ON ST. AMOR, CONFESSOR, VENERATED IN THE MONASTERY OF BILSEN IN THE TERRITORY OF LIÈGE,
Perhaps in the ninth century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Amor, confessor, venerated in the Monastery of Bilsen in the territory of Liège. (S.)
BY C. S.
§ I. The memory of St. Amor among the martyrologists, his sacred cult, and his Acts.
Concerning Belisia, in the vernacular Bilsen, which is a very ancient small town of the duchy of Looz in Lower Hesbaye and the territory of Liège on the river Demer, St. Amor, patron of the monastery of Bilsen, and concerning the monastery situated half a league outside its walls, commonly called Munsterbilsen, in Latin Monasterium Belisiense, and two and a half leagues distant from Maastricht, a notice has already been given in our Work at the 8th day of July, on St. Landrada, virgin, to whom the beginnings of the same monastery are owed; yet certain things are to be added here. In that place, besides the parish church sacred to the blessed Virgin Mother of God, there is another, notable for a college of noble Secular canonesses (not Regular, such as it formerly was, as was said on St. Landrada) and of canons, over which the abbess who presides enjoys the temporal dominion of the same place and of others. The principal patron of the church of this monastery of Bilsen is St. Amor, confessor, and the martyrologists who announce him at Bilsen are to be judged to speak of it; by some of whom he is honoured with the title of deacon, by others even of priest.
[2] The first of the Martyrologies, at least which I have consulted, to make mention of him is the Calendar of the monastery of Stavelot, known to some martyrologists, which Martène and Durand published in volume 6 of the Amplissima collectio of ancient writers, and judged to have been written about seven hundred years ago, and therefore while the eleventh century was young, and which has thus at this 8th day of October, without a place: Of St. Amor, confessor. There are with us various manuscript Martyrologies under the name of Bede; of which that of St. Lambert of Liège has thus at the same day: Likewise of St. Amor, priest and confessor. Other Martyrologies add the place; among these, among the Usuardine Auctaria in our Du Sollier, the codices of Antwerp-Maximus, Utrecht, Leiden, Albergen and the Danish likewise have thus on the same day: At Bilsen, the deposition of St. Amator (others, Amor), confessor. The Brussels one agrees: At Bilsen, the deposition of St. Amor, confessor. A brief eulogy of him is added in the Lübeck-Cologne edition of Usuard in this manner: At Bilsen, the deposition of St. Amor, confessor, who, sprung from most noble parents of Aquitaine, tormented his flesh outwardly, afflicted it inwardly with fasts; he clung assiduously to vigils and prayers; he abstained from idle talk and laughter, and, renowned for many miracles, rested in peace.
[3] Greven adopted almost the same things; but Molanus more briefly, especially by the more recent, adding however the order of the priesthood: Likewise at Bilsen, he says, the deposition of St. Amor, priest and confessor. Our manuscript Florarium of the Saints, completed toward the end of the fifteenth century, has a little more about him, beginning this day thus: At the monastery of Bilsen in the territory of Looz, the deposition of St. Amor, confessor of Christ, a pupil of Maastricht. He, going once to the church, had a shining cloud going before him in the manner of the column which formerly led the children of Israel to the land of Promise; so too it ran before this Servant as he hastened * to the thresholds of the church. Whom, there is no doubt, he reached the harbour of perpetual salvation, to whom Christ was to live and to die gain. And when he was dead God endowed and enriched him with miracles greater than He had done while he was living. To these are added more recent Martyrologies too, among which, in the German one, commonly called Canisius's, the eulogy of St. Amor related above from the Lübeck-Cologne edition is likewise inserted in German at this day; and Filippo Ferrari, in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman, followed Molanus.
[4] known Chastelain too, in his Universal Martyrology, records the same among the Saints of Gaul thus: At the monastery of Bilsen near Tongres, St. Amor, deacon. I add finally André du Saussay, who in the Gallican Martyrology presents his eulogy, partly different from the foregoing, in words which I transfer here: On the same day (the 8th of October), of saint Amor, deacon and confessor, who, an Aquitanian by birth, deserting his paternal house, his wealth and his kinsfolk for the love of Christ, betook himself into Lotharingia, that he might lead a life hidden from men but known to the Lord. He visited the sepulchre of St. Servatius, and thence for a time lived in solitude, drawing the charismata of graces from divine services and meditations. But from time to time, desirous of the salvation of his neighbours, leaving his seat of quiet, he went forth round about, with holy preachings and examples of pure conversation
calling the inhabitants of this tract to better fruit. Having discharged these exercises worthy of his office with great increase of heavenly grace, renowned for miracles, in the district of Bilsen in Hesbaye he rendered his soul, dear to Christ. At whose tomb a college of canonesses was afterwards founded, where today he is venerated with principal honour as a special patron. This and the other eulogies given we shall discuss below.
[5] already long ago Concerning the cult wont to be paid to this Saint as patron by the noble canonesses of the monastery of Bilsen, Barthélemy Fisen in the Flowers of the church of Liège expressly agrees, adding: His sacred body, brought to light from the sepulchre, is venerated with principal honours in the same church. All these things are confirmed by letters which I received from Maastricht from the Reverend Father Jan Limpens, priest of our Society and formerly a learned writer of our Museum, in which he speaks thus: Its (the church of the canonesses of the monastery of Bilsen) principal patron is St. Amor, whose feast is celebrated with the most solemn rite on the 8th day of October with an Octave; at which time his head is exposed to public veneration… An image painted in the year MDCXXVI, which is seen there, shows St. Amor clothed in the habit of a deacon. And that a sacred cult wont to be paid to St. Amor at Bilsen flourished already many centuries back we learn from more than one monument. The author of the Life of St. Evermar, slain in the territory of Tongres, who wrote not later (see volume 1 of May of our Work, page 120) than the twelfth century, writes that the sacred relics of St. Amor were carried publicly and in a solemn procession in a very great drought, that God might give rain to the parched earth: The people persisted, he says, in prayer, they persevered in supplication for the watering of the dryness of the land. That God might free His people from the destruction of the imminent plague, St. Servatius, the most faithful preserver of his borders, is exposed; Monulph and Gondulph are carried out; St. Amor (certainly no other than the one of Bilsen), the sweetest lover of his neighbours, is carried into public, that through compassion and pity for them God might have compassion and pity on the burning land. And Mantelius, among the diplomas of Looz, recites in the second place a charter of a certain Regenera, given in the fortieth year of the eleventh century, in the eighth Indiction, while Henry, the third emperor of the Romans, reigned, and Richard (or, as it is otherwise written, Rithard) was bishop of Liège, in which she gave herself over as a handmaid to St. Amor at Bilsen under a census of wax of four pence; on this condition, that all (her) posterity should pay the same on the feast of St. Amor, etc. From which we can indeed in some way measure the antiquity of the cult of St. Amor among the canonesses of Bilsen, but not assign its beginning, which perhaps, as will be said below, is only a little more recent than his death.
[6] Besides these things we have received nothing particular concerning the sacred cult of St. Amor in the noble house of virgins of Bilsen with sacred cult except an inspection of his body, a copy of the instrument made concerning which I present here.
Testimonials from the chest and bier of the body of St. Amor.
In the year from the Nativity of the Lord one thousand four hundred and 57, on the very day of the Nativity of Blessed John the Baptist, to the honour of almighty God and of St. Amor, patron of Bilsen, we, Cecilia de Palude, abbess, Jan Welina de Lymes, deaconess, Gertrude de Herve, Mary Surlet, Elizabeth de Oerloe, Jutta de Kesselt, Jutta de Tille, Margaret Fynnock, and Elizabeth de Duffel, canonesses; Gerard Abroens, John Heeckmans and John Warker, canons, Gerard Boele, Walter de Wilre and Henry de Nedermoele, chaplains of the said church of St. Amor, although less worthy, yet inclined by great devotion and manifold affection, diligently visited the bier adorned with little plates of silver and gilt and with other gems and precious stones.
[7] This being opened, we found a small raised wooden shrine, he was honoured at Bilsen; closed on all sides with copper nails, and bound round in the middle in two places with a white belt of deer leather, and we found its ends firmly knotted, and impressed and sealed with white wax; and to keep the seal unharmed we made a cut in one part of the aforesaid belt: and all these things being removed, we opened that wooden shrine, in which again we saw and found the precious bones of the most holy body of the same our patron Amor, honourably wrapped in a red * cloth; which having been very humbly and devoutly adored and visited by us, we caused to be closed again as before; and the cut of that belt we caused to be faithfully strengthened and sealed with the seal of the lady abbess and of the chapter, to take away all doubt and suspicion from posterity. Thus far our schedule, and no more; from which accordingly we have nothing else than that in the middle of the fifteenth century the relics of St. Amor were piously preserved and honoured in the monastery of Bilsen.
[8] whom likewise At Maastricht too, where he led his life for some time, St. Amor had sacred cult and a chapel dedicated to his name: so again the Reverend Father Jan Limpens teaches us in his letters. The clergy, he says, of the collegiate church of St. Servatius venerated St. Amor with a double Office with a proper Prayer and nine proper Lessons, as is established from the Breviary shown to me, printed for the use of the said church at Cologne in the year MDIII. The proper Prayer is this: Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we may celebrate with eager minds the solemnities of blessed Amor Thy confessor, whose life, adorned with various virtues, was pleasing to Thee. The first Lesson begins: Accordingly blessed Amor, sprung from Aquitaine and from most noble parents, etc. Neither this nor the other Lessons, which are very brief, contain anything from which something can be drawn out concerning his age, etc. Limpens further adds to these that the clergy of the church of St. Servatius have used the Roman Breviary for a hundred years and more, and from that time ceased to venerate St. Amor with an ecclesiastical Office. The Breviary of the collegiate church of St. Servatius which was shown to Limpens, or certainly one like it, is also with us, but mutilated at the end: in which the same Prayer for St. Amor is found as above: the Lessons likewise very brief, so that they contain only the former part of his Life, and, his Roman pilgrimage and his coming to Maastricht being passed over (which you may wonder at), end in his deeds in Aquitaine, his homeland, as though he had died there.
