ON SS. VALERIA AND POLLENA, VIRGINS, AT HONNECOURT IN SECOND BELGICA,
Of uncertain century.
Sylloge.
The announcement and sacred cult of the holy Virgins: that the things commonly narrated of them are not certain enough: what became of their relics.
Valeria, virgin, at Honnecourt in Second Belgica. (S.)
Pollena, virgin, at Honnecourt in Second Belgica. (S.)
BY J. B.
Hunonis-Curia, which is also called Hunonis-curtis, Hunulfi- or Hunolficurtis, Hunocurtum and other not dissimilar names, of Honnecourt, of which a notice is given, and in French Honnecourt, is an old abbey not far from the river Scheldt in the diocese of Cambrai, where this joins the borders of Artois and Picardy, founded in the seventh century for virgins and at the same time for canons by the spouses Amalfrid and Childebertana, but after various vicissitudes of fortune devolved upon the Benedictine Order, with which it remains today. The two holy Virgins whom the title presents are announced today by some more recent Martyrologists, now jointly, now separately. Greven in the Additions to Usuard, as also Molanus in Du Sollier, the place of the announcement being corrupted, make mention of Valeria alone: the words of the former are: At Humeltoet, of Valeria, virgin. And of the latter: And at Humeltoet, of saint Valeria, virgin. Likewise in the editions of Louvain of the year 1573 and of Antwerp of the year 1583: And at Humulcurt, of saint Valeria, virgin. But those of Ménard, joining both, are these: At Hunnonis-curia in Belgium, of the holy virgins and sisters Valeria and Pollena. Those of Willot in the Belgian Martyrology, written in French: In the abbey of Honnecourt, the commemoration of St. Valeria, abbess of the same place, and of St. Pollena, virgins and sisters of St. Lietphard.
[2] Hear also the words of Du Saussay, which, though somewhat more prolix, yet comprise certain special things, these holy virgins, now separately, especially concerning the cult of St. Valeria in the cathedral church of Cambrai: At Hunonis curia, of the diocese of Cambrai, the festival of the holy virgins and sisters Valeria and Pollena: who, sisters of saint Liephard, bishop of Canterbury and martyr, and companions of his pilgrimage and imitators of his virtues, having consecrated to the eternal king the flower of unblemished virginity, subjugating the flesh to the spirit by continual showers of tears, by haircloths, fasts, disciplines and assiduous prayers, having ascended the summit of the highest perfection, the course of angelic conversation on earth being completed, passed to the joys of the supernal Sion and the everlasting fellowship of the blessed spirits. Whose bodies long rested, religiously laid, in the aforesaid monastery of Honnecourt, which St. Vindicianus, bishop of Cambrai, built: whence they were carried over to Quintinopolis (which is now Augusta of the Veromandui): but under the frequent whirlwinds of wars they vanished, the venerable memory of those Virgins nonetheless still flourishing, both in the monastery of Honnecourt itself and at Cambrai in the principal church, where St. Valeria is honoured today with a special Collect (his work came out in the year 1637). So Du Saussay, but needing to be corrected in some things, as we shall see.
[3] now jointly are announced, and obtained sacred Ferrari also joins both in the General Catalogue of the Saints in these words: At Hunocuria near Cambrai, of the holy virgins Valeria, abbess, and Polenia her sister, with Lietfard their brother: but to the latter the 4th day of February is sacred. Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology mentions both indeed: Pollena, namely, at the 8th day of October in this manner: At Trecaltum (Trescault) near Gundulfilocus (Gonnelieu) among the Veromandui, St. Pollena, virgin; whose body was translated to Honulficurtis; then into the monastery of St. Prix at Augusta of the Veromandui together with the bodies of St. Lietphard of Gonnelieu and of St. Valeria: but Valeria, or, as he writes, Valeriana, he referred among the Saints whose day of death is unknown. These things concerning the holy virgins Valeria and Pollena the martyrologists praised, to be examined presently, when we have said a few things in advance about their cult. Further, the things which bear on this are to be sought from the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Lietphard at the 4th day of February in our Work, page 492. In this place (Honnecourt, says Henschen there) SS. Valeria and Pollena, sisters, rested with St. Lietphard, whose brother modern writers establish St. Lietphard to have been, without any mention in the ancient monuments. They are honoured together with ecclesiastical cult on the 8th of October. The bones of these three Saints, that they might be safer from the troubles of wars, translated from this monastery of Honnecourt to the city of St. Quentin, perished in its storming in the year MDLVII, together with the old books and authentic monuments, so that no trace of antiquity survives there, as François le Bar hands down in his monastic treatises not yet edited.
