 19 of the year 644, and lived until the year 662. Under this king, St. Wulfram was born around the year 650 or somewhat later, as will be deduced from what follows. Then through the period of childhood and adolescence to manly age, he was imbued with the study of letters, even sacred ones, after the year 650, to the year (if it is permitted to proceed from the proposed calculation) about 670, and then he served at the court of Kings Clothar and Theuderic, sons of the said Clovis: of these, Clothar survived to about the year 676, when Theuderic succeeded him: but with him driven out, his other brother Childeric reigned, and when he was killed in the year 679, Theuderic recovered the kingdom, in the courts of Kings from the year 670, and lived until the year 693. St. Wulfram therefore served at court at that time, or as the longer Acts have it, having assumed the clerical habit, he was delegated to the care of the ecclesiastical order, and as is more explicitly related in the Abbeville Lessons, he was placed in charge of the administration of ecclesiastical affairs. He then began more and more to transcend all earthly things and to love and seek heavenly ones, having entered into familiar acquaintance with the monks of Fontenelle: in whose monastery he built a basilica in honor of St. Stephen, the first Martyr, and gave his possession, he gives possessions to Fontenelle around 690, which is called Mauriliacus, in the territory of Gastinais, his birthplace, to the aforesaid sacred place through the text of a will, made in the fifteenth year of the reign of Theuderic, perhaps around the year 690, if in place of the fifteenth year the twelfth is read, since he reigned only fourteen years, unless the last year of his life, 693, is understood; and it is added that the man of God had not yet ascended to the rank of the episcopate, but at what time this occurred we now inquire.

[5] Among his predecessor Archbishops of the city of Sens was St. Amatus, who, unjustly accused of the crime of treason by malicious persons, was ordered by King Theuderic first to go into exile at Peronne, after St. Amatus, and then to be detained in custody by St. Maurontus in the monastery of Breuil, as these events are read in the Life of St. Maurontus on May 5 and in the Acts of St. Amatus on September 13. This expulsion occurred after the kingdom was recovered by Theuderic, therefore in the year 680 or shortly after. The successors named in the Gallia Christiana by Claude Robert and the Sainte-Marthes are Medericus, Hildegarius or Hildegrannus, Auripertus, Arnulfus, and Landebertus or Lambertus, five in number, and 5 others, to whom the monk of Auxerre adds two others in his Chronology: but with these dismissed, should not twelve or even more years be attributed to the other five Bishops? So that, namely, by the election of the Clergy and people, and the consent of the King, and indeed the favor of the Princes, they be appointed and then consecrated: as the Acts indicate was done for St. Wulfram? Granted, he becomes Archbishop of Sens around the year 693, since no other King is indicated besides the aforesaid Theuderic, let us say that around the end of his reign and the year 693, this election and consecration of him as Archbishop of Sens was carried out, when he himself had lived about forty years. We would prefer, however, to follow those asserting he was made Archbishop under Clovis III. At that time when St. Wulfram was diligently administering the archbishopric he had received, apostolic men were laboring to convert the nation of the Frisians to the Christian faith: Saints Willibrord, Suitbert, and other companions, as is explained at length in the Life of St. Suitbert on March 1. But after some years, as the Acts about St. Wulfram state, in administering the pontificate, he was admonished by a heavenly oracle to preach the word of God to the Frisian people, which in the longer Acts is said to have been done with the permission of King Childebert and Prince Pippin in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 700, he goes to Frisia in the year 700, also in the thirteenth year of Prince Pippin. And rightly: since the latter assumed that governance in the year 687 in the month of June, as we have said elsewhere. But King Childebert began to reign after his brother Clovis III died in the year 698. At that time the Abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle was Hilbert, given as successor to St. Ansbert when the latter was appointed Archbishop of Rouen in the year 689, and who then died in that dignity, but in exile, in the year 695, on February 9, whose Life was soon written by the monk Aigradus and dedicated to his Abbot Hilbert: but which we have shown was interpolated by later hands, with various additions that occurred after the death of the author Hilbert. A similar correction should be read here below in the Acts: "Wulfram came to the monastery of Fontenelle, over which Abbot Hilbert presided," not, as it now reads, "Abbot St. Ansbert and Bishop of the city of Rouen," whom we have already shown died long before the reign of Childebert: and besides, he was no longer Abbot when he had been appointed Archbishop.

[6] Clarius, a monk of St. Peter-le-Vif among the people of Sens, in the Chronicle

of his monastery, whether the bishopric was then resigned: inserted in volume 3 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, writes on page 706: "In these times, namely of Pippin, St. Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens (having left the bishopric and having ordained in his place Dom Gericus, a most distinguished man, the uncle of the blessed Ebbo, that excellent Confessor, who succeeded him in the bishopric), sought the monastery of Fontenelle and having become a monk there, went to Frisia." So Clarius: with whom the Breviary of Sens agrees. But between the said Gericus and St. Ebbo, Claude Robert and the Sainte-Marthes place Artbert, honored with the Pallium in the year 744. But this controversy may be settled in the Life of St. Ebbo on August 27. What pertains to this matter: below in the Acts it is said that, after the work of holy preaching was completed, having ordained a successor for himself in the bishopric of the city of Sens, he withdrew to the monastery of Fontenelle. In the longer Acts it is added that while preaching he frequently returned to the monastery of Fontenelle, where he had also assumed the monastic habit. Why then, perhaps, after having spent five years in Frisia, as is said in the same place, might he not upon returning have permitted a successor to take his place in the See of Sens, and having assumed the monastic habit, set out again to Frisia? He did not, however, depart from Frisia until he was in advanced old age, as all the Acts state, he left Frisia after the year 720? therefore at about seventy years of age, which he seems to have completed after the year of Christ 720, since, as the Acts state, Duke Radbod had already unhappily died in the year of the Lord 719: which year of his death we confirmed in the Life of St. Suitbert. St. Wulfram therefore remained in Frisia until advanced old age, and the longer Acts indicate that he was then frequently troubled by pain in the feet: and in three ancient manuscripts of these Acts, he is said to have held the pontificate for twenty-nine years: that is, together with his apostolate in Frisia. In old age, therefore, he withdrew to the monastery of Fontenelle, and for many years he had no use of a bed. he spent many years at Fontenelle, But how many years he still lived there, the Acts do not indicate. Odorannus, a monk of St. Peter-le-Vif among the people of Sens, in his Chronicle has these words: "In the year 741, St. Wulfram departed to the Lord, and Charles the Prince died: upon whose death Carloman and Pippin, his sons, assumed the principate." The aforementioned Clarius agrees with Odorannus in the Chronicle of St. Peter-le-Vif. "In the year 741," he says, "St. Wulfram died in the monastery of Fontenelle, through whom Frisia was converted to Christ. Charles Martel also died, and was buried in the church of St. Denis in Paris." died in the year 741. So Clarius: from whom and from Odorannus we conclude that this was the tradition of the Church of Sens: which is closely followed by Peter de Natalibus, book 3 of the Catalog, chapter 212, in these words: "Having become a monk in the monastery of Fontenelle, he completed his life in holy works in the year of the Lord 740, on the 13th day before the Kalends of April, and was buried next to St. Wandregisel." In the manuscript Antiquities of Normandy by an anonymous author, in the Neustria Pia of Arthur du Monstier, page 151, St. Wulfram is listed after Ragenfredus as Abbot of Fontenelle, created in the year 740. Ragenfredus was simultaneously Prelate of the Church of Rouen and Rector of the monastery of Fontenelle, as is read in the Chronicle of Fontenelle. What if, then, Ragenfredus had prescribed to the monks that in his absence they should have recourse to St. Wulfram as the senior member and a holy man, and as his substitute? Certainly the sick man did not cease to instruct the Brethren publicly and privately, as is read in the Acts. If therefore he lived until the year 741, nearly a nonagenarian. he left this mortal life as nearly a nonagenarian, and was first buried in the church of St. Paul the Apostle.

[7] Wando, a Priest, was then absent in exile at the fortress of Maastricht, translated by Abbot Wando in the monastery of St. Servatius, when the monks of Fontenelle, upon the deposition of Ragenfredus by Prince Pippin, sought him as Abbot and obtained their request, as is narrated more fully in the said Chronicle. Therefore, Wando, having become Abbot around the year 742, and knowing the virtues and miracles of St. Wulfram, since he is at least established to have been for some time a co-worker of the divine word among the Frisians, why should not St. Wulfram have been translated to the basilica of St. Peter the Apostle and placed in the eastern part at his command? But because Wando does not differ so much from Bainus in his name, the name of the latter could have been written in the place of the former through the negligence and carelessness of a copyist: and because Bainus had translated the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, without any reflection on the times by later generations, the name of St. Wulfram might have been added, and it might have been written that this occurred in the year 729, whereas meanwhile St. Bainus is believed to have died in the year 707, as can be examined more carefully on the 20th day of June, his birthday. Finally, it seems that Jonas, the writer of the Life of St. Wulfram, lived under the same Abbot and dedicated it to him. to whom the Life seems to have been dedicated by Jonas. At least there still survived at that time the venerable Priest Ouo, a man of venerable life, originally from the Frisian nation itself, who narrated by word of mouth how many miracles Christ had deigned to work through the same holy Pontiff among that nation, as is found in the preface itself: which, however, has been wretchedly corrupted by later hands. The commemoration of Abbot Wando is noted in the Calendar of Fontenelle on the 15th day before the Kalends of May.

LIFE

By Jonas, a monk of Fontenelle. From an ancient Antwerp manuscript.

Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, at Fontenelle and Abbeville in Gaul (Saint)

BHL Number: 8739

BY JONAS, A MONK. FROM MANUSCRIPT.

[1] The blessed Wulfram, then, Bishop of Sens, had the origin of his birth in the territory ^a of Gastinais, at the estate called ^b Mauriliacus: he was noble by origin of the flesh, Born of noble stock, but nobler in the height of his mind: his father also, Wulbert by name, devoted him to military service in the court of King Dagobert and his son ^c Clovis. The aforesaid servant of God, however, established in his boyhood, was handed over by him to Catholic teachers to be imbued with the study of sacred letters: he devotes himself to studies: which he practiced through the whole period of childhood and adolescence, and did not deflect his mind from this intention until manly age; and with the merits of his pious intention increasing, he served at the court of the younger Kings Clothar and Theuderic. But among these things he most attentively devoted himself to serving the divine commands, namely, passing over all earthly things and always desiring by loving and seeking the heavenly.

[2] Not long after, therefore, by the election of the Clergy and people of the city of Sens, elected Bishop of Sens, the consent of the King and the favor of the Princes, he is appointed and consecrated as Bishop: who adorned the grade of the episcopate he had received with works of virtues, in imitation of the former Saints. For he both protected the flock entrusted to him with constant prayers and sought to provoke them to yearn for heavenly things by pious admonition; and what especially assists teachers, what he taught should be done, he first demonstrated by doing it himself. For he was set aflame with the fire of divine love, he leads by the example of virtues: modest in the virtue of patience, intent on the devotion of prayers, affable to all, distinguished in abstinence, exalted in the grace of compunction.

[3] After some years, however, had been spent in administering the episcopate, he was admonished by a heavenly oracle he preaches the word of God to the Frisians: to preach the word of the Lord to the nation of the Frisians: who, having immediately begun the apostolic work, resolved in his mind to benefit many; whence he came to the monastery of Fontenelle, over which Abbot ^d ... presided, and from there he took energetic co-workers of the word, suitable for preaching. And so, boarding a ship in the port of the same monastery, he sailed to Frisia, and proclaimed the word of God to that nation and to its Duke Radbod, saying that those were not gods which were made by the hands of men: that rather God should be understood as incomprehensible in majesty, eternal, almighty; and pursuing other matters, he was gladly heard, and many, believing, were washed in the sacred font: among whom the son of the aforesaid Duke, believing, was baptized, and while still wearing his white garments, released from the flesh, he passed from the world purified.

[4] Nor should it be passed over in silence that on the same journey, the Lord's goodness deigned to work divinely through the same holy Bishop. he recovers by prayers a paten that had fallen into the sea: For while they were sailing to Frisia across the sea adjacent to the region of the Morini, the hour came at which the sacrifice of the saving victim was to be offered to God. Then, with anchors cast, the ship stood motionless. Meanwhile, as the holy Bishop was celebrating the solemnities of the Mass, they came to the point where the minister was to hand the paten to the Bishop: but while the aforesaid minister wished to wash it, it had fallen into the sea: who, immediately prostrating himself at the holy Bishop's feet, told what had happened to him and begged forgiveness. Then the man of God, bending his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, humbly poured forth a prayer; which being finished, he commanded the Deacon to thrust his hand into the place where the paten had fallen. When this was done, immediately the same paten returned from the depths of the sea by divine power and adhered to the hand of the same minister. Seeing which, the sailors praised almighty God, who through His servant had deigned to work such a miracle. ^e

[5] Moreover, while the holy Bishop was preaching among the people, it happened one day that ^f a boy born of the Frisian nation was being led to the noose to be sacrificed to the gods. The holy man prayed to the unbelieving Duke hung from the gallows, to grant him this boy's life. Then the spirited pagans unanimously frustrated his prayer, saying: "If your Christ frees him from the torment of death, let him be his and your servant for all time." freed by prayers: The boy was then hung on the gallows for the space of nearly two hours. Meanwhile, the holy Bishop, bending his knees, poured forth a prayer to the Lord: which having been completed, he arose. Immediately that boy, his bonds broken by divine power by which he had been hung, fell to the ground: seizing his hand, the Saint said: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise in health." At these words, he arose unharmed, feeling no pain from the punishment and death inflicted upon him: and by this deed, very many were converted to the Lord, and believing, were baptized, as many as had been foreordained to eternal life.

[6] ^g Other youths also of the aforesaid Frisian nation, similarly seized by profane rite and lot, in the ancestral manner, to be sacrificed to demons, about to free those being drowned, he walks upon the waves of the sea: were discovered. The illustrious Bishop Wulfram approached to intercede for them; but the pagans, disdaining to hear his prayers, cast the aforesaid boys into the sea, so that, with them drowned amid the waves, they might complete the execrable sacrifice to demons. Which having been done, they said to the Saint: "Go now, and if you can free them from there, let your God have them as servants by perpetual right." Hearing which, the holy man did not delay, but immediately, having made a prayer and invoked the divine majesty, making his way over the waves of the sea as if over dry land, he swiftly reached those who were already being submerged: seizing one with his left hand and lifting the other with his right: and so, immediately returning, to the wonder of all the peoples, he led them back alive and safe to land: whom he then, imbued with the divine mysteries, baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, and thus, snatching them from the yoke of demonic servitude, endowed them with perpetual liberty. ^h

[7] When therefore for some years he had tirelessly performed the work of holy preaching, and was now placed in

advanced old age, He withdraws to Fontenelle: having appointed a successor for himself in the bishopric of the city of Sens, he withdrew to the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle: and there, subject to the Regular discipline, in a dwelling prepared for him by the Brethren, he awaited the eternal crown. For many years, therefore, he had no use of a bed, and beneath his monastic tunic a hair shirt covered his body. Meanwhile he conferred healing upon the sick in such a manner that, whatever illness anyone was suffering from, if he was deemed worthy to be visited, touched, and blessed by him, he was immediately restored to his former health. There was therefore a venerable monk named Bertgaudus, he heals a paralytic with holy oil: who had been so struck by paralysis in his whole body that he lost both his speech and all bodily function entirely. When the holy Bishop Wulfram came to him and anointed him with holy oil, immediately all the distress of the illness was put to flight, and the grace of his former health was restored throughout his whole body. By these and similar signs of miracles, the inward judge showed what his life had been.

[8] Therefore the teaching of the holy man especially commended this to all, that he did not live differently from how he taught: he seeks nothing of the things of this world: for he sought nothing of this world, nor cared to love anything of it. All things that were given to him by kings or the wealthy of the world, he immediately and cheerfully distributed to the poor. He never kept silent toward the powerful, out of honor or fear, if they had done wrong: but corrected them with harsh rebuke. Finally, when he offered to God the sacrifice of the saving victim, he commended his vows to the Lord not with a voice raised on high, but with tears poured forth from the depths of his breast. Meanwhile, learning from divine revelation that the day of his dissolution was at hand, he was careful to make this known to certain Brethren: then he began to be more sharply worn by the heat of fevers, he foreknows the day of death, and to be troubled by bodily distress for some time: but among these things he did not cease to give thanks to the Creator and to teach the Brethren publicly and privately. At length, therefore, the weakness of body which he had long endured growing worse day by day, on the seventh day, as had been divinely promised to him, after he had fortified himself with the reception of the Lord's Body and Blood, he returned to heaven the holy soul freed from the prison of the flesh. The venerable Bishop died on the 13th day before the Kalends of April, he dies a holy death on March 20. and was first buried in the church of Blessed Paul the Apostle: but was afterward translated from there to the basilica of the holy Apostle Peter, and placed in the eastern part: where he still shines with signs and miracles, Christ presiding, to whom is all honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

^a Gastinais, commonly the territory of Gastinais, lies toward the west adjacent to the territory of Sens.

^b Maurilliacus, now more contractedly called Milliacum, on the river Therry.

^c Lodovei or Chlodovei, for which in the manuscripts of the extended life Ludovici and Hludovici are found almost everywhere, as was said around the year 800, when Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, flourished.

^d This was Hilbert, in place of whom the long-dead Ansbert was intruded, as we noted above.

^e It is added in the longer Acts: "the paten, kept at Fontenelle as a sacred gift, which together with a chalice St. Wulfram bestowed there, as well as a consecrated altar containing relics of Saints in its four corners and in the middle, in the shape of a shield, which he was accustomed to carry with him while traveling: also very many vessels and instruments and tabernacles of ecclesiastical service."

^f In other Acts he is called Ouo, about whom we treated above.

^g Here was preceded the liberation of two youths whom the Duke gave to the Bishop; who afterward remained in the domain of the monastery of Fontenelle until the end of their lives.

^h Here was inserted the story of Radbod, which we subjoin.

APPENDIX

On the death of Radbod, Duke of the Frisians.

From seven manuscripts.

Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, at Fontenelle and Abbeville in Gaul (Saint)

BHL Number: 8738

^a

FROM MANUSCRIPT.