[9] in neighbouring towns, And concerning the chapel formerly dedicated to St. Amor at Maastricht, Limpens writes thus: There was also shown to me by the Lord secretary of the chapter of St. Servatius a manuscript codex whose title is: "Register of the altars or benefices of the imperial and free church of St. Servatius of Maastricht, which on fol. 1 are said to have been collected by the zeal and work of Andreas Bouwens, of Maastricht, MDCXXVI. On Folio 44 are recounted: The revenues of the altar of St. Amor in the town of Maastricht, whose rector is Lord Aegidius Marquet." In the margin is noted: "Collation: the lady of Munsterbilsen." By which it is signified that the right of patronage of that benefice belongs to the abbess of this place. Neither does there now exist, Limpens proceeds, nor is it known ever to have existed, an altar of St. Amor in the collegiate church of St. Servatius: but there formerly existed in the vegetable market a chapel subject to that church, consecrated to St. Amor, in which also stood an altar erected to the same Saint. It is not doubted that to this altar was annexed the benefice of which the said manuscript codex treats. The Reverend Lord Servatius Loyens now holds it. The city of Maastricht is divided into fourteen quarters; that one of these which comprises the vegetable market and the neighbouring streets is called the QUARTER of St. Amor, which name it has retained from the mentioned chapel of the Saint.
[10] namely at Maastricht That the relics of St. Amor were also preserved in that chapel up to the year 1651, but that, the chapel then falling down and threatening ruin from age, they were deposited in the church of St. Servatius until it should be disposed of them more fully, which the Reverend Father Limpens added on that matter in his letters to us, is taught by an Extract from the Capitular Resolutions conceived in these words: Extract from the capitular Resolutions of the free and imperial church of St. Servatius at Maastricht. On Monday, which was the 18th of September 1651, the very Reverend and noble Lords the Dean and Chapter, because the chapel of St. Amor, situated in this town, had already for some years begun on account of age so to fall and gradually to slip down that, for the sake of avoiding danger, both the tower and the roof of the chapel and also some height of the walls must be taken down, ordered that the sacred relics existing in a glass pyx, and also the holy relics enclosed in a leaden pyx, together with the accompanying testimony written on parchment of the consecration of the said chapel and of the high altar of the year 1406 … of August (which leaden pyx with its relics was now taken from the same altar), be put back together in the sacristy of the church of St. Servatius, at least until another ordinance.
By Extract as above,
J. P. Membrede, secretary.
[11] And these things indeed we have received concerning the sacred cult paid to St. Amor at Maastricht: and at Tongres he obtained it, it flourished also at Tongres; for in the Breviary of Tongres also (the former city of Tongres is distant about two miles from the monastery of Bilsen, and about as much from Maastricht), printed in the year 1547, the Office of this Saint, as of a confessor, is likewise read with double rite, with nine Lessons also proper and drawn from the same Life of St. Amor, which end at his arrival in the city of Rome. The Prayer, which is different, I add here: Recounting, O Lord, the votive solemnities of saint Amor, Thy confessor, we suppliantly beseech Thy majesty that, his patronage intervening, whose mysteries we perform to his praise and honour, we may attain the joys promised to the Blessed. Finally in various Breviaries of the diocese of Liège too which we have I find a commemoration of the same Saint to be made in the sacred Office on this same day.
[12] On the same day likewise he was formerly venerated at Amorbach in Franconia; but not at Amorbach in Franconia. but now on the 17th day of August St. Amor or Amator is venerated as the first abbot of the same monastery, whom some have judged to be the very St. Amor of Bilsen. But that the latter was different from the former the learned Benedictine Ignaz Gropp taught at length in the History of Amorbach, whose arguments our Cuper recounted and approved in the historico-critical Commentary which he edited at the 17th day of the said month on the same St. Amor, abbot of Amorbach; to whose §§1 and 2 accordingly, lest I do what is done, I refer the reader. I observe only that from the Life of St. Amor of Bilsen, to be edited here, it will be established how rightly Cuper said in the same place at number 28: We have consulted several manuscript exemplars of the Legend of Bilsen, which we have laid up in our shrines at the 8th day of October. But in truth that St. Amor of Bilsen is never called abbot, and is nowhere said to have been in Franconia, or to have obtained there by his prayers a wonderful salubrity for a fountain, all of which things are handed down of St. Amor.
[13] There are three things concerning which Cuper, of the Life of St.
Amor, the copies; There is with us a twofold Life of St. Amor; of which one, which formerly belonged to Aubert Le Mire, is from a Bilsen manuscript; the second, which is noted to have existed also in the manuscript of Belfort, from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître which is entitled the Hagiology of the Brabanters; the third is noted to have been received from the Utrecht manuscript of St. Salvator at the 24th day of September. Our Bilsen copy, copied faultily enough and dislocated, has a beginning of this kind: Accordingly Blessed Amor was born of the most noble of his homeland in Aquitaine. That a Life of St. Amor with a similar beginning exists in the monastery of Laach in the diocese of Trier, Father Alexander Wiltheim advised our Predecessors in the year 1659. The Rouge-Cloître copy is a little more accurate than the Bilsen one; it agrees well enough with it as regards the rest; but it presents a Prologue, which is absent from the Bilsen one, and has this beginning: Desiring to write something to the glory of our God concerning Blessed Amor, the man of God, we so desire to satisfy the wish of our hearers that, according to the manner of an ordered relation, we may consult the truth in all things. At the end of the Prologue these words occur: We shall therefore first touch upon his (St. Amor's) Life and acts, and then we shall set down successively the Lives of the others who became renowned in the same parts (namely those of Brabant). Which seem to be the words not of the author of the Life of St. Amor, but of the hagiologist of Rouge-Cloître, Jan Gielemans, subprior of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine at Rouge-Cloître, who died in the year 1487. Further, both these copies are infected with by-works and digressions little necessary and sometimes inept, which the third, that is, the one drawn from the Utrecht manuscript, lacks; and it is accordingly shorter than the rest, although it comprises their entire marrow and substance.
[14] the more prolix one written perhaps by Egebert in the eleventh century None of the copies of the Life of St. Amor just mentioned shows the name of its author: but Molanus opportunely says, in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, in the eulogy composed by him for St. Amor at the 8th day of October: Only a few things exist concerning him; as can also be established from Egebert the deacon (whose manuscript work on Blessed Amor he notes in the margin exists at Liège, at Affligem and elsewhere), who tried to collect his Life: but who was that Egebert, and in what age did he live? And which Life of St. Amor is it that he wrote? Unless I am mistaken, he is the same as he of whom Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim, writes thus in On the ecclesiastical writers, page 138 and following: Eckebert, a cleric of the church of Liège, a German by nation, elegantly learned in the divine Scriptures, and instructed to perfection in the disciplines of secular letters, wrote both in metre and in prose some little works, by which he transmitted his name to the knowledge of posterity. Of which there exists a volume, composed in elegant metre, which he entitled: "On Rustic Riddles, book 1; another, larger, on the same matter, book 1." He flourished in the times of Henry the third (he died in the year 1055), in the year of the Lord MLX. You have, therefore, who most probably was Egebert, the author of the Life of St. Amor according to Molanus, and in what age he lived. But which Life of St. Amor did he write? The more verbose one, deformed with useless by-works? Or the shorter one lacking these?
[15] written, I confess indeed that the more verbose Life of St. Amor is not such as seems to answer to the praise of learning which Trithemius attributes to Egebert: yet I do not think it is to be adjudged away from him. For he flourished in the praise not of profane only but of sacred learning too, as Trithemius writes: and he probably preferred, the argument of his writing so requiring, to employ in his work on St. Amor, such as it is, the sacred rather than the profane; inasmuch as he is copious in quoting the words of sacred Scripture and examples sought from the same source, even beyond what is fitting, as will be manifest to anyone inspecting the more prolix Life of St. Amor to be edited below. On the contrary, the shorter Life does not present even one text of sacred Scripture. Egebert also flourished in the praise of poetry: and the author of the more verbose Life in some way betrays a talent given to poetry, inserting from time to time in a prose style truncated verses, such as are these at number 5: At length he reached the Roman citadels, and: He addresses him with friendly words, which it was also familiar for writers of the eleventh century to do. And I am confirmed in this opinion, namely that the more verbose Life of St. Amor was written by Egebert, if I compare the words of Molanus with the copies of the more verbose Life of St. Amor. From which (from Egebert, says Molanus) let it be added to the above that the holy Man (Amor) was elevated through the vision of Hilda, wife of Odulf. Express mention, therefore, was made of Hilda and Odulf in the Egebertine Life of St. Amor praised by Molanus, and conformable, at least as to the substance of things, with the more verbose one to be edited below, as will be plain to anyone comparing with it the things which Molanus relates of St. Amor from Egebert. And the names of Hilda and Odulf are expressed, though a little differently, in both our copies of the fuller Life of St. Amor: but the name of Hilda is not read in the copy of the shorter Life of St. Amor; so that the shorter Life seems to be contracted from the more prolix one, and to be the offspring of someone more recent, as we shall confirm at number 18, who wished to present to his reader compendiously the sayings of Egebert with the useless by-works cut away.
