Menna

ON ST. MENNA, OR MANNA, VIRGIN, AT FONTENOY IN LORRAINE,

TOWARDS THE END OF THE IV CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Menna, virgin, at Fontenoy in Lorraine. (S.)

BY J. B.

§ I. The Acts and birth of St. Menna.

What usually befalls the Acts of Saints whose deeds are transmitted to posterity at a long interval after their death, when their memory has been almost blotted out by length of time, namely that, if not the chief heads of those Acts, at least various circumstances are for the most part in doubt, and do not find full and certain credence among the learned, St. Menna, whose Acts and other records, this we see has equally befallen the Acts of St. Manna or Menna. I found in our Catalogues that a Life of St. Menna, whose beginning is "Clemens mundi Reparator," was once sent to us by Fr. Chifflet, but the Life itself I could find nowhere: I came, however, upon some Fragment of it, so far indeed as appears, under which these things are read subscribed: "Jean-Renaud le Petit, priest of Pusieux, testifies that these things were copied from a most ancient codex painted by hand, torn in many places, for the most part obscure through its antiquity, the use of time, and the injury of men." Fr. Papebroch copied it from the transcript which the priest subscribed to the Fragment had sent to Fr. Sirmond. But however many indications of antiquity that codex bears, it is nevertheless far later than the age of St. Menna. In the last century, however, Jean Ruyr, cantor and canon of the church of Saint-Dié, published the history of St. Menna in print in French, part 3, book 1 of the Antiquities of the Vosges, chapter 21, partly from an ancient manuscript Life of St. Menna received from Port-Suave (for the Ruyr narrative has the same beginning as the Life of St. Menna just mentioned), partly from Rupert, abbot of Deutz, to which the manuscripts of the church of Liverdun were added; so that Ruyr and the praised Fragment in some manner make good the loss of the Life of St. Menna lost among us.

[2] Rupert touched in passing on St. Menna and her brothers and sisters in the Life of St. Eliphius the martyr, which have mentioned her, which is in Surius at the XVI day of October, composed in the twelfth century at the request of Albanus, abbot of St. Martin of Cologne. A certain anonymous author carried the torch before Rupert, who first, and long before the times of Rupert, pursued the deeds of St. Eliphius: besides him, Rupert had no one to consult. The style of the anonymous author seemed too simple and somewhat obscure to the Benedictine Fathers; and for that reason they impelled Rupert to recast in a more polished and clearer style the deeds of the holy martyr whose relics they possessed. Tillemont, Note 12 on the persecution of Julian, and Baillet, in the critical Table of Authors and Acts prefixed to the month of October, seem to hint that the work of the anonymous author has perished: but, in my opinion at least, wrongly: for although Rupert changed the more ancient Acts of St. Eliphius not a little, there are nevertheless some things which he expressed in the very words of the anonymous author: namely these, which he cites as the anonymous author's: "Consider, Caesar, that he prophesies not prosperous but adverse things for you and your name, and without any fear of you boldly rebels against your power": likewise these: "Eliphius" (thus the anonymous author introduces Julian threatening the holy Martyr with extreme things), "why have you scattered the gods and brought them to nothing by wicked incantations? Unless you obey my command and renew and worship the gods whom you have broken into little pieces, my sword will divide your head piece by piece." Now we have two Acts of St. Eliphius

of the Passion, one copied from an old manuscript of St. Vitus at Gladbach and collated with a manuscript of St. Maximin at Trier, the other taken from a manuscript codex of the house of St. Magnus of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine at the foot of the Bridge of Regensburg in Bavaria, each of which relates in the same phrasing and, one or two words taken away, the same words, both the calumnies of the informer and the threats of Julian: which is surely an argument that the very work of the anonymous author is contained in both manuscripts.

[3] are not very ancient, The Life of St. Eliphius is quite recent, on the testimony of Tillemont, which is most true of that which Rupert wrote: but that whose author is anonymous does not have much antiquity either, in comparison with the age of St. Menna. For according to the anonymous author she flourished in the times of Julian the apostate: but he writes that St. Menna was laid in the place which is called Porses, or at Port-Suave. Since, therefore, the body of St. Menna was first translated to Port-Suave under Bruno, bishop of Toul and afterwards supreme Pontiff, in the thirty-sixth year above the thousandth, as will be seen in the course of this, it follows that the anonymous author did not compose his writing before this year, and so surpassed Rupert in age only by a century, although the latter named him far more ancient than himself. Nor yet must he be said to have written much later, both because Rupert, who departed from among the living in the year 1137, on the authority of Miraeus, could not otherwise have called him far more ancient than himself with any appearance of truth, and because the antiquity of the Regensburg codex, in which the Life of St. Eliphius is inserted, suggests it, which whoever noted, in our Regensburg transcript, the place from which we received the Life of St. Eliphius conjectured to be easily 700 years. Further, since the Acts of St. Libaria also record the same thing about St. Menna being laid at Port-Suave, they too did not come to light before the year 1036. From these things indeed it is easy to gather that there are none of the praised Acts which create certain credence for all the things they contain; but whether the anonymous Life of St. Eliphius teems with as many errors as Baillet, in the critical Table of Authors and Acts, does not doubt that it laboured under, though he did not see it, can be examined at the XVI day of October, sacred to St. Eliphius. I turn to the birth of St. Menna.

[4] Ruyr and others ascribe the birth of St. Menna to Solimariaca, which the itinerary of Antoninus mentions, daughter of Bactius and Lientrudis, once a town of the Leuci, now a village called in the vernacular Soulosse, and met by those going from Neufchâteau in French Champagne to Toul towards the river Vair; but some ascribe it to Toul. They say that St. Menna's parents Bactius and Lientrudis fixed their principal seat not far from Solimariaca, once indeed distinguished and remarkable, but now wholly collapsed through the age of time: they would have the father buried in a place to which the name of Bactimanum was on that account given, but which is today unknown; and the mother's body at some time translated into the church of St. Peter of Remiremont, namely from Toul, where the Acts of St. Eliphius record that she both died and was buried by St. Eliphius. Between Nancy and Pont-à-Mousson, near the village adjoining the Moselle (the French call it Pompey), an old inscription is read written in Gothic characters, on whose testimony Bactius drew his origin from the petty kings of Catalaunia. Riguet, in the chronological System of the bishops of Toul, although he would prefer to read "from the Catholic royal stock," yet believes it could have happened that the ancestors of Bactius sprang from Catalonia, a region of Spain: but Calmet, in book 5 of the History of Lorraine, judges that it is with better right to be interpreted of Châlons on the Marne, a city of French Champagne; which indeed the neighbourhood of Champagne and Lorraine favours, and the dwelling of Bactius on the borders of both; and that there were many petty kings in these tracts of France and Alemannia as the fourth century was growing old, Ammianus is a frequent witness.