[1] The aforesaid Prince Radbod, moreover, while he was being prepared to receive baptism, Radbod the Prince about to be baptized, inquired of the holy Bishop Wulfram, binding him by oaths in the name of the Lord, where the greater number of Kings and Princes or nobles of the Frisian nation might be: in that heavenly region, that is, which he promised he would attain if he believed and was baptized; or in that which he called the damnation of Tartarus. Then Blessed Wulfram said: "Do not err, illustrious Prince; with the Lord, the number of His elect is certain: for your predecessors, the Princes of the Frisian nation, choosing to be damned with his ancestors, who departed without the sacrament of baptism, have certainly received the sentence of damnation: but whoever henceforth believes and is baptized will rejoice with Christ forever." Hearing these things, the unbelieving Duke (he had already proceeded to the font, as they say) withdrew his foot from the sacred font, saying that he could not do without the company of his predecessors, the Princes of the Frisians, he withdraws his foot: and reside with a small number of the poor in that heavenly kingdom: but rather that he could not easily give assent to new sayings, but would rather remain in those things which for a long time he had observed with the entire Frisian nation. But the blessed Bishop of Christ said: "Alas! How painful it is! I see you deceived by the deceiver who deceived the human race: but unless you do penance and believe and are baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, you will not enter the gate of the eternal kingdom, but will be punished with the penalty of eternal damnation." While the holy Bishop was saying and teaching these things, many of the Frisians believed and were baptized, with the aforesaid king persevering in paganism: for he unhappily withdrew from the sacred font. And he had already ordered Bishop Willibrord, surnamed Clement, the teacher of the aforesaid nation, to be summoned, while others believe, so that at his consultations, in agreement with Blessed Wulfram in the teaching of his religion, he might become a Christian: but since, as it is written, "Into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter," and because, doubting in all things in the Catholic faith and testing the holy Bishops, he spoke to them; therefore he did not merit obtaining what he sought deceitfully. Wisdom 1. When, however, Blessed Willibrord received his messenger concerning this matter, in vain, after a messenger was sent to St. Willibrord, he is said to have replied: "Since your Duke disdained to hear the preaching of our holy brother, Bishop Wulfram, how will he comply with my commands? For this night I saw him in a vision bound with a chain of fire; whence it is certain that he has already undergone eternal damnation." he perishes miserably: And while he was traveling on the road that led to the house of the same condemned Duke, it was reported to him that he had already died without the sacrament of baptism: and so, abandoning his begun journey, he returned to his own dwelling.

[2] Nor should the reason be omitted which we learned from the aforesaid Venerable Priest Ouo concerning the aforesaid Duke Radbod, deceived by the devil appearing in a dream, as to why he was unwilling to believe in Christ and to be immersed in the font of regeneration. For while he was lying sick, from which illness he closed the light of this present life and descended to the perpetual shades of the underworld, while given over to sleep, the deceiver of men, the devil, who even by the permission of almighty God transforms himself into an angel of light, appeared to him with a golden diadem with gleaming gems covering his head, and clothed over his whole body in a garment woven with gold: and the aforesaid Prince, long astonished, gazed intently upon him, wondering and trembling, marveling what manner of virtue this messenger who appeared to him might have. And that most savage Dragon of manifold art of harm said to him: "Tell me, I pray, bravest of men, who has so seduced you that you wish to depart from the worship of the gods and the religion of your ancestors? Do not act so, I beseech you, but remain in those cults of the gods which you have held until now: and you shall go to golden mansions enduring eternally, which I am about to give you shortly, so that I may confirm the faith of my words. Therefore tomorrow, summoning Wulfram, the teacher of the Christians, and showing a golden mansion, inquire of him where that mansion of eternal brightness is which he promises you will have in the heavens if you accept Christian doctrine: and when he cannot demonstrate it, let messengers be sent from both sides, and I will be the guide of the journey and will show them a mansion of extraordinary beauty and immense splendor, which I am about to give you shortly." Awakening, he laid out everything in order to the holy Bishop Wulfram. But he, groaning at his damnation, said: "This is an illusion of the devil, who wishes all to perish and none to be saved: therefore save yourself, noble sir, by believing in Christ, and hasten to the font of baptism, lest he should believe the words of St. Wulfram. in which is the remission of all sins, and by no means give credence to the lying words of the devil: for he is the seducer who seduces the entire world, who on account of his pride was cast down from the high summit of heaven to the earth, and from a benign Angel became a most foul demon: by whose envy death entered the world, when he taught the first man concupiscence and dragged him to the fault of disobedience: for he who promises to bestow golden mansions on those who believe in him rather leads them down to the infernal seats of Tartarus and the fetid lake of Cocytus. Whence, that you may be snatched from these punishments and enjoy eternal blessings, hasten to be baptized in Christ, in whom is the remission of all sins, and through whom entry to the heavenly life is granted."

[3] While the holy Bishop continued with these and many similar words, the aforesaid unbelieving Prince replied The Deacon and a Frisian, his companion, that he would do all that he commanded, if that mansion which he had promised to bestow were demonstrated by his God. And when the Priest of Christ perceived his unconquerable spirit in all things, lest the Gentiles fabricate one thing for another, he immediately sent his Deacon along with a certain Frisian. When they had proceeded a little from the town, they found coming toward them led away by the devil, a certain companion for the journey in human form, who said to them: "Hurry quickly, for I am going to show you a mansion of extraordinary beauty, which has been prepared by his God for Prince Radbod." Following this guide and companion of the journey, they traversed unknown places for a long time, until entering upon a very wide road, they saw it decorated with polished work of various kinds of marble, by his tricks they see everything golden, and they saw from afar a golden house, and arrived at the courtyard which was situated before the aforesaid house: and it too was paved with gold and gems. Entering also into the house of golden splendor and incredible beauty, they beheld a throne of marvelous size. Then the guide of the journey said: "This is the house, and this is the most beautiful seat, which his God has promised to bestow upon Prince Radbod after his death." And the Deacon, astonished at what he had seen, said: "If these things have been made by almighty God, let them stand forever; but if by the devil, let them quickly perish." And immediately fortifying himself with the sign of the holy Cross, the guide of the journey, but vanishing at the sign of the Cross: who had seemed to be a man, vanished and transformed into a devil, and the golden house was turned into mud: and for two days together they remained, the Frisian and the Deacon, in the midst of marshy places that were full of very long ^b reeds and undergrowth,

and completing a three-day journey of immense labor, they returned to the town, finding the aforesaid Duke Radbod dead without the sacrament of baptism, they return with the Duke dead: and they narrated to the blessed Bishop how great an illusion they had suffered from the devil: the Frisian, however, believed in Christ and was baptized. He was called Ingomarus or Chuningus, and he too followed St. Wulfram to the monastery of Fontenelle. the Frisian is baptized And the aforesaid Duke was utterly unable to obtain the respite of repentance which he had hoped to obtain: because he was not of the sheep of Christ nor foreordained to eternal life. And this stupendous and previously unheard-of miracle became widely known among the inhabitants of the Frisian nation, and from this deed a great multitude of them was converted to the Lord. The aforesaid Duke Radbod died unhappily and very many others. in the year of our Lord God Jesus Christ, in whom he himself disdained to believe, the seven hundred and nineteenth, which was the sixth year of the illustrious Prince Charles.

^a We give this from the longer Life, and all the ancient Belgian records agree with this history.

^b Vossius, On the Faults of Language, page 263, explains this passage and derives it from the Germanic "raus," for which we Belgians say "rijs": and twigs or shoots are indicated.

HISTORY OF THE INVENTION

with miracles performed at Fontenelle,

By a monk of Fontenelle.

Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, at Fontenelle and Abbeville in Gaul (Saint)

BHL Number: 8740, 8741

PART I.

From volume III of the Spicilegium of ancient writers published by Luc d'Achery.

PROLOGUE.

[1] Since it has pleased almighty God in our times to make known to the world the glorious merits of His Saint Wulfram, which had hitherto lain hidden, and to adorn them with many marks of recent miracles; I have humbly resolved to satisfy the desires of the Brethren who piously exhort me to write about them, and to transmit to the knowledge of future generations by the strokes of letters the works of divine power which we have seen; so that, with the inner virtue of so great a Father faithfully expended through miracles outwardly exhibited, they too may conceive increments of more earnest devotion toward his veneration. Let no one, however, seek in these an abundance of precious words; rather let him wonder at and honor the glory of God in His Saint, and seize upon the edification of his own salvation. The author prefixes that the deeds before his own eyes are written by himself. For I have not proposed to adorn sterile little sentences with rhetorical flowers, being devoid of them; but simply and with appropriate brevity to touch somewhat upon the truth of things divinely done: lest, namely, through the oblivion of succeeding times, what the divine mercy daily deigns to work before our eyes be entirely obliterated and perish. Since indeed it is judged exceedingly unworthy and inappropriate if the glory of so many miracles should be suppressed by idle silence. Wherefore I preferred, I confess, to be reproved for unskilled rusticity rather than for unfruitful silence; and by this to displease the fastidiousness of some rather than not to serve the devotion or benefit of many. But since it now pleases us to begin what we have proposed, it seems fitting to start with a somewhat more distant beginning, so that the matter may be more agreeable. ^a

Those things, however, because they are already published, we omit, both because the earlier matters are excerpted from the Life already given, and because the others pertain to the destruction and restoration of the monastery of Fontenelle itself. Yet it pleases us to indicate the marginal notes of Luc d'Achery, because they contain a summary of the whole, thus:

Chapter 1. St. Wulfram seeks Frisia and disseminates the word of God, and shines with miracles: he dies at Fontenelle: his body is transferred to the church of St. Peter.

2. The Normans enter and devastate Gaul; the monks of Fontenelle flee and carry with them the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert: churches and monasteries are destroyed.

3. Rollo, Duke of Normandy, gave his name to Christ: William restores the monastery of Jumieges: Richard governs happily. Gerard, Abbot of Ghent, offers to return the body of St. Wandregisel to Richard: having been rebuffed, he carries it back.

4. Torsting, pursuing a stag in hunting, is divinely restrained: he therefore grants the ruined monastery of Fontenelle to Mainard: who also restores it.

5. The bodies of Saints Maximus and Venerandus, found by revelation, are retained in the monastery of Fontenelle.

6. Mainard, having dismissed the Canons, is appointed Abbot at Saint-Michel over monks.

7. Gerard, of tested character, from a monk of Lagny, the first Abbot of Crepy, then of Fontenelle: under whom these events concerning the Invention of St. Wulfram occurred, which we now give:

ACTS OF THE INVENTION.

[2] When therefore Father Gerard frequently discussed with the Brethren the more elegant restoration of the place he had received, Three sepulchres having been dug up, it pleased them at last and seemed worthy that within the precinct of the church of St. Peter, which until then had been very humble, columns should be erected and vaults arched over them, and crypts should be built. But when, with workers employed, they set about the planned work and dug somewhat deeper into the ground, as the matter required, they found three sepulchres arranged in a row, fashioned of the finest stone: which, having been opened individually, in two of them, which were placed in the middle on either side of the others, and which seemed to be titled with the names of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, the ashes of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert are found, they found nothing except a few remnants of dust, into which the dissolved flesh of the holy bodies had flowed. But when they unsealed the third, which was situated to the right of St. Wandregisel, and which was clearly established to be that of St. Wulfram both by the very position, which is described in his Acts, and by the most manifest designation of the inscription, they found an intact body: from whose priestly vestment, with which, as is read, he had been buried, they collected six ounces of gold, which is afterward proved to have been spent in the crafting of a silver panel, and the intact body of St. Wulfram, prepared for the use of the sacred altar. Whence indeed those must be deemed foolish, nay insane, who contend that they have the body of St. Wulfram, or suppose that it lies elsewhere: since, relying on no authority, they cannot prove what they suppose. Let all those, whoever they are, come therefore and inspect the sepulchre of the Saint, and hear the inscription that had been placed to the right of holy Father Wandregisel: and let them also wonder and say whose other bones were found in it. Certainly, after the removal and flight of the Saints, if anyone, intending to search for him who had been left behind, came secretly and with careful caution on account of fear of the Pagans, who held everything far and wide, to the place of his burial, and stole him from it after digging up the earth and opening the tomb; who, I ask, placed another in his place? Or where did he find the one he was going to place there? never previously carried elsewhere: Or why, after removing him, did he so carefully take pains to replace another? Was he perhaps afraid (which is false) that, if the place was deserted and the sepulchre found empty, he would be held guilty? But if it was inhabited, why did he involve himself in so many delays, which are contrary to thieves, by digging up another and placing him there? But one should certainly be indulgent toward the devotion of such people, yet not acquiesce in an error arising from whatever source: because truly, if they do not have his bodily presence, they can nevertheless, if faith is present, deserve the devout benefits of his intercession. Let us, however, to whom such and so great a treasure has been divinely granted and reserved, keep perpetual watch and render the fitting service of worthy devotion, and follow him with divine praises and sincere devotion of hearts: so that we who rightly rejoice in his presence may deserve to experience his protection in due time. Let us change our ways, correct our lives, hold to the reverence of our holy habit: and so fill the divine altar with fitting offerings of vows, that we ourselves may merit to be found as a sanctuary of God, an altar, and a fragrant sacrifice, with that same Saint helping and praying for us.

[3] as were the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert. Now indeed, that the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert were removed and he was left behind out of fear of the Gentiles, is clearly established and cannot be refuted by any reasoning: for also in that ^a history, procured in writing by the diligence of the ancients, in which the names and miracles of the Saints, namely Wandregisel and Ansbert, are written, the name or mention of this Saint is nowhere found even once inserted, which assuredly could by no means happen unless those who transferred the others remembered that they had left his most sacred bones there for a certain reason. But since the rashness of some has proceeded to such vanity as to have presumed to falsify the booklet concerning the Translation and miracles of the Saints; it does not seem surprising that these men have perpetrated such a thing, since we know that certain persons have corrupted even the books of divine authority. Let those who wish read that glorious miracle which is contained in the booklet concerning the virtues of ^b St. Bertha: how a certain man who had been mute for a long time was cured through the merits of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, when they were exiled at Blanzac, where the same St. Bertha rests, at that same time: namely, each of them, that is, St. Wandregisel, St. Ansbert, and St. Bertha, laying individual hands upon individual places of his infirmity. Where indeed this holy and glorious Bishop Wulfram is entirely passed over in silence: inasmuch as he was not present in that Translation perpetrated out of fear of the pagans. For he had not been translated from his place where he had been buried, along with the others, to another location: but as has been said, and is proved by manifest evidence, at Fontenelle he cherished the soil only with the precious patronage of his ashes.

[4] The precious body of the holy Bishop Wulfram having been found, therefore, as set forth above, The body of St. Wulfram placed in a wooden box, and placed with reverence and honor in a little wooden coffin adapted for the time being (since indeed the poverty of the place was still so great that the species of precious metal from which it should be made more fittingly was lacking), it was placed upon the sacred altar, and was thereafter celebrated with due veneration. Where to this day, if the faith of those asking demands it, it flourishes with the greatest glory of miracles it shines with miracles. and bestows many benefits of healing upon those who seek them: of which we begin to narrate from here only those things which we have seen with our own eyes.

[5] There was a certain noble matron, abounding in great wealth and riches, named Herlevis, who once began to be greatly endangered by difficulty in childbirth: A woman near death in labor, and when for eight days she struggled with that pain, and was so wasting away that she seemed near death, and no kind of remedy, nor vows promised to the names of many Saints, availed anything; at last, using a more prosperous counsel, she ordered ten pounds of denarii to be brought to the holy Father Wulfram, of whose merits she had been more fully informed: and she promised greater gifts if he freed her from the present torture of her innards. freed by offerings sent: Without delay: while the one who had been sent was going with the vows and gift, she gave birth to a girl, and immediately freed from such danger, she escaped the crisis of impending death. Whence it came about that from that day she honored St. Wulfram with great affection of heart as her deliverer; she honored this place, which she had previously greatly abhorred, in many ways; and she granted to us and our men a more abundant supply of the surrounding forests, both in pastures for livestock and in other uses of wood. For she had a dormitory built at her own expense in eternal memory of herself, such as is now seen: where, having completed the course of the present life, she also merited burial.

[6] At the same time also another illustrious

woman, The body to be placed in a silver casket, named Imma (who, having changed her habit, had come to this place, and had given her estates, namely Cruciola and Tetgisville, and also Breuil entirely), after innumerable other benefits, had a refectory contiguous to that dormitory on the eastern side built at her own expense. But indeed the aforesaid matron, to demonstrate by works the love she had for holy Wulfram, ordered a silver reliquary to be fashioned for him, which had previously been wooden; she spent half a talent of tested silver along with a pound of gold in the workmanship: and such a work was made as could nowhere at that time be found in the whole land of the Normans. But when the appointed day came on which it was to be placed in that coffin, it is brought to the church of St. Mary, Abbot Gerard had the body of the Saint carried to the church of the holy Mother of God Mary on the evening of the preceding day. In the morning, having taken two Brethren with him, he went there, and with them he washed his most sacred bones with the finest wine, wrapped them first in a new linen cloth, then in a most precious purple pall, placed in the casket, which the most noble ^c Robert, Archbishop of Rouen, had sent for this purpose, and honorably covered them, and so placed them in the reliquary that had long since been prepared, which he had a goldsmith carefully close in his presence and strongly fasten with nails, so that it could not thereafter be opened. He likewise fittingly placed the bodies of the holy Confessors, ^d Herembert, Bishop of Toulouse, and the hermit ^e Condedus, together in one coffin, and also the blessed Martyrs ^f Maximus and Venerandus decently in another. with the bodies of other Saints, Meanwhile Gradulf, then Dean, and the other Brethren, summoned there and fittingly adorned, processed together with crosses and candles, whom the aforesaid matron, with a great retinue of her own and with people gathered from everywhere for this purpose, followed. And when they had arrived there with the greatest joy of all, the body of the Saint, lifted upon shoulders, was carried forth from there, and so, processing with psalms all the way to the basilica of St. Wandregisel, it was placed upon the sacred altar: it is carried with solemn pomp to the church of St. Wandregisel: and for that reason, that day, spent with the joyfulness of spiritual joy and the preparation of a rather extended feast, is henceforth celebrated as a feast day there each year. This Translation was made in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand twenty-seven, ^g on the Kalends of June.

