Teclechildis

ON ST. TECLECHILDIS, OR TELECHILDIS, VIRGIN, FIRST ABBESS OF JOUARRE IN GAUL,

MOST PROBABLY WELL ON IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

SYLLOGE.

The Saint's cult, her memory in the more recent Sacred Fasti, such account as there is of her, and her period, from her sepulchral inscription and the Acts of St. Bertila.

Teclechildis or Telechildis, virgin, first abbess of Jouarre in Gaul. (S.)

BY C. B.

Jotrum, in French Jouarre, is an ancient retreat of sacred Virgins in Gaul, in Brie, or, as it is called in the Acts of the middle age, In the monastery of Jouarre, of which an account is given here, the Briegian district, four leagues to the east of the city of Meaux, set upon the brow of a hill not far from the confluence of the Marne and the Petit-Morin, and adjoining a small town of the same name, to which it gave origin. To this very celebrated convent of the diocese of Meaux — which, as we are taught from the ancient and trustworthy Lives of St. Columbanus and St. Agilus that Mabillon presents in the 2nd Benedictine Century, a most noble man named Ado, own brother of St. Audoenus, archbishop of Rouen, built within the fields of the forest of Joranum (so these Lives speak in that place), prescribing the Rule of St. Columbanus for those who were to lead the ascetic life there, and most amply endowed — it was granted by a singular favour of God that the first two abbesses who ruled it, namely Agilberta and Teclechildis or Telechildis, or also (for the name of this our Saint is expressed variously by various writers) Theodiechildis, Theodechildis, Theodolechildis, or finally Teutehildis, Teudlechildis or rather Theodlecheldis, were illustrious for an altogether outstanding holiness of life and manners. Of the first of these, or Agilberta, who immediately succeeded Theodechildis, after the latter's death, in the government of the monastery of Jouarre, we have already treated in our Work at the 11th day of August, because she was then venerated there every year; but of the second (who, although from what Pagi in the Critica at the year 680, num. 20, and Du Plessis, num. 6, to be cited here, say about her sepulchral inscription, she seems to be called Theodlecheldis, keeping the genuine appellation, is nevertheless also named by me here indiscriminately in the other ways already assigned, as is done everywhere by other writers) we are going to treat at the present day, because she is honoured with ecclesiastical cult annually both in the said monastery and indeed also in other places of the diocese of Meaux distinct from it.

[2] And that the Saint is venerated today in the monastery of Jouarre [St. Teclechildis is venerated as well as in other places of the diocese of Meaux,] Mabillon most expressly affirms in the Benedictine Annals, book 15, num. 4, and Bucelinus and Ménard support him, both of them, namely the former after the eulogy with which he adorns St. Theodechildis today in his Benedictine Menology, and the latter in his Observations for today on the Martyrology, likewise Benedictine, citing the Proper of the Saints of the monastery of Jouarre, and in this way at least indicating that St. Telechildis is venerated there; and as regards the places of the diocese of Meaux distinct from the monastery of Jouarre, that in some of these at least Telechildis today enjoys annual cult also is suggested by the Breviary of Meaux extant among us, issued in the year 1640 by mandate of the most illustrious bishop of Meaux, Dominique Séguier, and to be used by all the churches, monasteries, colleges and Orders of the diocese of Meaux, which, although it does not today set out an ecclesiastical Office of St. Theutechildis, yet prescribes that a commemoration of her be made. Further, the proper Calendar of the diocese of Meaux, which Du Plessis prefixed to the History of the church of Meaux composed by him and published in the year 1731, has the name of St. Telechildis inscribed on it today. And so indeed, concerning the cult with which the Saint is honoured every year today in the diocese of Meaux, and by name in the monastery of Jouarre situated in it, it is established enough and more than enough: but whether nowhere outside that diocese does she enjoy this honour

as well? Mabillon, in the Benedictine Annals, book 15, num. 4, towards the end, writes thus: In an old Calendar, which seems to have belonged to the convent of St. Mary of Soissons, written by hand five hundred years ago, now in the Library of Longpont, there is noted on the sixth day before the Ides of October the memory of Thelechildis, virgin; and from this, and at the same time from the fact that, as the same Mabillon also teaches in the book just cited, num. 3, Ætheria, first abbess of the convent of Soissons mentioned here, was summoned for this purpose from the retreat of Jouarre, where she had probably lived for some time under the discipline of St. Theodlecheldis, it comes to mind to suspect that the Saint was once, at least at some time, honoured with the honours of the heavenly ones in the same convent of Soissons also.