[4] cult. These things notwithstanding, Henschen proceeds, Molanus writes in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, and Le Mire in the Belgian Calendars at the 8th of October, from the letters of Eleutherius Pontanus, first rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Cambrai, that the monks of Honnecourt daily make commemoration in the ecclesiastical Office of St. Lietphard and the two Virgins; a plainly clear argument that the monks of Honnecourt were wont to honour the said Virgins with no less cult and veneration before their remains were carried into the town of St. Quentin. That the church of Honnecourt was dedicated to St. Pollena already from the seventh century, and that her relics were religiously preserved there, will be plain from the charter to be given below at number 10. And concerning Valeria, venerated in the Greater church of Cambrai, you have the sayings of Du Saussay above. Chastelain affirms that Valeria is venerated with sacred honour in the Abbey of St. Prix in the city of St. Quentin; nor do I doubt that he could have said the same of St. Pollena: he moreover announced the latter at Trescault, perhaps because he had ascertained that she too obtained sacred honours in that village, which is a little distant from Hunulsi-curtis or Hunonis-curia; in the manuscript Martyrology of Bede of Arras is read thus today: At Hunulsi-curtis, the deposition of saint Valeria, virgin. And so there is no reason for us to be further anxious about the sacred cult of these holy Virgins: would that the other things which are circulated concerning these Virgins, whether by the martyrologists already praised or by other writers, could be illustrated as solidly from monuments of approved antiquity, which, as we have already heard, have perished.
[5] In the seventh century, when it had advanced to about the fortieth year, Certain things which of them as was shown at the 4th day of February, St. Lietphard, returning from Rome to England, was murdered by assassins in the wood of Havrincourt, and at first buried with a mean burial under a tree in the village of Trescault near this wood; but afterwards, by divine warning, carried into the church of Trescault, he remained there in body until in the tenth century, while Fulbert sat at Cambrai, it was translated to the church of Honnecourt: these things having been set forth first, on which for the great part are built the things which are circulated concerning those holy Virgins, hear of what kind they are: Gazet, in the Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, page 71, treating of St. Valeria, writes thus, but in French: St. Valeria, virgin and sister of St. Lietphard, who came from England into Belgium with her sister Pollena, to visit the body of her brother St. Lietphard, martyr, in the then girls' abbey of Honnecourt between Cambrai and Saint-Quentin; and when they had both venerated their brother's body there for some time, they at length received the religious veil, and conducted themselves so that Valeria was elected abbess on account of the excellence of her virtue. The bodies of these two Virgins were translated on account of the wars to Saint-Quentin; and although, the city having been taken, they could not be found, yet their cult persists there on the 8th day of October. Molanus too, in the Birthdays of Belgium at the 8th day of October, attributes to each her eulogy, but more cautiously.
[6] The first, which he wrote of Valeria from the History of St. Vindicianus, bishop of Cambrai (concerning whom see page 75 and following of volume 2 of March), runs thus: At Hunecourt, of saint Valeria, virgin. Who rests in and presided over the monastery of saint Peter, which St. Vindicianus, bishop, built in the district of Cambrai on the Scheldt, at Hunonis-curia, or, as in the Martyrology of Arras, at Hunulfi-curtis,
where after the nuns there were canons, but few, because the place was handed over as a benefice to military men, as the Chronographer of Cambrai is witness. Afterwards, that abuse having been corrected, Benedictine religious succeeded, among whom, on account of fires and the injuries of wars, almost only the memory survives of the holy sisters Valeria and Pollena. The birthday coincides with the day of Ragenfredis. And it has in the Cambrai use a commemoration by a Collect. The other, of St. Pollena, runs thus: In the same place the memory of saint Pollena is celebrated. Concerning whom I received the following from Cambrai (from the Pontanus mentioned above). The villa in which the relics of saint Pollena formerly rested is commonly called Huncourt, in Latin Hunonis-curia, in which is the monastery of saint Peter, and it is of the diocese of Cambrai, four French leagues distant from Cambrai, on the borders of France. The religious are of the Order of Saint Benedict. In it was formerly preserved the body of St. Lieffard, an Englishman by nation, with the bodies of his sisters Valeria and Pollena, which, having been brought into the city of St. Quentin on account of the dangers of wars, that they might be safer there, perished in the storming of the city. And memory of St. Lieffard and his Sisters is made there daily. And because all the books of the monastery perished by fires and the injuries of wars, therefore only the memory survives.
