ON ST. GIRARD, MONK O.S.B., AT ANGERS IN THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-AUBIN,
IN THE YEAR 1123.
COMMENTARIUS PRAEVIUS
Girard, monk of Angers. (S.)
BY I. D. B.
[1] Of Blessed Girard, bright with the fame of holiness, Before the French upheaval, in the city of Angers the Benedictine monks at Saint-Aubin kept the feast day of St. Girard with a Mass and proper office; but now, as if that saint had fallen from the memory of men, he no longer enjoys any remembrance in the Proper of the church of Angers. Yet he had among his contemporaries and near-contemporaries no ignoble name. For when in the year 1123 he departed from earth to heaven, in the mortuary roll by which the monks of Saint-Aubin informed the churches situated round about of the death of Marbod, bishop of Rennes, they reported these things about Blessed Girard: We commend also to your prayers the passing of the lord Gerard, our brother, a man plainly wonderful, whom indeed we saw in our times drag out a prolonged martyrdom. Poor in goods, rich in merits, sparing to himself, generous to the needy, whose honorable way of life was in heaven while he led an angelic life on earth: for where his treasure was, there was his mind also; who according to the apostle presented himself a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; to whom, constantly attending by fasting, keeping vigil and praying, laden with iron and bound with chains, he tirelessly rendered reasonable service; and, to set out great things briefly, he began a wonderful life wonderfully and finished it more wonderfully, always adding better things to good, and the best to the better. He died, moreover, in the same year Namely 1123., on the day before the nones of November, in a good old age, adorned with the flowers of the virtues, and, rendering his spirit to heaven, committed earth to the earth Delisle, Rouleaux des morts du IXe au XVe siècle, p. 345–46..
[2] A contemporary monk of Saint-Aubin wrote the Vita; Therefore, a few years having passed since the death of the holy man, the abbot and the whole congregation of the brothers prevailed by their prayers upon one of their number, who had lived in the monastery with Girard while he was alive, to take up the burden of writing the Vita. For he testified to these things in the prologue: For not out of levity or arrogance, but for the sake of all piety and obedience, overcome by the commands and prayers of our seniors, we have taken up a labor greater than our strength, who saw the blessed man living in the body together with us, heard and loved him … they rightly judged that it should be committed to letters; and afterwards, when he was about to narrate the happy passing of the blessed man to the Lord, the author himself again in some manner declared when he lived, saying: Omitting many things which we have seen and heard. These things being compared with each other, it seems rightly to be established that the writer of the Vita was a nursling of the monastery of Saint-Aubin at Angers and for some time served as a soldier of the Lord there under regular discipline with St. Girard. And so the Acts of Blessed Girard, as written by a contemporary, are of the best mark, and will teach us fully the character and merits of the blessed man. But because Girard, intent above all on exercising the virtues within the walls of the cloister, scarcely took any part in affairs, from his Acts, which first came out in the year 1869 [In P. Marchegay and Em. Mabille, Chroniques des églises d'Anjou, Paris, 1869, p. 93–126.], little new light has shone on historical matters, nor more on the system of monastic discipline itself. For the various ways of macerating the body which were in use in this age are known from elsewhere; we had found out from many other documents that earthly princes in the eleventh and twelfth centuries laid violent hands on the estates of the monks; nor before the Acts of Blessed Girard were published was it unheard of that some among the Benedictines, turning aside from the common life, led an eremitic life among the brothers. And so, if the Vita of Girard, as regards the main points, teaches the learned scarcely anything new, by this very agreement of the things narrated with the customs of this age we are led to raise no doubt about the authenticity of the Acts.
[3] [To the Vita is subjoined a little book of miracles, written in the middle of the twelfth century] In the twofold codex which we have hitherto found to contain the Vita of Girard, a long series of miracles is annexed to the Vita itself. The writer of these, however, has nowhere left the memory of his name inscribed. Yet we know that he was an eyewitness of the miracles, since he professes: We have decided to declare some miracles which we have seen. From some indications, though somewhat obscure, he betrays himself as a monk of Saint-Aubin. For he proclaims that the twenty-first miracle, worked in the church of Saint-Aubin, was done among us, and relates that in the same church two women See below, miracle 28., who for a week had disturbed our bowels, were granted health. Why would the writer assert that the miracles done afforded us greater joys Miracle 37., unless he himself had been numbered among the monks of Saint-Aubin? Why would he guard himself against the adversaries of the monastic life Miracle 46., unless he himself were a monk? Besides, unless I am mistaken, certain things can be established by probable conjecture about the time at which these miracles were collected. For in the chronicle of Saint-Aubin of Angers not only were these words inscribed at the year 1123: Bishop Marbod died and the lord Girard the monk, but also at the year 1153: St. Girard, monk in the monastery of blessed Albinus at Angers, is held distinguished for many virtues and miracles Marchegay and Mabille, op. cit., p. 32, 37.. But in the miracle
twenty-five, that Henry who, after the death of King Stephen, took up the kingdom of the English in the year 1154, is named, with the royal title omitted, only duke of the Normans and count of the Angevins. He took up the county of Anjou, moreover, in the year 1151. Besides, in the thirty-first miracle we come upon a certain note of time which can agree with the year 1153. For a miracle is related which happened on the vigil of St. Lawrence, which was held to be a Sunday. And in the year 1153, which the chronographer of Saint-Aubin called distinguished for miracles, the vigil of St. Lawrence fell on a Sunday. From these things taken together it seems more probable that the miracles were written down in the fifty-third or fifty-fourth year of the twelfth century.
[4] more probably by the author of the Vita; And these things having been established, it remains finally to inquire whether the little work on the life and the little book of miracles acknowledge the same author. Here one way of concluding is laid open, namely a certain similar manner of writing. Although this kind of argument is for the most part not free from the danger of error, it is nevertheless certain that there are not such differences between the two writings that it must necessarily be established that they were made by different men. Nor, on account of the series of years elapsed between the death of St. Girard, who died in the year 1123, and this description of the miracles made about the year 1154, can it certainly be contended that the two little works have different authors. For not such a series of years has flowed between that a monk contemporary with St. Girard, who began writing when mature in age, could not take up the same burden in the year 1154. Finally, the little book of miracles, which seems to lack its closing clause at the end, more than once presents those formulas by which little books of the same kind are concluded. From this only this can rightly be conjectured, namely that the author, as new miracles were published, drew his pen again and at length left off writing, not because he had cast from his mind the purpose of continuing the work, but because for the time the material for writing was lacking.
[5] which little book will be published here for the first time. Since from the time when the Vita of Blessed Girard first came to light it has by no means happened to us to obtain some third codex with which the printed Vita might be compared, we hope that the learned will approve if, having reprinted the Vita from the edition recently brought out, we publish the miracles from the Paris codex marked no. 13092, which was formerly "from the monastery of Saint-Aubin of Angers" [Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum latinorum bibliothecae nationalis Parisiensis, vol. III, p. 181.], collated with the Angers codex marked no. 738 Lemarchand, Catalogue des manuscrits de la bibliothèque d'Angers, p. 280..
[6] The sick flocked to the tomb of Girard in the twelfth century. In what remains to be said about the veneration shown to the blessed man, we shall follow above all as guide the Rev. Fr. Dom François Chamard, who in his book Les Vies des saints personnages de l'Anjou Vol. II, pp. 158–204. discussed this matter at length. No indications have hitherto been found by which it may be known that the cult of Blessed Girard spread outside the walls of his own house; but at Angers, in the basilica of St. Albanus, his tomb was glorious in the twelfth century. This is manifestly proclaimed by the whole little book of Miracles and by that frequent multitude of the sick running together from the places round about to the mausoleum of the holy man. But we think it is handed down by no arguments that in the same century any elevation of the sacred body from the earth or translation was celebrated by the superiors of Saint-Aubin. In the thirteenth century his relics are raised; In the little book of Miracles mention is made only of two columns which were erected to adorn the burial place of the blessed man. In the thirteenth century, the sacred pledges of Blessed Girard having been translated into a reliquary of silver gilt, his sacred head, set apart from the other relics, was laid away in a silver case. Besides, as the same century was drawing to its end, lest St. Girard should be defrauded of the honor due to him, two chaplaincies were annexed to the altar which was dedicated to his name. But in the fourteenth century, as the monks were falling away from the observance of regular discipline, so too there slipped from their hearts the zeal of ancestral piety toward Girard, so that through a long series of years the memory of so great a patron seemed utterly abolished; in the fifteenth century the cult of Blessed Girard is renewed until in the year 1468, under the presidency of Pierre de Laval, commendatory abbot, the deputies of the whole abbey having been gathered together, it was decided by common counsel to restore the festivity of Blessed Girard. Of the things that were then done the codex of the Angers library marked no. 80 and inscribed Ordo ad usum monasterii Sancti Albini, fol. 74v–75r, relates these:
Note that in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and sixty-eight it was decreed in the general chapter, with the assent and will of the whole convent, in which presided the noble man the lord Pierre de Laval, then commendatory abbot of this monastery, and of the other men then assisting, that the feast of St. Gerard, which had been negligently not solemnized and for some intervals of time, should henceforth be celebrated annually like the feast of St. Clarus, with proper hymns, in the manner which will be said below. At Vespers. Vespers will be said of All Saints … afterwards let Vespers of St. Girald be said. The usual antiphon over the psalms, as it is in the book. Psalms of the weekday. Chapter. Beatus vir qui inventus Blessed is the man who is found. ℞. and ℣. as they are in the book. Station at the altar of St. Girard. ℞. Sanctissime Most holy, with its verse.
[7] and it endures to the end of the eighteenth century. Thenceforth among all who were subject to the jurisdiction of Saint-Aubin the veneration of Blessed Girard was so renewed that not seldom in public agreements time was defined from his festivity. Until the year 1623 Blessed Girard had lain quiet under the altar which had been dedicated to his name. Then, however, when the basilica had to be repaired on that side, the relics of the holy man were carried elsewhere, yet within the precinct of the church. At length in the year 1693 a new chapel in honor of Blessed Girard was built beside the high altar on the Gospel side, under the auspices of the Most Reverend lord abbot Maurice le Pelletier, whose brother presided over the church of Angers. It is handed down to memory that the remains of the servant of God were translated here into the new chapel; and there they remained in great honor until the revolution of the state among the French. For the peoples round about hastened here in rivalry, to call upon the blessed servant of God in their vows. But when the storm was raging, not only the relics of Blessed Girard but also those of the other saints that were kept at Saint-Aubin, lest they be violated by the impious, were hidden through the zeal of a certain most Christian man in the cemetery of Saint-Laud, with such care indeed that afterwards they could in no way be found by M. Le Bastard, parish priest of Saint-Laud, although, indications having been given, he pressed diligently, nor does any sure hope remain that the church of Angers will recover so great a treasure.
LIFE OF ST. GIRARD, CONFESSOR
from the edition of P. Marchegay and Em. Mabille, Chroniques des églises d'Anjou, p. 95–126.
Girard, monk of Angers. (S.)
BHL Number: 3548
PROLOGUE
[1] An unlearned author writes compelled by obedience. Since we desire to hand down in writing to the knowledge of the faithful the deeds of the most holy Girard, we implore the mercy and help of almighty God, from whom is all wisdom, that he who bestowed on him the virtue of living well may grant us the ability of worthily relating his good works. For not out of levity or arrogance, but for the sake of all piety and obedience, overcome by the commands and prayers of our seniors, we have taken up a labor greater than our strength, who saw the blessed man living in the body together with us, heard and loved him, and therefore rightly judged that his admirable life should be committed to letters, to be of profit to men as an example. For as to say what harms is pernicious, so to keep silent about what profits is invidious. And if anyone, disdaining our unskilfulness and the meanness of our state, should think it blameworthy that we have taken over a subject which should deservedly be reserved even for eloquent men, let a censurer of this kind remember that the Lord Jesus announced the holy Gospel to the world not through magistrates and orators but through publicans and sinners; and let him at the same time consider that this saint of whom we have wished to speak, content with humble and small things, set aside the lofty things of the world for the love of Christ, and set the simplicity of holy Scripture above the swelling witticisms of orators. Let it be permitted us, then, to draw out something simply and humbly about a cultivator of simplicity and humility, and, if not gold and silver, at least to offer goats' hair to God in the tabernacle. We confess indeed that some one of the saints more learned than we ought to have been the narrator of this work; but because we see it put off by all, we have preferred to incur the blush of shame rather than allow the deeds of so great a man to be overshadowed by a covering silence. For many useful things, while, as if to be said better by others, they were too often passed over by the learned and the unlearned, have been blotted out by oblivion; whence we detract much from the zeal of the ancients, because they neglected to write the lives and deeds of many saints whose solemnities we now keep and whose acts we do not know: for the example of virtue is easily withdrawn from the memory of men who please the world. Wherefore we shall give our effort, incredible, incredible too the abstinence, to describing the worthy works of this blessed man in truthful rather than eloquent speech, so that at least the skilled and the lofty may have as it were material from which, when they please, they may speak eloquently of him for the edification of the Church.