[3] Further, from the cult which she obtained, if not there, certainly at Jouarre and other places of the diocese of Meaux, [and, inscribed in various more recent Sacred Fasti, in the year 1627 from the monument,] I think it arose that, although she is mentioned neither by Usuard nor by any other classical martyrologists, she was nevertheless added to him by those who transcribed Usuard afterwards. However that may be, in the Usuardine codex of the church of Tournai, written probably between the years 1219 and 1252, as Sollerius shows in his Preface to Usuard, num. 215, St. Teclechildis is announced today, as is plain from the Auctaria of Usuard which are extant in him there; and Molanus also introduced her today into his Additions to him, having taken her either from the said Tournai codex or perhaps from other augmented codices of Usuard still older; and moved by his example or by information acquired from elsewhere, some other more recent hagiologists did so afterwards also, namely Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, du Saussay in the Gallican, Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology, and finally also, in the Benedictine Sacred Fasti prepared by them, Wion, Dorganius, Ménard and Bucelinus, who, since St. Telechildis spent her life under the institute of St. Columbanus, judged that this most probably did not differ from the Rule of St. Benedict, while Le Cointe and our predecessors think otherwise on this matter. And not only that the Saint should be recorded in the Hagiologies already mentioned, but also that she should at length be raised from the earth, the ecclesiastical cult which she was known to enjoy perhaps brought about. But, however this matter stands, her sacred remains were certainly translated from a lowlier place to a loftier one. This will become plain from what is now to be said.

[4] [in which an inscription placed on it showed her relics to be contained, she was translated.] At Jouarre, besides the abbatial basilica of the convent, which claims as its patroness the Blessed Virgin Mary, there exist besides, as Du Plessis teaches in the History of the church of Meaux, book 1, num. 54, and after him the Writers of the augmented Gallia Christiana, volume 8, column 1708, other very ancient churches or sacred chapels, of which one, dedicated to St. Peter, has long since been made the parish church of the whole town, and the other, distinguished by the name of St. Paul the first hermit, is situated underground beside the walls of the abbey in the cemetery of the parish. From this underground sacred place or crypt, which also has adjoined to it another crypt, distinguished by the name of St. Ebregisilus, bishop of Meaux, who, as is believed, was buried in it, in the year 1627, on the thirteenth day of October, the sacred relics of St. Theodlecheldis, as was thought, being taken out of the tomb or monument, raised above the ground on marble columns, in which they had lain there until that time, were translated by Philippe Cospéan, then bishop of Nantes, afterwards of Lisieux, in the presence of Marie de' Medici, mother of Louis XIII, king of France, into the greater basilica of the convent of Jouarre, as Du Plessis and the writers just cited affirm, and, as Mabillon adds in the 2nd Benedictine Century, page 488, and in the Annals, book 15, num. 4, enclosed in a silver reliquary; and that those sacred remains were also in very truth those of St. Telechildis is made clear from this, that while diverse other tombs or monuments, which, as the same Mabillon together with the authors just cited witnesses, are seen likewise projecting from the ground in the said underground place, show no indication whatever from which you could gather whose relics or members are contained in each of them, yet the monument from which the relics of St. Theodechildis, as was thought, were taken out is furnished with a sepulchral inscription cut upon it, which shows these to be in fact those of St. Teclechildis, an ancient inscription written, as Mabillon witnesses in the place just cited, in uncial letters.

[5] This inscription, which, because it teaches us other things also pertaining to the Saint which are to be mentioned below, Moreover from this, given here in two different ways, deserves to be set here before the reader's eyes in advance, Mabillon presents in one way in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, and in another way in his Benedictine Annals. In the Acts, with a marginal note added also, which I subjoin here presently at the margin of the page, he has, volume 2, page 488:

Under this sepulchre, after the last fates, are covered the members of the Blessed

Theodiechieldis, undefiled virgin, noble of race.