[7] ^h Abbot Gerard, mature in age, outstanding in the observance of the Regular Order, in the fourth year of his governance, With Abbot Gerard having been slain, was slain in his bed on the night following the Sabbath, crowned, as we believe, with martyrdom, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand thirty-one, on the third day before the Kalends of December. To this most excellent Father, ^i Gradulf, who had previously been educated by him in regular discipline, and was then Dean under him, but had been assigned to build on the Mount of the Holy Trinity, and his successor Gradulf having died, succeeded to the governance by the merits of his good life, in which he abounded and had become well known to many... He died, moreover, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand forty-seven, on the second day before the Nones of March. He was succeeded by his own brother by birth, Robert. Under his governance, God deigned to declare the glorious merits of the most holy Father Wulfram to mortals by such an occasion, and to reveal to all for the patronage of the faithful, under Robert, who was appointed in his place, what had until then come to the knowledge of only a few, to such an extent that the frequent miracles which were seen to occur at his most sacred bones were not even attributed to him.

[8] Indeed, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand fifty-three, during a prolonged drought and epidemic, the earth dried up from a prolonged drought; a plague of mortality, raging severely on this side of the Seine, seized the district of Caux: so that men and women of various ages alike perished, and villages and houses, with the entire household dying at once, remained empty. In which terror, the entire populace, turning with their whole heart to implore the divine mercy, began frequently to perform Litanies and processions, to observe fasts on certain days, and to hasten devoutly from neighboring places and villages to certain more sacred places or cities to obtain the intercession of the Saints. Whence it came about that we too resolved to do the same, and decided to go together to the city of Rouen with the precious relics of the Saints, with people summoned from everywhere for this purpose; not, however, from the same necessity as others, since no one among us or in the whole mile around us (God protecting us through the merits of His Saints) was succumbing to the mortality; but rather, so that the people, stimulated by our example, might more readily persist in the begun office of supplication, and might press on to avert by prayers the threatening sword of divine punishment. The body is carried to Rouen with a solemn procession. On the appointed day, therefore, namely the eighth day before the Kalends of June, with the people gathered from all sides, fifteen chosen Brethren, at the Abbot's command, receiving the precious body of St. Wulfram, we at last undertook the planned journey, and made our lodging for that night in the village called Ecot, in the church of St. Peter. And when, on the following day at the approach of dawn, we had set out from there, and had quickly crossed the forest that lay between, and were eagerly carrying so precious a treasure accompanied by a great crowd; having sent messengers ahead, we took care to inform the Archdeacon of the city and the holy Clergy of our approach. And they, upon learning of such news, immediately prepared themselves and endeavored to rouse the faithful people with a well-known signal to meet us. Then, having taken up the glorious body of ^k St. Romanus the Bishop, and with the Canons of the city coming to meet them from all directions with the bodies of their own Saints and ecclesiastical pageantry, they processed to meet us in great glory, and at the very entrance of the suburb received us with great joy and exceptional honor: and so, with voices raised on high and divine praises alternately sung by us and them, the citizens of Rouen who had assembled reverently received the coffin of holy Father Wulfram on their own shoulders and, with us accompanying them, joyfully carried it to the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary. ^l

^a We made mention of this history before the Life of St. Ansbert on February 9, where in number 24 we gave excerpts: in which only the names of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert are mentioned, as will be said below.

^b St. Bertha is venerated on July 4, when these matters can be discussed.

^c Robert, son of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, and brother of Richard II, Duke, died in the year 1037.

^d St. Erembert, having left his bishopric, came to Fontenelle and died there on April 30; in his manuscript Life it is said that he rests in this church of St. Peter in the oratory of St. Martin.

^e St. Condedus is venerated on October 21; in his manuscript Life it is said that his body was placed in the church of the holy Apostle Peter next to the oratory of St. Martin on the southern side.

^f Saints Maximus and Venerandus are venerated on May 25: chapter 5 of this treatise, as we indicated, deals with them.

^g This Translation of 5 bodies is inscribed in the Breviary of Fontenelle, and by Molanus in his additions to Usuard on June 1. Wion only mentions Saints Wulfram and Erembert. Others draw from these.

^h We have not found this Gerard inscribed in any calendars. Arthur du Monstier in Neustria, page 164, calls him a Saint.

^i Gradulf is also called a Saint by the same Arthur.

^k St. Romanus is venerated on October 23.

^l The remainder about the return of the body is missing.

PART II

VARIOUS MIRACLES

From two manuscript codices.

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I

Those saved from drowning or from the danger of submersion; others aided.

[1] In the ^a district of Oxime is situated a castle which is called ^b Falaise: in which there was a certain man A boy drowned in a bath named Gislebert: he had a son, small in age and body, who on the Holy Saturday of the approaching Easter was incautiously left in a tub in which his father had bathed, and with no one present, was submerged in the water and thus extinguished: and when he had lain there for a long time, he was finally sought by his parents and found dead. Although this came about through the negligence of both parents and the harassment of the ancient enemy, we believe it was not done without divine permission: so that just as it is written of Lazarus, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God," so also in the death of this boy the work of divine power might shine forth, and the merit of His Saint Wulfram might blaze. When, however, he was lifted from the waters with his spirit gone, a great cry arose, heavy mourning broke out, irremediable grief was laid open: the unhappy father grieved, the wretched mother lamented, mourned by his parents: she cast away the covering of her head, tore the arrangement of her hair, struck her breast heavily amid these events, simultaneously clapped both hands together, inserted her fingers between fingers, and with pitiable torture wracked her whole body and limbs, uttered wild cries full of bitterness, turned her head this way and that, distorted her face like a madwoman from the sharpness of sudden grief and unexpected bereavement. For the pain from the awareness of such great negligence and the guilt of grave sin was greater than that from the death of their only child. Aroused by this, neighbors came together from all sides, and some groaned with sighs through the humanity of compassion: while others endeavored to console the mourners and to soften the grief of those in sorrow. But behold, a certain person from among those whom humanity had partly drawn and curiosity had partly invited there said to those standing around: "What are you doing? Why do you not invoke St. Wulfram? Have you not heard what great powers and what miracles he has wrought? St. Wulfram having been invoked, Let us therefore invoke him with a loud voice from our whole heart." At this voice of the one exhorting, the people standing around, unanimously animated, cried out, and each according to their own understanding invoked God and His Saint Wulfram: meanwhile the dead boy began little by little to move his lips, and suffused with a lively color in his cheeks, he revives began to open the lids of his eyes. Why should I delay longer? Why should I occupy the divine power with words? Before the eyes of all who were present, the dead boy fully received his life, rose up and sat down: and accepted the food that was offered as freely as if not rising from death but waking from sleep. At this, the hearts of all were shaken, great joy arose in the minds of each, tears flowed again, certainly all the more abundant since they flowed not now from grief but from great joy: murmurs and voices resounded, certainly all the more restrained because sweeter. Meanwhile the special grief of the parents became one common joy of all who were present. Then the fame of so great a miracle spread far and wide and moved all who were present and who could hear to new admiration, and turned their favor to the praise of God and the glory of His Saint. Moreover, there arose a great press of people running together, desiring to see alive the one they had heard was dead. Nor did the spoken voice of the narrator suffice for anyone, unless each one beheld with their own eyes the face of the risen one. Indeed, the one who had risen, as if new after death, was sought to be seen, and was thought far more desirable than he had formerly been while he enjoyed the light of this world. Furthermore, that man, a debtor for many graces, not unmindful of the benefit divinely bestowed upon him, not long after went to Fontenelle, and where he learned the burial place of blessed Father Wulfram and the holy dust of his flesh,

he paid the vows of his devotion and thoroughly informed the Brethren whom he found there of the miracle wrought, with many tears, the father gives thanks at his tomb at Fontenelle: and so afterward returned joyful and cheerful to his own home. This miracle occurred in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand fifty-seven, the tenth Indiction, on the Holy Saturday of Easter, which fell on the third day before the Kalends of April.

[2] Furthermore, what the divine power deigned to work through the same Patron must not be omitted in silence: which also has been very rarely or never made known to any mortal. a woman pregnant with a putrid infant. There was therefore a certain woman in the village called Frigia. She, having conceived, was pregnant and on the feast of St. Sebastian, with the term approaching, was about to give birth. But with nature obstructing, she began to be distressed and to be tormented by the inward torture of her viscera as the danger pressed. For, as is customary, she could not give birth. Meanwhile she was prostrated in bed, and being gravely ill, she expected nothing else than the debt of death. She endured such hardship and the infirmity and difficulty of giving birth from the feast of St. Sebastian until the octave day of the Lord's Resurrection. Then indeed, having found a sounder counsel, she began with whatever strength she had to implore the mercy of the Lord and of His Mother, that they would deign to have mercy on her. She also, more frequently invoking the name of St. Wulfram (at whose vigils, which had until then been customarily celebrated by the faithful, she had been present, and had given herself as a handmaid), besought his accustomed piety to entreat through himself the clemency of almighty God, that He might either free her from her present distress or mercifully put an end to her life. While, moreover, she was devoutly persisting in prayers and more frequently repeating the Saint's name and faithfully asking him to help her, suddenly the divine power was present, and her swollen belly from chest to navel, and so crosswise through the middle, was divided -- wondrous to tell -- as if fresh ground were being broken. But she, crying out, as was natural for one suffering such things, freed by a wondrous opening of the body: began to be in anguish, by which outcry she forced almost all her relatives to come. Who, coming and mourning her as if dead, marveled greatly as they considered such things, and having taken counsel, they opened her belly and found the little bones of the infant with putrid flesh, and with the woman half alive they drew out everything. After this, the woman again earnestly besought the holy Patron that, since he had wonderfully freed her from the trouble of childbirth, he might heal her completely. Without delay, as she prayed, the division of her belly was consolidated as if she had suffered nothing of these things, except that the mark of the division remained to prove the power of God and the merit of His servant. Thus freed, as we have said, and restored to perfect health, she went to Fontenelle and narrated that these things, which we have described, had happened just so for herself: showing the scars of her belly to all, she gave thanks not undeservedly to God and St. Wulfram, and afterward returned home joyful and praising. By these and many more things, St. Wulfram is held glorious before God and men.

[3] We also deemed it unworthy to pass over in silence what we have found was divinely wrought through the intercession of the aforesaid Father. There was a certain soldier in the district of ^c the Vexin, who, on account of some business, having mounted his horse, a soldier in danger from pursuing enemies, while heading for other places, happened to encounter the hidden ambushes of his enemies, who suddenly, in order to destroy him, spurring their horses, hastened to pursue him more swiftly with bloody weapons. Perceiving these at his back by the noise of their horses and recognizing the murderers among those known to him, greatly terrified by the fear of such death, he was immediately turned to flight and was pressed on every side with anxiety to escape. They indeed, inflamed with the gall of bitterness and suffused, poured venomous glances of their eyes upon him as they pursued: and raging with cruel inhumanity, they thought of nothing but his death. He, now almost reduced to the last desperation, concerned only for his deliverance, was trying to complete his flight as best he could. And when he saw that no place of refuge was available to him, and felt the hostile attacks already drawing nearer, and no longer conceived in his mind any hope of escape in any way; at last, as we believe, by divine providence, St. Wulfram having been invoked, mindful of Saint Wulfram, he supplicated his mercy with tearful inward sighs: "O Saint Wulfram," he said, "illustrious Father, renowned in the glory of virtues, be present as a merciful pardoner to one who asks, come kindly to the one who at present needs your help: Have mercy, compassionate one, on the one who supplicates your aid, and since I commit myself in servile condition to your advocacy, protect me powerfully from the outcome of the present danger, and do not allow me to be slaughtered by the swords of enemies, for whom the hope of sudden deliverance through the grace of your protection is not uncertain." These things having been prayed, immediately by the clemency of divine power and the Saint's merits, they stood motionless, and though fixed in place, they could make no effort to move a step: with these rendered motionless, they urged their horses with spurs, struck them with lances, and the more fiercely they were driven by fury, the more gently they seemed to exert themselves. Wondrous thing! Those, burning with excessive madness, raged cruelly, raised their voices, groaned more deeply that they were frustrated in their aims. Those watching marveled indeed at the outcome of this affair. And he whom great fear had seized, he is freed. rejoicing at the novelty of so great a miracle, having resumed his strength of spirit, pausing a little, thus addressed them: "What are you doing? Why do you stand amazed and wonder? I do not fear your threats at present: there is no dread though you threaten: for the present advocacy of the illustrious Father Wulfram is at hand, who opposes you with a wondrous obstacle." Having said these things, he immediately went by a straight path to Fontenelle: and he made an image of a horse and of himself sitting upon it from wax, and offered it to the tomb of Saint Wulfram in memory of so great a miracle: and rendered immense thanks to him for the benefit bestowed upon him, and decreed to become his servant. He narrated this deed in order to the Brethren of the place and to all who were present, and left them armed in the praise of God and the veneration of the Saint; whence, having received leave to depart, he returned to his own home.

[4] In the city of ^d Avranches, a certain youth was there who one day entered a small boat for the purpose of playing, a youth drowned, and began to sail along the river adjacent to the sea. Meanwhile the sea, surging with its force, disturbed the river, and casting that youth from the boat, plunged him into the stream, where he lay for one day and the following night. And when he had been long sought and not found, on the second day certain fishermen, entering the sea, while they were stretching their nets and pulling them back at the proper time, found that youth entangled in the net which they call ^e Childellok. Marveling at this and greatly astonished, they called his parents and the citizens. found the next day, he is restored to life, When they had come and seen him lifeless, they began to invoke St. Wulfram with raised voices, that he might come to the aid of the most wretched man with his accustomed piety. When prayer had been made for a long time, the body of the youth began to move, he opened his eyes, and so at the invocation of the Saint, he arose in that very hour as if he had suffered no harm. Going from there to Fontenelle, he gave thanks to God and His Saint and narrated the miracle wrought in him to all. Furthermore, a certain youth fell into a torrent, and the force of the rushing water carried him all the way to the dam of a mill, and he lay there from the first hour of the day until the sixth, another drowned man likewise comes back to life, so that his head was in the bottom of the water, and his feet seemed to hang upward. And his mother, anxious for her dear offspring, when she did not see him returning at the usual hour, fearing that something adverse had happened to him, began to search for him and to go around the familiar houses and streets. While she was turning her eyes here and there, she caught sight of her son lying in the water, as we described. Then she began to cry out in a tearful voice and miserably to tear herself. At her voice, neighbors and relatives came in alarm and lifted the youth, nearly lifeless, from the water: and with him laid out upon the shore, his mother began to complain against the Saint and to say: "St. Wulfram, you took my son from me. Because I gave him to you as a servant, give him back to me, I beg, and do not allow me to collapse from the greatest grief. Obtain by your holy merits before God that my sweetest child be restored to me." As the pious mother prayed these words, and the others who were present called upon St. Wulfram, suddenly the youth opened his eyes, responded to his questioning mother, and thereafter fully recovered. Afterward he went to Fontenelle, gave thanks to his Liberator, and related these things as we have described.

[5] Moreover, a certain merchant named Wadro, a citizen of Rouen, loosed a ship laden with grain from the river called ^f the Olva, to return to his own city: and so departing from there, he entrusted himself to the waves of the sea. And when he had already withdrawn far from land, from the greatest danger of shipwreck and was not imprudently directing the course of the vessel with the rudder amid the waves of the calm sea, the wind that had driven him out to sea suddenly dropped, and with adverse breezes arising, he began to be violently pressed and driven from his intended course. But he, with all his strength, strove mightily against the rising blasts with the rudder, and tried with great force to steer the ship where he wished. Meanwhile the sea began to swell heavily, to raise its waves higher, and to churn up sand from the depths. He nevertheless held the rudder firmly and contended to direct his course into the very waves. So the storm of the sea and the spirit of the sailor contended with each other, but not with equal forces. But, alas! The fury of the deep prevailed, and tore the rudder from its place and cast it far away among the waves. But still that man, not yet fully overcome, did not desist, but immediately rising, he took an oar and began to use it in place of the rudder. The violence of the more fiercely striking wave struck it from his hands in the same moment and hid it among the heaps of waves, and tore the mast from its step where it stood, and threw the sail with its broken ropes into the waves, and nearly sank the ship. Then, wholly despairing and trembling with the fear of impending death, he cried out, saying: "Holy lord Wulfram, I see that it is done, and no hope of escape remains. Have mercy, I beg, on the soul of your servant, for this wretched body perishes in a horrible end amid the waves and raging sea: come to the aid of a most miserable spirit, which the bitter death of the raging sea is wringing out." When he had finished speaking, a great gap between two waves, like the deepest recess between two mountains, suddenly received that ship: and with all the storm removed and the winds shut out, it refreshed him with the long-desired quiet for its Lord. There that man remained safe from all disturbance, secure from all tempest, and rested as if placed in a calm pool. And while he marveled and was astonished at these things; he is rescued: looking to the right side, he saw the rudder he had lost being carried there upon the water, and rowing a little with his hand, he received it. Then he spotted the oars upon the water, received them and placed them in the ship. After this he also found the sail and mast and all the ship's equipment, and having

given himself leisure, with his companions he raised up everything he had lost and put it in its place, and repaired not improperly whatever had been damaged by the storm, and so set out on the desired course of navigation, and was able to reach the port of safety. And so that man, received from the depths of the sea and snatched from death by divine power through the glorious merits of St. Wulfram, returned to his own home without any danger, without any loss, and rendered thanks to God and the holy Confessor.

