ON SAINT GENGULPHUS
MARTYR AT VARENNES IN BURGUNDY.
ABOUT DCCLX.
PrefaceGengulphus, Martyr at Varennes in Burgundy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
There flourished in the eighth century of Christ, under Pippin King of the Franks, parent of the Emperor Charlemagne, a man of eminent piety S. Gengulphus, by the machination of his wife perfidiously slain by her adulterer, and held among the Martyrs: who soon in the same and the following century drew into his cult and veneration not only Burgundy, In Burgundy the possession of S. Gengulphus at Varennes but the neighboring regions on the Meuse, Moselle and Rhine. His chief possession and dwelling and that of his ancestors was the place of Varennes, in the present Duchy of Burgundy and the diocese of Langres, from which city (Claude Robert of Langres being witness in the Gallia Christiana and Erlulphus the XXXI Bishop of Langres) it is four leagues distant; namely not far from the monastery of Bèze, of which monastery one of his ancestors, also by name Gengulphus, was chosen to be Advocate, we learn from the Chronicle of Bèze published by d'Achery in volume 1 of the Spicilegium, and of his ancestors under Clothaire III. in which on page 499 toward the end these things are read. Clothaire King of the Franks, namely the third, son of Clovis II, appointed Gengulphus, a most illustrious man, Defender and Advocate, which his letters will indicate, published there, given on the XV of the Kalends of September, in the X year of the reign of the Lord Clothaire the King, that is in the year of Christ DCLXVI or the following. From this monastery of Bèze not far distant is Varennes, in which place was a basilica of S. Peter the Apostle, which with the highest love S. Gengulphus is said to have cultivated, and that those who there served might have necessary revenues, he allotted the possessions of his estates, the Acts attest no. 11; where also in the same basilica he is said to be buried and to have shone with miracles.
[2] That there was there, or rather toward Germany, some illustrious monastery or church built under the name and veneration of S. Gengulphus, A church dedicated to him existed in the year 870. we gather from the division of the dominions of King Lothair made in the year DCCCLXX between his uncles, Louis King of Germany, and Charles the Bald of Western France: where in the portion which Louis received, are named first five Episcopal cities, then more illustrious monasteries, and among these Inden near Aix-la-Chapelle, of S. Maximinus near Trier, Echternach between Trier and Luxembourg, then of S. Gengulphus, then Faverney, Polemniacum, Luxeuil in the County of Burgundy. A Priory 2 But the above-cited Claude Robert says; In the diocese of Langres many Churches dedicated to S. Gengulphus Martyr, and among them is eminent on the monastery of Molesme of the Benedictine Order: to which Raynardus confirmed the donation of the church of S. Gengulphus, and of many things situated at Varennes, in the year MLXXXIV. That there is also among the Langrois a Priory of S. Gengulphus under the Patronage of the Abbot of Bèze, is indicated in the General Register of the diocese of Langres on page 5, where also on page 7 it is said that at Chalindre in the Deanery of Mogensis there is
[3] The ancient Martyrologies agree, among which the MS. of Liège of S. Lambert has these things at this XI of April. memory in the Fasti Burgundy, in the city of Langres, of S. Gengulphus Martyr. There is added, glorious far and wide by miracles, in the MSS. of Prague, Alberg, Utrecht and many others, augmented under the name of Usuard. The MS. of Dijon of S. Benignus, and the Florentine of the Counsellor Strozzi have these: At Varennes of S. Gengulphus Martyr. So the same to Varennes ascribe Bellinus, Molanus and others with the Roman Martyrology. In the Appendix to Ado in Mosander and Rosweyde these things are read: On the same day of S. Gengulphus Martyr, whose deeds are had: from which also very many things are related in the MS. Florarium, and the MS. of Liège of S. Lawrence, as on the XIII of May in the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck printed in the year MCCCCXC: likewise in Greven in the Additions of Usuard. and on the 9th of May, On which day likewise he is inscribed in the Martyrology printed under the name of Bede, but as after him lived S. Gengulphus, so also that Martyrology was afterward composed. Besides on the IX day of May that the same is venerated, was wont by the Church of Utrecht is clear from an old Breviary of the same Church. On which day also the MSS. Martyrologies, the Utrecht of S. Mary, the Trier of S. Martin, and other Kalendars mention him. and the 12th of October. Finally on the XII of October other Churches venerate him, as indicate the Brussels and Bruges Breviaries, and the Tournai Missal, in which he has a proper Mass.
[4] This ancient veneration of S. Gengulphus is increased by very many Churches dedicated to him outside the diocese of Langres, Various dedicated Churches, as is, In the city of Mainz a temple of S. Gangolphus, raised in the times of Rupert the XVI Archbishop, who sat from the year LXIX to LXXVII after the nine-hundredth. But now by Daniel of most praiseworthy memory the most Reverend and most Illustrious notably built, it began to be called by a new name, the Temple of the citadel. So Serarius in book 1 of the Affairs of Mainz chapter 31. But the said Daniel the LVII Archbishop presided from the year MDLV until the year MDLXXXII. Embricius, the fifth Abbot of Einsiedeln of the Mother of God in Switzerland, set up to S. Gangolphus the noble Martyr a shrine in the neighboring field of Bruel, which in the year MXLI Eberhard Bishop of Constance consecrated, as in the Annals of the same monastery writes Christopher Hartmann, and the same at the year MCCLXXXVIII brings forth Indulgences of forty days, under Pope Nicholas IV granted by twelve Bishops, mostly titular existing in the said Pope's Curia at Rieti, to all who shall come to the feasts there named at the chapel of SS. Galgolfus and Lawrence Martyrs, at the place of the Hermits of the Abbot and convent of the Order of S. Benedict of the diocese of Constance, or shall have stretched forth helping hands, or shall have bequeathed anything at their last hour. There is also an ancient Parish church in the Metropolitan city of Trier, and subject to it the Cathedral of Toul, which they say was built by S. Gerard the Bishop in the X century: likewise certain can be found, indicates Fisen in book 5 of the History of Liège at the year 814 no. 32. That there is in the chief city of Franconia, Bamberg, a collegiate church of S. Gengulphus we have seen in person, and thence we were asked to send ancient monuments of his life and slaying, that thence Ecclesiastical Lessons might be formed. Philip moreover Scouville, Missionary of the Society of Jesus through the territory of Luxembourg, indicated to us the cult
of S. Gengulphus to be celebrated in the villages of Lichterbom, Haspelt, Schreidwiler, Osperen, Sonle, Wellonstein, and chiefly in Santgolffen, by a name, as it seems, by the use of the common people corrupted for Gangulphus. Finally the same veneration of S. Gengulphus is confirmed by very many traditions of Churches, in place of which (that of the Church and diocese of Langres, which prescribes a solemn cult, we be silent) speak the ancient Breviaries, the cult in others. such as are of the Metropolitan Church of Besançon both manuscript and printed; of the Metropolitan Churches of Sens, Mainz, and Utrecht, likewise of Antwerp, Liège, Speyer, Bamberg; and of the monasteries of Echternach, S. Maximinus and S. Nabor, and others above indicated, which it irks to name more, lest it be troublesome to the reader. But to what church the dedication of the oratory indicated on the XVI of April pertains, in the Martyrology of Ado augmented and printed after the works of Surius, we know not how to divine.
[5] The Acts are given from many MSS. Would that, as we are confirmed concerning the ancient cult of S. Gengulphus, so we were secure concerning the Acts of his life and death by some contemporary author of good faith! Those which here we give, we received from ancient MS. codices of Trier of the monasteries of S. Maximinus and S. Martin, of Weingarten in Franconia, of Florennes in the diocese of Liège, of which presently we shall treat, likewise from the codex of the Queen of Sweden marked with the number 81, and another illustrious codex of ours. The same are extant in the Charterhouse of Coblenz, in Rouge-Cloître near Brussels, and various others, which we judged not even worth the trouble to note. There are extant also, but without the Prologue and the last part from number 13 in the Legend printed at Louvain in the year MCCCCLXXXIII, and at Cologne two years after. Which last things also are lacking in Surius, who prefaces, that the style was by him here and there somewhat changed and most things rendered more compendiously. Other compendia are extant in several Breviaries of various Churches; also in Responsories, Antiphons and Hymns related, likewise in the MS. of Utrecht of S. Salvator, and in Vincent of Beauvais in the Speculum historiale book 23 chapter 159, and everywhere in more recent writers. The author of these Acts in the Preface complains, that the former Life of S. Gengulphus in a most savage persecution of the Pagans was lost; written after the irruption of the Normans, but that he some things, which through the relation of those succeeding it befell to have flowed by faithful narration, had attempted to collect and explain. Things like which again toward the end are indicated. The author of the Chronicle of Bèze at large describes the destructions of his monastery, and indicates that some happened in the year DCCCXXXI, when the Saracens destroyed the city of Autun: but he esteems a most savage one when in the year DCCCLXXXVIII the Normans, whom they had found in the monastery of Bèze monks and others left, cruelly slew. Which same persecution by the author of the Life of S. Gengulphus we judge is indicated. But that persecution ceased, when Duke Rollo obtained as wife Gisla, daughter of Charles the Simple the King, having received for dowry a part of Neustria, which from that time, namely the year DCCCCXII, began to be called Normandy. In the time of this Rollo, or rather of his son William, this Life seems written: and soon widely dispersed through the neighboring regions, came into Saxony, where dwelt Roswitha, a nun illustrious by piety and doctrine in the monastery of Gandersheim of the territory of Brunswick: who among her other lucubrations the Life of S. Gengulphus Martyr in elegiac verse composed, and adorned in verse by Roswitha in the 10th century. in two hundred and ninety distichs not inelegantly drawn out for the use of that time. This from the rest of the works, by the procuring of Conrad Celtes (who in his time was held a Poet laureate) printed at Nuremberg in the year MDI, we have caused to be copied, that to the former Life it might be appended. But because the whole historical series from that former Life is taken, lest the mass of the work too much grow, we remit the curious reader to the already indicated impression, and admonish the same that the said Roswitha flourished in the times of the second and third Ottos the Emperors, and dedicated the little works of her genius to Gerberga the Abbess constituted in the time of Ochewinus Bishop of Hildesheim, and so before the year DCCCCLXXXVI, in which this Bishop is handed down by Bruschius to have died, when he had presided over his Church fully thirty years.