Annotata* The codices have cupientes.
* The editor corrected to fratrum.
CHAPTER ONE.
The birth and devout upbringing of St. Girard; the beginnings of the monastic life at Saint-Aubin, and his stay on the estate of Brociacum.
[2] Born of devout parents, in the law of the Lord Girard, then, was begotten of free-born parents in the district of Anjou at Château-Gontier a; nurtured by their diligent care and reborn by holy baptism, he was handed over to religious teachers to be imbued with ecclesiastical disciplines and letters. Even in boyhood itself he had already a mature zeal, a singular innocence, a disposition ready not for vices but for ecclesiastical offices. Psalms, and instructed in the ecclesiastical offices, he receives holy orders. hymns, canticles also excerpted from the prophetic books he searched assiduously; but the scurrilities and obscene foulnesses of the poets, which scarcely any man can learn or teach without loss of chastity, he removed from his heart and mouth; the lessons of the authentic books which are recited in the church at various times, the homilies also on the Gospels, the antiphons and responsories, and at the same time the chant of St. Gregory b, he took care to learn and commit to memory. With these and such studies he occupied the times of his boyhood, and filled his breast, which was to be God's sanctuary, not with vices but with the good fragrance of the virtues. When he reached the years of adolescence, he began to exercise his body with vigils, prayers and fasts; sacred orders having been conferred on him in the ecclesiastical manner, guarding his life with all purity, he showed himself acceptable to God and to all men. A lover and guardian of perpetual virginity, he kept his body uncontaminated by all filth; nor, lifted up on that account into pride, did he ever despise those inferior to him, but strove to exhort them to better things. For he who does not
fear to be proud of virginity or abstinence carries the virtues as a brute animal carries loaves, because neither is the brute animal refreshed by the loaves, nor is the proud man rewarded for virtue. Wherefore this saint, as he avoided, despised and trampled lust, so too boasting, hatred, cupidity, avarice; he restrained his mind, tongue and hands from murmurings, from detractions, from injuries to his neighbors; he showed himself benevolent to all, gentle to all, mild to all; and since idleness is the enemy of the soul, he never allowed his mind to grow languid in idleness. Most often in the field, sometimes in the vineyard, more often in the garden, he was working at something. Above all always occupied about the church, he was solicitous whether the altar was comely, whether the lamps were clean, whether the walls were without soot, whether the vestments were whole and shining, whether the sacred vessels were decently put away. For he loved with the prophet the beauty of your house, O Lord. In such pursuits and such virtues he shone as subdeacon and deacon.
[3] Made a priest, he is more solicitous in exercising virtue. When, then, he had thus passed the years of youth, at the urging and with the favor of good men, nay rather by the nod of God, he was ordained priest. Placed in this order, he extended his vigils, increased his fasts, multiplied his prayers. He most willingly bestowed alms on the needy as far as he could; having the care of souls, he instructed the ignorant, corrected the erring, helped the wretched. He took no care to heap up wealth, to multiply estates, to build houses with immense beams or columns; but, content with all modesty, he displayed uprightness in his dress, humility in his ways, and he duly watches over the flock committed to him. he rejoiced with those who rightly rejoiced, and wept with those who wept. He protected the flock of Christ by assiduous prayers from the invisible lion, who always goes about seeking whom he may devour; he rebuked with severe words those who behaved scurrilously and shamefully, he made peace between those who quarrelled, he showed in himself to all an example of good work. He was therefore an outstanding teacher of the Church, because he strove to do good works rather than to speak of them; and certainly it is more praiseworthy and acceptable to God to live well in silence than only to speak well and to pollute one's teaching by living badly. Wherefore blessed Girard instructed perfectly by good work those whom he taught less by word, so that those who devoutly beheld his life perceived what they ought to do. Meanwhile his mind began to be carried forward to better things, and, as if he had made no progress before, he panted with all his desires for fuller exercises of the virtues. For seeing the world set in wickedness, dragging its lovers corruptibly to the precipice through the various windings of vices and the allurements of life, From desire of a more perfect life he becomes a monk at Saint-Aubin. he thought to leave it, having forsaken all his own things, that, himself needy, he might follow Christ made needy for us. And so, having left his little fields and his houses to his relatives, as is the custom among us, and having sold his other possessions and distributed them to the poor, he became a monk in the monastery of Blessed Albinus c. In this order he strove so to live that he who before was to be equalled to monks perfect in religion now surpassed those already perfect by a praiseworthy perfection. For he was of wondrous humility, of supreme obedience, so much so that he did not despise even the commands of his juniors. Content with every meanness or lowest place, he was of such patience that he often laughed at injuries received; and while he perfectly kept the rule of vigils, fasts and divine offices which the other brothers held, he nevertheless exceeded it, as far as he could, by secretly praying, keeping vigil, fasting.
[4] Tending from day to day to greater holiness, He abounded above all in the virtue of compunction: for rarely or never did he offer the sacrifice to God without tears; in the psalmody itself, too, or in private prayer, he was very often suffused with tears. The incredible abstinence, however, and the prolonged crosses which he afterwards inflicted on his body, he did not seize upon in the very fervor of his conversion; but gradually and by increments of time he always set better things upon good, and the best upon the better, until he reached the highest summit of perfection. For it is more beautiful to ascend from small things to the highest than to fall from the highest to the lowest. Since, then, blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he has been proved he shall receive the crown of life, the Lord allowed blessed Girard to be tempted long and much and in manifold ways by the enemy of the human race, but not to be overcome.
[5] he is importunately tempted by the devil. The malignant spirit, at length perceiving that he, as a guardian of virginity, altogether abhorred lust, trampled avarice, turned aside from hatred, avoided pride, tamed gluttony, and despised the world with all its mockeries and allurements, envied him and turned every deceit and contrivance of his whole malignity to attacking him. And first indeed he wearied his breast at the time of prayer with wandering and vain thoughts. Afterwards, when he by no means yielded, but on the contrary applied himself more attentively to prayer and tears, joining to the aforesaid thoughts vain images and the ravings of dreams, he so shook his mind that he publicly set forth before the convent of the brothers by what arts he was being attacked by the devil, and with great contrition of heart begged that prayer be made for him by the brothers; and the abbot of that monastery, Girard by name d, a most prudent man and fully learned in the holy Scriptures, making a discourse and uncovering the frauds of the ancient enemy, and setting forth the manifold teachings of sacred Scripture and the examples of holy men who, manfully resisting the devil, overcame him with God's help, merited that the servant of God be freed from the instant danger. The Lord therefore made for blessed Girard with the temptation a way of escape, that he might be able to bear it. Then, sent by the aforesaid father outside the monastery through the little cells of the abbey, the more freely he clung to spiritual exercises the more secretly.
[6] Provost of the estate of Brociacum, At a later time one of the nobles, named Berlaius e, gave the place which is called Brociacum f to Saint-Aubin in alms: on this condition, namely, that the abbot should send one of his monks there to cultivate it. Bidden by the abbot to preside over this place, blessed Girard built an oratory there, cultivated the land, planted gardens and vineyards, and, as it were a hermit, began to live there with very few farmhands by the labor of his hands. His food was common with his oxherds and shepherds, except that he sometimes bestowed lard and wine on them, while he himself abstained from these entirely. he fasts more strictly, For from that time he began to abstain entirely from wheaten bread and from drinking wine, and lard he had already not touched for many years before. Fish, moreover, if ever they were sent to him by someone out of charity, he shared with his brothers the farmhands, while he himself received vegetables and milk as the greatest delicacies. Yet whenever he had eaten abroad with the brothers, he was seen to touch boiled fish, always fleeing ostentation and desiring with all zeal to hide his abstinence. He no longer wore a fur cloak g and woollen shirt , yet he wore a hair shirt under his cowl and tunic. He had also placed boards and little poles, thinly covered with hay or straw, in the place where he was accustomed to lie down.
[7] he sees the souls of the dead, Such grace, then, did he merit from the Lord from that time already that he often saw visibly with his bodily eyes the souls of the dead which had passed out of this light, and frequently beheld and despised the malignant spirits. For he saw two seniors of our church, dead some years before, of whom one was called Guido *, the other Peter, coming to him one day as he was placed before the altar of his oratory; and when he asked them how they were, they answered that they were resting in peace. Other miracles, however, he would not attempt, avoiding human praise with all his intention. Although he led a life most worthy for its virtues, piety alone nevertheless drove him to certain works which no one can deny to be worthy of a miracle. Let us relate, then, some of them under the testimony of Christ, to the praise of God and the memory of his saint and the edification of many.
[8] he restrains a serpent from ravaging Beside the aforesaid property in which the servant of God was staying there is a little wood whose trees are not usually of great height, but of excessive density, and with such abundance of thorns and brambles that scarcely any path appeared through that wood. When, then, one day a certain peasant was walking near that wood, he heard a great noise of a beast running among the brambles and thickets. He, thinking it a boar or an ox, was waiting, when straightway he sees a serpent of savage aspect and unusual size. Seeing it, the peasant, seized with excessive fear, implored help with great shrieking and clamor. Hearing his cries, the man of God came running out of his oratory, saw the dragon making an attack on that man; and at once, moved by mercy, in the name of Christ and having made the sign of the cross, he commanded it to let the man go and depart as quickly as possible. The evil beast obeyed forthwith and withdrew, and, seeking again the density of the wood, appeared no more in that place. The man of the Lord cherished and consoled the man rescued, who was still trembling as if suffering a fever, and bade him return home sound and whole. To this miracle, then, compassion and charity drove him, because he preferred to work a deed of power rather than not to succor a brother.
[9] and likewise a little fox; At the same time a fox, coming from the nearby wood, had been accustomed to inflict damage on the tenants of that countryside, seizing and devouring their hens. And when those poor people had very often complained of this matter to the man of God Girard, one day very early a fox came and began to go round the houses of the poor, seeking prey to seize. When, then, it had been seen in that place, the peasants began to pursue it with sticks and dogs. One, too, throwing a stick, struck it; and it, fleeing, came in a straight course to the knees of the man of God, who was sitting praying beside his oratory, and like a house puppy clung to his footsteps. He, taking it between his knees, having rebuked the striker and driven back the dogs, stroked the fox with his hand like a tame animal and spoke to it with his usual simplicity: Why, he said, O little beast, were you seizing the hens of the poor? Why were you doing such damage to our people? Just now you were nearly caught and given over to death; see that you do this no more. And if you do, if ever you are caught, you will give no other surety than your own skin. Saying such things, and gently allowing it to stay under his garment from sunrise until the first hour of the day, when it pleased him, he bade it depart unharmed. And it, obeying quicker than said, withdrew to its own lairs and, as we have heard, afterwards by no means attacked the hens of the poor. Who would deny these to be miracles? Who would not on account of them open his mouth in the praise of God and proclaim the merits of his most holy servant Girard?
