ON THE HOLY VIRGIN MARTYRS
SATURNINA, VALERIA, FORTUNATA,
TRANSLATED FROM ROME INTO WESTPHALIA.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
The Translation to Herse. The shrines of the holy women. The Acts taken from the Acts of St. Benedicta on occasion of another St. Saturnina among the Atrebates: the annual memory of Walburga the foundress.
Saturnina, Virgin Martyr, translated from Rome into Westphalia (St.)
Valeria, Virgin Martyr, translated from Rome into Westphalia (St.)
Fortunata, Virgin Martyr, translated from Rome into Westphalia (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The name of Saturnina in the more recent Calendars: In the Appendix of Ado in Mosander and Rosweyde, and also in the Additions of the Cologne Carthusians to Usuard and in the Florarium of the Saints in MS., St. Saturnina Virgin and Martyr is inscribed at this XX of May, and in the Martyrologies of Cologne and Lübeck printed in the year 1490 her memory is celebrated. All which things we do not doubt to refer to the Patroness of this name, tutelary of the village and monastery of Herse in Westphalia: indeed of whom on this day there is a most celebrated cult, and thence diffused through the diocese of Paderborn. For those desiring to know more and more distinctly of her, and consulting Hermann Crombach, an old friend at Cologne, another Priest of our Society, Lucas Nagel, requested by the same Hermann, in the year MDCLXXIII sent these things diligently collected; with the notice of two other Virgins, whom an ancient tradition makes us presume to be held equally Martyrs, likewise brought from Rome together with them; whence whatever bodies are brought are presumed to be of Martyrs. But we join all together in the title, since we know not of any other day destined to the cult of the latter two. But what P. Lucas wrote to P. Hermann, these are they.
[2] Herse is a village two German miles distant from Paderborn, and has a free (as they call it) College of illustrious and noble Virgins, and that very ancient. At Herse in the monastery two tombs The Church of the College first had as patroness the Mother of God Mary: but now for many ages St. Saturnina, whose relics in a wooden tomb, covered with copper and gilded plates, and adorned with images of the Mother of God and the Apostles, are kept in the same, on the right side of the high altar. This tomb on the feast of St. Luke, which is October XVIII, in the presence of the illustrious and noble Ladies D. Anna Maria de Schilder the Provost, D. Agatha a Neuhausen the Dean, and four other Damsels, I and the very Reverend D. Jodocus Eberhard Werneking, Pastor and Capitular of the place, we opened: and we found first a parchment leaf, on which a catalogue was written of all the Relics of that church, very ancient and with characters almost fading. in one of these a parchment with the names The sixth title of this leaf recounted the Relics of the holy Virgins, and in the first place contained these words; The whole body of St. Saturnina, of St. Valeria, of St. Fortunata. Of which last (who is said to have been the attendant of St.
Saturnina and to have been her companion in Martyrdom) the body, enclosed in another tomb, is kept on the left side of the high altar. and various bones, Then the cloth being removed, with which they were wrapped, we saw and reverently kissing them in piety we venerated the sacred bones, larger and oblong, six or seven, the cranium likewise or the topmost part of the skull. Of the smaller bones and fragments there was a vast quantity, although they do not all seem to be of the same body, on account of the diversity of color and proportion: which came about thence, because in the war of the Christian Duke of Brunswick, a heretic, the Relics of this church, the tombs being overthrown, scattered over the whole pavement, were not without some confusion again collected by the Virgins.
[3] conveyed thither in the 9th century, Of the time and author of the translation I could ascertain nothing certain. A certain Cleric of that place showed me a Manuscript book, in which from old tradition it was related that Biso, Bishop of Paderborn, had sought these Relics, conveyed from Rome, from the supreme Pontiff. Which if it be so, since Biso was made Bishop in the year of Christ DCCCLXXIV, and died in the year DCCCCII, it is necessary that that translation was made eight centuries ago. Scarcely one mile from Herse is distant the Gehrden convent of Benedictine Virgins, in whose Martyrology is had on May XX, the Feast of St. Saturnina V. and M. who rests in the Convent of Herse among our Sisters. And now for four centuries and perhaps more, it is certain that there has been at Herse, not of Benedictine Sisters, but a free College of most noble Virgins, whatever it was before of a convent of Nuns; and so at least before so many centuries this Translation must have been made. But of this matter more certain things can be given from diverse monuments by those who are more skilled in the History of this Diocese.
