ON ST. HILDEVERTUS
BISHOP OF MEAUX IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR DCLXXX.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Hildevertus, Bishop of Meaux in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 3943, 3944
BY D. P.
§ I. Concerning his cultus with proper Lessons, the bad faith of the Acts, and his age.
Celebrated on this day May XXVII
in the Beauvais Breviary published with the note of the year MDLIV,
and especially in the Church and diocese
of Meaux, Cultus on May 27 the feast of S.
Hildevertus, Bishop of the same Church:
of whom in the Meaux Breviary, which we have
printed in the year MDCXL,
this proper Prayer is prescribed: "Almighty
eternal God, who consecrated this day for us in honor of B.
Hildevertus, your Confessor and Pontiff;
grant us, we beseech, so to celebrate his solemnities with devout mind,
that by his intercession the indulgence of our sins may be granted,
and we may come to joys to remain without end." Then are prescribed for the second nocturn
these three lessons, of which the first is to be recited
from occurring Scripture, in the Lessons it is said the second and third proper
about this Saint. We had transcribed these to be printed here;
when we received from Paris three other older ones, transcribed
by Petrus Januarius, born nobly, Curate of S. Theobald at Meaux,
and that from an old Breviary written about the year MCCCVIII,
under the Episcopate of Simon de Festuca. These therefore
receive in place of those more recent, just as they were sent to us by R. D. Jacobus
Cousinet Canon Regular at S. Genevieve.
[1] Blessed Hildevertus, by the nod of divine dispensation
formerly Bishop of Meaux, educated piously, of parents according to
the dignity of worldly excellence by no means lowest
nor ignorant of sacred religion is known to have been begotten.
His father was called Adelbertus, noble in birth, but
more noble in faith. He, not for the cause of exercising unlawful pleasure,
but for love of begetting offspring, took a wife,
named Eva, fitting to him in manners and birth,
beloved by God and lovable to her husband. There was
born to them a son, whom they called Hildevertus, and they delivered
him to B. Faro Bishop of Meaux to be imbued with sacred letters'
studies: who in a brief space of time was imbued
with the new and old Testament.
[2] ordained Cleric, But he as a boy, although young in age, was old
in manners. But Saint Faro, seeing
the simplicity of S. Hildevertus, all the Ecclesiastical
Grades committed to him in order. With these as to the sense
through all is consonant the IV Lesson of the said Breviary: not
so the V Lesson, which to the ancient text adds the rigor
of life and the Luxeuil Monastic life, beginning from these:
we found the older things, which follow, thus transcribed.
After the death of S. Faro Hildevertus the man of God, full of grace,
obtained the Episcopal Chair. He was made
therefore Bishop by God's judgment, then Bishop, and by the counsel and consent of the Clerics
and of all who were present there. S. Hildevertus was
generous in alms, diligent in vigils,
devout in prayer, perfect in charity,
profound in humility, distinguished in doctrine, illustrious
in speech, most holy in conversation;
the serenity of his face showed the sincerity of his mind.
The Author of the new Lessons intent on these and other things to be more elegantly and verbosely set forth,
concludes their fifth with the narration of a miracle, whence the older Lesson III takes
its beginning in this manner.
[3] But there came to him a certain man, and
cast himself at his feet, and besought him, with a dead one resuscitated for baptism, that to his son,
dead without baptism, he would deign to lay his hand;
that with the name of Christ invoked over the lifeless corpse,
he might restore him to former life. He immediately
assented to the sad prayers, entered the house in which
the dead one lay, and prostrate on the ground for a long time poured forth prayers
to the Lord, that he would raise him from the dead, and that he might be able
to obtain the grace of baptism, and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ:
and immediately the boy rose, and began to speak. Then he catechized
him, and called him by his father's name Aldebertus.
But after some time B. Hildevertus
migrated to the Lord, He dies on May 27. on the sixth Kalends
of June: and was buried in the basilica which
at the sixth mile from the city of Meaux he himself had constructed.