[16] Egebert indeed, some centuries later than St. Amor, with an older writer as guide, has in himself no great weight in the things which he narrates of St. Amor: but he drew these here and there not from his own store, but from that of another, older than himself; which Egebert himself plainly declares at number 7 in these words: But there are some, he says, who, as we believe, raise vain questions about him, why this Servant of God, since the former little book is silent about it, is venerated in the honour of the priesthood. In our Bilsen copy, for the word Prior is read Priorum: but the matter comes to the same thing. That author of the Life of St. Amor, older than Egebert, probably lived in the ninth or tenth century; and if St. Amor, which indeed seems to us, on account of what is to be said below, not to lack all probability, died in the ninth century, neither will the things which Egebert narrates of St. Amor from him be to be despised. Nor ought the very meagre manner of writing about his deeds to be imputed as a fault to the older biographer of St. Amor: for, so far as can be gathered from the Acts, St. Amor came to Maastricht an altogether unknown stranger, and led a life known to God rather than to men, nor perhaps did he remain alive many years after his coming there: so that the things done by him both there and elsewhere could easily have lain hidden for the great part, even to a writer contemporary or nearly contemporary in age with saint Amor.
[17] For the rest, our Bilsen copy by itself supplies nothing from which you may gather the age of this more verbose biographer of St. Amor; but which presents no mark of the age in which it was written: nor does the other copy, received from the Rouge-Cloître codex, help us more here, so far at least as it sets forth the Life of St. Amor. But in the Prologue prefixed to it certain things occur from which it might seem to someone less cautious that the author of the Life of St. Amor presented there after the Prologue wrote in the ninth century and was nearly contemporary with St. Amor. And these are especially the words of the Prologue: Who (St. Amor) made fruitful the borders of Brabant, which is known to have lately been called Lotharingia, by his most holy conversation and skilful preaching: and if to these is added the title prefixed to the Prologue: Here begins the Prologue to the Life of St. Amor, who lately dwelt at Maastricht, it might come into someone's mind that St. Amor lived about the middle of the ninth century, when Austrasia, its name being changed, began to be called from Lothar, whether emperor or king, the kingdom of Lothar, or, as they now say, Lotharingia; and that the biographer of St. Amor wrote not long after. But I have already said at number 13 that that Prologue seems to be not that of the author of the Life of St. Amor but of Jan Gielemans, collector of the Hagiology of Rouge-Cloître; and the signification of the particle Lately, which the same writer employs, is to be extended in his mind even to a long time.
[18] the other, shorter, Likewise nothing occurs in the shorter, or Utrecht, Life of St. Amor from which you may define the time in which it was written: and although it lacks useless by-works, and is more succinct than the more verbose or Egebertine Life of St. Amor, and yet does not contain fewer deeds of his, and accordingly might seem to bear a greater antiquity; since however it too does not lack its blemish, I judge it more recent not only than the Life of St. Amor which served as light to Egebert, but also than the Egebertine one, as I advised at number 15, for this reason, that it attributes the origin of the house of virgins of Bilsen to Hilda, wife of count Odulf, in the following words: Then she, the mistress of this religious act (of the elevation or translation of the body of St. Amor), gave herself over, with the nuns and with a certain villa of her dowry, to the perpetual service of saint Amor. Whose example many other women following founded the monastery, which remains to this day, called "Blisia," of the diocese of Liège. If Hilda joined herself as a companion to the nuns of Bilsen, then indeed, before she joined herself to them, there was a monastery there, and she did not found it: although she, together with her husband, probably afforded no slight proofs of munificence and goodwill to the same house of virgins, as can be gathered from what Mantelius writes of both spouses in book 2 of the History of Looz, page 23: This is established, he says, that it was said that (Odulf) count of Looz (whether this is truly said of Odulf it is not necessary to inquire here), with his wife Hilda, translated from Maastricht (of this matter it will be treated below) to Bilsen St. Amor the deacon, the patron of the college of Bilsen, and that both obtained burial there, so that their annual memory is made on the day after St. Lambert.
[19] and the more prolix But neither from the elevation or translation of the body of St. Amor, made on the occasion of the vision offered to Hilda, nor from her munificence toward the house of virgins or the burial which she obtained in that same place, can it be argued that the first origin of the convent of Bilsen is owed to her. Nay rather, all who have written of the first origin of the college of Bilsen say that it was founded in the seventh century by St. Landrada, a virgin sprung from the royal stock of the kings of the Franks, Theodoric, abbot of Saint-Trond, who died a few years after the eleventh century had begun, agreeing with them in the Life of the same royal virgin edited in volume 2 of July of our Work at the 8th day of the same month, in which, at numbers 6 and 7, he speaks thus of the foundation of the church of Bilsen by St. Landrada: She (St. Landrada) was standing in the silence of the middle of the night, unaccompanied and without witnesses, and, raised beyond all this miry infirmity, with the free foot of the mind she was running in the odour of the heavenly ointments, when suddenly the heavens being opened, a cross of wonderful workmanship descends, accompanied by light, and is laid down, as it were for a gift, upon a neighbouring stone for Landrada, who was already crucified to the world. For as soft wax receives and represents the impressed image of a seal, so too the hardest stone still to us the whole impression of the same cross
shows entire. Meanwhile the voice of a ministering spirit was heard: Receive, Landrada, this pledge of charity from the immortal Spouse. He Himself sends you the espousals of the cross, who, dying on the cross, restores all things. These are the gifts of your Lover (Christ). By such a defence, in this place henceforth unclean spirits, famine, mortality, inequality of things, diseases and pestilence shall not harm.
[20] The Virgin of God, rejoicing at the gift, strengthened by the consolation, perhaps more recent. forgetful of her sex and age, girds herself to a certain manliness; with her own hands she undertakes a task of which she had not been capable. To root out brambles and thorns; to hoe the ground; to try to found a church in honour and memory of the Mother of God and perpetual virgin Mary: with her own hands to dig out and carry stones, to draw the line, to lay the foundations; and in the place of the cross destined for her none other than she herself set up that very altar which still endures. The hand of the Almighty was present to His untiring labourer until the consummation of the perfect work. Then indeed she summons Lambert the bishop, afterwards to be a martyr of Christ, and, admonished by the pious familiarity with which their holy souls had bound themselves together from the beginning, she obtains according to her wish the consecration of her new church and the deposition of relics. Then presently Theodoric extols the progress in every virtue of the companions of St. Landrada under her auspices and guidance; so that Landrada was undoubtedly believed by him to be the author not only of the church of Bilsen but of the house of virgins itself, not Hilda. It is an error, therefore, by which the foundation of Bilsen is attributed to Hilda, who probably lived in the ninth century, as we shall say in the following §; into which, as neither Theodoric, abbot of Saint-Trond, nor the author of the more prolix Life fell, so it probably belongs to some more recent writer who so purged the Egebertine Life of St. Amor of its by-works that he too seems to have fallen into error, desiring to add something to the sayings of Egebert either of his own or from the tradition then commonly received. The Gropp praised above mentions a Life of St. Amor written in the German idiom, first published in the year 1683, in which the deeds of St. Amor of Bilsen and of Amorbach are confused; but this we neither have, nor is there reason why we should greatly care.
Annotations* properantem hastening
* rubrae [red]
§ II. The age of the Saint uncertain: his deeds briefly touched upon.
St. Amor From the Acts of St. Amor, venerated at Bilsen, mentioned in the preceding §, almost all that is known of him has been received. I have already recited his eulogy from Du Saussay at number 4: I add here another from Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium at this day, which runs thus: At the monastery of Bilsen, the deposition of St. Amor, deacon and confessor, who, an Aquitanian by nation, made fruitful the borders of Brabant, which is known to have lately been called Lotharingia, by his most holy preaching and conversation. For a long time he served the Lord at the sepulchre of St. Servatius, and at length, after a praiseworthy life renowned for miracles, rested at Bilsen, where outside the walls, in the college of canonesses which it calls * Munster-Bilsen, he is venerated with principal honour, especially on his birthday. Only a few things, etc., which I have already recited above at number 14. Hear also the eulogy which the Fisen just praised composed for St. Amor in the Flowers of the church of Liège, page 448, from Egebert, as he notes, Molanus and manuscripts.
[22] by some It runs thus: An Aquitanian by race, he was a deacon by rank. He cultivated Hesbaye with many labours, and for a great part rescued it from impiety and the thorn-thickets of vices. At the sepulchre of St. Servatius he spent many years given to the contemplation of divine things. At length he removed to Bilsen, where he led a life conspicuous for notable integrity and for the many miracles performed, and closed it with a blessed end; at what age is uncertain, except that he seems to have preceded Blessed Landrada, who left this mortality about the six hundred and ninety-third year. For the college of noble canonesses which glories in her as its author venerates St. Amor as its guardian. His sacred body, brought to light from the sepulchre, is venerated with principal honours. He has almost the same things also in the History of the church of Liège, book 4, chapter 10, between the years 659 and 662, except that here he seems to make him younger than Landrada or contemporary: for after he has mentioned the monastery built by Landrada, he says that St. Amor, captivated by the religion of the place and its holy retirement, withdrew to Bilsen, in words presently to be given at number 24.