[5] Further, Bactius begot a numerous offspring by Lientrudis; whose various if their number is asked, Acts are opposed to Acts and authors to authors. The Acts of St. Eliphius enumerate two of the male sex, SS. Eliphius and Eucharius, who suffered martyrdom under Julian; and three of the female sex, St. Menna, of whom antiquity has been silent whether she obtained the palm of martyrdom or not; and SS. Libaria and Susanna, who added the laurel of martyrdom to the lily of unblemished virginity. With these agree the Acts of St. Libaria and the Breviary of Toul of the year 1535, which, in Lesson VII on St. Eucharius at the XXVII day of October, has thus: "They (Bactius and Lientrudis) begot three most holy sisters, virgins serving the Lord with perseverance in the habit and vow of nuns: namely Menna, buried at Port-Suave, Susanna, entombed in Champagne, and Libaria, beheaded for the confession of the faith." But to the three sisters of SS. Eliphius and Eucharius the Acts of St. Menna add St. Gontrudis or Gertrudis and St. Oda, as does also the Pompey inscription, of which there was discourse in the preceding number, expressed in these words in Calmet: "From the royal stock of Catalaunia, of Baccius and Lientrudis were born the most noble and holy persons undersigned: namely St. Eucharius, St. Eliphius, St. Libaria, St. Susanna, St. Oda and St. Gertrudis; by whose worthy suffrages and glorious merits may we be associated with them in heaven. These happy ones foretasted were cut off by the sword of Julian." Of St. Gontrudis I have found nothing particular written. A certain St. Odda, virgin, is announced at the XVI day of February in the Breviary of Toul of the year 1535: whether she is the same or another can be discussed in the Supplement of February.

[6] Neither the anonymous writer of the Acts of St. Eliphius, nor Abbot Rupert, female offspring, nor the cited Breviary of Toul mention St. Gontrudis and St. Oda, although they accurately enumerate the rest of Bactius's progeny: from which it comes about that it can deservedly seem doubtful whether these are to be added to the sisters of St. Menna: especially if, as seemed to Calmet, the Pompey inscription did not precede the XIII or XIV century. That this savours of no very great antiquity Riguet, praised at number 4, does not deny, if account be taken of the time at which the aforesaid Saints are believed to have flourished: he contends, however, that its authors were moved to it by ancient tradition and used records of a far earlier age; although they perhaps added of their own some uncertain things to certain ones, or false things to true. But, lest we say these things are thought out without ground, what is the reason why Rupert in the XII century, why the anonymous author in the century just before, do not mention St. Gontrudis and St. Oda by even a word? They therefore give just cause for suspecting either that that ancient tradition (as far as it pertains to those women) and the records did not exist when they wrote, or certainly that they did not seem to them such as credence should be given to. Why, finally, do the editors of the Breviary of Toul in the XVI century wrap St. Gontrudis and St. Oda in a like silence, from whom surely the tradition, the pretended records and the mentioned inscription were not hidden?

[7] Calmet Calmet uses a freer criticism here; let us hear him discoursing, his words rendered into Latin. "There is nothing," he says, "from which we may more rightly begin this fifth book than from the history of the first martyrs of the diocese of Toul, who in the year CCCLXII under the emperor Julian professed the faith of Jesus Christ. Would that the Christians of that age had committed their Acts to writing! The discerning of the true and the uncertain, which popular tradition has added to it, would not now give us trouble. Some have contended that St. Eucharius, St. Elophius, St. Libaria, St. Manna, St. Gontrudis, St. Susanna" (did any of the writers ascribe these to Sigmar, or those which follow to Bactius?) "St. Hoildis, St. Menehoildis and St. Ama were begotten either by Bactius of Lintrudis or by Sigmar of Liutrudis. But when we examine the matter and wish to reconcile the epochs and circumstances of their history, we are compelled to depart from this opinion and to assert that St. Elophius, St. Eucharius and St. Libaria, whose martyrdom (as the constant tradition of the region has it) took place under Julian in the year CCCLXII, preceded by almost a century the other Virgins of whom we were just speaking, who flourished under Alpinus, bishop of Châlons on the Marne, about the year CCCCLXI." He subjoins after a few things: "Daring neither to deny nor altogether to affirm that these three Saints (Eucharius, Eliphius and Libaria) were brothers by kinship of the flesh, it suffices us to say that they were truly joined by the bonds of the same faith and of perfect charity, and by the fellowship of one passion for the Christian faith."

[8] with the daughters of Sigmar, In book 6 of the same History he continues thus: "We can no longer defer speaking of SS. Menna, Lutrudis, Pusinna, Francula, Hoildis, Menehoildis, Ama and Liberata, of whom something has already been said at the year CCCLXII" (of St. Gontrudis and St. Susanna he determines nothing expressly). "These were daughters of Sigmar, count of Perthois, and of his wife Liutrudis, and many historians affirm that they were sisters of the holy martyrs Elophius and Eucharius. So as not to depart wholly from this opinion, we tied the martyrdom of St. Libaria and of the aforesaid martyrs to the same time. It is very credible, however, that, on account of the borders of the dioceses of Châlons and Toul, and the cult of some in the latter, of others in the former, it was piously believed that it was no wrong to snatch them from one another, and it was asserted that they were sisters of the first martyrs of Toul, so that what belonged by right to that of Châlons might yield to the splendour of the diocese of Toul. But when we weigh the matter without the affection of a preoccupied mind, and separate the uncertain circumstances so as to adhere only to certain ones, it soon clearly follows that Sigmar and Liutrudis were of noble rank among the people of Perthois, whom God endowed with a numerous offspring, which, dispersed in various places, as the V century was declining and in the time of St. Alpinus, about the year CCCCLXI, consecrated itself wholly to the divine service." Of St. Menna in particular he has this, article 59: "St. Menna or Manna is perhaps the same as St. Ama, Amea or Imma," on account, as I reckon, of some sort of affinity of the names, and one little suited to render the thing likely in itself.

[9] There are two things in this discourse of Calmet, of which the one does not wholly displease me, as also St. Ymma with St. Menna, but the other I can by no means approve. For in the first place I would not dare to hold as certain that bond of fraternal kinship which is said to have existed between SS. Eliphius, Eucharius, Libaria, Susanna and Menna; indeed it appears to me very likely that, after the passing of so many periods of years, nay of centuries, and Gaul having been tossed in former times by so many vicissitudes of affairs, the genuine and sincere knowledge of these martyrs gradually vanished, as happens, from the memory of men. Nor do I reckon that anything lit the way for the writers of more recent times besides the uncertain and vague rumours of the common people: whence it may have happened that these Saints, although perhaps they were joined among themselves by no kinship of blood, and lived at different times, were fused into one family, perhaps lest Lorraine should seem inferior in this respect to neighbouring Champagne, which the seven daughters of Sigmar adorned: and that thus St. Gontrudis, thus St. Oda were also afterwards added to them becomes most probable from what was said at number 6. But that St. Menna is the same as Ama or Ymma (for also

in this way St. Ama, daughter of Sigmar, is found to be called), he conjectures quite wrongly. For Sigmar is related to have had seven daughters (nor have I found more than these anywhere). "Of these Ymma," say the Acts of St. Pusinna, illustrated by Papebroch at the XXIII day of April, "was the first: to her succeeded Othildis" (otherwise Hoildis): "Luttrudis followed her: after whom was born Pusinna, whose memory we are recounting: next to her Francula came forth into the breezes of this light: then Libera was brought forth : Magenhildis, born last, completed the choir of holy virginity, glowing with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit." Now among these there is not even one with whom St. Menna can be confused, as I show.