And he predicted that the body of his little son, whom from the dead
he had raised, would die after seven years,
and ordered him to be buried beside himself. The VIII Lesson of the more recent
Office begins from the Saint's death, buried at Vigneliac and says that the church
where he was buried, is in a village commonly called
Vigneliacum: then it adds these things about the cultus: "But
him whom alive many miracles had made distinguished,
dead more have commended, both at Vigneliac,
and in the Meaux Church; thence translated to Meaux. in which afterwards
his sacred bones were placed; then at Paris
in a Chapel, built under his name a little after his death,
which now is the parish church
of Holy Cross; and in the parish church of S. Lawrence,
in which he is invoked with worthy cultus; then
finally in the Rouen district, in the Collegiate church
of Gournay, where in a precious case with great veneration
his sacred Relics rest."
[4] Thus far the Old and New Lessons. Perhaps of the middle
age between the two, of an author certainly by no means contemporary,
Mss. Acts but writing long after the Saint's death, are Acts patched together
from various reports and the tradition of the common people, of which we have obtained
two; some longer, from the Mss. Codices of the monastery
of Bec and of the Gournay church, by Petrus Lovetus
and Andreas du Chesne; others shorter and communicated to us by Frederic
Flouet from Rouen: in which there are some things,
by no means consonant with truth: wherefore those omitted,
we extract only a few which seem more probable.
Everywhere it is said he was given to S. Faro the Bishop to be educated,
still a little boy or five years old, or having completed
the course of one lustrum, or certainly (as is said above)
when by age it was permitted. Hence from his age something can be established
about the time when S. Hildevertus lived and sat.
Time of S. Faro his predecessor: We have various Acts of S. Faro to be illustrated on
October XXVIII, the day of his death. In all it is said
he was ordained Bishop in the time of King Chlothar II,
and lived to come even to the times of Childeric the great-grandson
of the same Chlothar, whom we have shown promoted to the kingdom of the Austrasians
about the year DCLIX. This therefore
is the time, in which S. Hildevertus instructed in sacred letters,
after other sacred Orders, was also initiated to the Priesthood.
From which time he led a far more constrained manner of living:
for he kept almost daily fasting,
nor used he any other garment, than woven from the hairs
of goats. Thus the shorter Acts, with no added
mention of monastic life, of which the longer Acts make memory,
without however the place of the monastery being named, which the more recent Lessons
cited above say to be Luxeuil in Burgundy.
To this then S. Waldebert presided, who in the year
DCLXV departed life on May 2, on which day we illustrate his life.
Compendia of the Acts exist in Vincent book 23 of the Speculum historiale chapter 25;
and in Peter de Natalibus, book 5 chapter 49.
[5] Various things are inserted in both Acts and the cited compendia
about deeds done in the Episcopate, prudently omitted in the cited Lessons:
some things suspect in the Acts: as if having gone to Rome by Pope Boniface
he was kindly received, before whom
he had celebrated the solemnities of Mass; and being sent by him to preach,
he had visited cities and towns even unto Jerusalem:
and seven years having passed in this pilgrimage,
returning to Rome, he had given the Supreme Pontiff an account of his
legation: whence by the order of the holy
See returning to Gaul, he was received by S. Furseus the Monk
of Lagny. These things are recounted at length in the said Acts.
But no Roman Boniface sat then.
For the fifth of that name was created at the end of the year
DCXVII, dying in the year DCXXV, when S. Hildevertus
does not yet seem to have been born. Nor can be understood
Boniface VI, elected as Antipope in the year DCCCXCVII,
long after the death of S. Hildevertus, two hundred years having elapsed.
