Veronus at Lembeek and Mons in Hainaut

ON SAINT VERONUS AT LEMBEEK AND MONS IN HAINAUT.

NINTH CENTURY

Veronus, at Lembeek and Mons in Hainaut (Saint)

[1] What can be known about St. Veronus was chiefly collected by Olbert, who as a young man was imbued with letters and monastic discipline under Abbot Hariger of Lobbes, and sent to Paris for the sake of his studies, he was a student of Fulbert of Chartres: but returning to Lobbes, he held the public school for monks, in which he had Burchard as a student: who, as Sigebert of Gembloux asserts in his Chronicle, having been made Bishop of Worms in the year 1008, produced a great volume of Canons, the miracles and translations were written by Olbert, Abbot of Gembloux: with Abbot Olbert, a man most learned in every way, collaborating with him in this work. Olbert was ordained Abbot of Gembloux in the year 1012, as the same Sigebert testifies, a man to be compared or even preferred to good and learned men in character, religion, and twofold learning. In the same year the Translation of the body of St. Veronus from Lembeek to Mons in Hainaut is believed to have taken place, with which the history of the deeds of this Saint concludes, which Olbert wrote around that time, at the request of Count Rainer of Hainaut, the fourth of that name. Olbert was afterwards also made the first Abbot of the monastery of St. James at Liege, where he died on the twelfth of July in the year 1048. This history of St. Veronus, written by him, was published, with notes added by himself, in the year 1636 by George Galopinus, a monk of the monastery of Cella of St. Ghislain, using a manuscript codex of his own library and another copy published by Galopinus: preserved in the church of St. Waltrude at Mons among its sacred relics: of which, however, a portion is customarily displayed with great veneration in the Church of Lembeek. Galopinus dedicated this his work to William Richardot, Count of Gamarage and of the free city of Lembeek: whose generous munificence and liberality toward the sacred church of Blessed Veronus he praises, because he deigned to adorn it with exquisite gifts and precious ornamental furnishings: and by this to attract and inflame the natives and foreigners, who flock there to obtain his patronage, to a more ardent piety and devotion. Lembeek is situated on the borders of Brabant and Hainaut, concerning whose jurisdictional rights there was a serious discord in the year 1182 between Count Baldwin of Hainaut and Godfrey of Louvain, as Molanus writes in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium after the eulogy of St. Veronus published by him. The said Godfrey, the third of his name, was Duke of Brabant, commonly called "in the Cradle," and was the father of St. Albert, Bishop of Liege and Martyr. And Baldwin, surnamed the Magnanimous, the fourth of his name, Count of Hainaut, died in the year 1195, leaving behind his son Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and afterwards Emperor of Constantinople.

[2] There exists in a manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloitre near Brussels, in the first part of the Hagiologion of the Brabantines, the Acts of SS. Veronus and Verona: the Life of the twin Saints Veronus and Verona, descended from the stock of the Carolingians. The same Life we have transcribed under the name of St. Verona from a copy of the Pastor of the parish of Berthem, between which and Lefdaal there is a chapel of St. Verona, which is also called the basilica of the Holy Cross. In these Acts they are said to have been descended from Louis, King of Germany, brother of Charles the Bald, and various less authentic things are inserted. Autbert Miraeus once sent this Life to Mainz to Nicolaus Serarius, because St. Verona is reported to have been very well known at Mainz in his own and later ages, on account of having freed the city from destructive fire. But the said Serarius, a writer on the affairs of Mainz, replied that he and other learned men of Mainz had never heard of anything of the kind, and therefore it was not credible. Olbert indeed admits that he lived in the times of the Norsemen, but adds that his genealogy and life are unknown. things of little probability are omitted: We therefore set aside the other Acts until August 29, on which St. Verona is venerated, whom we scarcely dare to call the sister of St. Veronus for lack of sufficient proof, although this is done in the Lessons that are recited at Matins at Mons in the Collegiate church of St. Waltrude, as they appear in the Proper Offices composed in the year 1625. We have an ancient Breviary written on parchment of the same Church of St. Waltrude, in which, as in the printed Proper Offices, he is venerated by solemn rite, the Lessons customarily recited at Mons: both on January 31 for the invention of his body, and on this March 30, the day of his death; and six lessons in the said manuscript Breviary about a mute and deaf man healed, are related in the words of Olbert, as they are found at number 8. There are also Antiphons for Lauds and Vespers and Responsories, but taken from the same Acts, without any mention of a sister or of Germany or of his parents: and this prayer is added: together with Antiphons and Responsories: Be propitious, we beseech you, Lord, to us your unworthy servants, through the glorious merits of St. Veronus your Confessor, that by his pious intercession we may always be protected from all adversities. Through our Lord, etc.