[6] Furthermore, three youths from the district of ^g Bayeux and the estate of St. Simeon, in the week before the Lord's Nativity, using a small boat as was their custom, entered the sea adjacent to them and, rowing with all their strength, proceeded a little further from land. three youths in a small boat, tossed by a sea storm for three days, But behold, suddenly with adverse breezes rising, the sea swelled mightily and grew ever greater, and a sudden tempest engulfed the aforesaid sailors. And they, in turmoil, strained against it with all their might, stretched their arms, pulled the oars, grew weary, and made no headway. At length, having lost the rudder by which the ship's course was usually directed among the waves, and with the joints of the planks already giving way, they were reduced to the last desperation. For they were already awaiting the impending death which the wind and waves and the onslaught of pouring rain threatened from every side, and no way of escape seemed open. But amid these things, they suddenly remembered the deeds they had heard about St. Wulfram through spreading fame: and therefore they turned to imploring his holy patronage with the whole affection of their hearts, all the more insistently and devoutly as they perceived that no other counsel or hope of salvation remained to them. Raising their hands to heaven, therefore, they invoked his holy name, and with vows promised, they tearfully implored that they might deserve to be freed from the imminent danger of death. And thenceforth they did nothing else but clung to the small boat lest they be cast out of it. For now, plunged into the depth of gaping waters, they were sliding as if into an abyss; now indeed, raised on the swelling mass of waves, they were lifted to the sky. And so no rest, not even for a moment, was granted to those laboring. Thus that day passed, and the second, and the third, and the fourth: they took neither food nor drink, nor did they indulge in even the slightest sleep: and sometimes, as they themselves afterward related, their boat was filled with waves, while at other times, though empty of water, yet cracked and worn, it was borne upon the waves; and thus, as has been said, they were kept alive in death, lest they should die: certain to perish unless they were saved by the hand of divine power. What, then, do we think those men suffered at sea, since on those days on land there was such an inundation of rain that the procession to public places was impeded for many; and such a force of winds pressed in from all sides that the tops of many houses were torn off and trees, uprooted by the roots, fell throughout the trackless forests? At last, however, the divine mercy, which had terrified them with so terrible a danger, they are freed: and by the wondrous miracle of its protection, appeased by the prayers and merits of His Saint, had preserved them from perishing; after so long the stretches of the vast sea, after the immense surges of turbulent waves, the blasts of raging winds, the dense rains of scudding clouds, they were cast upon the shore. When they had gone ashore, that boat which had carried them upon the waters and the raging waves could not remain empty upon the water at the shore, but was immediately overturned and never appeared again. Coming therefore to Fontenelle, with the greatest devotion and immense joy and reverence they offered a gift: there, prostrate on the ground, they prayed, and having faithfully given thanks for their deliverance, they disclosed everything that had happened to them to the Brethren: and thenceforth, as testimony of their deliverance, they gave themselves into the service of the Saint: and so, after they had been retained there for some time for recovery from so great a labor, having received leave, they returned to their own homes safe and joyful.

[7] likewise merchants, At another time also, certain merchants, pursuing their profits by sea conveyance, having prosperously crossed the sea, entered the River Seine. When a violent windstorm, suddenly arising, had seized them, directing the course of the ship less cautiously, they were driven onto hidden sandbanks, where they were detained for a long time, nor could they be torn loose by any force or any effort. Furthermore, with the ship broken apart by the powerful blows of the waves, it was admitting water on every side through gaping cracks: and while the sand held them thus fixed, the wind overwhelmed them, the waves flooded them, and death before their eyes terrified them violently. They devoutly began to invoke St. Wulfram, whose many miracles they had already learned of, and humbly to entreat that he would deign to mercifully help them in their present danger. their ship rescued from the sandbanks. Without delay, as they cried out, a great ship appeared, which seemed full of men dressed in white. Cutting through the hollow waves with its swift prow and passing over the great swells of the waves, when it had come nearer, one of those illustrious men arose and said to the others: "Let us help these men, lest they perish in this danger." He spoke, and seizing their ship by the hand, with a light motion he wrenched it from the sandbank where it had stuck: and so brought it all the way to the shore, and placed it there in safety. When this was done, that ship disappeared, together with its crew and the companions who were seen; but a fragrance of wonderful sweetness followed and remained, which refreshed those merchants by its scent as evidence of the miracle, and clearly instructed them as to what they should think about their deliverance: some of whom, going forth from there, sought Fontenelle to give thanks; and related that they had endured these things and had been thus divinely rescued.

[8] Nor indeed, as I think, was that very different which happened to others at the same time, as is established by the testimony of many. others, with their ship driven onto sandbanks, Who, having entered the mouth of the Seine too hastily and having imprudently outrun the incoming tide, driving their ship by rowing too swiftly, they struck it upon the shoal commonly called Sorel, and there remained immovable. At this, they were greatly afraid. Moreover, seeing the monthly surge of the sea rising vehemently with the wind from behind, and threatening them with the inescapable danger of death: therefore despairing of themselves, they began to implore divine protection, and crying out, they said: "Saint Wulfram, be present to us in this present necessity, and do not allow your little servants to perish, who glory in having you as Patron on land and sea." Meanwhile the surge of the boiling salt wave, driven by the wind, snatched from a similar danger: approached, and struck the stern so violently that it overturned that ship full of grain, and threw it upon those who were in it. And so it happened that the grain was upon the men, and the ship covered the grain. But lest the ancient enemy, the foe of human salvation, should be entirely master of his wish, and lest he should exult over so many deaths of men, the divine mercy, implored through the merits of St. Wulfram, was present: and it did not allow them to perish entirely, whom such a protector was known to have sought in their danger. For immediately a wave followed which removed all that had been placed upon the ship, and carried the shipwrecked men, alive, here and there through the waters. And while they, thus cast about, still called upon the Saint as they could, behold suddenly a great barge, called in the barbarian tongue ^h Isnechia, appeared, in which innumerable men seemed to stand, clad in gleaming mail coats. These, drawing nearer, gathered here and there those whom the wave had scattered, and placed them with themselves in the boat. Then, speaking to no one, they turned to the shore and set all of them out on dry ground, alive and safe. Then one of them said: "Go quickly and pay your thanksgivings for your lives to St. Wulfram, who freed you." At which words, that heavenly host disappeared, and left those merchants astonished enough and rejoicing in their safety. Nor should it seem surprising that they suffered the loss of their goods: but rather astonishing that they escaped the death impending before their eyes. For this was the grace of divine piety: the other was the fitting punishment of their own desert, in which one must carefully consider how glorious the merit of this holy Father of ours is, who was able to save so many men destined by divine sentence to death, and by appeasing the divine power, was able to free them from destruction lest they perish as they deserved.

[9] There was moreover a certain man named Ralph, who at almost the same time was traveling with other merchants by ship, others, with two ships sunk, in order to reach the district of the Cotentin: whom, as he was proceeding, a sudden tempest, as is wont, seized, and in a moment overturned two ships in which his companions were being carried, and terrified him greatly with his men who were with him in the third ship. Then he, rising, said: "You see what has happened to our companions, and you are not unaware of what awaits us: for we share the same nature, and our condition is no different. We can by no means drink an immense drop of this element; we cannot overcome it: therefore it is difficult to escape from here, where we see others have perished. Yet the desire of living still remains, and this singular refuge of obtaining it exists. For I am a servant of St. Wulfram, who far and wide shines with the marvels of his miracles: if you are willing now to invoke him with me, he can indeed powerfully come to our aid, placed as we are in such danger." At this voice, they, powerfully lifted up, with the third saved, bent their knees in the ship, raised their hands and voices to heaven, and called upon St. Wulfram with their whole heart, and so immediately they deserved to be freed from danger. For at once the horrifying blasts of wind fell, the swelling waves grew still, and so, with favorable breezes succeeding, they arrived without any loss at their destination through the merits of the holy Father. ^i After these events were done, it is worthwhile to record in writing that glorious miracle at which the aforesaid young man Ralph testified he was present. There were many in one ship laden with many goods and furnished with suitable supplies: and to sail to the island of Britain, having carefully checked the sky, they finally cast off, and so, proceeding from the Seine, they set their sails for the deep. But temptation was not absent here, when suddenly a change of elements occurred and a fierce storm of the sea arose. In an instant, a contrary wind arose, the waves of the sea swelled, the sky disappeared, the stars were hidden, others, with St. Wulfram appearing, prosperity turned to adversity, and joy to sorrow. Meanwhile those sailors, hemmed in by such evils on every side, awaited their final fate, and thereupon were giving mutual confession of their sins. But Ralph, whom we already mentioned above, said to his companions in trade and danger: "All things are against us; all, as it seems, threaten us with death. One refuge alone remains for the wretched, and a singular escape from death: namely, Saint Wulfram, who on land and sea is mighty in the great works of his miracles. He, if you faithfully invoke him, can rescue us, strip us of all evils, and free us from impending death." By which words they, vehemently confirmed in faith, they escape shipwreck. stretched out their suppliant hands to heaven, fixed their knees in the ship, poured forth prayers from

a devout heart, and made their vows. Meanwhile a certain bright figure appeared clothed in white, standing in the prow, who said: "Do not be afraid, O men, for you are sailing well. I am indeed the one whom you invoked." At these words, he immediately vanished, but an immense light shone over them, so that they could see each other as if in daylight. There immediately followed a wonderful calm of the sea, the serenity of the air was restored, the winds fell silent, the roar of the waves grew still, the sails were freed on the mast, the right and left arms of the yardarms opened evenly, and so, with healthful breezes divinely bestowed, the weary sailors rested and completed the journey they had begun, having obtained the help of God throughout; at last they joyfully brought the ship into the port they had determined, and so finally brought their vows to Fontenelle, narrated what had happened, and glorifying God magnificently in His Saint, they hastened to return joyfully to their own homes.

^a The Oximensis district is in lower Normandy, where Exmes, formerly an episcopal city, whose See was transferred to Sees.

^b Falaise is the chief seat of the Viscounty under the jurisdiction of Caen.

^c St. Ansbert was a native of the Vexin district. Consult note D to chapter 1 of the Life.

^d Thus our ancient manuscript. Avranches is an episcopal city on the River See, which others call the Senunam, near the Ocean on the borders of Armorican Brittany. Meanwhile, in both manuscripts sent from Amiens, and in the Office of St. Wulfram for Abbeville, where this miracle is read for the month of June, we read with a great error: "In the city of Evreux." But what has Evreux to do with the sea? It lies on the small river Iton, which then flows into the Eure, and this afterward above Pont-de-l'Arche flows into the Seine, and this, after a long circuit, washes Rouen, and finally flows down to the Ocean.

^e Perhaps Childellok, that is, a Child's net.

The Olna, Olena in Ptolemy, now commonly called the Orne, flows through the city of Caen.

^g Bayeux is likewise an episcopal city there, hence the Bessin district, commonly Bessin, near the Ocean.

^h Ignetia in our manuscript, Isnechia; commonly in Germanic Snack and Sneck, a larger boat is called, as is also barke, as below.

^i Constantia, a well-known episcopal city there, toward Armorican Brittany.

CHAPTER II.

The sick healed: demoniacs and captives freed: lost things recovered.

[10] A lame and hunched man healed, There was furthermore a certain man named Sislebert, a citizen of Rouen, who for a long time kept in his house a certain poor man named Sozelinus: and because he was lame in both knees, out of regard for divine piety and future reward, he fed him. His disability was such that he could by no means be raised upright in his own stance, nor could he proceed anywhere. For his legs had withered, with sinews dead and veins dried up, and so, the flesh having wasted away, the sallow skin clung to the shriveled bones. When he had crept on his knees and hands to the tomb of Blessed Wulfram with the hope of recovering health, and had remained a full year without having certainly obtained anything, and was patiently awaiting the benefit of his sought Patron, at last he found the grace he was seeking and obtained the mercy he had long desired. For on a certain day, when he was in the church in which the burial-place of St. Wulfram is honored, he was suddenly raised from the ground, stood up, and in a moment received on straightened knees the ability to walk that he had lost, and turned the faces of the onlookers to the glory of God and the praise of His Saint. Furthermore, two youths from Rouen were brought to the aforesaid place, one of whom was hunchbacked, and the other was contracted in both knees: who, after they had spent some time there and awaited the benefit of their sought Patron, at last experienced the divine mercy and the benignity of St. Wulfram. a hunchback and a cripple: For the former was completely freed of the hump which he had borne deformedly from his mother's womb, as if he had never had it: and the latter, with his knees straightened and his legs made firm, stood upright, and so, to the wonder of all who had seen and the joy of those who had brought them, they returned safe and sound to the place from which they had come. Thus indeed the blessed Father Wulfram was accustomed to reform the deformed and to recall the weak to the condition of strength.

[11] A certain noble and very wealthy matron in the things of this world, namely the wife of Ralph, who served in the office of Chamberlain in the house of ^a William, Count of the Normans, male offspring is obtained: having only one son, after whom she bore nothing but daughters, burning with an immense desire for a male heir, came to Fontenelle, and with no one aware of her vow, devoutly poured forth prayers before the tomb of St. Wulfram, that he by his glorious merits might obtain for her from God the grace of conceiving a son who could succeed in the paternal household and honor. She prayed and departed, and within those same days she conceived a male child, as she had requested, and in due time brought him into the light of the world. Wherefore very joyful, she afterward gave thanks as was fitting to God and His Saint, and made known to certain of the Brethren that these things were so.

[12] In the district of ^b Caux is a village called Sainte-Juste, A man in danger of death is healed, in which a certain man, struck by an illness of the body, fell so gravely ill that all despaired of his life. Having summoned his wife and friends, he ordered his possessions divided, and having also arranged all things, he received Holy Communion, and thus, drawing his last breath, he lay with limbs distended. And while, with the body now failing, he labored long in his death-agony, his wife and the neighbors standing around spoke of St. Wulfram and made a vow for the health of the sick man; he suddenly responded to the voice he had caught with his ear and confirmed the vow made on his behalf. Then, as the pain of his limbs gradually receded, his former vigor began little by little to return. And when the effort of still-lingering weakness had returned, suddenly, as if bathed in a refreshing breeze, he shuddered through his whole body: and so, to the wonder of all, he rose, and long afterward fully recovered: he fulfilled his vow by coming to Fontenelle in person, related the matter as it had happened, and after many acts of thanksgiving, returned to the place a Roman sick for three years who had been bedridden, from which he had come. A certain citizen of the same city of Rome was languishing, and no remedies could avail for him in any way: in whose house pilgrims who had set out from Normandy stopped, and there they took lodging until they returned. Meanwhile, while they said many things to that sick man as if in sympathy, among other things they made known to him the name of St. Wulfram, and by relating various things, told of the glory of the miracles which divine mercy was working everywhere through him, and taught him to hope for and seek the health of his body from that Saint. He, acquiescing in their words and conceiving the most complete faith with his whole mind, invoked the Saint and made a vow as he had been instructed. Without delay, the illness which had afflicted him for three continuous years departed, and the old vigor of health, poured through his limbs one by one, returned. He arose from the bed on which he had long lain, and feeling no distress from his prolonged debility thereafter, he vigorously attended to his domestic affairs. That man therefore marveled more attentively at the great power of the Saint whom he had not known until then: he rejoiced more profusely for the health he had obtained, which he had long desired: therefore, when his guests departed, he gave them thanks and humbly begged them to carry with them the money with which, when they returned to their own country, they should buy wax to present to the Saint on his behalf. And they took what was asked, and faithfully fulfilled all things as they had been entreated. But they also related these things done in order, and so at last returned to their own homes. having a dislocated eye from headache pain:

[13] In the suburb of Rouen, a certain man lived who was a money-changer by trade, named Rodulf, who had two sons, the elder of whom incurred a most severe headache, so that he almost lost his right eye, which, as if struck by paralysis, he bore very deformedly turned around. When his mother saw the danger to her beloved child, she brought him with her to Fontenelle, on whose behalf she implored the aid of the holy Father and quickly deserved to obtain it. For when she had spent a wakeful night at his tomb, that young boy, the pain having been expelled, experienced the divine power and merited the consolation of his sought Patron. For immediately, feeling better, he departed with his mother, and on that very day more fully recovered, with heavenly mercy granting it, with his sight restored, so that no vestige of his former deformity could at all be detected in his face.

[14] The other, who was smaller, for he had not yet completed his second year, incurred a greater danger, to the greater glory of God, and one, as far as mortals could tell, a little boy from a swallowed needle: irremediable. For on the third day, not yet elapsed, since the mother had returned from the Saint's tomb, as we stated above, his nurse was holding him in her lap and soothing him with the usual caresses as he cried in a childish way. But when she saw him crying more shrilly, she offered him the hair pin with which she had fastened the garment she wore around her neck: so that at least in this way the little boy might be restrained from weeping. He, receiving it, unaware of the danger, put it in his mouth, as is the habit of children of that age: and it stuck between his tongue and palate within the narrow passage of his throat. Gravely afflicted by this trouble, for he could neither swallow it nor knew how to expel it, he began to cry more vehemently. Meanwhile, while his father, coming home from a grove near his house, lovingly saw his tender child crying, he inquired the cause. Upon learning it, he trembled greatly, approached, opened the child's mouth, and gently applied the tips of his fingers, and with all his skill and sagacity tried to remove that little pin. But he grieved that his labor and effort turned out otherwise than he wished. For that pin, dislodged by his gentle touch, with the thicker head going first, passed through the throat of the infant gaping under his hand, and slipping into his innards, thereafter disappeared. At this sight, the mother, who had entered after her husband, groaned more deeply, and taking the boy in her arms as if beside herself, immediately began to depart and hasten to the tomb of the holy Confessor, saying: "Saint Wulfram will free my son and immediately restore him healed to me." But the father, fearing that something bad might happen to him on the journey, barely restrained her from what she had begun, and with great difficulty obtained that she return to her house. Both, however, made a vow to the Saint and devoutly asked that he deign to help them and their dear offspring. What then? From that hour, that infant, as if he had suffered no harm, was quiet, and neither cried nor was in pain thereafter: but as before he was accustomed, he ate and drank, played and slept; and on the third day, with the digestion of the food he had taken, that pin, whole, without any distress of the internal organs, without injury to the bowels, was passed in the stool. In which matter it seems very wonderful how through so many folds of the childish intestine and such subtle twisting coils of the gut, that pointed and elongated piece of metal, now ascending, now descending, could pass through without sticking anywhere, injuring nothing, and so at last be expelled through the lower parts by natural digestion. The only explanation for this was the will of the Creator and the glorious

merit of the holy man, who was frequently accustomed to grant many things beyond the order of times and the course of accustomed nature to those who invoked him. ^c Therefore, when I had come not long after the feast of so great a Father, which is celebrated on the Ides of October, I found some people uncertain about this. For which reason, after the solemnity was completed, going to Rouen, I diligently inquired of both parents about the miracle that had occurred. They related everything to me, as has been stated, before many witnesses, and furthermore presented the boy in whom the event had occurred; they also showed me the pin, which I accepted as testimony of so notable a miracle and brought to the monastery, showed it to the other Brethren so they would no longer doubt, and so committed it to the Sacristan to be kept in the monastery.