S. Furseus, founder of the monastery of Lagny on the Marne,
four leagues from the city of Meaux (which is commonly
called Lagny, and with similar contraction above is written Laniacus)
before S. Pharo seems to have died, about the year
DCL, as we have said at his Birthday January XVI. Therefore
instead of S. Furseus the Monk, I would think it should be written,
that Hildevertus was received by the Monks of S. Furseus. There is added
in the said Acts and compendia this miracle: that
his gloves, which he had drawn from his hands before consecration,
were seen by a ray of the sun in the air
sustained for three hours. Which in the Lessons cited above
is not inconveniently omitted.
[6] Furthermore B. Hildevertus the Pontiff, the parts of the Pastoral office
most holily performed, death about the year 680, was seized by sickness,
with great grief of the Meaux citizens: and at length
provided with the saving Viaticum, migrated to heaven
on the sixth Kalends of June, about the year of Christ six hundred
and eighty. Thus the shorter Acts. Hence to be corrected
are Trithemius and Wion, of whom the former, in book 3 of On the Illustrious Men
of the Order of S. Benedict, says he flourished in the year
DCXL. On May 27, others 26, With more enormous error Wion asserts that he succeeded
S. Faro in the year DCLXXXVI. To have migrated to the Lord
on the sixth day of the Kalends of June also have
the longer Acts, perhaps from the most ancient Lessons: and to these is consonant
the more recent Meaux Breviary. But on the previous day, namely
VII Kalends of June, that he died, transmit Vincent
and Peter de Natalibus, and Trithemius followed,
Wion, Menardus, Greven, Canisius, Saussay, and others.
Mabillon in the 2nd Benedictine century, among the Pretermitted places
S. Hildevertus, and through an asterisk prefixed designates
him to be of those who appear to be German Benedictines:
which when more clearly proved, we shall most willingly embrace.
[7] In the longer Acts is treated of the Translation of the body
under these terms: "And not much time having elapsed,
an Angel of the Lord through a vision addresses
B. Majolus the Abbot, saying: by S. Majolus stirred by Angelic admonition. 'Arise and go
to the basilica, dedicated in honor of the blessed Mother of God;
and there beside the altar of the Blessed ones the bodies of Hildevertus
the Bishop and of Aldebertus his little son you shall find
buried. When you have proved this to be so, run hastening;
and with provincial Bishops convoked,
Priests, and also Levites, and the rest
of the Clerics of the holy Orders, and also religious
men and women, all the order of the matter, in what manner
it has been done, announce: and to open
their tomb with the greatest diligence ask them.' Having said these things,
he was received into heaven. But in the morning rising
the venerable Abbot, with all called whom
the Angel had ordered, made known all things
according to his word. Who hearing rejoiced greatly,
and coming to the place divinely revealed to them
with banners and crosses, with censers and lamps,
on that very day, the body is elevated. on which from the earth the happy soul
of B. Hildevertus was translated to the higher places, with hymn-sounding voices
they raised the noble bones of both: from which
great healing flowed forth to the surrounding sick,
sight to the blind, gait to the lame, hearing to the deaf, cure to the paralytic,
cleansing to the leprous, speech to the mute,
with our Lord Jesus Christ granting it &c." Thus there which almost
the same things, but with phrase changed, are read in the shorter Acts, and
briefly touched in the compendia of Vincent and Peter.
[8] We have given the various Acts of S. Majolus Abbot of Cluny
on May XI, but without any mention of such revelation:
besides this Saint flourished at least three hundred
years after the death of S. Hildevertus; but here he is said to be
elevated and brought to Meaux, "with not much time having elapsed."
So Mabillon, among the Pretermitted in century 3,
That Majolus could have been the founder of the Cluniac Order, treating of S. Guitmar, doubts, whether
it ought rather to be understood some other Majolus, who
was nearer in place and time, namely the Abbot of S. Pharo.
But the entire preceding narration is such, that the particle,
"not," seems entirely to be redundant: for
the place of the Bishop buried not so long ago did not need to be
taught by revelation, and its truth proved by the very digging up of the body.
