Vulgisus

ON ST. VULGISUS, CONFESSOR, PERHAPS A PRESBYTER, IN THE VILLAGE OF TROISNES, IN THE PROVINCE OF THE ÎLE-DE-FRANCE,

Perhaps in the 6th century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Vulgisus, presbyter, Conf., in the village of Troisnes, in the province of the Île-de-France. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The cult of the Saint scarcely known to martyrologists: his body at La Ferté-Milon: relics elsewhere: the Latin Life to be published: another in French: his age and presbyterate.

How little known this Saint is, you will understand, reader, even from this, that he is announced by only two martyrologists, This Saint little known to martyrologists and these French, and that between them there is agreement neither about the day of his cult or death, nor even about the laurel. The first of these, André du Saussay, announced him with the title of martyr at the 24th day of September in his Gallican Martyrology in these words: On the same day, of St. Vulgisus, martyr, who, full of the love of God, so strove for His truth and justice that, falling in a happy contest, he carried off an unfading palm and laurel. He is venerated especially in the town whose name is La Ferté-Milon, where his precious sacred pledges are kept. The other martyrologist is Claude Châtelain, who in the Universal Martyrology at the Kalends of October recorded the same man as a confessor briefly thus in French: At Troênes near La Ferté-Milon, St. Vulgisus, confessor. In our Work at the aforementioned day of September he was for this reason only recorded among the Passed Over and deferred to the Kalends of October, and it was promised that on this day it would at the same time be examined whether that Vulgisus seems to be distinct from St. Vulgisus, bishop and abbot of Lobbes, of whom our Bolland gave a historical Commentary at the 4th day of February.

[2] That they are different Saints will easily be established after I have set forth the cult and the Acts, such as they are, of today's Vulgisus. he has an ancient cult As regards the laurel, if anything is held ascertained about the same Saint, he must be said to have been a confessor; nor could I make out why Saussay called him a martyr, unless perhaps because, since he knew nothing of him except the cult of his sacred body,

he supposed it to be rather of some ancient martyr than of a confessor. That Saussay knew nothing of the time and manner of his martyrdom is sufficiently indicated by the eulogy he gave, easily adaptable to any martyr who suffered at any time and under any tyrant. Of his martyrdom the inhabitants of La Ferté-Milon also know nothing; nay, it is expressly denied by them against the cited Saussay in the compendious French Life dedicated in the name of the same inhabitants to the bishop of Soissons by P. Sconin, of which we shall soon say more. That the day of his cult is the Kalends of October is established from the same Life, in which one reads thus: He gave back his soul placidly into the hands of his Creator on the 1st day of October, on which his feast is kept. Finally, Châtelain indicated the place of his death, burial and more ancient cult when he announced him at Troênes; but Saussay rightly called the chief place of his cult La Ferté-Milon, where the body of the Saint has been honoured now for some centuries.

[3] at La Ferté-Milon, where his body Now Firmitas-Milonis, in French la Ferté Milon, is a city of Gaul in the province of the Île-de-France and in the diocese of Soissons, on the river Urca, commonly called l'Ourque, which flows through it, and situated almost midway between Soissons to the North and Meaux to the South, on the testimony of Baudrand in the geographical Lexicon. To the castle of this city the body of St. Vulgisus is related to have been translated anciently from its first burial, and deposited there in the chapel of St. Sebastian and enclosed in a silver reliquary. There was also founded there a priory in the name of St. Vulgisus, and handed over to the canons Regular of the monastery of St. John of the Vineyards at Soissons. Nicolas Belfort, a religious canon of the same monastery, and at one time minister of the said priory, in the notices to be cited below, noted the following to our purpose at the very end of the sixteenth century: Further, the aforementioned church of the aforesaid castle has kept up to this time the most elegant reliquary of the divine Vulgisus hanging before the altar, which every year in the Paschal holidays is wont to be carried with great honour and public procession outside the city to the chapel called of Our Lady of the Borough, which the venerable Carthusian fathers of Bourgfontaine possess.

[4] is honourably kept, Extend the words up to this time not beyond the beginnings of the reign of Henry IV, king of France: for under him, on account of the civil wars, that church or chapel was destroyed, as the same Belfort, who was then living, afterwards lamented in the words which I subjoin. Finally (he says), that we may omit nothing of what pertains here, very lately, alas the grief, that church was levelled to the ground by the soldiers who sustained the siege of the aforesaid castle in the month of January of the year MDXCIV; by whom the body of the blessed Man, kept for some time, as I have heard, in a certain tower of the castle itself, afterwards, the castle itself having been demolished on the side of the city, was laid again in the parish church of the city. God grant that it may henceforth be laid again in a place befitting its dignity. The writer of the French Life, published after the middle of the seventeenth century, nearly agrees, from which we learn at the same time that the sacred body of Vulgisus remained thereafter in worthy honour in the same parish church of La Ferté-Milon. Let these things be briefly said about the chief place of his cult, to be examined partly more fully below.

