Wasnulphus

ON ST. WASNULPHUS, CONFESSOR, AT CONDÉ IN HAINAUT,

In the 7th or 8th century.

SYLLOGE.

Wasnulphus, confessor, at Condé in Hainaut. (S.)

BY J. S.

The memory of the Saint in the Martyrologies, Of St. Wasnulphus, who is honoured on this day as patron at Condé in Hainaut, the most ancient Martyrologies make no mention, nor those which were composed in the 9th and 10th centuries. Very few too are the things which are related of the Saint's deeds, and those partly less certain. Of the ancient cult of St. Wasnulphus, however, there can be no doubt. The memory of the Saint is celebrated on this day in some enlarged codices of the Usuardine Martyrology. In that of Anchin, which Sollerius believed to be of the 13th century, it is read thus: And the deposition of St. Wasnulphus, confessor. So the editions of Lübeck-Cologne and of Greven mention Wasnulphus, confessor. In the Brussels codex alone he is announced as a martyr in these words: Likewise of St. Wasnulphus, martyr. In these the place where the Saint died and is honoured is omitted. But Molanus added the place in the edition of Usuard, and also some eulogy. For in one edition he has thus: Likewise in the cemetery (of the city of Hainaut which is called) Condatum by name, of St. Wasnulphus, confessor, who, coming from the island of Scotia into the forest Cerasia [], in the place which is now called Cella, led his life praiseworthily for many days. But afterwards, coming to the monastery of Mary the Mother of God, Condatum by name, he served the Lord there until his death. The same in another edition: At Condatum, of St. Wasnulphus, confessor.*

[2] The author of the manuscript Florarium places on this day a translation, against the consent of others in some (he is announced) as a monk (who had been) a bishop:, and has it thus: On the same day the translation of St. Wasnulphus, confessor, who (coming) from the sea-island of Scotia into the forest of Teracia, in the place which is now called Cella, led a praiseworthy life for many days. But afterwards, under angelic guidance, coming to the monastery of the Mother of God, Condatum by name, he served the Lord there until his death, which is celebrated on the day before the Kalends of December. And at that day, the 30th of November, he has briefly: In the monastery, Condatum by name, of St. Wasnulphus, bishop and confessor. The Benedictine Martyrologists, Ménard, Wion, Dorgan, Bucelin, announce St. Wasnulphus as a monk who had been a bishop. Wion adds in the Annotations: He was a Scot by nation, and led the monastic life first among the monks of St. Ghislain, from which withdrawing, under angelic guidance he came to the monastery of St. Mary at Condé, and there served as a soldier to the Lord until his death. He flourished in the year 640. Bucelin asserts almost the same. These Saussay followed in the Gallican Martyrology, adding however some things from conjectures. On the same day, he says, in Hainaut, in the town of Condé, of St. Wanulphus [], who, a Scot by race, a bishop in dignity, a monk by profession, in order that he might serve God unknown in a foreign land, became a cultivator of the virtues in that place. And, many having been led to penance by his exhortation and example, he was made a citizen of heaven. He was buried in the place where there now stands the college of canons, distinguished by his invocation: who keep the body of their patron, renowned for miracles, with much earnestness of Religion.*

[3] he died at Condé and was renowned for miracles. John Wilson in the English Martyrology announces St. Wasnulphus at Condé as a hermit. Thomas Dempster in the Scottish Menology has thus: At Condé in Hainaut, of Wasnulphus, bishop, who wholly consecrated his life to the Virgin Mother of God. David Chambers referred the Saint to the 11th of August, as was said at that day by us among the Passed-over Saints, and added something particular about him, writing thus: St. Vasnulphus, bishop and confessor, and companion of St. Livinus in preaching. Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium and Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti write a little more about St. Wasnulphus, both of whom cite the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras of Bishop Balderic, who flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries. His words, then, I set first: At the villa of Condatum also there had formerly been a royal and rich abbey of girls in honour of St. Mary. But now it is a monastery, through poverty, of a few canons. Where indeed the holy man of God Wasnulphus, a Scot by race, the course of his pilgrimage completed, buried, fell asleep in peace with his fathers, and by his merits made the whole place illustrious with miracles. These are the chief things which antiquity, such as it is, has left us concerning St. Wasnulphus.