Besides the Lessons in the feast of the Translation to be mentioned below
say, that "after a certain series of years
an Angel of the Lord appeared to Majolus the Abbot, perhaps then living at Lagny in the neighbourhood.
in a place which is called Laniacus," which more fully would be written Latiniacus;
nor is it not unlikely, that here at some time
came Majolus of Cluny, for the cause of reforming the monastery, and joining it to his Congregation, as generally
through all the provinces of Gaul he joined many.
§. II. Translation to Gournay, cultus, miracles; whether after the extinguished memory there of S. Guitmar Abbot of Centule?
[9] Both Acts and Lessons narrate, how
the body of S. Hildevertus carried out from Meaux, came to a halt at
Gournay, The body afterwards translated to Gournay, on the border of Normandy on
the river Epte. This carrying out, although in the smaller Acts it is said
to have been done some months after the first translation;
elsewhere however either no time is defined,
or a longer interval is supposed, especially in the Lesson
which fifty years ago was sent to us from Rouen by P.
Joannes Dardes, which with many circumstances not found elsewhere
thus adorns and explains the matter: "The Lord Jesus,
who in the Gospel said, 'No one lights a lamp
and places it in hiding under a bushel, but on a candlestick';
wishing to manifest S. Hildevertus,
and to show his virtues; after with many
miracles he had declared his virtue in the city of Meaux,
it pleased to prove also in the parts of Normandy
in this manner. Luc. 11, 13 There were three Clerics, who by divine
nod received his sacred body, and through many
times and places carried it, and finally to Normandy
came, there it stops and is retained, in the village which is called Gournay,
where they stayed for a certain time. When
however they wished to depart with the sacred body, the body remained
immovable. Whence as if astonished and stupefied
they came to Hugh, the Count of that place,
narrating the deed. The Count hearing them rejoiced,
hoping that with God's mercy favoring, what
had begun, by the miracles and virtues of that glorious
Confessor, would be consummated, and the whole province would be honored:
and to the same Clerics he gave many gifts both in
jewels and in other things. Wonderful matter! the Count wishing
to prove whether it was the sacred body of S. Hildevertus,
or not, ordered a great fire to be lit, and the holy
head to be cast into the midst: but soon springing back,
it passed into the bosom of the wife of the said Count. Why
more? the year XXVII? on that day, namely * May XXVI, many
were healed from various languors, … then
the said Count placed his venerable body in a silver case
honourably, as appears to those seeing."
[10] Mabillon at the cited place says, that the said Body
by order of Walter Pontiff of Rouen, and in the year 1201 is translated to a silver case. through
Hilbert Archbishop of Canterbury, was placed in that case in which now it is held in the year
MCCI; but the head in a golden shrine, at the expense of Blanche
wife of Philip VI King of the French, skillfully
elaborated about the year of the Lord MCCCLXXV.
What therefore if in the XII century verging to its end, we should say
the Translation of the body to the Normans was made, almost two
centuries after the first made by Abbot Majolus? Perhaps
by this reason will be solved the difficulty, which Mabillon
greatly tortured, in the Centula Chronicle of Hariulf,
about the fourth Abbot of that place reading thus, in book 1,
chapter 27. "Then, namely when the Centula and Jumièges
monasteries began to be ruled by one and the same Abbot,
truly holy and good faithful ones, There a church sacred to S. Guitmar Abbot, did not greatly
care to commit what was being done to writings,
who strove for this alone, that in the book of life
they might deserve to be inscribed: whence we would have utterly been ignorant of the Abbots
of that time, unless the venerable
Abbot Angelrand (he who wrote the Life of S. Richarius
the founder, and was the author for Hariulf himself of beginning the Chronicle)
had taken some care of this: who while
he was touching the Catalogue of the ancient Abbots, from
them suggested one was Guitmar, whom
he also titled a most holy man: and because of so great a man
such a testimony deserved, it is worthy that by us
little ones he be remembered, who by the mouth of a truly holy man
is noted as Most Holy. He buried in the soil of Neustria
rests, and in his name a dedicated church
stands: who of how great holiness and justice he was,
we indeed do not undertake to say, but to those who
serve his holy body we commit it to be proclaimed."