[3] The memory of St. Veronus is inscribed in the manuscript Florarium at March 30

with these words: his memory in various fasti: At Lembeek, on the border of Brabant and Hainaut, the deposition of St. Veronus, Confessor, of the stock of the Carolingians, whose propalation is on the day before the Kalends of February: on which day the translation or propalation of the body of St. Veronus, Confessor, is commemorated in the same Florarium. He is commemorated on this day by Greven and Molanus in the Supplement to Usuard, by Canisius, Ferrarius, Gelenius, Willot, and others; and at greater length by Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, by Miraeus in his Belgian Fasti, by Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and by Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menologion; the last two of whom make him a grandson of Louis the Pious, who, having left behind the pomps of the world, enclosed himself in a monastery he had built, where, shining forth with outstanding virtues, he attained the rewards of eternal blessedness. His body, together with the body of St. Verona his sister, a partner in the same religious purpose, was first buried at Lembeek and afterwards translated to Mons in Hainaut. So say they, and perhaps they were the first: whether by mere conjecture or taught by some revelation, let others inquire.

[4] Arnold Rayssius in his Hierogazophylacium, page 456, asserts that at Mons in Hainaut, in the noble collegiate church of the Lady Canonesses of St. Waltrude, the sacred body of St. Veronus is deposited and preserved in a shrine relics at Mons: fashioned from skillfully wrought bronze; and on page 263 he says that at Lembeek a portion of the relics of St. Veronus is kept, at Lembeek: which is carried in a casket on the Monday of Pentecost to Tubize. And these are, according to Galopinus, the sinciput, an arm, and some bones. Finally, on page 281, among the relics of the monastery of Liessies, Rayssius lists some of St. Veronus: at Liessies: concerning whom, in the Annals of Hainaut published in French in the year 1531, volume 2, folio 78, and the following, various things are found, but condensed from Olbert: which we also preserve in Latin translation.

HISTORY OF THE INVENTION, MIRACLES, AND TRANSLATION. By Olbert, Abbot of Gembloux.

Veronus, at Lembeek and Mons in Hainaut (Saint)

BHL Number: 8550

BY ABBOT OLBERT.

PROLOGUE.

To Count Rainer, most noble of Counts: Olbert, Abbot of Gembloux in name not in merit, offers the munificence of devoted prayer and faithful service.

I rejoice, most noble of Counts, in your benevolence, which shines in you, divinely kindled: these things were written at the command of Count Rainer: for surpassing your age in character, and bravely shaking off the burden of worldly cares, you embrace with devotion those things that belong to ecclesiastical religion. Good, my Beloved, is your intention, which aims to overcome evil with good: and therefore I dare not refuse the burden of your command, by which in asking you command me to commit to writing the miracles of St. Veronus. In undertaking this task, it was not the presumption of knowledge that impelled me, but the following trepidation: I feared it would be a sin to conceal in silence so many benefits of the Lord, and I feared to be a scorner of your commands. Let any reader, examining these things justly, not be angry with me (I pray) when he finds good things badly described. For these things, even if they can be nothing else, will be able to serve as nourishment for the memory of the wise who will one day write them better. Farewell, most venerable of Counts. a

CHAPTER 1. For what reasons it happened that the life of St. Veronus was not preserved.

2. Concerning the admonition of St. Veronus and the vision of the Priest Humbert.

3. How both the name of the Saint and the day of his death were discovered.

CHAPTER I.

The occasion and manner of the discovery of the body of St. Veronus.