[4] His Acts are not extant. For Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, or rather Pieter Louwe, who put together that posthumous Work from the papers of Molanus, clearly insinuates, from the information which Molanus received from Condé, that the Acts of the Saint are not extant, and that therefore in the Office lessons are read from the common of a confessor Pontiff. Molanus too, in the Indiculus of the Saints of Belgium, page 73, sufficiently hints that very thing, writing the following of St. Wasnulphus: St. Wasnulphus rests at Condé, a town of Hainaut. The History sent me about him makes him archbishop of York in the times of Pope Eugene, of the Cistercian Order. But that whole History is about William, bishop of York, in the Legendary of the Saints of England: to say that he is the same as Wasnulphus of Condé seems for many reasons most absurd. The History of Vincent Madelgar has it that he came from Condé to Hautmont to Vincent. And therefore I assent to some of our Martyrologies, in which it is read thus: On the same day, of St. Wasnulphus, confessor, who, coming from the sea-island of Scotia into the forest of Terascia, in the place which is now called Cella, led a praiseworthy life for many days. But afterwards, under angelic guidance, coming to the monastery of Mary the Mother of God, Condatum by name, he served the Lord there until his death. The feast on the Kalends of October. So Molanus, whose observation about distinguishing Wasnulphus from St. William of York is most certain, since he is easily four centuries older, and was cited by Balderic before St. William was born, of whom treatment was made by us at the 8th of June.

[5] Now let us weigh the individual heads a little, that we may separate the more certain from the less ascertained St. Wasnulphus, a Scot by fatherland,. That St. Wasnulphus was a Scot by fatherland the more recent writers after Balderic generally agree, nor is there any reason by which we could deny it or call it into doubt. The name is written by all the more ancient writers Wasnulphus or Wasnulfus, in French Wasnon, or according to the present manner of writing Vanon. I do not understand, therefore, whence Châtelain took the Latin name Basanulfus, which he notes in the margin: nor can I approve that observation, even though I see it adopted by our Sollerius in a marginal annotation. The episcopate of St. Wasnulphus does not seem to me so certain as the name and fatherland, since the older writers are silent about it, namely Balderic, the anonymous author of the Life of St. Vincent, and those who added the Saint to the Usuardine Martyrology. The author of the Florarium, who flourished in the 15th century, was silent about the episcopate in his chief eulogy, asserted it in the briefer one, and he is the first of the writers known to me who called Wasnulphus a bishop.

[6] Molanus or Louwe proposes his conjecture about the episcopate in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium thus he is believed by the more recent writers to have been a bishop, but the older: He seems to be numbered among the titular bishops who came hither for the conversion of the pagans in the time of Count Vincent. For the History of Vincent (or the Life given by us at the 14th of July) testifies that blessed Wasnulphus often came from Condé to him at Hautmont. But I do not see what the things asserted in the Life of St. Vincent, even if we believed them true, can avail to assert the episcopate to St. Wasnulphus. For neither is he called bishop in that Life, and the place of habitation, Condé, by no means favours a conjecture of that kind. For if the Saint had gone out of his fatherland to preach the faith, he would seem rather to have dwelt in some place where there were more heathen to be converted than there seem to have been in the 7th century, in which St. Vincent Madelgar flourished, around Condé, which was near enough to Cambrai that we may believe few or no heathen remained there in the 7th century, especially since it is also nearer to Tournai, and this city from the 4th century, the other from the following, had had excellent bishops. Of the faith preached by St. Wasnulphus none of the older writers speaks either. Chambers alone makes Wasnulphus the companion of St. Livinus in preaching, which he probably asserted only from conjecture.