[10] little birds grow tame with him. Many too seeing and marvelling, little birds, which always flee the presence of men, were accustomed to fly to the same man of God and fearlessly take food from him; to whom he gave grains of seeds and nuts, so that, when some went away satisfied, others to be satisfied succeeded in turn. But these things, though they are marvellous, yet in comparison with the others which he did and
of his most hard abstinence, to which our discourse hastens, Having suffered a hostile invasion are believed to be rather small. When, then, for ten years and more the man of God, staying in the aforesaid little cell, was leading an angelic life, the enemy of the human race incited a certain knight named Geoffrey, lord of the neighboring castle which they call Duatum h, to persecute him. For since the aforesaid knight was carrying on enmities against Berlaius, who had given the above-mentioned property to Saint-Aubin, holding the man of God Girard in hatred as being Berlaius's monk and eager to plunder his little substance, one day with a strong band of his henchmen he rushed unexpectedly to his house. The man of God had indeed sensed his coming beforehand and had made the poor farmhands flee; he himself, with his cattle and his little bundles, had betaken himself into his rock. The son of iniquity, then, running about through the fields, when he had not found the men whom he sought nor the cattle, seized with fury, made an attack with fire and smoke against the rock upon the blessed man, wishing to take the rock and either to kill the servant of God Girard or, the cattle having been seized, to send him away naked; which he could not do, although he sweated long and much at it with his companions. Wonderful to say, the old man sat within alone, without arms, without defenders, without any barrier of gates, while outside the devil, through his minister, burned, smoked, roared, and as it were through the chinks of his little vessel showed himself in some manner to those who saw him horrible and more savage than any beast, until, repulsed by the prayers of the man of God, conquered and confounded, he departed. The truly merciful man wept most bitterly for the sin of that unhappy man and forgave him so far that he did not even make complaint to anyone. he was sent to Sermaise; The abbot and monks of blessed Albinus, however, hearing of the persecution which the devil was making against the servant of God, had him summoned from the aforesaid countryside and moved to the estate which is called Sarmasiae i; where he began to afflict himself with such abstinence that the monk with whom he was staying, named Ulgerius, coming to the monastery, suggested to the abbot that the servant of God was utterly killing himself with hunger. where he is harassed by a demon. In this property, then, while he was daily immolating himself as a living holocaust to the Lord, one day the ancient enemy, not in a vision or through a dream but openly and visibly, with a great crowd of henchmen bearing weapons of war, suddenly attacked him as he was placed in the oratory, and, having made an onrush, strove to overwhelm and tear him to pieces as he prayed. But he, little terrified, implored the help of God and of blessed Mary with his eyes fixed on heaven, and, having hope in the mercy of God, despised the terrible threats and fierce countenances of the enemies; and while he cried to the Lord, secure of his help, he suddenly made the sign of the cross against the unclean spirits. Forthwith that whole crowd of malignant spirits vanished like smoke touched by the wind; but in withdrawing it shook that whole oratory with so terrible a crash that it seemed to the good man himself that the earth had trembled and the little cell had collapsed from its foundations, and the brothers too, who were then at midday resting in it on their little beds, were awakened by the same shaking. The servant of God, then, his enemies put to flight, began to sing psalms to the Majesty, because there the Lord had crushed the heads of the dragon and had broken the powers, the bow, the shield, the sword and the battle, and had enlightened him from the everlasting mountains. To him, then, praising and giving thanks, the Lord Jesus appeared standing on the highest citadel of heaven, and, as he himself afterwards confessed, blessed him with uplifted hand. Nor ought this to be incredible, since the Lord himself promised in the Gospel, saying: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. For the promises of the truth are sometimes fulfilled in the present age, sometimes reserved to be fulfilled in the future. Gladdened, then, by this vision, the servant of God was thenceforth made so robust that he never afterwards feared the onsets of the demons, although they very often thrust themselves before his eyes.
ANNOTATA.
* The edition has eliseos.
* The edition has Arnone iam et stamine.
* The edition has Gido
CHAPTER TWO.
The continued fasting of Blessed Girard, his hard penance and his miracles.
[11] Having returned to the abbey, After this, having returned to the monastery at the abbot's bidding, with leave received, he secretly asked of the monk who presided over the brothers' almonry, named Arduin, barley bread made with water sprinkled with ash; which having been prepared according to his wish, he used one very small loaf for many days. Having entirely forsworn wine and fish and cooked dishes, he sometimes used fruits of the trees and raw herbs without salt. His drink was most bitter, namely water boiled with bay leaves. in greater abstinence Having used this food, then, for some time, he thought to take up a greater abstinence; for the soul cleaving to God seems * to itself to incur a failing unless it can always advance by bettering. Wherefore blessed Girard from that time began to abstain from all bread and all drink, content with herbs and roots and fruits of the trees or onions as the greatest delicacies; if ever these failed, he sometimes used honey, and on the principal festivals fish without salt and drink. Yet on account of this incredible abstinence he was not absent from the choir of those singing psalms, but at all the hours of day and night he was ahead of the other brothers for the service of God. Every night he spent a great part of the night awake in the oratory before the vigils, and after the vigils he did not return to his bed; he lives as a hermit, wherefore, the abbot and brothers agreeing, a little house was built for him by the aforesaid almoner beside the church, in which afterwards, fasting every day, he took refreshment after Vespers, in which also by night and by day he gave himself without ceasing to prayers with tears and groans. Though he was of such virtue, he never on this account succumbed to the vice of boasting, he did not disparage the meals of others, but often offered to the sick with his own hands little broths made with lard and wine, and if the prior's decision delayed a little, he solicitously begged that mercy be shown them. To all the sick who asked for the remnants of his food he cheerfully held them out, and to all the brothers who came to him he most willingly gave his food, even when he suffered great want, so that he scarcely ever allowed anyone to go away from him empty.
[12] his body is tormented in every way. He himself, still more spirited in the mortification of his flesh, added to this abstinence iron bonds, with which he most harshly encircled his body. With an iron collar, then, he surrounded his neck and carried a stone hung from that very collar; with an iron girdle of nearly three fingers' breadth he was girt round his belly under his hair shirt; iron rings also he had on each arm near the shoulders and near the hands, namely in two places; likewise on each thigh and on his shins he wore iron circles. With such and so great a peril he had condemned his body. And if ever he took a little sleep *, he reclined on the ground, with a log or a stone placed at his head. What others think, we do not know; we confidently assert that blessed Girard bore an immense martyrdom among so many crosses. Daily, then, there were tears, groans and prayer without intermission. Finally, when he walked through the little garden adjoining his cell, rooting out harmful grasses with a very small two-pronged hoe, he always had a psalm in his mouth, showed himself cheerful to those who came to him, and ministered to them the counsel of holy religion. Always cheerful At all times a certain holy gladness and ruddiness appeared in his face; whence those who knew his abstinence wondered greatly, beholding the brightness of his countenance. For seven years and almost more he abstained from all bread and from all drink, except the Lord's Body and chalice, and yet not on this account, as we have said, was he of sad or pale countenance.
[13] he is refreshed by an apparition of the blessed Virgin Who now would hesitate to call this man truly happy? Whose whole intention and whole zeal was to love God and neighbor and to cleave to the service of God, and to count all other things that are seen in the world as not even born; who, although, surrounded by the prison of the flesh, he lived on earth, yet his whole conversation, according to the saying of the apostle, was in heaven; whence he very often contemplated not only the souls of the guilty but also the spirits of the good. For, as he himself once related to a certain intimate of his, the blessed Mother of God, Mary, whom after God he honored with all virtue, all zeal and all his strength, appeared to him one night as he was keeping vigil in the church and deigned to extend her most holy right hand over him, and declared that his holy abstinence was pleasing to God and that she would be his helper. This help, then, which the blessed Mother of mercies had promised him, blessed Girard said would be present to him at the end. Whence also he himself, invoking her holy name, as we shall relate more fully in its place, breathed out his last breath. But now let us return to the things which are meanwhile to be said of him.
[14] and of the souls of the dead. At that very time he saw the soul of a certain father, dead a few years before, held in the pains of purgatory. Suffering most vehemently with him, turned with all his intention to the Lord, he applied himself to prayer for his rescue with sighs and weeping, daily offering the saving sacrifice with great contrition of heart; nor did he cease before
that soul, released, appeared to him a second time and, with bowed head, gave him thanks for its liberation. Many times he saw the punishment and the salvation of many others too who had passed from this light, and he knew the perdition of certain ones whom it is better to keep silent about. When he related these things, they seemed incredible to some; but it plainly ought not to be incredible that a man can behold spiritual natures against human custom who prevailed to live spiritually beyond the human measure. Some also, little learned in the holy Scriptures, raise objections, saying: If this man was so spiritual that he could behold spiritual creatures, why did he not also do the other prodigies which spiritual men did of old? To these we answer that his holy abstinence was a certain immense miracle, Yet the greatest testimony of holiness is his holy life. to which other miracles can by no means be worthily equalled. For the Lord testifies in the Gospel that many miracles will be done; and to those who will say in the judgment: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and done many mighty works in your name? he himself will say: Amen I say to you, I know you not. It is plain, then, that it is worthier and better to lead a pure life without signs than to do signs and prodigies without a good conscience. Indeed, what a certain man skilled in secular letters says: The wise man places the fruit of virtue in conscience, the less perfect in glory, this blessed Girard, although he was utterly ignorant of secular letters, strove to fulfil perfectly, because, content first with conscience, he sought less the glory which arises from signs, although the very grace of healings was not altogether lacking to him, as we shall next undertake to narrate faithfully.
[15] Through the remnants of Blessed Girard's food a boy is freed from quinsy, At Angers, at Saint-Laurent a, there was a certain recluse named Petronilla, serving God there for a long time, who greatly desired that she might merit to receive some of the remnants of the food of the man of God Girard. When the blessed man of God learned this, he most willingly, as he was accustomed to do for all who asked, sent her portions of his food; which she, having received with immense joy, laid away honorably with herself. Not long after, a certain woman brought her sick son to the aforesaid church of blessed Lawrence, whose throat and gullet had swollen so gravely with that disease which is called by the physicians quinsy that he could neither utter words nor swallow food. And when his mother had spent one sleepless night with the sick boy in the same church and scarcely rested for an hour or a moment from groaning and crying out, the aforesaid nun, the recluse, suffering with her grief, called her to herself and said to her: Behold, mother, I have with me remnants of the food of the most holy man Girard, who lives at the monastery of Blessed Albinus. Of these, if you please, let us give to your son; and if you have faith that he can be saved by the merits of the servant of God, without doubt he will receive health. And she, with immense groaning, cried out that she had faith, and vehemently begged that the blessing of the man of God be given to the sick boy. Having taken up, then, the strength of faith and hope, the recluse reverently gave the sick boy at once the fourth part of one apple, under the invocation of the holy Trinity. Wonderful to say, as soon as the sick boy received that saving apple into his mouth and his throat swallowed it, all languor left his gullet, and, the use of his tongue being recovered, he called his mother and began to console her, and, declaring that he had been made sound, he offered his offering to God upon the altar of St. Lawrence, and so went away healthy with his mother. After this the aforesaid recluse held out some of the same remnants to a number of nuns sick with fever in the cloister of St. Mary b; others from fever. all of whom, by God's mercy, received health.
[16] Bread given by St. Girard in alms is multiplied, The bread and wine and general food which fell to him daily from the refectory, as to one of the brothers, the almoner received and sent wherever the blessed man himself had assigned it. There was, moreover, at the village which is called Trelaxiacus c another recluse, named Osamina, serving God there for a long time in the religious life; to whom one day in the week he sent the aforesaid alms. One [day], then, when the aforesaid nun had received the bread and wine of blessed Girard brought to her, a certain pilgrim came beside her little house and began importunately to beg alms. When at first she would give him nothing, because she had no bread there except the bread of the lord Girard, at length, overcome by weariness, she gave part of that blessed bread to the pilgrim; the remaining part she had put back. And when the whole day until evening she had fasted according to her custom, late, at the prompting of her maidservant, she decided to take food. Having made a prayer, then, she ordered the bread of the blessed man, of which she had given part to the poor man, to be set before her: and when the maidservant was about to bring it, wonderful to say, she found it whole. At once, filling the little cell with cries and praises, she brought back the whole loaf to her mistress; seeing which, the nun, astonished, herself also lingered long in the praises of God. Having taken a little knife, then, when she had cut off a part of it and given it to her maidservant, in that very part there appeared the appearance of blood. I believe indeed that that bread had been sanctified by the living bread, who in the desert multiplied five loaves to refresh the crowds, by whose flesh we are fed and given drink.
[17] by which the sick were cured. Having called, then, a certain presbyter named Peter, the aforesaid handmaid of God, showing the bread, related the matter in order; and as the priest and people praised God for it, the nun herself kept back a part of that bread, having faith that it could profit the sick; nor was her faith vain. Finally, the presbyter gave a fragment of that bread to a sick man who for almost three years had been tormented by a long-lasting fever; and at once, freed, he was made well. A certain woman in the aforesaid village had incurred infirmities of this kind, that, her throat swollen and her gullet puffed up, she lost the use of her tongue and took no support of food. To her also, when the aforesaid nun had held out a morsel of that bread dipped in egg, at once, the disease vanishing, she received the health she had lost. Another man, a knight by office, was tormented by the falling sickness. When he had come to that nun, he asked for some of the aforesaid bread, received it, ate it, and went away healthy, so that thereafter he was by no means wearied by the aforesaid disease. Very many other healings are recorded as having been done by this bread. Who would not be astonished at such great miracles, or who is there that would not judge that these should be referred to the merits of this blessed man? We freely attest that if it is a great miracle when some saint by his prayers obtains health from the Lord for a sick man present to him, it is a much more wonderful miracle when, the saint himself being absent and unaware, the Lord grants health to a sick man through his merits.