[6] The sacred Relics of the Martyr Gengulphus seem, in the already said Norman devastation, to have been brought to the city of Langres, and thence distributed through various Churches. The Relics in the Church of Florennes Some of these came to the village of the dominion of the Ardennes, Geldina, where to S. Gengulphus a church was built. Hence then to the church of the town of Florennes they were carried: where Arnulphus the Toparch built for the same S. Gengulphus a church, a college of Canons being added. This place is situated in the borders of the territory of Liège, two leagues from Philippeville or Philippivilla. The son of the said Arnulphus was Gerard, about the year MXII the first Bishop of Cambrai of that name, of whom Baldric in book 3 of the Chronicle of Cambrai chapter 18 has these things: The Lord Bishop at Florennes (for reverence indeed of the place where he was born, nay even for the salvation of his father's soul) both that monastery of S. Gengulphus, which his father had left unfinished, brought to an end; and another of S. John, from his own goods and those of his brothers, founded not so much by the beauty of buildings, as by strong workmanship. But this of S. Gengulphus of Clerics, that of S. John of Monks; both, with the assent of Baldric the Bishop of Liège, in whose parish they are, he consecrated. These things there. To this monastery of S. John the fourth Abbot presided Gonzo, in religion and doctrine so illustrious, that the supreme Pontiff Leo IX did not hesitate to write thus of him: In whom because the monastic religion fully obtains its honor, it pleases me well. But Gonzo in the shrine of S. Gengulphus instituted seven Priesthoods or Canonries. The miracles of the same Saint, and the origin of the monastery he left in writings to posterity, and at length distinguished by great praise of his accomplished dignity he died. It is certain that he lived in the year MXXIX, and seems also to have lived in the year MXLIX. So Bartholomew Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège, in part 2 of the Paralipomena page 561, the ancient monuments of the monastery of Florennes being cited, communicated to him by R. Lord William de Hamaide of S. Gengulphus above cited, and chiefly the history we subjoin of the monastery founded, and of the miracles wrought there by the merits of the same Saint.
[7] Molanus observes in the Natalia of the Saints of Belgium at this XI of May, that the birthday of S. Gengulphus there on this day is celebrated, but the coming of the Relics on the sixth of August. Which however they grieve, he says, that to them in the year fifty-fourth of the preceding century either by fire or by plunder perished in the war of Henry King of the Gauls. in the year 1638 translated into Portugal: Molanus published the aforesaid Natalia in the year MDXCV: after which year one must believe the already praised Relics were restored to their pristine place and cult. Since indeed George Cardosus in the Lusitanian Hagiology, the present day from these words beginning, In the Ducal chapel of Vila Viçosa the Translation of the inestimable Relics of S. Gangulphus, concludes a prolix epitome of his life and passion in these words: His sacred body from Germany into this Kingdom translated D. Eduardus, namely the Prince of Braganza, in the year MDCXXXVIII. For when the town of Florennes, in which under his name stood the Collegiate church, the Imperial soldiers had by the violence of arms forced to surrender, and were plundering it with extortions; the most pious Prince, seeing that sacred pledge exposed to the insolence and mockery of the heretics, who kept it with no reverence cast away in a corner; wrapped it in precious cloths and translated it into Portugal, to be venerated with magnificent worship by the Catholics. And this was the fortune of the Relics of Florennes. That he obtained other notable parts from the body of the same Saint and greatly increased the cult in the diocese of Cologne already of old, is said of Philip de Heinsberg, Archbishop of Cologne elected in the year MCLXVII, dead in the year MCXCI. others in the diocese of Cologne For that he, out of singular piety toward S. Gengulphus, besides other honors dedicated to him churches in the towns of Bonn, Heinsberg, and Rade called before the wood, writes Gelenius in the Fasti of Cologne at this XI of May; at which day Theodore Rhay, in the Illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves and the neighboring provinces from the charters of the Canons of Heinsberg hands down these things: Heinsberg, no ignoble monument of Jülich, has the great athlete of Christ Gengulphus celebrated, and from Varennes by the piety of his ancestors thither translated, a frequent asylum of health to the sick inhabitants. But at Cologne in the collegiate Church of S. Gereon, and the Church of S. Catharine of the military Order of the Teutons, that some relics still of S. Gengulphus are in veneration testifies the said Gelenius in book 3 Syntagma 2 and 35.
[8] But the sacred head of S. Gengulphus by Ferdinand, uncle and predecessor of Maximilian now holding the See of Cologne, given and deposited at Eichstätt, and some part of it translated to Bamberg, this testimony which I subjoin, thence transmitted to us, attests: I Brother Ferdinand of Bolzano, of the Order of the Friars Minor Capuchins through the Tyrol, Bavaria and Franconia Minister Provincial, though unworthy, by these public letters for me and the rest of the Reverend Fathers of the Definition in our Chapter, celebrated a year ago at Braunau in Bavaria, duly and canonically gathered, give faith and holily attest, that those Relics, which to the very Reverend, most Noble and Magnificent Lords, the Provost, Dean, and the rest of the Canons of the Collegiate Church of S. Gengulphus the Martyr at Bamberg, Parts of the head at Eichstätt and Bamberg. after their manifold requisition and instance most graciously we gave as a gift, are most true and by the Reverend Father Brother Simon of Brixen, a Priest of the same our Order and then Definitor of the Province, and also Guardian and Preacher at S. Martin, at Bamberg by us for this singularly deputed, were taken or cut off from the very venerable head of the holy and most glorious Martyr of Christ Gengulphus, which whole to our new monastery of Eichstätt, together with certain other Relics, which still there with great veneration are kept, out of most singular grace most liberally offered and gave in the year one thousand six hundred twenty-seven the most Reverend and most Serene Ferdinand, Duke of both Bavarias, of the Holy Roman Empire: for the greater faith of which I subscribed these with my own hand, and fortified them with the ordinary seal of the Province. At Bamberg, on the Vigil of Corpus Christi, which was the VI day of the month of June, in the year one thousand six hundred forty. Brother Ferdinand of Bolzano, Minister provincial of the Capuchin Minors through the Tyrol, Bavaria, Franconia. Besides the cult and veneration, in the Church of S. Gengulphus among the people of Trier wont to be exhibited, Relics elsewhere. asserts Scheckmann in the Epitome or Marrow of the Deeds of Trier printed in the year MDXVII, on folio LXII, that the said Church with sacred Relics and ornaments, which pertain to divine worship, is sufficiently adorned. He adds on folio LIX that some relics of S. Gengulphus are in the church of the Preachers. That there are besides others in the Church of S. Matthias the Apostle in the high altar, and in the altar of S. Stephen, we said on the XXIV of February, where of the Relics it is treated no. 19 and 23. That at Prague also there is the lower part of the shoulder and of his cuirass, asserts Pessina, in the Diary of the Relics of Prague.
[9] Molanus in the cited Natalia of Belgium attests, that in the vernacular
Chronicles of Holland it is read, that, S. Wulfran announcing Christ to the Frisians, whether he laid the foundations of a church at Oostwoude? S. Gengulphus a Knight and Count of Burgundy, by the authority and mandate of King Pippin, cooperated with secular power, and on that account resided a whole year at Medemblik, and at the Bishop's request first laid the foundations of a Church at Oostwoude. Thus Molanus. Medemblik is a town of North Holland, on the sea which they call the Southern, two leagues and a half from Enkhuizen, and not far thence is the said village Oostwoude or Oosterwoudt. We gave the Acts of S. Wulfran at the day XX of March without any mention of S. Gengulphus or the said Church. Besides if this relation were true, not under King Pippin, but under Pippin of Herstal who died in the year DCCCIV, would S. Gengulphus have lived. But rather another of that name with S. Wulfran seems to have cooperated, or in place of Wulfran another of the companions of S. Willibrord must be substituted. In the same manner that S. Gengulphus was the brother of S. Gudila and S. Emebert Bishop of Cambrai some hand down. he is wrongly handed down as brother of S. Gudila. But as we said on the XV of January at the Life of S. Emebert no. 10, it seems an error born from the speech of the common people, that the Belgians call Gengulphus Gengoal, and Gudila Saincte Goule: and she was born of Belgian parents, he of Burgundians. Nor do they deserve to be refuted, Saussay, Ferrarius, and others, while they place Varennes in Belgium, or in the Duchy of Bourbon or in Lorraine.
LIFE
From several MS. codices
Gengulphus, Martyr at Varennes in Burgundy (S.)
BHL Number: 3328
FROM MSS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] The venerable commemoration of the most blessed Gengulphus, the distinguished Confessor of Christ, is present to be intimated in letters: which although to all living piously it is venerable and to be cultivated, yet to those is it with chief devotion to be embraced, whom affection renders the more prompt in his most worthy veneration. For he is their special Patron and sure provision, whom he protects by his merits, illustrates by his virtues: He is believed equal to the ancient Saints: who after the virtues and examples of the former saints, in the last times of the age being an imitator of them, like a most splendid beam shone in the world; and being constituted in a secular habit, preparing himself for the apprenticeship of the spiritual contest, against the temptations of the ancient enemy manfully contended; when before, as a veteran soldier and a warrior most instructed by long exercise, with the triumph of good operation, he had laureate possessed the senate of the heavenly fatherland. Truly happy, truly glorious! to whom it was granted that, the world having now slipped to outward things and very many straying from the way of truth, through the path of justice he should walk unwearied, and the citadel of faith founded upon Christ by the merit of his action should nobly raise, advance, exalt. Rightly therefore heaven possesses him equal to the other Saints, to whom while still placed on earth he was inseparably associated in mind. But of him specially is our discourse, whose whole conversation was made to the world a mirror of good works: to whom according to the Apostle to live was Christ, and to die gain; and in the flesh, as we said, less detained, in mind always in heavenly things he dwelt, desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ; and who, according to what the divine Prophet enjoined, sang a spiritual canticle to God continually on the ductile trumpet and with the voice of the horn trumpet. Philip. 1, Psal. 97 he is compared to the ductile trumpet and the horn trumpet: For the ductile trumpet, which by frequent strokes from a mass of metal is produced, designates the mortification of the flesh: and he sings to God on the ductile trumpet, who crucifies his flesh with its vices and concupiscences, who chastises his body and reduces it to servitude, that produced and thinned by heavenly disciplines it may be able to sing in concert the supernal melody. But the horn trumpet figuratively expresses the heavenly conversation: for the horn is born from the flesh; but exceeding the flesh, it deserts the fleshly softness, and perfects itself into bony firmness. On the horn trumpet therefore he sings psalms to God, who walking in the flesh wars not according to the flesh. Such was this Saint's conversation, such his whole life; holy, harmless, gracious to the heavenly ones, with faith entire, hope robust, charity diffused, lastly conspicuous with all goodness. Of whom because there is nothing that worthily enough can be said, therefore these things we briefly touch upon, and as it were draw certain lines of his conversation: because, what not without great grief of heart we say, nowhere are we able to find it written. Indeed of so great a man the acts and miracles we do not doubt to have been written: His Acts perished in the invasion of the Pagans. for it would be most inhuman, nay impious, that those things be suppressed by silence, which through His servant for the profit of many God deigned to work. But the most savage persecution of the Pagans glowing against the Church, so that, most either fleeing, or falling in slaughter, a very great rarity of Christians remained: and (as our Poet says) there was leisure in that time for the powerful to oppress, for the foremost to plunder, for private men to lose, for the wretched to weep. And in this manner, as also of the other just Saints, so also the life of this Blessed one, of whom we speak, Gengulphus, it befell to be lost; while each one thought rather how he might rescue his life from death now and now imminent, than in guarding and producing books give his effort. And therefore, what in his primal age he did, or what temptations of the devil he bore, we do not fully know: but those things which secretly to us through the relation of those succeeding it befell by faithful narration to have flowed. Of all which a certain brief little corpus collecting, the things which of the Saint are known to us, aided by his own prayers we will attempt to explain.