[10] In the first place, about St. Francula and St. Libera or Liberata (these names are suspect to Papebroch, with little consistency because they signify the same thing in different languages), I observe this, that in the last century, when Des Guerrois (whom consult at the year 470) made public his French book On the Christian Holiness of the people of Troyes, they not only lacked sacred cult, but were not known in Gaul even by name, until German manuscripts brought their names, whether true or feigned, to light in the Acts of the other daughters of Sigmar. On the contrary, the memory and cult of St. Menna flourished in Lorraine not only in the last century, but also many centuries before now, as what is to be said about her cult will declare; nor do I reckon that Calmet has anything solid from elsewhere on account of which St. Menna ought to be confused with one or other of these. And to grant that this is proved of the others also, I shall employ no other author than Calmet: for if I ask him in what places the bodies of the others were first buried, or whither they were afterwards translated: "The body of St. Luttrudis," he says, book 6 of the History of Lorraine, article 54 and following, "was first buried in the chapel which she had built to St. Maurice, and was afterwards carried to Corbie in Picardy" (more truly perhaps of Saxony; see tome 6 of September, page 449). "The remains of St. Hoildis are now dispersed in various places: the district of Perthois first possessed them: but afterwards, under Henry, count of Champagne, the church of St. Stephen at Troyes, which he had lately built. From here, finally, one arm of St. Hoildis was received by the abbey of the same name as the Saint, situated about the third milestone from Bar-le-Duc between the West and the North, and the other by the Parisian suburb of Saint-Germain. Of the prodigies which St. Pusinna worked after being taken from among the living, the village of Binson was the spectator, from which her bones were carried across to Corbie in Saxony in the year 860. The body of St. Menehoildis was long preserved in the abbey of Saint-Urbain in the diocese of Châlons; of which some part was afterwards translated to a town of Champagne which from her found the name of Sainte-Menehould. Finally, St. Ama or Ymma died in the odour of sanctity at Perthes, whose relics rested in the priory of the same name as herself, not far from Joinville, which was transferred in the year 1567 from the Benedictine Fathers to the Franciscans."

[11] he confuses, These things being posited, it manifestly follows that, if St. Menna was of their number, her sacred body ought also to have been returned to the earth, and her remains preserved, in the same places. But Calmet writes the exact opposite. "From there," he says, "she (St. Menna) departed to Fontenoy, a place very fertile and frequented by cultivators, and stayed in it until her death. She obtained burial in the church of that place, of which she is patroness to this day. Neither the year nor the day of her death is known: yet her feast is kept at Port-Suave on the III of October with an Octave. Bruno, bishop of Toul, afterwards called Pope Leo, ninth of this name, when he had put the last hand to the abbey of Port-Suave, translated the relics of St. Menna there in the year MXXXVI." Nor has Calmet alone asserted this, but it becomes manifest even from the Pontiff's very Bull, given on the Kalends of October in the 2nd year of his Pontifical dignity, Indiction III: it has thus: "Considering these things, therefore, when in the beginning of our ordination I was by the gift of God elected prelate of the Leuci, meanwhile it happened by the zeal of my solicitude that it became known to me that my venerable predecessor Berthold had begun to build a certain monastery at the expense of the pontifical prebend in the village which is called Port-Suave, but, snatched away by his end, had by no means carried the good work to its conclusion: seeing his holy intention, and desiring to obtain some little portion in the reward of his devotion, I endeavoured, Christ favouring, to complete the labour begun, and gathered there a company of nuns to serve God, and consecrated the place in veneration of the glorious Virgin Mother Mary and of the holy virgin Menna, resting there in body." I admit that Calmet recited the mentioned histories of the Virgins on another's credit, not from his own opinion: but the things just said about their relics, as they are more recent, so we believe them also too firm to be easily refuted: nor has Calmet opposed anything to them.

[12] It remains that we speak of the place of St. Menna's birth: there are those among the Leuci, not in Scotland, who ascribe her, or at least Eliphius, to Toul, as Baronius at the year 362 and Lahier in the Menology of Virgins; there are those who ascribe her to Solimariaca, as the Acts of St. Menna, as Ruyr, Arthur and others. Sollerius, in tome 2 of August, page 10, while he carps at Rapine because he joins St. Leodegarius, venerated among the people of Perthois in Champagne, and St. Menna with St. Memmius, bishop of Châlons, seems to number her too among the Saints of Champagne, when he says: "We wonder at this, that Rapine was so little concerned about reconciling the times that he judged Saints removed by many centuries from St. Memmius should be joined with him, as though he thought he had not sufficiently consulted his glory unless he ascribed to him the instruction of the chief Saints of Champagne." But he either had regard chiefly to Leodegarius, or added St. Menna for this reason, that she was cleansed in the sacred font in Champagne and spent a great part of her youthful years there, as indeed her Acts testify. Finally, the Scots also strive to claim the birth of St. Menna for themselves. Ussher, in the book On the Beginnings of the British Churches, in the Additions and Emendations, page 1069, blames Baronius and du Saussay for affirming that SS. Eliphius, Eucharius, Libaria and Susanna were of Toul; inasmuch as, in Ussher's judgment, they were of Toul indeed by habitation, but Scots by fatherland, and of royal stock at that. Why so? "It was the custom for many to seek these parts" (namely of the people of Toul) "from the transmarine borders of the Scots," as Ussher declared from the Acts of St. Mansuetus written by the monk Adso. If Ussher had likewise taught us how it follows from so vague a testimony that these particular Saints also landed in Gaul from Scotland, he would truly have brought back some reward for his effort.

[13] Someone will perhaps say that SS. Valerius, Maternus, or known by the royal stock of the Scots, Eucharius and others were companions of the pilgrimage of St. Mansuetus, first bishop of Toul, a Scot by nation, and that consequently the other brothers and sisters of St. Eucharius are to be referred to their number: but he will ineptly confuse Eucharius of Toul with Eucharius of Trier. But what of the royal lineage of the Saints? Hear Dempster, book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History of the nation of the Scots. At number 453 he speaks thus: "St. Elisius, son of Fincormacus, king of Scotland, as I judge, or indeed of Crathlinthus, as seemed to others." And at number 892: "St. Menna, a royal virgin, sister of SS. Eliphius and Eucharius, and also of Libaria and Susanna." Thus he: but those who treat of Scottish affairs, Buchanan, Boece, Leslie or Turner, attribute no offspring to Crathlinthus; and to Fincormacus only Eugenius and Euthodius, whom their father, dying, left not yet ripe for the kingdom. We therefore hold the royal stock of St. Menna in the place of a fiction: nor did Dempster write, as we think, that St. Menna was born of Crathlinthus or Fincormacus as her father for any other reason than that the reckoning of the time required it, at which he supposed that St. Menna flourished, namely as the IV century was drawing to its end. As regards her transmarine fatherland, however, whether Scotland, or Ireland, or finally Britain, I confess there is something which may raise a scruple for someone. It is this: a certain St. Menna is invoked in the most ancient English Litanies, which both comprise very many unknown Saints once held in public honour among the English, and are shown by Mabillon, tome 2 of the Analecta, page 678, to have been in use in the English church as the VII century was passing. And if this is the same as she of whom we are speaking, someone might perhaps not absurdly suspect that she is read inserted in them, and was venerated in Britain, for this reason, that she drew life either in Britain or in one of the surrounding islands, from which she departed into Gaul. It is a conjecture which you may value as much as you will. I, although I find nothing which I may safely follow, would nevertheless rather yield to the authority, such as it is, of the Acts, and to the tradition of the French, than adhere to the transmarine one; especially since at number 25 we are to assign a St. Menna who is probably different from St. Menna of Lorraine, and perhaps the same as she who is mentioned in the aforesaid Litanies.