[18] Meanwhile Girard, tormented with pain in the foot, refusing remedies, About the same time blessed Girard himself was gravely tormented with pain and swelling of the foot; for it is written that whom the Lord loves he chastises, and he scourges every son whom he receives. The kindly son of a most kindly father is scourged. Bearing it calmly and modestly, he strove always to give thanks in his pains, and when he was so sick that he could not move himself from place to place, the brothers carried him into the house of the sick and, making a little bed for him, placed in the same place, in his absence, a cushion covered with hay. This he at once knew through the spirit, and, shaking out the hay with his staff, he uncovered the cushion and, as if stirred by an injury received, ordered all the hay to be thrown out from it; and he had his hair shirt placed over boards and stones, and himself laid thus. He commanded, moreover, that no one of the physicians be allowed to enter that house while he was placed there, and when he was asked why he did this, he testified that he had the supreme physician, who by his nod alone restores d all things.
[19] he is miraculously healed; Placed in that infirmity for almost three weeks, he never ceased from prayer and the praise of God, nor, though often asked by the brothers, did he relax the rigor of his abstinence in anything. One night, then, when after prayer and tears he had fallen asleep a little, there appeared to him a noble, venerable person, who, with right hand uplifted, made the sign of the cross over his foot. He loosed his binding and found the skin over the foot, where the swelling was, broken in the manner of a cross, as if a cross had been made there on purpose with some iron instrument. Then, the matter running out, the swelling went down, and after some days, the skin being made whole again, he was free of all pain. From that time he hung a mass of lead bearing the sign of the cross on the iron collar which encircled his neck, and carried it thereafter for the whole span of his life.
[20] he remains ever tenacious in keeping his abstinence; From that time indeed, weakened by excessive abstinence and the burden of weights or chains, he could not stand in the choir of those singing psalms, but, standing outside leaning on a staff, or lying on the ground, or prostrate on a bench, he gave himself to tears and groans at the time of prayer. His food, however, he would now not take before the brothers went to Compline, having first washed the feet of the poor and heard the conference and made his confession. Indeed, from the beginning of the fasts until the kalends of November, he went daily with two brothers to the Maundy of three poor men, where it is the custom for the cloistered monks to go daily e.
[21] he converts a sinner, A miracle concerning a certain sinner whom he raised from the death of the soul we have thought worthy to place * among his miracles, because, namely, as the soul is better than the body, so the resurrection of the soul is more useful than the resurrection of the body; for it is more useful and worthier to give life to a soul that will live forever than to raise again flesh that will die again. A certain senior, after long continence, had not only fallen into the sin of the flesh but had even made a habit of sinning. By the evil habit, then, as Lazarus shut in the tomb by a great mass of stone, he was beginning to stink. One day, then, blessed Girard, looking at him as he passed before him, saw two demons accompanying him on the right and on the left; and forthwith he knew through the spirit to what vice he was subject. Meanwhile, having summoned that man to himself secretly, he began with excessive groaning and tears to rebuke him for his own guilt. What more? The tears of that blessed servant of God could not be in vain. For forthwith the same sinner, bathed in tears and prostrate at his knees, and, as he was accustomed, he takes part of the penance upon himself. humbly confessed his sins and, having promised amendment, received penance from the blessed man; half of which, however, he himself performed for him. For he had the custom of performing in great part the penances of those who confessed their sins to God in his presence. The man, then, raised from the death of the soul and freed from the demons, gladdened by consoling examples and purified by prayers, he sent away in peace. And since he worked this miracle in like manner many times for many people, as we have frequently heard, we can plainly assert that as often as
he did it, so often did he prove himself a raiser of the dead. Behold the praiseworthy life of the man, whose merit both cured bodies and made souls bright.
[22] Rainald the presbyter On the estate whose name is Carteniacus f a church has been built in honor of the blessed martyrs Maurice and his companions, in which a certain presbyter, is healed by the merits of Blessed Girard, named Rainald, served God and the holy martyrs, who, seized by a grave trouble, was burned most grievously by the fires of a tertian fever. Having tried in vain many aids by which fevers are usually expelled, he could find no rest, he took food and drink not without torment. And so, compelled by his pains, he came to the man of God Girard, and first from his conversation felt the relief he had wished for. Strengthened, moreover, he received a little of his food, he himself giving it. Without delay that food, taken with a blessing, brought back such grace that the aforesaid sick man, the fever vanishing on the spot, went away from that place sound and remained healthy for a very long time from that plague.
[22] Geoffrey, a young lad, A certain youth named Geoffrey, dear to the brothers for his upright life, lived in the room where garments are sewn. When one of the monks had entrusted some article of furniture to him and he had lost that thing entrusted to him, turned to madness from anger and seized by the devil, he remained three days and nights without food and drink; nor did he lie on his bed, but hid himself under benches and beds; nor did he recognize God or his saints, but on the contrary said blasphemies and wandering words to those who came to him. The brothers, vehemently pitying his calamity, having drawn him by force from the place in which he had hidden himself, brought him into the church before the crucifix of the Lord; where, since he neither recognized the image of the Lord nor would take food, the brothers called blessed Girard. He, coming, having heard the facts, brought an apple from his cell and, blessing and cutting it, gave it to the sufferer. When the sick man had eaten it forthwith, he commanded him to be led back to the place from which he had been brought; and when all had gone away, the holy man came to him secretly, and, having made a prayer, in a moment restored him, freed from the demon, to his former health. For on the following day, when the presbyter of the monastery came to him with the cross of the Lord, the sick man, restored to sense and health, made his confession, beat his breast, adored the cross, and so thereafter remained healthy and sane as if he had suffered no trouble before.
[23] as also Morellus. Another servant, whose name was Morellus, who served the brothers in the kitchen, carried hung from his neck an arm swollen by that disease which the physicians call carbuncle. It happened, moreover, that as blessed Girard was going to the churches of the holy confessors Germanus and Hilary, which are situated among the vineyards near Angers, this servant accompanied him, because he could not do the service of the kitchen; and while the two were going on together, the man of God looked at him and, seeing him carrying his arm hung from his neck, said to him: What have you in your arm? And he, having loosed it, showed him the infirmity which he was suffering. The man of the Lord, then, made the sign of the cross over the sick arm and commanded the sick man to come to him secretly on the morrow, very early in the morning. When he had done this, as soon as the servant of Christ made the sign of the cross a second time with prayer over his arm, without delay the carbuncle burst and, the matter flowing out, the swelling and pain being taken away, the arm appeared sound, so that in the same hour, coming into the kitchen, he performed all his service. The monk, then, who presided over the kitchen, named Guarin, seeing working the man whose infirmity he had seen before, said to him: O most foolish man, you who are sick, why do you not rest? And he showed him his arm restored to health and told him how he had obtained health through the man of God Girard.
ANNOTATA.
* The edition has videri
* The edition has somnium.
* The edition has poenae.
CHAPTER THREE.
Blessed Girard rejoices in the gift of prophecy, works other miracles, dies devoutly.
[24] Full of the spirit of prophecy From these deeds, then, it is given to be understood that the grace of miracles was not lacking to blessed Gerard, but that, lest human favor should diminish his merit in anything, he wished by prudent counsel to avoid it. It is established, moreover, most plainly that the spirit of prophecy too was not lacking to him, as can be proved in certain things which we have narrated before, and as will be clearer from the following examples. For in the book of Kings we read that those who are now called prophets were formerly in Israel called seers, and in the first homily on Ezekiel blessed Pope Gregory proves that the spirit of prophecy touches the minds of the prophets sometimes concerning the past, sometimes concerning future time. Why, then, should it be wrong to believe that blessed Girard had the spirit * of prophecy, who, although he said nothing of past and future like Moses, David and Isaiah, saw and announced things of his own time absent from him, like Samuel and Elisha? he announces the death of the son of King Henry, Finally, when the son of Henry, king of the English, crossing the sea, suffered shipwreck and perished with a great multitude of men and women, on the same night the man of God Girard, far from the sea, placed in his little cell at Angers, saw and knew spiritually their damnation, and in the morning related this to certain brothers with great sadness.
[25] the damnation of the knight Borellus Likewise, when he was at the castle which they call Leio b, a certain knight, whose surname was Borrellus c, died at the castle which is called Saumur; whose punishment and death the servant of Christ saw in the same hour with spiritual vision. For when the brothers who were with him asked why he was sadder than usual, after hesitating long and much, at length he said to them: At Saumur there has just died the knight whom you surname Borrellus, and I have known his perdition at this hour by the Lord's revelation. All wondering, having noted the hour and day, inquired anxiously of those men who came from Saumur, and in inquiring they learned that Borellus had expired in the same hour in which the man of the Lord declared that he had known of his destruction.
[26] a quarrel arisen at Saumur, In the following year d, on the kalends of May, blessed Girard was at the place which is called Sichilliacus e, where, many workmen having been gathered, the monks of Saint-Aubin were building an oratory on land newly given to them. On that day, then, while a fair was being held at Saumur, at the instigation of the demons a most grievous quarrel arose among the traders for the sake of cupidity and pride, so that it was drawn out even to the shedding of blood. This the man of God Girard, who was almost thirty miles away from that same castle, at once beheld with spiritual vision and began to weep most bitterly, and, running swiftly, prostrates himself before the altar of the oratory, pouring out deep sighs and groans. The brothers, then, who were present, and the masons, astonished, began humbly to inquire of him the causes of so great mourning and such groans. He at once answering said to them: Behold, at Saumur, at the fair, by the instigation and agitation of the demons a very great sedition has arisen; and unless the goodness of the Lord comes to the help, a most grievous slaughter of men and no moderate loss of goods will take place. Having said these things, then, he applied himself to prayer with all his efforts, praying with tears the clemency of the Lord to protect his people from the contriving of the enemy. The brothers and workmen, hearing these things, wondering not a little, noted not only the day but also the hour, and inquiring anxiously afterwards they found that on that day and at that time the sedition which the man of God had spoken of had arisen at the aforesaid place. Which, however, as we believe, by his tears and prayers, though it had been begun with great forces and contrivances of armed men, was quickly extinguished beyond the hope of all.
[27] the death of Pope Gelasius, Likewise the blessed man similarly knew the death of Pope Gelasius f and indicated it to certain brothers long before the messenger of his death came to Angers from Cluny, where he died. At another time, at midday in his cell, with the door closed, he was singing a psalm; and when a certain brother, the presence of the monk Garin, named Garin, approached him and heard him singing psalms most intently, he stopped, and, fearing lest he should be a hindrance to him, wished to go back. But he, knowing this from his cell, called him by his name and bade him come to him, when, as we have said, with the door closed, another, if he were inside, could by no means have seen him.
[28] and the burning of the monastery of Vézelay. Likewise, on the eleventh day before the kalends of August, while the vigils of the solemnity of the most blessed Mary Magdalene were being kept at Vézelay, whose most sacred body, placed there, is sought and venerated by the peoples of the whole world g, by divine judgment that church was burned by fire; by which fire a very great multitude of men, women and little children, which had come together for the vigils, was killed h. The man of the Lord Girard, then, placed in his little cell at Angers, knew in the same hour by divine manifestation what had happened, and on account of what sin it had happened. At that time, indeed, a certain monk of Vézelay, named Lambert, venerable for his upright life, was staying in the district of Le Mans at the village which is called Ostacus i, who had not then gone to his monastery for that solemnity, but, the festival having been kept in the aforesaid village according to his small means, coming to Angers on the third day on business of his house, had a familiar conversation with the man of God. To him the man of the Lord at once said: Have you heard any rumor from your monastery after the solemnity? The monk answered him: No, lord; for not
even those who went to the solemnity from these parts can yet have entered this region on their return, because that journey is scarcely accomplished in eight days. But he added: Know for certain that the church of Vézelay has been burned by the judgment of God, and that a great multitude of men perished there of those who had come together for the vigils. At this the monk, astonished, said: And you, O lord, how did you learn this? He said to him: I know this well by the revelation of the Lord. Ask your congregation, then, to beseech the Lord for the departed who died there, because many of them will be saved by the mercy of God. Having heard these things, that monk, amazed at this word, returned to his cell; when behold, after a few days, pilgrims who had gone from this region to the solemnity, having returned from Vézelay, announced that all these things had happened as the man of the Lord had seen spiritually and had narrated to the monk. Let it seem unworthy to no one, then, that we have wished to number him with the prophets, because, evidently made a sharer with the prophets by spiritual grace, with the apostles by contempt of the world, with the martyrs by mortification of the flesh, with the confessors by devout confession, and with the virgins by perpetual virginity, he follows the virgin Lamb, son of a virgin, whithersoever he goes.
