ON SAINT HADULF,
BISHOP OF CAMBRAI AND ARRAS AND ABBOT OF SAINT-VAAST IN BELGIUM.
IN THE YEAR DCCXXVIII
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
On his miracles, translations, cult, and Relics.
Hadulf, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, and Abbot of Saint-Vaast (S.)
BY G. H.
[1] Among the ancient Bishops of the Church of Cambrai and Arras the eighth is numbered S. Vindician, whose Acts we illustrated on the XI day of March. His successors Balderic thus enumerates in the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras book 1 chapter 34: He is illustrious by miracles: To B. Vindician, Hildebert succeeded in the Episcopate: to whom Hunoldus. He being deceased, to the Episcopal throne Hadulf is elected: whom certain ones assert to have been the son of S. Ragnulf the Martyr: of whom these, the faithful who survived to our times, testified that they had seen many miracles at his sepulcher. These things there. Of S. Ragnulf we treat below on the XXVII of May. But of S. Hadulf Balderic thus pursues at chapter 35: This Hadulf was buried in the church of S. Peter the Apostle, which is within the wall of the fortress of Arras next to the monastery of S. Vedastus [a]. But his sanctity, as time proceeded, was shown by many and wonderful portents: in the elevation of his Body a demoniac is freed. of which the chief witness, the sacristan of the monastery of S. Vedastus, made known to Engranus the Bishop of Cambrai the visions which he had for the most part seen. He therefore, observing a suitable witness, raised the holy body. In which elevation, for the declaring of the merits of the holy man, a certain woman was wonderfully freed from an unclean spirit. Whence the Bishop, joyful, a discourse made to the people, made known B. Hadulf in the number of the Saints. These things there. The said Engranus, by others also Enguerranus and Ingelranus, presided as Bishop over both Churches from the year above the nine-hundred-and-fifty-seventh to the sixtieth.
[2] We have a most ancient manuscript Martyrology of the Cathedral Church of Arras, Memory on May 19 in manuscript Calendars, received by the gift of the Lord Canons in the year MDCLXII while we were then at Arras: in which on this XIX of May in the first place these things are read: On the XIV of the Kalends of June, at Arras the deposition of holy Hadulf the Bishop, which plainly in the same words are read in the manuscripts of Anchin and Corbie: but in the manuscripts of Aubergenville of the Canons Regular, of Utrecht of the Clerics of S. Jerome, of Leiden of S. Cecilia, of Louvain of the Society of Jesus, and various others with the manuscript Florarium these things are held: On the same day the natal of S. Adulf, Confessor, Bishop of Cambrai. and in others printed. The same too has Greven in the Additions to Usuard, and Maurolycus and Felicius agree well enough. But Molanus in the Auctarium of Usuard adorns him with this elogium: In the monastery of Nobiliacum, the deposition of S. Hadulf, Bishop and Confessor, resting at Arras in the church of S. Vedastus: which same thence Canisius transferred into the German Martyrology. Menardus drew somewhat thence. But by the same Molanus in the Natalia of the Saints of Belgium these things are added: He succeeded in the said monastery to Hatto the first Abbot, in the year seven-hundred and ten, and ruled that Church for nineteen years. The time of his See in the Abbey and Episcopate, But in the year seven-hundred and seventeen, by the acclamation of the people, the favor of the Clergy, and the command of King Chilperic, he was assumed to the Episcopate of Cambrai or Arras, the eleventh from B. Vedastus. Yet the Bishop wished to be called only Abbot by his Brothers. The year of his death the ancient Annals of the Franks from the codex of Massay signify, edited by Labbe in volume 2 of the New Bibliotheca page 733, in these words: In the year DCCXXVIII Charles was in Saxony, and Adulf the Bishop died. and his death in the year 728. He was moreover of Cambrai, and had the Abbey of S. Vedastus. Hence the Annals likewise of the Franks, from the manuscripts of Tilius and Petavius, in volume 2 of Andreas du Chesne page 7 printed, can be very well explained by these words. In the year DCCXXVIII Charles was in Saxony, and Hadulf the Bishop died.
[3] After a glorious conversation and a life adorned with all sanctity, his soul was rendered to the heavens, and his body, as said above, was buried in the church of S. Peter, in a chapel sacred to the blessed Virgins Barbara and Catharine, where in the neighboring wall is seen depicted the effigy of S. Hadulf, The epitaph formerly affixed. with this epitaph.
Here lay the Saint, the mirror of piety, Hadulf: Who vigilant ruled the choir of Arras unto the stars. Sweet hail, our Father, oppose pardon to our faults, And repay grateful gifts to thy beloved flock.
[4] The sacred body was afterward carried from the said church of S. Peter to a worthier Church, which is of S. Vedastus, and thence in the year MXXX, to honor the dedication on the XVIII day of October of the new Church of Cambrai, The Body carried to Cambrai in the year 1030. rebuilt by Gerard the Bishop, it was carried to Cambrai, and placed beside S. Gaugericus around the altar, with the bodies of SS. Autbertus and Vindician, who all had been co-ministers of the same altar, the staff of S.
Vedastus with his relics being interposed also, as is read in the cited Balderic book 3 chapter 49. But toward the end of the XII century the same sacred body was placed in a silver shrine, with this inscription: In the year of the Incarnate Word MCXCVII, Indiction XV, Epact none, Concurrent II, the holy Roman Church being presided over by Pope Celestine III, placed in a shrine in the year 1197 but William being Archbishop of Reims, the glorious Emperor of the Romans Henry reigning, but with us the most strong King of the Franks Philip reigning, the most powerful King of the English Richard likewise fighting against us; there was laid up in this bier, and bound in two cloths, the body of the most blessed Confessor of Christ Hadulf, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, by the Lord Henry Abbot of S. Vedastus, on the very day of his deposition, namely the XIV of the Kalends of June, happily. Amen. Thus far that inscription, found in the year MDCII, when Philip Caverel, the most worthy Abbot of S. Vedastus, unsealed in the year 1602 and enclosed in another, unsealed the shrine of the Relics of S. Hadulf, and adorned a casket skillfully wrought in silver becomingly, and took care that it be placed behind the major altar together with the Relics of SS. Vedastus and Ragnulf.
[5] In the church and diocese of Arras the same Saint is venerated on the XXXI of August, and in the ancient Breviaries of the said Church the Ecclesiastical office is recited of SS. Paulinus of Treves and Hadulf, Bishops and Confessors. cult on August 31, But in the proper Offices of the said Church printed in 1632, Paulinus being omitted, S. Hadulf is venerated, with a proper third lection added, from Balderic and others already related. On the same day in the manuscript Martyrology of Centula or S. Richarius these things are read: At Arras, of S. Hadulf, Bishop and Confessor. In the Auctarium of Usuard through Greven and Molanus he is referred, on account of the translation. and by this one is called Translation. Galesinius and the continuator of Canisius follow Molanus. But by Saussajus it is called the Elevation of the body, as also on the XX of May with a rather long encomium. Ferrarius on the XVII of April, in the general Catalogue of those who are not in the Roman Martyrology, refers the same; but equally badly calls him Hodulphus, when he alleges the additions of Molanus to Usuard, as if on such a day they were held in them. The same he equally faultily transcribed Demochares, as if he named him Adelphus, whom expressly there you will find written Adulf.