CHAPTER I.
His birth, education, marriage, hunts, military service, the miraculous translation of a fountain.
[2] So the man of the Lord Gengulphus, from a high seed of parents and the nobility of proud blood in Burgundy was sprung, Burgundian by birth, and in the disciplines of the Christian doctrine by his parents excellently instructed was. Who while still a little boy and adorned with the form of an illustrious nature, piously educated, was accustomed to be present at the frequent gatherings of the pious; and receiving the honeycombs of divine eloquence from their mouth, to ruminate the Catholic sayings, and into the belly of memory to transfer them, he did not cease: so that in his tender breast you might discern impressed the image of sanctity: he is imbued with sacred studies: and although he was clothed in a secular toga, b yet the scriptures of the ecclesiastical norm with a thirsting breast he unceasingly drank in. He was being instructed indeed by the hidden judgment of divinity, lest anything less of perfection should afterward be in the most blessed man. For he was reverend in countenance, affable in address, prudent in work, eloquent in mouth, in all the honesty of his manners illustrious. The playful spectacles of the irreligious nonetheless spurning as the depths of an abyss, he avoids depraved conversations: obscene talk of young men he was zealous to avoid, which the purity of the soul is wont with its enticements to defile: and not a deaf hearer of the Evangelical admonition, the cunning of serpentine prudence retaining, of dove-like simplicity the meekness he did not lose. And soon as the amplitude of estates, in which he abounded too much, and the census of patrimony yielded to his dominion; how much toward the needy a bountiful dispenser he was it is not within our power to relate. For according to the example of B. Job, he was an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame, and his door lay open to the wayfarer. Job 29
[3] Thereafter, the bounds of youth being run through, when he had passed into the strength of virile age, he takes a wife he obtains a like-born wife. Who although she was sprung of most noble birth, yet was unlike in manners, as afterward the text of our narration will show. Whom therefore the hidden Arbiter permitted, as we reckon, to be degenerate, that she might experience the praise of the blessed man's patience, and the innocent man's simplicity be proved: by which he so strove to conceal the merits of his virtues, that by those who are ready to envy the good, with great patience by his exercise: he was said by a certain inertia of soul to be torpid. To hunting moreover he was wont to give his effort, because his estates, in which he was accustomed to dwell before the rest, were thick with woods, and abounded with diverse kinds of wild beasts: which even today the place demonstrates, where the remains of his sacred c body are held d laid up, wooded with forests. If anyone therefore is moved, he gives his effort to hunting: why so great and such a man would have wished to spend the expenditure of his labor very often in these occupations; let him know for certain, that there are certain businesses, which if anyone exercise with a simple mind, he will thence be subject to no detriment of good conversation. There are also those which can scarcely or in no way without sin be exercised, as we read in the Gospel that the blessed Apostle Peter, after his calling, and the passion of the Saviour and the resurrection, the acts of the world being now spurned and the glory of the world abjured, sweated at fishing; but Matthew, after his election, never sat again in the businesses of the toll-booth. For it is one thing (as B. Gregory says) to seek sustenance through fishing, another to augment money by the gains of the toll-booth. Hom. 24 in Euang. So also this blessed Gengulphus beloved of God, adorned with the other ensigns of virtues; lest by idleness he should be torpid (because idleness enervates virtues and ministers nourishment to vices, and idleness is an enemy of the soul) lest by sloth he should be rendered sluggish, for the sake of exercise the lairs of wild beasts to go around, and them either by the sagacity of dogs to capture or by the knots of nets to strive to ensnare.
[4] under Pippin he exercises military service: At that time Pippin was strenuously governing the kingdom of the Franks: to whom this holy man joined by military office served. Which Pippin, before he was distinguished with royal fasces, was therefore surnamed Mayor of the Palace, because those who adhered to the palace and through the provinces gave laws, with his counsel administered the helms of the kingdom which were to be conducted. He this most blessed man, of whom we speak, Gengulphus, deputed among the bravest of his army: because he was keen in spirit, strong in strength, strenuous in arms, and most instructed in all military exercise. Of which thing the sign makes manifest his notable armor, which even today is preserved in the church, dedicated in his honor and name, which his most sacred presence illustrates: where there are laid up a helmet, cuirass, sword, and his bracers. Who although outwardly of such arms he seemed to have the defenses, yet inwardly in his breast shone most invincible arms, namely the helmet of faith, the impregnable breastplate of justice, the shield of equity, and the sword of the word of God, which the secrets of his mind by sharpening with a wondrous and penetrating edge had illustrated f.
[5] At a certain time therefore, an expedition being performed in the Royal service, when he attempted to return to his fatherland; it befell him to make his journey through places, which the Franks g Champagne call; because there are there long intervals of land, Returning home not at all thick with foliage nor wooded with glades. And when on a certain day from the journey he sought a turning-aside with his men, that he might take h breakfast, and relieve the hunger of the horses by the accustomed pasture, he came to a certain fountain, which poured forth pure and clear waters. Which place seemed apt for the desired refreshment both for himself and for his animals, because there were also there grasses of herbs. And when that they might take food they had sat down together, a little man on whose little estate these things were done arrived: and the blessed man, as he was full of charity, invited him to eat together. Thereafter during dinner the athlete of God Gengulphus addresses the new guest, that the fountain, on
whose margin they had sat, he buys the fountain found on the way at an appraised price to himself he should sell. Hearing these things he began silently to deride him; not considering the purity of his innocence, but on account of stupidity supposed it was said by him. And he began within himself i to devise that both should yield to him, both that he could retain the quantity of the price, and (because it could not be transmuted from place to place) the fountain for the rest to possess. For that covetous possessor of the fountain did not advert in mind, that in the servant of God shone that power, which the Lord promised to the Apostles, nay through the Apostles to the rest of the faithful, saying; Amen I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not have hesitated in his heart, but shall have believed; whatsoever he shall say, it shall be done for him. Matt. 21 What more? The quantity of a hundred shillings the most blessed one ordered to be given to the seller of the fountain. Meanwhile, all things being performed which were necessary for refreshment, the horses being mounted he was zealous to take up with his men the begun journey. And the interval of roads being passed over he came to the dwellings of his own property, constituted in the place which is called Varennes, where also now the Church of the Saint himself is held. Then to his wife, who had already the bond of the joined wedlock unlawfully, he himself being ignorant, defiled, and to his wife, who had laughed at the deed, all that he had done he related, and the sum of the price which for the above-said fountain he had given to her he indicated. Then she, as she was slippery in mind, and labored to pervert by a sinister interpretation whatever had been done by him; secretly her own husband as pressed by dullness, and prodigally dispensing his own by complaining began to lament, and that nothing of utility could be perceived from this which he had bought so dear.
[6] In those days for the sake of visiting the places contiguous to his house going around, the staff which he carried in his hand he fixed in the ground, he displays at Varennes, and leaving it returned. The next day when he had risen in the morning, water for washing the hands and face was lacking. Then that Saint, full of faith, to one of his ministers ordered, that he should go quickly, and the said staff fixed in the ground should pull out, and the water which should follow as quickly as possible for washing should carry back. And soon the servant, obeying the commands of him commanding, as he lifted the wood from the earth, straightway the greatest abundance of waters from the inmost bowels of the earth flowed forth; and the pristine color, which it had had in the place whence by divine power it had been transmuted, as if representing it, showed: since indeed it is natural to the fountains of that region, that they retain a whitish color, according to the quality of the soil whence they seem to arise. So the avaricious hope of the covetous seller k was deprived of the fountain, which he esteemed to be possessed: for never afterward in the place, where it was before, was water seen to flow. Thine are, O Lord Jesus Christ, these works, who once through the vast wilderness, from the hardness of the rock, madest abundant streams to flow forth, whence Thou didst satisfy the thirsty breasts of the Israelite people. salutary to the sick. Which fountain even today most healthfully overflows, through the suffrages of B. Gengulphus; and the divine power thence affords the greatest benefits of health to the languishing.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The wife abandoned for adultery. Death inflicted by the adulterer. The vengeance of these. The miracles of the Saint.
[7] These things being thus run through, the aforesaid woman, rejoined to the blessed man's wedlock, by the suasion of the ancient serpent, who in paradise seduced Eve by malign fraud, enticed by the love of a certain Cleric, did not fear to stain herself by a nefarious commixture. But this Cleric is not to be named, but a perfidious apostate, who from the way of justice and from the lot of God by straying had deviated, and against the Saint of God to commit such things for nothing he held with an obstinate mind. And first this was done secretly: thereafter spread through the mouths of many, to the hearing of this Saint, of whom we speak, at last it came. But when to the ears of his sanctity such a report of iniquity was brought, he began diverse thoughts to revolve in his doubtful mind. For often it clung to his heart, that he should not allow her longer to live; lest frequently rolled in the mire of this slough, the honor of his nobility she should dishonor with the grave foulness of infamy. But if he should condemn her to death, made guilty of homicide, the innocence of his past life with the blemish of another's crime he would stain; not unmindful of the Scripture, which says: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Deut. 32 By these and tumults of such thoughts wearied, he judged that this was to be reserved to the judgment of God, who leaves nothing unavenged, except what by the remedy of penitence has been blotted out.