[29] Girard truly a saint Therefore, to conclude cautiously our assertion concerning his so great merits, we can affirm without doubt: that just as it is rash to call this man greater or less than any of the most renowned saints, so it is most insane to deny that he is a sharer of heavenly glory and a companion of all the saints. But since we are by no means sufficient to speak of him as is worthy, omitting many things which we have seen and heard of him, lest unpolished speech should beget weariness in readers, we shall touch briefly on one more miracle of his, and so with * the end of his life, with God's help, we shall make the end of this work.
[30] he frees a demoniac woman. On the property which is called Mosteriolus k, a certain woman, seized by a demon, was seven days without food and sense; her relatives, very sad, brought her to the monastery of Saint-Aubin, and began to ask the almoner for some of the remnants of the food of the man of God Girard. Brother Arduin, the officer of the almonry, seeing the faith of the relatives and pitying the misery of the woman, came to the servant of Christ and began suppliantly to ask that he would deign to see that possessed woman. To him the man of the Lord at once answered with troubled countenance: What is this that you say, brother? What does this pertain to me? He fell silent, yet asked that he would deign to send her some of the remnants of his food. When he had obtained this, and the aforesaid brother had brought the remnants to the woman herself, wonderful to say, she who before had spat out all food at once began to eat greedily the food of the man of God signed by his hand. The servant of God, then, the brothers having been removed, secretly visited the woman and, having sprinkled her with holy water and made a prayer, signed her; and she was soon freed from the demonic power, or rather infestation, and began to rest. At length, restored to entire soundness, on the following day, with her relatives praising God, she too praising and blessing God departed home unharmed.
[31] These few out of many miracles. But since we can by no means comprehend all his works worthy of admiration, let it suffice to have told even a few out of very many, and let it be enough that we have both put forward the truth in a few and avoided the nausea of readers in many; since he whom a few have not pleased would not have been pleased by many, and he whom many would have pleased will not be displeased by a few.
[32] Blessed Girard, near to death, visits Brociacum, Blessed Girard, then, worn out by a good old age, when for thirty-eight years he had not only kept the norm of the monastic life but had even surpassed it by praiseworthy perfection, having fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith, securely awaited the crown of justice laid up for him by the just judge. At that same time, going out from the monastery, carried on a little ass, he visited the estate which is called Brociacum, with this intention, that he might protect the oratory which he had founded and the place which he had built l from the army of Fulk, count of the Angevins m, who was then trying to besiege the castle which is called Duatum n, rebellious to him, with siege engines prepared and warlike apparatus drawn up. Having stayed there a few days, having known through the spirit the things which were impending, namely that the army would by no means touch the place for whose preservation he had come, and that he himself must end his life after a little while, he returned swiftly to the monastery. and seized by his last sickness, On the same night on which he returned, vehemently afflicted by the harassment of the journey, the excess of cold, the weight of his chains, the continuance of vigils and abstinence, tormented also by a sharp pain of the belly and by dysentery, he lay down upon his hair shirt and for three continuous weeks was seen to labor gravely. The Lord was proving his soldier, and as gold in the furnace, so he refined him by the fire of infirmity, that no trace of evil speech or negligence might be found in him. He was frequently refreshed with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; his mouth assiduously spoke the praise of the Lord with the prophet; the hymn of the Holy Spirit which begins thus: Veni, Creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita Come, Creator Spirit, visit the minds of your own, he repeated day and night; the name also of the most blessed Mary, mother of the Lord, namely the mother of mercies, he always had in his mouth.
[33] diligently cherished by all, There was, moreover, a devout solicitude toward him on the part of the abbot of that church, namely the lord Hamelin o, who, greatly loved by him, loved and venerated him, and also on the part of all the brothers of that place, who in rivalry, together and one by one, wished to render him their services, and who were with one mind saddened at his affliction and dissolution. And while each of the brothers, as each could, as he himself permitted, hastened to approach him, on the day before he died a certain brother, whose heart, beset by thoughts of folly and levity, in human fashion was deviating somewhat from religion, entered the cell in which he lay and began to converse familiarly with him. he admonishes a brother about hidden sins To him at once the man of God, when he had learned that no one besides himself and him was present in that house, said: Go, brother, and confess your thoughts to your abbot, that you may be able to expel from yourself the demon who has already inflamed you with the poison of his suggestion. Having heard this, he, his conscience accusing him, wholesomely confounded, was terrified and, helped by the prayers of the blessed man, cast off the venom of the demon by the antidote of holy confession, and, soundness of mind having been found, gave thanks to the clemency of God. O truly blessed soul and lovable to God, which through the Holy Spirit shone with such light of foreknowledge that even the hidden things of the human heart lay open to its spiritual gaze. O man in all things most like the ancient fathers and to be compared with the fathers of old, before whose merit the devil could neither hide his fraud nor fulfil the attempt of his malignity; plainly let those who counted his sayings and visions as ravings recognize that they themselves rather raved, in this deed in which, already about to depart from the world, he did not keep silent out of mercy about what he saw, and the brother corrected by his word bore testimony to it. For the proof of this last saying is an evident commendation of his other sayings.
[34] and devoutly makes the end of his holy life. The iron bonds indeed and the burdens of stone and lead he had laid aside in that very sickness, death being now imminent. But covered with a hair shirt, most sweet in mind, he lay not on feathers but on another hair shirt. He was visited also by many religious abbots and monks, clerics and laymen, who were all astonished at the length of his martyrdom, and suppliantly strove to commend themselves to his prayers. He himself, however, permitted only the necessary service to be rendered him, and, keeping watch, awaited the coming of the Lord returning from the wedding. Fortified, then, by devout confession and most sacred anointing, by the Lord's communion also and the common prayer of his brothers, on the day before the nones of November, as the Sunday was dawning, after the vigils he bids the doors of the little cell in which he lay be opened, and, mindful of the vision which we related above and of the promise of the Mother of God, with hands outstretched he invoked her thus: O Lady of the heavens, fount of mercies, receive your servant under your escort, and deign to lead me to the Lord. With these words, released from the bonds of the flesh, he departed to the heavenly kingdoms, and in that hour without doubt he rejoiced that he had found as his guide to the Lord the mother of goodness, who had once promised him that she would be his helper.
[35] His body, retaining the marks of penance, Now in his lifeless body those victorious signs by which he had laid low the pride of the devil appeared plainly: his countenance indeed bloomed with a certain angelic comeliness, but the other members such leanness, drawn out by excessive fasts and vigils and by the harassment of weights and chains, had exhausted that the bones beneath the skin could be counted one by one. These signs of the cross, then, indicated what his spirit, placed in the flesh, had always done, what it had desired, what it had avoided, how it had fought against the flesh, how it had sighed for eternal life.
[36] is honorably buried. To his funeral rites came both the venerable pontiff of that city [p] and so great a multitude of monks and clerics, nuns and laypeople of both sexes and every age, as that very spacious church could receive. One could see the people of the city weeping together as they surrounded his bier, and each one touching and kissing his garments and hair shirt and rejoicing to cover his face with them, and his brothers, some singing psalms with tears, some carrying his bier, some following after, but all alike confident of his blessedness in the Lord. He was buried, then, with great honor in the basilica of blessed Albinus, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord MCXXIII, in the second indiction, on the day mentioned above, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.
His epitaph.
There passed from the world a man of great religion, Girard, a guest-house of the sacred Godhead. Simple in speech, despised in dress, impatient Of honor, a dwelling of peace, a home-born servant of the cross. All perishable things he weighs as nothing, heavenly things as great; He withdrew his breast from vices and his lips from deceits. Twice two years and three he passed without drink, And for as many he abstained from the use of bread. His long hunger, thirst, cold, chains, bed, And constant prayers won the favor of God. Illustrious, poor, flourishing, by the cross, in possessions, in virginity, Justly, sacred things, heaven: he lived, he loved, he holds. The festal day of his death would be the fourth of November, On which so great a father passed to the stars.
ANNOTATA.
p. Rainald of Martigné presided at that time. See Gallia Christiana, vol. XIV, p. 564–67.
* The edition adds non
* The edition has tum.
MIRACLES OF ST. GIRARD
Girard, monk of Angers. (S.)
BHL Number: 3549
edited from the codex of the Bibliothèque nationale of Paris no. 13092, twelfth century, collated with codex no. 738 of the library of the city of Angers, fourteenth century. Cf. Commentarius praevius, no. 3.
[1] Miracles were worked at the tomb of Blessed Girard. After the passing of blessed Girard, for the sake of making known his merits far and wide, the Lord deigns to work very frequent acts of power at his venerable tomb. Of his acts of power we have indeed often heard many, but we have decided to declare, out of very many, some miracles which we have seen.
[2] A sick man was healed, A certain sick man, then, named Christianus, despaired of by all the physicians, his throat horribly swollen, his gullet puffed up, and his other limbs, from long infirmity, emaciated and bloodless, having lost the use of his tongue, in hope of obtaining health dragged his half-dead limbs not without great omits 2. labor to the tomb of the man of God Girard; and when he had fallen asleep there a little, waking he sees sitting before him a man of comely face, clothed in the habit of a monk, holding in his hand a most white loaf. While he conversed gently with him and kindly asked the cause que omits 2. of his coming, and he answered that he was awaiting with faithful mind the health of his body from the man of God whose members lie decubant 2. there, he with a joyful countenance held out to the sick man a part of the bread, the heavenly panis adds 2. bread surely, admonished him to eat, and so vanished from his eyes, because he was a spirit. The sick man, having received the saving bread and mindfully put it away in his bosom, about to rest his head again, reclined it on the sarcophagus of the holy man. Then, as he slept, an ineffable brightness so suddenly irradiated the basilica and copiously suffused the weak man with the fragrance of a most sweet odor. At once waking, he wonders that he is surrounded by heavenly light; and filled with the divine odor, he rises with immense gladness from the pavement on which he was lying. Then, rejoicing and giving thanks, with hastened step he returned home, and related the matter in order to his wife, who was grieving over her husband's calamity. And when he had sat down on a bench and asked her for water, he brought out of his bosom the bread which the holy man had given him in the basilica, and, famished, ate it broken into small pieces minitatim the codices in a cup. On the following night the holy man again appeared to him in a vision perfusum 2., as he rested in bed, with immense light, and diligently handled his whole body with gentle hands. The sick man, waking, could not contemplate his face for the excessive splendor circiter 2., but merited to see the cross, which the blessed man while he still lived as a mortal had been accustomed consuerat 2. to carry on his breast, brighter than all brightness. Finally, very early in the morning, having returned to the tomb of the blessed man, with God's help he recovered without delay the soundness of all his limbs.
[3] likewise a cripple. At the same time a certain Saunbert Sannbertus 2., crippled by a long-lasting ailment, whom no remedies of the physicians could benefit, when he had been carried on a bed to the tomb of the servant of God Girard, began first to grow moist with no small sweat about the knees, in which he suffered the more grievous pain; then, his veins having grown warm and his sinews having been restored, he stretched out his revived feet; and not long after, the people looking on, he rose up sound, and returned home on his own feet precibus 2 before correction., he who had been carried by the hands of others.
[4] a woman freed from a demon, Likewise a certain woman named Tescia Teseta 2., whom a malignant spirit had possessed for five years, and had kept deprived privata 1. of every use of her limbs and for a long time also barred from the entrance intro 1 before correction of the church, after she touched the mausoleum of the holy man, at once freed from the demon, received in a moment (s. m.) omits 2. the nimbleness of her whole body, not without the wonder of many. And as she was then returning home to prepare a candle, which she might offer, coming with the other faithful, but had nothing at all with which to buy it, a certain monk adorned with angelic white hair met her at the doors of the church, and, giving her a coin of the purest whiteness, suddenly disappeared. The woman, having received the penny and shown it to the money-changers, took three halfpence in exchange, with which she bought a candle, and, having bought it, returning she offered it at the tomb of the saint. This thing became known to many in the city of Angers, the same woman relating it.
[5] a paralyzed woman healed, At that very time another woman named Agnes of Fougères, deprived for two years of the use of hands and feet, as soon as she could approach the tomb of blessed Gerard after long labors, it was as quick for her to receive health as to have asked for it.
[6] likewise a cleric struck with a cancerous ulcer, [2 often adds aliud miraculum or aliud before the narration of the individual miracles.]. While, then, for such great and so manifest miracles the monks were ringing the bells and singing with joyful voices the hymn, that is, Te Deum laudamus We praise you, O God, a certain cleric of the church of blessed Martin b of Angers, struck in the foot with a cancerous ulcer, having heard the voice of the singers, with what effort he could, supported by the help of his companions, about to see the miracles which were being done there, entered the basilica of blessed Albinus (b. A.) omits 2. Albini adds 2., and at once, which is wonderful to say, merited p. a. 2. to obtain in the same hour the health of his weakened foot, which he was not asking for.