[5] By reason of the aforesaid priory given to the monastery of St. John of the Vineyards at Soissons, [and at Soissons in the abbey of St. John of the Vineyards there was likewise a cult] the cult of St. Vulgisus was propagated also to this monastery, on the testimony of the writer of the French Life, in which one reads: From that time the Religious of St. John of the Vineyards have always celebrated in their Breviary the memory of our Saint, and have inserted for him one lesson, which comprises a compendium of his life. Belfort agrees, who in his Notices adds some things from the Proper of the feasts of our church (as he says). The other place of his cult or death I said was assigned by Châtelain as Troênes, which in the Life to be published is called Orcizus, but in the French Life Troisnes, and by Belfort, with a Latin termination, Troyna. I thought the French Life should be followed, as written almost in the very place. In it its situation is given thus in French words: Near La Ferté-Milon there is a small village (in French village), named Troisnes, situated on the slope of a fairly high hill, at whose foot the river Urca (in French Ourq) flows. Formerly this place was a wooded solitude, surrounded on all sides by the forest of Retz (called by the natives la forest de Retz), which is now also next to it.

[6] In this place our St. Vulgisus is believed to have led the eremitical life, at Troisnes, where his empty tomb and to have died, and to have been buried there next to his cell, and in the church of St. Peter, whether this already existed there at that time or was built afterwards, to have been held in worthy veneration by the natives and neighbouring people, until he was translated to La Ferté-Milon. There remained, however, at Troisnes the memory of that first burial, concerning which it will help to have heard the words of Belfort, an eyewitness. The body of this blessed Man must without doubt be believed to have been buried in the cemetery of that little town, contiguous to the forest of Retz, which we call Troyna, at that time named of the divine Peter. For to this day there, in the church, which is one of our parishes (namely of the abbey of St. John of the Vineyards), is seen before the high altar, raised a little above the ground, his stone effigy, large indeed and beautiful, showing by the material representation of the sacred vestments also that he was undoubtedly a priest. The writer of the French Life, speaking more clearly, says that it is a stone tomb resting on four small columns; and adds: This tomb is before the principal altar of the church, and on it is seen his effigy made in solid relief work.

[7] He lies stretched out, with very short hair, is seen, with a monument placed over it, marked with the priestly tonsure, and clad in priestly vestments, and carrying a chalice in his hands. Beneath his feet are seen the effigies of two cows, which he brought out of the river safe. If, however, we believe the same biographer, the body of St. Vulgisus never lay in this tomb, but it was only placed as a perpetual monument over the place of his burial when it was translated hence to the castle of La Ferté-Milon. He adds also a prodigy, which he asserts happened in his age in the same place and was duly proved, saying thus: We do not think another miracle should be passed over in silence, which happened in our age at that tomb, and which in these parts it is not lawful to call into doubt. In the year MDCXI certain gravediggers, whose names are recorded in the process drawn up on this matter, were ordered to dig a grave near our Saint's tomb for the burial of a nobleman of the same place, the lord de Billy. These good men wished to see what lay hidden under that tomb; and since they were observed by no one, they dared to dig under it: but scarcely had they taken out any earth, when a most sweet and most pleasing odour burst forth thence, which filled the whole church, and was perceived by all who ran thither to prove so great a prodigy by their own experience.

[8] and from which in the year 1611 a most sweet odour is said to have burst forth. The gravediggers, who by their damnable curiosity had been the cause of the prodigy, were struck with such horror that thereafter they led a languishing and miserable life until death, which they met three or four months afterwards; whether this followed naturally from the excessive terror by which they had been seized, or was a punishment for the neglected honour and reverence due to so sacred a place. Thus far he, who, since he wrote these things so confidently to the bishop of Soissons, in whose diocese the village of Troisnes is situated, and wrote at a time and place where, if he had peddled falsehoods, he could easily have been convicted; and since, moreover, he also cited the process, as they call it, verbal, we cannot rightly doubt the truth of the matter. On the testimony again of the same biographer, after the body of St. Vulgisus had been translated to La Ferté-Milon, nothing of it was left at Troisnes except one tooth, and this certain Lorrainers, when in the year 1652 they passed that way with their army, entering the church, carried off and took away into Lorraine, asserting that St. Vulgisus was held in great veneration there too. We shall say below that two notable relics of the same Saint were likewise translated in the same seventeenth century from La Ferté-Milon to the city of Soissons; meanwhile let these things suffice for establishing the cult of Vulgisus, so little known to martyrologists, and for the knowledge of the places in which he is venerated. And so I proceed to his Acts.

[9] [The Latin Life, which we shall publish, was written after the translation of the body;] We have a single copy of his Latin Life, from the manuscript of Nicolas Belfort, already cited several times, who set forth in an Addition whence and from whom he received it, thus: These are the few things concerning the life of this blessed Man which the lord Jean Caron (of the Order of St. Dominic), doctor of the Sorbonne, copied out at my request, and brought to us on the second day of February of the year MDXCI, namely when, his sermons at La Ferté-Milon in the sacred time of Advent being completed, he returned to this city of Soissons. And at the head it is noted that our copy was transcribed from a very old (perhaps Lectionary is to be added) of the church sacred to his name at La Ferté-Milon, where his sacred body, laid up in a silver case, rested until the year MDXCIV. The author of the Life, as is usual in Lectionaries of this kind, is anonymous, and wrote after the translation of the body from its first burial to La Ferté-Milon, which the French Life indeed fixed in the eighth century, but which, from what is to be disputed below, perhaps first happened in the ninth century or even later: which time is very remote from the age of the Saint himself, if he was, as is related, a disciple of St. Remigius, apostle of the Franks, who died about the year 533. For the rest, it cannot be gathered from this Latin Life whether it was composed from some older one, or from tradition alone. The few things which it contains we shall soon examine.