[14] she flourished perhaps in the IV century. What has just been said about the uncertain birth of St. Menna renders her age likewise uncertain: yet that she lived towards the end of the IV century is the agreeing and more constant assertion of most. For I do not regard Calmet, who deferred her to the end of the V century; for he did so solely for this reason, that he had suspected that St. Menna was begotten by Sigmar. But most of the others, as they thought her the sister of SS. Eliphius and Eucharius, whom they believe to have suffered about the times of Julian the apostate, so also related that she flourished at about the same age. Dempster writes that she died in the year 361, Arthur and Lahier about the year 380; but their credibility wavers; for whence could they have ascertained and perceived what, as we have seen in the foregoing, the ancient records have kept silent? Rapine, in the Annals of Châlons, makes St. Menna contemporary with St. Memmius, whom he thinks was sent into Gaul by St. Peter; wherefore he is deservedly thrashed by Sollerius in the Commentary on the Life of St. Memmius, tome 2 of August. Ruyr was of the same opinion as Rapine about St. Memmius having been sent into Gaul in the I century; and since he judged that St. Menna flourished in the age of Julian, he advised that the manuscripts of Port-Suave, in which she was said to have been instructed by St. Memmius in virtue and Christian piety, were to be corrected in this respect, and cautiously suppressed the name of the bishop whose teaching she is said to have used. But since our discourse has slipped down to the instruction of St. Menna, we are admonished by the order of things to treat next both of this and of the other things which pertain to St. Menna.

* huic to her

* edita brought forth

§ II. The deeds and cult of St. Menna.

Nourished from her earliest age in piety, Since the birth of St. Menna has already been treated, I shall in a brief discourse set out the remaining text and course of her Acts, or rather of our Fragment

I shall run through, chiefly for this reason, that few things will occur hereafter which need commentary. First, then, if we follow the credit and authority of the Acts, both the excellent beauty of her body and the sparks of a splendid disposition were already foretelling the future holiness and the beauty of soul of the Girl when she was sent by her parents to the bishop of Châlons, to be imbued with the rudiments of the Christian faith and to be cleansed of the common guilt in the expiatory font: but to whom? To St. Alpinus (he lived about the year 461, as Stilting proves in the Commentary on his Acts at the VII day of September), as indeed Calmet believed, but deceived, as I have said more than once, by a false opinion. St. Memmius displeased Ruyr, whom nevertheless our Fragment, as also the manuscripts of Port-Suave, on the testimony of Ruyr himself, marked: nor is it strange: for he thought that St. Memmius lived in the 1st century, and St. Menna in the IV; and so the marks of the times did not cohere. But if you refer the beginning of the bishopric of Châlons to the end of the III century with the editors of the enlarged Gallia Christiana and Stilting just cited, and, following the author of his Acts and others, attribute to St. Memmius or Mangius 80 years of episcopate, he could have seen the persecution of Julian, during whose raging in Gaul St. Menna or Manna, having gone out of her father's house after the example of her brothers and sisters, is said to have sought solitude; and she could similarly have been committed to the care and industry of the holy prelate, nay even have found her name from him, by whom, as our Fragment and Ruyr relate, she was not only cleansed in the sacred waters but also received from the sacred font; examples of which thing are brought forward in tome 1 of October, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Remigius, numbers 124 and 125. But if you think so long a government of the church of Châlons cannot be granted to St. Memmius, I shall not indeed greatly resist; but on that reckoning nothing solid will remain from which you may define which of the successors of St. Memmius undertook the care and instruction of St. Menna.

[16] Let us see further what the Acts record. The prelate of Châlons (whoever he was), and having grown older, having imbued St. Menna with the elements of the Christian faith and cleansed her in the sacred waters, sent her back to her parents; but on this condition, that she should return after five years had passed. With the good leave of her parents, therefore, she returned at the said time to her master, to be watered, as she was now riper in age, so also with more abundant streamlets of heavenly doctrine: and lest examples of daily piety should be lacking to the precepts of a holier life, the provident prelate consigned the little Daughter to a monastery of girls serving Christ day and night, as indeed the anonymous writer says: in which matter I fear that he has perhaps departed from the truth: for since he makes St. Menna already marriageable when her parents were taken from among the living about the times of Julian, she must have been born not much later than about the middle of the IV century. And if at that time a monastery of virgins existed at Châlons, it could contend in antiquity with the more ancient monasteries of Gaul, which first arose there in the IV century: and yet Thomassin does not mention it, On the old and new Discipline of the Church, part 1, book 3, chapter 12; nor Antoine Dadin d'Hauteserre, book 1, chapter 4; nor Hippolyte Hélyot in the preliminary Dissertation On the Origin and Antiquity of the monastic life, §9; nor Mabillon, tome 1 of the Benedictine Annals, pages 6 and 10; in which places each discourses on the first origin and propagation of monasteries in Gaul. However that may be, the instruction and care of St. Menna could have been committed to some virgins whose virtue the bishop of Châlons had perceived, and their dwelling, though perhaps private, could have been named a monastery by our anonymous writer, although less aptly.

[17] This second stay of St. Menna among the people of Châlons also lasted another five years; having taken the sacred veil, at the end of which she returned to her father's home: where not long afterwards she declared what deep roots she had meanwhile put down in virtue. For she rejected with constant mind the marriage which her father had enjoined on her, not from contumacy of will, but from love of chastity and of the heavenly Spouse. And when her father, not to be prevailed upon, pressed for the marriage to be accomplished on the appointed day, he compelled his Daughter to provide for herself by flight: accompanied, therefore, by a few, she went secretly from her father to the bishop of Châlons, in order to preserve her virginal modesty whole and undefiled with the same man as defender by whom as teacher she had learned it. When she was admitted into the bishop's sight, she at first kept silent about the purpose she had conceived in her mind: but on the next day, before a public assembly, she offered the sacred veil which she had brought with her, and vehemently begged to be covered with it; and she would easily have obtained her wish had not fear of her father and of her betrothed held back the prelate's ready mind: but what the bishop feared to do an angelic hand accomplished. Hence, I think, Arthur and Gononus add to St. Menna the name of nun: but the name of monk or nun can be taken in two ways: "First, so as to signify that which the name itself imports," says Papebroch, tome 3 of May, page 293, "so that a Monk is understood to be a follower of a life withdrawn from worldly noise and the care of temporal things, having professed the purpose or vow of such a life by some outward singularity of dwelling, food and clothing differing from the common and worldly. Secondly, he is called a MONK, and now almost solely is understood, who together with the renunciation of external things has renounced also the choice of his own will, so as to become a member of some religious community living under obedience, with the bond of perpetual obligation, indissoluble so far indeed as lies on his part." That St. Menna was a nun in the former way I will readily grant, in the latter not likewise.

[18] she begins the solitary life, For the rest, such was the force and fruit of so great a prodigy that it not only bent the hardness of her father's mind, but her father even willingly granted his Daughter a place in which she might at her own discretion be free for herself and for her heavenly Spouse: for those do not seem worth hearing who would have her slain by her angry father on account of her invincible purpose of chastity, among whom Dempster writes that she was struck with the sword; which assertion of theirs neither agrees with the piety of Bactius, a Christian man, nor is confirmed, as can be seen in the Acts of St. Eliphius, by any testimony of antiquity, nor finally is found among authors superior in number and authority. What follows suffers difficulty: "At that time," says our Fragment, and the same is read in Ruyr, "her father having died in a good old age, her mother also, as was said above, while the storm of persecution was raging, the other brothers and sisters departing, she too went out from her father's house." For at what time, or at whose instigation, shall we say that that persecution arose? When Julian was in Gaul? This indeed the Acts of St. Eliphius testify; but it appears less credible to some: inasmuch as they grant that Julian was in these parts of the West in the year 360 and the beginning of the following, but would have it that he caused no trouble to the Christians, since he still wished at that time by crafty pretence to seem a follower of the Christian faith, as Ammianus relates in book 21 of his Histories in these words: "And in order to entice all to favour him, with no one hindering, he pretended to adhere to the Christian worship, from which he had long since secretly fallen away, being intent, with few sharers of his secrets, on soothsaying and auguries and the other things which the worshippers of the gods have always done. And that these things might meanwhile be concealed, on the day of the festival which the Christians, celebrating it in the month of January, call Epiphany, he went forth into their church and, having solemnly prayed to the Deity, departed." These things moved Baronius, at the year 362, to say that the martyrdom of St. Eliphius took place under Salustius, prefect of the Gauls, most dear to Julian and on that account most hostile to the Christian name.