[23] is asserted to have died in the seventh century before St. Landrada Let us now compare those eulogies with our copies of his Life mentioned above, and see whether anything can be determined from them concerning the same Saint. Let us begin with his age, of which there exists no indication, at least certain, in the above-mentioned copies of the life. Du Saussay, in the eulogy recounted above, asserted not at all doubtfully that he was prior in time to St. Landrada, or at least died before her, when he says that a college of canonesses was afterwards founded at the tomb of the same Saint; of which college namely he acknowledged, with all the others who have treated of her, St. Landrada herself as foundress in the same Gallican Martyrology of his at the 8th day of July, on which she is venerated. To the same opinion inclines Barthélemy Fisen, related in the preceding number, relying on the argument that the college of canonesses of Bilsen founded by St. Landrada venerates St. Amor as its guardian.
[24] not well-founded enough The same writer does not dissent in the History of Liège in the place praised a little above, where, however doubtfully, he wrote these things: Captivated by the religion of the place (Bilsen) and its holy retirement was Blessed Amor, who, an Aquitanian by race … having betaken himself to the sepulchre of Blessed Servatius, given to the contemplation of divine things, removed to Bilsen perhaps about this time (between the years 659 and 662, as he has in the margin); for nothing certain has been ascertained. If these things are so, St. Amor is not later than the seventh century, since St. Landrada died in the year 680 or 690 from what was said in our Work at the 8th day of July. Fisen, therefore, so far as appears from his words, seems to have relied for fixing in some way the age of St. Amor on no other reason than that that illustrious house of virgins venerates him as the Guardian of its church; nor do I think that Du Saussay likewise used any other when he said that a college of canonesses was afterwards founded at his tomb.
[25] But that reason is very weak; since the body of St. Amor could have been translated to the church of Bilsen long after the death of St. Landrada, is asserted, or elevated in it, and on that account have begun to be held the Patron of the same church, especially because the same church seems to have had from its first foundation no particular Patron besides the most holy Mother of God. Certainly Theodoric, abbot of Saint-Trond, in whose age, that is, the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the church of Bilsen had already obtained its name from St. Amor, as is plain from the charter of Regenera, giving herself as a handmaid to saint Amor at Bilsen, written in the year 1040 (see Mantelius, part 2 of the History of Looz, page 2 and following), treating in the Life of the same St. Landrada of the foundation of the church of Bilsen, neither mentions any other Patron of it, nor permits suspicion of a tomb of St. Amor existing in that place before. I gave the words of Theodoric at number 19 and following, in which the church of Bilsen is related to have been erected not over the tomb of St. Amor, of which no mention is made there, but in a forest-glade which (as he had said before) they called Belua from the ferocity of the beasts inhabiting it, and not out of reverence for the same Saint, but in that place from the heavenly indications of the cross that descended and of the angelic voice, and finally not under the title of the praised St. Amor, but built and dedicated in honour and memory of the Mother of God and perpetual virgin Mary.
[26] And these things indeed from the Life of St. Landrada: but on the contrary the Lives of St. Amor favour the opposite opinion; whatever his Lives, whether of a twofold but they are entangled in other difficulties. In the shorter Life it is read that the Saint, soon after his death, was entombed … in the place which is called Holdier, where a basilica was afterwards built in his honour, in which he showed much greater miracles than he had done in this life. But there it is at once subjoined that a certain matron, wife of the ruler of the neighbourhood, named Odulf, was thrice admonished by God that, raising St. Amor from the place in which he lay, she should lay him worthily with herself; and that she obeyed these admonitions, his body being translated into the place where to this day he venerat — read: veneratur, that is, is venerated. Nay even in the words transcribed at number 18 the same matron, together with other women imitating her, is said to have founded the monastery of Bilsen; so that according to this Life of St. Amor he seems to have had here another church sacred to his name, in which he had burial before he was translated into that of Bilsen.
[27] In our Rouge-Cloître copy of the more prolix Life it is likewise read concerning his first burial, the name of the place being passed over: or of a single church, Entombed in the place where afterwards and today there is a basilica built in his honour and praise. But the other copy of the same longer Life, our Bilsen one, agreeing in the rest, has Belisia for Basilica, saying: entombed in the place where afterwards and today there is Bilsen, built also in his honour and praise. Nor yet, however, does it wholly pass over the translation of the sacred body mentioned in the shorter one; but the same exists there, mutilated at the end, so that the place to which the translation was made is not read, which in the Rouge-Cloître copy is said to have been where to this day his holy benefits abound to the full, namely at Bilsen: but in neither is there anything to be read of the monastery of Bilsen being founded by the munificence and work of the wife of Odulf and of the others who followed her example. But all these things are intricate, sound of confusion, and are therefore to be weighed.
[28] Our Utrecht copy says that the place of the first burial of St. Amor was Holdier, say was built over his tomb, the other copies being silent about this name. The place named Holdier is plainly unknown to me, unless perhaps the biographer wished to indicate Bilsen, which Theodoric, related above, asserted to have been called Belua from the ferocity of the beasts inhabiting it; and the same biographer wished to render Belua, or Bellua, in Belgic by Holdier; for Hol signifies a cave and Dier an animal, so that Holdier signifies an animal or wild beast dwelling in a cave. However it may be, it is agreed among the copies that a church was afterwards built in the place of his first burial, which the Bilsen copy calls Belisia, the Rouge-Cloître one Basilica. It is also agreed among the same copies concerning the body of St. Amor translated from that place to the church of Bilsen by the work of the wife of Odulf.
[29] which only a single But since I have found elsewhere no mention, no trace, of that first church erected at the tomb of St. Amor in which he became renowned for miracles, I am compelled to believe that it is fictitious, and that the Saint shone with miracles in no other church than that of Bilsen, after he had been translated into it or elevated in it. Less
still can I admit the things which the biographer has in the shorter Utrecht copy concerning a monastery founded there after the body of the Saint was translated; neither does that narration cohere, as was said at number 18; nor, as was likewise said at number 19 and following, as also at number 25, can Hilda, or Hulda, wife of Odulf, or Clodulf, be said to have founded the church of Bilsen. Since, however, errors of this kind not rarely arise from a confusion of things truly done, if it be permitted to divine here, perhaps these things were in this or some similar manner.
[30] and older than St. Amor The body of St. Amor, after the times of St. Landrada, or certainly after the church of Bilsen was founded by her, was first entombed in an ordinary sepulchre in it or in its common cemetery, and began to be honoured there with miracles. Then Hilda or Hulda, wife of Odulf or Clodulf, judge of the neighbouring region, admonished by God, obtained from the sacred virgins of the same place that it should be raised from the earth and laid in an honourable place in the same church. Then the same matron (if the narration of the Utrecht or shorter copy is true), after the death of her husband, captivated by the religion of the place, added herself to the nuns as a companion with a great dowry, and had other women imitators of her example, by the munificence of all of whom the monastery of Bilsen was very greatly increased and endowed.
[31] seems to have been, If these things are so, the shorter biographer of St. Amor, not a little removed from his deeds, could wrongly have made two out of the single church of Bilsen, both built in the place of the tomb of the holy Confessor, the first namely before, and the second, or at least the monastery added to it, after the translation of the sacred body. He could therefore ineptly have interpreted the aforesaid increase of the first foundation as the first foundation itself, so that accordingly he said: Whose (the wife of Odulf's) example many other women following founded the monastery, which remains to this day, called Blisia …. This finally is certain from what has been said, that St. Landrada is the first foundress of the church and monastery of Bilsen; and that while she was building these neither did the body of St. Amor rest in that place, nor did she have his cult in any way before her eyes. Nor does it appear at all probable that the same St. Amor, at the time of the translation of his body, lay in a church dedicated to him and afterwards built over his tomb, in which he was flashing with miracles; both because such a church is unknown to all others, and because the translation of the sacred body from such a place would not easily have been permitted, nor would there have been reason why it should be done. Now let us return to our purpose, for the sake of which we have disputed these things.
[32] It is manifest, therefore, that the age in which St. Amor lived and so the age of the Saint cannot hence be defined with certainty: cannot be assigned with certainty from his burial, church or translation: nor can anything certain be said about the persons, namely Odulf, Hilda and Count Hucholdus, Hucboldus or Hucvoldus, mentioned in his Life. This one thing we can safely assert from his Life, that St. Amor is not older than the sixth century. For what seems more certain in that whole Life is the pious stay of the same Saint at the church of St. Servatius at Maastricht, or his frequent going to it, which St. Monulph, bishop of the same see of Maastricht in the sixth century, built, as may be seen in our Work, volume III of May, page 217, on the same St. Servatius. It cannot equally be said with certainty whether St. Amor lived in the same sixth century, or in which after it. That he is earlier than the eleventh century, however, is suggested by the age, asserted above at number 2 by Martène, of the Calendar of the monastery of Stavelot, in which he is inscribed at this day; it is suggested by the age of the writer of the more prolix Life of St. Evermar, martyr, in which mention is made of the body of the same holy confessor carried in a public procession; it is suggested finally by the charter of Regenera; concerning which see numbers 5 and 25 above.
[33] But does nothing likewise occur in the Life of St. Amor not altogether, however, from which it may be gathered, in at least some probable manner, in what century at least he lived? To say briefly what I think in an obscure and doubtful matter, I confess I am not altogether averse from the view that St. Amor lived in the ninth century, and that after his death, in the same century, his body was translated in the church of Bilsen from an ordinary sepulchre into a more honoured place. Certainly it is more probable from what has already been said that St. Amor was buried in the church of Bilsen founded before by St. Landrada, or beside it, and had no other place of burial. I add from the Acts, first indeed, that between the death of St. Amor and the solemn elevation of his body in the church of Bilsen not much time intervened; then, that Count Hucbold was contemporary with St. Amor; and finally that Odulf and Hilda, by whose work chiefly the elevation of his body was made, were contemporary with him, or at least nearly contemporary in age; so that the death and elevation of St. Amor can seem, at least not without appearance of truth, to have taken place in the same century in which these flourished, that is, from what is to be said, the ninth.