[10] we have also another, more recent, in French. The French Life, of which I have already frequently made mention, is entitled the Life of St. Vulgisus (in French saint Vulgis), presbyter and confessor, patron of La Ferté-Milon; and it is dedicated in the name of the inhabitants of the same city to the most illustrious lord Charles Bourlon, bishop of Soissons, who is said, in volume 9 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 381, to have held that see from the year 1656 until 1685, within which years the same Life, which bears neither year nor place of publication, must accordingly have been printed. Its author was very probably the same who is read subscribed to the dedication, P. Sconin, otherwise wholly unknown to me. Whoever, however, the author of the same Life may be, he so agrees with the Latin biographer in the deeds of the Saint that yet he seems to have followed a Life different from his. For not only does he vary in a few circumstances, but he also openly denies that the names of the parents of Vulgisus are known, which are expressed in our Latin Life (perhaps more confidently than the truth permitted). The French Life also has this peculiar, that the things pertaining to his cult,

some of which are earlier than the Latin writer, are set forth in it more fully; would that always as accurately as assertively, especially where it is a question of the time and author of the first translation of the sacred body, of the donor of the silver reliquary, and of the founders of the priory of St. Vulgisus in the castle of La Ferté-Milon, of which we shall speak in the following §.

[11] Nicolas Belfort also observed some things about the cult in the Addition to the Latin Life, from which and from Belfort's annotations we know a little of the Saint. where, after the words given at number 9, he continued thus: For the rest, since it is manifest that some things are lacking (in the same Life) from the Proper of the feasts of our church, which has lately been for the great part worked up by us while I was staying under obedience in the very priory of the divine Vulgisus (in the castle of La Ferté-Milon), I thought it worth while to add some things in this place, both from the said Proper and those which have otherwise been ascertained and known by me; namely lest they perish on account of the tempest of the civil wars, etc. There follow there the things which I have nearly related above, and so are not to be repeated here; and finally, to make faith for what has been said, And all these things indeed (he says) I have partly seen in fact, partly read in the aforementioned old Antiphonary, somewhere apart from the preceding History (namely the Latin Life to be published), which the aforesaid doctor (Jean Caron), hastening for the studies necessary for his sermons, could not see in detail. Besides that twofold Life, Latin and French, and the few annotations of Belfort, we have absolutely nothing for narrating the deeds of the Saint; and there is so great a silence about him even among the more recent writers that I wonder that a Saint certainly sufficiently famous for his cult has been passed over by the others as though unknown.

[12] Let us see, then, what we have concerning him from the two Lives. [He is believed to have been baptized by St. Remigius and to have been his disciple,] Both agree that St. Vulgisus, born of noble parents, was baptized by the great apostle of the Franks, St. Remigius, prelate of the Remi, and after his boyhood was over was instructed by the same, in mature age was initiated into the priesthood, and was taken into the fellowship of his labours, until, with the good leave of the same holy bishop, he undertook the solitary life. His parents, whose names the French biographer asserts, very probably more rightly, are not known, are called in the Latin Life Palatinus and Christina, whose nobility, equally with their names, is uncertain to me. The long episcopate of St. Remigius, extended, on the testimony of St. Gregory of Tours in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 79, beyond seventy years, easily permits that he could have promoted a boy baptized by him to the priesthood and adopted him as his companion in the apostolic office; yet, that we may believe this was so done, a more suitable testimony is needed than is that of the Latin biographer, so much later, as has been said, and of the French one, who wrote after the middle of the seventeenth century.

[13] as is also read on a parchment slip The same French writer brings forward, as the first and only monument for this assertion, one which he says was found beside the very body of the Saint, when his silver reliquary was opened and inspected in the year 1643 by the most illustrious lord Simon le Gras, bishop of Soissons, visiting his diocese. And it is written on a parchment slip in Gothic letters, but (as he says) very well formed, which has thus: The body of Saint Vulgisus, godson and disciple of St. Remigius, archbishop of Reims. I do not know whether the biographer himself saw this slip; but I could wish that he had exhibited it engraved in copper, so that one might judge of the antiquity of the characters. In so doubtful a matter it is at least permissible to suspect that that slip is not older than the very reliquary in which it was found, but was made at the same time as it; unless it was even added afterwards at some inspection of the sacred body. And the same French biographer writes indeed that that reliquary is a work of the advanced eighth century; but from what is to be said it will be doubtful whether it is older than the twelfth century. Let us suppose, however, for a moment, that it is a work of the eighth century; so at least it will be two centuries later than St. Remigius, and on the other side it will remain doubtful whether the slip is of the same age as the case.