[11] To these things Mabillon; "Would," he says, "that he himself had executed it!
He made the Benedictines suspect, For the Canons of the Collegiate Church
erected at Gournay, where S. Guitmar in the time of Hariulf,
that is the XI century, was resting, and was illustrating the church
with his name, allowed the memory of their primary
Patron to be obliterated to such a degree, that not even the name
with them is left. Only now
among them is heard S. Hildevertus, Bishop of Meaux,
Patron of his church; whom they confound with our Guitmar,
when they read in the ecclesiastical Office that Hildevertus
from a Luxeuil Monk became Abbot of the monastery of S. Richarius,
then was Bishop of Meaux… But I know not whether the body of S. Hildevertus the Bishop
was translated to Gournay,
who afterwards obscured the memory of Abbot Guitmar
and at last completely abolished it; or whether Guitmar
by another name was called Hildevertus; although
no mention of this matter, nor of the Centula prefecture
in the Acts of S. Hildevertus, which I do not greatly
approve." Nor do we approve those greatly, yet by such a recent
Office, as is alleged by Mabillon (for the Lessons a little older
related above mention neither Luxeuil nor Centula),
we cannot be moved, that he is the same one who is venerated under the name of Hildevert: to receive a double
title or name in the same Saint. I would rather say that the people of Gournay,
moved by the authority of the Centula people,
constantly affirming their fourth Abbot
to have been buried and venerated at Gournay, at length
consented to that conjunction of titles: but the Centula people
at the beginning of this century, when their Hariulf
was still hidden from them, struggling with worms and moths, and so
the names of the first Abbots were held unknown;
that fourth one, whom they believed to have been buried at Gournay by tradition handed down
through hands, called Hildevertus, namely because
this one alone was known to be venerated at Gournay. By such men certainly
instructed Robert Chenu, around the year MDCXXVI Author
of Gallia Christiana, in the Centula Abbots wrote:
"S. Ildevertus, whose Relics are at Gournay":
and so even in the Centula Sacristy today
hangs a Tablet of the Patrons of the place, in which is named S. Idvertus.
But at length the same Centula people began under
the rite of a semi-double Office to venerate, not on this, but on the X day of December,
S. Ildvertus who is also Guitmar: which
I would say, after Mabillon's divination, was first
assumed: for if they had done that before, he himself
without doubt would have spoken more confidently.
[12] Therefore with these things in no way obstructing, which have no
foundation in older authority, and granted that
Hariulf speaks of the Gournay Canons (for that he speaks
of them as certain Mabillon holds, but it is likely that the cultus of Guitmar with the church earlier ceased, not accustomed
to assert anything rashly) all things seem to be reconcilable
by distinguishing the times, in which Guitmar was buried at Gournay,
and to the same brought Hildevertus. For
Guitmar died about the year DCCL; Hariulf gave his
Chronicle, by Lord Saxowal many years before begun,
… completed in the year MLXXXVIII:
after which year, until S. Heriverius's
Translation to Gournay, about a hundred years having elapsed,
could have sufficed, that the earlier S. Guitmar church there,
which when Hariulf was writing was three centuries old, either by age introducing
decay collapsed, or by some whirl of wars between the Franks
and Normans then frequent was overturned,
and even the very tomb of S. Guitmar dissipated; or
with the bones raised from the earth secretly taken away in a chest
ceased to be seen, and at the same time the cultus vanished, with the College of Canons
which had been there before having dispersed. But when the Count
of Gisors Castle, distant only five leagues, of whom
even one had the name Hugh, around the year MCXXIV
named by Ordericus Vitalis, than Hildevertus was brought to Gournay, and could have had
a son or grandson of the same name as successor; when, I say,
such or even some nearer Toparch and at the same time
Lord of Gournay, plotted the restoration of the desolate place;
opportunely it fell that the body of S. Hildevertus was brought there,
and stopped by miracle; and so a new church under
the name of S. Hildevertus arose, with the Normans little caring
to renew the old patronage of Guitmar the Frank,
especially with the body no longer appearing, which would attract
the devotion of the peoples, and with a new guest shining with so many
miracles. But that he is truly the Bishop of Meaux,
perhaps secretly carried off, is the more easily believed, that
his Church confesses long since to lack him, nor any other
claims him for itself except Gournay. To me also it seems likely,
that the Translation to Normandy was not made
by public counsel of the Clergy, although otherwise it was not unusual
for the cause of some ecclesiastical necessity through
neighboring regions the bodies of Saints to be carried about; but
by those three Clerics, intending to gain by popular piety, the sacred pledge
was secretly taken away; and that to the nearby
and hostile Normandy, where they would act more freely
from the Franks, who would demand it back.