[7] a girl laboring in her hands, And a girl named Osanna, who from a long-lasting swelling of both hands t. m. 2. had lost the use of working, having invoked with devout faith the intercession of the holy man, by the change of the right hand of the Most High was restored to her former health.
[8] a boy crippled in the knees, On the same day, nonetheless, a certain boy named Geoffrey, crippled in the knees for three years, had supported his unhappy limbs with a staff. He, renewed renovatur 2. by the power of blessed Gerard, having laid down in the basilica of St. Albinus, for the memory of posterity, the staff which he had been accustomed to use for a foot, rejoicing and sound, the people watching, returned home.
[9] a woman with the sinews of her shins cut, Likewise a miracle similar to this is not to be passed over in silence. For a certain woman named Mary, whose husband, at the persuasion of the devil, had cut the sinews of her shins with iron, having lost the use of walking, had languished at home for three years. She, having heard of the power of so many signs, supporting herself on a staff, did not delay to approach with what effort she could the tomb of the holy man. Beside it she lay a long while with tears. A wonderful thing then followed. For, her prayer completed, in the sight of many, her sinews having been rejoined and her knees restored, the woman suddenly raised herself up, and soon, going home with hastened step and returning in the same hour, she joyfully brought a crown which she had at home, and, having brought it, offered it with joy and devotion at the memorial of the holy man.
[10] a man with crooked hands, Besides, a certain Hedigonius, a net-fisherman, whose two hands, crooked and swollen together, had for a long time denied him the use of fishing, as soon as he touched the tomb of the man of God with firm faith, in the sight of the people standing around, obtained the health of both palms, the swelling subsiding and the pain driven out, which he had asked for with a pure heart; and with his revived right hand, the whole people shouting in the praises of God and weeping for joy, he freely signed himself.
[11] and a girl withered in body. I think a miracle no less glorious than these must be added (c. m.) m. ut c. 2.. While, then, the proclamation of so many and ac 2. such great signs ran round about, among the other weak people flocking confluentes 2. from every side to the memorial of St. Girard there was present also a certain calamitous mulier adds 2. girl named Theophania, known to many for the damage of a withered, nay half-dead, body. For an incurable disease, which is called by the physicians fistula, the flesh having been altogether consumed, and with scab continually flowing out through many openings, had rendered her bloodless and emaciated. She, then, cheated of all hope whatever of ever aliunde 2. recovering health, by the merits merita the codices of blessed Gerard, the plague having been put to flight, received in a moment the soundness of all her limbs.
[12] A young girl recovers from excessive weakness, At that very time a certain young girl named Arenburgis was bound by the trouble of such weakness that the soles of her foot pedum 2., bent back to the hollows of her knees, were frustrated of their use. She, at any rate utique 1., carrying her paralyzed limbs on two pieces of wood which she used for feet, approached with firm faith the mausoleum of blessed Girard; and devoutly embracing it and kissing it with tears, having invoked the name of the holy confessor, she merited to obtain in the same hour the entire health she had long desired.
[13] as also a sick woman, No less a certain matron named Oda, sprung of no humble lineage, known indeed to many and lovable for her upright life, but worn out by a long-lasting infirmity of her whole body, was leading a calamitous life near to death. For, her gullet having been deadened and the passages of her throat constricted, she had entirely lost both the use and the appetite of eating. She at length, having obtained wholesome counsel, carried on a horse and led by the service of her dependants, prostrates herself to pray at the tomb of the saint. And not long after, her prayer having been poured out, her whole body renewed by the merits of the glorious blessed Girard, giving thanks she is raised from the pavement, and after some days returns home sound.
[14] a girl variously afflicted, On the same day also a girl named Prima, sad with the weakness of crippled knees and the misfortune of a withered right hand, had led an unhappy life for ten and eight years. Her at length Christ, her steps restored and her right hand re-formed, for the declaring of the merits of his servant, to the praise and glory (et g.) omits 2. of his name, sent back home sound and joyful.
[15] a woman with a dead foot, At the same time there was also a woman, Alexandra, known to many for the affliction of a withered foot, which, dead from the frame of the living body, not for work but for a burden, the wretched woman for three years carried about omits 2. with a staff, by which it rather ought to have been carried. She, then, strengthened by faith, approaching the tomb of the glorious confessor, where many sick omits 2. are daily healed, prostrates herself on the pavement with tears and prayers. Without delay, the people looking on, for it was a Sunday, she obtained entire health from the Lord, and on the next day went away home (ad s.) omits 2. rejoicing.
[16] another paralyzed woman, On the same day also another paralyzed woman, long deprived destructam 2. of every use of her limbs, when she had been carried by the faithful on a pallet to the tomb of the holy man, Christ, through the merits of his servant, deigned to restore, all sickness having been driven out.
[17] and likewise a certain girl. No less on the same day a certain girl, whom we knew by face but do not know by name, through the merits of the glorious blessed Girard, to the praise of Christ, was freed from the same trouble, many standing by and weeping for joy.
[18] A blind girl was granted light, About the same time a certain little maiden named Guitburgis Guttbergis 2., deprived of the light of her eyes from her very mother's breasts, having heard of the acts of power of the holy confessor, faithfully begged to be led to his tomb. When she had been brought there, all blindness having been dispelled, she received without delay the light long desired, and rejoicing and giving thanks returned home on the following day.
[19] a paralyzed boy healed, A certain boy too, Brientius, held for a long time by the paralytic disease, when he had touched the mausoleum of the blessed man with pure heart and sincere non ficta 2. faith, Christ, for declaring more and more the merits of his servant, having driven out all languor, restored to entire health; and on the same day he returned to his own, who had been carried there by his mother's services.
[20] a man having a broken arm. At the same time Geoffrey de Bancio Baneyo 2., this was the name of the sick man, received through blessed Girard the remedy of divine power. He, when for seven years he was frustrated of the use of a broken and withered arm, came full of faith with the other faithful to the vigils of the holy confessor, to spend the night of Saturday there. And while with immense weeping and groaning he prayed that God might be appeased toward him and restore his former health, suddenly he found his arm divinely stretched out, which for a long time before had been crooked. From it, healed in the same hour, blood flowing most abundantly presented a glorious and unusual spectacle to the people standing by. How great praises the multitude of the faithful f. m. 2. then sang to the Lord, with how great proclamations it extolled the confessor, we leave to the reader to estimate.
[21] A demoniac is freed. One among the rest was done among us, not greater than those we have told, but so bright and illustrious a miracle that I would think there [is] none of the people of Angers who has not either seen it or learned it by hearing, none who could or should by any means forget it. For a certain old countryman, named Herbert, of the village which is called Calomna c, when at midday, in the summer time, he was cleaning wheat tricum 1. on the threshing floor, attacked by a demon, foaming and vomiting, burning and raging, after three days lost the use of his tongue. And when for six days he took no food at all, he is led by his people to the tomb of blessed Girard. This done, Christ works three miracles there at once in a moment, as the wicked spirit is put to flight, the knot of the tongue is untied, the man is freed from all languor. Then, when he was being led to the reliquary of St. Albinus for thanksgiving, he asked those standing around, monks as well as presbyters, not to allow his enemy, the demon namely, to come after him. This hic 1. sign, then, which we have touched on briefly according to the faith of truth, became known to the whole city of Angers, he himself relating it.
[22] Since the miracles cannot be reviewed one by one. If we should wish to write the miracles of healings which the Lord daily works through his servant blessed Girard in the present church, there will be need of a book's magnitude. Since, then, all things cannot be collected, nor can there be written continually the signs of divine power like those of old which we see videamus the codices are frequent even in our times, and since these ought not to perish from the knowledge of many n. m. 2., we have thought it worthy to hand down briefly to the memory of letters a few out of many, to be of profit to posterity.
[23] the author records the healing of a paralytic, On the festival, then, of the protomartyr Stephen, which is celebrated in the summer time, while the monks were singing d. m. 2. the night office, a certain paralytic of the village which is called Burgus d, deprived for many years of every use of his limbs, keeping vigil at the tomb of the saint Girardi adds 2. with very many others, was restored to the health long desired. As for how great tears for joy Alermus de Charantia co e, a noble man, his lord, and many others with him of both sexes and diverse age, beholding and recognizing cognoscentes 2. him, shed there, how great thanks they gave you, good Jesus, it is not in our power to tell.
[24] boys bent by sickness, Another miracle (a. m.) omits 2.. A certain boy too, Peter, begotten of known and honorable parents on the border of the city of Angers, whom disease morbum 1., not nature, had bent for two years, and did not allow to raise his eyes to heaven, we saw at the same time, his whole body erect, walking about briskly, and manifesting the power of the holy confessor, by the soundness shown, to the peoples coming from every side.
[25] likewise another boy, No less another boy, too, brought from the city of Le Mans, whom Henry, duke of the Normans and count of the Angevins f, had caused to be diligently nurtured and had adopted as his son, as soon as he touched the mausoleum of the saint, was healed of the same trouble.
[26] and another crippled. At the same time another boy, named Geoffrey de Plaxitio Gramatici g, crippled by a long-lasting weakness of his limbs, when he was being brought by his mother on a beast of burden to the memorial of the saint, still placed far off, that is, at the fourth milestone from this city, feels the remedy of divine power given him. At once dismounting from the animal on which he was sitting, he came most healthy with hastened step to the place of the confessor, and set forth to the faithful in common hearing the old infirmity which he had suffered, and the new soundness which Christ had furnished him through the merits of his servant Gerard.
[27] A blind woman is granted light, A woman too of Brahimum h, whose name was Ermengardis, while she was hastening to approach the memorial of the man of God, the Dayspring from on high visited on the very journey, while still placed far off. For having gone out from her house, as we learned from her own narration, to run to the vigil[s] of the saint, she received on the way, to the astonishment of those who accompanied her, the light of the eyes which she had lost for a long time, and, no longer requiring a guide for her journey, she came to the place which she had desired; where, prayer having been poured out with many tears and an offering solemnly given with thanksgiving, on the following day she returned home joyful and sound.
[28] and two women are healed of the trouble of fistula. About the same time two most unhappy women, whose names have escaped my memory, had long labored with the trouble of fistula, and through the circle of a week, filling the whole basilica with their fletibus adds 2. cries, had disturbed our bowels with calamitous laments. At length Christ, the father of mercy, put an end to their misery and our compassion, health having been granted to them both alike.
[29] A blind girl At that very time another girl, known to our whole city for her long-lasting blindness, spending the night with tears and prayers at the tomb of the servant of God, after some days, the old darkness having been driven away, received in a moment a light strange to her.
[30] The abbess Theophania is admonished from heaven about fulfilling a vow. Nor do I think this is to be omitted which I rejoice to have learned by the report of venerable persons. Theophania i, handmaid of Christ, abbess of the monastery of blessed Mary ever virgin, which is situated outside the walls of the city of Angers, desired to honor the saint of God with religious gifts: for the blessed man, while he still lived in the clerical habit, had raised her from the sacred font. When, then, being occupied, as is usual, with ecclesiastical business, she delayed to bring the candles which she had prepared to offer him, blessed Girard appeared by night in a vision a. n. 2. to a certain servant of hers named Bosogonus, a man of good repute. Addressing him kindly and stroking his head with a gentle hand, he said: Come, brother, rise, set out as quickly as possible to your mistress, and tell her on my behalf that she should no longer put off rendering the little gifts which she had vowed she would give d. se 2. me (r. n. d.) d. r. but the corrector in the margin adds non between d. and r.. When this had been said, and Bosogonus awoke and was entirely ignorant of what his mistress had promised the holy confessor, he ran swiftly to her, and revealed with tears what the saint had told him. The nun, when she had heard the words of the narrator, at once remembering her promise and reproving herself for her negligence, came with haste that she might at last fulfil her vows, and solemnly and devoutly rendered to the confessor the candles which she had long since promised him.
[31] Hervé, having a withered arm, is healed, A certain young man, Hervé, of the territory of Rennes, when for about ten years, carrying his withered arm about through very many places of the saints in hope of obtaining health, he had as yet received no fruit of his labor, on the vigil of St. Lawrence, which was held to be a Sunday, approached with devout mind and devoted faith, together with other faithful, the tomb of the most kindly father Girard. Then he begged with pure heart that the iron with which the holy man, while he lived, had adorned his neck for religion's sake be applied to his weakened arm. When this had been done, by the merits of the holy confessor he received in the same hour the health long desired, all the people shouting in the praises of Christ.