[1] The Creator and Redeemer of the human race, grieving that those whom he had recalled with the triumph over death to the heights of heaven were being dragged back to the underworld by the devil's deceit, by the inexpressible governance of his disposition, daily pours the oil of gentleness and the wine of adversity upon the ailing world. Now according to the quality of life he cheers it with joyful things, Belgium was afflicted: now saddens it with sorrowful ones. Hence it is that, as a figure of this rule, he commanded Moses to place the manna of sweetness together with the rod of severity in the ark of the covenant. Whence he who frequently afflicted Gaul, Belgium, and Germany, which at the devil's instigation often strayed from his ways and kicked against him, and permitted it to be trampled by foreigners; willed to inflict upon it in this world the sentence of his chastisement: so that holy men, purified like gold, might receive the splendor of everlasting light; through the incursions of the Huns and Vandals: and the unjust, dried up like the grass on rooftops, might undergo the fires of eternal death. This scourge of affliction he exercised through the a Huns and Vandals, sent by just judgment not only for the destruction of men but also for the destruction of many cities. Who, on account of sins committed irremediably against God and against his Saints, overthrew nearly all of Gaul and leveled its cities, most famous from antiquity, to the ground: they burned in fire the annals of the ages and the lives of heavenly men, and removed from the world the records of many. Whence now we see only the ruins of the greatest cities, and scarcely hold their names in memory: we experience the miracles of the Saints, whose birth and lives we believe known only to God. Nor after a long interval of time, the Gallic nation, abusing the most patient Lord's patience, by which he was provoking their hearts to repentance, then through the civil wars of the Franks: on account of the scars of their sins increased beyond measure, again sustained the iron of divine chastisement. For after the civil and internal wars b of sedition, waged between Rainfrid and Charles, son of Pippin by Alpaïde (during which the venerable records of holy churches and holy men were destroyed), the c Norman nation, flying from the North, savagely invaded the borders of the aforesaid Gaul, and the incursions of the Norsemen: undermined cities and towns, devastated congregations and churches: the Saints hid without glory in whatever retreats they could find, and were buried without memorial inscription. So once the Assyrians, by the permitting justice of the Lord, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem: so they scattered many memorials of Kings and righteous men, whose absence the holy Church now laments. 4 Kings 25: Among the aforesaid tempests of Gaul, therefore, many most holy men flourished, whose life and death were precious in the sight of the Lord, whom slack antiquity did not commend to us in writing (as would have been fitting), or whose commendation the occasion of envy snatched away. In these times (as may be conjectured) there lived a holy man, called Veronus by name: whose genealogy and life, because some envious occasion destroyed them, when St. Veronus lived: the Lord commended him to us by special miracles; so that if the written word is silent, he himself might cry out through miracles, wonderfully displayed at his tomb. Nor do we consider it proper to pass over in silence the miracles which the Lord willed to show through his merits, whose life is unknown: lest we too be found guilty of silence and laziness, which we impute as a crime to our predecessors.

[2] Therefore, when by the disposing of divine providence, in the time of the Holy Emperor Henry: d Henry, the kinsman and successor of Otto III, had received the kingdom of the Austrasians, e Lotharingia began to be endangered by various calamities. A most severe f famine weakened it, a powerful contention of Princes wore it down, the lowliest of men, the g Morini, rose up against it, and of Baldwin the Bearded, Count of Flanders: led by h Baldwin, who subjected Valenciennes to their dominion. But the Lord, the most benign inspector of human misery, opened to it the gate of his mercy, and granted it remedies of some consolation. In the district of i Brachbant (which the Normans had almost completely devastated), there is a considerable town situated on the river k Senne, called Lembeek by its neighbors. St. Veronus appears to Humbert the Priest: In the church of this town Blessed Veronus had long lain, indeed shining with many miracles, but not honorably treated according to the merits of his life. Here, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and four, he deigned to manifest himself in this manner. There was in that place a Priest named Humbert, not despicable according to the life of modern men: to him, frequently appearing in a vision, at last he pointed out the place of his tomb, and ordered him to make it known to others: but he, not readily believing, he shows his tomb: did not quickly lend an obedient ear. Again and again the Saint repeated his admonition, but his obstinacy had hardened his mind. At last, one Sunday night, while he kept vigil alone in the church and continued his sighs of prayer, praying to God that he might show more certain signs of his Saint, he was seized by an intolerable vision: for the whole church gleamed as if with the light of lightning, so that it seemed to him to be set ablaze from heaven. And a certain chest (commonly called a l butica), of great size, which stood above the tomb of the blessed man, full of grain, with no one visibly putting a hand to it, a chest is moved of its own accord: sprang far from the tomb. The Priest was astounded by the m vision, and his voice catching in his throat, all his hair stood on end. At daybreak the citizens entered the threshold of the church, finding the Priest barely alive, his voice not yet fully restored. They marveled that so large a chest had been moved far from its former position, and placed elsewhere without damage to itself. When they tirelessly inquired as to the reasons, the Priest related everything in order: he repeated the visions he had often had, and the revelations of the holy man which he had previously concealed. Thereafter they began to venerate the tomb, which they had previously thought little of and trodden upon with their feet.

[3] On account of military disturbances: Meanwhile, as the tumults of Lotharingia intensified (which we briefly touched on above), the aforesaid King Henry, accompanied by a great army of his own, entered Lotharingia itself to suppress the unruly movements of certain men. At whose approach, the people, fearing that the body of the holy man might be mistreated, dug away the mound of earth from the surface of the tomb, so that more readily and easily (if necessity should arise) they might carry it to safer places. the tomb having been dug up: The aforesaid Priest was present (to whom the Saint had predicted the same thing in a vision, that within the boundaries of his tomb he would find his name and the day of his burial), and silently observed the matter and desired the fulfillment of the promise. And looking more carefully into the interior of the tomb, he saw a small tablet lying beside the bones of the blessed man, on which he found inscribed the name of St. Veronus and the day of his death are found: that he had been called Veronus, and that he had departed from this world on the third day before the Kalends of April; and by the propitious mercy of the Lord (who always magnifies his Saints with inexpressible glory), the King's n army did not pass through those places: and therefore the bones of the holy man remained there undisturbed. The report spread everywhere, and the miracles performed by the Lord through him continued on the lips of the people. There was a gathering of diverse persons, and especially of those afflicted by some infirmity.