[13] and held Patron of the mad, However it be, since the Saint rested at Gournay and
was illustrious for miracles, especially in healing the mad
and otherwise disturbed, not only in Normandy, but also
in France he began to be celebrated. Witness is the city of Paris,
which once erected a Hospital, added to it a church,
under the title of S. Hildevertus: whose cultus there, as
primary Patron persists, even after that church being taken
from the Hospital, was made parochial under the title of holy
Cross. There in the parish of S. Lawrence is an old
Confraternity of S. Hildevertus, into which the piety of the Faithful from
old custom takes care to inscribe, if anyone they have at home
mentally afflicted or possessed: and this is so commonly known, that
when someone recently had committed murder, to deliver him from the guilt and,
what was consequent, from death, it availed to produce
the Album of the Hildevertine Sodality, in which already
long since was inscribed the name of him who was sought for capital punishment.
I would believe similar at Rouen is that, from whose Ms.
P. Dardes gave us the following Miracle: which miracle
could also have provided the occasion for the said devotion,
by which the mad are commended to that Saint. Some
however suspect, that from the affinity of words, Hildevertus
and Vertigo, the beginning could be taken: since there are
not wanting many common examples of Saints, taken into patronage from no other
cause, than that their name is related to the evil,
against which they are invoked, or there is something in art or any kind of work
that inclines to it. The miracle itself is thus narrated.
[14] Since what we have seen and heard we ought not
to cover with silence, fearing that of the threatening judge
through Ezekiel; "I will make your tongue cleave to your palate, and you shall be mute"; we shall describe
one of the wonderful things, which our Lord Jesus
Christ, to the honor of his name and of the glorious Virgin
Mary and of the kind-flowing Bishop Hildevertus, deigned
to work. Ezech. 3, 26. There was therefore in a borough, from which a new bride alienated from her husband, which is called Enguin,
a certain young woman, named Mathilda, whose
father was Robert, mother was called Agnes: who their daughter
tenderly loving, and providing for her in the future,
destined her for nuptials. They gave her as wife
to a certain merchant, named Nicholas: and that of many
I may speak few, with the solemnities of Mass celebrated, and
the joys of the nuptials completed, to the nuptial bed
they came. But she in every way refused her husband's
embraces, and as if raging with diabolic fury,
with nails and teeth afflicting him, drove him utterly
from her: which he afterwards intimated to her parents,
but profited nothing. Not long after to Poitou
he set out for trade, and there for almost a month
stayed: then with business expedited he returned to his own,
and was received with joy by the parents of his wife,
a feast made for many friends,
who after the meal departed. Then after an interval she somewhat
slept beside the hearth. And when she had risen
from sleep, her heart pained her, soon also deprived of speech and gait, and possessed, although little
she had eaten: because she was not cheerful at her husband's return.