[7] The very passage of the Life of St. Vincent which is mentioned seems little favourable to the episcopate least favour his episcopate.. Part of it I transfer here. Many Saints are mentioned who were wont, as the author will have it, to come to the monastery of Hautmont, situated in Hainaut on the river Sambre, to visit St. Vincent, its founder. Having listed some others, the author proceeds thus at num. 15: There was present indeed as a frequent visitor and relater of divine things blessed Amand of Elnone: in which conference and relation, namely, St. Wasnulphus of Condé laid up heavenly treasures for himself. Nor did there rarely come as consolers St. Ursmar, and after him St. Erminus, bishops of the church of Lobbes, etc. If anyone will rightly attend to the manner of speaking which the writer uses, he will easily perceive that St. Wasnulphus is mentioned in those meetings rather as a hearer and disciple of others than as a doctor or master. And so both the author of this Life and Balderic favour his episcopate little. Molanus saw this, I think, who in the words produced in num. 4 seems to oppose the episcopate. I would not, however, contend

that these arguments are such as to render the contrary opinion certain. Châtelain calls him a Chorepiscopus. This too I cannot make certain. For the rest, the more recent writers generally call St. Wasnulphus a bishop; nay, we shall see below that he is also called archbishop, perhaps from the History sent to Molanus.

[8] He died at Condé: some will have it that he lived before Of the place where the Saint ended his life there is no doubt. What sort it once was, we have seen from Balderic. Miraeus illustrates it further in these words: And Condatum, commonly Condet or Condé, as we pronounce it, is a town of Hainaut, situated at the confluence of the Scheldt and the Haine, formerly of the Bourbons, now of the family of Croÿ… In this town there is a college of 24 canons, who religiously keep the body of St. Wasnulf their patron. Of the body I shall say more below. For first inquiry must be made into the place where St. Wasnulphus is said to have dwelt before he came to Condé. From some places alleged he seems to have come into the forest of Therascia or Teroacia, although it is called Cerasia in Molanus's Usuard, but faultily, as far as appears. That district adjoins the county of Hainaut to the south, and now forms the eastern part of Picardy, commonly called la Tiérache. Of it Valesius treats at length enough in the Notitia Galliarum, page 549. But at the same time the Saint is said to have lived in the place which is now called Cella. By Cella, however, a place in Hainaut rather than in Tiérache seems to be designated. Certainly the monastery of St. Ghislain in Hainaut, which still flourishes, was called Cella at that time, and is generally called the Cellense monastery in Mabillon's Annals. So Wion, cited at num. 2, explained Cella. So Bucelin explains it in the Benedictine Menology at this day, where he writes these things of St. Wasnulphus: In the monastery of Condé, of St. Wasnulphus, bishop and confessor. He, a Scot by fatherland, a bishop in dignity, of his own accord an exile, having come into Belgium, valued the cowl rather than all honour and the glory of the world, sought it and merited it. Having professed the monastic life accordingly in the monastery of St. Ghislain, withdrawing thence afterwards under angelic guidance, he came to the monastery of Mary the Mother of God at Condé, and there, gladly received, he spent his life most holily in the most devout worship of the same great Mother and of her Son, etc.

[9] in the monastery of St. Ghislain, which is not equally certain. That by Cella is designated the monastery of St. Ghislain, or the place in which it was founded, I altogether think. For Balderic, book 2, chap. 40, uses the same name when he treats of the Cella of St. Ghislain, and places that monastery in the place, namely, which they call Cella. Wherefore the writers who say that the Saint came into the forest of Teracia or Teoracia must be judged either to have erred in placing Cella in that forest or district, or to have confused the district of Tiérache with that of Hainaut, in which Cella is. Thus Abbot Anso in the Life of St. Ursmar, given by us at the 18th of April, num. 1, expresses both districts so that he might seem to have believed them one. Moreover, the very dwelling of St. Wasnulphus in Cella does not seem certain to me, since it is not asserted by Balderic, and has only more recent writers as authors. Again it appears uncertain to me whether St. Wasnulphus dwelt in the monastery of St. Ghislain: for he could have dwelt in Cella before the monastery was founded there, and that would seem to me altogether to be said, if I believed the Saint's age to be rightly stated by most. But if he was younger than most believe, he could have led the monastic life in Cella or in the monastery of St. Ghislain, and been sent thence to Condé to direct the nuns there in the regular life, and to sustain them in the way of virtue by the administration of the Sacraments. I bring forward uncertain things, because I have no certain ones. Yet I should not believe with Bucelin that the Saint withdrew from a monastery of men to a monastery of women, to live alone with women; but that the care of the women was entrusted to him, and that he therefore withdrew to Condé, I should more easily believe if I found it in old documents of any kind. But now, since it is established only from Balderic that the Saint lived and was buried there, we can hand down that care of the nuns only as an uncertain conjecture.