[8] On a certain day therefore, his faithful ones being implicated in diverse functions of services, with his wife alone the bounds of a certain estate of his by surveying he undertook to go around. But when there was a coming to a certain fountain of water, the same woman with such words he was zealous to address; Many things, he said, O wife, harmful concerning thee and horrid to be told everywhere through all the crossroads are spread abroad, which are contrary to thy birth, and it is unknown whether they are true or false. Then she after a womanly manner began with manifold oaths to asseverate, he provokes to the judgment of God in water: that she was detracted by all unjustly, and was never infected by the contagion of the pollution alleged. Then he; The providence, he said, of God, from whom no hidden things lie concealed, will give sure signs of the demonstration of the denied thing. Behold a fountain placed in the open, which beyond measure cold the chill frost makes not, nor too fervent makes the fervid heat: put in therefore thy hand, and a pebble without delay draw out placed in its depth: but God, who is the knower of hidden things, who knows all things before they are done, if it is so as thou assertest, will suffer none that thou bear calumny: but if by the cloud of falsity thy sentence remains veiled, He will not long permit thy wickedness to lie hidden from sign. She, the words of the man of God reputing for inertia as also the rest, and convicted by it without ambiguity did not fear to put her hand into the water: and soon as touching the pebble she drew back her hand to herself, straightway by the manifest power of God you might see all the skin of the hand, and the arm, as much of it as the wave touched, to recede, so that on the tips of the fingers hanging flesh you might discern with the skin laid bare.
[9] O whoever marvels at these things, attend how much human things are distant from the supernal judgments. He full of faith committed all things to the judgment and power of God; she subject to vanity, and placing her hope not at all in God, who beholds all things, paid the penalties of her presumption and falsehood. You might discern her from astonishment in a manner in all her limbs to have stiffened, and by the manifest demonstration of God taken, nothing other than the imminent destruction to herself to be present she suspected. Then he; I had wished, he said, if thou hadst kept the faith due, and hadst walked in the law of God, all the dangers of the world with thee to bear: whatever prosperous, whatever adverse had befallen, he exhorts to penitence, strength being conferred with thee to sustain, together patiently to live, together delightfully to die. Therefore because in these crimes to involve thyself thou didst not fear, of death indeed thou wert worthy, but in no way shalt thou be slain by my hands. And because there is not in the hand of man his life, but in His who with tranquillity judges all things; to His judgment I judge thee to be reserved. And if indeed fruits worthy of penitence thou doest, indulgence from Him thou shalt be able to obtain: but if to these businesses an end thou impose not, with the author of thy perversity the devil with the fires of gehenna thou shalt be burned. and she being abandoned departs. Finally that which to thee in the marriage-contract by right of dowry I gave, that thou mayst be able to live, have it: for henceforth never shalt thou enjoy my sight. So making an end of his words, his men being called together, and his vehicles being mounted, he sought estates placed afar in the territory of a Avalum; giving himself to the works of piety and mercy, and no time empty of his accustomed goodness passing over.
[10] Meanwhile that unhappy woman, going to the possession granted to her by the blessed man, now as if free using power, with that detestable Cleric the unspeakable crimes of luxury to perpetrate she did not omit. Fearing therefore, lest perchance B. Gengulphus kindled with the zeal of wrath should slay them both with a sudden destruction, with all endeavor they began to devise, that in whatever way to him they might inflict death. Then that Cleric, by the fury of his mind agitated, alien from God and made a vessel of the devil, the places in which the same servant of God dwelt, he is atrociously wounded by the adulterer, impatient of all delay, with a savage mind strove to attack. And because he very well knew his secret dwellings, and there was no entrance which lay not open to his knowledge; latently he was zealous to await the time, in which the services of the servants should be lacking, and the hour in which lying on the bed and by sleep
pressed he might have been able to find him, that to him secretly inflicting death he might free escape. Which also so it befell; for as the time apt for the sacrilege and his crime he saw, entering his bedchamber, the sword which was contiguous to his head b he seized, and it being drawn from the sheath that he might cut off the head of the sleeping man, while he poised his hand on high, the Athlete of God awakened from the bed wished to leap forth. And although the neck of the Saint he had preferred to reach, yet otherwise it befell: because while the blessed man was zealous to decline the stroke of the striker to one side, the point of the blade fallen into his hip a grave wound inflicted. But that profane one delaying nothing, the crime being perpetrated, the sword from his hand casting away, hastened lest he be caught went out, and in swift course mounting his steed swiftly fled. So Gengulphus the holy servant of God survived some days: and fortified with the sacred viaticum dies: and soon as he felt the last term of his life now and now imminent to himself, his departure with the sacraments of the Lord's Body and Blood he fortified: and the courses of the present age being manfully completed, by a happy passage also long desired, S. Gengulphus migrated to the Lord: and then, to say truly, he ceased to die and to live began; and stripped of the world's darkness, with heavenly brightness was clothed. But now he assists the countenance of God almighty, receiving from His hand the first stole, of the soul I mean the incorruption and undefective blessedness; but he awaits the double stole, when, the body being resumed at the end of the world, of flesh and soul together he shall rejoice in the immortality.
[11] But his two aunts c Willetrudis and Willegisa, who constituted in the place of his possession above named Varennes, by the care of the aunts he is buried at Varennes: in the studies of sanctimony and chastity served, having learned the blessed man's death, the orders of the Clerics being taken and a frequency of religious apparatus being assembled, accompanying nevertheless no small crowd of people, where his lifeless body had been placed they hastened to make speed: and so thence elevated with the cross-bearing and tapers, with the melody of divine hymns, to the aforesaid place with miracles coruscating it was carried: and he was buried by the very handmaids of God in his own basilica, dedicated in the honor of the prince of Apostles Peter, whom a twin affection divided in different ways; since they knew that for him there should be rejoicing, for themselves grieving; for his glorification rejoicing together, for their own desolation groaning. About which place the Saint of God, before he departed from life, with so great benevolence and liberality poured himself forth, that with the highest love he always dwelt there, and all the possession of his estates there allotted, that necessary revenues might be able to have those who there served. And because it was wrong that with worldly darkness a starry lamp should be clouded, he shines with miracles. and the Truth itself that a city placed upon a mountain cannot be hidden testified; for the common utility of all and profit, it pleased the Divine power that this Saint of His by the exhibition of virtues should become known and divulged to all: that whom with Himself He had glorified in heaven, among men He might magnify in the world.
[12] What vengeance meanwhile followed the persecutors of the Saint, it is not incongruous to insert in this narration. The adulterer is punished by a foul and sudden death For the aforesaid Cleric, whom we said, after the crime perpetrated to have taken flight, to that woman hateful to God flew with a swift running, as if about to announce the greatest joy of the contagion of the committed crime, not knowing that to himself a sudden destruction was imminent. For after by the dance of foolish gladness they applauded themselves, that he might purge his belly he sought the retreat of the privies: and soon as he sought the retiring-place to pay the debt of nature, after the manner of Judas the betrayer and Arius the heresiarch (of whom the one the humanity of Christ to extinguish, the other the inseparable unity of the Trinity strove to divide) his bowels were poured out: and as he was empty of sense, so empty also of belly he remained: and so the unhappy one, the space of repenting being denied to him, descended into the cloaca of hell. But that shameless woman, to what penalty she was subject, it is not unfitting, although horrible to be told, to insert in this page. For the servant of God having entered the way of all flesh, through the places, by which the clod of his sacred body was carried, much the ineffable piety of God bestowed through his merit on the peoples benefits. And when to the receiving of the bountiful gifts of this desired bounty a copious frequency of no small people came together, on every side were diffused the ensigns of his prodigies. Then one of those, who seemed to serve as handmaids to the aforesaid woman among the maidens, running swiftly to the Lady, brought this in: The body of Lord Gengulphus is being borne to the cave of the sepulchre to be entombed, which imparts the greatest joys of health. the adulteress to perpetual reproach. But she, raving with furious madness, said: Gengulphus works virtues just as does my anus. At once as this nefarious voice went out from her throat, from the hidden part of her body an obscene sound proceeded. That day on which these things were done the Christian people have been wont to call the sixth feria. To such indeed afterward was she subject to reproach, that through all the time of her life, as many words as on that day she uttered, so many reproaches as it were proceeded from that part of the body, to which the man of God's miracles to liken she did not fear. Of which thing the report so was divulged through the confines of the whole kingdom, that the aforesaid King Pippin, through the same places making a passage, sent some for the sake of inquiring, who all these things might investigate, whether they were true: which confirmed by truth proving, to the King and the Nobles, what by hearing and sight they had learned, faithfully they were zealous to intimate d.
[13] Nor idly is it to be passed over, by those to whom signs and miracles are so pleasing, that they think nothing pleases God except what their exhibition has commended, when He rather requires the merit of life than the effect of corporal signs. For as the Evangelical Poet says:
The good merit ceasing, miracles are nothing, Which often the wicked do.
And the Lord Himself taught the Apostles, that from Him not signs and miracles; but meekness they should learn and humility: saying, Learn from me that I am meek and humble of heart. Wherefore even if of B. Gengulphus the miracles, which placed in the body he wrought, Although Miracles in his life do not survive, we do not read; not therefore is he to be held unequal to the other Saints, to whom equal in faith and sanctity that he was we do not doubt. But also this is to be said, that if even the miracles which by himself he did we are somewhat ignorant of, yet because the examples of the Saints toward the studies of spiritual exercise to be imitated he followed, we know. And indeed we do not doubt, that he many while he lived did virtues: but either by the sluggish negligence of writers they are not delivered to letters (which thing not least to the praises of the Saints very often brought detriment) or certainly, if any of his works were sure, either by the rot of long antiquity they grew old, or in the time of unhappiness, the monasteries and churches being depopulated, and all things overthrown and lost, they nevertheless came to nothing: since men in every direction fleeing, and consulting only for themselves and their own life, and having no care of guarding archives. Let him therefore say who will that no miracles in his life existed of him, from his death innumerable were done, provided he know that he now dead did innumerable and does daily signs of miracles. For God, who from eternity by His wisdom all things preordained, and them from the secret of divine counsel brought forth in places and times visibly manifests; His most acceptable servant at that time chiefly by miracles He willed to illustrate, when, the wrestling of all temptations being overcome, it was right for the just to exult in the Lord, and a secure laudation befitted the upright, nor any longer thence the elation of praise was to be feared. These things briefly we have written for the memory of the most holy Confessor of the Lord Gengulphus, judging it unworthy that so great and such a man should be confined by the knot of silence, and not to the society of the highest light and way and truth and life borne forth, of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns and is blessed, in every kind, place and time, now and through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
HISTORY OF MIRACLES
done at Florennes.
