ON S. HELMTRUDE THE RECLUSE,
IN THE PADERBORN DIOCESE OF WESTPHALIA.
CENT. X OR XI.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Helmtrudis, Recluse in the Paderborn Diocese of Westphalia (S.)
G. H.
Herisia, commonly Herse, by a very ancient
College of Canoness Virgins,
after the year DCCCLXXV, The Saint born at Herisia
founded, a notable place, and once adorned
with many Relics of Saints,
is described by several on XX
May, where of S. Saturnina the Virgin
and Martyr, the old Patroness
there, is treated. Of the same, in a certain old Appendix of the
Ursuline Acts in Crombach, thus is read,
so that at the same time the notice of the same Saint seems to us to be given,
of whom we proposed to treat in the title: There is a place in
Saxony (Lower namely, embracing all Westphalia)
Herse, and there even today a glorious congregation
of Sanctimonial women, where a certain Recluse, of incomparable
life and special merit, Helendruda,
born and nourished, the course of most holy life completed,
now corporeally rests in peace; although
some part of her last time on a mountain, on which
the city Iburg, of the Osnabrück diocese, is situated, in the same
sanctity she passed. and there buried she shines with miracles. Of her life and sanctity
so many are witnesses, as either today are at Herse Sanctimonials,
or thence have been: and most truly;
as God with the words of men assenting.
For even today, at her tomb, frequently
is restored light to the blind, gait to the lame, the sick to
the use of life are restored, and those possessed by unclean spirits
are cleansed.
[2] So he, not indeed a most ancient writer, and who
before not many centuries lived, she is inscribed in the Calendar of Paderborn. in the judgment of Crombach
in the Ursuline Vindicia p. 14; an apt witness however of the cult
of S. Helendruda (as he himself calls her) among the Herisians
most known in his time. Wherefore I cannot doubt, that
she herself it is, whose name on this day with the names of SS. Cantius,
Cantianus, Cantianilla, and Petronilla, our Joannes
Gamansius found in the same old hand, in a very ancient,
as he says, and notable parchment Calendar of the
Cathedral Library of Paderborn, thus written,
Helmtruth, Handmaid of God and Recluse; in the same
manner namely, by which elsewhere in the same Calendar, with the proper
Patrons of the diocese concurring, their names to the names of old
Saints and others common are ascribed,
as he says: her bones seem to have been scattered by heretics. wherefore he does not doubt to write her Saint absolutely,
in his Notes to the aforesaid Calendar. Now
that of her no veneration among the Herisians, perhaps not even
memory remains, seems to have been done by the war of Christian,
heretical Duke of Brunswick, in which the Relics of the temple,
with tombs overturned, through the whole pavement were dispersed,
nor without confusion by the holy Virgins
again were collected; unless perchance by some earlier
devastation of the monastery the sepulchre of Helmtrudis happened
to be violated, and elsewhere her body to be removed or dispersed.
[3] Appearing to her S. Cordula the Ursuline, To her, as the same Ursuline Appendix has, with a long series
of times, after the Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins,
elapsed, appeared in vision S. Cordula; and her,
as if her tent-companion, whether she recognized her, asked.
She however, although holy and in mind
now next to God, yet still corruptible, and
as if corruption not bearing incorruption, of divine
beauty and gravity the person abhorred:
for the Virgin of God beyond all human craft was clothed
marvelously, a crown intertwined with lilies and roses alternating bearing
on her head. The Handmaid
of God therefore, breathing from fear, unworthy of the Majesty's
acknowledgment to be replied; When I, she said,
am subject to the laws of carnal sin; you however,
now into the order of the Heavenly assumed, are alien
from all corruption. Then she, You should know, said, me
to have been one of the sacred number of Cologne Virgins;
who, with them in the contest of Christ triumphing,
one night I survived; and the following day, desirous of death,
of my own accord I offered myself to the executioners; and so in Christ
dying, neither did I desert my Sisters, nor did I lose
the social crown of Martyrdom. she asks and obtains a proper feast at Cologne. Therefore when of those
most glorious passage day with due now devotion
all Cologne venerates, of my name not even brief
still recollection is held. Hence now coming
I enjoin to you this of obedience, that to the Sanctimonial women,
devoutly watching at our bodies, you announce
from me; that, when of my Sisters' triumphal
glory they celebrate, on the next day to me also
something of veneration they pay: because by no means is it
expedient for them, that among all who there rest,
of my name only the reverence be none. And when she
inquired of her name, she was ordered by the Virgin
to behold her brow, that this name to her was indubitably
she might know, which there she found engraved.
She obeyed, saw, and read; and with distinct syllables,
Cordula, distinctly written she found. The Handmaid
of God therefore reported to the Sanctimonial women the divine oracle;
and was believed and then established, that when of the Holy
Virgins the solemnity is held, the next day to S.
Cordula's praises be devoted.
[4] B. Imadus, after the year MLII Bishop of Paderborn,
left to his Church a Martyrology augmented by his proper study,
where, on this last of May, is prescribed
to be made the Commemoration of Hildruda, she is inscribed in the Martyrology, Handmaid of God
and at Herisia Recluse, to whom was revealed S.
Cordula. So one and the same name is variously written,
and her cult some more and more is confirmed; even if
neither Saint nor Blessed title is ascribed. She is venerated
S. Cordula on XXII October, on which day more
is to be treated of her: meanwhile from Crombach p.
498 I note, that Bruno II, Archbishop of Cologne,
consecrated some altar of S. Cordula,
in the year MCXXXV, and of the festivity, as already at that time, and seems to have lived in the 10th or 11th century.
distinct from the previous day, makes mention. If this is so, it seems
altogether that Helmtrudis, or (as others write) Helintrudis
or Helendrudis, lived in the X or XI century;
of whom would that more had been written, and at some time could be brought into
light. Herself meanwhile here placed, can be expunged,
what in the order of the Praetermitted of her we wrote,
as more fully treating of her on the day of S. Cordula in the month
of October.