Shining with merits, strenuous in manners, she was aflame in the doctrine of renown.

Mother of this monastery, she invites the virgins consecrated to God,

Taking oil with their lamps, the prudent ones,

Spon … ias so … turri rex PM. H. Æ.. * at last

She exults, having attained the triumphs of paradise;

but in the Annals, volume 1, page 456:

Under this sepulchre, after the last fates, are covered the members

Of the Blessed Theodlecheldis, undefiled virgin,

Noble of race. Shining with merits, strenuous in manners,

She was aflame in the kindly doctrine.

Mother of this monastery, the virgins consecrated to God,

Taking oil with their lamps, the prudent ones,

… filias occurri rex. P. M. hæc demum exuit atra…

[6] Du Plessis, the writer of the History of the church of Meaux already cited above, neither of which Du Plessis, having inspected the original, found accurate, since he remained in doubt between these two ways in which the sepulchral inscription of St. Thelechildis is set forth by Mabillon, betook himself, in order to examine it with his own eyes, to the monastery of Jouarre, as the Writers of the augmented Gallia Christiana relate, volume 8, column 1709, and there, having diligently examined everything, found the said inscription accurate neither entirely as it is described by Mabillon in the Acts nor entirely as in the Benedictine Annals, as you will understand from page 665 of the aforesaid History which he wrote. But did he also find it destitute of all accuracy everywhere? The first part of the inscription, he says in the place just cited, as it stands in Mabillon's Benedictine Annals, is exact, if you except its last word, almo, for which the word that stands in the Acts, famæ, with the letter Æ, as is distinctly read in the autograph, must be substituted; but as regards the second part (beginning, namely, from the word Cenubii), the autograph reproduces this much better as it is presented in the Acts than as in the Annals.

[7] But (they are Du Plessis's own French words, which I render into Latin) and, together with some things conducing to confirm it, another it is to be noted, first, that the whole inscription is cut on two stone tablets, equalling a length of about five and a half feet, each of which comprises three lines of writing; secondly, that the second of those stones, which contains the second part of the inscription and, facing north, is fitted to the right side of the tomb, was cut by a saw lengthwise, so that thirteen or fourteen inches are wanting to it, and furthermore that the last line is so worn away by the dampness of the place that the characters are scarcely distinguished. In the past century they wished to restore the greater part of it with the point of a chisel; but, besides the fact that those who attempted it were not skilled in the art of imitating the form of the letters, it is plain that they also wished to divine, and so disfigured everything. I too will divine in my turn, since no other way of proceeding any longer remains; but I will leave the original untouched, lest it be spoiled. Here is how I read the three lines of that second stone:

Mother of this monastery, she invites the virgins consecrated to God, tak-

ing oil with their lamps, the prudent ones, as daughters to go out to meet the Bride-

groom x … she exults in the glory of paradise.

[8] conducing to confirm this The Italic character presents here what remains to us entire from the inscription; the Roman, what seems to me can be substituted for those things which are wanting from it. I have already warned that only thirteen or fourteen inches in length were torn off the stone. That space is too narrow to hold the words of the inscription of the Acts, PARADISI ADEPTA TRIUMPHOS; for them I have substituted PARADISI IN GLORIA; which words produce the same sense and can entirely fill up the rest of the line. The difficulty therefore remains only as regards two or three words which I have not expressed. Those who in the past century restored the inscription (see it transcribed here above, num. 5, from Mabillon's Acts of the Saints and Benedictine Annals) joined the letter X with the last two letters of the preceding word; so that they read TURRI REX; which cannot produce a sense consonant with reason. The construction altogether requires OCCURRERE, and the word REX is a superfluous nominative. The letters of this ancient epitaph are very well carved; but they do not exactly reproduce ours. The transverse lines which form the letters E, F and L are very short; so that, unless one pays careful attention, there is danger of taking each of all these letters for I.