[34] The first the more prolix Life of St. Amor expressly affirms: partly from the Acts, for according to it St. Amor began to become renowned for prodigies soon after his death: Laid in the ground, says the Bilsen copy below at number 19, according to the common rite of all flesh, to unfold wholly by what merits of virtues he then chiefly became renowned is not within our power, much less anyone's. And when he was dead God enriched him with miracles much greater than He had done before while he was living. Various prodigies done by him therefore immediately followed the death of St. Amor: nor long after followed the elevation of his body from the ordinary sepulchre: for so the copies of the more prolix Life have it: When some little time had flowed by, God, the author of the pious, not willing that the sacred pledge entrusted to the earth should lie hidden longer, was rather aiming that he, raised from the earth, should be venerated with the honours of his merits together with the holy Confessors. And thus the shorter or Utrecht copy: Some time after (the death of St. Amor, and the prodigies that soon followed it, of which it speaks immediately before) the Lord thrice admonished through a vision a certain matron of a noble man named Odulf, ruler of that neighbourhood, that, raising St. Amor from the place in which he lay, she should lay him worthily with herself. Not against the will, therefore, nay with the full favour of the biographer of St. Amor, both the death of the same Saint and the elevation of his body are included within the space of one century: and why I contend that both events can be fixed in some probable manner in the ninth century, the things which I shall presently say about Count Hucbold and Odulf will disclose.
[35] partly from the persons of Hucbold, The more prolix Life of St. Amor makes mention of Count Hucbold at number 9 in this way: It happened therefore that the Man of good memory (St. Amor, making for Maastricht from Rome), after receiving the counsel of the heavenly Doorkeeper, in coming here passed through the territory of Milan. There he heard of a certain Count Hucbold, flowing with prosperous fortunes, yet seized with a fever, whom the hands of physicians could cure by no remedy; but, as is added, he was afterwards freed from the fever by St. Amor. The shorter Life here agrees with the more prolix Life of St. Amor. That Count Hucbold, therefore, was contemporary with our Saint: but who was he and in what century did he live? I judge that another Hucbold to whom the things said here would fit will be found with difficulty than Hucpald, count of the palace throughout Italy in the ninth century under Louis II Augustus, son of Lothar. Mention of him is made in Muratori, volume 2, part 2, column 950, in a charter of Louis given at Pavia in the year 851 or the following, in these words: Then the aforesaid Theodoric, coming into that palace, where Hucpald, count of the sacred palace, was sitting in judgement, etc. The same in the year 852 subscribed a charter of Roding, bishop of Florence, by which Bertha, daughter of the same count, was set over the monastery of St. Andrew, in this manner: I, Huepoldus (read: Hucpoldus), count of the palace, have subscribed for my largess. See Ughelli, enlarged Italia sacra, volume 3, column 25 and following. In the year 860 (see Mabillon, On Diplomatics, charter 93) a Placitum was held in the duchy of Spoleto in favour of Louis II against Ildebert, which likewise mentions Hucpold, count of the palace. It is probable, therefore, that this Hucpold, while he was still younger, received health from St. Amor as he was going through the territory of Milan to Maastricht, perhaps some years before the middle of the ninth century. And this conjecture will gain still a little more probability if we find an Odulf who in the same ninth century had the body of St. Amor elevated; since his Life does not allow, from what has been said, that the death of St. Amor should be much removed from the elevation of his body.
[36] and of Odulf, And this Odulf Mantelius sets before us in the History of Looz, book 2, page 23 and following, where he says not only that he was buried with his wife Hilda in the house of virgins of Bilsen, and that the annual memory of both is kept, but also that the same Odulf perhaps presided over the people of Looz from the year DCCCL, if not much earlier. Whether Odulf was count of Looz, as Mantelius writes, I care not at all: but I could wish that he had brought forward a certain monument by which it might be established that that Odulf lived about the middle of the ninth century: but wherever Mantelius drew this from, I should not dare to hold it for a fiction, because the Odulf buried in the monastery of Bilsen could probably seem to be the same of whom Nithard, a writer of the ninth century, explaining the things done in the year 840 or the following among the sons of the deceased Louis the Pious, writes thus: Meanwhile all between the Meuse and the Seine sent to Charles (the Bald), bidding him come before they should be forestalled by Lothar (Charles's brother): promising that they would await his coming. Wherefore Charles, hastening this journey with very few, came from Aquitaine to Quierzy, and kindly received those coming to him from the Charbonnière and below. But outside (that is, beyond the Charbonnière forest as far as the Meuse) Herenfrid, Gislebert, Bovo and the rest, deceived by Odulf, neglecting the faith they had pledged, fell away.
[37] Wendelin, in On the Native soil of the Salic laws, extends the Charbonnière forest to Binche, mentioned in the Acts, Nivelles, Louvain, Aarschot and finally as far as Diest; so that whatever of lands lies between Diest and Maastricht is outside the Charbonnière forest: and indeed that some tract of land was situated between this forest and Maastricht is shown by Folcuin, who died in the year 990, in On the Deeds of the abbots of Lobbes, describing in part thus the irruption of the Hungarians into the Gauls of the year 954: In this host (of the Hungarians) the aforesaid Cono served with his followers: but when they came to Maastricht, which the Meuse washes, it is uncertain for what cause, he fell away from them. The Hungarians, having attacked Hesbaye with fires and plunder, make for the Charbonnière. The four magnates named by Nithard, therefore, seem to have been as many counts, who between the Charbonnière and the Meuse their
had their counties: certainly Gislebert is called by Nithard somewhat later (if however in both places the discourse is about the same Gislebert) count of the Mansuarii. And in the district of Hesbaye and of the Mansuarii, Robert, count of Hesbaye, in a charter given about the year 746, in Le Mire, Belgian Donations, chapter 5, places Halen, Schaffen, Velpen and Meerhout: of which places Schaffen, Meerhout and Halen are situated between Diest and the Meuse, although much nearer to Diest. Further, since Bilsen is situated in the same tract by which one goes beyond Diest to the Meuse, and Odulf is recounted among the said counts, it is again at least in some way probable that he discharged the office of count, or Ruler of that neighbourhood, as the shorter Life of St. Amor speaks of him, in the places near Bilsen and the Meuse about the middle of the ninth century, and that he is not different from him whose annual memory, as Mantelius writes, the canonesses of Bilsen keep, he being buried with them.
[38] Odulf, son of Odulf or Audulf (for it is the same name), that he lived in the ninth century, is unlike the truth. prefect of the Bavarians in the age of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, is mentioned in a charter of the year 819 by Meichelbeck, in the second part of volume 1 of the History of Freising, page 198 and following. Lupus of Ferrières likewise treats of count Odulf in various Letters; and of the son of count Odulf Frothar, bishop of Toul, in Duchesne, volume 2 of the Writers of Gaul, page 716, Letter 6 to Sichard: whether these are the same as the Odulf mentioned by Nithard, or different from him, I do not inquire: however that may be, these too all flourished in the ninth century. Further, that the Odulf whom Nithard mentions is the same as the Odulf of whom the biographer of St. Amor speaks I have asserted only by conjecture, yet, as it seems to me, a conjecture in some way probable: for I do not think that another century will be found in which the things which the biographer of St. Amor relates of St. Amor, Count Hucbold and Odulf would combine more aptly; and for that reason I ascribed the ninth century to St. Amor at the beginning of this Commentary, but doubtfully; and if anyone in such great darkness shall bring better and more certain things, we will easily depart from what has been said. It remains that, as the deeds of St. Amor which have come to the knowledge of posterity are few, so we should touch upon them in few words.
[39] His other deeds That he was an Aquitanian by homeland, born of noble parents, and his Roman journey, I can neither deny to the biographer asserting them, nor confirm from elsewhere. As regards his condition, we saw above among the martyrologists that Molanus in his augmented Usuard, and Ferrari following him, add to him the title of priest, with which title he is also adorned in the Martyrology of St. Lambert of Liège: on the contrary that the same Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, Du Saussay and Chastelain, with whom Fisen agrees in the Flowers and in the History of the church of Liège, grant him only the rank of deacon. The image too, painted in the year 1626, which is seen in his church of Bilsen, shows St. Amor clothed in the habit of a deacon. We have seen likewise that the others, and they the older, call him only confessor, no title of sacred Order being added besides. With these latter agree altogether the Offices and Breviaries of Maastricht, Tongres and Liège mentioned above, and the copies of his Life itself which we have, of which the shorter Utrecht one is deeply silent about both titles: but the others speak in such a way that their author (Egebert, as I think) does not dare to assert his priesthood, although he indicates that he was venerated in his time (the eleventh century) as a priest. I gave the words at number 16. That the faith was preached by him in Hesbaye the Hagiologist of Rouge-Cloître writes in the Prologue to the Life of St. Amor, of whom at number 13. We have nothing certain at hand, therefore, which we may determine in this matter.
[40] are briefly touched upon. That St. Amor was frequent in going to the church of St. Servatius at Maastricht his biographer testifies clearly enough: but how many years he spent there he is silent: the course of his life being completed, according to the copies of his Life he was entombed in the place in which afterwards a basilica was dedicated to his name, which is known to have been no other than the church of the house of virgins of Bilsen, of which he is still today the patron. His biographer, whether Egebert or anyone else, hands down that this was not only dedicated but also built in his honour: but probably for no other reason than that in the age in which he was writing it was commonly called the church of St. Amor, although it was probably so called only from the time when, on account of frequent miracles and a heavenly admonition, his bones were dug up and laid in a nobler place, not from the time when its building was begun by St. Landrada, as was said in the foregoing. The prodigies which he performed living and dead, and the singular virtues by which above all he shone forth in life, will become evident to anyone turning over his Life. He seems, from what has been said, to have died in the ninth century, and in the same century to have been translated from the ordinary sepulchre in which he had first been laid into a more honoured place of the church of Bilsen; and so not from Maastricht to Bilsen, as some hand down; but either from a neighbouring place, or from one place to another of the same church.