By the Author Gonzo Abbot of Florennes From the MS. of Florennes.
Gengulphus, Martyr at Varennes in Burgundy (S.)
BHL Number: 3330
THROUGH GONZO ABBOT FROM A MS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] By the merits of Gengulphus, O Doctor Spirit, be present, Breathing on my mind, grant my tongue to run to praise, And my polluted lips for thee, O Saint, cleanse; That I may resound through thee, O Gengulphus, what thou thyself doest. Say to my heart, So, so; suggest to the tongueless, Say, say. They are from thee, they resound through thee, all things overflow with thee, Thee also I beseech, * O Sacred One, appease Gengulphus for me, I pray. And thou Saint of God, of whom in few words I have undertaken to write, To the Holy Spirit reconcile the sinful one, And to thee, or to all the Saints, whom I have ill offended: Nor be indignant, that by so small a one thou art recounted: For the leaden pipe makes sweet waters flow. Nor are good things depraved, if by a worthless one they are recounted. For the Sibyl tells the time of Christ to come. Let anyone not see who I shall have spoken, but what I shall have spoken. The trappings of words being conquered with their simple train, I a little rustic note down, what the future scribe shall dictate. O Martyr dear to the wretched, now have mercy on me, In word, heart, hand, always sinning, and in act, In hooded garb, alas! conforming to the world. Greatly infirm through thee I hope to be relieved, Trusting in thee, such as I am, behold I begin.
Annotation* that is, the Mother of God
CHAPTER I.
The Relics of S. Gengulphus brought to Florennes. His veneration and miracles there.
[2] To the mother Churches everywhere in the lands the least of them, the Church of Florennes, grace and peace of the divine Majesty. By a more excellent life most reverend Mothers of the Church, by a like faith most beloved Sisters, I beseech, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together: the immensely great Lord, who magnifies among us the Blessed Gengulphus, magnify with me: His wonderful name, which by the assiduous joyfulness of miracles exalts His Saint, The Relics are borne forth from the church of Geldina: let us with dancing exalt with the gratulation of praises. Of this B. Gengulphus the daily ensigns of miracles among us, which if he still lived, that most swift Thespis the Poet to record would not suffice one by one; yet few from many beginnings of many we summarily relate. In the village of the Ardennes, the farm a Geldina of S. Gengulphus, was held a church: in which of that Saint, as also everywhere, were made wonderful the relics: to which church a Priest, by name
Reinoldus, served: but the Count Godfrey of Grisomont, by right of hereditary territory possessed it. But a vehement dissension having arisen between them, that Priest departing, took with him the Relics of the Saint; and coming into a farm by name b Villeriacum, behind the altar of the church in his coffer, no one knowing, enclosed them. There a certain old woman was, who in offering the oblations ministered to the Priest. To her then a certain old man, very often appearing in a vision, was importunate, saying: Go, tell Reinoldus, that he take me from that coffin in which he placed me. Who not knowing what it was, when now the most frequent admonition became to her a weariness, addressing the Priest, said to him jestingly: Whom, I pray, hast thou placed, I know not where, who so importunely asks to be taken thence?
[3] At that time c Arnulphus, son of Alpaidis and Godfrey Count of the territory of Hainaut, ruled at Florennes: who as much for military severity, as for the religion dear to him, by all was reverently feared, and fearfully reverenced. There were with him dwelling together three sons, Deposited at Florennes they shine with miracles, not degenerate, but already then as could be taking after their father, and after his death by the intention of mind celibate. To the father of these, whom we said, Arnulphus, of the Relics of S. Gengulphus Reinoldus intimated: which carrying to Florennes, in the church of S. Matthew within his castle at his request he placed. Which while they were there in the months March and April, and around the vicinity many weak and infirm were held; a certain one of unknown face to each of them in a vision came, and that to Florennes for recovering health they should go admonished: who both credulous flowed together, and sound returning this marvel published abroad. Then the Priest aforesaid, began to open to all, that by S. Gengulphus' merits these things were done and by his prayers: of whom there he had himself a pledge. Meanwhile his martyrdom day approaching, the same Priest began to the aforesaid Arnulphus to supplicate, that it might be lawful for him that day, the Relics being carried out of the castle, to solemnize. Whose petition by the religious man as it is granted, a pavilion in the midst of the field is stretched out, and two stages on either side are composed, where the wonderful pledge is disposed to be placed.
[4] There was then in the farm d Rolceas a man, by name Boso, for a long time so contracted with a paralytic disease, a paralytic is healed: that with his limbs dead, living, for the use of life he was torpidly useless. To him on the night before the vigil of the solemnity sleeping a certain one stood, and thus speaking out: Go to Florennes to the feast day of S. Gengulphus: there will be lessened the weariness of thy languor. By which good hearing in the morning roused, and now and now by credulous hope lightened, he asked an ass for his bearer to be saddled: little stools, by which he might approach the ass, he begged to be given him. But because the servant delaying he had them not at all, from the bed he snatched himself, leaning on his staff he went to mount the ass, upon which he asked to be lifted. But straightway returned into himself, he said: Because by S. Gengulphus' merits from my little bed to the ass even I could come by walking, in trust of the same now I will try, whether this journey without an ass I can complete. What more? The journey he takes up on foot, and with his staff to Florennes he came: the Clerics carrying the Relics of the Saint with praises to the prescribed little dwelling he meets: what it is he asks, asking he is taught, taught he rejoices, joyful he follows, following he enters the tent, having entered he carries a candle, carrying to light it he seeks, lighted to the Saint to offer he intends. But not yet there was fire, not yet was a lamp of service. What more? the candle of its own accord is lighted. By the people standing around who had come while it is beheld, while it is attended to, without the help of fire in his hands the candle is kindled, kindled it is fixed to the candlestick, fixed to the Martyr's honor it serves. Then in His Saint the wonderful God is praised: by His God magnified the Saint is exalted. How beautifully there the miracles are begun! How manifestly the divine majesty declares, that to it will be acceptable the little gifts of vows, which to His Saint there the arriving of the people shall have vowed! There are also other joyful miracles done there that day: which because they are many are reserved to be interspersed with the rest to be told.
[5] a church is built. But seeing the cultivator of religion Arnulphus, that His Saint there the Lord wished to be honored; the glorious celebrity of him in the tent being performed, straightway a church to his honor in that very place he built: by Nothero the Pontiff he had it consecrated: which afterward the Lord Abbot f Werricus enlarged. But hearing the aforesaid Godfrey that so many and so great miracles there were done, and grieving that his church and himself of so great honor were deprived, Reinoldus the Priest being called blandly and craftily, the interrupted favor he hastens to repair. To whom giving many things, promising more ample, this from him of promise exacted the faith, that the Relics' honor taken away from him he should restore. Which Priest with this intention while to Florennes he was tending, that by stealth the same Relics he might recover; in the article of this beginning suddenly seized by a trouble of body, by death not lame in the midst of the journey he was forestalled.
[6] There was present then Gerard, son of the aforesaid Arnulphus, a reverend Cleric of the Church of Reims, afterward of the Cambraisians by God appointed g Bishop: by whose salutary admonition all things his father did. He from Reims bringing the Relics of many Saints to his father, that for them he should build a church suggested to him: by whose exhortation this to do he deliberated, but by the closing of life forestalled he died: and, God disposing, by his sons within the old church of S. Martin he is buried. His devotion which he had deliberated of building a church by his sons is sought to be perfected: but to the honor of what Saint by name it should be done, is doubted. then to the same place are borne the Relics of S. John the Baptist, Gerard knew that the blessed John the Baptist had appeared to a devout man, complaining that a church was not made to him, as to many other Saints in the Bishopric of Liège. There came on a certain day without any occasion to the Clerics of Reims the intention, that the Relics of their Saints in that, in which long they were, they should inspect coffin. To this tremendous work Richard, then a religious Canon of the same church, afterward made Father of many monks, is sought: sought before the same Relics in the crypt praying he is found: found he is summoned, summoned this work he undertakes, undertaking each thing with his eyes he scrutinizes, scrutinizing the junctures of the thumbs of S. John the Baptist with a little brief finding, he contemplates: contemplating so unhoped-for a pledge he marvels, marveling he gratulates; which to the venerable Gerard returned from Florennes, to him in spiritual friendship unique, he intimated: and he to him unpremeditated straightway thus said: Give me of the junctures one, and I a Congregation ecclesiastical to his honor will make: which soon from him as he obtained, to Florennes with so great a treasure he tended.
[7] honored by the miracle of the unextinguished candle On a certain night on the very journey in a certain meadow him to lie it befell: who, the darkness coming on, to one of his Clerics enjoining, said: Go and a kindled light before the Relics place. There began now the blowing of winds to arise, and the sky for rain to be clouded. To whom the Cleric when wondering he replied, that in vain among the winds a light he would place, as from his mouth I learned, these words he brought to the Cleric wondering: He, whose these Relics are, because a lamp he is of the world burning and shining, let us do him service befitting: which if it please him, to behold this lamp it will not be impossible. What more? The candle the Cleric kindles, under the bare air before the lamp of the world he sets it. So great force of winds and showers then came on, and the whole night until morning held, that by the protection of shields no one was able himself to defend. But that light neither by the winds wavered, nor by the shower drenched is extinguished. Then at dawn rising, and that lamp admiring, the journey prospered, to Florennes they came. But the religious Gerard the church which he had vowed to build hastened to construct: in which the coming Nativity of the Lord with his Clerics he celebrated h. And because the work was still unfinished and uncultivated, the sacred Relics he laid up within the wall.
[8] There was then there a certain simple man, nor to the world given, and monks there are constituted. by name Amalricus, to S. Gengulphus' service intent, who on a certain night after Matins keeping vigil, and toward the church of S. John looking, sees a fiery column from the place, where the holy were Relics, even to heaven stretched out. Which the morning being come to the Lord Gerard he faithfully related; and he to me afterward Bishop narrated. But lest to anyone that should seem incredible, that of S. John no Relics except the Head are held; the Ecclesiastical history relates, that when his most holy bones to the fire would impose Julian the Apostate, two monks were present, who by a laudable theft the joints and the smaller things they could snatched away. But the venerable Gerard understanding that to so great a Saint and to the highest of Saints the highest religion of the Ecclesiastical order befitted, the canonical which there before he had established conversation he eliminated, substituting the monastic order.