[9] and he proposes his conjecture on the Saint's death-day, And that happened in the word OCCURRERE; they took the first letter E of this for the letter I and read OCCURRI. Then, since X followed, they joined this letter with the last two letters of the word OCCURRERE and made the word REX. Thus far Du Plessis, who, having adduced these things to confirm the other way in which he thinks the Saint's sepulchral inscription should be rendered, at the same time also, as he presently intimates, suspected that the space which in the last of the three lines of that inscription given by him immediately here is left empty of words between the letter X and the word exultat must be filled with the first three letters of the word Kalendas and the word Maii; so that it might be signified that St. Telechildis departed this life on the tenth day before the Kalends of May, or the 22nd of April. But although Du Plessis in that place makes it sufficiently probable that for the letters P and M of the said inscription, as it is presented by Mabillon in the Acts and the Benedictine Annals, the first three letters of the word Kalendas are to be substituted, yet he adds nothing by which you may safely believe that he was not deceived in the opinion by which he judged that the word Maii is also read in the original of the inscription; and since the matter stands thus, it is surely uncertain whether Telechildis closed her last day on the 22nd of April, as Du Plessis conjectured from his said suspicion, although meanwhile, from the fact that she is venerated today, that conjecture is not to be held as certainly false either (for Saints are not always venerated on the same days on which they died). These things premised, I now proceed to other things which, since no other ancient monuments at all are extant that treat of the Saint of set purpose and set out her deeds one by one, from her sepulchral inscription already given,

we are taught, as I intimated above.

[10] This inscription, therefore, taken both in the two different ways in which it is presented above by Mabillon [presented by Mabillon, clearly also that Telechildis was noble of race, although meanwhile,] and in the other which Du Plessis proposes, teaches us that St. Telechildis was born of illustrious station, as also that, having obtained the glory of heaven by the merit and splendour of her virtues, she invites her daughters to follow the example which she gave and further to conduct themselves like the prudent virgins of the Gospel, who awaited the heavenly Bridegroom with burning lamps, that is, with a heart kindled with the fire of his love; and although it does not declare this last altogether openly, or in express terms, as they say, yet it most expressly relates that Telechildis was noble of race. But since it nevertheless does this only in general terms, certain writers, not content likewise to do it only so, also record by name some who were joined in blood with the Saint. They will have it, namely, that Betto or Belfrid and Abolinus or Abobinus, of whom the former begot St. Telechildis and Agilbert, bishop of Paris, the latter St. Aguilberta, second abbess of the monastery of Jouarre, and Ebrigisilus, bishop of Meaux, were own brothers and had Balda and Moda as sisters. Further, Du Plessis affirms in his History of the church of Meaux, page 663, that this genealogy — according to which, if it be true, St. Telechildis was the sister of Agilbert, bishop of Paris, and very closely joined in blood with Balda and Moda and likewise with Aguilberta and her brother Ebregisilus, bishop of Meaux — is adopted by many authors.

[11] But at the same time, having confessed that he himself followed it in the course of this History, [it is doubtful whether she had the kinsfolk they assert; it is plain that she existed and presided at Jouarre;] he presently subjoins in French words, which I put into Latin: It would meanwhile be desirable that it had some other witnesses besides, to whom faith could more safely be given; and hence I think that the authors by whom he says the said genealogy is adopted are not very ancient, and that only monuments are put forward by them whose age does not come near enough to the age of St. Telechildis to produce certain faith in that matter. Ménard indeed, who is one of those authors and indeed embraces that genealogy in his Observations on the Benedictine Martyrology, pages 300, 345 and 415, cites on his own behalf the monuments of the monastery of Jouarre: but of what age those monuments are, which in each of these three places he also calls Old, he does not declare, and it may not undeservedly be doubted whether both these and the so-called more ancient tradition of the monastery of Jouarre, on which Du Plessis says in the place just cited that the same genealogy is also founded, claim for themselves an antiquity of more than three or four centuries. Wherefore it can likewise not undeservedly be doubted whether St. Theodechildis had the kinsfolk asserted by those who embrace that genealogy. But although this is so, that the Saint was at any rate noble of race is altogether certain from her sepulchral inscription, already mentioned very often, which Mabillon indeed affirms to be written in very old and almost worn-away characters, and Du Plessis to have been placed not long after Telechildis's death. Nor is this alone ascertained from it, but also that Theodechildis was mother or abbess of the monastery of Jouarre. For the demonstrative pronoun hujus, by which the word cenubii is qualified in the same inscription cut on the Saint's monument, undoubtedly designates the monastery of Jouarre, to which the crypt containing it belonged.