Annotation* read: dicitur is called
LIFE,
By the Author, as it seems, Egebert.
From the Bilsen manuscript, collated with the Rouge-Cloître manuscript.
Amor, confessor, venerated in the Monastery of Bilsen in the territory of Liège. (S.)
BHL Number: 0392
a] [bBy, perhaps, Egebert.
PROLOGUE.
The author professes that he will write true things about St. Amor. Desiring to write something to the glory of our God concerning Blessed Amor, the man of God, we so desire to satisfy the wish of our hearers that, according to the manner of an ordered relation, we may consult the truth in all things: for that cup-bearer is to be despised who, while he boasts of an abundance of wine, pours out the dregs too with a rashness deserving punishment. For he is no less a rash narrator who, while he strives to extol others with the proclamations of praises, does not himself fear to be plunged into the abyss of falsehood. After, therefore, our Lord and Redeemer had transplanted His vineyard, which He brought out of Egypt, beside the course of the blood and water of His side, and had extended the shoots of the true vine even to heaven, the Apostles, namely, being spread through the whole world, the Christian Church did not cease, nor does it yet cease, to flourish and daily to bring forth new fruits, not only in Israel, where Christ trod alone the winepress of His passion, and of the nations there was no man with Him, but also in Idumaea, where the shoe of His incarnation was stretched out, and the foreigners became His friends: of this vineyard, therefore, propagated everywhere, almighty God extended one chosen branch even to us, namely saint Amor, the veteran confessor, who made fruitful the borders of Brabant, which is known to have lately c been called Lotharingia, by his most holy conversation and skilful preaching. We shall therefore first touch upon his life and acts, and then we shall set down successively the lives of the others who became renowned in the same parts d.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The homeland of the Saint, his Roman pilgrimage, his coming into Belgium, and some prodigies.
St. Amor, accustomed from tender years to live for God, Accordingly Blessed Amor, born in Aquitaine a of the most noble b of his homeland, as soon as he could speak, and heard that name of God known to the worshippers of Christ, so far as the weakness of his age then availed, applied himself more attentively to the same God c. This purpose of a noble mind he confirmed within himself: if ever, God providing, he should come to manly strength, which he would then have more or less d completed, that other age, more patient of evil, would have yielded more holily e to his vows f. The holy Boy therefore grew, not so much in bulk of limbs as also in holiness, wishing to be known to God alone, so that he might ever be hidden from wicked men. He saw, therefore (as the Apostle says), that in many things the flesh opposes the spirit, and desiring to tame it for his Maker, he stole himself away from the world, that he might live for Christ alone.
[3] and striving to lie hidden from men For he took care secretly lest anyone seeing might envy his good deeds, or might carry to popular ears what he refused with all his strength. Truly he knew, what is plain to all, that in this the earthly and g mind of the wicked is more confounded, if ever before their own acts the h virtue of uprightness is disclosed in any man. Indeed outwardly he tormented his flesh with haircloth, inwardly he afflicted it with fasting, he clung assiduously to vigils and prayers. For, lest he should stray even a little in light faults, which goes beyond common strength, he abstained in a wonderful manner from idle talk and laughter. But the city i set on a mountain could not be hidden, except that it stood out the more manifestly to all beholding it the higher it raised its head above the valleys lying widely beneath. He also offered himself of his own accord to the studies of letters, not that he wished to obey the ferules of the Grammarians, but that he might learn that which alone and solely was necessary, God, in the divine readings.
[4] the thresholds of the Holy Apostles He had in custom, certainly, what he heard blessed Mary had done, who, choosing the best part before her sister, by kissing and wiping the feet of her Maker merited the divine rewards of eternal life. Since indeed the celebrated k memory of the blessed Man did not pass through to the parts of the whole region l, wide as it had been; and fearing the report of the people he could not now go forth openly anywhere, he had a doubtful struggle in counsel, how the good work which he had begun might lie hidden from men, and a place more suitable for carrying out these things might lie open. Indeed the Man of God, binding himself by a vow, is instructed by nocturnal admonitions that, leaving the homeland of his people, he should go to the thresholds of St. Peter, the prince of the Apostolic princes, there supplicating, to hear whither he should afterwards journey: and so, awakened and glad at the angelic admonition, as soon as he found a fitting occasion for his journey, he set out for where he had been taught.
[5] he visits at Rome, and by St. Peter The divine clemency going before, with which he disposed always to go as companion in all things, having traversed m the rough ways of various places, at length he reached the Roman citadels: where, having stayed some days, he did not depart from the threshold of St. Peter; but, asking the guardian of the place for protection, he descended into all prayers, that at his intervention he might obtain from God, the Prince of all clemency, what he would by no means have presumed on his own merits: especially, what fair and good thing concerning him n God might intend, or whither it behoved him to go,
he laboured more diligently to know from him. And on a certain night, when the Man of God had cast himself down to prayer before the locked doors of the church, sleep by chance crept over his limbs, when the Doorkeeper of heaven, for whom God once opened the closed doors of the prison, stood, as it seemed to the Man of God, at the open doors, and addresses him with friendly words.
[6] Man of God, you do worthily indeed, that by your prayers you have wished the mystery, he is ordered to go to Maastricht, which you could not know by yourself, to be sought from God: but lest you think them vain o, behold, I am held for you a certain messenger of the causes. For know concerning yourself: having traversed the ridges of the Alps, you will come safe to the place whose name is Trajectum [p], and there, helped by the merits of St. Servatius [q], you will spend the age of your life secure. And so, not far from that place, you too, the Lord commanding, will have a pious sepulchre of your merits [r]. This is the sum: do not change yourself from these precepts, and to you, so departing, I will not be lacking in help in every place, after God. This said, the holy Apostle of the Lord suddenly disappeared, and he was loosed from the sleep by which he was held. And giving thanks first of all to God, and having received from the present patron leave for a prosperous journey, he sought regions previously unknown and foreign.
[7] But there are some who, as we believe, raise vain questions about him, who, whether he was a priest why this Servant of God, since the little book of the former writers is silent about it, is venerated in the honour of the priesthood [s]. How, I say, since in heaven he is deprived of no fellowship of the Saints, do foolish men wish to exempt him from any number of clerics? For the Lord says in the Gospel: "He that receiveth a prophet in my name shall receive the reward of a prophet." For the more magnificently anyone here extols him in merits, the more largely, we believe, will he obtain from God the return of mercy for those for whom he has asked him. Very many indeed (what I say is human) precede others in rank who are last in merit.
[8] Which the Lord seems to me to have designated where He says or not, is not established. that a man fell among robbers, and, when he was wounded almost to death, the priest and the levite passed by, and neither showed any mercy; but it was reserved for the other, namely the Samaritan, who, although he was later in rank, was yet found more excellent in kindnesses. But whoever they are, we further admonish them after these things to cease from such questions, content with this one thing, that he can do very much with God, whose merits of virtues they see daily flash forth. For he who says that he, while he lived, discharged the office of a priest offends in the slightest degree: if not in rank, in which one thing we all err, yet he was so in merit. This, therefore, being left to the disposition of God, let us now at length return to the things we began.
[9] It happened, therefore, that the Man of good memory, after receiving the counsel of the heavenly Doorkeeper, in coming here passed through the territory of Milan. [Having set out from Rome, in the territory of Milan he frees a man possessed by a demon;] There he heard of a certain Count Hucbold [t], flowing with prosperous fortunes [u], yet seized with a fever, whom the hands of physicians could cure by no remedy. And, what is easy to believe, they were not of equal merit, since the Lord, after His own likeness, who once, when the disciples were unable, forbade a demon from a possessed man, left this aforesaid count to be cured by the stronger. He, having recognized in himself the power of the Man of God, wishing to reward him with very many goods, said: As much of my goods as you desire, you shall carry away without delay as you wish. And this I kindly ask you, that you do not make yourself without share in our goods. To which he said: Let the things which you promise me profit the needy more advisedly; but do you rather render thanks to God, not to man; for it is not for me that you should for these things deservedly make me a partaker of your goods. Moreover, trusting that he could keep him with himself, because, less cautious, he learned that it had been sanctioned by God whither he was tending, that he should seek no other place than Trajectum; and because he could not resist God, he separated himself with much groaning from the Man of God, who wished to go here.
[10] coming to Maastricht and frequenting the church of Servatius by night Accordingly the Athlete of God, pursuing the journey undertaken, having passed through the divided [x] danger of places and of evil hosts, came to the town [y] for which he burned with wonderful affection, Trajectum. Where, how he filled up the remaining time of his most holy life, there is no one among the nations who could commit the whole to pen and page. Behold, what he always guarded against somewhat more, except so far as, God providing, he could not veil it, he went unknown to all. For he knew that whoever diminishes the secret of conscience, when by showing a deed here he receives the price of fame: of whom also the Lord at the end of the world will say: Because you did your works for the praise of men, amen I say to you, I know you not, and because you have received your reward. In these vices, therefore, in which the race of men is often wont wickedly to entangle itself, he guarding himself gravely *, certain religious men observed him, that they might leave something memorable to posterity. Hence of his good works, the less something [z], which have been brought forth by the same men relating them, is had.
