ON ST. BERTHA THE MARTYR
ABBESS OF AVENAY IN THE DIOCESE OF REIMS.
TOWARD THE END OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY
PrefaceBertha, Martyr, Abbess of Avenay, in the diocese of Reims (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Illustrating the memory of the most holy Martyr Gumbert, venerated at Avenay in Champagne, on the 29th of April, we had it necessary to prefix to the Acts a brief notice, concerning the deeds of him and of his holy wife Bertha, received from Flodoard's History of Reims; An Epitome of the Acts in Flodoard, and at the same time we indicated that he used the ancient Acts of St. Bertha, written one century after her death, when the venerable body had been found whole and incorrupt. Those Acts, as they then were, perhaps even now would be extant sincere and undivided; had not he, to whom after the solemn carrying back of the Body to Avenay, made under Artold Archbishop of Reims about the year 950, it had been committed to order the ecclesiastical Office for all the festivities of both Saints, thought good to amplify the Legend with various amplification, the more ancient legend interpolated and so increased to draw it apart into several parts. And first indeed excerpting what regarded almost only Gumbert, he so extended it, that for the festal day he had XII Lessons of his life done at Reims, and for the Octave day VIII Lessons of his peregrination and martyrdom. Which we collecting into one, as then, the interpolations being rejected, we strove to restore to the ancient simplicity; the same now also we intend to do, the more solicitously, the more powerful the veneration of their holy Foundress was ever to the people of Avenay, attested by a more numerous and prolix festivity.
[2] Nay also that the common Legend of both, was once written under the name of St. Bertha alone we gather from the prologue, and was drawn apart through the lessons of several feasts, which at the beginning of the Lessons for the festal day is noted conceived in these words, so that it appears the author, having undertaken the writing only on her account, from which as has been said, afterward amplified, were taken, first the VIII Lessons of the life of St. Bertha up to the building of the Avenay monastery, for the Natal day, the 1st of May this 1st of May; then for the six days within the Octave daily three lessons, in which is contained her monastic life, and especially the miracle of the fountain led to Avenay. There followed the history of her death inflicted by her stepsons, distributed into VIII lessons for the VIII day and for the Sunday within the same. But these I know not how were lost. The defect of the lost ones posterity supplied; for the Sunday indeed within the Octave by using the same VIII Lessons, which had been reserved and even now are recited for the Commemoration of St. Bertha, the 12th of October and of August. which is made on the 12th of October: but for the Octave day itself, the same which are said on the feast of the Translation, which is celebrated on the last day of August.
[3] So we learn from the rubric, prefixed before the Office of the Sunday and the Translation noted in the first edition of the Avenay Offices, with an office composed after the translation: made in the year 1557, by the care of Louisa de Linange the Abbess. These Lessons indeed contain the history of St. Gumbert brought to Avenay and buried beside the body of his wife, increased with certain more recent additions from Flodoard: yet it is called the Commemoration of Bertha alone, which is an argument to us, that the annual cult of her alone was thus far among the people of Avenay: who also we believe assumed that second festivity to be kept annually, when her body as I said was raised; and since it was wholly whole, placed it apart from the bones of her husband. But for the third festivity which we have said of the Translation were composed VIII new lessons under a new exordium; which exordium by the carelessness of posterity was abstracted from its own body, as to be read at the foot of the Lessons prescribed for the day of the Commemoration.
[4] The author of these last Lessons I would willingly believe him, who interpolated the ancient Legend and drew it apart into two; whose metrical responsories contain a synopsis of the life and composed the rest of the Office of both Saints: namely the proper and not inelegant Antiphons, Responsories, diverse Orations for the single Hours. The Responsories of both Offices, composed in Hexameter verse, are perhaps more ancient, and therefore it is helpful here to collect them into one, since with them the whole substance of the Acts is contained.
Holy Bertha of God, most sweet alumna of France, From the highest of the Grandees brought forth a noble birth, With the kind of flesh upright by the nobility of mind. A bride she was, a blessed one joined to a blessed bridegroom, A pair signal in spirits, Bertha faithful to Gumbert; Yet void of offspring, it is hidden whether she be also inviolate. Desolate, her husband departing, the blessed heroine, Spurning almost all things, with foot repelled the lowest world, Exchanging her glowing scarlet robes for a dark veil. While the holy one explores where she may found divine dwellings, By an Angelic vision concerning this matter she is made certain, And the place is shown formerly called the golden Valley. All things being built, while the lordly Mother treats, What Order should serve there in the Lord's service, The virgin Mary girt with virgins seemed to her, Thus showing the place to be established with nuns. In ancient times water was lacking to these seats; Whence burdened while the Saint besought kindly God, A fountain and a sure place is heavenly intimated to her, Which called Virtue lies at three thousand paces. Thither the Saint having set out with a pound of coins, After it was ready for her to pay it for the price, She draws the channel through the fields, thus leading the stream to her own, Which flows even today keeping the surname of the Pound. Happy and most grateful to the supreme Lord Bertha, While through manifold labors having struggled with the world, She testified, how much the victory of Christ can do; At length performing martyrdom she seeks the heights of the poles: Who beholding divine things, and now rejoicing without time, Asks to join us by prayers to Christ, whom she pleased. Christ, our salvation, to thee be praise and all glory, Who to us rising light and true redemption, Dost give us of so great a Mother the most rich sod: By whose prayers, kindly draw us from the shadow of death.