CHAPTER II

The blind healed, a mute and deaf man, the crippled. Other benefits bestowed.

[4] There was in a town called a Felluy a certain young girl, deprived of the light of her eyes from the very cradle, who, brought by the hands of certain people to his tomb (carrying what offerings of candles she could prepare), drew long sighs before the tomb of the holy man. a blind girl receives sight: Then he who always readily lends an ear to those who ask from a faithful heart did not turn away from her prayers: he restored the sight of light to the sockets of her eyes, which she sought, calling upon Veronus night and day: and also the candle, which she held in her hands, she saw divinely lit without any spark of earthly fire, shooting forth flame-bearing rays. In one and the same moment the candle lit of its own accord: the Lord glorified his Saint with a double sign. A great cry arose in the church from the people, who had come from various parts and were assembled there. For it was the third day of the Rogation Days, on which nearly the whole town had gathered for the service of the Mass, and beating their breasts with their fists, they gave praise to God in the highest, who is always wonderful in his saints. They laid the foundations of a larger church, which might seem fitting for the merits of so great a man: aid was contributed by many seeking the patronage of the blessed man. And as fame, bearing both true and false report, ran this way and that, these things were reported to b Erluin, then the Bishop of the See of Cambrai; Erluin, Bishop of Cambrai, recognizes that miracles are being performed: who, diligently investigating the matter, found it to be not the fantastic delusion he had supposed, but the magnificent majesty of the Lord in his Saint. While these things were being arranged under divine auspices,

The annual cycle was completed with the months elapsed.

The devotion of the people was increased daily, taking growth from the frequency of the miracles.

[5] A man also came from a town called c Couillet, whom his kinsmen called Rangarius, and not alone from his household, but accompanied by a company of six women carrying candles. six candles lit of their own accord: They entered the threshold of the church devoutly, they fell prostrate at the tomb of the aforesaid Saint most devoutly; and while they continued the sighs of their prayers, shaken by sobs and scarcely able to express their words, they saw the candles, held in their hands, emit flames divinely sent. They contemplated one another and each rejoiced to have what they marveled at in another: nor was it necessary to point such things out to the bystanders, since they had seen the very same things with frightened eyes. By such signs the holy man shone forth on the very Kalends of April.

[6] In the aforesaid district of Brachbant there is a town not far from the aforesaid Lembeek, called by the ancients d Maffles, in which there were twice two women, deprived of the light of their eyes from various accidents. four blind women are given sight: These, hearing of the holy man's miracles, agreed to go to seek his mercy: and guided by the hands of their relatives, they struck the tomb with their blinded brows, repeating thus in prayer:

O Father Veronus, than whom none is sweeter, Shake off the nocturnal shadows from our darkened faces, And make the blind windows of our brows shine bright.

While they repeatedly recited this and watered the tomb with bloody tears, they rejoiced that the light they had sought with tearful prayer had returned to their brows. With joy they announced to the bystanders that day had dawned upon their faces. For a considerable crowd was present, since they were free from work on holy Pentecost; and having rendered their praises to God, with no one leading them, they returned to tell these things to their own households.

[7] Meanwhile the Nativity of St. John the Baptist arrived, on which many are known to rejoice. Many, born from various regions, gathered at the tomb of the oft-mentioned Veronus, and especially those burdened with bodily weakness. a most miserably crippled man is healed: A certain poor man was also brought, with his limbs already dead, scarcely alive, and with his joints loosened and his mass dissolved, he was nearly dead: whose shrunken shins had adhered to his hips, and the sinews of his limbs had withered in nearly his entire body. While he kept vigil at his tomb for a long time, calling upon his mercy with incessant weeping, he received the effect of divine medicine. For when the sun was already declining toward setting, and the evening office had called the people together in the same church, his shins began to be pulled away from his hips, and blood began to flow again through his long-withered limbs, and each limb began to be raised up in its proper place: seized by nearly intolerable pain, he uttered loud cries and groans. Summoned by these, the surrounding people stood around, stupefied at the sight: and beating their breasts with their fists, moistened with tears, they repeated with continuous voices, God have mercy. They marveled at the tall man, whom before they had pitied as so contracted in all his limbs: they praised the Lord, and embraced with the arms of piety the tomb gleaming with such great signs. But if this seems incredible to anyone, he can receive an indication of the truth from Asceric, who had always previously supported him with alms, in whose service he still remains prostrate, called Thietled by name.