[14] found in his reliquary, but of an age uncertain to me, And so from an inscription of an age so uncertain to me I would not dare to affirm anything certain for the time at which St. Vulgisus is to be believed to have lived. From elsewhere too nothing is available to me for numbering the same among the disciples of St. Remigius of Reims. The Latin biographer of St. Vulgisus is not older than the translation of the body to La Ferté-Milon; the original and at the same time prolix Life of the cited holy bishop of the Remi, written by a contemporary or one of his age, has long been missing; the compendium of the same Life composed by the celebrated Fortunatus, presbyter, afterwards bishop of Poitiers, is much too contracted for you to seek the disciples of St. Remigius in it; and those who after these wrote the deeds of the same holy prelate, Hincmar, bishop of Reims, in the ninth century and Flodoard in the tenth, made no mention of Vulgisus. Yet the silence of these has not the force of a negative argument; since Hincmar recorded none, Flodoard indeed many, but not all, of the disciples of St. Remigius; and both, moreover, lived far removed from his age. On the other hand, I have read nothing elsewhere that opposes the tradition of numbering St. Vulgisus among the Remigian disciples.

[15] which, however, nothing elsewhere contradicts. It is true that he is called a martyr by Saussay, which does not agree with the statements of the biographers; but until someone produces the reason for the assertion, the common tradition of the natives ought not to yield to it. Nor do I know any better why Châtelain ascribed him to the eighth century, unless perhaps he read here that the translation of his body took place in the eighth century, and, holding suspect the other things that were read of him, noted that same century in the margin of his announcement, as the one in which he thought he had certain testimony of his cult. But this reason too certainly proves nothing. Nor can there be any suspicion here that Châtelain (unless perhaps from a mere lapse of memory) confused today's Vulgisus with the holy bishop and abbot of Lobbes of the same name, who died happily in the eighth century; since Châtelain himself rightly recorded the one of Lobbes, as different from ours, at the 4th day of February, on which he is venerated, the place and century of his death being noted. For which reason in a doubtful matter I preferred to concede something to the tradition of the natives, and ascribed St. Vulgisus, as a doubtful disciple of St. Remigius of Reims, with the caution of the adverb perhaps, to the sixth century. For confirming or denying his presbyterate likewise no argument occurs to me from elsewhere; wherefore I cannot deny this either against the tradition expressed in both Lives. The other assertions of the biographers we shall weigh in the Annotations to the Life.

§ II. The time of the translation of the body obscure: the priory of St. Vulgisus founded: a precious reliquary: relics taken from it: this Saint different from the one of Lobbes of the same name.

The body of St. Vulgisus was translated from the village of Troisnes I said above that it is held by tradition that St. Vulgisus, at whatever time he finally lived, led the eremitical life in the village of Troisnes, and lay buried there in the church of St. Peter, whether this existed before his death, or was first founded or enlarged after it. That he was translated hence to La Ferté-Milon both biographers agree, and Belfort, joining them, says this in his manuscript Notices: The dignity and glory of which place (of the burial at Troisnes), wonderful to say, spread how widely after the passing of the blessed Man, when on account of the frequency of miracles a huge multitude of the faithful flowed together to him from every surrounding region, and so many were already determining to carry the body of Vulgisus away into their own churches. But when Milo, who was then most powerful in those parts, had learned of this, not wishing to give his glory to another, he caused it to be translated on the 4th of the Ides of November into his castle at La Ferté-Milon, to be placed there in the church of St. Sebastian, which he also left most honourably enriched. These things he himself took from the old Antiphonary of the same church, from which or a similar monument he perhaps also learned the day of the translation, which I have not read elsewhere. What he stated beforehand about the miracles and the concourse of the people at the Saint's tomb, although it may be somewhat exaggerated, is probable enough; because such things are wont to give occasion to translations of this kind.

[17] Receive also the words of the Latin biographer from the Life to be published. to La Ferté-Milon, the time of which translation But after he gave back his spirit to heaven, his body was honourably laid out by the inhabitants of that place and by religious men and buried with worthy veneration. Afterwards, much time having passed, by the will of God it was translated to the place in which it is now venerated with worthy honour. And in the place where the relics of his body now rest a basilica was built with the utmost reverence by the blessed and excellent man Milo and by his venerable consort, where daily service is performed with due veneration, and he is honoured according to the rite of the ecclesiastical order. From these it is manifestly clear that this Life was written after the translation of the sacred body; but it can be doubted, first, whether Milo, the founder of the church, was also the author of the translation, or whether he laid again in the church founded by him the sacred pledge brought thither before. It can be doubted, second, whether in the writer's time the said precious reliquary of the Saint had already been made, of which he makes no mention.

[18] Belfort, just cited, attributes the translation to Milo, in the French Life alone the year 720 is assigned, but is silent about the author of the church to which he says it was made by him: likewise he is silent about the donor of the same reliquary, which he mentioned in the words recited at number 3. But the French biographer, younger than both, speaks more openly, but with circumstances by no means to be approved. According to his opinion, which he states as certain, the same Milo, founder of the castle of La Ferté-Milon and of the church or chapel of St. Sebastian, translated the body of St. Vulgisus thither in the year 720, and the same caused to be made at his own expense the silver reliquary and moreover an effigy of his head, or herm, of the same metal; but afterwards Hugh, brother of Philip I, king of France, magnificently adorned the same reliquary, and founded there the priory of St. Vulgisus, and gave it to the monastery of St. John of the Vineyards at Soissons. It cannot rightly be denied that La Ferté-Milon received its name from some Milo: for, as Adrien de Valois teaches in the Notitia Galliarum, places fortified by nature and art and surrounded by walls or ramparts, such as are castles and citadels, which later men called fortalitia, were called Firmitates by the old Franks.