[5] Thus far the ancient prose or sequence, composed with continuous sense, as it appears, but by the author of the Office drawn apart into several parts, that for all the Responsories of the whole festal day it might suffice. Nonetheless ancient seems to be the Hymn concerning the Saint, proper to both Vespers and Matins, which is such:
Future ornament of glory, the radiance of the church shines, Sprung from illustrious birth and with holy witnesses Bertha. as also the hymn. Joined in matrimony now to most illustrious Gumbert, Herself not fruitful in offspring she consecrated to God by acts; Thence despising the foul joys of the mortal age, She converted her pious spouse, following the celibate life. Founding a sacred monastery she enriched flocks of virgins, She herself is made Mother to all, and presides over those warring. O most splendid Mother, powerful in the grace of virtues; After the departure of this flesh, grant the reward of life.
And here indeed the defect of offspring is so indicated, that she herself is simply indicated to have been the author of the celibate or continent life to her husband: but the preceding meter brings in a suspicion of a more perfect chastity, where it is said:
Yet void of offspring, it is hidden whether she be also inviolate.
But why should we not suspect her to have lived a virgin, who is known to have been divinely illustrated by the privilege of a body incorrupt through a whole century, wont to be read of almost only virgins? with some indication of preserved virginity. Certainly understanding her bridegroom (to whom there were not lacking sons, born before from a legitimate, as we prefer to believe, marriage) by the sole importunity of kinsmen and the command of a divine voice yielding, to have undergone again the conjugal bond; she could easily have prevailed on the same, to grant her the grace of preserving virginity; just as she persuaded the same that he should prefer to have, as heirs of his goods, as far as by laws it was lawful, spiritual sons rather than carnal ones.
[6] Whatever it be concerning the little laurel of virginity, the palm and title of martyrdom all who treat of her attribute to her, not only the people of Avenay in all their Offices concerning her, her cult as a Martyr among the people of Reims, but also others. The Metropolitan Church of Reims, although it has the Kalends occupied with the more festive cult of the holy Apostles Philip and James, yet in the first Vespers and Lauds, according to the Breviary printed in the year 1630, prescribes the memory of St. Bertha the Martyr, with the Antiphon and Oration God who among other things, as in the common of Virgins. In the very old Martyrology of the church of SS. Timothy and Apollinaris it is noted on the Kalends of May, in the territory of Reims, in the place which is called Avenay, the passion of St. Bertha wife of St. Gumbert. Sigebert in the chronicle, at the year 660, thus writes: St. Bertha, Martyr and Abbess, flourishes in sanctity in France. Ferrarius and others follow with Saussay: who from
the aforesaid Offices wove for her a more prolix elogium, not without error, the errors of Saussay while he attributes her to Avena, a monastery of the diocese of Châlons. Vulgarly indeed the place of the monastery is called Avenay; but that, like all similar names of Frankish places in ay, by the use of those writing in Latin, according to the ancient form of the same names, was to be terminated in Latin by acum or acus. The place moreover is not much farther from Châlons than from Reims, yet pertains to this not that diocese, as is most well known.
[7] Gabriel Bucelinus erred no less lightly, when he ended a more prolix elogium of the same St. Bertha with these words: she rests moreover beside her former husband, and of Bucelinus in the monastery of St. Peter of Reims: for this monastery is most diverse, built by Baldric in the city of Reims itself in the same century, of which we treated on the 24th of April at the Life of St. Bova, the first Abbess there. Most diverse also was the other, of which now (as is read in the Reims Breviary at the feast of St. Gumbert) there survives only the hall, the chapel and the chapel of St. Patrick, once at the gate Collaticia or Basilicaris in honor of St. Peter built by the said Saint, which was called Royal or Fiscal. But the Avenay monastery, although it too was sacred to St. Peter, is distant about eight Leagues from Reims, and by its proper name is called the Golden-Valley. The distinction of those three monasteries Bucelinus could have learned from Flodoard himself whom he cites, having spoken in diverse chapters of each one successively; if he had applied a little greater accuracy than haste in bringing books into public light: which indeed we reprehend unwillingly: but it is necessary now and then to note these things, against those who take it ill, that we do not at once receive all, whom such writers have admitted, into the Benedictine Order.