[8] Now the burning sun was scorching the Lion, and had brought the Kalends of August to the peoples, on which day (as is known to many) the solemnity is celebrated when St. Peter is said to have been divinely rescued from the hand of Herod. a mute and deaf man: On the night of this solemnity, the Lord deigned through his Saint to show the following miracle. A pitiful man had come thither from the regions of Hesbaye, deprived of the functions of certain senses: for he could not absorb any sound, however loud, through the receptacles of his ears, nor could he express any speech through the instrument of his tongue. He spent the aforesaid night with the Priest keeping vigil in the church, drawing long sighs from his breast amid his groans. And when at midnight he raised his tear-soaked eyes toward heaven, he saw two small birds flying within the precincts of the church, one of which approached him so closely that he could catch it with his hands: and indeed touching it with his hands, he was seized by the impulses of divine power, and with the bond of his tongue divinely loosed, he cried out with a loud voice, God have mercy. The Priest, awakened by so great a cry, ran to him with the utmost haste; he asked whether he had emitted so great a cry, and whether he had uttered the little speech that had been heard. He, his hearing restored and hearing the Priest, said: I, I uttered the little speech, I by the merits of St. Veronus experienced the divine remedy: having recovered my organs, I can temper the melodies of speech; with the barriers of my ears opened, I can receive all voices. When day broke, he who had been mute the day before exulted in the praises of God, and greeted those who arrived with new voices. Our e Brothers now congratulate him on being well, whom they had long known (as we said above) to have been infirm.

[9] While such things were being done by divine power, their fragrance also reached places far away. When a certain man, contracted in all his limbs, named Engramnus, sustained by the alms of those dwelling around the region of the river Sambre, had heard of these things, another cripple: he sighed with all his wishes toward the tomb of the oft-mentioned Saint. Relying on a carrying-chair and the conveyance of certain people, he was able to celebrate the most sacred solemnity of Easter in the long-desired church of St. Veronus. Where, drawing long sighs amid his incessant prayers, and often raising his eyes to heaven while calling repeatedly upon Veronus, he received the exchange of the long-desired health. For when, in the middle of the Easter solemnity, he had devoutly heard the solemnities of the Masses together with many others, and had received with attentive ears the Gospel of that day, he felt the gift of divine mercy. Indeed, after the reading of the Gospel, nerves long wrinkled began to stretch out, and badly twisted bones began to straighten. Placed in distress, he began to emit uncontrolled groans, and to continue calling upon Veronus with clamorous voices: and when silence fell from amazement, all who were present held their mouths intent upon him, and beating their breasts with their fists, watered their faces with tears: and as the mercy of God continued, they marveled at the man standing upright and tall, whom they had just been pitying as rolled up in the shape of a ball. They praise God on high, and extol Blessed Veronus with great praises. one bedridden for six years from illness:

[10] There was also in the district of Brachbant, in a castle called f Marche, a certain man named Otger, buried (so to speak) in his bed for six continuous years with a nearly intolerable illness. He, hearing from many that the oft-mentioned Saint was shining with such great miracles, and himself seeing some returning from his tomb with bodies divinely healed, began especially to demand of his household that they should arrange to carry him thither. His household obeyed, setting him down before the long-desired tomb on the Kalends of August. He continued the duties of prayer, shaken by sobs and scarcely able to utter his pleading words: and his cry reached the ears of the Lord, by whose love he had come, borne up by merits. Without delay, the interior of his belly began to be disturbed, which had been the receptacles of his long suffering; and as if from a draught divinely consumed, he began to vomit forth the causes of his own affliction; and immediately after the vomiting, he rose from his bed healthy in his whole body, and joyfully gave praises to God together with others.

[11] There was also in a town commonly called g Asse, a certain man named Abbo, almost abundantly endowed with temporal goods: a paralyzed servant girl: who had a servant girl very dear to him, but burdened no little by the disease of paralysis. Leading her with other members of his household on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, not without gifts, he visited the tomb of the oft-mentioned Saint. Where, when they had lingered for some time, and had redoubled their prayer vigils, the woman, who had arrived nearly dead in almost her entire body, divinely received the desired benefits of health: and she who had just been carried in the arms of strangers, rejecting outside help, rejoiced to be able to go on her own limbs, and stretching her newly reformed hands with her eyes toward the stars, she rendered new songs of praise to the Lord and his Saint. The master of the household rejoiced with his servants, and joyful with the joyful woman, was returned to his own home. this healed woman remains immobile: But when the circle of the solar year had revolved, and now the heavy sign of Cancer under the rays of the sun was restoring the day of the Nativity of St. John to the world: the aforesaid master of the household returned to the aforesaid tomb with the aforesaid servant; and having completed the prayers for which he had come, he prepared to depart from the church, accompanied by the same servant girl. But the omnipotence of heavenly justice impeded the path of the departing servant girl: for she stuck to the ground with her feet in such a way that, although pulled by many, she could in no way be torn away from it. The master thought this happened more from the pretense of a servant girl