[19] and as author Milo, founder of La Ferté: Many places of this kind called Firmitas are found in Gaul, which are surnamed partly from their founders and lords, partly from the rivers beside which they lie. You have examples in the cited Valois at the word Firmitas. But that Milo, the founder or lord of this Firmitas on the Ourcq, lived in the eighth century, and in the year 720 caused the translation of St. Vulgisus to his castle, and the other aforesaid things, to be done, I do not know, after diligent effort expended, on what argument it rests. I cannot indeed affirm whether, as often happens to others too,

love for the antiquities of his native place drove that writer to that opinion; nevertheless André du Chesne established a far different age for the Ferté on the Ourcq, writing in the Antiquities of the cities etc. of France, page 392, that it was founded by Milo in the reign of Louis VI, surnamed the Fat, that he might have a place where he could protect himself in the civil wars against hostile incursions. And Louis VI reigned from the year 1108 until 1137, that is, four centuries later than the writer of the French Life affirmed that Milo, founder of the Ferté and author of the translation, lived. Let us grant, however, that La Ferté-Milon is older than du Chesne believed; the question will return about the time of the translation of St. Vulgisus, of which not even the century, much less the year, did the Latin biographer and Belfort, a domestic writer, nay very probably both domestic, mark.

[20] which is not proved to us. Since, then, the French biographer cites no witness for the year 720, I fear lest he proceeded in designating it rather from slight conjectures than from solid reason or an ancient monument; and there are some things which leave this suspicion not empty. On his testimony, and with Belfort agreeing, and the Latin biographer not contradicting, there already existed in the castle of La Ferté-Milon a chapel sacred to St. Sebastian when the translation took place. But the cult of this martyr first became celebrated in the Gauls in the ninth century, when part of his body, Pope Eugenius II granting it, was brought from the City of Rome in the year 826, and, deposited in the monastery of St. Medard at Soissons, soon began to become famous with very many miracles; as may be seen more fully in our Work, volume 2 of January, page 261 and following. Hence I suspect that the lord of La Ferté-Milon, which is in the diocese of Soissons, piously moved by that event, built a chapel in his castle in the name of the same holy martyr, and enriched it with a portion obtained from the relics at Soissons. If this suspicion of mine be true, the often-mentioned translation will not be older than the ninth century, and perhaps even more recent; which will also receive some likelihood from what is to be said about the reliquary and the foundation of the priory.

[21] In the same castle a priory was founded, Concerning the priory the French Life has the following in the vernacular tongue. That priory was founded in the year MCX by Hugh the Great or the White, son of France, brother of King Philip I. This prince was count of the Veromandui and lord of La Ferté-Milon, where he ordinarily resided. In the year MXCVI he had set out for Palestine with Godfrey of Bouillon. He founded this priory that he might leave to posterity a monument of his piety, and Hilgot, bishop of Soissons and a Religious of the monastery of St. Genevieve at Paris, assented… He, however, dying meanwhile, was not permitted to see the foundation made, but his successor Lisiard founded the same priory in the name of Hugh the Great and Helvindis his wife, and of their son William, count of Flanders, and of his consort Sibylla. At their prayers this bishop dedicated the chapel of the citadel of La Ferté to St. Vulgisus, and gave its priory to the canons Regular of St. John of the Vineyards at Soissons on this condition, that three or four of them should always live in the castle to discharge the offices of the priory, as is said more fully in the instrument of foundation. By the name of priory, in the French phrase prieuré, there seems to come here, as we now speak, a benefice, either with cure, which has the office of parish priest annexed, or simple, instituted only for other divine offices to be celebrated in a certain place, and granted to a monastery, so that its superior may supply ministers for it from his subjects, such as we saw above that Nicolas Belfort was.

[22] Further, although the foundation of the priory of St. Vulgisus is certain, not all the circumstances can on that account be admitted whose founder is said there to have been Hugh the Great, which the French biographer confidently thrust upon us as taken from the genuine letters of foundation. Hugh surnamed the Great is well known, brother of Philip I, king of France, and through his wife Adelaide count of the Veromandui, who, having twice set out for the Holy Land with the princes signed with the cross, in the second expedition died at Tarsus in Cilicia in the year 1102, as the historians relate from Robert de Monte. From his death-year it is clear that the priory of which we treat was instituted either earlier than the year 1110, or by another Hugh. That it is earlier than the cited year 1110 is gathered from volume 9 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 457, where among the abbots of St. John of the Vineyards in the third place one reads: Peter I … occurs in a charter of Bishop Hugh (of Soissons) confirming the donation of the chapel of St. Vulgisius in the castle of La Ferté-Milon in the year MC, which Bishop Lisiard afterwards approved in the year MCX. In conformity with these things, in the same place, column 354, among the bishops of Soissons, Hugh I, successor of Hilgot after Henry, is said to have confirmed the goods of St. John in the year 1100; and again, column 355, under Lisiard, the fourth successor of Hilgot, one may read: He confirmed the goods of St. John of the Vineyards in the year MCX, the 2nd of his episcopate.