[15] On the vigils of a certain Lord's night also, three women were present, paying the vows of their devotion. Of these, one, who was called Hilduera, was from the village called Tisuris. The Clerk (who was present at that time at the sacred tomb crippled women, to give responses to those consulting, and diligently examined the persons who came, to investigate their infirmities) was careful to inquire of her what her name was, where she was from, and why she was bringing a candle from so far away. She responded that she had been crippled for thirty months, and on account of this had made a vow to St. Wulfram, when she had heard many things about his miracles from her neighbors, and had immediately obtained the straightening of her limbs through his merits, though she had not been entirely free from pain: but afterward, when she had approached more closely to his tomb and faithfully prayed, with the pain that had long held her completely departing and the desired well-being succeeding, she had fully recovered in a moment: and therefore she had then also returned, and she reported that she had joyfully fulfilled her vows. Another woman was called Ima, who testified that she was from Clanziac; she brought a cap ^d of wax, suffering from a swelling of the head, which in the sight of the many who were present she placed upon the tomb of the Saint. She too, when asked, related the reason. "For," she said, "my head, oppressed by a sudden illness, pained me for a long time so that it turned into a most ugly swelling, and could not be healed by any remedy. At last I was careful to make a vow to St. Wulfram for this matter, and immediately through his merits I received the health I had lost. Wherefore I took care to come here and decided to bring what I had vowed." But the third was a young woman in age, and had come from the small village of Martiniac, lacking the use of an arm from illness. which is near the city of Rouen: her name was Herlenis, who from excessive illness had lost the use of her arm, so that she could do absolutely nothing: for a swelling had occupied it all the way to the shoulder, and had made it horrible to see and useless for all work. Meanwhile, when she heard what the grace of almighty God was working everywhere through St. Wulfram, strengthened in faith, she made a vow, and so deserved to obtain health. Therefore, lest she be guilty of her vow, she prepared a candle, and so, as described above, on the vigils of the aforesaid night, she presented it at the memorial of the Saint with the greatest devotion, and asked the Sacristan to allow it to burn: and so, with her vow completed and what had happened to her serially set forth, she returned to her home, glorifying God and devoutly commending herself to the patronage of His Saint.

[16] A certain man named Hosbert was so vehemently tormented by a demon that he would not take food, refused drink, and spoke and did everything insanely. Brought to the intercession of the Saint, a demoniac is freed not long after he was restored to his former health and to his own senses. Nor could the ancient enemy, occupying a human body, remain any longer once he touched the Saint's precincts, but was soon forced by divine power to abandon the dwelling he had invaded and to return to the dungeon of his own damnation. A woman likewise, called Gotzeluia, from the estate of Bennogas, was led in the same manner to the presence of the holy Father: she was tormented by a most evil spirit, so that she could scarcely be restrained or detained for long by any bonds, however strong. For even if she were bound, she would immediately, aided by the demon's strength, break all the bonds, and thus appeared free in a wonderful way. Nevertheless, brought by many, though resisting and struggling, after a few days, through the glorious merits of the Saint, she deserved to be perfectly cured, and a demoniac woman, and so, having recovered the senses she had lost, she returned free to where she had come: nor did she further need to be put in chains, since she had merited to be freed from the harassment of the evil spirit. Thus indeed the holy Father Wulfram knows how to render the help of his intercession to all, so that he is proven to frequently confer generous benefits even upon the ungrateful and those not asking. Nor is it easy to recall to memory how many persons of both sexes have been cured at various times through the prayers and merits of St. Wulfram from the invasion and hostile harassment of evil spirits. and many more at various times. For whoever suffering such attacks of the enemy could be brought to his tomb obtained a perfect cure both in body and in mind, nor could anyone return without the effect of healing who deserved to reach that place.

[17] A certain man named Stephen, himself also a citizen of Rouen, incurred the worst state of ill health, and with his body collapsed in the loins, he took to his bed. His infirmity was such and his weakness so great that he could not rise from his bed, A man healed whose loins were dissolved and whose limbs were weak: nor relieve the pain by changing sides. And when for three continuous months he made no improvement but grew worse, at last using prudent counsel, he asked to be transferred to the tomb of Wulfram and conveyed by boat down the Seine to Fontenelle. When he had arrived there, for eleven days lying before the doors of the church in the porch, he faithfully sought the grace of divine mercy and patiently awaited the remedy of the health he desired. Nor did his hope deceive him, nor did the faith conceived in desire defraud him. Meanwhile came the votive day, glorious with the solemn honor of so great a Bishop. On that very day the aforesaid sick man, among the other things by which that same festivity shone joyfully, was cured, with God favorable to him, and rising from the place where he had long lain, he stood on his own feet: then he walked wherever he wished without another's help. Which those who had known him previously to be collapsed in his loins and had seen him weak in the rest of his limbs marveled at with great joy. After spending several more days there, he returned joyful to his family and left behind many witnesses of the miracle wrought in him. Furthermore, Robert, Bishop of Rouen, living as a layman, and a dying little boy: had a certain son named William, whom, still a small boy, he loved more earnestly than usual. A grave illness recently seized him, which violently affected him for some days: but when the violence of the pain severely exhausted the tender limbs of the boy, he was reduced to such a state that he was thought to be dead. For his body lay motionless, his eyes were closed, pallor occupied his face, color his lips, no signs of vital breath were apparent in him, no breathing in his nostrils, no breath was felt in his mouth. And when his wretched mother, in the father's absence, was grievously pained that this was happening in her little one, and saw that no remedy remained; at last she remembered St. Wulfram and the miracles which fame was now spreading. Whereupon she immediately began to invoke him with all the devotion of her mind, and faithfully to implore him to restore to her by his prayers and merits the son whom untimely death now seemed to be seizing. Then she vowed that she would give him to him as a servant if he would free him from his present affliction. As soon as this was done, the boy opened his eyes and afterward asked for bread and received it, and not much later fully recovered.

[18] Another certain man had only one denarius, which he had begged for not without shame: a lost denarius recovered. he lost it by chance, and having searched where he had placed it, he did not find it: saddened, he faithfully invoked the Saint, and devoutly asked that he restore to him what he had lost. After doing this, a short time later he found that coin, though not where he had lost it, and gave thanks to the Saint, who had deigned to hear him in so small a matter. But perhaps some will laugh at this, who either do not know or refuse to evaluate a miracle except by the magnitude of the thing. To us, however, this seems the same as if, upon finding a pound of gold that had been lost, the poor man had been heard, because the miracle is proven to consist in the deed, not in the price. Moreover, his wealth is worth as much to the rich man as his poverty is to any poor man. Nor is it less for a poor man to have lost one denarius than for a rich man a hundred. Whence it is clear that the benefit of finding it is equally great, where the loss in what was lost is not the least. Therefore the joy is not unequal, nor is the miracle truly different in any respect. Whence it is clearly given to understand that signs are divinely exhibited to mortals not according to the estimation of the thing, but according to the magnitude of faith: and therefore what is obtained by no small faith should not seem to anyone to be not great. But if perhaps they seem cheap to someone, they cannot, however, fail to be dear to those to whom they occur as wished. Furthermore, let us relate what happened to one of the monks of St. Wandregisel: a lost key, whose person, even if less pleasing, yet the grace of the deed is no less. For a monk named Girard, one day performing the office of the refectory, lost the key entrusted to him. Which when he had searched for it in various places and even in the holy church itself, and not found it, he was greatly afraid: and therefore he fled with the whole intention of a contrite heart to the patronage of the holy Confessor: and with great devotion asked that he might obtain through his holy merits to find what he had lost. And when after this he was attending Vespers with the other celebrating Brethren on the second day of the Lord's Nativity, and was groaning inwardly and grieving over what had happened to him, even to the point of shedding tears, and would respond to no one nodding at him as to why he was weeping thus, at the Gloria at the end of the Psalm he bowed in the usual manner, and felt a blow on his opposite leg as if he were struck by someone throwing a stone. And when he marveled at this and looked behind him, and could not detect with however curious an eye any author of that blow, he turned his gaze down to his feet, and there unexpectedly saw the key he had lost lying: lifting it up, he gave thanks with great joy to the Saint whom he had invoked and considered to be the author of his consolation with a devout mind, and took care to narrate the matter immediately. In the district of Caux and in the estate of St. Wandregisel, a certain woman sent out to pasture 6 sheep exposed to wolves for days: the few sheep she had, as is customary, in the morning, and when she sought them at the proper time, she did not find them. Whence, since she greatly feared that they might fall prey to the attacks of wolves, she invoked the protection of St. Wulfram her Patron, and having made a vow, faithfully prayed that he would restore to her the sheep she had lost. And when her neighbors, who on the same day had similarly lost their own sheep, ran about far and wide searching, and found some of them eaten by wolves and others slaughtered

throughout the trackless fields, only the sheep of the aforesaid poor woman were found alive after a cycle of six days, complete in number, together in one place, and without any injury; nor could the savagery of beasts presume anything against those whom the woman's devotion had been careful to commit to such a guardian.

[19] Moreover, a certain youth in the territory of Evreux, in the days before the Lord's Nativity, was captured by enemies, a captive freed when his bonds dissolved of their own accord, led to the castle called Dorcasium, and there consigned to custody and chains: who, when he had been held there for some days and guarded with such great diligence that no hope of escape appeared, at last it occurred to him to invoke the protection of the holy Confessor. Which, when he had done as he had proposed, immediately the iron bolt sprang apart, the loosened bonds fell, and he himself appeared free in their midst. And those who were present, astonished at so great a matter and such a miracle, began to inquire diligently of him the cause and more carefully asked how this had come about. He related that he had invoked the name of Saint Wulfram, and confidently showed that he stood free also through his merits. Then those enemies who had captured the soldier and kept him bound in chains under diligent guard, having heard the Saint's name and out of recognition of his power, which fame had already spread far and wide, became more mild, and for the honor of him who had deigned to manifest himself to them by such a sign, they sent him free to go wherever he wished, demanding no ransom, seeking no redemption from him thereafter. And he, as described, having been released, hastened to Fontenelle and thoroughly informed them that he had escaped the hostile nation and the danger he had incurred, and gave thanks to his Liberator, and having fulfilled his vow, returned joyful to his own home. a demoniac woman, twice A certain woman came to Fontenelle whom the enemy of the human race was vehemently tormenting. When she had been cured after a short interval of time, she returned to the village called Campellier, from which she had come. But suddenly the evil Spirit seized her again and began to torment her grievously as before. All who were present at this spectacle marveled, and thought that no place of remedy, no further grace remained for the wretched woman. But the divine mercy graciously came to the aid of the desperate woman, revealing to her by angelic ministry the means of obtaining health, and commanding her to return a second time to Fontenelle and to hope for healing from the Saint. Therefore, as had been divinely shown to her, she revisited the designated place, was present with the people at the vigils of the sacred night, and awaited the grace of the health promised to her, which shortly after she deserved to obtain again through the glorious merits of her sought Patron. At last, cured in a moment, she recovered the senses she had lost: she gave thanks, nor did she thereafter suffer any attack from the expelled enemy: but remained thenceforth in the grace of the health she had received. Behold, as I had promised, the grace of divine mercy came to the aid of the desperate woman who had no faith, and gave the reason for his own cure to that sick man of whom we have spoken, who could not seek it nor knew how.

[20] In the same village also, a certain young girl completely lost her eye, A blind girl healed, so that for a long interval of time she could see nothing from it, and could be healed by no kind of remedy. Meanwhile her mother, greatly lamenting over the deformity and infirmity of her daughter, and not imprudently presuming on the merits of the holy Confessor, formed a likeness of an eye from wax as best she could and, in the name of St. Wulfram, applied it to the extinguished eye of her beloved child. Wondrous thing! Immediately the light long denied, without any delay, restored the lost faculty of seeing: so that it was as prompt for the girl to have received her sight as it was for the mother to have made the vow with faith. In the aforesaid village of the territory of Rouen also, which is situated in the forest called Rolon's-marsh, a woman with a withered hand, another woman had a withered hand, who, when she had made a hand of wax in the name of the Saint and promised a vow, immediately recovered with her hand restored, and came to the place of the Saint's burial with her wax vow: and having also given thanks, she departed to her home rejoicing. a cripple, A man also, contracted in his whole body and having lost all strength of limbs, made a cord of hemp in honor of the Saint to his own length, and so not long after, with his limbs straightened and the threads of his sinews made firm, he stood erect in his posture: and coming to the aforesaid place, he magnified the grace of almighty God and the glory of His Saint, and giving thanks, he finally returned to his own home. Another woman likewise, named Susanna, another cripple with all her limbs contracted, came as best she could to the memorial of the Saint. Where, after the vigils of the Lord's night, during the celebration of the solemnities of Mass, when a sermon was being given about those who had received health, she rose in the sight of the people, and stood healthy on her own feet: and so, with the people present turning to the praise of God, she made undoubted faith in what was being said. During those same days another girl, about eight years old, a third cripple, named Ascelina, similarly contracted in her whole body, came there led by her mother; who on the same day was raised up and fully recovered, so that in her little body no traces at all of the former infirmity appeared.

[21] There was, moreover, a certain wealthy man named Gunduinus, into whose house thieves entered by digging through the wall. various things stolen by theft are recovered, While all who were in that house slept, they went to the chest where his better garments were kept, and having opened it, they took what they found and departed with no one knowing. And when for some days what was sought was diligently searched for and could by no means be found, his wife was careful to hasten to the place where the Saint's burial shines with the glory of miracles: where, having complained greatly about her loss, she prayed and, making a vow with devotion, made known her cause to the people who were present; and faithfully begged that they would pray to the Saint to whom she had fled for this matter. When therefore at dawn she was leaving that church with the people who had celebrated the night vigils, a stranger met her, heavily burdened; who, as if crazed, with rolling eyes and trembling body, stood stunned and astonished. And when, detected by such signs, he was diligently questioned, he offered no resistance but stopped, then exposed the theft that lay hidden, wrapped up; and so at last disclosed everything he had done to all who were present. Then the aforesaid woman received everything she had lost with great joy, and offered thanks with great exultation to God and the holy Confessor, who had thus come to her aid without delay when she prayed: and with the thief detected, he restored the lost garments without any diminution.

[22] Another young woman also, of young age but hoary faith, had a hand with contracted fingers, useless for all work, the contraction of fingers is cured: who at last was careful to make a vow to the Saint, if by his glorious merits he might obtain for her from God that she might deserve to be freed from that disability. She was, moreover, from the territory of Caux, and from the village called St. ^e Honorina, and was dedicated to holy religion. With the vow made, she was so fully and perfectly healed that she immediately did what she had promised, and thenceforth performed all womanly work fittingly and properly without any hindrance of infirmity. Furthermore, in the district of Bayeux, in the village ^f of Tilly, a certain boy, born of distinguished parents, swelling of the body, was said to be eight years old, who, seized by a grave illness, swelled so much that his whole little body was distended and wasting away, and he was unable to rise from bed for a long interval of time. For him his parents were careful to make a vow to the holy Confessor. Without delay: with the pain departing and health returning, the boy was freed from that ugly swelling of the body and granted his former well-being. Thus the pious Pastor and glorious Confessor of Christ, Wulfram, was accustomed to hear those invoking him everywhere and faithfully imploring his patronage, and to assent to their just prayers and vows, to restore the sick to health, to free those in danger, and to gladden the sorrowful. To me also, the writer, at the same time a speck of dust fell into my eye pain of the eye, and began to afflict me violently. Therefore, as I revolved the Saint's name in my silent mind, and considered that I, who was writing his miracles, should not have to suffer such a thing, I began with one eye to look around for which of the Brethren I should entrust the inspection and cleansing of my aching eye. And when I had decided to commit and trust myself to one who seemed to me sharper-sighted and more suited for such a task, I approached and extended my hand to turn my eye toward him. But before I could indicate the cause, in a wondrous way, quite to my satisfaction, the pain suddenly subsided, so that I marveled at the matter with myself, and rubbing my eye with my hand to check if it still hurt, I carefully examined it. When therefore I perceived myself to be as healthy as if I had never had pain, giving thanks I withdrew from the Brother whom I had been seeking.

[23] A certain man sought the mercy of St. Wulfram, who fell in with certain officials. ^g These a stolen horse; the thieves rendered immobile, seized the horse on which he was sitting, throwing him off, and began to ride it, with him complaining about this. But he began to beg them to return the horse for the love of the Lord and the holy Confessor whom he was visiting, and not to impede him in any way. They, however, despising his petition, said they wished first to fulfill the service of their lord, and then, if he followed them, to return it to him. He, hearing this and now having no hope, presumed upon the mercy of the Lord, and said with tears: "Holy and elect of God, Wulfram, does it please you that this horse be taken from me by these enemies while I am devoutly seeking you? Bring help, I beg, whom I believe to be of great merit before God." When he had finished speaking, immediately they, losing all bodily strength, stood rigid and immobile as if bound by some divine chain. And when they tried to go further but could not, recognizing that this had happened to them on account of their treachery, they began to ask him to deign to take his horse and to pray for them. Which having been received, they were immediately released there, and went where they intended. He indeed came to Fontenelle: and narrated these events to all who heard, and having fulfilled his vow, he returned to his own home.

[24] Another man was captured by enemies and placed in custody, who earnestly besought the merit of St. Wulfram to deign to have mercy on him. Without delay: the prison opens of its own accord, as he prayed, the bolt by which the iron chain was secured sprang apart and greatly gladdened him. Coming then to Fontenelle, he brought with him that chain, that is, the fetters, and hung them there on high as a testimony of the miracle, and departed giving thanks. A certain Clerk incurred a certain illness, a troublesome illness removed, so that he could neither rise from bed nor perform any kind of work for the course of nearly two years. He, however, relying on sounder counsel, more frequently invoked St. Wulfram to deign to help him. While he persisted in devout prayers, not long after he felt the power of the Saint present, and freed from his affliction by his help, he himself became a witness of the miracle.