[32] likewise three deaf-mutes, On the same day nonetheless two young men, deaf and dumb alike, of whom one was called Drogo, of the village which they name Calempniacum k, and the other was called … of another village which they call Frumentariae l, kissing in rivalry with pure faith the mausoleum of the most devout confessor, merited by the merits of the holy man to receive in one and the same hour the use of tongue and of ears, which nature had denied them. Likewise on that day a certain woman named Hildegard, of the village which is called Chiveriacus m, condemned to the same misfortune as the aforesaid young men, obtained from Christ the same grace as they,
[33] and a blind boy, Likewise on the solemnity of St. Lawrence, when Andrew, a boy of Oratorium n, passing a seventh year in the cloud of blindness, drawn by his mother, had come to the place of the confessor, at once, in the sight of the people standing around, the darkness having been put to flight, he suddenly merited, in his mother's arms, to see the unknown day.
[34] likewise a crippled woman, On that very day a certain woman named Aiga Aiga 2., of the castle which they call Poencium Ponicium 2. o, with the weakness of crippled limbs for five years
sorrowful, was restored to her former health by the merits of the most devout father (piissimi-san.) prist. san. piiss. p. m. e. r. 2..
[35] and a girl, A girl too of Dalmeriacum [p], named Hildegard, Christ deigned on the same day to free from the same calamity, to the honor of his servant Girard.
[36] and a boy from weakness of the foot, Likewise on that day a certain boy named Fulk, of the village of Saint-Clément-de-la-Place [q], carrying about with a staff a foot weakened for a long time, as soon as he touched the tomb of the saint, was free of all pain; and with him another, who had lost the use of his hand (o. a.) officio caruerat 2., went away restored to health.
[37] another from the disease of fistula. Likewise a certain boy of Dalmeriacum, named John, who had been so worn out by a year-long disease of fistula in his arm that, the flesh having been consumed by putrefaction, even the bones, eaten by worms, fell away from within, lying for some days at the tomb of St. Girard and beseeching the Lord Jesus with assiduous groans to have mercy on him, the deadly plague having been put to flight and his former health entirely recovered by the merits of the blessed man, afforded great joys to the people, greater to us, the greatest to his own.
[38] Sick people healed on the way to the tomb of St. Girard, In this too the merits of the holy confessor are to be admired and everywhere proclaimed, that he has been accustomed through the grace of Christ to cure the sick who are absent and placed far off no less than those present, that is, those attending at his tomb, if they have had firm faith. To prove this, not one or two but several may be brought forward. Guarin Garinus 2., a boy of Faia [r], which is a village situated near Torarcium Toreatium 2. [s], was tormented with dizziness of the head and trouble of his whole body. No less at the same time a girl named Ermengardis, of the village which they name Rota [t], by the curse of her angry mother, nay by the inscrutable judgment of God de 2 before correction, was suffering the injury of crippled hands. These, then, when their parents and relatives sui adds 2., full of faith, made a vow for them and were bringing them to the place of the saint, while still placed far off on the way, rejoiced that they had received from Christ through blessed Girard the soundness long desired.
[39] likewise a woman having crippled hands, At that very time there was at the castle of Sablé Fabloliacum 2. a certain omits 2. woman, wealthy and known to many, but her name has escaped my memory, who had incurred the misfortune of crippled palms. She too, having heard the fame of the signs which Christ was working through his servant, when one night she had betaken herself to bed and had bound herself by a vow that on the following day, life accompanying her, she would hasten to the vigils of the holy confessor with a worthy offering, suddenly fell asleep, and at once waking she opened her renewed hands with such ease as if she had suffered no sickness in them before. Then, morning having come, to satisfy satisfaceret 2. her vows, she went to the place of the saint; where, prayer having been poured out with tears and an offering solemnly presented, she went away home glad and sound.
[40] and another sick in her whole body, There was nonetheless Osanna, on the border of the castle of Durtal [u], of Plascitium Frillonis [v], who labored with a long-lasting trouble of her whole body. And she too, having heard of the power noticia 2. of such great acts of power, since she could not come on her own feet to the memorial of the saint for the sake of recovering soundness, had a vehicle prepared for her. When she wished to mount it, in the same hour she felt the remedy of divine power present to her. At length, the vehicle left behind, she did not delay to come joyful with hastened step to the tomb of blessed Girard with offerings, and related in order to the people standing around the health divinely furnished to her by the merits of the holy confessor.
[41] and a certain boy. Geoffrey too, a boy of the village which is called Pocionaria Pouvneria 2. [w], was at the same time freed in a moment from the same calamity by the intervention of the holy man.
[42] Those cured by the merits of St. Girard heal other sick people; Great indeed quippe 2. and wonderful are the things we have told; yet we are about to tell things much greater and more wonderful, although we are not believed by those who are jealous of us, but not incredible nor impossible. For all things are possible, but to one who believes most firmly. For many sick, as we have found in truth, held by various ailments and placed in diverse remote places, at the touch of those who were divinely cured through blessed Girard, themselves too not wavering in faith, their former troubles having been put to flight, rejoiced that they had obtained by the merits of St. Girard the grace of health which each needed. These then, hastening to his memorial and worthily paying their vows, have been eager, with a sincere affection of piety, to make known to us, suitable witnesses having been brought, many things which we pass over, lest we should seem to furnish to the envious or the slanderous material for detraction.
[43] a woman having a broken arm is healed, At the same time a certain woman of the castle of Sablé, named Ermengardis, condemned for five years to the misfortune of a broken and withered arm, furnished blessed Girard the material mir. praeb. mat. 2. for a miracle. For having kept vigil continually through all the nights of one month at his mausoleum with much weeping and groaning, at length she was divinely visited; for her arm, the bone made whole again, the veins filled, the sinews renewed, revived when the month was finished, and afterwards served her body for necessary uses no less actively than the other.
[44] and a certain boy, No less at the same time a certain boy of the village whose name is Pinciacus [x], held by the same trouble, divinely obtained a similar grace.
[45] likewise a dumb girl. And a girl too, named Menoldis, of the castle which they name Montrevault [y], of the parish of Saint-Martin de Calderon [z], while one night in the summer time she was resting quiesceret 2. on the threshing floor with the reapers, suddenly saw most foul spirits in the form of armed knights running about over her and vehemently oppressing her. Terrified by this horrible vision and made almost out of her mind, in the same hour she entirely lost the use of speaking. But when after the circle of three weeks she had been brought by her people to the tomb of the saint, she soon opened her mouth in the praises of Christ and of his servant Girard, which the terrible form terr. eff. 2. of the demons had shut for her by divine permission. For we think this was done that the works of God might be made manifest in her through blessed Girard.
[46] The miracles of Blessed Girard are not to be disparaged. For the rest, if any envious man, seduced by a diabolical spirit, or an adversary of the monastic religion, should rise up against us, and, which God forbid, should presume to chatter with sacrilegious mouth that so many and such great signs Signorum mirabilia 2. could not be done in so brief a space of time through the merits of one little man, who until now had been of slight or no fame, let him remember that the Lord said: He who believes in me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do. Therefore it is not incredible that, to declare the merits of his servant, the Lord should have done very many miracles, whose faith and grace the most blessed man by no means received rec. min. 2. in vain, but confidently adorned with glorious merits; for, a lover and guardian of perpetual virginity, of which the Apostle asserts that he by no means has a precept of God, he remained entire and immaculate not only in body but also in mind until the day of his passing. No less did he manfully fulfil the sentence of the Redeemer in which he says: If anyone will come ven. p. me 2. after me, let him deny himself and follow me; for carrying his cross not under compulsion, like Simon, but of his own accord, like Christ, certain lawful things having been voluntarily forsworn, and all unlawful things entirely renounced from his very infancy, he by no means turned aside from the Lord's way until he lawfully finished his course and received the prize from him. Now let us return to the gifts of healings.
[47] Two deaf and dumb women are healed, Two girls too, of whom one was called Letgardis, of the village (de v.) omits 2. whose name is Calempniacum, and the other of the castle which they call Passavant [aa]; he who did all things well, on one and the same day, made both, deaf and dumb alike, hear and speak, to the honor of his servant. Accordingly, how great praises the people gathered congregatus 2. there from diverse regions at the memorial of the holy confessor paid to the Creator, no one will be able to complete by narrating.
[48] and a hunchbacked boy, Likewise on that day the Lord mercifully deigned to visit a certain boy called William, of the castle which they call Brissac [bb], whose whole back a shapeless hump growing on his spine pressed down. For since from his mother's womb he was crooked in his whole body, the hump having been taken away, renewed and made erect through blessed Girard, he received in a moment the comeliness of form which nature had denied him, the people weeping for joy and giving thanks.
[49] a crippled girl, Likewise on the following day a girl named Joan, of the village which they call vocant 2. Gastina [cc], condemned for two years to the weakness of a crippled body, had been compelled to turn the use of palms and knees into the use of feet. But as soon as she entered the church of blessed Albinus with pure heart and unfeigned faith, in the midst of the crowd standing around she was suddenly gladdened through blessed Girard with the gift of the health long desired.
[50] another boy, Likewise on that day a certain boy named Bernard, of the castle called Fissa, tormented for ten years by the same kind of condemnation, rejoiced that he had received a like grace of divine gift.
[51] a little infant suffering from the stone, Nor do I think this is to be omitted, which I do not doubt is known to many of the faithful. A certain little infant, his bladder being sickly, had come to suffer from the stone. He was carried by his mother to the tomb of the holy man in hope of obtaining health; and when he had spent that whole night sleepless, constricted by excessive pains, he was awaiting the coming of death alone. At length, morning having come, an effort to pass urine comes upon him. When the mother perceived this, at once she placed her hand under the little rod of her little one, and, catching the stone, like a bean, cast out with the urine following, she turned her lament into joy, her tears into praises, and in the same hour returned home with her revived offspring.
[52] a blind girl After a few days had intervened, a certain girl named Iunargandis Himargundis 2., of a certain town situated in the district of Nantes, which they call Ancenis [dd], deprived of the light of her eyes from her very cradle, after she merited to kiss the tomb of the holy confessor, the old darkness having been driven away, in the presence of all who were there, by God's favor, received in a moment the clearest sight.
[53] two frenzied boys are healed, Then, as time went on, two boys, of whom one, of the town called La Guerche [ee], was named Peter, the other, of the little village whose name is Sauteriacus [ff] in the territory of Angers, was himself also called William, both horribly tormented by the infestation of unclean spirits, gnashed their teeth vehemently and tore with bites themselves and all who came near them. Wherefore, bound with ropes, sense entirely lost, to the place where the body of the holy man is venerated, not without great
labor, they were brought. These, having stayed there some days, by the Lord's mercy and the intercession of blessed Girard, freed from the rage of the malignant spirits, their sense recovered, returned home unharmed.
[54] two smiths infirm in arms and hands, About the same time two smiths, of whom one, of the castle of Brienz [gg], was called Robert, and the other, of Furnellae [hh], was called Geoffrey, their arms withered for a long time and their hands crippled, were left to a long-lasting diutinae 2. idleness, but not a voluntary one. These, then, having kept vigil for some nights with prayers and vows at the tomb of the man of God, were restored together in one and the same hour to the health desired for two years.
[55] a daughter sick with fever, Nor do I think this should be passed over in silence, which I know was done in the sight of many. The daughter of a certain woman in the city of Angers was tormented, set alight by the fire of fevers, and the kindling of the burning heat had so consumed the marrow and body of the little girl that no ulla 2. hope of life remained in her, but despair, with the cry of mourning raised, followed. What more? The remedies of the physicians are withdrawn, and mourning alone is left for the mother. She, turning all her hope to the blessed man, takes up the body already almost lifeless; and when she was admonished by many to prepare burial for the extinct corpse, full of faith, weeping and wailing, she runs perhaps for adducit. with the half-dead limbs of her offspring to the tomb of the man of God; where, prayer and offering having been presented, at once the girl, all pain put to flight, rejoiced that she had received in a moment the soundness of her whole body, through the mediation medicante 2. of blessed Girard.
[56] and likewise a little boy. Likewise I ought not to keep silent about a miracle similar to this. On that day another woman at Pont-de-Sée [ii] was mourning her little one, despaired of, as the moment of death was already impending. And when the infant awaited only death and the mother was thinking about his burial, she is admonished by the faithful to vow the little infant and bring him to the memorial of the holy man. When she had done this, the little boy received health, and the mother returned home joyful with her offspring.