[11] more than once with heavenly light The Saint of the Lord, therefore, as his nightly custom had been, when he was hastening to the church of St. Servatius with Davidic praise, a sudden great light flashed forth in the sky, in which, wondering much, he drank in the sky [aa], wishing to know what so great a fire portended. For he saw set in the sky with manifest light what he had previously perceived at Rome through a dream; so that, if he believed less in the things previously shown, the Lord might confirm by a more evident indication that He had directed him here. Which sign he beheld not unwillingly; yet, rejoicing silently with himself, he clung more keenly to the service of God, the more he drew near to the place to which he had begun [bb]. With what prayers and steps of all virtues he showed himself more bound to God He alone knew who has never left any of good works unrewarded.
[12] he is made illustrious; Another sign too was made from heaven for him, to be honoured with no less diligence than the former: for when he was going with similar zeal to the church of God, behold, as he went, from the shadow of its summit a shining cloud, in the manner of the fiery column which formerly went before the people of the Lord, Moses being leader, so also ran before this Servant of God up to the place of the church. O beautiful indication of a most beautiful work! For deservedly He showed light to him seeking light, that, while still placed in the present, he might learn the merits of his labours in the future, whom the Lord forestalled with so great an example of light. It had been his custom, and an assiduous one, that, the soles of his shoes being torn off, he might conceal the deed, memorable to all, the feet being covered only above, yet he left the rest exposed to the burning of the snow and to the cold. Whence, as we sincerely believe, he could not be cold outwardly who burned inwardly with the ardour of so great a faith.
[13] Moreover, in the time of the holy Man the divine grace, ever more watchful in things well done, stood out around him the oftener, likewise to a blind man the more keenly, reigning over human frailty, he commended himself attentively to God. What is to be seen here? When in the rest of an active night before the sacred house of the lord, after the manner of most holy Moses against Amalek, he was fighting harder, not with arms but with prayers, against the enemy of man, a blind man came in the midst, whom indeed, having gone out, it is not known for what cause, the devil, the master of guile, threw down in the way, and by the complaints of the blind man made the Man of God unmindful of his prayers. But the wicked one himself, raised up to the harm of the man, did more good by not knowing than he would have done harm to himself [cc] by describing it. For the blind man, rolled on the ground and grieving much at his heavy fall, began thus: If thus [dd]: Wretched me! O God, maker of all things, if it was to be thus with me, why was I born? For I am weary of my life: for I hate the light of this life; because I lack the eyes by which I may pass my life living. Whence I beseech, that it may be done with Thy peace, O Lord, take me hence out of the midst.
[14] And when he had poured out his soul to God in this manner, not without many tears, sight the Friend of the Lord conceived in his mind great grief at the man's complaints, and approaching raised him from the ground. Why, he said, O worthless man, do you dishearten me with your complaints, or why do you rouse God with so great zeal to your death? For you have no just cause of complaint, because these miseries of which you complain have not surrounded you alone. Rather, I say, supplicate God, and bear patiently the things which are done concerning you by His hidden judgement: and as you are not alone to whom these things have happened, so, refraining from the causes of your quarrel, you will be able to soften Him more easily with humbler prayers, to whom you could pray to command more from God, than to exasperate Him with your injuries. For He Himself waits and recalls, as is said through Solomon: For the Most High is a patient repayer. Hence he, proceeding to vows to God for him, said: O Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer of men, hear me Thy servant, who didst formerly kindly relate this of those who believe in Thee: He that believeth in me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do. Wherein I pray Thee, my Lord; if anything of this has been, I do not stand by [ee] my own merits; nay rather, which is done more rightly, I dedicate all this to Thy holiness.
[15] This prayer being finished, feeling the power of the Lord grow warm in himself, he restores by making the sign of the cross. and having made the sign of the Cross, at which above all things phantasms shudder, light immediately returned to the eyes, which, unhoped-for, had been lacking to the blind man for a long time. This gift indeed being received, he proclaimed the Saint of the Lord, dear to him as his life, excellently everywhere in the ear of all, wherever he bore his foot: for he could not keep silent, if he had wished; because the very thing indicated what had been done. Behold, what manner of man is he who, hearing such things, does not render to God the praises due for His soldier? It would be right to believe that he can cure the souls of those who ask worthily, since, which is easier, he cures the limbs of the infirm.
ANNOTATIONS.
n. Is superfluous.
p. A town of Lower Germany on the river Meuse.
q. From Tongeren he transferred the episcopal see to Maastricht in the year in which he also died, 384, as may be seen in our Work, volume 3 of May, page 213 and following, at the 13th day of May, which is sacred to that same Saint. There in the sixth century St. Monulphus built a great church in his honour, as Gregory of Tours testifies in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 72, in Ruinart's edition; this church St. Amor was accustomed to visit frequently.
r. Not, as it appears, at Maastricht, but at Bilsen, which lies only two and a half leagues distant from Maastricht: since in the shorter Life he is said to have been buried in the place Holdier, by which name Bilsen, formerly called Belua from its being inhabited by wild beasts, seems to be meant; and according to his longer Life a church was built over his tomb (or rather, from what is to be said below, distinguished by his title after the elevation of his body made in it), namely the church of Bilsen, of which this statement of the biographer seems to be understood. See what was said in the Preliminary Commentary, number 29, and below in the Annotations to chapter 2, letter g.
s. Whether he was a priest, as some hold, or only a deacon, as others prefer, is altogether uncertain.
t. The copy of Rouge-Cloître has: Hucvoldum. Who this Hucbold was, I have stated at least by a probable conjecture at number 35, and from this I have in part deduced in the same way that St. Amor lived in the ninth century.
u. That is, as I suppose, one for whom the times went prosperously.
x. More aptly the copy of Rouge-Cloître: diverso.
y. The name is also sometimes found given to towns: but Gregory of Tours, who flourished in the sixth century, calls Maastricht a city, in chapter 5 of book 2 of the History of the Franks.
z. A corrupt passage: should it perhaps be read: inde bonorum ejus aliquid &c. habetur?
aa. Perhaps Hæsit secum for Hausit cœlum.
bb. Here the discourse concerns the apparition of St. Peter, by which he ordered St. Amor, when he was at Rome, to go to Maastricht; as was related here at number 6.
cc. Namely to that blind man whom the demon had thrown down.
dd. If so, it is redundant.
ee. The copy of Rouge-Cloître: Asscisco. It should probably be read: Adscribo.
* Perhaps gratia?
CHAPTER II.
Other wonders of the same man, his death, and the translation or elevation of his body.
Going to the church by night, Likewise, while this eminent Nursling of God was making his way to the church, at the time at which he was most accustomed to ask the Lord for His protection over his affairs, a certain boy carrying a lamp before him, the enemy of all good things stood against him and put out the light for the Man of God; in this one thing alone the enemy was permitted to do harm a: yet the light of his heart he could not hinder. What then was he to do? The way was rather long, and the night thicker than usual: at length a good counsel occurred to him; he turned to the Lord in prayers as his means of escape. "Be present, my Lord," he said, "to avert this evil, lest the enemy have any ground for boasting over me Thy servant." Nor was there delay: as he persevered in prayer, you might have seen the lamp, which he doubted had been entirely extinguished, kindled there from heaven with a brighter light; and so, following it once more as it lit the way b, he reached the church, where it presently went out, not by the hand of man, but of its own accord. What does this seem to mean? Are these things to be weighed as nothing? For I judge that the light, which lasted as far as a certain place, is not without some mystery: for one who begins some good work should not leave off until he finds the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace, which is figured by the Church; and he who has once found it thereafter mocks every plague of folly.
[17] O hard tinder of envy! How hostile the face of the adversary, miraculously recovers the extinguished light, how jealous the plague! Here, then, he did not refrain from the frauds of his malice against the Saint of the Lord, he who once, having conceived envy against the blessed abbot, namely Benedict, broke his little bell c: what wonder? From the beginning of the world he has not rested, and even now he does not cease, so long as there is anyone at all whom he may mock d. But finding nothing deadly in this man devoted to all holiness, and losing his labour, he often went away confounded, as often as he came to tempt him. For the rest, we, slender of wit and poor in words, are not sufficient for the praises of so great a Man, nor would the psalmist Homer be, if he rose up from the underworld. For there are many things which might be said of him, if the negligence of writers had not passed over a great many: let praises suffice in him, from whose mouth praise never departed, and who always studied this alone, what he knew to be pleasing to God.
[18] He was indeed, which is not open to suspicion, firm in faith, and he dies at Bilsen, in life by his virtues, eminent in humility, composed in chastity, generous in almsgiving, most ready in prayer e. Why do we meditate on setting out the endowments of his merits? Let it suffice now to say this one thing: that which alone God loves to have offered on the altar of the mind, the gift of a contrite heart, he continually offered to the Lord every day; for unless he was attending, even unwillingly, to some brief need of nature, that is, indulging in sleep or a little food, one would rarely have found him away from the oratory of St. Servatius for any other cause. He knew, then, that he who prays speaks with the Lord, and desiring to show himself near to the Lord, he believed this would most of all come about in that way where no one loses his labour, unless he be one who is not devout. Why do we carry our words further? He whom it was the highest wisdom to have sought, the Lord, he found a friend to himself. For he departed happily from human affairs on the eighth day before the Ides of October, and was buried in the place where Bilsen afterwards was and is today f, built also in his honour and praise g. Many, therefore, from the neighbouring places of the provinces, drawn by the fame of St. Amor's holiness, were present on that day at the festal vigils.