[8] Whether she was of the Benedictine order? John Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, seems to have distrusted their judgment concerning St. Bertha, when in the second century he omitted to relate her Acts, content to have referred her to the index of the Passed Over: which yet lest his own should take ill, he prefixed an asterisk *, by which he wished those indicated who seem to be genuine Benedictines, indeed not so much to himself as to others, whom he was unwilling to oppose. It is said indeed in the II Lesson of the III day that St. Bertha built the buildings of the workshops, as St. Benedict prescribes; but we have shown in the annotations how inept that gloss is. Much more efficaciously would the discipline of the Hautvillers monastery instituted by St. Nivardus prove this, if it were proved to have been Benedictine: for we can scarcely doubt, but that in building monasteries and reading the Rule, the pious spouses Gumbert and Bertha followed the example of that holy Bishop and their brother. Otherwise that certain monasteries near Reims were instituted according to the Rule of St. Columban, Adzo Abbot of Der scarcely allows to doubt in the Life of St. Basolus, while he says, that he coming to Verzy, joined himself to the number of twelve Brethren, imitating the manners and acts of B. Columban, as he says he found in the old records: which indeed he would not have found, unless at least in the new monastery after St. Basolus's death, in this very century 700 of which we treat, an institution of this kind had obtained; granting that this perhaps was not to be drawn to the time when Basolus landed.
[9] Flodoard when in book 4 chapter 47 he had deduced many things concerning St. Bertha from her more ancient Life, as we believe, and concerning her and her husband's common miracles at Avenay; at length subjoins, as done in his own time, that is in the 10th century. Besides a certain woman, having lately stolen a linen cloth from the altar of this monastery, wished to carry it with her; certain things added to the Acts from Flodoard. but she could in no way go out of the church, until having confessed her guilt, she restored the cloth taken away to its altar. The same the author of the proper office deduced in more words, saying in our age: and similarly from Flodoard he took the end of the aforecited chapter, that he might fill out the number of Lessons for the day of the Translation in this manner: But the monastery, which the Saint herself had built at the greatest expense, and the Abbey of the same house, Lord Fulco the Prelate obtained to be granted by King Odo to the Church of Reims, through a page of the Royal precept; and for confirming it to the same Church he obtained from Pope Formosus a privilege of the Apostolic See. Within the years namely 891 in which Formosus was elected, and 898 in which Odo died, although Fulco himself held his See from the year 888 until 900. That last observation the Monk of Saint-Remi omitted, who polished the Lives of Saints Gumbert and Bertha, such as he had found in their Offices, with a new style perhaps after the 12th century: which writing of his we have, but with the style again changed by William Duiatius a Canon Regular of St. John of Soissons: nor was it worth the trouble to seek at Reims a copy of the original style, since nothing there is found worthy of note, except that he says, that after the Translation made under Artold, to each Martyr afterward a particular Office was decreed and instituted.
ACTS
From the old Avenay Office.
Bertha, Martyr, Abbess of Avenay, in the diocese of Reims (St.)
BHL Number: 1264
FROM MS.