[9] So at Florennes S. Gengulphus of the Forerunner of the Lord was made a forerunner: so that place, since it was before arid and poor in Clergy, the miracles are written from sure knowledge. through the merits of the Saints to the fertility of the land and to monastic habits was increased. Here therefore innumerable by S. Gengulphus' merits were done and are done miracles, which as much for their inestimable frequency as for the writers' poverty in great part fall away from memory: of which those which I write either I myself saw, or from those by whom they were seen, or from those in whom they were done, truly I heard. Which since they are many and daily are augmented and will be augmented, very many with succinct facility are to be run through, for which things done or to be done be to God, glorious in His Saints, honorable praise, and laudable honor.
ANNOTATIONS.
to have been increased by Alpais Countess of Hugarde, a woman excelling in religion. These things from the archive of S. Paul: and the times agree very well. But all these things we propose to be further discussed by learned men.
CHAPTER II.
The blind, paralytics, and other sick cured. The injurious punished.
[10] A certain little boy, Geruinus by name, by a pain of the teeth was so tortured, the pain of the teeth is cured. that of his life in every way there was despair: for whom his mother two candles to the measure of his head made: with which carrying the boy in her arms, to the Relics of the Saint, while they still were in the pavilion, she came. And when before the altar she stood anxious for her son's anxiety; in her hand was kindled divinely one of the candles, and so from then and afterward no such suffering did the little boy's jaw feel.
[11] sleep is reconciled: The same boy now become a youth, a monk, by a grave infirmity pressed to his bed, sleepless spent nights and days three weeks. And when now the keenness of his eyes grew dull, and his whole body by this long wakefulness grew raw; from a certain one, who had come to visit him, he asked two penny-worths of wax, which by the same for the anguish with which he labored upon the altar of S. Gengulphus he had carried. Which when it was done, straightway by a most pleasant slumber he is cherished, and the humors of the body by his own fire are recooked; and, as he is still wont to say, from then and afterward so he is able to slumber, as if daily by the Styx, b the river of slumber, as they say, inebriated, or with soporific poppy saturated.
[12] From the snare of this death this same one extricated, a sharper kind of mortality he incurs again. from a long malady of the throat unable to eat, he convalesces. For through three weeks the bed of infirmity he kept, nor any kind of food at all could he swallow: for the pain of the whole body as if coming together into one, the place of the throat besieged, and to the taking of food the entrance denied. And when now by a wasting failure, the flesh being consumed, the bones clung to the skins; he asked that the Relics of the Saint being washed in water, thence to him drink should be given. Which being done when not yet he was relieved, but to death he was thinned; the rest despairing of his life, he himself, confidence from the merits and piety of S. Gengulphus being resumed, the Relics of him to himself he asked to be brought, and on the prevailing disease to be placed. Which being brought when the place of the most pertinacious pest was encircled, as the same Brother was wont to relate to us, as it were a most heavy rock burst he felt to fall from the place of the throat. Who soon to the bystanders and to him gravely suffering piously compassionate; Run, he said, for God's name, run most quickly: what I may eat bring: because to me hunger so great so much presses, that unless straightway I be refreshed it will impose death again upon me. Meanwhile, the Brethren of the kitchen hastening, insisting, and the keepers carrying the Relics back to the church, to him assisting suddenly cries out the moribund one: Run, run after the sacred pledge: bring back I pray my medicine. For death fleeing from the throat, behold returned prevails in the belly. Then the sacred Relics in haste are brought back, and with them the diseased belly is encircled: by whose salutary touch the dead languor, from the whole body vanishes utterly: and straightway the foods brought in that Brother attacks, so hungering and avid as if by the gravest and long labor wearied. So often by the assault of death thus snatched, this one, at length in a short time convalesces.
[13] An Evangelical miracle is renewed for us, the old likewise is made new, and as that then was marveled at, so this now an admirable one is venerated. One born blind there by the Lord is enlightened, how from birth one blind by B. Gengulphus' merits here was enlightened, let it be heard. A certain little girl in a certain hamlet was, by name c Ivium, contiguous to the vicinity of Florennes: her the mother's womb made heavy with an opportune fetus, a blind girl is enlightened, into the light of the world without light and with empty orbs poured forth. Whose natural imperfection through several years the parents with the neighbors condoling, of her recovery now did not even think, distrustful: and so by the blindness of one head, the eyes of faith were blinded in many. Meanwhile is made to come round the grateful recurrence of the time, on which yearly of the most lovable Martyr Gengulphus came the birthday, by the sick and weak expectably desired, and desirably expected. There is then a meeting and concourse from far and near; votive gifts abundantly are heaped for the Saint, by the troubled always invoked into their vows, always ready to succor. The dwellers also of the aforesaid hamlet for his feasts preparing themselves, to the parents of the girl hope began to grow, that her to the Saint's clemency they ought to bring. So that night, which preceded the vigil of the Saint rushing on, with faith and hope as companions to sleep they give themselves and their limbs. Now the night's veil by the next light scattered, when the stars grow thin, when the pole rising the dawn empurples; the girl awaking receives the morning of the coeval night, sees the morning of mundane light; and straightway from the eyes closed by long darkness, by the impulse of light the windows lying open, the black color is exiled, light foreign rebounds. Which girl through the wall, to which she lay near, with the new light scanning: What, she said, crying out to her mother, do we lying tarry, when now the neighboring goes the people? To whom, how she knew, when the mother cried back; Not by sleep, she said, that deceitful, but by sight I see with my pupil. Soon both parents rising most quickly, the offspring placed before their eyes about this thing certify themselves of the truth: and mutual festive congratulation being made, to Florennes they hasten for thanksgiving to be rendered. Which not by the opinion of report, but by the presentation of the deed, by the Clergy and people on the feast day of the holy Martyr is recognized, and in the divine praises celebratedly extolled.
[14] A certain boy, by name Arnulphus, in the monastery of S. John, which is at Florennes, now a monk, by the eating of worms was so weakened, that as much to himself as to others he seemed moribund. For of his cheeks and gullet so the living worms had invaded the places, the malady of the worms is taken away. that swarming densely their heads visibly bubbled up. Nor was there delay, nor rest: but the bones also biting through, perforating, the flesh also putrefying foully, the workshops of eating by their intolerable eating they snatched away from that hungering one. What should he do? and what refuge should he seek? Already S. Gengulphus upon this often was sought, nor yet had the grave disease subsided. But it is to be believed that S. Gengulphus that pest by graver prevailing awaited, that at length more wonderfully he might deign to heal. For that little boy already afflicted unto death, and by mortal anguish constrained, asked the Saint's Relics in haste to be brought, and the place of the brooding death to be encircled. Which being done you might discern straightway the rotten flesh with its worms so to die and be torn away, as if a most sharp razor deeply impressed it had befallen to be applied. Which before all dead and falling, straightway both then and afterward the boy convalesced, but the signs of this thing in his flesh he still showed.
[15] Radbod d Count of the Namurois, hearing daily innumerable peoples from everywhere to Florennes to flow together, and the solaces sought to bring back; Count Radbod for blasphemy punished, repenting is healed, began them of stupidity to accuse, that with so great zeal a man such they should strive to seek. For he said, that he had been a Pagan, nor could at all anyone help. And when for this most false opinion of his his own and to himself neighboring, lest to him they should go, by threats he had begun to deter, nor could he so check them; he ordered the ways diligently to be watched, and the comers with dire scourges applied, what they should carry to plunder. From such evil works when he did not recall his mind the unbelieving Count, suddenly in his sound body an all-kind fever furiously rages, and even to his marrows penetrating revels. Then you might discern him by such an enemy prostrated, by heats baked, by colds congealed, with teeth to gnash, hands to twist, arms and legs hither and thither to throw, foods to loathe and reject, nights and days sleepless to spend, and all the thousand-formed kinds of that death importunely to sustain. So now to death near, thus himself to accuse he began groaning. Deservedly, he said, these things I suffer, justly thus I am smitten, who S. Gengulphus blasphemed, who his men scourged. But behold with my whole heart I believe, with full faith I declare, of great merit him to be: horrible it is, his wrath to incur, most healthful to venerate him and to seek, whence my fault because him I offended I profess. If by his help death I shall escape, that I will amend I promise: and I who the rest from his veneration restrained, myself with my gifts, if them he deign to accept, to him, as a servant to a Lord, will come. Whose pitiable and most humble repentance so perfect followed quickly health, as if no infirmity had touched him. Who in his pristine state of soundness reinvigorated, to Florennes to the Saint's church, with the weighed measure e of his body and other offerings, which thither he had vowed came: as also his son. and openly to all himself guilty he rendered, and for the health received thanks gave; S. Gengulphus pronouncing terrible to those who spurn him, kind and easy to penitents. Afterward the same church being transmitted, of his most speedy recovery he rejoiced, and in all his adversities to holy Gengulphus he was always wont to commend himself.
[16] Heriman g the Count the Count Lambert in himself he raged: and because he grieved that Florennes itself then and always was apt for the refuge of his enemies, he undertook to destroy all things by fire. Whence not even S. Gengulphus' church was by him revered: but all the roofs of the court were burned, the near and to the wall adjoining ones. A wondrous thing, and to the three boys in the midst of the furnace most similar. The church in the midst stood: the flame raging on every side of the burning houses, The church is freed from the fire: around it and above pressed: lead and tin, and what within the church was wax, by the excessive heat melted; nor however the very church the fire, otherwise insatiable, could blacken. Then the enemies, who at so nefarious a work of fire stood by, this seeing were stupefied: who returning had not yet gone out from those borders, and behold their horses to grow mad began, and those sitting on them by tearing they shook off. Of those men also very many, by madness and the pain of their limbs twisted, foully to their own places returned: who with intolerable penalty groaning, and the Dominion of Florennes hostile to themselves dreading,
through the friendly silences of the night to Florennes by stealth came, and confessing to S. Gengulphus that they had sinned, bettered returned. Which laudable deed the faithful keeper of the church, as while it was being done by consenting he knew, so done faithfully related.