So immediately alone she went out into the bushes, which was
behind the house; and it seemed to her she heard the voice of many,
making a great noise, and a certain one approached
to her, and with extended hand seized her by the throat
and strongly squeezed. She wishing to cry out, felt another,
who placed two fingers in her mouth, whence she utterly
lost the use of tongue and feet. But seeing
her husband that she stayed longer than was right, sent
to investigate what delayed her. The sent ones coming,
found her rolled on the ground and as if dead.
Which astonished returning they reported to their Lord:
who continually running took her in his arms
and carried her away: and fearing lest by her parents it be imputed to him,
hastening went to them, and reported
to them what had happened. From that hour therefore the demon
vexed her, who had entered her, twice in the day, morning
and evening. The parents grieving for the daughter's
trouble, when through physicians they could not aid her,
although they were wealthy; for her to God
and his Saints they made vows and paid them,
bringing her to be carried to the thresholds of the Saints. But the kindly and
merciful God, whose judgments are a great abyss, had assigned
her to his faithful one S. Hildevertus, and through his merits
had decreed the demon to be expelled. So on Saturday
before Ascension at Gournay to the church of the holy
Confessor Hildevertus she came, first somehow restored at Gournay, which by the Canons
of the church, clerics and laymen, was very often visited and comforted:
for she was, as could be seen by externals,
devoted to God, namely, in beating of the breast, in raising hands
and eyes to the heavens, in giving of alms,
in nods and signs sufficiently affable. And when
on the morrow of the Ascension after Matins the Clergy
among themselves spoke about her, and were inquiring of the manner
of the infirmity, it is understood that she was vexed by a demon,
of which in the Gospel is read, that the disciples could not
cast it out, that it would not be cast out except by prayer
and fasting. Matth. 17, 20. Trusting therefore in such oracle, we came
to her, and with diligence we admonished, that of the snares of slippery
age she repent, and have true contrition of heart,
and promise to God satisfaction for things committed,
and Confession of mouth with all affection of soul,
if he should restore to her the office of tongue. Who to all our
words, prone, as she was able, humbly
assented. But considering her devotion,
we asked from her, that she should show us by signs,
if she wished to be communicated with the Sacrament of the Lord's body
and blood; adding, that with such a guest
the malign spirit could not long dwell. And immediately
at the altar of B. Mary the Virgin a Mass, which for
the sick is instituted, with her present on the bed, is celebrated.
The Gospel according to Mark is not omitted,
which we have foresent; and to all standing there,
both Clerics and laymen, asking their charity in
the Lord we declare, that for her they should beseech the Lord.
[15] Afterwards, on the Saturday at evening,
and approaching the hour of her vexation, we came
to the church to visit her: and many flowed in from the town
and neighboring villages, then having suffered fainting, who by inspiration of God's grace
came to so solemn a miracle.
Read therefore over her the Gospel of S. John,
"In the beginning was the Word"; and that of S. Mark, "Master
I have brought my son to you"; and she many times sprinkled with holy water,
we placed the text of the Gospel over
her head, putting a blessed stole around
her neck. Then we offered her sanctuaries to be kissed,
a pledge in a silver cross of the Cross of the Lord,
likewise also relics of holy Hildevertus: and we ordered,
that as much as possible she say the Lord's prayer,
the Apostles' Symbol, the Angelic salutation,
and protect herself with the sign of the Cross, and commend herself
to God's mercy. Which done immediately
she began to be deprived of strength. Her limbs grew stiff as if
they were iron, and she became as if dead. So with silence
made, one of the Priests said: "Let us all pray
to the Lord from the depths of our hearts, that he who marvelously
created her and more marvelously redeemed her, and who
inspired in her the breath of life, through the intercession of B.