[7] that they were own sisters of St. Lietphard From what has been said so far you will easily gather that, according to the almost common opinion of the writers praised, the holy Virgins were not only sisters to each other but also to St. Lietphard. That they were sisters to each other Henschen, praised above, seems to admit: he is not so easy in acknowledging the bond of fraternal kinship between Lietphard and the holy virgins Valeria and Pollena: namely because it rests on no authority of ancient writers or monuments, as he says in the words cited at number 3: add that the author of the Life of St. Lietphard, a monk of Honnecourt, as appears, who therefore did not lack knowledge of SS. Valeria and Pollena, celebrated in his monastery, gives his reader absolutely no mention of them anywhere, not even the least; whereas he did not neglect to make express mention of Blessed Onastancius, prelate of London and brother of St. Lietphard. Nor does it seem certain that SS. Valeria and Pollena were sisters: for this can no more be shown from ancient monuments than the bond of fraternal kinship between them and St. Lietphard.
[8] is not sufficiently established: And Pollena indeed seems to me perhaps much older than St. Lietphard and St. Valeria: for, as is had from the charter of Amalfrid to be transcribed below, Amalfrid and his wife Childebertana willed the monastery of Honnecourt in the year 677, that is, only about the thirtieth year after the murder of St. Lietphard, to be sacred not only to St. Mary, Peter and Martin, but also to St. Pollena. But in what way would they have willed it to be sacred to St. Pollena, to the exclusion of her brother Lietphard and her sister Valeria, unless she had then at least far surpassed Lietphard and Valeria both in antiquity of cult and in the reputation of holiness? I think, therefore, that St. Pollena belongs neither to St. Lietphard nor to St. Valeria by any other title than that she formerly obtained cult at Hunulsi-curtis and in the neighbouring places, though earlier than Lietphard and Valeria, and before the monastery of Honnecourt was founded; and that, as of Lietphard and Valeria, so also her relics, though again much earlier — which indeed seems certain of Lietphard — were anciently preserved in the same place and venerated together, and afterwards also, translated together to Saint-Quentin, perished; whence, however, there gradually flowed into the common people, and from the common people into writers destitute of ancient testimonies and monuments, that opinion that those three Saints were siblings to one another and lived in the same age.
[9] Perhaps Valeria was abbess of Honnecourt, As regards St. Valeria, although she does not seem to me to have been the sister of St. Lietphard, yet it seems not unlike the truth that she was abbess of Hunulsi-curtis and flourished in the same century as St. Lietphard, or the following; so, as regards the office of abbess which she discharged at Hunulfi-curtis, have thought not only Ferrari, Gazet and Molanus, cited above, but also Valois in the Notitia of the Gauls, where he treats of Hunulfi-curtis. But, you will say, St. Valeria could not have been abbess of Honnecourt before Auriana, nor after her: not before Auriana, daughter of Amalfrid and Childebertana, the founders of Honnecourt, and abbess of the same place, from the diploma of foundation: nor after her: for, as Iperius writes in the Chronicle of St. Bertin, chapter 1, part 12, when Amalfrid had subjected the monastery of Honnecourt to St. Bertin on this tenor, that he himself and his daughter Auriana aforesaid should hold that place in precarial tenure as long as they lived; but that after the death of both St. Bertin and his successors should have it, hold it, and set over it whomsoever they wished; Then, says the same Iperius, Amalfrid and Auriana having died, the successors of St. Bertin forbade nuns to succeed there, and established monks there: so that Auriana alone seems to have been abbess of Honnecourt, and no room seems to have been left for St. Valeria to be numbered among the abbesses of that place.