[17] A short time after elapsed it befell the same Lambert against Duke Godfrey i at Florennes to come to war: and since more, than the Duke, he then had warriors, Lambert, the author, careless, perishes. beyond doubt that he would conquer he boasted. Behold, he said, today, as in my strength I trust, if I conquer, for Florennes a fatal utterly destruction after the victory I will prepare, nor even the churches do I wish to except. Whence also the ways if we conquer I command to be anticipated, lest any of the fleeing there could be received, and against us that fortification defend. These things said in war he engages, and with all his strength fights: nor do we believe S. Gengulphus then to have slept, whose church he did not fear first to dishonor, and now threatened utterly to overthrow. But as quickly from the face of the wind fails the smoke, so he being dead all his by dying and fleeing vanished army.
[18] a blind man receives sight. A certain girl, Rotsendis by name, blind was made at midday time, by no injury of a stroke or offense, but by a sudden extinction of sight: whose blindness the parents inconsolably daily mourned, nor of so great a grief a remedy to devise could they: but utterly humanly unconsoled, from heaven they seek relief. Recalling that S. Gengulphus of all laboring is at hand a refuge, they make to him a heartfelt vow, namely of her little body the weighed offering, and of wax a cap placed around. Which being done, on the day next following, the little girl suddenly merited to receive sight: and a needle one on the ground beholding to lie, Why, she said, O mother, that needle is lost, which by me here to lie is beheld? Which voice the mother joyful eagerly received, and, if truly she saw, asked. Who when in truth she learned by experiment, gave thanks to God and His Saint Gengulphus, and this to all the people notified.
[19] the paralysis of an arm is cured, A certain boy, Tietselinus by name, of his right arm by idleness was torpid, because it the gravest paralysis already long had invaded: whom his father before his Lord, by name Godfrey, whose servant he was, led down, and such misfortune before him to bewail he began. To whom when the Lord replied, that he knew not how to him he should give help; from a certain Cleric standing by him this he hears continually: To the Saint, he said, Gengulphus let him be given, by whom, as I believe, he will be cured. You, said that Lord, from my hand behold him take, and to the Saint to be had lead him. Whom this Cleric straightway receiving, and his weak arm upon the altar of the Saint placing; This one, he said, hear, S. Gengulphus, his Lord to thee gives a servant: as it pleases thee have thou him. Soon he the arm to himself sound drew back, and thenceforth no pain in it felt. Which deed to all marvelous spread abroad: and to the praises of God and the veneration of S. Gengulphus of many hearts it stirred.
[20] for a fault contracted, A certain little Cleric, by name Tiedbold, across the church of S. Gengulphus certain javelins in jest threw: who by the bystanders, under the threat of S. Gengulphus, that he should not do it, was restrained. Who the warnings of those threatening little weighing, added javelins to javelins, nor said any offense to be in this. And when irreverently he threw stones across the church, even against the Saint's altar; suddenly he began in all his limbs to be contracted and to fail, and in the same place where he stood with loosed sinews contractedly to lie down. Which seeing those who were present, justly this to him to have happened they said, because him by chastising from the throwings to restrain they had not been able. Which learned his father, by grief most grave saddened, before the Saint's altar his son carried: and the fault mournfully bewailed, and the clemency of B. Gengulphus heartfeltly implored, a vow being made straightway sound and erect he received him, and with praises the Lord and His Saint he magnified.
[21] a paralytic. There was a certain one, by name Amalricus, through times suddenly inflamed by paralysis so loosened, that of all his limbs the function suddenly he was deprived, nor of speaking power he obtained. By the fear of which thing anxious, the Saint's help entreating with sighs, with groans himself to him under an annual due he devoted: and so that pest he lacked. But afterward secure of his health made, the due he began to neglect, and for eleven years did not fear to retain it. But when almost now he had forgotten his devotion, through security of soundness; a relapsing infirmity that one, as an avenger of so great negligence, began to recur, and him as from the beginning from then and afterward to vex.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Various sick healed, and the injurious punished.
[22] Arnulphus a, son of Arnulphus the elder, to go hunting ought; for an injury the Count cannot rise, nor a horse which he might mount then at hand had he. But the Priest of S. Gengulphus had one at home in the court: which from him that he should lend it to himself being asked, to grant he was unwilling. Whence he the more angry his stable entered, and the horse the Priest unwilling led out. Then the Priest imprecating upon him such things: To thee, he said, and to S. Gengulphus may it be reckoned of this to me by thee done injury. But Arnulphus ordered, that for him that horse meanwhile should be prepared, while the Saint's church to pray he should enter. Entering therefore prostrate he prayed, but the prayer made to rise again at all he could not: again and again to rise he strove, but as if by hidden chains bound he was held. At length recalling the injury done by him to the Priest, and the imprecation by him brought, his breast beating, the earth kissing, the fault confessing, with heart and voice repenting, thus to the Saint of God he gave satisfaction: and by his order, nay by his entreaty, the horse being returned, straightway he rose, and freely to the begun business went out.
[23] Merchants, at Huy b on the river Meuse dwelling, as also a merchant to a certain market were tending. But as they passed through the way, which was near the church of S. Gengulphus, the one the other exhorted; To pray, he said, to S. Gengulphus let us go. To whom the other; From my way, he said, for this I will not turn aside, lest later to my business I come. Then that first one, to whom was faith and the cult of faith greater, At least, he said, sitting keep our baggage, until for me and thee as quickly as possible I pray. He therefore went, prayed, returned to rise and depart asked: who to rise quickly wished, but by no means could. Then his hand to his companion he gave: that powerfully he should draw, he asked: but by himself striving, by his companion drawn, as if by a chain of earth bound still he stuck. Justly, said the other, this happened to thee, who to the church of the Saint to go didst scorn: but now thy fault confess, something to him devote for mercy, and still that thou wilt go promise. Which he as he did, straightway by himself powerfully he rose: and what willingly before he would not, afterward compelled to the Saint's church he hastened.
[24] The distorted cheeks of one are cured, There was at Florennes a certain woman, by name Wlferada, who by her husband angry with her gravely had been struck: by which excessive striking, her jaw, from its place distorted and torn away, was loosened from the cheeks pendulous. She on the bed of infirmity many days reclined, by no medicine could be helped. On a certain day one of her neighbors visited her: to whom also rebuking he said: Why hast thou forgotten always the ready physician, the Saint namely Gengulphus our Patron? Rising to go to him strive, and what thou canst bring to him devoutly, and the care of thy pain to his mercy commit. Soon at his exhortation, hoping she of her recovery the certainty, from the bed of pain herself she shook, and with her exhorter to the Saint's church little gifts carrying she came. Whose infirmity that man with his hands taking, to the Saint to be cured he offered, saying: Behold S. Gengulphus, this poor little one stands by, to be healed by thy mercy she entreats. Which voice so perfect soon followed health, as if in her such an infirmity had not been.
[25] In the territory c of Laon another woman was, whom a like sickness long detained. and of another woman, For her so from the cheeks had spread apart the jaws, that deformedly they hung on the breast. There then from Florennes was present a Priest, by name Stephen, who with these words her, as he saw, was consoled. If thou wentest, he said, to Florennes to S. Gengulphus, truly know, that he would cure thy pain. But now make to him a vow, promising while thou canst that thou wilt go to him. The woman therefore did, as he had persuaded: and the mercy of S. Gengulphus confidently entreated. But the night following, on the little bed of her languor asleep, she sees through a dream a man most beautiful to her to stand by, and with his hands most gently her infirmity to handle, and to its place by recomposing to restore. Who soon from sleep awakened, with her hands to feel began the places of the cheeks, to prove wishing whether true it was that she had seen: which so firmly she found and felt healed, as if never she had had from their place moved. Glad therefore of her soundness, solicitous of rendering thanksgiving, her vows quickly she prepared, at Florennes to her Curate she presented herself, thanks and praises rendered, to all this congratulating notified, to her own places exulting returned.
[26] In a farm, which Curcellæ d is called, a certain woman dwelt, a contracted arm. who her right arm so contracted had; that no work from it she made, nor even herself sign she could. Who, the often mentioned Saint's solemnity arriving, to Florennes went for her recovery. But on the festival night and the following next day no effect of her petition she felt.
But now the festival day was ending, now all to their own were returning; when she, as if for leave of departing to be asked, on the pavement humbly prostrate, tearful from a sad breast drew sighs, because to her, what she sought, was not present the clemency. But rising from prayer, she felt to herself the divine piety to be present, and her arm to her head extending, she began, what before she was not wont, to sign herself. Which seeing her son assisting her near at hand; What, he said, O mother, do I see? thy right hand for signing thou liftest, which so long to do thou hadst not been wont. This is, said the mother, the mercy of God: this is, what I hoped, the medicine of S. Gengulphus. For behold such a virtue of my arm I feel, such as never to have had I recall. So thanks to God rendering that woman, sound returned to her own places, nor further any of that infirmity felt the inconveniences.
[27] A blind girl is healed, At Florennes there was a certain little girl, through three years utterly blind: for whose long blindness her father also was blinded by the darkness of sadness. But on a certain day a presumed confidence of hoping being taken, with her offerings and her daughter the Saint's church she entered with a mind most humble. Then the offering being placed under the altar, and the offspring set near, with most attentive supplication of heart and voice for her recovery she insisted. Whose faith S. Gengulphus regarding and devotion, not long his piety he prolonged. For not yet the paternal groans being finished, the black night from the daughter's orbs vanished, and the day of light shone bright. Which the father seeing, and thanks to God and His Saint paying, home most gladly returned, as it was done he showed to all.
[28] a lame girl, In the vicinity of Florennes another girl had been, who for a long time most gravely limped. Her the parents to the solemnity of the aforesaid Saint carried, and for her gifts and prayers offered: but no of their petition then obtaining effect, not without great mourning they return home. The week having elapsed it was the day of the festival's octave, when the father of the girl walking in the court of his house, thus beginning began to pray: My Lord, S. Gengulphus, to all others always thou art ready and helpful, me alone I know on account of my sins thou dost spurn: to thy feasts my offspring I brought, nor to thee her there it pleased to heal. But behold there are present thy Octaves: I believe, if thou wilt, as much canst thou now as then succor: more wonderfully even thou wilt heal here the absent, than in thy church the present. Her appended offering to thee if it please I devote: and that thou delay no more I pray, which thou canst credulous I trust. Not yet the father such things credulous finished, when behold the daughter from the house leaped out, and with this voice cried out: Father, father: behold, see: firmly I walk, nor any weakness in my feet do I feel. Soon the father the soles of her feet looking around, and himself to have been heard truly finding, with the daughter and the votive offering to the presence of the Saint he came: and thanksgiving rendered, this to all he related, nor further his daughter to limp grieved.