[19] and after death renowned for miracles: All knew most certainly that the longed-for spirit had reached the harbour of salvation h, to whom to live was Christ and to die was gain i. He was laid in the ground according to the common rite of all flesh; to unfold in full by what merits of virtues he was then especially renowned is not within our power nor anyone's: but God, when he was dead, k enriched him with miracles far more ample than He had done while he was living; for indeed it was very necessary that what he had done less while conversing, as it were, with sinners, he should fulfil when dead also, as a countless throng of the infirm came daily to the tomb of the blessed man Amor for every kind of need, some deprived of sight, others of hearing, and burning with fevers in painful ruin; by the going-before of the grace of God, through the help of the Saint, each returned home unharmed; and when, his fame of holiness having been gained, his name and merit were widely celebrated, the devout people, flowing together from every side, repeatedly frequented the place with solemn offerings.
[20] wherefore afterwards from the place of first burial When indeed some little time had passed l, God, the Author of the devout, not willing that the sacred pledge entrusted to the earth should lie hidden any longer, but rather intending that he, raised from the earth together with the holy confessors, should be honoured with the honours due to his merits, aroused from sleep, for the accomplishing of this thing, a certain matron, Hulda by name, the wife of a certain nobleman Clodolphus m, and as was fitting to a favourable vision, it is said [*] to have admonished her a third time. "You do well," it said, "and act in hope of your salvation, if, being a chaste woman, you take up with reverence from the place where he now is the Man of God, namely Amor, and kindly treat him in your own keeping." Her husband, they say, was called Clodolphus [n], and was perhaps in those days the ruler of this neighbourhood; to him alone the fortunate woman dared to commit her secret, so that, just as by the nod of divine dispensation they had obtained one inviolable marriage, so also this counsel might be dealt with between the two. It happened, surely, on a just condition o: for the law is not established by fewer than two witnesses, and the vision of a just man is believed on the word of two faithful persons. These most faithful spouses then admitted a good many religious men to their counsel, that so happy a beginning might not lack the agreement of many upright men.
[21] his body Thereupon, when all at once with equal affection appointed the day and the time, a very great preparation was made on the predetermined day, and a crowd not small was gathered, to go and receive thence the most holy clay [p]. Indeed, while this was being done, other faithful witnesses also came forward, who, for the increase of a richer faith, added that they too had often been struck by the same admonition, that they should not leave this sacred body hidden in the ground. Those who were present, much the gladder for the witnesses, set men to dig out the earth with hoes and mattocks, so that the hidden treasure might be of use to many, which, buried, had profited mortals less. But when that earth had been removed at a distance, and they had already put their hands to lift the sarcophagus within [q], it fixed itself with such weight, a thing to be marvelled at, that it could not even be moved from its place.
[22] not without a prodigy [Thereupon all at once wondered, not knowing what was fitting to the Saint of the Lord; when the aforesaid matron, foreknowing the divine counsel, declared that sacred body to be free of fault, and that perhaps it had not wished to ascend from the earth with such great finery of clothing; at whose word all, believing, stripped off their linen garments, and girt again with rougher ones and without shoes, they applied themselves once more to the same efforts. For the mistress also of this legion [r], taking off from herself her garments and the gold from her neck, gave herself over, together with her nuns and a certain estate of her dowry, to perpetual servitude. After this, so that you would believe him appeased by these gifts, when hands were again put to the coffin, the Saint of the Lord rose up with wondrous lightness. Plain in this is that saying of Peter, where he says that the Lord resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble [s].
[23] In wondrous manner praise is sung to God by all the people and clergy: he is given an honourable place in the church of the monastery of Bilsen. thence great praise of Him flows forth in the Saint: and thence by the consent of all, the Lord showing the way beforehand, they turn to the place where even to this day his holy benefits abound in fullness. Let a few things out of many suffice, then; as for the innumerable signs of his virtues afterwards, we have judged it more prudent to give credence to those who relate them than to have been able to set forth the whole without writing it, for it is better to profit in a few things than to inflict weariness in many. For the rest, whoever reads unbelievingly these things, which defend themselves as true, he himself will sin. But perhaps the detractor should beware lest the Saint of the Lord show him more evil in vengeance of justice than he will find good by harming us [t]:] the faithful man, therefore, if our hope has not [u] deceived us, shall have a reward prepared for him by God, not he who reads, but whoever believes; and thence may God and His Saint regard us, the reward of all good things — me, I say, the writer, you the reader, and everyone who believes — Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through all ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
of Subiaco, where he was dwelling, was accustomed to let down bread by a rope, to which Romanus had fastened a little bell, which by its sound should warn St. Benedict to come out of the cave to receive the bread: "But the ancient enemy," says Gregory, "envying the charity of the one and the refreshment of the other, when one day he saw the bread being let down, threw a stone and broke the little bell."
p. That is, the relics of St. Amor.
q. The copy of Rouge-Cloître: Justi.
r. Read Religionis, or of the elevation of the body of St. Amor.
s. First Epistle of Peter, chapter 2, verse 5.
t. The words enclosed in brackets are lacking in the copy of Bilsen, and have therefore been borrowed here from the copy of Rouge-Cloître.
u. The particle non has been added here from the same copy of Rouge-Cloître.
* Perhaps dicitur?
THE SHORTER LIFE,
By an anonymous author of unknown reliability and age,
From the manuscript of St. Saviour's at Utrecht.
Amor, confessor, venerated in the monastery of Bilsen in the territory of Liège. (S.)
BHL Number: 0393
aBy an anonymous author.
From Aquitaine to Rome, and thence sent by God to Maastricht, St. Amor, born in his native land of Aquitaine b, since from his earliest age, devoted to the study of letters, he subdued his flesh by vigils, fasts, haircloth and continual prayers, and abstained from all laughter and idle talk, filled that whole region with the fame of his virtues. When he resolved to flee the talk of the people, he was admonished in his sleep to visit the threshold of St. Peter the Apostle; and when he had arrived there, and, praying, did not depart from the threshold of St. Peter, one night he fell asleep before the barred doors of the church. And behold, St. Peter, appearing to him, strengthened him and admonished him that, crossing the Alps, he should make for, in the place which is called Maastricht c, the tomb of Blessed Servatius d, and there spend the span of his life; for not far from that same place he was to have, God willing, a worthy tomb.
[2] [having healed a man sick with fever on the way, he lives holily at the tomb of St. Servatius,] Taking the road, therefore, to regions unknown and foreign to him, as he was passing through the territory of Milan he healed by prayer a certain count named Hucbold e, sick with fever, whom the physicians could cure by no remedy; and when for this the count wished to keep him with him and to give him much money, the Saint did not consent; but he exhorted him to give the money to the poor and needy. At length arriving at Maastricht, which he had longed for, there is no one who could commit to page or pen how he completed the remaining time of his most holy life. Now it was his constant custom, having torn away the soles of his shoes, to conceal the holy deed, his feet being covered above, but the soles bare, to be tormented by snow and cold.
[3] On one occasion, as was his nightly use, when he was going to the church of St. Servatius singing psalms, he is illumined by a bright cloud; he gives light to a blind man, he suddenly saw, set in the sky with manifest light, what had earlier been revealed to him at Rome in a dream. At another time, when with like zeal he was hastening by night to the church, as he came out from the shadow of his roof, a bright cloud in the manner of a fiery pillar ran before him all the way to the place of the church. On another night, while the Saint was praying before the house of the Lord, a certain blind man passing along the road fell to the ground: and as he was calling for death and cursing the day of his birth, the Man of God ran up, and reproving the blind man for his impatience and exhorting him to humility, having made the sign of the cross over his eyes, he restored him to clear sight. He, thus given light, proclaimed everywhere in the ears of all what the holy Man had done for him.
[4] Moreover, when one night, a boy carrying a lamp before him, He lights a lamp by his prayers, and having died holily, he is solemnly buried. he was making for the church, the devil put out the fire. What was the Saint to do? The way was rather long, and the night thicker than usual. Turning at length to prayer, he saw the lamp lit by God, and so, following it once more as it went before him, he reached the church, where presently the same lamp went out, not by the hand of man nor by the breath of a mouth, but of its own accord. For the rest, doing all things that are just, and living most holily beyond what any orator could express, on the eighth day before the Ides of October he passed to the Author of everlasting life; he is buried by a great throng of the faithful, who had come together, drawn by the fame of his holiness, in the place which is called Holdier f, where afterwards a basilica was built in his honour g, in which he showed far greater miracles than he had done in this life.
[5] Some time afterwards the Lord three times admonished by a vision a certain matron h, the wife of a nobleman his body from the earth named Odulphus i, the ruler of that neighbourhood, that she should take up St. Amor from the place in which he lay and lay him to rest worthily with her k. And when she had told the vision to her husband, both, on the counsel of religious men, appointed a day for doing this, on which no small crowd was gathered, among whom certain persons asserted that they had been struck by the same admonition; and to raise the Saint from the earth they removed the soil; and when they had already put their hands to lift the sarcophagus, they could in no way move it.
[6] is raised not without a prodigy. And when all were astounded, not knowing what to do, the aforesaid matron, foreknowing the divine counsel, said that because of the too precious finery of the garments with which she and the others were clothed, the Saint was unwilling to be carried out by them. Then both she herself and the rest stripped off their precious garments and were clothed in mean ones, and having put off their shoes, they raised the Saint of God with wondrous lightness, and all the clergy and people translated him with praises to the place where to this day he was venerated l. Then too that mistress of this religion gave herself over, with her nuns and with a certain estate of her dowry, to the perpetual service of St. Amor: following whose example many other women founded the convent which remains to this day, called Bilsen, of the diocese of Liège m.