[12] and that this last, which most probably between the year 630 and 635, Further, although nothing at all is found in that most ancient document from which you might conclude that St. Teclechildis was also the first who ruled the monastery of Jouarre in the office of abbess, yet that the matter stands so I think indubitable, from the Proper of the Saints of the abbey of Jouarre, in which, as Ménard witnesses in his Observations on the Benedictine Martyrology, page 345, Theodechildis is asserted to have been the first abbess of Jouarre; from the ancient tradition of the same abbey; from the catalogues of the abbesses of Jouarre, among whom Theodechildis always appears first in order; and finally from the unanimous consent of all the writers who have treated of that matter. But when shall we determine that the Saint — who, as Mabillon and the Writers of the augmented Gallia Christiana judge, was probably taken for the government of Jouarre from the neighbouring convent of Eboriacum, now called after St. Fara — was promoted to that office, and how long she thereafter discharged it? That the monastery of Jouarre had already been built before about the year 643 becomes plain even from this, that the monk Jonas, committing to writing the Life of St. Columbanus about that year, as Mabillon says in the 2nd Benedictine Century, page 487, makes mention of that retreat; and that it was founded some years earlier too appears all but certain, and all the writers who treat of the matter, and especially Mabillon, Le Cointe and Du Plessis, with unanimous consent assign it to about the year either 631 or 634; so that, if the monastery of Jouarre began to be inhabited by nuns as soon as it had been built, St. Theodechildis, who, from what has been said, holds the first place among the abbesses of Jouarre, most probably began to rule it in the space of time intervening between the year 630 and 635.

[13] as the reasons adduced here But in the Life of St. Agilus the abbot, who died about the year 650, written by an author nearly contemporary and published among us at the 30th day of August, on which that Saint is venerated, these following words are read, num. 19, concerning Ado, founder of the monastery of Jouarre: Ado …, not only renounced himself his own wills and riches, but also on his own soil, within the forest of Jora, with the help of his brother, the venerable Audoenus, built a monastery upon the river Marne, to which he gave the name Jotrum, and enriched it most abundantly from his own property: in which also he served as a monk the supreme King according to the institutes of Blessed Columbanus, together with a very great company of illustrious religious life; and since, as no one will fail to gather from this text of the cited author, Ado, the founder of the monastery of Jouarre, himself pronounced religious vows in it, and it seems therefore to have been assigned from the beginning to monks, from this, and at the same time from the fact that St. Bertila or Bertilia, who first undertook the care of the monastery of Chelles, founded by Queen Bathild not very long after Jouarre, as will become plain from what is to be said below, spent some time, before she did so, among the nuns of Jouarre under the abbess Teutechildis, as her Life, written by an anonymous author almost contemporary and inserted by Mabillon in the 3rd Benedictine Century, attests, Le Cointe concludes in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 634, num. 12, that in the monastery of Jouarre, which at first was one of men, not of maidens, after a short space of time had intervened these were substituted for them.