[4] Of the manner of the Translation this is the tradition; The sacred Relics placed on a cart, not without a miracle, not indeed destined for Herse, but yet carried past Herse, not far from the village so stood still, that neither the cart nor the horses could be moved thence by anyone. By the fame and novelty of which thing the inhabitants moved came running, and among them two of the Virgins; whom, when they returned into the village, the horses of their own accord followed and halted at the door of the church, which with a great noise opened of itself, and the Bells all rang with no visible mover. The verisimilitude of this tradition is increased by the ceremony of the supplication, which every year on the day before the Ascension of Christ is led to the Cross fixed in that place, where the sacred Relics are said once to have stood still. For when they have come to the Cross, two of the Virgins sing beforehand the Antiphon: Holy of holies, expressed every year in the Supplication as is customary. sanctify us by the blood of the Savior and by the suffrages of holy Saturnina, who despisest not those who hope in thee, free those who invoke thee. In the return of the supplication peculiar Litanies are sung, even to the closed door of the church; where again by two Virgins is sung, Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; receive our supplication, who sittest at the right hand of the Father. Which while it is repeated by the choir, a stone is thrown at the door of the church (to represent the noise of that first miraculous opening), the bells are rung, and the door being opened by one of the Priests, the sacred Relics are brought into the church. In which, as also in the other supplication, which is held on the Sunday after the feast of St. Boniface Bishop and Martyr, this is worthy of admiration, that not always is the same the weight of the sacred treasure. For sometimes it is conveniently carried by two youths, sometimes even four most robust young men feel so great a weight, that in bearing it they are scarcely equal: which weight, from long observation, they hold for a certain omen, that some one of the Canonesses, or someone of the Clergy, will die in a short time. The cult of St. Saturnina, besides the supplication already mentioned, consists in four festivities, which among the people of Herse in her honor are kept under a double rite. Cult on 4 days: First on the XX day of May is venerated, even by the people keeping holiday, the day of Martyrdom. Then on June XVII is celebrated in the Choir the Thirtieth of St. Saturnina. Next on September II the Translation of the same. And finally on November VI her Coming to Herse. Where by the Translation I think is to be understood the day on which the Relics first began to be moved from that place, where they had before rested. Further the divine Office for these four festivities is one and the same, found in an old manuscript Antiphonary.
[5] Thus he. But when in the year MDCLXXX I made an excursion to Nieheim, about to offer to the most Eminent Bishop of Paderborn and Münster Ferdinand himself and to his Brothers the dedicated first part of this May; the Shrine of the holy women with little statues in the apparatus of the manuscript monuments serving the Paderborn history, which is in hand, I found described more accurately the shrine guardian of the holy body, namely so that its first face had the image of the Savior, in the middle between the little statues of SS. Liborius and Servatius, whose names are still read at the foot: but the second face the icon of the Mother of God Mary in the middle, between SS. Saturnina and Fortunata. Along the margins, on one side, these verses were read: Among the virginal choirs she shines forth in virtue, The Virgin Saturnina, treading the world as the lowest. on the other side it was thus written: and adorned with verses. Therefore let her be the glory and flower of integrity to the chaste, By which she diffuses far the sweet odor to the Spouse. There was also found an old MS. sheet of this tenor. Walburga, sister of Luithard Bishop of Paderborn, foundress of the monastery at Herse, and Biso the Bishop, carried thither the body of St. Saturnina, Herse founded under Biso after the year 875. and the head of St. Agatha the Virgin, likewise a rib of St. Lawrence. But Herse was founded for the Benedictine Nuns by the authority of Pope Stephen, as is clear in the Bull of the same Pontiff, written in Lombardic letters on a roll of birch-bark, with a leaden capsule with seal and hemp appended, which in the year MDCLXII the Bishop Ferdinand himself saw. Luithard, the predecessor of Biso, sat from about the year DCCCLII, according to Demochares, Tome 2 on the Sacrifice of the Mass chapter 35, in whose time since there was no Stephen in the Roman See: it must be said that that Foundation was made after his death under Biso, in the time of Stephen V, holding the Pontificate from the year DCCCLXXV
to DCCCCXXXXI.
[6] P. John Gamans also noted, in his Collectanea, written when surveying the Paderborn diocese forty years ago; that the same chest was opened in the past century, because it was said by tradition received from the elders, that if all things should be destroyed at Herse, the Canonesses yet would find in the bier of St. Saturnina, whence honestly living they might serve God: but that those who opened it made known that relics alone were found in it, in which sense that was handed down by the elders. The same P. Gamans in a parchment MS. book which there is called the Book of Presences, Procession from Olden-Heersse found noted, that on May XX of Saturnina V. there shall be a solemn Procession with all present, even Istorp and Olden-Heerse… the celebration of Mass is to be omitted by none in our Herse Monastery. In the year MDCXXV the conveyance of the Relics by the Pastor into Olden-Heerse was again renewed, with his Parishioners, who very early in the morning come riding from Olden-Heerse, bringing the Relics, and after the midday meal in procession both sexes bring them back, carrying the image of the Blessed Virgin. I believe of Saturnina; but whether these too are the Relics, which those Parishioners bring to the feast, I would not rashly say; since I know it is the custom, that in such processions, by which the inhabitants of neighboring places mutually honor each other, on certain chief festivities each bring the Relics of their own Patrons. But Olden-Heerse or Old Herse is called that parish within whose limits the Herse monastery erected, so illustrated the name of Herse, that it principally retained it for itself: as it has happened in very many like places by a like occasion. Gamans finally adds, that on June XVII the feast of St. Saturnina is kept, which D. Dean de Bustorp adorned, of which Dean if the age were known, by probable conjecture also could be defined the time, in which was made the adaptation of the Acts of St. Benedicta, of which presently, to Saturnina of Herse.