[1] When the life of the preceding holy Fathers is brought back to our memory, we wonder that the like now cannot at all be found in our times. But by divine clemency it has been brought about, that the light of justice should be shown to us in the strait life of the Blessed, The Lives of the Saints set forth as an example, lest we be able to draw back our foot from the path of truth, as if not knowing what we ought to follow or what to avoid. For the omnipotent Lord, seeking for our sake the lowest things, not leaving the higher, conferred not only on the male sex victory over the wickedness of venomous fraud; nay also of holy women: but also in the fragile sex of woman's condition afforded great examples of virtue: that to him we may always raise the eyes of the mind, all hesitation set aside, who opens the mouth of the dumb and makes the tongues of infants eloquent, who through the sensible modes of human speech distinguished the immense and brutish brayings of the ass. Nor is it a wonder if he gave a woman of fragile material for an example: who narrates his truth even when he wills through the mouths of beasts of burden. For to the fellowship of the coheirs of Christ we ought to flee, as to the bosom of a safest port, the stroke of the earthly heat and tempest being avoided, that we may merit to see the God of gods in Sion; where the most holy Bertha, for the recalling of whose memory we have premised these things, enjoys the rewards of the good, taken into the fellowship of the holy spirits. a
[2] For she, sprung from the blood of noble parents, as became the line of so great nobility, married to St. Gumbert was joined in marriage to the most holy, as is read, and worthy of all praise Gumbert: not by the ardor of nefarious lust, but by the love of propagating posterity. But while joined together they enjoyed the world, they always strove to please God, and from day to day hastened to ascend to the summit of perfection. b
[3] by mutual consent she is separated, But when the time now drew near, that, the mercy of the highest God dispensing it, they should divide themselves, that they might be of the worshippers of God, to whom he himself says, You who have left all things and have followed me, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life;… c the Lady and venerable Bertha most willingly bore the spirit of holy poverty: and in the inheritance of the great dowry, which by marital right she had attained, as before they had done likewise at d the gate of the people of Reims, she desired to build another monastery. and divinely taught the place of building the monastery, And when this lengthy thought was revolving in her mind, the Angel of the Lord appeared to her, bidding her lay down the obstacle of doubt, and raise the eye of her mind to the Father of all, and designate the place prepared by him e, and measure the measures of the monastery to be built. f … And when the handmaid of God had seen these things, as if made in an excess of mind, glad at the vision of her desire, she hastens to the parts shown her: and as had been heavenly revealed to her, so she ordered to be marked the places of the foundations to be built. g
[4] But when the handmaid of Christ had begun to build the monastery, as had been commanded her by the Lord, in the village which is called Avenay h, she began to consider of what sex or what order serving God she should gather together there. in the same While she revolved these things in her mind, in the time of shady night, when she gave her too-wearied members to a little rest, by the command of the Mother of God she gathers maidens. there stood by her the glorious diadem of Virgins, namely the blessed Virgin Mary, comforting her and saying, that what at the bidding of the Highest of the poles she had begun, with all the efforts of the body she should bring even to the summit of perfection, and in the same monastery gather a company of maidens. i
[5] But the work being completed, which, the Lord showing it, kindled with his love she had begun, she enriched the same place with many gifts, and with great appendages enlarged its boundaries. k There indeed, as had been revealed to her by the Lord, she took in a multitude of maidens from everywhere: l whom both fragile in body, and robust in mind, by words and examples she formed to living well. m For she comforted in the Lord her adoptive daughters, and rendered them fortified with the shield of justice, teaching that they should spurn the riches of the perishing world, and dread none of its adversities. n
[6] But all the buildings of the workshops the most holy mother o, on account of the lack of water, built around the dwellings of those serving God, except the mill: because in those times still there was the greatest indigence of water [p]. And when the handmaid of Christ through the days of the times saw the handmaids of Christ to be saddened, and too much to lament on account of the indigence of the liquid element, she also began to have compassion on their griefs. Filled too with the grace of the holy Spirit, on a certain night, while all the Sisters had given themselves to sleep, the holy Mother, supplicating by night drawing long sighs from the inmost of her heart, went out with slow foot from the same house, and step by step entered the oratory. Who prostrating herself laid herself on the ground, and a shower of tears being poured forth, asked the Lord author of heaven and earth, that he who once through the desert to a people wearied by the indigence of thirst, deigned to grant draughts from the rock by the hand of Moses and Aaron, q having mercy might grant to her from the bowels of the earth the liquids of water. she is comforted by a heavenly voice, While the prayer being completed the handmaid of Christ was going out of the oratory, before she reached the threshold of the door, a voice fallen from heaven said to her: Beloved of God, lay down the anxiety of mourning: because what you faithfully sought, you have efficaciously obtained. and by the direction of St. Peter: And when she had heard these things, filled with too great terror, her strength deserting, she came to the pavement of the ground, made half-alive; but B. Peter [r] appeared to her saying to her: At the dawning of the next day, go to the place, which at the Lord's bidding will be shown you; and whatever, he dispensing, shall happen, perform: but know him to be always with you.
[7] But the Lady Bertha, while the gleaming dawn had begun to render light to the world, and had illuminated those sitting in the shadow of shady night, hastens alone with one maiden to the place shown her by the Lord. she finds a fountain. To which when she had come, she began to invoke the omnipotent God with prayers and tears, that he would deign to make her partaker of her vow. While she surveyed the situations of that place,
she came to a certain garden in which there was a fountain of wondrous beauty. Which when the God-devoted woman saw, she did not at all covet it; [but] she spoke thus to the possessors of that estate: s O brothers beloved in Christ, sell me this fountain of your estate: and a worthy sum being received yield it to our uses. To whom they say thus: and it being bought Lo we are ready, if only the price assessed by us be given. t But the holy one, those being present who were there, placed one pound of denarii upon the stone which was over the mouth of the same fountain: but the owners and sellers received the money. u Then the holy mother full of God, with the distaff which she held in her hand, began to dig the earth, and to make a furrow in the manner of a trench, praying and saying: she leads it after her. Show us, O Lord, thy mercy and give us thy salvation. For returning to the monastery, she drew the distaff after her, and so great an abundance of water followed her, that for all uses pertaining to men it sufficed: as appears even today. x A name too the holy mother composed for the little river itself, saying: Pound shalt thou be called: because one pound was given for thy purchase. So great therefore a grace had the Lord granted her, that placed on earth in body, and dwelling in mind in heaven, she did vast wonders.