[14] But Mabillon, who likewise lays down, in the 2nd Benedictine Century, page 487, from the Life of the same St. Bertilia just cited, both that there were monks in the monastery of Jouarre from the beginning suggest, began to take place, we are also taught from the Life of St. Bertilia, and that nevertheless St. Bertilia, who was created first abbess of the monastery of Chelles, founded by Bathild not long after Jouarre, was taken from the monastery of Jouarre, at once at the same time affirms that it is not probable that monks were so quickly ejected from the monastery of Jouarre to make room for maidens consecrated to God, and then adds: It must therefore be said that at Jouarre, as in other convents here and there, there were two communities, so far kept apart, one of nuns, the other of monks, by whom the former were governed. So in the convents of St. Romaric on Mount Habend, of St. Salaberga at Laon, of St. Gertrude at Nivelles, of St. Bathild at Chelles, and in others, we have observed a twofold congregation, of men and of maidens. Thus the cited writer; and not only do Pagi in the Critica at the year 705, num. 20, Du Plessis in the History of the church of Meaux, page 664, the Writers of the augmented Gallia Christiana, volume 8, column 1708, and others, for the most part learned men, agree with him today, but also in the seventh century, in which the monastery of Jouarre was built, the custom truly obtained, as the examples alleged by Mabillon and others met with everywhere show, that, when new monasteries were founded, these were built double, of which the principal was of women, the secondary of men, who should minister the Sacred rites to them; and since these things are so, it appears very like the truth indeed, as I have already indicated above, that the monastery of Jouarre was in fact built likewise after this manner, as Mabillon judged, and hence that St. Theodlecheldis began to rule it, which from what has been said was most probably built about the year either 631 or 634, between the year 630 and 635. Now let us also examine how long thereafter the Saint held the government of that sacred retreat which she had undertaken, or, if you prefer, how long after undertaking it she still remained among the living. Even if it were not established from her epitaph related above that the Saint was abbess of Jouarre, it would nevertheless be ascertained from the ancient Life of St. Bertilia which I have mentioned above. For in this it is most expressly asserted, as may be seen in Mabillon, 3rd Benedictine Century, part 1, page 21, that St. Bertilia was brought to the monastery of maidens which is called Jotrus and commended to the lady Teutlehilda, the abbess.

[15] from which, moreover, in words recited here, the things which Nor are we taught by that old monument only this, that St. Theodlecheldis held the government of the monastery of Jouarre, but also that she still held it up to the time when the monastery of Chelles had already been built by St. Bathild and brought to completion, so that it could be inhabited. All the words by which this is done there I transcribe here, if only because they supply some sort of information about our Saint too. After, therefore, the one who composed that Life has recorded that St. Bertilia lived for some time in the monastery of Jouarre under St. Theodlechildis, he then proceeds thus, in Mabillon, in the place just cited, page 23: In these … times, after the departure of the lord King Clovis, his religious and excellent consort, the lady Queen Baltechildis, with her little son King Clothair, governed the kingdom of the Franks irreproachably, and was loved with wonderful affection by all the bishops and nobles and the whole people of her kingdom, her merits compelling it. For she was religious and much devoted to the Lord, bearing the care of churches and of the poor. With great vigour of mind, therefore, she governed the palace manfully. And with the bishops and chief men of her people she took counsel to build a monastery of maidens at the royal township which is called Kala, so that, when her aforesaid son Clothair had reached lawful age and could carry on by himself the kingdom committed to him, she herself, then abandoning the royal care, might enter the above-said monastery under the order of Religion. And because she loved all with wonderful affection and was loved by all, the counsel pleased everyone and all gave her their consent.

[16] are recited here, And she, being prudent and wise, ordered a monastery to be built there with all speed, and, foreseeing the future, the necessary for the handmaids

of God she assigned substance. And now, the monastery having been diligently prepared, she began to turn over in her mind which of the maidens she could find worthy in merits and honour or manners, to whom she might confidently commit the flock of sacred virgins gathered there under the rule of holy Religion. And when she heard many things of many, the report of this holy maiden Bertila, her happy fame running abroad, reached through the account of the faithful to the royal ears of the lady Baltechildis, the glorious and most Christian queen, who rejoiced at the example of her holiness; and at once, having taken counsel, she decreed that she would set her as mother over the holy women whom she had gathered in the above-named monastery for the love of Christ and reverence of St. Mary; which, the Lord disposing, she afterwards accomplished. For with great devotion and humility she asked the lady Teutehildis, the abbess, to appoint for her from her monastery some handmaids of God who should rule her monastery. And she, having long deliberated, could not refuse the holy supplication of the queen, but willingly satisfied the glorious lady's petition; and she ordered the aforesaid lady Bertila, with certain holy maidens, to be conducted to the spiritual mother, the lady Balthechildis, at the above-said monastery of Kala, with the greatest diligence and due honour, as was fitting, by the great priest the lord Genesius; and that all that congregation might be commended to her as to a spiritual mother, she suggested in person to the aforesaid lady queen, trusting in her religion and chaste manner of life.

