William

ON ST. WILLIAM, HERMIT IN THE DIOCESE OF STRASBOURG,

ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE NINTH CENTURY.

William, hermit in Alsace. (S.)

BY C. D. S.

[1] St. William, of whom a writer of the thirteenth century relates a few things, Whatever is reported among more recent writers concerning the history of this saint and of his successor Acheric has been taken from the Chronicle of Richer of Sens, written a little before the middle of the thirteenth century, where Book II, ch. 9 (in d'Achery, Spicileg., vol. II, p. 614). these things are read: At the same time, moreover Cf. the following num., there was a certain primicerius of Metz, Blidulf by name, a just and prudent man, who, leaving all that he possessed, in his longing resolved to seek a place suited to his conversion. Having long sought it, he at last came, in the valley called Lebrath, to a little valley enclosed among the mountains, in which on the slope of the mountain toward the south he erected a cell, and called it Beaumont. He built a church there, and furnished in it nine altars with screens and crypts. Workshops, too, he erected around it and a cloister according to the position of the place for the use of the monks: and he acquired some revenues there, and, brothers being gathered, devoted to God, he led a celibate Cf. above, p. 44, annot. a on the Life of St. Pirmin. life. Many, hearing of the sanctity of the man of God, strove to join themselves to his way of life. Among these were two noble by race and faith, William and Acheric, both of whom could have been made equal in merits to the founder of that place. One of the two, indeed, is said to have been famous for such evident miracles both in life and after life that his sacred body was translated from the place of burial in a shrine: and his relics afterward, placed in a new case adorned with silver and gold in the time of a certain priest, Hesso by name, are still preserved in that church. The other, Acheric, the successor of the same William, ruled that church and place for some time: and he was of such great fame that, the name of Beaumont by which it had earlier been called being given up, they called the place Acheric, so that the estate itself is still called by that name. In it afterward there were noble men, in whose days silver mines were discovered, from which it is said that much silver was dug. Of the progeny of these nobles there afterward came men who in our times built a castle in that valley of Lebrath, which they called by the aforesaid name Acherich. That St. Acheric, moreover, full of days, departed to the Lord. His body is seen buried in the middle of the choir in that church before the altar of Blessed Mary. That cell of Acherich was then at one time assigned by the said men to Moyenmoutier *. In that cell the monks of Moyenmoutier are said to have lived almost down to our times. Now, however, through the negligence of the monks it has been made a parish church.

[2] he flourished before the middle of the ninth century; At what time our St. William lived seems at first sight to be readily gathered from the said place of the Chronicle of Sens. For in ch. 7 of the same book II Richer reports the things that happened in the year 894, and in ch. 8 what followed in the second year after … and in the following year and two years thereafter. Then follows the narrative cited above: At the same time, moreover…; and the following chapter, or 10, begins with these words: In the year of the Lord DCCCCXLII… From these things, therefore, it would seem to be altogether concluded that the foundation of the cell of Beaumont and the very naming of the place should be tied to the beginning of the tenth century, and consequently that St. William flourished shortly afterward. But against this conclusion stands the diploma of King Lothar II, by which in the year 858 he confirmed a donation made to the church of Beaumont, with this tenor: Lothar, by the prevenient grace of God king. The venerable Ackrich and Hesso the dean have implored our sublimity, humbly praying that by privileges of our highness we would confirm and strengthen whatever has been granted by Count Lutard and Hugh his brother to the church that is called Belmont, from the goods which they had both in manses and in men in the said place, and which are known to have come to them by hereditary right through the death of Count Luitfrid, their father. We therefore, giving assent to their imploring, by these letters of our royal dignity confirm and strengthen whatever the aforesaid counts have offered to the said church of Belmont through the hands of the venerable Ackrich and Hesso, that they may possess it peacefully and acquire it firmly and perennially for the said church. — The sign of King Lothar. I, Benzelin, in the stead of Ercembold the chancellor, have recognized and subscribed. Given on the Ides of October in the year, Christ being propitious, of the reign of the Lord King Lothar IV, indiction VII. Done at Strasbourg in the royal palace, in the name of God Schoepflin, Alsatia diplomatica, vol. I, p. 89.. So the church of Beaumont already existed in the year 858, and indeed under the rule of Acheric, successor of William, who consequently must altogether be supposed to have died by that time. Whence it is finally gathered that he lived before the middle of the ninth century.

[3] immediately after his death he was honored with public cult, Further, from the double document cited, if indeed, as can scarcely be doubted, Hesso the priest, mentioned in the narrative of Richer, is the same as Hesso the dean, who is named in the diploma of Lothar, it is established that soon after his death William was deemed worthy of the honors of the blessed in heaven, since his relics were placed by Hesso in a new case adorned with silver and gold, when his sacred body had already earlier been translated from the place of burial in a shrine Above, num. 1 middle.. His festival was celebrated by the monks of Moyenmoutier on the 3rd of November, as the martyrology of this monastery witnesses, in which was read: On the third day before the Nones of November. At the village of Echeric, St. William the hermit, a man of great power [Cited in Ruyr, Recherche des sainctes antiquitez de la Vosge (Espinal, 1633), p. 229.]. At the same day our saint is announced by Greven in his edition of the martyrology of Usuard: William, confessor, and by Philip Ferrari in his General Catalogue: In the territory of Strasbourg, St. William the hermit. And in our days too the memory of SS. William and Acheric is observed on the 3rd of November in the diocese of Strasbourg with simple rite, there being added namely to the office of the octave of All Saints a proper lesson about them and a commemoration at first vespers and at lauds.

[4] and in ancient times a church was dedicated to his name. Next to the village of Acheric [Commonly Escherich or Eckirch, in French Echery (G. Stoffel, Dict. topographique du departement du Haut-Rhin, p. 40).] there lay formerly the village of Saint-William Ibid., whose church, dedicated under the title of St. William, famous for the frequent concourse of pious pilgrims there, was in the place of a parish for the Catholics of the nearby town of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Commonly Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, in German Markirch (ibid., p. 162)., in the district of Colmar. But at the end of the seventeenth century King Louis XIV built a church in the town itself consecrated under the patronage of St. Louis, to which the parish of Saint-William was transferred. The village itself is now called after St. Blaise Hunckler, Histoire des saints d' Alsace (Strasbourg, 1837), p. 510.. The church of Acheric, moreover, was occupied around the end of the sixteenth century by the Lutheran heretics and thereafter remained in their hands [Belhomme Hist. Mediani Monasterii (Strasbourg, 1724), p. 185.].

* Moyenmoutier