[19] probably at that time, There is added that Julian's army, which he was busy binding to himself in whatever way he could, was composed for the greatest part, on the testimony of Zonaras, of Christian soldiers, and so it was in his interest to spare the blood of the Christians even against his will. That Julian's persecution in Gaul was not indeed so violent and open as the Acts of St. Eliphius insinuate (for I do not approve them as regards each particular), I readily believe: but that there was none at all, not likewise. Did Julian so constantly cultivate the moderation and equity of mind whose praise he affected, that during the whole time he spent in Gaul he betrayed no sign of hidden hatred, a man of perpetual inconstancy and levity? Or was he of so dull and simple a wit that, besides the faith, he could find nothing to plead as a pretext if ever he wished to persecute a Catholic? What of the fact that he did not lack a particular title for laying violent hands on Eliphius? For, on the testimony of the same Zonaras, "concealing his malice, he ordered each to follow at his own discretion whatever worship he wished." But Eliphius was accused, as the Acts relate, not only by the pagan soldiers but also by the commanders, of gentiles brought over to the Catholic faith and of idols broken, whose work and help he needed equally with that of the Christians: Julian could therefore condemn Eliphius capitally, not indeed as for the cause of faith, but as guilty of violating a command, and under the appearance of avoiding sedition. What of the fact that there are not lacking those who would have it that Julian openly bade farewell to the Christian rites in Gaul itself? Indeed St. Jerome, describing the calamities of the kings of his time in the Epitaph of Nepotian to Heliodorus, has this of Julian: "Julian, betrayer of his own soul and slaughterer of the Christian army, felt Christ in Media, whom he had first denied in Gaul"; namely openly and publicly, not secretly and privately: for this he had already done twelve years before, as he himself wrote to the Alexandrians when he had lately left Gaul to seize the empire, whose stay in Gaul did not exceed six years.

[20] Zosimus also relates that Julian, when (in the year 360) he had been saluted Augustus by the army at Paris, in which (time) of Julian the apostate wrote a full account of the matter to Constantius; and that Constantius, having sent letters to Julian, not only held void what had been done but also summoned him to himself; and that, having received these, Julian openly showed his mind's opinion about the Deity and said before all that he would entrust himself and his life to the gods rather than to the words of Constantius. Finally, Julian himself, in the letter to the Senate and People of Athens, written while Constantius was still living, openly professes his defection from the Catholic faith; so that in this matter Ammianus seems by no means to be heeded when he says, book 22, chapter 5, that Julian first disclosed the secrets of his breast when, Constantius having died, he alone possessed the whole empire. However that may be, Julian, staying at Vienne at the beginning of the year 361, on the testimony of Ammianus, book 21, chapter 1, was still hesitating in doubt whether he should entice Constantius to concord or attack him in open war: let it be, therefore, that Julian even then pretended to be a Christian, and had not hitherto persecuted the Christians: what forbids our asserting that some time afterwards he both openly fell away from the faith and made a beginning of persecuting the Christians, and that among others St. Eliphius experienced him as hostile, when in the year 361 he set in motion his last expedition against the barbarians, and, having set out from Vienne, and perhaps passing through Solimariaca (for it was one of the military stations), near the town of Grand, crossing the Rhine with the army, he went to the tracts of Raetia bordering on the Alamanni, to repress the incursions of those ravaging?

[21] Certainly Julian, as Ammianus relates, book 16, chapter 2, having departed from Vienne in the year 356, passing through Decem Pagi (another town of Lorraine, commonly called Dieuze), attacked and scattered the Alamanni on the nearer banks of the Rhine: he was in Gaul: so that in the year 361 also, going from Vienne to the Raurici, situated on the bank of the Rhine towards the territory of Basel, he could easily have traversed the borders of the Leuci. "But," you will say, "Julian had already completed his last expedition against the Alamanni, and was in readiness to make for Illyricum, when, from fear of the Christian soldiers, he appeased Bellona not with public but with a more secret rite, as the same Ammianus has it, book 21, chapter 5: his defection from the faith was therefore even then hidden from most." I admit these things are opposed to what we have said in the foregoing: but more than one cause renders the authority of Ammianus in that matter doubtful to me: first indeed, that Ammianus was not present at these events: for he had already before been recalled from Gaul to the East together with Ursicinus, master of the horse, as can be seen in book 16, chapter 10. Next, that Julian's defection became openly known sooner than Ammianus writes, as was shown in the preceding number. Finally, that on the very day on which he set out for Illyricum with the army, which he had long since won over with much art, he seems to have sacrificed publicly to the gods. Hear Julian himself writing thus to the Senate and People of Athens: "Then, since, sacrifices having been celebrated for the outcome, I obtained favourable omens on that day on which I was ^a to speak about our setting out hither; not only for my own safety, but also for the benefit of the commonwealth and the common liberty of all, and especially of the Gallic nation, etc." And at the beginning of the letter he had put this first: "Wherefore let no one judge me to be trifling and ineptly talkative, because I embrace in my speech things which were done not only formerly but also most recently before the eyes of all." But let us return to St. Menna, from whom we have digressed.

[22] she is famous for miracles, Accordingly, to say out of doubtful and perplexed matters something which may at least seem probable, under Julian as Caesar, or rather as Augustus, St. Menna, having left her father's house, accompanied by a single maidservant, committed herself to the road, to go wherever the Spirit of God should lead her: nor was that journey without prodigies: for as she hastened, a certain river with a huge and muddy whirlpool put a delay in her way. The Virgin hesitated: there was no boatman, no vessel for her crossing: but she, reckoning that heavenly help would be present to her, enters the river: as she advances her foot, the mud gives way, sand comes forth; the whirlpool vanishes, and she crosses the ford with dry foot. And when she had reached the other bank of the river, having fixed her staff in the earth, she drew forth a spring, a perpetual refreshment not only to travellers but also to the feverish. The author of the Fragment indeed so describes this spring that he seems to have known it well; but it is truly to be lamented that he said nothing from which the situation of the spring might be dug out. And to create credence for his statements, he writes that that ford was called, even within his memory, the ford of St. Menna; in which indeed he deserves credence, unless he was remarkably mendacious, or some fabulist of more recent times invented these things. Calmet says that the ford and spring of St. Menna were sought by him in vain both at Solimariaca and in the neighbouring places: but perhaps these things were to be investigated elsewhere; for I have nowhere read expressed the name of the river near which these things are said to have happened. For the rest, St. Manna, having gone on from there, stopped at the foot of the mountain Vosagus or Vosges, in the place whose name is Fontenoy; and there completed the remaining course of her life (by what death is uncertain). Chastelain named it in the vernacular Fontenoy-le-Château, to distinguish it from various places of this name, or coming very close to it in sound and meaning, and occurring not rarely both in Lorraine and elsewhere. The author of the Fragment alone differs from the rest, who says that St. Menna settled at Pusinellae; which place is the same (if I conjecture rightly) as the village called in French Pusieux, situated not far from Port-Suave; from which the Fragment of the Life of St. Menna was transmitted to us. But Ruyr, who used the manuscripts of Port-Suave, fixed St. Menna's seat at Fontenoy. I say nothing of the miracles which, as it is fitting to believe, says the author of the Fragment, she worked while she was still alive; the memory of which the unrolled series of the times and the lack of writers have meanwhile withdrawn from posterity.