[17] Them that glorious queen Balthechildis received with great honour as a heavenly gift, that St. Telechildis, until the building of the monastery of Chelles, by Bathild and, as had been enjoined upon her by the lady Teutlehildis, laid upon her the burden of government over the whole monastery, and ordered her to be abbess. Thus the biographer of St. Bertilia; and since, as we learn from this text of his, St. Baltechildis, or, as she is called by others, Queen Bathildis, requested that some nuns be sent from the convent of Jouarre by Theodlechildis, its abbess, to the monastery of Chelles which she had built, it is indeed most fittingly gathered from this that she — who, as we are also taught from the same text, complying with Bathild's will, sent St. Bertilia from her monastery of Jouarre to that place together with some other sacred virgins, to be set over the religious colony — was still governing that sacred retreat in the office of abbess at the time when Chelles had already been built by St. Bathild and brought to completion, so that it could be inhabited. But that the year also about which our Saint still did this may become known, let us now also inquire into the time about which the monastery of Chelles was begun and finished being built by St. Bathild. Yepes, in his Benedictine Chronicle, volume 2, pages 410 and 412, attaches the building of the monastery of Chelles, or the foundation made by St. Bathild, to the year 662; Mabillon, in the 3rd Benedictine Century, part 1, page 25, to the year 656, and in the Benedictine Annals, volume 1, page 444, to the year 657. But Du Plessis, in the History of the church of Meaux, volume 1, page 699 and following, criticizes both these writers for this reason, and contends that the said monastery was founded by that holy queen before the year 656; and he does so for this reason, that, considering what Bede writes in the History of the English Nation, book 4, chapter 23, Hereswitha, mother of Aldulf, king of the East Angles, led the monastic life in the monastery of Chelles in France in the year 647, and hence it was already standing in that year. But that a monastery which already stood from the year 647 was founded by Bathild, the condition of life does not permit us to believe in which this holy queen is reported, in her Life written by a contemporary author and published among us in volume 2 of January, to have been at that time, inasmuch as, not yet married to King Clovis II, she was still serving Erchinoald, the mayor — of the palace.

[18] And indeed that St. Bathild did not begin to build the monastery of Chelles before the death of Clovis II her husband, [in the year finally, as is proved here, while concord is kept between Bede and the biographer of St. Bertilia,] which, as Pagi clearly proves in the Critica, occurred in the year 656, the biographer of St. Bertilia most plainly reveals in the words already transcribed here, num. 15 and following, as will become plain to one weighing them; and since we must stand here by that writer, inasmuch as he was almost contemporary with this Saint and had the matters which he recounts in his work on her, with faith most uprightly kept everywhere, most thoroughly examined, it is necessary either that the historian of the English nation cited above, from whom it follows that the monastery of Chelles was already standing in the year 647, be said to have erred, or that a way be found which brings him into concord with the other. Mabillon undoubtedly saw this, and hence, in volume 1 of the Benedictine Annals, page 444, having stated in advance that a monastery of sacred virgins had been built in the royal township of Cala by St. Chrotildis, who died about the year 546, he presently at the same time adds that afterwards in its place, the old buildings having been demolished, a new monastery, and that a most ample one, was erected by St. Bathild; thus, namely, explaining how St. Bathild can be said by the biographer of St. Bertilia, with truth preserved, to have built a monastery of maidens in the royal township of Kala, and yet a monastery of sacred virgins already existed there before, as follows from Bede according to what has been said. Nor indeed did Mabillon interpret the biographer of St. Bertilia so without grave cause. For in the Life of St. Bathild, published among us at the 26th day of January in the second place, and yet also committed to writing by an ancient author, these following words occur, num. 21, concerning St. Clothildis, wife of King Clovis I: She first built a monastery of sacred virgins at Cala in honour of St. George. Which afterwards, because the circuit of the little church was too narrow to hold a very large flock of nuns, was demolished by the oft-mentioned lady Bathild, and a basilica of exceedingly great extent of space was built.