unwilling to return, than out of consideration for divine justice: he presses with words, he presses also with blows: he pulls alone, he pulls also with many helping: but (as the divine word says, There is no wisdom, there is no counsel against the Lord) having come to himself at last, he repented of having enslaved for his own service until she is handed over to the service of St. Veronus: one whom St. Veronus had freed from an illness near to death. Proverbs 21: He therefore handed her over to St. Veronus, so that she might always be devoted solely to his service: and this done, her feet were torn from the ground as easily as if they had barely adhered to it at all.

[12] With things being thus, and the Lord glorifying his Saint with so many lights of miracles, a blind woman received sight: many began to flock in, oppressed by various infirmities. There was also a woman in a town called Wesclar, named Alwera, who had long desired to visit the threshold of St. Veronus, but the desire conceived over a long time could not achieve its effect. For she lacked the function of sight, without which no one can direct a straight path alone, and she lacked the assistance of anyone to guide her because of her extreme poverty. But provoked by the desire to see, she began to make her way to Lembeek alone, through trackless and rough terrain, badly straying from the path, and with the shepherds of flocks kindly offering their guidance, she arrived at the long-desired body: where she poured forth groans and prayers, and from her darkened brow she emitted abundant streams of tears, praying to God with continuous prayers, that through the merits of his Saint he might shake off the darkness from her extinguished eyes. Nor was the divine mercy long delayed, which makes itself never distant to those who seek from a sincere heart. For when she devoutly heard the service of the Mass together with others, and more devoutly listened to the words of the Gospel, she received the remedy of divine mercy: for indeed, after the reading of the Gospel, she was divinely given the gift of sight. She began to see openly the faces of bystanders, even those unknown to her, and to penetrate with the keenest gaze all things placed around her: she exclaimed to all with a most joyful voice that by the merits of St. Veronus she had received the function of sight. Thus the Lord conferred his aid upon one singularly placed in tribulation, to whom her fellow servants, because of her extreme poverty, denied all comfort.

CHAPTER III

Various sick persons healed. The body translated to Mons in Hainaut.

[13] There was likewise in the district of Brachbant a town called Soumagne, a certain woman, a frenzied woman is healed: named Ollendis, who by the onset of certain afflictions had been so alienated from her rational senses that no more humanity seemed to remain in her than her human form. She lacked the governance of human reason, and entirely frenzied or possessed, she was carried wherever her madness drove her. She was brought by her parents, who greatly pitied her, to the tomb of St. Veronus, and was commended to his mercy with tearful voices; and as we gather by conjecture from what followed, the Saint of God was grieved that a human being had only bestial senses. For when she had been detained there for a few days, he restored the understanding of her mind to her by holy prayers: and she whom even her relatives had formerly been afraid to approach, now even strangers counted it a great thing to bestow upon her the communion of friendship: and so, having recovered her senses, she returned healthy to her own people, she who had come lost in a horrible infirmity.

[14] In the district of Brachbant also, in a town adjoining the castle of Gislenghien, and a man lame in one foot: there was a man named Saruguard, whose foot had withered from a paralytic infirmity, who, fashioning a foot from wax in the likeness of that same foot, with such a gift arrived (as best he could) at the seat of St. Veronus. Where, intent for some time upon tearful prayers and torturing himself with continual fasts, he received from heaven the remedy of divine mercy; his long-dead foot began to revive and to receive unfamiliar blood through its dried-out sinews: the man began to mark the unfamiliar ground with steps, and casting aside his supporting staff, to rest equally on both feet: he returned swiftly to his own home on both feet, he who had come slowly, limping.

[15] From the regions of Flanders a certain man came to Nivelles for the sake of prayer, wax from a vow not offered: and having completed his vow, he promised that he would return through St. Veronus to his own home: where he hid in his pouch wax bought for a denarius, promising to offer it in the church of St. Veronus. But (at the suggestion of the devil, the most savage persecutor of human salvation) he thought little of his vow and brought the wax into his own house, so that he might use it for other purposes: it is turned into earth: and entering his house, he prepared to remove the wax from his pouch, intending to store it where he could retrieve it in time of need: but when he looked at it carefully, he found it transformed into earth. He was stupefied, his voice stuck in his throat, salt sweat moistened his limbs, and beating his breast with his fists, he shuddered at the crime he had committed, and with the swiftest step came to the tomb of the oft-mentioned St. Veronus: and confessing the false speech of the vow he had made, he showed to all that what had been wax, which he had wickedly withheld from St. Veronus, had been changed into the appearance of earth, and touched with grief of heart within, he shed tears of repentance with groans. At last, cleansed (as we hope) by the dew of his tears, leaving the earth there as proof of the holy man's miracle, he returned to his own home.