[23] On the contrary, that the fame of her virtues and holiness settled more deeply in the minds of men at Fontenoy in Lorraine, where, as also at Port-Suave, to which the sacred cult which she had long ago and still has throughout Lorraine is a rich witness. The ancient Breviary of the church of Toul, as also another of the year 1535, places her feast on the III day of October. And the church of Fontenoy, in which the body of the dead Saint was first buried, was committed to the guardianship and patronage of St. Menna, and still venerates her as patroness, on the testimony of Calmet. And when Bruno, bishop of Toul, who, raised to the supreme Pontificate, took the name of Leo IX, translated the remains of St. Menna from Fontenoy to Port-Suave, and raised and dedicated a church to her name, as was shown at number XI, a vast increase was made to her cult. That translation took place on the XV day of May in the year 1016 according to Lahier in the Menology of the Holy Virgins and Arthur in the Sacred Gynaeceum, as is read among us at the XV day of May; as also according to Rapine and Rinaldus; and all these cite Ruyr: but in the second edition of Ruyr's Work, which came out at Épinal in Lorraine in the year 1634, I read not the year 1016 but the year 1036. They probably used the first edition of it, of the year 1625: but the author himself suppressed that on account of its manifold typographical errors, as Calmet writes in the Catalogue of the Writers of Lorraine. And not undeservedly was the year 1036 substituted for the year 1016 in the later edition: for Hermann, bishop of Toul, who immediately preceded Bruno, ceased to be numbered among the living in the year 1026, and in the same year Bruno was elected, as the continuator of Adso, contemporary or nearly contemporary with Bruno, has it in the History of the bishops of Toul, in the Life of the same Bruno or St. Leo IX. Here are the words: "In the twenty-sixth year, therefore, of his age (Bruno), and the one thousand and twenty-sixth year from the Incarnate Word of God occurring, the see being vacant through the death of Hermann of good memory, by the common will and equal consent of the clergy and people he was set as bishop over this see."

[24] That church is situated not far from Mirecourt, and first had joined to itself a house of sacred virgins; her relics were translated, whose first stone Ruyr says Hermann laid: he had read the Life of St. Leo (you have it in Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, tome 6, part 2) written by Wibert, his contemporary, in whose book 1, chapter 13, these things are read: "Nay, in the house of Port-Suave also, begun by HIS PREDECESSOR from the pontifical revenues, but by himself, with studious labour, adorned to perfection with buildings and expenses, he established a devout congregation of nuns, and ordained as mother to that company a certain woman of noble birth and praiseworthy life named Berrenna": Ruyr had read these things, I say, and from them, unless I am mistaken, believed it was made out that Hermann had performed this work; which nevertheless the Pontiff himself, cited at number XI, expressly ascribes to Berthold, whom Hermann immediately succeeded. Further, that the sacred virgins were instituted here by Leo in the year 1043 Jean de Bayon writes in the History of Moyenmoutier, as the Mabillon just cited notes. Jean Herculanus agrees, chapter 19; he writes thus: "He (St. Leo) was called Bruno before his Pontificate, and when he was bishop of Toul, about the one thousand and forty-third year from the redemption of the world, he completed the house of Port-Suave begun by his predecessor Hermann, and granted it to vestals to inhabit." That house was at the beginning of the Benedictine Order, but about three centuries ago it was converted into a college or abbey of noble secular canonesses, who have St. Menna as patroness and celebrate her feast with an Octave. The cult of St. Menna is therefore evident, but so also is the slip of Lahier, when he writes that that college of canonesses was founded by St. Menna herself, and was perhaps the most ancient of all Gaul.

[25] she is venerated as Patroness. Another argument of the cult, and a very ancient one, of our St. Menna the English Litanies, of which we treated at number 13, would suggest, if only it were established that the St. Menna mentioned there is the same as ours: but no reason proves this; nay, the fact rather suggests the opposite that no mention is made in them of St. Eliphius, none of St. Eucharius, none finally of the other virgins who are commonly held to be sisters of St. Menna. Besides, I understand from Ruinart's literary journey into Alsace and Lorraine that relics of a certain St. Menna are preserved in the basilica of the abbey of St. Vincent above the high altar in the city of Metz: but she again seems to be other than Ours, and one of the companions of St. Ursula: for the inscription of the casket has thus: "In the year of the Lord MCLX there were placed in this shrine these relics: part of the head and hair… of St. Ursula, a jaw with teeth, relics of St. Pantula, of the holy Virgin and of other virgins of Cologne, Lucia, Waldrada, Menna, Felicitas." To these I have nothing to add about the ecclesiastical cult of St. Menna, except that the Office with which her feast is kept through the Octave at Port-Suave is proper, according to Ruyr. I cannot, however, but wonder at Tillemont, when, treating of the persecution of Julian, he says that the places of burial of St. Libaria and St. Menna assigned by the author of the Acts of St. Eliphius are as little known as the Martyrs themselves. Where, then, does he write that they obtained a tomb? The former at the city named Grand, the latter at Porces or Port-Suave. Certainly remarkable ruins of the town of Grand, where St. Libaria has a church dedicated to her (consult Calmet, tome 1 of the History of Lorraine, page 202), in the district of the Ornois, are conspicuous to this day: and of Port-Suave there is no need to speak.

[26] Some more recent But although St. Manna was unknown to the older martyrologists, she was nevertheless not of so obscure a name as to be hidden from Greven, from Ferrari, du Saussay, Arthur, Chastelain and not a few other more recent writers. Greven writes thus at the XXVII day of November: "In France, of Menna, virgin." At the III day of October, in the General Catalogue of the Saints, Ferrari: "In the territory of Toul, of St. Menna, virgin." In the Supplement du Saussay: "In the territory of Toul, in the church of Port-Suave (which is celebrated through all France and Germany for the title and patronage of St. Nicholas), the birthday of St. Menna, glorious virgin." Arthur in the Sacred Gynaeceum: "At the town of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, in Lorraine, of the diocese of Toul, the veneration of St. Menna, a virgin of excellent faith and religion; who, having shaken off the burden of death, flew away to glory." The same at the XV day of May: "At Port-Suave, of the diocese of Toul, the translation of St. Menna, virgin and martyr."

du Saussay and Arthur, deceived by the likeness of the names, seem to have confused Port-Suave, whose church is dedicated to the Virgin Mother and to St. Menna, with the town of Saint-Nicolas on the river Meurthe, situated about the second milestone from Nancy, once called Portus, and made famous by the frequent resort of pilgrims there for the sake of devotion. Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology: "At Fontenoy (Fontenoy-le-Château), at the foot of the mountains of the Vosges in Lorraine, St. Manna, virgin; whose body is honoured in the church of the canonesses of Port-Suave (Poussay) near Mirecourt."