[8] slain by her stepsons,… Finally the stepsons of that Lady Bertha rising against her killed her… y After St. Bertha migrated from this light to the Lord the oft-said stepsons, namely the sons of Lord Gumbert, invaded by demons are related to have perished, closing an unworthy life with a worthy death.
[9] But the courses of many years being passed, on a certain night St. Bertha appeared by a vision, whose body had been buried in the Avenay monastery, she commands the body of St. Gumbert to be transferred to her own, to Muncia herself, who had been consenting in her slaying, saying: that if she wished to have remission of so great a crime, then she should go to the place where Lord Gumbert lay, and bring him back thence, and place him beside her own body. Who when she heard such things, answered: O Lady, how shall I be able to know, that so vast a sin is forgiven me? She finally said: Indeed when his body shall have been placed beside mine, immediately blood shall come from your nostrils and from your mouth. As she heard this she rose with willing mind, and quickly fulfilling the commands of the holy Mother, she brought the body of the holy Father Gumbert with great honor to the same monastery, and placed it beside the oft-said Lady. But the aforesaid Muncia seeking whether the offenses were yet relaxed, was zealous to raise the body of St. Bertha: which while it was being raised, immediately a wave of blood began to flow from her mouth and nostrils.
[10] But after the rotation of a hundred years, while the mausoleum of the most holy body of Bertha was opened, Her body after 100 years incorrupt. it was found so sound and whole, and all her wounds fresh, as if she had closed her last day on that same day. But when the body of the blessed man Gumbert was placed beside the pledge of holy Bertha, the places, in which the holy one of God had received the wounds of death, so began to emit blood, as if at that same moment they had been pierced with a point. For all the multitude, it emits blood. which was present, began to praise God, who showed so unheard-of a thing. z Many signs indeed the Lord deigned to work on account of the merits of SS. Gumbert and Bertha, in the place where their bodies are venerably buried: which through the negligence of the slothful are not committed to codices. But the Lord, and she grows bright with miracles. whom with pure mind she had served, carried them over from death to life, from corruption to incorruption, from labor to rest, granting them the unfading gift with the troops of the heavenly citizens, to whom praise and dominion remains unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
The most holy Bertha desired to be inserted among the heavenly citizens; and her body still placed in the world, in mind she went outside the world. For wearied by the exercise of holy inquiry, she rested in the meditation of the heart in the hope and contemplation of her Creator; she deplored the trouble of exile which we tolerate, and to the sublime country she ceaselessly excited herself with the goads of love. When therefore grieving she saw that to be eternal which we had lost; she found a salutary counsel, to desert this temporal world, which she saw to come to nothing. She busied herself therefore to be made great among the Easterners (here are to be understood the Austrasians, named not from the South, but from Ost, the East, with respect to the Western Franks) when, the pressing cloud of carnal corruption being removed, she was associated by the rays of her discretion, as far as possibility supplied, to those spirits which cling to the eastern light; so that she could rightly say with the Apostle Paul, Our conversation is in heaven. She did not seek among her actions the low and fugitive things, which do not profit: but among the choirs of the heavenly citizens she strove to advance.
O how shining a star the Lord placed in heaven for the example of many, namely B. Bertha, that by following her footsteps we may be able to walk the journey of our night, with unstumbling foot of work. For it was worthy that in a tender woman the Lord should show a manly mind, who was to be the mother and leader of many maidens serving God. The holocausts of her heart she daily offered to the Lord, by bland persuasion refreshing the weak, so that she might feed their minds, both teaching great things through contemplation; and handing down small things through history, as if nourishing with milk. Simple was the God-devoted woman in work, upright in faith: simple in the good things, which she did below; upright in the highest things, which she felt in the inmost. And thus far indeed the Lessons for the festal day: there follow three each for the single six days within the Octave.