[16] In the port of the same Flemish people also, named Ghent, a headache is cured: there was a certain Cleric who had long suffered irremediably from a considerable headache. He, hearing from many the many miracles of St. Veronus, determined to reach his threshold: and on the Wednesday of Holy Week (which is before the Lord's Supper), with whatever offerings he could have, he arrived at the long-desired tomb of the Saint. Where, offering himself through fasting and vigils of prayer for three days, on the night of the Lord's Resurrection he received the remedy of health: and he himself deigned to cure the Cleric from the disease of the headache on that very night, on which, despoiling the underworld, he willed to lead his own from the prisons of darkness and restore them to the joys of paradise.

[17] The Lord also heaps joys upon joys, and he who, rising from the dead on that very night, an enormous swelling of the leg: magnified his Saints with the double crowns of soul and body, honored his Saint Veronus with indescribable miracles. For with the above-mentioned Cleric a certain layman had come, named Heribertus, coming from the same regions as the Cleric: one of whose legs had swollen to such an extent, with the madness of the disease growing stronger, that if at any time (which was rare) he wished to lift it from the ground, with the entire effort of his body, he would be distressed for a long time from the excessive weight: and the remaining parts, joined to the dead part, suffered with useless health. But because he had heard that various people burdened with various ailments had been healed through the merits of the oft-mentioned Saint, he presumed to hope for salvation from him, from whom he had heard no one had returned frustrated in his wish. And so on the most holy night mentioned above, arranging the wax luminaries of his devotion, he kept vigil before the presence of the Saint with the obsequies of both his hand-held lights and his heart. But that Morning Star, emerging from the darkness of hell, ignorant of the darkness of distrust, but rejoicing in the light-bearing faith of those who hope in him, who on that same night, with the darkness and their prince destroyed, was radiating the light of his own shining heart, on account of the celebration of his Saint, deigned to look upon both the lamp of the said man's hand and of his faith. For suddenly his swellings, with the skin loosened, began to subside, and like something deflated when the wind by which it had swollen was released, with the plague emptied out, the flaccid skin began to return over the bare bone. Thus he who was formerly pitiable, now already, through the prayers of St. Veronus, made wonderful by the Lord's mercy, who on his arrival had barely dragged the useless weight of his leg with prolonged effort, on his return, fully strengthened in his whole body upon it, went back to his own home with a health impatient of slowness.

[18] Thus the Lord, by the merit of his soldier, having made manifest to mortals on the night of his Resurrection, [one who gathered herbs on a feast day is punished, the herbs sticking to her hand:] also on the day that followed that night (which is a day of glory in heaven and on earth), did not wish him to remain without glory among men. For on that very day, as populous crowds flowed together to his seat, both for the joy of the long-desired solemnity and for the spectacle of the power made wonderful in infirmities, a certain girl had come thither from a port called Brussels, whom the following plague had invaded. On a certain day that was to be kept as a holiday, when it is not lawful for anyone to perform servile tasks, she had gathered for herself some herbs: and as she plucked them, clasping them together, she was astonished and grieved that they had stuck to her hand, as if the herbs, which she was unlawfully consuming, taunted her with these words of injury done to her Creator: Because on the solemnity of your Lord (to whom you should have submitted) you did not wish of your own will to be free from his command, now at least unwillingly, from the annoyance of us herbs, which ought to be subject, learn to be idle. Certainly since, having spurned the worship of his reverence, you abuse our service, we who ought to serve are now permitted in turn to dominate. This, however, is believed to have happened to her not only for the illicit deed committed, but also for the glorification of St. Veronus, as the outcome shows. Seized therefore by such a plague, standing before the Saint with the people watching, she is freed at St. Veronus's tomb: she both confesses her offense and begs for pardon. Nor is she frustrated by God of the fulfillment of her vow, she who before him assumed as her sole plea the appeaser of wrath and mediator of mercy. For when she stretched out her hand to the aforesaid Saint of God, hoping and asking to be cured by him, suddenly, as if the Saint's hand healed hand with hand, the grip of her fingers sprang apart, the little herbs that had long lingered in the pocket of her sin fell out, and they who had dishonored her when she dishonored God now honored her as she honored him. Immediately the girl, having experienced the Saint's merit in her healing, compelled the people to praise, whom she had previously moved to grief.

