ON ST. RAGNULFUS MARTYR
AT TELODIUM NEAR ARRAS IN ARTOIS.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE. Concerning the cultus, elevation, and age of the Saint.
ABOUT A.D. DCC.
CommentaryRagnulfus Martyr at Telodium, near Arras in Artois (S.)
G. H.
Telodium, commonly Telu or Teluch,
a village neighbouring the city of Arras
is, pertaining to the Domain of the Abbot
of S. Vaast, Sacred cultus on May 27 in whose Church
the sacred body of S. Ragnulfus the Martyr
is preserved, and is venerated with solemn
Ecclesiastical Office on this May XXVII.
Of him in the genuine Martyrology of Usuard
these things are read: "In the territory of Adartensia of S.
Ragnulfus the Martyr." With Usuard cited the same things, but with phrase of today,
in the Roman Martyrology are recited thus: "In the village
of Arras of S. Ranulphus Martyr." In Bellinus,
and Greven, and in the Ms. Florarium, also Ramulfus
he is called. But Ranulphus in the Beauvais Breviary of the year
MDLIV. His sacred body long ago was translated from Telodium
within the city of Arras, and in the church of the monastery
of S. Vaast deposited, and placed in a case with this inscription: the elevation of the body made in the year 1188
"In the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand one hundred
eighty-eight, with the King reigning in France the youthful
Philip, son of King Louis, son of Louis
the Great King; with William, uncle of the same King,
being Archbishop of Reims (in the year, namely, in which the same
King the youth and Henry the Elder King of the English,
Philip Count of Flanders, and almost all the Princes
of the Christian religion took the Cross,
because Saladin had occupied almost the whole land of Jerusalem
up to the sea) Lord Henry,
formerly Abbot of Clairvaux, Bishop Cardinal of Albano,
and Legate of the Apostolic See, by the Lord
Pope Clement sent to Gaul for the cause of preaching,
coming into the church of S. Vaast,
solemnly placed the Body of S. Ranulphus Martyr, with Lord
Peter the Bishop, and Lord John the Abbot, many
persons and the whole Convent present, in this bier
on the II Ides of February." Thus there. The said Cardinal
Henry assigned here in the year MCLXXXVIII at Arras
died. But Peter, from a Cistercian Abbot was made
Bishop of Arras in the year MCLXXX, dying in the year
MCCIII. But John was created Abbot of S. Vaast in the year
MCLXXXVI, after four years of rule departing life.
From what is said it is clear that S. Ragnulfus was crowned with martyrdom,
although the cause and kind of martyrdom are hidden. For
what in the Martyrologies of Liège of S. Lambert and S. Lawrence
is said that his deeds are had, we judge to have been wrongly
translated to him from some other Saint. The case of the Relics was
in the year MDCII under Philip Caverel, the case opened in the year 1602. most worthy
Abbot of the cenobium of S. Vaast, opened: and noted is that some
injury appears in the cranium.
[2] The time of the martyrdom could be indicated, if what by Baudry
in the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras book 1 chapter 34
is brought forward under doubt, were certain to be true, namely, that some
assert, that S. Hadulf, Time of life. Bishop of Cambrai
and Arras, was the son of S. Ragnulfus the Martyr:
of whom, he adds, "those of the faithful who survived to our times
testified that they had seen many miracles at his tomb":
which last words to be understood
of S. Ragnulfus the Martyr transmits Molanus in the Natales
of the Saints of Belgium on this May XXVII. But S. Hadulf,
as in his Life on May XIX we have said, was made
Abbot II of S. Vaast in the year DCCX, and Bishop departed
in the year DCCXXVIII; and so S. Ragnulfus
would have to be said to have undergone martyrdom about the year DCC. In the Martyrologies
of the Mss. Alberg of the Canons Regular, Utrecht of the church
of S. Hieronymus, Leiden of S. Cecilia, and various
others, and in the Ms. Florarium, S. Ragnulfus is called
Bishop and Martyr. But this dignity of Bishop
we judge to have been wrongly transferred to him from S. Hadulf.
[5] Rayssius in the Hierogazophylacium of Belgium among the Relics
of the Cathedral Church of Arras, Some Relics in the Cathedral, and cultus on Nov. 9. which in a silver case,
fabricated to the form of the Mosaic ark, are preserved,
are said in the Index to be Relics of S. Ragnulphus from
his own body: and his feast in the said church
and diocese together with S. Theodore Martyr is celebrated on November IX:
and this prayer about both is prescribed in the old Breviary:
"God who surround and protect us with the glorious confessions
of your blessed Martyrs Theodore and Ranulphus;
grant to us we beseech you to advance by their imitation
and to be supported by their prayer." S. Ragnulfus is referred
on the said day in the Ms. of Brussels of S. Gudula,
and by Greven, Canisius and Molanus, who in the cited elogy
gathers, that by Usuard was noted as a birthday,
when also in the church of S. Vaast he is venerated: yet that the diocese
of his birth venerates him on the day of the elevation of the body, and of the Relics
received for its church. But on the contrary Saussay
in the Gallican Martyrology writes these things on the day IX
of November: "On the same day in the Arras territory the passion of S.
Ragnulfus the Martyr, who killed by the impious, and
for the merits of justice crowned by God, with many virtues from the tomb
of glorious help shone in
the church of S. Vaast Confessor." But on day May XXVII
he reports these things: "In the Arras territory the invention and reposition
of S. Ragnulfus the Martyr, whose triumphal day
is celebrated there on the fifth Ides of November." But similar things by
Saussay from his own invention to be defined we have often observed; therefore we are less moved by his authority.