[10] The charter of Amalfrid, by which he subjects the monastery of Honnecourt to St. Bertin, and could have preceded Auriana, abbot of Sithiu near Saint-Omer, and to his successors, in Mabillon, On Diplomatics, book 6, page 607, from Folquin, who collected the monuments of the monastery of Sithiu up to about the year 961, runs thus: I, in the name of God, Amalfrid, an illustrious man, have granted and delegated to the monastery of Sithiu, over which the venerable man Bertin the abbot is seen to preside, together with the will or agreement of my daughter Auriana, who is seen to be the rectress there, that is, our monastery whose name is Hunulfo-curtis, in the district of Cambrai, on the river Scheldt, which I built on our property in honour of saint Mary, or of saint Peter, or of saint Martin, or of saint Pollina, where that precious gem rests in body… And we beseech those brethren and rectors of the monastery that they be zealous to have care of that monastery as regards Mass, the course of office, the lights, and charity toward guests and pilgrims, so that they may have a reward, and that they record our name in the book of life. Done at Vermand, which he made on the 8th day of the month of February, in the XIIth year of the reign of our Lord Theuderic, the most glorious king; which was 685 of Christ according to Mabillon. To which charter of Amalfrid is added from the same Folquin its confirmation, made by king Theoderic in the XIVth year of his reign, on the Kalends of April, in which the name of Childebertana is expressed. Iperius saw the charter of Amalfrid just related: and although, as it is recited by Mabillon from Folquin, it does not contain those things which Iperius says are contained in it, yet he cannot be convicted of falsehood here, because, as Mabillon hands down, Folquin did not transcribe the charter of Amalfrid entire. And they are found in the Life of St. Bertin, in Mabillon, part 1 of the third Benedictine century, page 115, written, as he judges, by Folcard in the eleventh century, by whom the same charter is praised.
[11] Nonetheless the charter of Amalfrid does not bring it about or have followed her; that no place can be given to Valeria among the abbesses of Honnecourt: for she could have preceded Auriana: for although from the charter of Amalfrid Auriana presided over the abbey of Honnecourt when he subjected it to St. Bertin, yet it is not ascertained from the same charter that Auriana presided over it already from the very foundation of the abbey. Auriana was perhaps younger, and still less fit to rule a monastery, yet in such a way that she succeeded Valeria either when the latter was removed from rule or when she had died. Valeria could also have succeeded Auriana immediately: for although Iperius says that the successors of St. Bertin, Auriana having died, forbade nuns to succeed there, and substituted monks for them; yet he does not say that they were expelled from there immediately after the death of Auriana and lacked an abbess. Nay rather, the author of the Life of St. Lietphard, volume 1 of February, page 496, numbers 5 and 6, hands down that in the tenth century, in which the body of St. Lietphard was translated to Honnecourt under Fulbert, bishop of Cambrai, who sat from the year 934 to about the year 956, nuns still existed there; so that if monks were substituted for the sacred virgins from the death of Auriana, they must have been restored by postliminium to their former monastery; or Iperius said falsely that from the death of Amalfrid and his daughter Auriana monks were substituted for the nuns in the abbey of Honnecourt, which, how it was afterwards snatched from the rights of the monastery of St. Bertin, he admits he does not know.
[12] whatever to the contrary Nor indeed do monks seem to have been substituted for the nuns in the monastery of Honnecourt, but clerics added to them, who should perform the divine service before them; whom at length Benedictine monks succeeded. For so Baldric, chronographer of Cambrai, praised above by Molanus, wrote in the eleventh century, book 1, chapter 26: And besides, the same aforesaid pontiff Vindicianus, in the village which, distant almost seven miles from the see of Cambrai, received from the ancients the name Hunelcurth, having summoned with him not a few fellow-bishops, and together also blessed Lambert of Liège, martyr (bishop of Maastricht), consecrated it to the praise of God and the veneration of St. Peter, and established there clerics and nuns. And thus in book 2, chapter 10: Let us pass on to the monastery of St. Peter in the villa of Hunulcourt, where I have found in writing (he probably hints at the charter of Amalfrid or of Theoderic) that St. Pollina rests. This, namely, an illustrious man with his wife Childebertana founded, and, nuns being appointed, set his daughter Auriana over them, and it was formerly flourishing in religion and wealth, but now, after it has been made a benefice for military men, it is reduced to a few canons. The nuns, therefore, had ceased there in the eleventh century, but the clerics persisted.