As she had done with her oft-said Lord Gumbert. Of the things which she had had she dispensed the greatest part for the work of building the monastery, and another part she gave to the poor: for she did great things on earth, and yet within herself had no confidence concerning her great acts: by her exhortation and holy example she instigated the minds of her hearers to acting well, lest remiss they should flow down into some evil, nor scatter themselves through unlawful things, nor scatteredly depress the eyes of the heart; but as it were collect them to one intention, that they might merit to come to him, who is the foundation of eternal salvation. The work therefore being completed, which the friend of the highest God had begun he himself bidding it…
For she was a lover of obedience and of all virtues, and longed to please God alone, lest she be subjected to the hidden darts of the enemy. With upright mind too she had undertaken the cares of the dispensation of the eternal sheepfold: because she attended not to what she owed to herself alone, but to what she owed to her neighbors, and did not neglect the holy studies, which are the food of the perpetually living soul, through immoderation of another's solicitude; nor through vigilance of her own utility did she set behind the necessaries of others; but to all she was made all things, that she might gain all.
l Likewise these:
Because it was worthy, that the exercise of the said combat, which the holy Mother had begun against the wickedness of venomous fraud, should be had perpetually in the same place through the same sex. And she herself was the spiritual Mother of many blessed daughters.
m And again:
She taught them to flee the poison of the crafty enemy, saying; that the adversary of the human race, while he sees himself repelled from the hearts of good men or women, more diligently seeks out the chinks of hearts, by showing the allurements of the flattering world; that while by the force of some fallacious love he has pierced the heart, immediately by the stroke of a pestiferous sword he may shatter the defenses of inmost rectitude. For weeping she said, that by the love of the present world we had withdrawn from the love of our author; and a perverse mind, while by love it subjects itself to the creature, is disjoined from the society of its creator.
n Finally these:
For she said: through the fault of the first parent we became discordant from God, it is worthy that to his peace, by tolerating hard and harsh things, we return: that while each thing well founded turns for us into grief, the mind may be humbly reformed to the peace of the Author.
p Being wholly persuaded that the name of Avenay, equally as the others in acus or acum, is more ancient than the very monastery of St. Bertha; I can also not doubt at all, but that the river whose waters gave the last part of the aforesaid name, flowed there from all memory of men before Bertha. The topographical map of the diocese of Reims, described in the Blaeu Atlas by John Iubrianus of Châlons, and so born only six leagues from Avenay, so expresses this river,
that it ought to owe its origin to two or more rivulets, running down partly from the North, where is the monastery of St. Basolus; partly from the West, where the place called Saint-Ymoge is noted; which, one league above Avenay, but three leagues below the monastery of St. Basolus, meeting, are thenceforth carried by a common channel toward the Marne, and are absorbed by it one league below Avenay. Hence you may understand that the aforenarrated miracle can by no probable reason be so taken, as if the Saint had derived such a course of waters from a fountain situated near the monastery of St. Basolus. What then? Below the confluence of the aforesaid rivulets and on the same western bank of the river, to which the monastery built by St. Bertha looks, there is noted a village called Fontaine, namely from a fountain emerging there. From this fountain, to which the Saint going out from her monastery could come within the space of an hour, I suspect the water led by miracle to the monastery, which would be enough for domestic uses and for turning a mill, and then going out of the monastery flows into the very Avenay river. Submitting this conjecture to the eye-witness faith of the inhabitants, and through it desiring to be informed of the truth; I cut off meanwhile from the old text all those things, by which it came about, that the narration understood of the river itself ought to be held wholly fabulous. Such an admonition being premised I undertake to expurgate the very text of the Avenay Lessons, and first I delete the words by which the interpolator wished to extend the indigence of water beyond the monastery, when he added, But the lack of water greatly afflicted the farmers of that village.
q I deleted the parenthesis, importunely and rather insipidly added, who hold the type of holy Mother Church.
r Likewise this: In whose memory she had built all things, which we have narrated above.
s The interpolator extending the matter done by a long circumlocution, while he wished to render it more wonderful, made it almost incredible in this manner: Would that by venal merchandise that fountain were granted to me and the sisters of our monastery! Which when the heirs of the same fountain had heard, led by greed of money, not thinking, that what seemed impossible to bodily eyes would be possible to the handmaid of Christ, they say thus. O venerable Lady and worthy of all praise, if there shall have been, a right assessment being constituted by us, the cause of so great gain firm and ratified, with willing mind we will yield it, and will make a charter of perpetual holding. Hearing these things the Saint of God, Lo, she said, let us hasten by foot-progress to the Brethren of our Order, namely the cenobites of St. Basolus, for love of whom the Lord on the highest summit of the mountain produced water from the rock. For he himself was Father and Leader of many serving God; he will be able to obtain by excellent prayers with the Father of the eternal Son, that I may loose for you the bond of this desire. But the place, where the emanation of that water rises, is not far distant from the monastery of the holy Father Basolus, only one mile. To which when they had come they prostrated themselves likewise to prayer, and prayer being made the Rector of the same place gratefully received her, and with mild address they likewise animated themselves to the studies of eternal life. Among their pious colloquies, the Saint of God came to the desire of her soul, which she was zealous to narrate to him, and how B. Peter appeared to her; and how he bade that she should come to the abovesaid place, and there God helping her desire should be fulfilled. Which hearing the Father of the aforesaid monastery, with bland address thus addresses her: O Lady and worthy of all praise, the bidding of the Lord lording it, nature is changed into adverse modes. For he who from the dry metal brought forth a wave of water for the Hebrew people tarrying in the desert, will be able to give to you and your handmaids, living under your protection, streams of water, that there may be an end of so great a necessity. Let us go now to the place, shown you by the Lord, and let us there await help from heaven. But the situation of that place is called Virtue, because, the Lord working in his handmaid, so great a virtue was shown, the like to which in modern times has not been heard. To which when they had come they began to go around that place, where the oft-said fountain was. Without delay the heirs of the same came, to whom the venerable Lady said: etc.