[19] When she had been healed in the manner described and had returned to her own region, a withered hand is cured: in the same region there was another woman, whose withered right hand had condemned the corresponding part to numbness: for with the blood withering she was tormented by the plague of paralysis. But having heard the reputation of this Saint, and gaining faith from others by the cure of both her neighbor, that is the one just mentioned, and of other sick persons, she also conceived hope for her own salvation: and having prepared a poor little gift, but a rich vow, on the octave of Easter she presented herself at the oft-mentioned place. On that day, with tearful brow, mournful cry, and importunate prayer, she besought the Saint's aid: immediately the mercy of the King of Kings, glorifying his beloved soldier in all things, through his worthy merits heard the woman's entreaties: and sending medicine from heaven (namely the command, by which alone he curved the heavens, bound the earth, and poured forth the seas), he commanded the cold palm to grow warm again. Without delay, released from the rigidity of cold, it was loosened into the functions of salutary warmth. The healed woman therefore praises God the Creator, crying out to the bystanders: Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name in the many wonderful things which he does through his Saints. Having then rendered thanks as best she could

to God and his Saint, she returned to her own home, rejoicing in her restoration to health.

[20] With these things thus wonderfully accomplished by the Saint's merits, whoever came burdened with any kind of disease and the burning fever of Count Ratbod: was swiftly restored to health through him. A certain Count, named a Ratbod, was tormented by a panting fever, whose life was burning amid its cold perils, and alternating heat was cooking a lethal chill: who, in the same week which we described above, betook himself to the threshold of the Saint, where, tortured both by the besieging heat of his disease and slain by his voluntary groaning, he bent the pious ear of the Saint to his prayer. What more? After he earned so great a Patron, why should there be any doubt about his health? Therefore, as his petition reached the Saint, and the Saint's reached the Lord, the fiery heat departed, and with the flame extinguished throughout all his marrow, the violence of the fire fell by a spring of hidden water. Thus he who formerly labored with daily fevers did not feel even rare ones afterwards. This, however, was the reason, kind Reader, why I took care to record the names both of the sick and of the places why the author here wrote down the names of the sick and the places: from which they came: because I did not doubt that there are certain followers of the Pharisees, who take care always, out of envy, to invert certain good deeds, either saying they did not exist at all, or twisting them to a bad interpretation; and members not separated from their head the devil, whose miracles they ought to venerate with the highest honor, they seek to disparage with venomous mouth. And therefore, so that the caviling of these people may be easily repelled, I have confirmed each miracle of this Saint with the guarantee of proper names. And having briefly run through these (as with all others), let us turn our pen (though poorly sharpened) back to the thread of the narrative.

[21] Therefore, as the years rolled on, the devil was disturbing the state of peace, and was wickedly sowing wars and seditions among the Princes of Lotharingia; and it happened by his instigation that the regions of Brachbant also had to endure intolerable oppressions of seditions: and the fury of the seditious, at the devil's suggestion, had grown the body is transferred to Mons in Hainaut: to such an extent that they would not withhold their hands even from the very sanctuaries of holy churches. Pondering these things in his mind, Count Rainer, the son of Count Rainer likewise, the beloved nephew of Robert King of France through his b sister; began to fear with provident mind that the oft-mentioned St. Veronus, so magnified by the Lord, might be trampled upon by the madness of such rabid men. (For the town of Lembeek, in which his tomb was, had no defenses of fortification, and was accessible to the raging foes.) And he feared the unspeakable judgment of the Lord, who, to the accumulation of their damnation, even hands over his Saints to the impious to be trampled upon, so that they might run through all crimes and suffer all punishments. Therefore, having taken counsel from wise men, he resolved to bring the aforesaid Saint into a monastery, which, honored by the presence of St. Waltrude, is situated on the hill of Castrilocus. Having summoned to himself Clerics learned in knowledge and religion and others in whom he knew the zeal of religion to burn; with feet unshod in the greatest cold and retaining only woolen garments, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of February c he entered, more humble than the humblest, the threshold of the church to the noble Collegiate Church of St. Waltrude: in which the bones of St. Veronus lay: which, handling with the greatest veneration and honorably placed on coverings, he endeavored to carry to the hill of Castrilocus. As they approached, a procession of Clerics, religious women, and laypeople came out to meet them, devoutly acclaiming the praises of the Lord. They exulted at the coming of so great a Father, they praised God for his wonderful deeds. Each sought to outdo the other in honors and generosities, and beating their breasts with their fists, they praised God with humble devotion. Thus the Lord's Saint Veronus was honorably placed in the monastery, where the mercy of the eternal Godhead illuminates him to its own praise by miracles, reigning and governing all things through infinite ages of ages. Amen.