[10] Of the age of the Saint or of the time of his death the author of the manuscript Florarium said nothing He died in the 7th or 8th century., who elsewhere frequently expresses times, and not rarely with much error. Nothing on that matter was brought forward by Balderic either, or by any other writer at all old except the author of the Life of St. Vincent, already cited at num. 7, who joined St. Wasnulphus with SS. Amand, Vincent and very many other Saints of Belgium who flourished in the 7th century, and partly also in the 8th. From that passage, however, Miraeus writes these things of the age of St. Wasnulphus: He flourished in the year 651, in the times of St. Vincent, count of Hainaut, who cherished very many strangers from Scotland and Ireland. The just-cited Bucelin says: The apostolic Man was renowned in the year 641: so too Wion. Châtelain fixes his death in the margin about the year 700. But of the familiarity between St. Vincent Madelgar and St. Wasnulphus it is not certainly established from the mentioned Life of St. Vincent. For that anonymous author made many Saints familiar with St. Vincent, and some of these certainly too young to have been able to deal with him. Hence our Sollerius, where he had observed this, said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 46: The Anonymous seems to have wished to collect almost all the Saints whom he had understood to have flourished in Belgium in that century. Wherefore from that Life it is not made certain that St. Wasnulphus was fully contemporary with St. Vincent: for he could have been younger, as Sollerius shows of some others listed there. For this cause I have thought the death of St. Wasnulphus is to be fixed broadly in the 7th or 8th century. For since St. Vincent died about the year 677, if St. Wasnulphus was younger, he could have survived into the 8th century. But I should not believe that the Anonymous erred further, since in the other cases he did not err by a whole century.

[11] Of the cult of St. Wasnulphus Molanus or Louwe observes The Saint's cult at Condé and in other churches: that his natal day is celebrated at Condé on this day. Of the Office he adds: In the Antiphons it has nothing proper, except perhaps that the sick come to his tomb and are healed. Of another festival Molanus says: He rests in Condé, a town of Hainaut, where besides his natal day the Translation is celebrated on the fourth day before the Ides of January, as was noted by us at the 10th of January among the Passed-over Saints. In other churches too a Commemoration was formerly made of St. Wasnulphus and several Saints together. The Anonymous who tried to claim the episcopate for St. Piatus, and has been frequently cited at this day at St. Piatus, produces on page 45 from the Breviary of Cambrai a prayer in which SS. Remigius, Vedast, Germanus, Bavo, Piatus and Wasnulphus are commemorated together: and others from the Liège Missal, in which Germanus, Vedast, Bavo, Piatus and Wasnulphus are joined: and again another from the Missal of Leuze (it is a town in Hainaut), where among the six Saints just named St. Wasnulphus is listed. Let these suffice as an example, lest anyone think the Saint was held in honour in the church of Condé alone. Thus the abbey of Liessies in Hainaut, in its treasury of relics, which is quite distinguished, numbers something of St. Wasnulphus the confessor, on the testimony of Raissius, page 281.