[57] The miracles narrated cannot be doubted, yet about many there is silence. We have passed over many miracles indeed which we have seen and heard, lest we should seem to cause the reader weariness. But what we write we testify before God, that at the venerable memorial of this saint of whom we speak, how often the infirmities of very many weak people are healed. For sight is restored to the blind, and to them it is either given new or rendered back when lost; to the idle ears of the deaf, insensibility having been put to flight, it is granted to use their proper sense; hands or feet weakened by disease are restored to their desired use; the paralyzed are repaired, the withered are renewed, the possessed are freed from demons. But why do we linger on each? Let him enumerate the healings who has leisure to enumerate the infirmities; let him tell the remedies who can tell the troubles. To close all things briefly, whoever, full of faith, affected with any trouble, has approached his tomb … the remaining part of this sentence omits 1, 2..
[58] A demoniac is freed, Likewise at the same time a certain Guito, a citizen of Angers, seized by a demon, was gravely tormented. His neighbors and friends, pitying his unhappiness, with his hands bound behind his back, brought him not without great labor to the tomb of St. Girard, gnashing with his teeth and omits 2. tearing his guides with bites. And when for some days they kept him there under guard, on the solemnity of blessed Albinus, which is celebrated in the autumn time, the demon having been put to flight, the possessed man recovers at once his sense and the nimbleness sanitatem 2. of his body.
[59] likewise a possessed woman; On that day Hildegard, who washed the garments of the monks, rising from table, incurred a dumb demon, which, savagely tormenting her, made her at once dumb and out of her mind. Seeing this, her people diu 2., weeping and wailing, presented her with offerings at the tomb of the servant of God Girard. Without delay the woman began to invoke the name of the Saviour in a suppressed voice, and in a stammering whisper, as she could, to beg the help of blessed Girard. On the same night she said to those standing around: I see the lord Girard, but still placed far off. And on the following day, that is, on the vigil of the apostles Simon and Jude, freed from the demonic infestation and with the health of her body recovered together with her sense, she most evidently furnished to the whole city of Angers material for glorifying God and honoring his servant.
[60] a youth having a withered arm is healed, About the same time a certain youth William, from the castle whose name is Sablé [kk], his arm, which he had long carried about withered and fit for no use, having been divinely repaired, spread abroad far and wide the power of the holy confessor Girard.
[61] likewise a dropsical man, At almost that very time Geoffrey from the district of Le Mans, this was the name of the sick man, labored for a long time with the dropsical disease; who, when he had consumed all his means on physicians and had profited nothing, having found wholesome counsel, with firm faith suppliantly begged and obtained the medicine of blessed Girard, and joyfully proclaimed round about to the people of Le Mans the power of so great a physician. Then, as time went on, and another bearing a withered arm, Albert, a monk of Saint-Jouin [ll], an honorable and religious man, had incurred the misfortune of a withered arm. He, having heard of the power of such great signs, going to the place of the confessor, faithfully begged that the iron ring and the mass of lead and the stone of no small weight, with which the man of God, while living, had loaded his neck for religion's sake, be applied to his weakened arm. When this had been done, it was as quick for him to receive health as to have touched the said relics.
[62] likewise a certain canon, No less a certain canon from the monastery of All Saints [mm], which is situated near the walls of the city of Angers, was freed from the same trouble by the power of the glorious confessor.
[63] and two deaf persons, On the festival of St. Girard a certain youth Peter, from the village of Saint-Florent [nn], merited to recover the use of his ears, which quod 2. he had lacked for a long time. On the same solemnity of St. Girard also, Susanna, from the town of Maine which they call Beaumont [oo], a noble and devout woman, condemned from childhood to the trouble of deafness, obtained the same grace.
[64] and a paralytic; Frogerius, from the village [pp] which they call Vernum, was tormented for a long time with paralytic trouble. When he was being brought by his people to the place of the blessed man, on the very journey, while still placed far off, he was visited by the grace of God and made whole again. When some days had passed, however, while on the most holy solemnity of the often-mentioned father, lying full of faith on his tomb, he was praying, the eyes of his understanding eius 2. were opened, and, as he himself afterwards simply narrated to us and to many of the faithful, it seemed to him that the very mausoleum on which he was lying providebat 2. was opened to him. When he presumed to enter it, the same tomb having been closed and opened four times over, he was prevented from entering by a stone meeting him by divine nod.
[65] likewise another, At the same time another paralytic, named Peter of Noventum Vovento 1. [qq], deprived of all bodily strength, creeping on his hands and feet in the already mentioned town, was supported by the kindnesses of the faithful. He, having heard the fame of the acts of power which the Lord was working through his servant Girard, trusting very much in the divine goodness, having taken two staves with which he might somehow drag his unhappy limbs along, tried to come to the place of the man of God with faith alone accompanying him. And when, anxious, he had accomplished from his lodging to the city of Angers sixteen stages, which other men pass by in going in two days without grave labor, at length he arrived somewhat more brisk at the tomb of the holy man. Then, having kept vigil there omits 2. with prayers and vows for three nights, the trouble of his whole body having been put to flight, he returned home sound and rejoicing.
[66] and a certain man sick in his feet, Iarnogovius Iarmagonius 1., a certain man sprung from Montrevault, deprived for a long time of the use of feet and hands, spent the nights of three weeks there with pure devotion; by the intercession of St. Girard he received the health which he had always desired, and went away home sound.
[67] and another laboring with a grave infirmity, Geoffrey, a boy sprung from the town of Dinan [rr], had indeed come to Angers healthy, but there began to fail with such sickness that for some days he performed no function of the body for human uses. Half-dead indeed in the flesh, he scarcely throbbed with a slender breath. And when, carried into the basilica of St. Albinus, he was weighed down by this kind of ailment, the little things which he had having been distributed for his burial, those who seemed to have the care of him awaited only his death. Then, as the throng of the arriving peoples pressed, he was moved into the porch of the church, where, when he was thought to be wholly extinct, he was suddenly restored to unexpected health.
[68] a woman with an ulcer, About the same time, on the Saturday before the Advent of the Lord, a certain woman Aiga Alga 2., when she was doing some work in her house at the village of Rionum [ss], was struck by a hidden judgment of God in her tongue with a most evil ulcer. Vehemently constricted by it, she begged with suppliant heart the protection of the saint, which she could not with her voice. Without delay, when she had vowed herself to the blessed man and, having taken to the road, was hastening to render her vow, at once statimque 2., the deadly plague having been put to flight and health received, she came to Angers, and related the matter in order to the whole city praying at the tomb of the blessed man.
[69] a sick man, At the village of Calumna a certain man, Rainald Bidel, had been sick for a long time. He, like very many others, in hope of recovering health, went to the place of the saint. There, while he prayed prostrate and thrust his head with simple heart between the stone columns which stand above the sarcophagus, he perceived the fragrance of a most sweet odor emanating from that same tomb. He beheld also as it were a cloud of fragrant smoke, which surpassed all spices, coming forth copiously from within. Sprinkled sespersus 1, 2. with the odor of this sweetness, he merited in the same hour to obtain, through the power of the holy man, the soundness of his whole body and the alertness of his mind. Finally, having returned home, when he related in order ref. ser. 2. to his priest the things which he had seen, he was vehemently rebuked by him because he had not indicated so glorious and remarkable a miracle to the monks of that church. Without delay, amended by the rebuke of the prudent man, he quickly returned to the tomb of the saint, and narrated to the monks and the other faithful what had happened to him.
[70] a pilgrim, whose arms had grown stiff, There was at L'Île-Bouchard [tt] a man of great age and devout, who was called Geoffrey Thorel. He, then, for the sake of prayer, had gone with many of the same devotion to the oratory of blessed James the apostle situated in Spain. That pilgrimage having been most devoutly diutissime 2. accomplished, when he was already returning home, both his arms, from excessive labor and unusual cold, grew so stiff that he could neither bring his hand to his mouth nor sign himself in any way. His companions on the journey, grieving at his misfortune, suggested to him that he should implore with firm faith the intercession of blessed Girard, whose goodness many sick had experienced. When he, tears having sprung up abortis 2., had done this and had vowed himself to the confessor with his whole heart, soon, his veins having grown warm and his sinews restored, both his arms received back the use long lost.
[71] a young man who suffered dysentery In the district of Nantes, at the village which is named Oratorium, a certain young man called Frogerius was irremediably tortured by a grave dysentery through the circle of a year. He, then, his natural humors having putrefied, and through the hinder parts not without
sharp pain cast out vectis 2., when he was already near to death, roused by the proclamation running about of so many signs which the Lord was working to declare the merits of his servant Girard, coming to Angers he prostrates himself at the tomb of the saint with confidence of obtaining health. There, when he had kept vigil for two nights with contrite heart and humbled spirit, with the blessed man as physician, he was restored to his former health.
[72] and Rainald, a cleric tormented by a strong sickness. Nor is this miracle to be passed over, by which on the octave of the Epiphany the Lord willed to make his saint wonderful. In the city of Angers, namely, a certain cleric Rainald, begotten of known and honorable parents, fell into the bed of a strong sickness. When for two days he took no food at all, but without voice, without sense, awaited only death, his mother, fleeing to the wholesome antidote of the proven physician Girald, already experienced by many aegris adds 2., girded his tomb round with a linen thread which she had brought with her for devotion, and solicitously gathered dust round the circuit of the tomb for a blessing, then returned swiftly to her half-alive son. And when she had rubbed his mouth with the most holy dust and had hung on his neck the linen thread with which she had encircled the tomb of the saint, at once the boy opened his eyes, and, blood having been emitted through his nostrils, the bond of his tongue being loosed, he addressed those standing by and, gently consoling his weeping mother, asked her to prepare food for him. What more? At once, as if snatched from the very jaws of death, he rose, and with his parents, for thanksgiving, ran hastily in health to the memorial of the holy confessor, by whose intercession he had escaped the danger of death, and, an offering having been solemnly made, went away home healthier sanus 1., nay most healthy.
ANNOTATA.
p. Daumeray, canton of Durtal, arrondissement of Baugé, 54 kilometers distant from Angers. Port, vol. III, p. 10.
q. Saint-Clément-de-la-Place, canton of Le Louroux-Béconnais, arrondissement of Angers. Port, vol. III, p. 341.
r. Faye, canton of Thouarcé, arrondissement of Angers; Port, vol. II, p. 139.
s. Thouarcé, arrondissement of Angers. Port, vol. III, p. 580.
t. More probably La Roë, in the district of Seiches. Port, vol. II, p. 296.
u. Durtal, a small town in the arrondissement of Baugé; it is 34 kilometers distant from Angers. Port, vol. II, p. 87.
v. Perhaps to be rendered Plessis-Friloux; Friloux is a hamlet in the district of Sainte-Gemmes-d'Angers. Port, vol. II, p. 212.
w. La Possonnière, arrondissement of Angers. Port, vol. III, p. 162.
x. Perhaps Pincé-sur-Sarthe, department of Sarthe.
y. Montrevault, arrondissement of Cholet, 35 kilometers distant from Angers. Port, vol. II, p. 727.
z. Chaudron, canton of Montrevault. Ibid., vol. I, p. 647.
aa. Arrondissement of Saumur, 54 kilometers distant from Angers. Ibid., vol. II, p. 56.
bb. Brissac, a small town. Ibid., vol. I, p. 509.
cc. Perhaps Gâtines, a hamlet in the district of Faye. Ibid., vol. II, p. 232.
dd. Ancenis, department of Loire-Inférieure.
ee. Guerche, in the hamlet of Chaudefonds. Port, vol. II, p. 323.
ff. Perhaps Sautré. Ibid., vol. III, p. 496.
gg. Briançon. Ibid., vol. I, p. 495.
hh. Les Fourneaux. Ibid., vol. II, p. 198.
ii. Pont-de-Cé, arrondissement of Angers. Ibid., vol. III, p. 150.
kk. Sablé, department of Sarthe.
ll. Saint-Jouin-sur-Marne. See Gallia christiana, vol. II, p. 1273 ff.
mm. Toussaints. Ibid., vol. XIV, p. 709 ff.
nn. Perhaps Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, canton of Cholet. Port, vol. II, p. 364.
oo. Beaumont-sur-Sarthe, department of Sarthe.
pp. Perhaps Vern, canton of Le Lion-d'Angers. Ibid., vol. III, p. 689.
qq. Perhaps Noyant, arrondissement of Saumur. Ibid., vol. III, p. 18.
rr. Dinant, department of Côtes-du-Nord.
ss. Dom Chamard renders this name as Brion, op. cit., p. 195. Brion is situated in the canton of Beaufort. Port, vol. I, p. 505.
tt. Isle-Bouchard, department of Indre-et-Loire.