[19] [it is gathered that, until about 660, when it was finished, she ruled the monastery of Jouarre and hence lived,] But Pagi, who rightly thinks in the Critica at the year 705, num. 18 and following, that the monastery in the royal township of Cala was begun to be founded by Bathild only after the death of Clovis II, or the year 656, at the same time also, disregarding besides the words of the Life of this holy queen which I have just now recited, contends that a monastery had not been built there before by St. Clothildis, and that Bede, who reveals that Hereswitha was a nun in the monastery of Chelles in the year, as follows from his words, 647, being carried away by error, took the monastery of Chelles for some other one of Gaul. And to prove that he does this deservedly, he adduces various arguments; but since these are almost only negative, or at any rate of such a kind that they can without difficulty be weakened, everyone, unless I am mistaken, who has attentively weighed what I have already said, will easily acknowledge that the severer censure of Pagi, by which Bede as well as the ancient writer of the Life of St. Bathild are charged with error without a sufficiently solid reason, as it at least appears to me, is to be rejected, and that the interpretation of Mabillon, by which Bede and the biographer of St. Bertilia, conflicting in appearance, are brought into concord, is to be embraced; and since, according to this, although, considering what Bede writes in the place cited above, Hereswitha led the monastic life at Cala in a monastery of sacred virgins in the year 647 and probably some years earlier still, yet the monastery there was not begun to be founded by St. Bathild, contrary to what Du Plessis will have it, before the year 656, it follows as a consequence that it was most probably only about the year 660 brought to completion, so that it could be inhabited, and that hence St. Theodlechildis, inasmuch as she certainly likewise only then, when this had been done, sent there some sacred virgins together with St. Bertilia from her monastery of Jouarre, as is narrated in the words of her Life transcribed here above, most probably still ruled it until about the year 660, and so survived among the living.

[20] [although meanwhile it is uncertain whether she did not live somewhat longer still.] Now since this is so, and our Saint, as we have seen above, governed that sacred retreat in the office of abbess from about the space of time which intervened between the year 630 and 635, it follows as a consequence that she most probably held it for at least five and twenty years. But did Theodlechildis not preside over Jouarre for some time still after these were completed, or after about the year 660, and hence also remain surviving among the living? Mabillon, in the Benedictine Annals at the year 660, page 456, says: Teudlechildis or Theodlecheldis, first abbess of Jouarre, did not long survive this year; but he adds nothing at all by which to prove this assertion of his. Meanwhile Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology, Du Plessis in the History of the church of Meaux, and others, and especially those who prepared the Paris Martyrology printed in the year 1727, following Mabillon here, assign the death of St. Theodechildis to about the year 660; but about what year she departed from this life, since no ancient monuments whatever are extant from which you could determine it in any way, is also altogether uncertain. Nor indeed would I dare to pronounce one who should assert that the Saint was still surviving among the living in the year 670 as certainly deviating from the truth; and since this is so, and since she most probably at any rate did not die before the year 660, as you will easily gather from what has been said above, hence, in order to note something less uncertain, I have only indicated above in the margin that this happened, not about the year 660, but most probably well on in the seventh century. For the rest, lest I pass over in silence anything conducing in any way to the commendation or praise of the Saint, who is asserted in volume 8 of the augmented Gallia Christiana, column 1709, to have led a life so hidden in God that she has come down to posterity known by her name alone, I set before the reader's eyes here also what Mabillon supplies in volume 1 of the Benedictine Annals, page 456. There, then, this writer has thus: How greatly religion flourished in the convent of Jouarre under the government of Teudechildis is shown by the argument that Ætheria (see Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year 674, num. 9, and likewise the cited Mabillon, Annals, volume just cited, pages 455 and 482) was taken from it to form the new monastery of Blessed Mary at Soissons; and that from the same place, a little before, the most pious queen Balthildis summoned sacred virgins with Bertilana or Bertila the abbess (see the words which I recited above from her Life) to the monastery of Chelles, to be established in a holier discipline.

* that is, post metam hujus ævi, after the bound of this age.