^a William, Count or Duke of Normandy, succeeded his father Robert II as a boy in the year 1035, and afterward in the year 1066 became King of England.

^b The Caux district, commonly the Pays de Caux, in upper Normandy toward Dieppe, where the village of Saint-Juste is also seen on geographic maps.

^c The following of this number are only in our manuscript.

A cap for hat or cap, used by Matthew Paris under the year 1235.

^e St. Honorina is venerated in the town of Conflans, where the Oise or Isare flows into the Seine. We gave her Acts on February 27.

^f Two leagues beyond Caen toward the west.

^g In the Office of St. Wulfram, where this is read in the month of February, it is added: "whom the common people call extortioners." Perhaps officers of justice are indicated: thus the very place appointed for the execution of criminals in Paris is called la Greve.

CHAPTER III.

A storm calmed: lost things recovered: a fire extinguished: diseases of men and beasts cured.

[25] In the year of the Incarnation one thousand fifty-six, the Babylonian King sent to Jerusalem and commanded the Holy Sepulchre to be closed, [In the year 1056, because of an edict of the King of Babylon, 300 Christian pilgrims,] and forbade any Christian from entering it henceforth. Upon learning this, the Christians who had gathered there from every part of the world were grieved: and because they could not fulfill the desire of their devotion regarding the visitation of the Holy Places as was customary, they groaned deeply. Then, having taken counsel with the Patriarch who presided over that holy place, they left the city quickly lest they be captured: wishing, before the matter became known, to pass through the cities through which their return route lay, lest they be hindered. But when they realized that such a decree had already become widely known, and therefore feared that they could by no means leave that land without danger, they diverted as quickly as possible to the nearest port they could reach, seeking by sea the escape that was denied them on land. Where, having found as they wished the means of navigation, they had entered the sea, having paid the fare that was demanded of them without delay: and they were more than three hundred in number. returning from the Holy Land, As they were proceeding, having already covered the greater stretches of the sea with favorable success and prosperous winds, an immense storm arose which violently tossed them and long detained them from completing what they had begun. And they, sorely distressed and struck with enormous fear, just as they were from diverse regions, so likewise invoked diverse names of Saints, yet without any success. There was, however, among them a certain man of not ignoble birth named Ausfridus. He, placed in the last extremity with the aforesaid men, began to invoke St. Wulfram strongly, with Saints Wulfram and Nicholas invoked in a storm at sea, and carefully urged the others to do the same. And they, whom the utmost distress was pressing and the nearness of dreadful death was terrifying, all cried out together with one voice, saying: "Kyrie Eleison, Saint Wulfram pray for us: Kyrie Eleison, Saint Nicholas pray for us." At this voice of supplication, the horrible winds were stricken with fear, and that heavy storm, which had raged beyond its usual fury, was calmed and grew still: so that to no one was it doubtful that the tranquility had not returned to the sea by chance, but rather through the merits of the Saints whom they had invoked. But indeed the aforesaid Ausfridus, when after the many difficulties of the long journey he had returned safely to his homeland, they are freed. faithfully narrated that these things had happened to him and his companions, and declared that Saint Wulfram his Patron, together with St. Nicholas, had obtained life and safety for him in that danger of the sea and the terror of the pagan enemies.

[26] A certain nun named Eulalia was living at Fontenelle: she had a daughter who received from a certain monk a piece of parchment [A parchment bearing the image of the Savior, carried off elsewhere by a little fox,] on which the image of the Savior appeared, as if hanging on the cross, handsomely depicted, with His names written. She, returning home, brought it with her and entrusted it to her mother to keep, out of reverence for the Lord's image. The mother, receiving it, opened it, then having reverently adored the Savior in His image, folded it and immediately placed it in her bed between the pillow and cushion for the moment. Meanwhile a domestic fox climbed upon the bed of its mistress, where it too was accustomed frequently to lie and sleep, and by chance found that parchment: which it immediately stole and secretly departed, and in a nearby grove dug a hole and covered it with earth. The aforesaid handmaid of God, returning to her bed shortly after, sought what she had carefully supposed she had placed, and did not find it. She asked her daughter, questioned the household; all denied having it. Therefore all things that were in the bed were turned over, even all the stuffing or straw that lay underneath was pulled apart piece by piece, yet what was sought was not found. Meanwhile that brother urgently demanded his deposit back, heard it was lost, and did not believe it: he insisted vehemently, was indignant, and professed that he could not do without it. And so he was very troublesome in his demanding, and saddened the soul of the handmaid of God with bitter words. Thus one and another day passed: but on the third day, when he had more sharply pressed his demand, she returned home, and greatly anxious about these things, when she returned, she began to weep. Then that nun, sighing more deeply and rightly attributing the causes of her great trouble, and with all who were present disturbed, the fox we mentioned above began to walk about among them, as it was accustomed. Then she said: "You wicked beast, always a pilferer and sly, you have done all these bad things to me; you plainly, and no other, stole what I seek, carried it out, and buried it somewhere: after three days, St. Wulfram having been invoked, it is brought back: and I am troubled and groan with my whole heart. But now, with the power of almighty God set before me, I conjure you through the glorious name of St. Wulfram, that just as the wonders which the divine mercy works through him are true, so you return to us without delay what you have taken away, and restore the household loss which you have presumed." O wondrous power of God! O precious and mighty merit of His Saint! Immediately that little beast sensed the divine power and invocation, and could not endure the adjuration made through the Saint's name: but immediately going out into the nearby grove, it began to scrape the earth, took in its mouth the parchment it had hidden, now uncovered, and before the gaze of all who were astonished, laid it out before the feet of its mistress and nurturer, and left it there with no one compelling it: in which there was absolutely no damage, no sign of corruption appeared. Therefore, while all exulted over the finding of the lost item, the handmaid of God, who had a deeper understanding, gloried all the more in the power of the holy Patron and the glory of his merits.

[27] In the village called Bodaliel, a certain man named Anschetillus lived, keys recovered that had fallen into a river, who held under lease a mill built there on the River Orne. One time he went out to block the waterways, as is customary, and by an artifice known to him he diverted the force of the river in other directions. While he was more diligently applying his efforts to this work, the keys, which he had carelessly hung from his belt, came loose and fell into the water: which, by their own weight, because they were iron, immediately sank to the bottom of the riverbed. And he, when he noticed, groaned, greatly saddened. Because the water was abundant and the river very deep, and he had neither any means of searching for them nor any hope of finding them, he asked for the intercession of the Saint, whom he had already learned from the report of many to be mighty in the glory of miracles. And so, frequently invoking the Saint, he went home, and not long after, at the request of those who needed to grind, he returned to the mill. When he climbed up to open it, he saw the keys he had lost hanging from a stake: at which sight he was inexpressibly glad, and recognizing the author of so great a benefit, he gave thanks and was careful to pay with faithful devotion the gifts he had promised. Thus indeed does heavenly mercy sometimes hear those who invoke its Saint even in the least of matters, and attends not to the matter but to the faith, nor weighs the cheapness of the cause, but rewards the devotion of those who ask.

[28] an injured arm is cured: A certain citizen of Rouen, falling from a horse, injured his arm so that he was greatly weakened by severe pain and could perform no work with it. Therefore he was careful to seek the aid of the holy Confessor and immediately obtained it: accordingly he fashioned a wax arm for himself and carried it to the place of the Saint's burial with great devotion. And because he deserved to recover the lost member of his own body, the new artist fashioned an image from wax in memory of so great a miracle, which he not undeservedly decided to dedicate to him from whom he recognized he had been restored to himself. Furthermore, a certain poor woman, deprived of both eyes, was led there, a blind woman is given sight, who when she had descended into the crypt of that Church, prayed at the tomb in which the Saint had anciently lain: and there immediately, through the merits of him whom she had faithfully sought, she was given sight, and departed seeing and joyful. In the district of Oxime is a village which the inhabitants call Columelles, a difficult illness is driven away, in which a certain man named Durand lived, whose wife, named Albreda, was struck by a severe disease in the jaw. Which, having been charmed away, departed; but immediately invaded her throat. From there it moved and settled in her right side, from which it could thereafter neither be transferred by any charm nor abolished by any poultice. Moreover, in that place a similar disease had already carried off many, and whoever was touched by it had no confidence of escaping the loss of life. Wherefore the aforesaid woman, greatly fearing, not imprudently looked after herself, and providing for her own safety, faithfully invoked the name of the Saint, more powerful than any charm, more potent than any antidote. When this was done, in a wonderful manner the disease burst, made an ulcer from which all the poison ran out: then the intolerable pain, which was already tormenting her very vitals, subsided: and finally, within a few days, with the ulcer healed and the scar formed, the woman fully recovered and was restored to her former health. Which her husband, seeing and clearly understanding the benefit of the invoked Patron, together with his wife joyfully paid the votive offerings of her health.

[29] Now indeed let us unfold what we have deferred until now, namely how the holy Confessor came to the aid of one of his monks named Leduinus, a monk suffering from dysentery and conferred upon him the help of his intercession, and we have resolved to set it down in writing for the knowledge of future generations, because both the person is known and the matter is proved to be no small one. A most grave illness therefore, which is called dysentery, once attacked him, and by the long torture of his bowels and the unceasing flow of his belly so consumed him that he feared the end of life was at hand, and hoped that, now gravely broken by the affliction, he had reached the borders of approaching death. Wherefore he suddenly resolved to implore the patronage of the Saint, because no human care could provide any remedy for him. He came therefore with the hope of recovering his health, and was present with the people at the vigils of a certain night: but nothing happened to him as he wished. He came also a second time and kept vigil, yet brought back nothing of benefit. But a third time he returned, and stood greatly troubled in the midst of the crowd. he repeatedly implores the help of St. Wulfram, Where, complaining bitterly and

as if indignant against the Saint, in the hearing of the surrounding crowd he uttered these words of grief: "What is this, holy Father? What are you doing? Behold, you receive those coming from afar and look upon strangers, you cure the sick, you heal the ailing, and you neglect me, your servant, who for so many cycles of years have served you: you do not heal the weak, you do not in the least console the suffering. What honor is it to you who see me wasting away with a shameful illness and do not have mercy: you watch me dying and withhold your aid? But perhaps you wish me to go and sit by your tomb among these poor people, among whom there is no one, I confess, poorer than I, who have absolutely nothing of my own. Nevertheless, lest I fail to obtain what I desire on this account: behold, I am prepared to go up and make myself equal to the rest in this very thing." Having spoken these words in a troubled spirit, he approached and placed his foot, to make room for himself, he mixes himself among the common people: next to a poor little blind woman who was sitting there. But she, indignant, said to her guide who was sitting closer to her: "Remove from here, I ask, this monk who is preparing a place to sit beside me." To whom she said: "How do you know that he is a monk?" Then she said: "I know well, because I see him with my eyes, for I also see three candles burning here and the people standing around." he occupies the place of a blind woman who has been given sight: To this she replied: "Rise then, and give place to others, since, as you say, you have deserved to receive the sight you had lost." When that monk heard this, he groaned more deeply, and repeating the words of grief, he spoke thus: "So it is, Father Wulfram, it has pleased you: behold, you have restored sight to this old woman who will die shortly, and because of this you have indulged her more quickly since she sought you, who has just come and has already departed and has not even given thanks: and to me, your servant, who from my early age have served you until now, behold, you defer to grant your grace even on my third visit. Behold, I shall sit here where she arose: and I shall plainly not depart until I have deserved the grace." So he spoke, and placed himself on the pavement next to the Saint's tomb. [appearing, St. Wulfram commands him to drink water in which relics had been washed,] Where, having sat for a while, weighed down by sleep, he dozed a little. Meanwhile, as it seemed to him, St. Wulfram appeared, clothed in white and wrapped in a cloak, entering as if through the larger window from the eastern side: who, standing closer, said to him: "Go, ask for water for yourself, in which yesterday the relics of the Saints were washed; drink of it confidently, wash your belly, and thus you will be granted your former health." Having said these things, he flicked the fingers of his holy right hand over his face, as if sprinkling water. and he is healed. And so that Brother, waking, with the vision receding with sleep, rose joyful: nor did he regret having sat there, since he had merited the grace of health and the Saint's visitation. When he had first awakened and rubbed his face with his hand applied, those drops of water with which he had seen himself sprinkled by the Saint in his sleep, he wondrously perceived even on his body, visibly moist. Therefore, having asked for the water sanctified by contact with the relics and received it, he washed his belly and, by drinking it, as he had been commanded, infused his bowels with it. And so, immediately restored to health, he departed from there.

[30] Furthermore, it must not be omitted what a certain nun, a very religious and prudent woman, related about herself: An Abbess in despair of health, who, established as governess of a convent of Virgins in the place anciently called Pratel, had received the office of governance and performed it magnificently. "St. Wulfram," she said, "is well known to us, and has fixed his memory eternally in my breast, and has placed in my heart an indelible reverence for his love on account of those things which he himself deigned to work in me. For it happened that I fell ill, and as the pain gradually increased, I was greatly oppressed. Meanwhile I was completely prostrated in bed, and was permitted neither to assume any office of divine service nor any ministry of pastoral care. I had a most grievous horror of food and drink, and sleep was entirely denied to my eyes. No rest, therefore, was granted me by day, no pause given by night. Therefore I was so afflicted in my whole body and so weakened in all my limbs that I awaited only death, and no one had hope for a longer span of my life. Meanwhile the choir of Sisters was troubled: the whole convent was disturbed with great anxiety. But I, destitute of all human aid, already despaired of by all, remembering those things I had learned about the virtues of Blessed Wulfram, I groaned and poured forth words of prayer from the inmost affection of my heart, saying: 'O holy Father and beloved of God, Wulfram, who faithfully served almighty God while established in this mortal life, as the wondrous deeds you perform on earth testify; hear me, I beg, your handmaid supplicating you, and by your glorious merits relieve the pain of my body. Work in me, I beseech, what you are accustomed to work in others, and do not deny to one what you are proven to have conferred upon many: make me the fulfiller of my vow, a witness of your power.' When I had prayed, I immediately felt the divine power and the swiftest aid of my invoked Patron: for immediately, dissolved into sleep, I rested, and upon awakening, I sat up in bed. After this I asked for food, and accepted it from the Sisters when it was offered. Why say more? On that same day I rose from the bed on which I had long lain wasting away, she recovers it, and began to arrange the necessities of the monastery as I was accustomed. Thus did St. Wulfram come to my aid, thus by his prayers and merits he granted the benefit of health, removed pains, drove away illness, excluded the danger of death, poured back the medicine of both kinds of salvation, nor did I further feel the former pains, which the health infused from heaven had eliminated."

[31] When, moreover, the summer was over and the crops had been gathered and stored in barns or piled in stacks, one day a heavy thunderclap suddenly crashed, a fire in the crops is stopped, and the sky itself flashed with frequent flashes of lightning: the terror of which greatly frightened the hearts of mortals, as is wont. And behold, with the elements shaken, a thunderbolt, carried through the clouds, suddenly fell and ignited the sheaves piled up outside. Meanwhile the servants of the nearby house, seeing the flames of the heavenly fire, immediately ran and tried to extinguish them, but could not: for the more they disturbed the easily combustible straw, the more strongly the fire, rekindled in the dry material, raged. Seeing therefore all their efforts to be in vain, with a loud voice they began to invoke St. Wulfram and to implore his aid in such danger. Immediately, therefore, in a wondrous manner, that fire, conquered by the Saint's merits, fell, the flame, quenched, grew still, with no trace of it remaining. nor could it do anything further once the holy name resounded on the lips of the faithful, and as an increase of the miracle, a wondrous thing followed. For from that hour, in those sheaves in which the fire had previously burned when ignited, no sign of combustion appeared, no trace of ash remained. When the servants reported this to their lord upon his return from the military expedition on which he had then gone, he joyfully gave thanks to almighty God and, journeying to Fontenelle, rendered thanksgiving to the Lord and St. Wulfram for so great a benefit.

[32] A certain soldier named Rodolph, in the Oximensis district, had a horse of great value which he grieved to have lost. a horse stolen by theft, For a certain person from that class of men whom the common people call Corbelli received the horse as if to lead it to its master who was in the village, at the lord's estate, and as a treacherous thief, arranged to steal it. And when that soldier returned home and did not find the horse, and heard what had been done, he began to be greatly troubled and to lose heart: because he utterly did not know in which direction he should pursue and track the departing thief. And so he was stuck in his mind and began to deliberate with himself what he should do about this. This counsel occurred to him, and the thing seemed more effective: that he should commit his cause to St. Wulfram and make a vow to him for this matter. For already in those parts the name of St. Wulfram was famous, and it was considered a singular advantage for anyone to invoke him in their troubles. Therefore, having deliberated, he invoked St. Wulfram and faithfully made a promise of his vow, and so thereafter went nowhere, sent none of his men for this purpose, but rested, and placed all his hope in the mercy of God and the help of His Saint. It happened, therefore, that during the same days in which the aforesaid soldier had lost his horse, two horsemen rode out from a certain fortification, and having completed the time of the guard assigned to them, were returning to their homes. rendered immobile, These encountered the aforesaid thief sitting upon the horse on the road by which he was returning, and at first from a distance, with doubtful gaze, uncertain who he was or what the immobile and stupefied man was doing on the road, they marveled. But drawing near, they recognized the horse and its rider: they diligently asked what he was doing there, why or when he had come. He related everything to those asking, confessed his guilt, indicated the punishment, and begged for impunity. He said he had fled and taken his master's horse to ride away: that he could not go further because of the rigidity of the horse, which was fixed to the ground, and the thick darkness of shadows spread over his eyes, obstructing him. And they rebuked the thief with biting words, and thus, astonished at the wonder of the deed, they took the horse, throwing off the rider, took it back with them, and it is restored: and without delay restored it to their fellow soldier who had lost it: they taught him what had happened, they did not keep silent about the miracle. He faithfully recognized the benefit of the Saint whose aid he had sought, gave thanks, and fulfilled his promises.