t And again:
There were present the cenobites of kindly Basolus with their Father, bearing the standards of the holy Cross in their hands; and the Lady Bertha with the congregation subject to her, and a great multitude of people of each sex, running together from everywhere as to a spectacle. The holy Mother, not a lover of money or perishing pomp, said: As much as you wish I will give, and pray the Lord of all with me that my desire be fulfilled.
u And again,
Then all who were present with the holy handmaid of God prostrated themselves on the ground, praying and saying, By the rush of the river make us glad, O Lord. When the prayer being consummated they rose, the holy Mother etc.
His disciples, Mark XI, 23, wondering at the withered fig, Jesus answering, said: Have faith. Amen I say to you, that whoever shall say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not hesitate in his heart, but shall believe that whatever he says shall be done, it shall be done for him. Faith therefore, which could move mountains, could also fountains, nor is this new in the deeds of the Saints. The right too of the same fountain, jokingly assigned by the possessors, it is credible was seriously bought by the holy one: but that this matter was done with so great a noise, through public charters, before the assembly of each monastery, and the dwellers from everywhere called to the spectacle, no one would prudently persuade himself. And this here ought so much the less to be believed, because the Saint went alone with one maiden to the place divinely shown, indeed fleeing ostentation. Our judgment in this matter Flodoard confirms, saying the place was distant from the monastery only by two miles, that is not a whole league. His words are these: While there, namely in the monastery built by her, St. Bertha had no water, she obtained from the possessors of the nearby wood, a pound of silver being given, a certain fountain, distant almost two miles from her monastery: from which fountain soon a stream going out followed her returning to the monastery: which still largely flowing forth, for the reason that it was bought for so much, is called Pound.
This clause is thus more fully explained in the third Lesson of the sixth day: namely by restoring sight to the blind, speech to many, hearing to the deaf, going to the lame, and exercising other notable things: because she was a lamp burning and shining, set in the house of the Lord, that from the eyes of those entering she might drive away the darkness of mists.
y There followed no doubt, how Satan then excited both the stepsons themselves and Muncia the accomplice of the crime against the Saint, and in what manner the body was buried; which could be received from the MS. of Saint-Remi, if the original text of it had been at hand: now the words of Flodoard were enough for us. But Muncia seems to have succeeded in the governance of the monastery: and so to have very secretly favored the slayers, of whom perhaps she was a near blood-relation, for instance an own cousin on the side of their mother.
z The interpolator adds:
It was very wondrous and stupendous, that a body lifeless for so many days should seem so fresh and moist with rosy gore: especially since a dying body is deserted by the liquor of blood. But he himself to whom she clung with devoted mind, to demonstrate the greatness of the grace, which she had in the summit of heaven, wished to keep her unharmed, that she might become an example to the generation to come.
* whether of the times?
* whether you have thought?
* otherwise to have departed
RELATION OF THE BODIES
From Reims to Avenay from the Office.
Bertha, Martyr, Abbess of Avenay, in the diocese of Reims (St.)
BHL Number: 1265
FROM MS.
[11] The Almighty Lord, who disposes all things by his nod, and who for serving himself sanctioned many excellent Fathers, These Saints left to posterity as a goad of virtue, that through them he might show the light of holy life to the generation to come: deigned to set up Lord Gumbert and Lady Bertha on the candlestick of holy Mother Church, that to those entering it they might show the path of the strait way. For whoever shall worthily serve him living in this vale of tears, stripped of the mortal covering shall be clothed with the garment of justice, and shall be placed an heir of the heavenly country. The mind pressed by the carnal burden cannot weigh such things, which the elect enjoy in eternal rest; while they see at their bodies extinguished frequent miracles divinely done.