[12] various things concerning the body of the Saint, Among the bodies which in the year 848 were translated for fear of the Normans to Saint-Omer is numbered also the body of St. Wasnulphus. The words were given at St. Piatus, num. 44. But it was brought back to Condé, where it is still kept, in such a way, however, that it is held in the same case with other relics of the same church, because in the year 1580 they were poured out of their cases by the sacrilegious hands of the heretics, and so were found by the Catholics after the flight of the wicked. This Raissius relates in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium, page 322, where he recites the letter of Louis de Berlaymont, archbishop of Cambrai, who in the year 1586 enclosed the relics of St. Wasnulphus and of one of the holy Innocents with others in a new chest. In the same letter, which can be seen entire in Raissius, the aforesaid archbishop testifies also to certain other things to our purpose. Wherefore I transfer here the whole account of the archbishop from the letter, omitting only, for brevity's sake, the beginning and end of the letter, which list very many persons present. It was given in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and eighty-six, on the twenty-seventh day of the month of March.

[13] which once was unharmed in a fire, was in the year 1586 enclosed in a new case, It runs thus: We make known that on the day of the date of these presents, in the collegiate church of Blessed Mary of the town of Condé, of our diocese of Cambrai, there having been presented to us by our beloved the dean and chapter of the said church, and received by us humbly and with devotion, as was fitting, holy relics, namely of blessed Wasnulphus, archbishop and confessor, and of a certain holy Innocent and of other Saints, men and women, which long ago, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred, on the 15th day of the month of October, after a horrible fire (by which the church itself had been wholly demolished and burned), had been found miraculously unharmed and entire, public report attesting it, in the ashes beside the high altar, then demolished: and afterwards, in the year one thousand four hundred fifty-one, on Friday, the twenty-third day of the month of July, had been fittingly and honourably enclosed and laid up by the reverend father brother Hugo, bishop of Dognen, with the permission and licence of the most reverend lord Jean de Bourgogne, then bishop of Cambrai, in a certain locked chest and consecrated wooden biers, the usual ceremonies and solemnities being employed: We, having first received the testimony of trustworthy men who, after the departure and flight of the heretics of Tournai and others, who had invaded and plundered the church of Condé itself, in the year one thousand five hundred eighty, had found those holy relics thrown on the ground behind the said high altar with the letter of the said Jean de Bourgogne (which we have enclosed with others of ours in the chest and bier written below), have fittingly and honourably enclosed or laid them up in a like new small chest and bier, first consecrated by us, the usual ceremonies and solemnities being employed. These things were done at Condé in the year 1586, many persons listed there being present.

[14] Philippe Brasseur, priest, in the year 1644 published a little metrical Work on the Saints of Hainaut he now rests in the principal altar, and is often carried round., which he entitled Panegyricus. And of Condé and of St. Wasnulphus honoured there he sings thus on page 40:

*Let the city of Condé, separated by a small channel, receive Crespin (in turn); the city which Wasnulphus enriches with a sacred pledge, Lying in the church of the kindly Mother who bore Christ, Wasnulphus, titular bishop of the Scottish shore: From which however (that he might weigh out his gain to Christ With better interest) he withdrew towards Hainaut, into the ample Forests of Templutum, where the Tiérache wood now is; But thence, brought by angelic guidance into the city Named Condatum, in the church of the holy Mother He stayed, and ended his life in sacred struggle.*

*But the clergy honour him under a double name, Either because, the love of his native land set aside, He vigilantly performed the Evangelical office in the said city, Gaining the neighbouring peoples for Olympus; Or because, Mary the Mother going before, he stands As Protector to Condé, and knows how to defend this city Against thunder, and sounding storms, And lightnings, and the dire heats of an angry star. A portable urn contains the gathered remains of his body, And is now to be seen on high above the principal altar Of the church: but it too loves every year To be carried reverently from the principal church Through the streets of the city, and here and there through the city's crossroads, When the first light of the month of October shines forth.*

The author adds that in the same case with the body of St. Wasnulphus is the body of St. Winebaud, as at least is believed, and of one of the Innocents. Then in the metrical Calendar he briefly records at the 1st of October the natal day of St. Wasnulphus, at the 10th of January the Translation.

\ Perhaps Teoracia*.

\ For Wasnulphi*.