[27] To these, finally, I add the eulogy which Rinaldus wove for our Virgin in the second part of the Lily of Holy Gaul, chapter 5: eulogies of St. Menna. "Into our Champagne also Manna fell from heaven, differing from the Jewish food in that dew preceded that, and followed this one, sprinkled with which by the bishop of Châlons she lacked every stain. But agreeing in this, that she was sweet and wonderful, and Manhu ought to have been said of her. For first she was wonderful in her stock, who had two brothers, Elophius and Eucharius, martyrs, and four sisters illustrious in holiness, from whom she, the seventh, did not fall short, more a sister in mind than in blood. For, spurning the marriage being prepared for her, a girl of excellent beauty, she went to the bishop of Châlons, who was then celebrating the sacred rites, so that she might hide the beauty for which suitors were pining with the veil which she was offering. But when the prelate refused, lest he should offend her father Bactius, an angel did it, the bolder as he was the superior of a mortal, who, the veil having been raised into the air, offered it to the supreme and eternal Pontiff to be blessed, and placed it, gently let down, on Manna's head in the sight of all. A few days after this there came a very rich and noble suitor, to whom a day had been named by Manna's parents for entering into marriage; but it was the Sabbath, and Manna could not be gathered. For from that time there was a perpetual Sabbath for Manna, on which she worshipped the divine Majesty, and she could be gathered by no one, death alone excepted; by which she was laid up in an urn (which could be called a Gomer), about the year CCCLXXX. If she has long since brought her ship to Port-Suave, the heavenly and the earthly, and rests in both, in the one in soul, in the other in body, she used her veil well, and obtained a place befitting Manna when she held the Sweet Port."

HEADLESS LIFE

By an anonymous author.

From the manuscript of Pusieux.

Menna, virgin, at Fontenoy in Lorraine. (S.) BHL Number: 5920

By an anonymous author.

St. Menna, one of the Seven Among whom shone forth the blessed virgin Menna [a], who, worthy of the praise of all good men, like a lamp in a dark place, so shone brightly in the district of the Saintois ^b: whose wonderful Acts, since we purpose, God being propitious, to describe to the best of our power, it is necessary that we do not sluggishly pass over the place of her birth. The district, then, of Soulosse ^c was the place of her happy birth, adjoining the border of the territory of the province of the Saintois, having the river Meuse as its limit. And the mother of so illustrious an offspring was called Lieutaudis: of whom the other, the father, in the place of his own name, namely of Bactius, is said (to have) a MANSUS. The mother, finally, has a mausoleum in the oratory of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, in the renowned township whose name is Remiremont ^d. These, therefore, had at that time a renowned estate and a dwelling-house of quite excellent habitation in the village on the border of the territory of Soulosse which was formerly called Mansio. But since, as it is written, all works perish and things increased grow old, the place which was then opulent and distinguished has now become as it were nothing. Of these special parents, therefore, it would be held not a little worth while, if I were not hastening to the former deeds of the holy Offspring. Are they not worthy of the greatest praise, to whom the disposition of the divine clemency deigned to grant such a grace of bearing children? Truly the grace of the sevenfold Spirit was poured out upon them, since the same special number was sanctified in their child-bearing.

[2] of the holy children of Bactius and Lientrudis, For they begot seven children of both sexes, who, the heavenly clemency working, ascending from virtue to virtue through distinguished good works, mounted up to the bright palaces of heaven. And if anyone scrupulous desires to know their names, let him hold them thus without ambiguity. There were of them of the male sex St. Eliphius, St. Eucharius; and of the female sex St. Gunttrudis, St. Susanna, St. Libaria, St. Oda, and she herself of whom we are speaking, the holy virgin Menna ^e. Of these the first (as they say), Blessed Eucharius, tried by the fire of tribulation, and thus most blessed, merited to obtain the rosy crown through the palm of martyrdom. His own brother, made nearly equal in the contest, rejoices that he has attained the supernal assembly of the martyrs: and that each is distinguished in the bishopric of Toul by his own churches and titles is clearly evident to those who seek ^f. And the handmaids of God, their sisters, kindled with one ardour and the same desire of the supernal fatherland, after the tribulations and toils of this calamitous life which they endured for Christ, with a manifold fruit of good deeds, the fruit * of the contest having been consummated, came to the prize, and three of them rested with a blessed end in the aforesaid bishopric, in Champagne, a region of France ^g. O truly blessed parents, who brought up such! And truly happy region, on which patronage is conferred by such! And indeed why such a separation of division befell them from one another the following narrative will make manifest. But since we have digressed somewhat from the path of the exposition undertaken, though in praise of her glorious birth, it remains that we now take up again the short way from the digression: yet we must go back a very little, so that it may be made known to the faithful how she was brought up from the cradle.

[3] by the bishop of Châlons Happy Menna, then, poured forth from her mother's womb, the Author of nature fashioning her, already showed by the very grace of her bodily appearance what the beauty of her soul was afterwards to be. Her praiseworthy father, as he was of royal lineage and dominion, directed her to the most holy Memmius, bishop of the city of Châlons, so that he himself might wash her in the mystic font of regeneration and might be willing himself to receive her with gracious hands from the same laver ^h. Which the holy pontiff swiftly carried out, and, greatly rejoicing, busied himself to make the little Girl of royal blood his goddaughter. And, looking upon her by the divine Spirit, as he was of wonderful contemplation, he commands that the disposition presaging future holiness be brought back to him, diligently grown up, after the revolution of five years. The parents, therefore, do just as they were commanded, and send back the beloved pledge to the most holy patron, begging in friendly manner that the little Girl's ready industry be imbued with an abundance of the good arts. He, greatly rejoicing, handed over his little Goddaughter to a monastery of girls serving Christ day and night ⁱ, so that for another lustrum she might be nourished under the rods of literary discipline and in the purity of chastity. The handmaids of God, having received her, loved her singularly, and, as such an age permitted, nurtured her sincerely, imbuing her with the sacred studies of letters and the divine law, not moderately but perfectly: and in a short space of time she was raised to such perfection of knowledge and holiness that the others, for her inborn sweetness, loved her sincerely with the affection of charity as an own sister. For there is no delay in learning where the Spirit is present as teacher: for the heart which has shone brightly he inflames.

[4] The course of the lustrum being at length completed in such a struggle and wrestling-school of holy studies, instructed in virtue the parents, loving her tenderly, as nature bears, began to sigh for their Daughter and to ask back their own, nor could * the pontiff put forward any pious trick or quibble for the retention of his little Goddaughter: because, namely, the loftiness of her freeborn kindred and the imperious power of harming of her father's pride forbade it. Being able by no effort and no endeavour to retain her, he at length sent back honourably the one committed to him, grown up singularly in the sacred Scriptures and in purity of soul: and with many entreaties he adjured her that she would be willing to persevere in the good things which she had learned, if the means of carrying them out were available. Instructed with admonitions of this kind, she was returned to her mother's chambers and dining-rooms. And what she had learned within the cloisters of the monastery she exercised, as far as she was able, in her father's hall. All, finally, who saw her gait and her conduct were stirred to veneration and affection for her. Her form was very beautiful, but more beautiful in the devotion of faith and the unceasing continuance of good deeds: and it was fitting that she should be loved by all whom the ornaments of distinguished justice had adorned. Menna is sought by many of the nobles round about, that they might be united to her in marriage for the begetting of dear posterity. The parents quickly give assent, desiring to join their Daughter to a spouse: finally they fully resolved to confirm such a compact, and wished to sound the mind of the Virgin in such a matter.