[13] is adduced from Iperius: I know indeed that Mabillon, in the Observations prefixed to the Life of St. Austreberta, part 1 of the third Benedictine century, page 27, so interprets the former words of Baldric as if he understood monks by the name of clerics: but did not Baldric call the same men canons in the latter place whom he called clerics in the former? And these the biographer of St. Lietphard expressly distinguished from monks (namely Benedictines) in these words: For in the church of Honnecourt (in which by God's disposition, the canons who formerly served it voluntarily withdrawing, a congregation of monks now serves under the Rule of St. Benedict) many nuns were ordained from the first institution: and what of the divine Office is not permitted to the female sex, canons subordinated to them performed. From the words cited it is deduced that the biographer of St. Lietphard wrote somewhat after the Benedictines had succeeded the canons in the monastery of Honnecourt; and probably not later than the twelfth century, from which the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, volume 3, column 113, begin to number the abbots of their Order in the monastery of Honnecourt. But Iperius (that is, Jean le Long) lived in the fourteenth century. But whether Benedictine monks were introduced into the monastery of Honnecourt after the death of Amalfrid and Auriana
or not; at any rate the biographer of St. Lietphard, as I was saying above, is the authority that nuns still existed there in the tenth century; having undertaken, after the words just cited, to explain thus the manner in which the body of St. Lietphard was translated into the monastery of Honnecourt in the tenth century under Fulbert, bishop of Cambrai: One of these nuns, deprived of sight, etc.: And so nothing seems to us to stand in the way of Valeria having been able to preside over the nuns of Honnecourt from the death of Auriana, whatever Iperius may say; although on account of the scarcity of ancient monuments we do not believe that this certainly happened either.
[14] For the rest, you will gather from what has been said so far not only that the bond of fraternal kinship of SS. Pollena and Valeria, both with each other but they do not seem to have been companions of St. Lietphard. and with St. Lietphard, is uncertain, but also that Gazet is mistaken when he writes that they came from England into Belgium to venerate the remains of their brother at Hunulfi-curtis; since only in the tenth century was the body of St. Lietphard brought thither from the village of Trescault. Nor does it sufficiently agree with the biographer of St. Lietphard, what Du Saussay says, namely that the holy virgins Valeria and Pollena attached themselves to St. Lietphard as companions in his Roman pilgrimage: for in this way they would seem to have had to be adorned with the title of martyrs, which however I nowhere find given them, just like their brother, as they would have it: for not Lietphard alone perished by the hands of assassins, but all his companions too: When, their vow fulfilled, says the biographer of St. Lietphard, they were now returning to their homeland, as they came to the groves of Arida Gamantia, the satellites of iniquity rise up and slaughter them all: among whom they consummated by martyrdom Blessed Lifard, the prelate, calling upon God (in whose confession they had persevered). If they slaughtered the whole fellowship of St. Lietphard, how did his Sisters escape death?
[15] Their relics, translated to Saint-Quentin, are said to have perished. St. Vindicianus, bishop of Cambrai, who above is said now to have founded the monastery, and now to have consecrated it, is said in his Life, volume 2 of March, page 79, to have conferred many things on the same monastery from his own; for which cause most probably he was called its founder just as Amalfrid was. But as to what Chastelain says, that the relics of St. Pollena were translated (from Trescault, as he seems to insinuate) to Honnecourt, I do not know on what authority he relies, nor have I found it anywhere. Certainly they were there already from the seventh century, from what has been said above: and therefore they were not at least carried from Trescault to Honnecourt together with the remains of St. Lietphard, as Chastelain perhaps thought. Where he treats of Valeria, he observes that she is called in a certain manuscript of Trescault (S. Valière de Trécaut); but for what cause, whether because she was born or buried there, or whether because her relics were at some time translated thence to Honnecourt, he himself is in doubt, nor can we declare it with certainty. Concerning the siege of Saint-Quentin and its storming by the Spaniards in the year 1557, in which the relics of SS. Valeria, Pollena and Lietphard are said to have been lost, consult Claude Hémeré at the said year in his Augusta Viromanduorum illustrated.