[12] But long after the venerable end of Lord Gumbert, they command their bodies to be placed more honorably while on a certain night a certain Bernard, giving his effort to holy actions, rested on his couch, St. Gumbert appeared to him with kindly Bertha saying, that he should go to Archbishop Artold, and indicate to him that he should raise their bodies from the place, in which they were buried. They had added therefore, that those who before the highest God enjoyed the greatest honor, ought not to be kept with such disgrace. But their holy bodies lay then in the church of St. Mary, and their memory was not at all celebrated with veneration worthy, but their sepulchers were full of water. Which when he had seen, appearing once and twice: struck with fear, he began to consider what he ought to do: whether he should still wait, if the Lord would deign a second or third time to demonstrate it: or at once at the bidding of the most holy man should indicate it to the aforesaid Prelate? To him meditating such things, B. Gumbert appeared again, saying, that he had not done well, that he had concealed the vision divinely shown him. Who rising in the morning began to go to the place where he knew the Pontiff Artold tarried. But when he was now not far from the same village, he began to consider within himself what he ought to do, whether to perform the begun way, or to await a third vision.
[13] But it happened after the revolution of one month, that the same Bernard, full of God, sat in the basilica, and a third time with vast light. where lay the pledges of the aforesaid Saints; and suddenly a vast light shone around him, and in the coruscation of so great a splendor the oft-said Saints appeared to him; and as with a sad countenance they thus address him: Why did you doubt to perform what was commanded you by us? But from the splendor of the coruscating light, and their hard address he was made half-alive; and fell into so great an infirmity, that he was scarcely thought to recover from it. Who became the publisher of this forced holy vision, and was careful to indicate to the aforesaid Prelate, what thrice the Lord showing he had seen. But the Lord Archprelate Artold came to the same place: they are transferred by the Archbishop, and raised their holy bodies from the place, in which they lay: and transferred them with great honor into the monastery of B. Peter: where afterward the Lord working in them, many miracles were shown, which are not committed to letters by the negligence of the one dictating.
[14] But after their holy translation
But the ambusher of the human race, not ceasing to go around the sheepfold of Christ, seeking whom he may devour, always brings war upon those serving the highest God; that he may be able to lead away someone, by straying from the path of truth. On a certain day the firebrand of envy made a tumult arise, globes of flames rising up, in the village of Avenay, a fire is stopped: where the memory of the aforesaid Saints is celebrated. For the victorious flame had consumed the greatest part of the same village, and the immensity of the pyre was already licking the buildings of the monastery. Then the handmaids of Christ dwelling there, the body of St. Bertha being taken, go to meet it: and with so great velocity the fleeing fire slipping away withdrew, as if it had had nothing of domination there.
[15] Another miracle also in modern times the Lord deigned to work in the same place, a demoniac violently brought, which it is not at all fitting to pass over. A certain one Sigebald by name, of the village of Turnus, his own faults requiring it, vexed by a demon, is led by his kinsmen to the same monastery, pressed by the weight of chains: that by the prayers of the Saints lying there he might be freed from the infestation of demons. But when he had been led to the monastery; the demon said crying out in the wretch, that he did not dare to approach the holy buildings of the temple, in which he knew such a treasure to be hidden, namely the bodies of the oft-said Saints. But emitting the roars of lions, the hisses of dragons, and imitating the voices of other monsters, he took no rest by days and nights. While these things were being done, the holy Mother thus speaks to the Sisters of the same congregation: after the prayers and fastings of the nuns, My beloved in Christ, we must have compassion on our brother: let us run back to the physician, ready to grant aid to every one asking, and let us prevent his face in confession: let us weary our bodies with fastings, that the Maker of all creatures may have mercy on a creature, created to his image and likeness. With fastings and prayers on that day, according to the command of their Abbess, devoutly giving their effort: after Mass celebrated at the ninth hour they come together into one, they bid a vessel be filled, which by rustic use is called a cask, with water, and over it the holy name of the Lord to be invoked. set in blessed water Which was done according to the precept of the holy Virgins: and the wretch himself full of the demon was put into the fount of blessed water. And when for a long time it had labored at his cleansing, the unclean spirit, which had invaded him by wicked domination, tearing him left him half-alive. After these things the handmaids of God go to the table together with the Mother, and each sent a little portion of her food through her Deaconess for the love of God and St. Bertha. The Deaconess herself finally at that time prevailed in great virtues: the food being taken who when she had come to the wretch, who lay with hands bound behind his back, put a morsel of bread into his mouth, the name of the Lord being invoked, and of Saints Gumbert and Bertha: and immediately the unclean spirit, not having strength to resist further, went out through the flux of the belly. he is freed. Which going out so great a stench remained, that scarce anyone could tarry there. But he himself, full health being assumed, returned to his own, praising God, who through his servants works such things.