[23] Already, therefore, from the year 1100 the chapel or priory of St. Vulgisus at La Ferté-Milon had been founded, brother of King Philip I, with fabulous circumstances; and was of the jurisdiction of the monastery of St. John at Soissons, at which time the cited Count Hugh was living and staying in Gaul, having returned thither from his first sacred expedition before the end of the eleventh century, so that that Hugh could have founded the priory then. But there are indeed other things which wholly overturn this opinion and compel us to seek another founder. In the time of Hugh, count of the Veromandui, there was no count of Flanders William, no countess of Flanders Sibylla. The same Hugh is read to have had a single wife, named Adelaide, not Helvindis, in the brothers de Sainte-Marthe, in the Genealogical History of the royal house of France, volume 2, page 665 and following. Of their children only two males are recounted there, namely Ralph, who succeeded to the county of Vermandois, and Simon, bishop of Noyon; but of the daughters no Sibylla is named, none was married to a count of Flanders, so that it is a wonder whence the biographer took these things. In others too I have not found that Hugh the Great was also lord of La Ferté-Milon, but another Hugh flourishing at almost the same time, to whom the other things fit.

[24] but its founder seems to have been Hugh the White, Du Chesne, cited above at number 19, writes that La Ferté-Milon anciently belonged to Hugh the White (in French Hugues or Hues de Blanc), founder in the year MCX of the priory of Vulgisus (in French de Voulgis) in the same place. Du Chesne added no more about him, but doubtless he is the very Hugh whom the French biographer, wrongly believing him the brother of Philip I, king of France, called both the Great and the White. More light is brought by the most reverend Hugh, bishop of Ptolemais and abbot of Étival, in volume 2 of the Annals of the Premonstratensian Order, columns 1039 and 1041, teaching that the abbey of Vivières, afterwards called Valsery from the change of site, was either founded or handed over to the Premonstratensians by Hugh the White, lord of La Ferté-Milon, in the year MCXXI. To this end he cites the charter of donation, a copy of which he says he saw from the authentic, and exhibits it in the same place among the Proofs, column DCXLV and following; very opportunely for me indeed, except that there, perhaps from the printer's fault, Hugo Abbas is corruptly read for Hugo Albus. That charter is Lisiard's, bishop of Soissons, confirming the donation of Hugh, by which Lisiard namely, as was said above, the foundation and donation of the priory of St. Vulgisus was also confirmed.

[25] lord of La Ferté-Milon towards the end of the XIth century and in the XIIth. Further, in that charter the bishop speaks thus: I, Lysiard, bishop of the Suessiones, make known that Hugh the Abbot (Albus is to be read), lord of La Ferté-Milon, Helvidis his wife, with the assent of his son William and his wife Sybilla, at the petition of the lord Norbert, a religious man, restored with justice the church of Vivières… to Abbot Henry and his brethren through our hands, etc. And it is read signed in this manner: These things were done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and twenty-one; for which, however, the continuators of Gallia Christiana, volume 9, column 485 and following, judge that MCXXIV or MCXXVI seems to be read, who can be consulted there; for it matters nothing to me here in precisely what year it was signed. But since all the same persons are named there as living about the time at which the priory of St. Vulgisus is said in the French Life to have been founded, I scarcely doubt that the foundation of the same priory is to be attributed to the same Milo; since he, flourishing at the same time, was lord of La Ferté-Milon, and had a wife Helvindis or Helvidis, a son William and a daughter-in-law Sibylla. But neither was that Hugh the brother of Philip I, king of France, nor were William and Sibylla count and countess of Flanders, as the French biographer had wrongly asserted.

[26] The silver reliquary seems to have been made much more recently There remain besides some things to be observed about the precious reliquary of the Saint. In the same French Life it is said to have been made by Milo, the first translator of the sacred body, already from the year 720, of both of which assertions I required proof above; and skilled appraisers of old silverwork will be able to give a more certain judgment about the antiquity of the reliquary if they examine the case itself with their own eyes. Of the adornment which the author says was afterwards added to it he subjoins this: In memory of this thing (the founding of the priory) Hugh the Great ordered two smaller effigies of gilded silver, one of St. John the Baptist, the other of St. Vulgisus in priestly habit, to be placed on either side at the ends of the reliquary. He caused moreover his coat of arms, that is, three golden lilies on an azure field, to be engraved on it, and it to be decorated on every side with countless silver lilies overlaid with gold. His wife also, Helvindis, enriched both this and the other (concerning which see number 18) with a great number of precious stones. If truly some Hugh, founder of the often-mentioned priory, and his wife Helvidis thus adorned that case, he was not Hugh the Great, brother of King Philip I, but that other Hugh the White, lord of La Ferté-Milon, as I think is sufficiently clear from the foregoing.