[7] The aforesaid P. Lucas further, after all the things above set forth; for those four feasts which he had enumerated described for us a common Office, namely the Antiphons to be sung at both Vespers at the Magnificat with the Collect, with a proper Office: and the Responsories for nine Lessons, and finally the Lessons themselves, not from the Antiphonary, where those were not present, but from the old Breviary of the Church of Paderborn of the year MDXIII. And these are, he says, what, after the archive of the Herse church was devastated by the tumults of war, it was permitted to learn from tradition by investigation. For the sake of illustration I add, that among the Paderborn Monuments, under the auspices of the aforenamed most Eminent Prince Ferdinand, published in the year MDCLXXII, page 163 there is contained a diploma of Charles the Fat the Emperor, given to the Herse Convent in the year DCCCLXXXVII at the petition of Biso Bishop of Paderborn, in which the privileges of the said Convent before given are confirmed, and new ones added. Likewise on page 294 mention is made of Othilia of Fürstenberg, who presided over this convent as Abbess for thirty-five years, and with increased revenues, dwellings built, churches adorned, and perpetual alms founded, having merited immortal praise, died in the year MDCXXI on the Nones of March.
[8] whose Lessons and Responsories taken from the Acts The Antiphon at second Vespers is such: Through the bowels of His Mercy the Lord visited us, when He illustrated us with the pledge of the excellent Virgin Saturnina, who by present suffrage may rescue us from the shipwreck of the world. Pray therefore, pray, holy Virgin, for the distress of thy flock. Then follows the Collect. Be propitious, we beseech thee, O Lord, to us thy servants, through the glorious merits of St. Saturnina thy Virgin and Martyr, that by her pious intercession we may be protected from all adversities. As to the Lessons and Responsories, they are taken from the Acts: but the Acts are altogether the same which we received of St. Benedicta Virgin and Martyr, having her cult in Gaul on October VIII. Which some collectors of the more abridged Legends observing, refer the same Acts under this title. The Life of St. Benedicta Virgin and Martyr, who is also seen to be called Saturnina: then they subjoin, All the aforesaid things are read of Saturnina the Virgin, because perhaps she was of two names: or thus with the name changed she was called so, when she was translated to the parts of Westphalia into the Herse monastery of nuns of the Paderborn diocese, where also the feast of the aforesaid Saturnina Virgin and Martyr (perhaps of the Translation itself) on the thirteenth Kalends of June is celebrated. But these conjectures of the old Collector, from the things said about the fourfold feast of St. Saturnina, fall to the ground, where what is called the feast of the Translation, I would not understand the day on which the Relics first began to be moved from that place, where they had before rested, to be conveyed to Herse; but some later Translation, made at Herse from some old shrine into a new and more august one, to be placed on the right side of the high altar: but the day of the Passion (I know not whence taken) as now so from the beginning I would believe to have been always held the XX of May.
[9] Understanding this, he who accommodated the Legend of St. Benedicta to St. Saturnina; [the things rashly transferred from St. Benedicta V. & M. to this St. Saturnina,] where she was read to have suffered on the VIII Ides of October, at Auriniacum under the impious executioner Matroculus, substituted, on the thirteenth Kalends of June in the holy place under Matroculus &c. But just as before, where the former was read, ordered by an indication of the divine will to go to Auriniacum, a place situated upon the river Issère, he substituted the Holy Place, situated upon the river Scheldt: so in the rest he changed nothing else, than the name of Benedicta into the name of Saturnina; and that so little prudently, that in the beginning, where it is said The venerable Benedicta by name and by merit, he did not consider that he ought to omit the "and by merit," since in the name of Saturnina, drawn from the appellation of a heavy and unhappy star, there shines the dignity of no merit. Often we have observed that the credulity of the faithful peoples was thus imposed upon, that, the Acts of celebrated Saints failing, the name of some other Saint was substituted; with a good intention perhaps, but a counsel by no means to be approved by those who understand how great a confusion, even to most holy matters, levity of this kind introduces. But what reason moved the author of that counsel, so that for Auriniacum, which is in the diocese of Laon, he should substitute the Holy Place, in the diocese of Arras, now hear.