Mary and of the most glorious Confessor Hildevertus, may
deign to free her from the demon; and open her mouth, as
he opened that of Zacharias the Prophet, that with the bond of tongue loosened
she may confess to the Lord, and let us singing say: 'We bless
the God of heaven, and before all the living
we shall confess to him, because he has done his
mercy with us.'" Wonderful matter! Immediately it seemed to her, that
the Mother of the Incarnate God stood before her, and said
to her, "Mathilda, what are you doing? how is it with you?" She replied:
"My Lady, I am very anxious." And she said to her, "Do not
doubt, daughter, for near is the hour in which you shall be freed
from this infirmity." And she said to her: "Lady, shall I be freed
from my infirmity?" She replied: "Indeed." But
she: "Who are you, my Lady?" "I am," she said, "Mother
of the only-begotten Son of God. Heed what I say: Soon
you shall be healed: and was freed. and when you have been restored to health,
cause to be incensed the altar of S. Hildevertus, and mine, and afterwards
yourself." Saying these things she disappeared. Afterwards it seemed to her that
a silver bier, which is beside the altar, in which
are the relics of S. Hildevertus, opened itself: and thence coming
before her, and lightly touched her, saying: "Trust,
daughter: for behold soon the mercy of God
you shall obtain." Saying these things he disappeared. All these things she reported
with tongue freed, after she obtained healing.
But with the prayer of Clergy and people made, with some
prostrate to the ground, most with bent knees, the Relics
are placed; with the stole removed which was around her neck,
with mouth most abundantly opened, with tongue more amply
freed, the demon went out confused, with many tears poured forth
for joy by the faithful. Then a certain Priest
touched her tongue with a tooth of B. Hildevertus, and the tongue resumed
between her mouth with the holy tooth, she closed her mouth and
drew her lips. Without delay she opened her mouth, and the Priest,
skilfully drew out the holy tooth: and she calmed,
the Priest said to her: "Mathilda, cry out, 'Holy Hildevertus.'"
And immediately with the bond of tongue loosened she cried out,
"Holy Hildevertus," again and again. And
again the Priest cried out to her, "Holy Mary";
and she, "Holy Mary." Afterwards admonished she cried out,
"S. Lawrence." With these things completed there is begun, "Te
Deum laudamus": which while it was sung with tears
and the bells were rung, with great voices
she exclaimed saying, "Incense the altar of S. Hildevertus, and
S. Mary, and afterwards me: so the blessed Mother
of God ordered to be done for me." Then with due honor the altars were incensed,
and afterwards she herself by God's mercy was freed,
with the merits and intercessions
of the glorious Confessor and Pontiff Hildevertus intervening, whose
memory is in benediction.
[16] Thus far the Ms. of the Hildevertine Sodality, for whose
use, about two centuries ago, the Life was rendered into French: and
an old transcript of this vision is with us, but is thus
ended: The Relics themselves how held: "Our Lord did many miracles through S. Hildevertus
while he lived; and daily still he does
in the Collegiate church, founded under his name at Gournay:
where his body venerably rests
in a tomb, covered with silver: but the head, even
now covered with flesh, is preserved separately in a rich
case, fabricated of pure ducal gold. The Roman Pontiffs,
duly informed of pilgrims daily coming there
and the frequency of miracles, especially
in the liberation of energumens and of those alienated from mind;
granted various Indulgences, Indulgences: perpetually
to be obtained by those, who in any year visit the church
of S. Hildevertus on May XXVII and XXVIII.
There is also in the village called Verre, where the Saint is believed
to have been born, a gushing fountain, fountain: in a certain meadow,
pertaining to his (as is reported) patrimony, from
which the sick drinking, frequently drink health."
Thus far that one: but Verre is a town of Picardy, a league and a half
from Amiens, about ten distant from Gournay. The feast
of the Translation usually celebrated on August XXV, Translation Aug. 25. I think pertains to that one,
in which I have said the Holy body was translated to a silver case
in the year MCCI: and there is for that day an Office wholly
proper in Antiphons, Responsories and Hymns, and
this Collect: "Grant we beseech omnipotent God, that
we who celebrate with annual obedience of due veneration
the Translation of B. Hildevertus your Confessor and Pontiff,
against all things adversing us may be defended
by the obedience of his intercession."