[33] Furthermore, a certain nun who presided over certain holy Virgins in a monastery built near the city called Lisieux, another struck by sudden illness. was called Advenia. She, when a certain need required it, was once traveling to the district of Oximensis: whose horse was suddenly seized by a grave illness, so that it could by no means go further or provide to its mistress the customary service of conveyance. Then she, grieving, dismounted from the horse and for the space of several hours sustained it, dying rather than recovering. By chance a certain monk named Hubert, traveling the same road, had joined himself to the aforesaid nun, and was observing with compassion for her sorrow and much deliberation in his heart what was happening. But when he saw that she wished to depart, having prepared another horse for herself, and to leave there the one which dire necessity was pressing to death, from which no hope of life seemed to remain; he approached nearer, and because there was no hemp from which to make what he wanted (for they were far from any village), loosening the bindings from the legs of one of her servants, he stood by the horse, it is healed: and measuring along its length from head to tail, before those who were present he faithfully made a vow to St. Wulfram. Wondrous thing! Immediately that half-dead horse, having recovered its health, arose from the ground, and, as if it had suffered no harm, began to crop the grass of the field to the wonder of all.

in their need they had experienced so great a miracle shown through his merits. Without delay, that handmaid of God, borne by her accustomed mount, arrived where she had planned, and then, having completed what she wished, she returned joyful to her cell from which she had set out, by the same conveyance. And indeed, after some days had passed, a certain youth named Gaufrid brought sorrowful and sad news to the aforesaid handmaid of God that his horse, which he held very dear, was dying. For it had already been dragged by the mane and feet from the stable by the efforts of many and lay in the road near death. When she heard this, she consoled the grieving man with such words as she could and informed him that a similar thing had happened to her: and taught him to implore the protection of St. Wulfram. And he, upon hearing these things, hastened home, and as he had been instructed, asked for a cord of hemp, likewise another dying horse, to the wonder of many, and twisting it and applying it along the length of the prostrate horse, took care to make a vow. Not the slightest delay intervened; that horse, shaking itself up from the ground, arose, and in the sight of all who were present, returned of its own accord to the stable from which it had been led out nearly dead a little before, and began to feed on the hay it found there. Seeing which, that master, filled with great joy, hastened to fulfill his vows to St. Wulfram for so great a benefit, and devoutly gave thanks to God, who is wonderful in His Saints.

[34] Furthermore, an ox belonging to a certain man called Turchitullus, struck by a sudden disease, collapsed under the yoke, and for a long time lay moribund on the ground with its harness loosened. an ox left for dead suddenly rises up healthy. And when no further hope remained to the man that his ox would live, he called his wife, named Albreda (for he himself drove the cart to the village with the other oxen as best he could) and said to her: "Go into the forest with the hired hand, look for our ox in such and such a place, and when you have quickly stripped the hide from it, hurry back." But she went in haste: and found the animal still nearly dead. But hesitating not at all and relying on prudent counsel, she implored the immense mercy of God with a suppliant affection of heart: then she tearfully invoked the name of St. Wulfram, and begged him to deign to restore her ox to her through his precious merits. And so she approached the prostrate beast, and taking its measure from the top of its horns to the bottom of its haunches, she vowed a candle of equal length in honor of the Saint. She had not yet removed her hands, and behold, suddenly the ox which had until then lain nearly lifeless raised its head, shook its neck: and so at last, with its mistress marveling and shedding tears for joy, it rose from the ground and began to lick the green plants near it cheerfully, as if it had felt no pain. Then she, exulting with immense joy, devoutly gave thanks to almighty God and to His Saint, who had shown mercy to her, and returned to the village with her animal. She therefore carefully explained the matter to her husband, declared the vow: he, greatly gladdened at this, marveled at the divine mercy and proclaimed the power of Saint Wulfram's merits, and not long after came to Fontenelle, gave thanks, fulfilled the vow, disclosed the matter as it had happened, and so returned home full of joy.

[35] ^a A certain little boy had developed a stone from his urine, and for many days, with the passage of the bladder blocked, seemed frequently to pass blood: a little boy freed from a kidney stone: whose excessive pain caused him frequently to cry out in a piteous manner, and he was so severely afflicted through the course of a week that he was thought to be dying suddenly. Meanwhile the pain for his tender offspring was piercing the very heart of his pious mother. Moreover, at the father's command, the mother encircled the boy's loins with twisted thread, and placing great trust in the mercy of God and of Saint Wulfram, they did not seek a cutting physician, but poured forth prayers to the Saint himself with total devotion of heart. Soon, wonderful to say, that infant passed the stone in his urine and most quickly recovered in his whole body: which stone the father afterward showed to us, and handed over the boy to his liberator as a servant. Another boy, afflicted with a similar trouble, was cut open by his father at the cost of money spent on physicians: but he grieved that their efforts and his desire had turned out badly: another, near death after surgery, is healed: for the boy, after being cut, was nearly dissolved into death. Over whom the father and mother, grieving exceedingly and vehemently fearing that they had incurred the guilt of homicide, called upon the help of the holy Confessor, which they believed was absent from none who devoutly sought it. Why say more? With the wound scarred over, the boy, by the mercy of God, fully recovered.

[36] And indeed, since we have somehow explained these few things while omitting many more, and our pen is insufficient to pursue all the signs of miracles that have been performed, conclusion of the little work. lest we seem to exceed due measure by weaving in more, we have resolved to make an end of speaking. Now indeed our prayer is to be directed henceforth unceasingly to our holy Patron.

^a These two miracles are only in our ancient manuscript.

TRANSLATION OF THE BODY

From Fontenelle to Abbeville.

Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, at Fontenelle and Abbeville in Gaul (Saint)

Section I. Whether the same body of St. Wulfram was at Ghent. Its solemn veneration there.

[1] For those about to treat of the Translation of the body of St. Wulfram to the city of Abbeville, it is necessary to inquire [The body of St. Wulfram was not carried to Saint-Omer in 846 with the other bodies of Saints] whether that same body was previously brought to Ghent and deposited in the most celebrated monastery of St. Peter, called Blandinium. There exists in volume 2 of the Writers of French History compiled by Andre du Chesne the Chronicle of the Deeds of the Normans in France, and on page 525 these words are read: "In the year of the Lord 846, Danish pirates, attacking Frisia, devastated provinces and churches and slew the people in them. Hearing which, the Flemings and the Bishops and Abbots of neighboring cities, with the relics of their Saints, came to Saint-Omer, because its precinct was fortified by divine providence with a strong wall and towers. These are the Saints who on account of that persecution came to the same fortress: Saints Bavo, Wandregisel, Ansbert, Wulfram, Wasnulphus, Piatus, Bainus, Winnoc, and Austreberta the Virgin, and for forty years some of them remained there." So it reads there, which is found in the Deeds of the Normans before Duke Rollo, page 2, with some changes at the end: "These are the Saints who on account of that persecution came together: St. Wandregisel and Saints Wulfram, Ansbert, Bavo, Wasnulfus, Piatus, Barcius, Winnoc, and St. Austreberta, and they were there 40 years." And it is added from the end of the Codex that they were carried there, and therefore they are enclosed in parentheses, since things different from these are narrated as done in that year by the Normans in Frisia and Gallic Brittany: whence it is a sign that they were imprudently related at the end of the Codex and inserted by the earlier author into his own history. Meyer in book 2 of the Annals of Flanders writes only these things as done at that time: "In the year 846, the bodies of Saints Bavo and Pharaildis were transported by Abbot Enckericus and Provost Frangerus of Ghent to the fortress of Saint-Omer out of fear of the Normans." but only the bodies of Saints Bavo and Pharaildis. Then: "In the year 853, Abbot Tasradus of Ghent transferred the bodies of Saints Bavo and Pharaildis from the fortress of Saint-Omer to Laon out of fear of the Normans." Afterward, under Arnulf the Great, Count of Flanders, he has: "In the year 940, Arnulf together with Gerard of Celles, Abbot of Ghent, brought the bodies of Saints Bavo and Pharaildis back from Laon to Ghent." These Meyer gives from the ancient Chronicles of Ghent, from which the fable indicated above vanishes and provides an opening for inquiring into more certain matters.

[2] We have from three ancient manuscript codices the History of the Miracles of St. Wandregisel, seriously written by a monk of Fontenelle, With the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert carried from Fontenelle in 858 in which these things are written about the Translation of this Saint and of St. Ansbert, at which the author seems to have been present: "In the seventeenth year of King Charles, or the year of Christ 858, as is clear from the accompanying circumstances, the most holy bones and pious ashes of the illustrious Confessor of Christ Wandregisel and the holy Bishop Ansbert, out of fear and the trampling of the wicked Gentiles, were dug from their own tombs in the monastery of Fontenelle and carried to the estate of Bladulf, from there to the church of St. Peter, near Quentovic, then to the estate of Walbodeghem, then again in the year 866 carried back to the church of St. Peter, and then again to Walbodeghem. Afterward, in the year 895, the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert Confessors came to the city of Chartres," etc. Which we have deduced somewhat more fully in the Life of St. Ansbert, and will give in full on July 22 in the Life of St. Wandregisel. In which account the most frequent mention is made of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, none of St. Wulfram: because his body was preserved at Fontenelle: and was found in the time of Abbot Gerard, placed in a silver casket, that of St. Wulfram remained, elevated in the year 1027. and translated in the year 1027 with great solemnity: which shone forth with very many miracles, as they have been described by a contemporary author and in many cases an eyewitness, which we have already given. Meanwhile, to return to the people of Ghent, the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert were first translated from Chartres to Boulogne, and afterward in the year 944 to Ghent, to the said monastery of Blandinium. Later generations believed that the bones of St. Wulfram were present, because the sacred vestments and other vessels of both this Saint and others are reported in manuscript Chronicles to have been translated, which we find thus: "Of the relics of the said Saints we brought with us from the chasuble of St. Wandregisel, also the cap of his head and one of his stockings, sandals, a cord, and a part of that cross which we inserted into another piece of wood and adorned with gold and silver. These, however, are the things we have of St. Ansbert's relics: his tunic and part of his chasuble, of whose dalmatic a part, and a knife and sheath were brought to Ghent: his purse and bowl or pyx and knives. Of St. Wulfram's dalmatic, the greater part is with us, and a knife with its sheath." So there, from which it seems that the occasion of the error was seized, by which later generations reported that the body of St. Wulfram also had been translated to Ghent.

[3] Meanwhile, after the body of this Saint was found among the Fontenelle monks, there was great interchange of affairs between them and the Blandinium monks. For when Robert presided as Abbot over the monks of Fontenelle, the arm of the same Saint was brought to the monastery of St. Wandregisel from the monastery of St. Peter on Mount Blandinium near Ghent in Flanders, whether in the 11th century certain sacred bones were carried there? with great glory of miracles: as is reported from the manuscript records of Fontenelle by Arthur du Monstier in Neustria Pia under the said Robert, the thirty-first Abbot, who, having presided over the monks of Fontenelle from the year 1047 until the year 1066, was appointed Abbot in Paris in the monastery of St. Germain des Pres. In the sequence of the ancient Breviary of Fontenelle, the solemnity of the arm of St. Wandregisel is read under the 16th day before the Kalends of July, that is, of the arm received, as was indicated to us through Frederick Flouet, a Priest of the Society of Jesus residing at Rouen. From this it may be inferred that, since the monks of Blandinium could then have known that the body of St. Wulfram was not preserved in their church, why should they not have asked for some of his sacred bones, so that, if perhaps they had already had some cult and veneration of him among themselves, they might proceed more securely, or certainly, if they had not previously been honored with any ecclesiastical Office, they might begin to honor the third Patron of the monastery of Fontenelle: whose

two principal Patrons, namely Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, they venerated on account of their sacred bodies preserved there. Certainly, in the proper Offices of the Blandinium monastery, St. Wulfram has on March 20 an Office under the rite of a greater double, and on October 15, on account of the first elevation of his body, again under the rite of a double. Furthermore, on account of the Translation of Saints Wandregisel, Ansbert, and Wulfram, on March 31, an Office is recited under the rite of a lesser double, His various veneration which Translation we have shown above should be said of the first two, not of St. Wulfram; which we judge should be said likewise of the solemnity under the greater double which is celebrated on September 3. Hence in some Martyrologies it is attributed to Ghent, even in the Brussels manuscript of St. Gudula and the Trier manuscript of St. Martin, and in others afterward printed.

Section II. Two churches of St. Wulfram at Abbeville; his body brought there; recently displayed. Sacred veneration.

[4] At Abbeville Abbeville or Abbatisville is a city of Picardy, situated on the River Somme in the County of Ponthieu: whose size and elegance we admired when we once entered it, since both the city itself and the multitude and magnitude of its churches and monasteries greatly exceeded our expectations. there are 2 churches dedicated to St. Wulfram, The Patron of this city is St. Wulfram, to whom a double church is dedicated there; one is parochial, called de la Chaussee or At-the-causeway, situated in the part of the ancient city; the other, which is the principal one, is a Collegiate church formerly dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, in which the body of St. Wulfram is preserved, brought from the monastery of Fontenelle, as the ancient tradition of the citizens reports, his body brought there long ago: under the Counts of Ponthieu, the charters of whose donation and translation have perished. Concerning the ancient Counts of Ponthieu, one can read Adrian Morlier in the Synopsis of Illustrious Families of Picardy: many are also listed by Ignatius Joseph de Jesu-Maria in the Ecclesiastical History of the city of Abbeville and the Archdeaconry of Ponthieu, who in book 1, chapter 24, reports the charter of the foundation of twenty Canons: from which we give these excerpts: "I, John, Count of Ponthieu ... make known that the church of St. Wulfram, anciently built under the title of Chaplains, A college of Canons was established and endowed and founded by the generosity of our ancestors with twelve Chaplains. We, therefore, moved by divine inspiration, for the salvation of our soul, have made, established, and dedicated to God and Blessed Wulfram twenty canonries and prebends ... which we decree and ordain to be together with the Chaplaincies of the same, for the honor of God and the amplification of divine worship in the same church of St. Wulfram ... I have signed with my seal in the year of the Incarnate Word 1121." Perhaps the year 1161 or 1171 should be written; for William of Belleme, surnamed Talvas, father of the said John, is reported in the years 1145 and 1159 to have donated various possessions to Cistercian monks and to the Abbey of Saint-Josse. Among the predecessors of the said John is found in Morlier Wido or Guy, through whom a certain donation of lands situated near Doullens was made to Cluniac monks in the year 1075, and the same man or certainly his son is said in the year 1100 to have founded the Priory of St. Peter at Castillon near Abbeville: to which times we believe the translation of the body of St. Wulfram and the foundation of the said twelve Chaplains should be referred. Again, John II, Count of Ponthieu and Montreuil, with his wife Beatrice, beyond the twenty canonries and enlarged. which his father had founded, endows six additional canonries for the salvation of their souls and of their son William, in the year 1138, as the charter has in chapter 25 of the said History of Abbeville, but with a similar error of years, so that it seems one should write the year 1183 or something similar. For Beatrice was the daughter of Anselm of Candavene, Count of Saint-Paul from the year 1151, so that in the year 1138 she would not yet have been born, yet here she is thought to have a son William of some maturity, to whom Philip Augustus the King gave in marriage his sister Alesia, daughter of Louis VII or the Younger, King of France, by Alesia his third wife. In the time of this William, the body of St. Wulfram was placed in a silver casket by Richard, Bishop of Amiens (who held that dignity from the year 1205 to the year 1211), as is established from this authentic instrument.

[5] "In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand six hundred sixty-two, In the year 1662, the reliquary casket of St. Wulfram is opened: on the twenty-first day of May, which fell on the Sunday after the Ascension of our Lord, under the reign of Louis the fourteenth, most Christian King of France and Navarre, We, Francis Faure, by the divine mercy and the grace of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Amiens, while we were at that time spending some days at Abbeville in the course of our visitation of our diocese; at the request made to us on the part of the beloved Dean, Canons, and Chapter of the Royal and Collegiate Church of St. Wulfram, and of all the Magistrates and Orders of the city, we went to the said church at approximately the eighth hour of the morning: and we had the silver casket, in which was enclosed the body of the most holy Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, most worthy Patron of Abbeville, opened before us (it had never otherwise been opened, as far as all could remember, since those sacred relics had been translated to that city by the pious generosity of the ancient Counts of Ponthieu), in the presence of and at the urgent request of all the leading men of the city from both Orders, both ecclesiastical and secular. two parchment documents of the reposition made in the year 1205 are found, In which casket we immediately discovered two small documents of parchment, each furnished with its own intact seal; one given by the Most Reverend Lord Richard, Bishop of Amiens, the tenor of which is as follows: 'Richard, by the grace of God Bishop of Amiens, to all who shall see the present writing, greeting in the Lord. Let your university know that by our hand, with the Holy Spirit assisting, this most sacred Body of the Most Blessed Wulfram, Archbishop and Confessor, has been placed in this casket, in the times of the Noble Lord William, Count of Ponthieu, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand two hundred and five.' And the other document from William, Count of Ponthieu, the tenor of which is also this: 'William, Count of Montreuil and Ponthieu, to all who shall see the present writing, greeting and affection. Let your university know that by the hands of the Venerable Man Richard, by the grace of God Bishop of Amiens, this most sacred Body of the Most Blessed Wulfram, Archbishop and Confessor, has been placed in this casket in my times, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand two hundred and five.' Then from the same casket we drew forth an ancient manuscript codex of parchment: in which are described in the Latin language the life and miracles of the glorious Bishop Wulfram, by the author Jonas, a monk of Fontenelle: and the Life of St. Wulfram, which description of the life and miracles he himself reports having received from Ouo the Frisian, also a monk of Fontenelle, who himself professes to have been freed from the imminent danger of death through a notable miracle of St. Wulfram, to whom that same Ouo afterward always remained an inseparable companion until death.