[10] Among the Saints (says Baldericus, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, on occasion of another St. Saturnina among the Atrebates. book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras chapter 12) holy Saturnina rests: then he describes the history of her Life and passion from the tradition of the people, far most diverse from the life and passion of St. Benedicta; and finally concludes: But there is an old account, that a long time after the Saxons, it is uncertain by what cause, came to this neighborhood, and passing through that very village, the sacred report indeed having been heard, carried off a part of the body of the holy Virgin. I judge that that account, in the twelfth century, at the end of which Baldericus lived and wrote, flourishing among the people of Arras, had no other foundation than the identity of the name: on account of which both peoples were persuaded that the parts of the body of the same Saint were those, which in both places they had learned by mutual report to be honored with a celebrated cult. But if truly from Artois into Westphalia, which is a part of Lower Saxony, those Relics were translated; at the same time also would have been translated thither the notice of her life and passion, like that which Baldericus handed down: just as, the body of St. Liborius being conveyed from Le Mans to Paderborn, there were also received either then or afterwards all the notices which of him at Le Mans were had, as will appear on July XXIII. Since therefore we see the people of Herse to have had so utterly no knowledge of their St. Saturnina, that they allowed themselves to be imposed upon by the Acts of another most diverse Saint; it seems to follow, that they did not receive thence the Relics, where a like notice flourished in popular memory: and so it is more safely believed, that the remains of this Saint also were brought from some Roman cemetery, as were those of the holy women Valeria and Fortunata, whom together with their Saturnina the people of Herse venerate. Of her who is venerated among the Atrebates we shall treat on June IV.
[11] And let these things suffice to have been said of St. Saturnina, once the Patroness of the Convent of Herse. The chest of St. Fortunata As to the Companions, likewise named in the title, Valeria and Fortunata; of Valeria indeed nothing anywhere is read; but of Fortunata, as we saw above, the veneration is more celebrated: indeed whose body, laid up with almost equal honor to the body of St. Saturnina, was kept in a chest of nearly four feet, gabled, and covered with plates of copper and gilded, on which in embossed work were expressed the mysteries of the life of Christ, and around the margin went some verses, of which, the same margin being broken in places, Gamans took only these remains: And suspended by the merits of Saturnina, called, But mayst thou take joys, for so great a gift, with palms. The rest are wanting, as well as the remaining notice, whence, when, by whom the sacred body was brought thither: and the feast on October 14th. and the opinion prevailed among the crowd prone to conjectures, that Fortunata was the attendant of St. Saturnina. In the aforecited Book of Presences on October XIV, ascribed to the name of St. Calixtus, is thus read: The feast of Fortunata, which D. Margareta up dem Berghe adorned &c. The same feast provided by D. the Abbess de Solmisz.
[12] It pleases here at the last to append the Epitaph of Walburga the Foundress, which Gamans found of this kind, and under the title of Blessed, I know not whether from his own or from the people of Herse's sense, he transcribed. The Epitaph of Walburga the foundress Here lies the venerable Walburga, who with a manly mind Built, and first ruled this monastery. Giving to those under her examples of a blessed life, She amplified all the resources of the Church. Now may she see Thee, O Christ, the merciful, whom she ever loved, That Thou mayest associate her with the sheep at the right hand. On the IV of the Nones of March she died.
and the Anniversary, And so on this day in the Book of Presences this is read of the manner of celebrating the Anniversary. The memory of the venerable D. Walburga, Abbess and Foundress of the church of Herse: and a solemn egg-gathering is administered by the Abbey and the Provostry. So it was observed in the year MDXXXVII. When this memory shall fall on a Sunday, then the first Mass is made for the dead with all the ceremonies, the commendation and visitation of the chapel of Walburga, to be applied and fulfilled: which being performed a circuit of the cemetery is made, afterwards the high Mass. with the egg-gathering. The game of the egg-gathering is more known to the Germans, than that it ought to be explained here: for foreigners let it suffice to say that it is a contest of runners, which shall first either traverse a vast space of ground in one stretch of the way; or in a short space gather the eggs disposed at fixed intervals in a fixed number, so that as often as he has lifted one, he returns again to the goal, and as often runs back, until he has gathered the last and the one most remote from the goal. But meanwhile, where the contest is more solemn and among more contenders, various men contend in various ways, so that before all the eggs have been gathered, they accomplish something else, in appearance light, in reality difficult, and of a delay longer than is commonly thought, for the delight of the onlookers, while those with a slow and often ridiculous, and mostly vain labor, are wearied.