[27] The French coat of arms certainly indicates a prince of royal blood, than in the VIIIth century, as the French Life has: and for that reason would pertain to Hugh the Great rather than to that other. Nevertheless it appears more probable that it is of neither, because the use of the three lilies in the French coat of arms is more recent than both, whose beginning is commonly referred to the fourteenth century. For the rest, I confess that I do not know to the munificence of what king or royal prince this precious adornment, or even the reliquary itself, is to be ascribed. I said, or even the reliquary itself; because I fear lest the by no means accurate writer believed that adornment to have been added afterwards, because he thought the same was made in the eighth century, and saw that so great an antiquity could not be reconciled with that more recent work. Now let us hear him pursuing the rest pertaining to the Saint's cult. After what he said about his sacred veneration in the abbey of St. John

of the Vineyards at Soissons, which I have already related at number 5, he returns to the priory of the castle of La Ferté-Milon in the words which I subjoin.

[28] And this was the first foundation of this benefice. Then, some time having elapsed, the priory afterwards increased with revenues. Eleonora, granddaughter of Hugh the Great, countess of Beaumont, of Vermandois and of Valois, following in the footsteps of her forebears, increased it with various revenues, to be paid from her possessions, by her testament in the year MCXCIV, in the presence of the queen, Adela, wife (that is, widow) of Louis the Younger (or the seventh of this name) and mother of Philip Augustus. All these donations Charles, count of Valois, brother of Philip the Fair, afterwards confirmed by his letters, given on the 8th day of December of the year MCCXCI. Eleonora, here cited, was in fact the granddaughter of Hugh the Great by his son Ralph I, count of Vermandois and Valois, whom the brothers de Sainte-Marthe, in the aforementioned Work, page 674 and following, write was joined in a fourth marriage to Matthew, count of Beaumont, and they praise her pious munificence in building and endowing monasteries, and namely a charter made in the same year 1194 in favour of the abbey of Vallis-Serena, commonly Val-Sery, in the diocese of Soissons. The other princely persons named by the biographer also agree with the times, so that I cannot deny that Eleonora also did good to the priory of St. Vulgisus in the castle of La Ferté-Milon.

[29] More certain faith is merited by what he noted about the cult shown in his age to those sacred relics by the most illustrious lords, bishops of the church of Soissons, In the year 1643 some relics were taken from the case, Simon II, surnamed le Gras, and his immediate successor Charles III Bourlon. By the example (he says) of the late most illustrious lord le Gras, bishop of Soissons, the devotion seems to have been revived in the people which namely the aforementioned princes had shown to St. Vulgisus. This prelate, visiting his diocese in the year MDCXLIII, came to La Ferté-Milon. There he opened the reliquary of our Saint in the presence of all the citizens and of some physicians whom he had ordered to be present to inspect his bones. In it he found his whole body. The physicians, after considering all its parts, judged that the Saint had been of very tall and strong body, and that it appeared sufficiently that he had lived to extreme old age. There was also found then in the case a parchment slip inscribed with these words in Gothic letters, but (which is a more certain argument of antiquity) most perfectly written: The body of Saint Vulgisus, godson and disciple of St. Remigius, archbishop of Reims.

[30] part of which were left there, part carried to Soissons There was found in it besides a process verbal of the year MDXLV concerning a translation then made to the city of Soissons for the sake of a necessary repair. The process is signed by Poignant, Mointhoile, and other officials of La Ferté-Milon. The same most illustrious bishop of Soissons testified to those standing by that these are among the chief relics of his diocese, and intimated his desire to take away some portion of them. Nor did they dare to oppose the piety of the prelate, and he took out both jaws of the Saint, and one of his ribs, and one bone of St. Sebastian, the ancient patron of the chapel of the citadel. This bone, with the upper jaw of St. Vulgisus, he left to the church of La Ferté-Milon, where they were afterwards enclosed in a silver case made in the form of an angel carrying them on its head. The other jaw and the rib he brought to Soissons, where, as soon as he arrived, he proclaimed a general procession, in which he carried both relics round in a great silver basin.

[31] and thereafter held in veneration. Then he gave one of them to the abbey of St. Mary of Soissons (which is of Benedictine virgins); the other he kept for himself, which his Successor (Charles III) de Bourlon enclosed in a reliquary, thus proving that he had succeeded no less to the piety of his predecessors towards this our Saint than to their dignity. Finally he concluded his Little Work thus: We do not think it necessary to exhort the inhabitants of La Ferté-Milon to imitate the examples of their ancestors and princes in the cult of St. Vulgisus; for of their own accord they are sufficiently inclined to it, and the frequent graces which they have obtained and obtain daily from God through his patronage have abundantly taught how great this Saint is in heaven, and how much he deserves to be honoured on earth.