[6] "Then before all we brought forth from the same casket a linen bag together with its linen cloth, then his solid bones, in which bag was contained another bag of precious purple cloth interwoven with various flowers, with gold added to the weave around the edge of the bag, which was tied with a cord of green silk. Upon the opening of which bag, not without admiration, all the bones of a human body were seen, of extraordinary stature, as was apparent, and these were intact and solid. And while all the leading men who were present approached in their order, about to venerate the sacred relics with great devotion, the Te Deum was sung, with us beginning the Canticle of Saints Ambrose and Augustine in a clear voice, the choir of musicians and the organ followed with alternating voices in the greatest exultation and with pious tears of joy of the entire people present, whom even the church, however ample, could not contain, with cannons also fired at that time as a sign of joy. Which canticle having been completed, we celebrated a solemn Mass of St. Wulfram and a solemn Mass, in pontificals with the same attendance of people, to whom we had previously given an exhortatory address from the very steps of the altar. At the sixth hour of the afternoon, we again went to the said church, and after the repositioning in it of the relics, which had been exhibited for the devotion of the people throughout the rest of the day, we had the sacred casket closed, and from there from the said church, together with the entire Clergy of the whole city and all the leading men and the most numerous people, we processed solemnly and in pontificals to the church of St. Peter, a procession was held: from which, returning, we left the casket intact in the church of St. Wulfram. To the memory of which notable deed we have wished the present instrument, signed by our hand and furnished with our seal together with the seal of the Chapter of the said Church the relics replaced. of St. Wulfram, to be drawn up, and to be placed in the casket as a perpetual monument."

[7] The same instrument exists published in French in the year 1663 at the end of the Office of St. Wulfram arranged for the Church of Abbeville, Veneration at Abbeville which is recited both on March 20 and on October 15, and then with an Octave: which is not permitted on the former feast because of the Lenten season. Furthermore, on the Thursday not impeded by a feast of nine Lessons, the Office of the same Saint is recited, and the third Lesson is assigned as a proper one from the miracles of the same Saint. Concerning other gifts bestowed on the said Church by the said Count William, other Princes, and Kings, the already cited History of Abbeville should be consulted: in which, chapter 30, the Deans of the same Collegiate Church of St. Wulfram are enumerated, and it is said: "Under Jean Barthelemy, in the year 1635, relics given to Louis XIII, at the instance of Louis XIII, most Christian King, the silver arm-reliquary was opened on June 22, containing the bone of the arm from shoulder to elbow from the relics of St. Wulfram, and from it two particles were taken, one for the aforesaid King, the other for the Chapter of Sens, and to the Chapter of Sens. so that their long-standing request might be satisfied at the same time." A copy of this donation, drawn up by Francis de Feure de Caumartin, Bishop of Amiens, has been inserted into the said silver arm-reliquary for a perpetual memorial of the matter. Furthermore, the people of Sens have a vertebra sent as a gift by the Canons of Abbeville in the year 1641. As is found in the Catalog of Relics of the Church of Sens, sent to us from there by Francis Perrin of our Society.

[8] We conclude this dissertation with the history of certain miracles which were formerly conferred by divine power upon those hastening to the sacred body of St. Wulfram at Abbeville: Miracles formerly wrought at Abbeville, and are contained in the above-indicated manuscripts both of Dom Jean de Saint-Martin of the Feuillant Order and of our Professed House. Furthermore, by a letter written at Abbeville and sent to us in the year 1663 by the Reverend Father Philippe Briet of Abbeville, known to the world through various published books, we are further informed that this is also noteworthy: that even now God does not cease to perform daily and very many miracles at that most sacred body: others are now wrought: among which these two are suggested. One in a very young girl, daughter of the recently deceased Lord Baron de Vismes, a paralytic is healed, of a place in the district of Vimeu

situated there: who, while being brought up in piety among the nuns devoted to God in the monastery called Bertaucourt, fell into such a paralysis that she could scarcely move, and not even speak. And when she had already suffered for many months, she was brought to the church of St. Wulfram to venerate the sacred body, and as soon as she completed her vow, she recovered so fully that she returned on foot and leaping to the monastery, with the free use of her tongue also restored. The other in a boy of nearly seven years, born from another place called Balance, and a paralytic boy. in the district of Ponthieu: who, having been afflicted for several months by a similar disease, or even a more severe one, so that he could not even utter a word, was likewise brought by his parents to the said church: and immediately, when he was brought near to the sacred relics to kiss them, and asked whether he held the first articles of our faith and placed his confidence of obtaining health in the prayers of St. Wulfram, he said in a clear voice that he believed in one God in essence and three in persons, and that he was invoking Saint Wulfram for his help, and returned completely healthy. The acts of both notable miracles, confirmed by the signature of many most trustworthy witnesses, exist among the records of the said Church.

MIRACLES PERFORMED AT ABBEVILLE.

Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, at Fontenelle and Abbeville in Gaul (Saint)

BHL Number: 8742

FROM MANUSCRIPT.

[1] Therefore, in the ^a territory of Ponthieu, in the village called Moricampus, a certain man dwelt, A man miserably crippled is healed, who from his loins down to the very soles of his feet was so deprived of the strength of his sinews that, with his feet and legs tangled together from the excessive drying up of the sinews, he could by no effort raise himself from the ground. He was so overcome by the worst state of ill health that he could never turn himself on his own, nor even crawl along the ground. In all his bodily needs he depended on the mercy of his wife and his relatives. No hope of recovering his health any longer remained: and that he still lived could be a weariness to his wife, and indeed to himself. But why do we conceal the wonders of Christ and of the most precious Bishop Wulfram by defining his miseries? For at that time the disabled man learned how great the remedies were that were obtained through the patronage of St. Wulfram by those who sought the presence of his body at Abbeville. Therefore, kindled with the desire of coming, he obtained from the little means of his poverty a donkey to drag him reclining in a certain vehicle to Abbeville, before the mercy of the holy Confessor. When, however, lying thus with the singular consolation of his wife, he had proceeded far from the neighborhood of villages with the wheels rolling, it pleased the divine mercy that on a certain slope the cart should overturn and the poor man be thrown to the ground, so that his miseries might be heaped still higher. What then were they to do, he a mere mass without any effort, and she indeed, of the fragile and weak sex, in raising so great a weight? Both therefore, groaning with excessive anguish of spirit, took counsel that she should go back to the village and implore the help of her acquaintances, and he should meanwhile lie alone on the ground. O how incomprehensible are the judgments of almighty God! For he fell happily: he fortunately arranged to remain alone: and by a sounder counsel he called upon the name of Saint Wulfram more insistently than usual. For immediately a certain person appeared, who addressed his miseries thus: "Why do you lie here? Why do you overflow with tears?" And drawing near to his hands, making mention of the name of Christ, raised him to his feet. But after these things were done, how that angelic man vanished, he utterly did not know. Indeed, that man, restored to his former health, and with tears springing from the excessive abundance of joy, revealed to his wife returning from the aforesaid errand how he had deserved to see blessed Wulfram face to face, what words of consolation he had spoken to him, and how he had touched him. Nor unmindful of so great a benefit, he went to Abbeville more happily than he had originally planned, and offered acts of thanksgiving to God and the holy Confessor, and thoroughly instructed the clerics before the people about the miracle thus wrought in him, as we have described.

[2] What in this miracle is to be considered, and what is not worthy of admiration? In the territory of Ponthieu also, in the village designated by the name ^b Rains, a certain woman was suffering from the affliction of dropsy. a woman with dropsy, The swelling of her belly had exceeded due measure: her skin shone outward not a little. And when she could not be restored by any art of physicians, and therefore was wasting away with no small grief, at last, having found counsel, she hastened to come to Abbeville as best she could. Supported on the arms of her husband and of another person on either side, she lay upon the ground before the presence of the holy Bishop, carrying a wax votive offering, and devoutly prayed at length for her health. And when she had prayed for a long time, her husband approached her with these gentle suggestions: "I fear that, harshly stretched upon the ground, you may suffer worse afflictions. Therefore allow yourself to be gently supported in my arms." But she said: "You are unaware, as I hear, of the sweetness of divine consolation. For do I need your help, healed by the patronage of St. Wulfram? Behold, I am not what I was a moment ago; behold, by the prayers of the Saint you see that the beauty of my body has returned and the dropsical swelling has vanished. O how great is this Bishop! O how prompt a helper of those placed in dangers! O what an excellent Physician of souls and bodies: who so swiftly grants the remedy, and does not long defer the wished-for benefit that is sought! For in the very moment of prayer, she who had been forsaken by all human aids and was henceforth despairing of her health is restored." Therefore not undeservedly were all stirred to praise; who can tell with what great joy of mind they rejoiced, what tears, witnesses of salvation and of the miracle wrought in her, they poured forth? And so, with the people of Abbeville and the modulated praise of the Clerics, she wished to be a handmaid of her restorer through a cord, and afterward returned safe and sound to her own home.

[3] We have learned that more wondrous things succeeded the already wondrous. At Abbeville a certain poor woman begged, who with her neck twisted held her face turned back upon her shoulder, a woman with her face turned onto her shoulder, and without ceasing tottered with a pitiable shaking of her head, and could be to all an example of compunction and sorrow. In her the workmanship of the Creator was proclaimed wonderful. She exhibited proof of truth in her tribulation, for she spent very many years at Abbeville with such a trouble of the head. Therefore she implored St. Wulfram with vows and prayers amid her groaning as a medicinal aid, and frequently kept vigil before his presence: and strengthened in faith, she did not at times despair of consolation from him. But the hearer of the poor, the consoler of the wretched, regarded the miseries of the poor woman: and did not long withhold the help of his accustomed mercy. For on a certain day, while that woman was extending her vows more humbly than usual, it pleased the supreme Observer that, touched by the assistance of Blessed Wulfram, she should recover her health and fully recover in that same hour without any deformity of her head. When this was heard, the people of Abbeville gathered for this wondrous event, and the more they had known her to be wondrous in the aforesaid deformity, the more they sang the honor and glory of the Lord and of the holy Bishop with voice and heart. But why should they not rejoice with the immensity of joy? For at that same hour, another poor woman, long wrapped in the darkness of blindness, astonished by the report of the aforesaid miracle and soundly credulous about the power of St. Wulfram, was dragged by her guide to the church, where the Clergy and people were resounding with ineffable joy. O wondrous thing! For as she touched the entrance of the church itself with her hands and mouth, she immediately cried out: "Behold, I who descended here blind have lost the shadow of blindness by the intercession of St. Wulfram, another blind woman, and have deserved to receive my sight." Therefore the Clergy with the people, congratulating themselves on a fuller attestation of the miracle, again, as best they could, sang the glory and honor of the Lord and the holy Bishop, and rightly said to one another: "O how fortunate we are, who have such a Patron! How joyful, how cheerful we can be, who have deserved to serve so great and powerful a Saint!" With these things done, they spent that day with indescribable rejoicing, and henceforth had no doubt about the presence of the glorious Bishop.

[4] In the district of ^c Vimeu also, in the village named Villees, a dying man with his eyes fallen into his cheeks: a certain Walter, weakened by excessive illness, took to his bed. Afterward, he was so agitated by afflictions that from the extreme fury of his head, his eyes sprang out and hung down on his face by their little nerves. Finally, he lost all bodily function, so that he was believed to be dead: except that only the breathing of his chest remained in him. Why should I delay longer? His neighbors, compassionately mourning his approaching death, gathered to soothe the grief of his wife: and they invited Gilbert, the Priest of the same village, for the commendation of his soul: and as evening drew near, departing, they informed his household that he would soon rest in death, and that they should all call them back. All therefore left him as if already dead, and were utterly ignorant of what the divine Majesty might provide for him: for he lay happily abandoned by all, so that he might be consoled by the mercy of the Lord and of St. Wulfram: his life was mercifully despaired of, so that with greater dignity Blessed Wulfram might be glorified on earth. O stupendous and rarely heard clemency of Christ! For in the very silence of the night, Blessed Wulfram appeared to the most wretched man, and with his own hands replaced the eyes, thus torn from their sockets as we described, in their cavities, and in that same moment healed him from all infirmity. And so that man recovered on that same night, as the outcome of the matter afterward proved: for as if waking from a heavy sleep, he arose from the bed of death and carefully dressed himself in his garments. His wife, however, ignorant of the divine mercy, greatly terrified at this, believing him to be driven by diabolical furies, leapt out of the house and called the neighbors to come and bind him in chains. They, approaching, inquired thus: "What is this, Walter? What are you doing? Are you in your right mind?" And he said: "Since indeed you see me sound and healthy, do not marvel at me, but at the power of Christ and of Saint Wulfram, which has restored me from all affliction in so brief a space." And so that man, taking with him Gilbert the Priest who had performed the commendation of his soul, and the company of his neighbors, came to Abbeville, and magnifying God and Saint Wulfram, in the things they had seen they confirmed before the Clerics and the people the testimony of his resurrection and the restoration of his eyes.

[5] Beyond these things also we profess to marvel, from which we do not withhold belief: a man guilty of theft and perjury is detected: but we have not known such a thing to have been done anywhere in the nature of time. For at Abbeville there were three men whose office it was to stamp the coinage of the district of Ponthieu. These received silver from their Provost Rainer in the customary manner, and smelted and prepared it for the aforesaid work. But one of them, not fearing justice, committed fraud. But afterward, when they brought the common metal to the scale and discovered that the full amount was not there, a dispute arose among them, and not unjust suspicion fell on one another. But he who had perpetrated the iniquity, and whom his guilty conscience compelled to

cunningly conceal what he had done, satisfying them with his answers, reproached them all. At last, with them brought to trial, it was determined that they should deny the theft, bound by oath over the glorious body of Blessed Wulfram. Therefore, having gone to the church, upon the limbs of the glorious Bishop, both the guilty one and those who were innocent, with their conscience bearing witness, swore alike. But who are you, O immense God? That the just might be justified and the guilty detected, immediately the guilt of perjury was made manifest: the silver fell at the feet of him who had been guilty of the fraud. coins suddenly found at his feet: When the thief felt this, he incurred no small shame and filled the others with immense admiration. At the command, moreover, of the aforesaid Provost, the coins were collected and found to be thirteen in number, and praising the Lord and also Saint Wulfram, they received at the thief's feet what they had lost. Thus through the merit of the holy Bishop, the crime committed could not remain hidden, and the audacity of perjury, once detected, was laid open.

[6] Since it is written that the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing, why should we suppress in silence what we have learned, a man with contracted limbs is healed, which it is insufficient to hear about a Saint, and for whom learning the deeds of the pious faithful is a matter of salvation? For there was a certain man named John, who was so hemmed in by infirmity that with the heels of his feet adhering to his legs, he was completely deprived of the ability to walk. Alas! Defrauded of the characteristic movement of the human race, he is reported to have crept from place to place face downward with the aid of little stools placed at his hands. He therefore, not doubting the faith from the report of many concerning the glorious help of St. Wulfram, directed the misfortune of his body to Abbeville as best he could, before the presence of the Saint. Daily and many times at night, the incense of his prayers was fragrant in the sight of the divine Majesty and the mercy of St. Wulfram, and he humbly invoked the holy Patron for the remedies of his recovery. After some days had passed, therefore, the Saint, as if provoked by the importunity of his faith, took counsel for the most wretched man. For on a certain night the disabled man was raised up, and gloried in having obtained the desired help of health, congratulated himself on having returned to the beauty and honor of human likeness and on having lost the deformity of his contraction. Meanwhile a concourse of Clergy and people occurred, and they no longer hesitated about the truth of the miracle, because they rejoiced together that he walked on straightened knees, whom they had long lamented as held captive by the bondage of his contraction. Therefore they rightly jubilated in praises, truly professed God to be wonderful, and solemnly proclaimed the honor and glory of the holy Bishop, and the voice of all humbly thundered that he might look upon those entangled in the burden of their sins.

[7] We make known certain other things to posterity which, because they are worthy of being told, a man gravely weakened in the loins, we do not allow to perish in silence. There was a certain Priest named Guinfridus, who, gravely weakened in his loins, was frequently compelled by the distress of his illness to take to his bed. When he was harassed by such pains in the borderlands of Normandy and the province of Vimeu, the memory of the blessed Patron fell into the storehouse of his mind, and desiring to be aided by his merits, he went to Abbeville. There, therefore, he kept vigil for a long time in the contemplation of divine aid and of the blessed Physician whom he had sought with all his vows; and after some days had passed, he arranged to return to his own home. But when he had proceeded a little from the town, he found that no pain at all held sway over him: yet he hesitated somewhat in faith. For he supposed that the pain had ceased for the moment: he was unaware that he had been healed by heavenly remedies. O previously unheard-of skill of a Priest! He raced up the steep heights of a certain mountain, and returned down the slopes of the same hill, and explored whether the accustomed pain might return from the roughness of the sloping path. He also ran here and there, and in the manner of small children jumping in their arms, pressing his palms in the dust and with feet kicked upward, he lifted the burden of his whole body into the air, and importunately tested whether he had merited a momentary or a lasting health. He was seeking the misery of his body, which we could see should properly be kept at a distance: for even if he was in possession of health at that time, by these bodily movements he would rightly succumb to injury. And so, with the kindness of divine mercy and the visitation of St. Wulfram having been diligently tested, he gave thanks, and for the remedy he had obtained, returning afterward under the proclamation of the miracle wrought, he offered a certain candlestick to his Creator, and thenceforth, as long as he lived, choosing a dwelling for himself at Abbeville in the familiarity and service of the precious Bishop, he persevered. With these signs and wonders of miracles which we have related to have occurred in Ponthieu and the neighboring regions preserved for the memory of the faithful, and also with very many others omitted, which the cautious devotion of predecessors shrouded in silence, I therefore admonish you, people of Abbeville, to rejoice solemnly. For you have merited to have the presence of the venerable Father, who gives solace to those weighed down under the most burdensome weight of human corruption and does not deny the remedy of salvation for healing bodies. This Patron, promised to you by God before the ages and reserved until now for our glory and consolation and for the salvation of the territory of Ponthieu, flourishes with great glory of miracles. He restores the extinguished sight of men, to clearly indicate what grace of divine splendor he enjoys in heaven. He also frequently raises the lame and various other sick, and demoniacs. and those contracted in limbs. He restores to the deaf the function of the ears they had lost, he heals those held by various illness, he frees demoniacs, he takes counsel against afflictions, he swiftly grants the wished-for benefits divinely obtained to those who ask, with the supreme Craftsman cooperating: to whom with the Son and the Spirit the Paraclete be honor and glory through the ages of ages. Amen.

^a The territory or County of Ponthieu is between Artois and the River Somme toward the Ocean. Its capital is Abbeville.

^b Perhaps Rue, a town? There is a famous cult of St. Wulphy the Priest, whose feast day is June 7.

^c The district of Vimeu is between Abbeville or the Somme, and Normandy.