[29] A certain man had a son from his first age contracted, a contracted boy by the avarice of the father relapsed. of whose contraction he rejoiced more than by paternal piety he condoled. Him namely to the Saints' feasts and to the people's gatherings he carried, and his weakness displaying many from many alms received. Whom when to S. Gengulphus' solemnity at Florennes he had brought, that for himself which he was wont for him alms he might acquire, without his entreaty, by the sole large compassion of holy Gengulphus, he is raised loosed from all contraction. There are extolled to God's praises the voices of the people seeing this; but the Father ill-covetous, the boy snatched into his arms, by hiding turning aside from the people, denies this to have been done, grieving to himself to be withdrawn the accustomed gain. A hard father, if indeed a father: a father indeed by generation only, not a father by the affection of paternal love: more indeed he is saddened of the acquisition to be withdrawn from him, than he rejoices of the son's desirable soundness: in this father is not a father's affection, but a most avaricious beggar's rapacious mind; who therefore prefers him infirm than sound, not that to his infirmity out of charity he may run, but that to his insatiable cupidity something he may heap. Therefore this such father by stealth fleeing, and the son hastily withdrawing, while the erect and sound he bewails, the contracted suddenly and weak he beholds again: and so it befell that his malice him again contracted, for whose contraction God he ought to have supplicated.
[30] a frenetic. In the territory of Cambrai a certain man was, whom a frenetic suffering with an impatient and horrendous disease lacerated. Him his kinsmen with strongest strongly had bound chains, lest in mind and hands savage the assaults of his rage he should exercise: and so bound for his remedy to the Saint to be cured they led to Remaclus e. Who having their journey through Florennes, from certain ones of this kind received an exhortation, that S. Gengulphus going to, for him they should pour out prayers. They enter therefore the Saint's church, praying with most intent devotion of mind, condoling with the sufferer; and the prayer finished, with their bound one they go the begun journey to perform: and a small interval being made, the sick man that he should be loosed asked from his vow, not from an insane head. But they thinking him to rave, began he doubling to subjoin: Loose, loose me quickly, I pray, because by God's compassion and S. Gengulphus' from all madness me absolved I feel. Who straightway loosed, with tranquil mind and quiet body remained sound.
[31] From the village, to which the name Bovinia f, a certain at present is present girl, contracted in arm and fingers. by name Grida, whose arm so clung to her side, and the fingers of the same part so were contracted, that utterly of all work they were free. Who by her mother lately to the Saint led Gengulphus, the vow of her offering being given before his altar passed the night, her infirmity to him she bewailed. But now approaching the day, and the keeper of the church, our namely monk, Osmar by name, the praises of Matins chanting; began she sweating, groaning, being in anguish, voices to emit. To whom the mother when she said indeed, Why so grievest thou daughter? O mother, she said, dearest, from too much anguish thus I cry. Because behold S. Gengulphus' by merit, from my side is disjoined the arm. This saying she began the arm out of her bosom gradually by extending to draw out, and by drawing out fully to extend: and the palm with extended fingers on the ground to stretch. There was then the sacred solemnity of Pentecost: in which from diverse parts the people flowing together manifold, as always was wont, S. Gengulphus' sought suffrages. Which the morning being come, hearing from the girl herself the order of the deed, in God's and His Saint's praise with a devout heart extols its voice. So therefore healed, several there days lingering, all seeing she was able to spin and sew whatever necessary.
[32] for the disputes of her lords relapsed and blind, again is healed. A wondrous thing was heard, but now let one more wondrous and pleasant be heard. This same little woman, after she returned home sound, and by all the neighbors enough was admired; two brothers, to whom she served as handmaid, between themselves began about her to litigate: while their household dividing, her, because more useful she was, the one from the other wished to snatch. But while that dispute is prolonged, the girl as before is contracted, and besides becoming dumb to all work useless is rendered. These astonishing things on every side are spread, by the whole vicinity in troops there is running, and because after S. Gengulphus' cure by her Lords she was enslaved, there is blasphemy. What more? The necessity of so great an infirmity compelling and by the persuasion of the people flowing together, to S. Gengulphus the handmaid is handed over by her elders. Then by parents and neighbors she is received, to S. Gengulphus perpetually to be had presented, to his ready mercy commended, and forthwith arm, hands, speech are restored. Whom behold sound to daily work to insist we see, and of her repeated cure God and His Saint as much the near as the far we praise.
[33] Behold while this Saint's benefits on others bestowed I relate, of myself, what to me he conferred, of many one I subscribe. Ordered g I had been the miracles of him to denote, The writer himself, health obtained, negligent, but by the poverty of my genius or rusticity so noble and urbane things I feared to deteriorate. But the poverty of writers remaining, and of miracles the frequency daily growing, I undertook this work somehow. But me by external things of the enjoined obedience being occupied, and by the torpor of negligence made lukewarm, I had omitted it for no small time. But in the present year from Pentecost until before the month of August gravely I languished, and the infirmity compelling, what I had intermitted again beginning, to write I promised: and convalescing from that languor, hindered again by external care, and what more truly I confess weary, of slower (as always I am) study to all useful work, what I had promised I presumed to neglect, as if now secure of returning soundness. Scarcely utterly that disease by his merits from me newly had fled away, when behold, with which still I labor, by a violent fever he is shaken: this kind of pest had invaded me. Suddenly with another most grave disease all the fevers, with all their strength, me beleaguer; and the inward parts and outward occupying, with their colds and heats by rubbing, and by shaking, and by crushing, me gravely they straiten: food and drink and all the body's nourishments they intercept, and that more gravely they may rage with tertian returns the pains of death they inflict. What more? This past Sunday, before my eyes was death alone: now I had despaired of living. Further I asked the Brethren assisting to seek out the Oil of the viatic unction, and the remaining of such an exit to provide the service. This sole vow, I confess, was of my soul, and the petition of one declaiming to the Saints of the Lord, that on the future at least Sunday, a promise being made of writing the miracles, he convalesces. on which should be the Nativity of the Mother of God, for so great a day's patronage, in which much I trusted, the fear might be prolonged of my exit. Among the deathly anguishes the Brethren assisting suggest to me; Still to S. Gengulphus, what already you have vowed, more firmly vow, and water in his holy Relics washed drink: nor unable will he be still to you to succor. Which salutary water as it was quickly at our petition brought, with my hands it taking, guilty and of the vow liable myself I rendered; and before eight days, if I should convalesce, to begin what I had omitted most devoutly I promised. Which thirstily drunk, with this vow I began somewhat better to be continually. For began that salutary draught the fiery fury in me by warring its colors to refrigerate, and through sweat outside the marrows and bones flowingly to drive. So from that night, thanks to God, through His Saint's merit to have escaped I rejoice the peril of death. Hence it is that behold my promise within days eight I render, which on the little bed of infirmity, with dull mind, with trembling hand, I write: and this I am compelled willy nilly, because to so great a Stern Judge so often to lie I dare not. For I beware to offend him, whom by experience I have proved so strictly to be able to avenge.
34] A certain woman in the territory, which Condrotium [his called, a blind woman is enlightened. was: who through much time blind remained.
Her in the present year her husband to the solemnity of S. Gengulphus had brought: who even to the altar of him by the hand of her husband drawn, by feeling and stumbling had come. Then the keeper of the same church, our monk, Osmar by name, as he himself to me related, by the altar stood: who also to her asking a head of wax, upon the altar straightway to be placed had sold. Who this offering being given, there that day lingered: and on the morrow, Matins sounding, the church entering, and the Saint's help more profusely she began to ask. But the praises of God being finished she began to grow cold: whence she had need from the church to go out. Going out truly so clearly she began to see, that to the lodging she returned with no one guiding. To whom warming herself at the fire was lamenting her host, that gravely home she returned, not seeing the light. And answering, she said, O most pleasing host, do not condole with me upon this, but congratulate: because by God's mercy and Saint Gengulphus' just now suddenly I began to see. Whence as much the host as the husband sufficiently admiring, after they thanks rendered to such a Curate, that woman, who before with her husband leading by the hand came, with free and unstumbling step home returned, and clearly seeing lives.
[35] a contracted one is healed, In this same year from the village Bovinia, a certain man a little servant, of nearly twelve years, contracted had: whom in a cradle constrained, and on an ass placed, to his birthday he had brought. Him in his arms taking, and on the altar placing, Holy, he said, Gengulphus, this one to thee under a yearly due I hand over: nor ever, if him thou shalt help, against his will to my service shall he be compelled. This saying into his hand he put a penny, and for the due upon the altar to cast made. Which being done home returning, with himself he carried him back, and after the third day the contraction loosed the boy to walk began. Who after more fully he convalesced, with his Lord to S. Gengulphus on his own feet returned, and thanksgiving rendered, by his Lord was led back to his own places.
[36] In the territory Faimenna i a certain little boy of five years, another also dumb. from birth never to walk nor to speak could: who after his birth an orphan of both parents left, a poor brother had. Him that brother of his, as he could, brought up: and working with his hands his living seeking, him sustained. Whom because carrying him around with himself he fed, to many, whose work he did, he was a burden: very many also him from his work repelled, because two for one they could not feed they said. Who after through very many places of the Saints he carried him, nor saw him healed, to S. Gengulphus brought: and two weeks before his festival there lingering, the feast itself arriving before the altar he placed, and the day past to his lodging carried back. But on the day third after the feast suddenly began that little contracted one through the house, as a boy of one year, the step to attempt, and so gradually from day to day more firmly to strive. And for S. Gengulphus' love our Advocatess, Gisla by name, him afterward of her own feeds and clothes, and as a mother cherishes and nourishes: whom behold fully as a boy to walk we discern, and to speak we hear, and for his great simplicity sometimes also we rejoice together. So S. Gengulphus both brothers with a twin piety consoled, the younger of the body's nourishment and the limbs' erection, the elder of the younger's compassion and of carrying's hindrance.
[37] A certain also Nun, by name Bertrada, of the city of Cambrai dwelt within the walls; whose eyes' keenness for four years so utterly had overspread blindness, a blind woman is enlightened. that scarcely indeed the least to her had left of sight a spark. She is led around everywhere, where indeed the remedies of health more notably through the Saints' merits were frequented. But returning uncured the hope of her vow was frustrated. But on a certain night when to sleep she had committed her limbs, she discerns in a k vision S. Gengulphus to her to stand by, the orbs of her eyes gently moistening with the sprinkling of blessed water. Which to a certain Cleric she related, who this also announced to our Lord Gerard, of the same city the venerable Bishop.