[5] Accordingly, it comes to the knowledge of the Virgin, who immediately refuses such an agreement, she spurns earthly marriage, and affirms that she can by no means receive any violator of her chastity: "I desire," she says, "the Lamb alone as spouse, whose voice alone sounds the hymn of virginity: whose gentle and sweet melody is the quickening of the dead, the sweet jubilation of the dwellers in paradise: whom no corruption can sound forth, him such as he is I desire with the whole affection of my heart: but I seek no mortal, I spurn earthly ornaments as rubbish; riches as uncleannesses; estates as dunghills; because the beauty of the precious pearl flourishes in my mind." The father despises the woman's counsel, strives to fulfil what is fixed in his mind; the day of the wedding is appointed, a company of nobles and adornment and abundance are prepared in plenty. Meanwhile the sacred Virgin, within the secret places of her heart, invokes Christ, praying humbly, and, commending to him the seal of her virginity, with most abundantly poured tears, does not cease to beseech how she may escape this inevitable bond of corruption. Christ meanwhile, beholding the pious struggle of his beloved Handmaid, procures his wonted consolation, and because she had chosen him for her spouse, whose help she was awaiting, he poured into her a kindly counsel. Resolute of mind, therefore, she seized the theft of a pious flight, and, accompanied by a few servants sharing her secret, hastened to go to St. Memmius, the instructor of her manners: and arriving at the holy patron, who then by chance had summoned a public council, she was received by him loftily and treated becomingly: being addressed, she dissembles the business, and does not dare to declare at present for what purpose she had come, but thinks to put it off until the morrow.

[6] and is clothed with the sacred veil. On the following day, as the bishop sat on the pontifical throne before the whole assembly, she approached with the veil to be consecrated *, which she herself had prepared in her sleeve, the Holy Spirit prompting her (as the Saviour says, When you shall stand before the authorities, take no thought, etc. ^k), and before all she began urgently to demand from the high priest himself, since he had washed her in the font of sacred baptism and he himself had received her from it with his holy hands, a dowry, the pledge of her filiation. At once the whole assembly wonders, and the bishop himself: they inquire what such a speech means. But she said: "You know, my lord, that through your condescension I came to the knowledge of eternal life: but my father hastens to change the intention of my heart, desiring to entangle me in earthly business and ensnare me in conjugal bonds. But my mind is wholly averse to affections of this kind. For the sake of such a matter I have come thus to protest, for

holding it for certain that, if your special industry be willing, it can snatch me from these calamities. Wherefore I earnestly beseech your kindness that, since you have already laid in me the foundations of good work, you bring it through to the end, and, covering my head with the veil of the Lamb Jesus Christ, direct me irrevocably, by a perpetual espousal, onto the path of holy conversation." Having spoken these words, she drew the veil from her sleeve ^l, and, rolled at his knees, pouring forth tears most abundantly, she began to pray diligently with tearful supplication that he would consecrate her as quickly as possible. While, on the other hand, the blessed prelate, although unwillingly, inasmuch as he was always desirous of saving souls of this kind, strove strongly to refuse, saying that he feared the ferocity of her father's pride and the high birth of her kindred, and the ferocity of the spouse to whom she had been betrothed, and on that account found no way of doing this: (I am about to tell of wonders) the veil which she was holding with outstretched hands, taken up by angelic ministry before all, was gently fitted to her head. Those present, seeing such things, gave immense thanks to almighty God, who deigned to show such perfection in the rudiments of his Handmaid. It is no wonder, therefore, if she was ordained by the supernal orders, who was to shine in the world with such great powers. At once fame, raised on the wings of her powers, flies to her father's ears and announces what prodigy was done concerning his Daughter: and he, after some time, during which she stayed with the Saint for the sake of instruction, received her, sent back with fitting honour, with the gracious affection of fatherly love, and thenceforth holding her in great veneration, now spontaneously and gladly granted the place and means of serving the Lord freely * which he had before unwillingly (denied) ^m.

[7] At that time, her father having died in a good old age, bereft of her parents she withdraws into the solitude of the Vosges, her mother also, as has been said above, while the storm of persecution was raging ⁿ, the other brothers and sisters departing, she too went out from her father's house, content with only one maidservant, and resolved that she would go wherever the providence of God should lead. And when, making her journey, she had come to a certain river and wished to cross it, she found no boat in which she could pass over, and, wholly ignorant what she should do then, she hesitated in doubt. The whirlpool itself was fearful, and forbade all hope and means of crossing: nor was there anyone who hoped for a crossing there. Soon, therefore, the goodness and help of God flowing to her, who never deprives of consolation those who trust in him, she began with hesitating step to penetrate the depths of the whirlpool with the sign of the Cross. O unwonted miracle, and granted to very few! For immediately she passed over as through a dry channel, made like that blessed harpist, namely Mary the sister of Aaron, who went before the Israelite column while it crossed through the Red Sea, bearing in her hands a harp and a timbrel ^o. And passing through as with dry feet, she rendered the ford level and stony: and what before, from excessive mud and depth of water, was an inextricable abyss, became after her footsteps sandy and passable. And from this a reason very greatly creates faith for us, that the same crossing from then until today has received the name of Menna's ford [p], which name fame gave it in memory of the grace granted, and appointed that * it should be called by such a name to the praise of God through future generations. At the going out from that ford also she made a monument of perpetual refreshment. For immediately on coming out she fixed in the ground the staff which she was bearing in her sacred hands, and straightway caused a clear spring to bubble up from it: which, flowing perpetually, confers enough refreshment and convenient healthfulness on travellers, because it is sweet to the taste and pleasant to drink, and is often reported very useful to the wretched infirm and to those suffering from fever.

[8] Then, proceeding from there, she with only one maidservant hastened to the place (the Lord, as we truly believe, directing her journey) and from there hastens to the heavenly Spouse. which is called Pusinnellae [q], where, the clemency of God disposing all things, she determined that she would remain through the ages of the world. Where it is lawful for no faithful person in any way to doubt that the power of the Divinity deigned to bestow great benefits of prodigies on its most faithful Worshipper. But truly the abundance of powers which she at times worked while still living in the body * she strove, as far as she could, to hide. Wishing them to be hidden from all, lest she should entrust the bright oil of a pure conscience to flatterers, and at the coming of the Spouse should lack the light of her lighted lamp. Indeed, living, she shone forth with great signs of powers, and now, being dead, she shines out assiduously, glorious, in the calamities of the wretched: but, as I hope, just as they have now become cheap through their frequency, so also, because great talents of writers were then lacking, therefore there is a scarcity of her deeds. Having spent, therefore, many courses of years in good works and sacred studies, ripe in manners and years, she is invited to the heavenly kingdoms. A bodily affliction therefore coming upon her, she is loosed from the fleshly thong, to be cherished in the most peaceful bosom of Abraham, whose happy soul, thirsting for the Lord, accompanied by the supernal companies, sought on the wings of virtues the ethereal kingdoms [r], in which Christ reigns, the everlasting spouse and crown of virgins.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The place of that Ford is not now known.

q. The others whom I have seen fix her dwelling at Fontenoy.

r. Namely about the year 380: so it has seemed to some; but they use mere conjecture: therefore I have fixed the death of St. Menna broadly towards the end of the fourth century. This manuscript does not mention the translation of the remains of our Saint to Port-Suave; but, as at the beginning, so perhaps at the end also it is mutilated.

* supply "qui" [who]

* supply "to make mention," or something similar

* perhaps "cursu" course

* a word is missing which could scarcely be read; perhaps "Agius," that is, holy.

* perhaps "ferens" bearing is to be supplied

* supply "negaverat" had denied

* redundant

* "patet" seems to be superfluous