[32] This Saint is to be distinguished from the one of Lobbes of the same name. I have no more about St. Vulgisus, and it only remains, as I promised at the beginning of the Commentary, that we observe from what has been said so far that he is far different from St. Ulgisus or Wlgisus, of whom our Bolland treated at the 4th day of February. For this Ulgisus flourished in the eighth century, and was bishop and abbot of Lobbes in Belgium, on the borders of the province of Liège and of Hainaut, where too, buried in the church of Lobbes and elevated, he lay honourably until the year 1409, in which, on account of the overthrow of the town of Lobbes, he was translated to Binche in Hainaut, where he is venerated to this day. But on the contrary today's Vulgisus, whatever may be the case about the age in which he flourished, is believed to have been only a presbyter, not a bishop or abbot, and, leading the anchoretic life in the village of Troisnes in the diocese of Soissons, died and was buried there, and was translated thence to La Ferté-Milon, and deposited there anciently in a precious silver case, and has now been honoured for some centuries; so that these two Saints have nothing in common besides the similarity of name. Now I subjoin the Life, such as it is, and of slight authority.

LIFE

By an anonymous author,

From the manuscript of Nicolas Belfort, canon Regular of the monastery of St. John of the Vineyards at Soissons.

Vulgisus, presbyter, Conf., in the village of Troisnes, in the province of the Île-de-France. (S.)

BHL Number: 8747

By an anonymous author.

The Saint's parents, baptism, education; The eminent confessor Vulgisus, sprung from the lineage of the Franks, strong both in kinship and in nobility, and shining not moderately among his own, was born in the district of Reims, his father being named Palatinus, a very pre-eminent man, and his mother Christina, no less freeborn according to the birth of such a generation ^a. And he was so elegant in beauty and formation of body that scarcely anyone in that region was seen to be compared with him ^b. And having been brought up with diligent care, so that he seemed to excel the years of his age, he was offered by his holy parents to the most holy pontiff Remigius ^c, who at that time was held pre-eminent among the nobles of the Franks for his eminent probity and virtue. He, having received the little Infant with all joy, dipped him in the laver of holy baptism, and commended him attentively to the aforesaid parents, that, his boyish years being passed, he should be presented to him again, and instructed in the knowledge of letters according to the institution of holy religion. The little one, then, lofty in merits with God, was nourished, who, striving to overcome his tender years by maturity, busied himself to temper his infantile senses by industry of mind.

[2] When the time was now at hand that, his infancy completed, he should be presented according to the agreement, promotion to sacred orders and familiarity with St. Remigius, he was brought to Blessed Remigius. Whom the holy Man commanded to be imbued with the knowledge of letters with the utmost diligence, and began to instruct him according to the norm of the ecclesiastical order. And he rendered himself so fit in all the offices enjoined on him that his obedience towards his seniors, his love of brotherhood towards those of his age, and no less the guarding of humility in all his acts, were wonderful. The years of boyhood and youth being passed, since he abounded specially in every grace, Blessed Remigius promoted him to the help of his labour ^d, and decreed him his companion and associate in all his works: who in turn wonderfully obeyed the commands of so great a father, eloquent in speech, pleasing in action, vigorous in strength of mind, most firm in long-suffering and patience, adorned with charity and piety, searching out and attaining everywhere holy and just things; but skilfully avoiding and fleeing evil and wicked things. Finally he was strong in such grace that he was loved and honoured by all singularly, and was held as a most rich patron, suffused with the dew of heavenly grace.

[3] After some time, from the love of the heavenly kingdom, with which he burned keenly, the solitary life, and from hatred of this passing world, he decided, having received the blessing of his master, to go to a place called Orcizus ^e, and there to build an oratory in which he might diligently apply himself to vigils and prayers. There, then, while with great labour he was building a little house from timbers cut from the mountain which is called Vex ^f, and he had two oxen, which, after the loads of timber had been brought, were wont to graze whatever was green in the watered meadows, the devil, envious of all good things, desiring to frustrate the labour of the holy Man, sank the oxen in the depths of the waters. Learning which, the holy Man was gravely dismayed, namely because he believed all hope of his labour lost; nevertheless, coming to the river, trusting in the help of Christ, he commands them to come out of the depth, and to furnish him help according to their accustomed manner. At whose command they soon came forth from the flood sound, as though they had never received any hurt ^g; and so, their keeper doing as usual what he had done before, a pile of timbers having been gathered, the aforesaid sacred house was brought to its complete summit.

[4] death, burial, translation and cult. Adorned with these distinctions of virtues, the blessed Confessor began more and more to despise this mortal life and to pant in every way for that unspeakable mansion of the blessed fatherland. Wherefore, destitute of bodily strength, by the kindness and grace of the almighty Creator he knew that he was now to be released from this world, that he might take up immortal joys, since he had despised mortal ones. But after he gave back his spirit to heaven, his body was honourably laid out by the inhabitants of that place and by religious men and buried with worthy veneration. Afterwards, much time having passed, by the will of God it was translated to the place in which it is now venerated with worthy honour ^h. And in the place where the relics of his body now rest a basilica was built with the utmost reverence by the blessed ⁱ and excellent man Milo and by his venerable consort; where daily service is performed with due veneration, and he is honoured according to the rite of the ecclesiastical order. Supported by whose patronage may we merit before the sight of the supreme King remission of past evils, amendment of present ones, and caution against future ones, He granting it who exalted the same Blessed Vulgisus, made heir of His kingdom, among the nobles of the heavenly court: to whom be praise and jubilation, glory and dominion through the unfading ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.