ON ST. MANECHILDIS, VIRGIN,
IN THE DIOCESE OF CHÂLONS IN FRENCH CHAMPAGNE.
SIXTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Manegildis or Manechildis, virgin, in the diocese of Châlons. (S.)
BY C. G.
§ I. An account of the town which is named from the saint: her memory in the sacred calendars: her ecclesiastical cult: her institute of life, her age, the Acts, such as they are, to be edited.
On the farthest borders of French Champagne towards Lorraine, about midway on the road between Châlons and Verdun, at the confluence of the Alba or Albia (in French l'Auve) and the Axona (in French l'Aisne), is situated a not undistinguished town of the diocese of Châlons, Of the saint who is patroness of the town here described, which, together with the castle joined to it, having obtained its name from St. Manechildis, is called (in Latin) Fanum Sanctae Manechildis, (in French) S. Menehou or S. Menehoud. That town has for many centuries already, as will be clear from what is to be said below, adopted as its patroness the same saint, who by others is called Magenhildis, Manehildis, Menehildis, or even somewhat otherwise, and here by me, following the more common manner of pronouncing that name, Manechildis; and her, honoured as such there even today, we now bring into this our work, in which four of her holy sisters only, namely Pusinna, Hoyldis, Lutrudis and Ama, all born of the same noble parents as she, Sigmarus and Lutrudis, have obtained a place on four different days: the first at the 23rd of April, the second at the 30th of the same month, the third at the 22nd of September, and the fourth, finally, at the 24th day of this latter month.
[2] The memory of this virgin is indeed not found in the more ancient and classic martyrologies, [Her memory in the more recent calendars, and her ecclesiastical cult in the diocese of Châlons] yet there is no lack of more recent hagiologists who have here and there inserted her at this day in the sacred calendars compiled by them: and first indeed Molanus, in the additions to Usuard, records her with this brief eulogy: In the territory of Châlons, of St. Manegildis, virgin. The same eulogy is read in the German Martyrology, in the Universal French Martyrology of Castellanus, and in the General Catalogue of the Saints of Ferrarius; Arthur, in his Gynaeceum, has a somewhat longer eulogy: In the territory of Châlons, of St. Maneghildis, virgin, who, serving Christ with faith and a pure mind, set her heart on preparing for herself the way to a happy eternity. Her memory is also celebrated by Nicholas des Guerrois in the Sainteté chrétienne of Troyes at the year 470, by Charles Rapine in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the diocese of Châlons, and by Lahier. Nor do they do so undeservedly: for she not only enjoys ecclesiastical cult even today, but was also honoured many centuries back; which, as regards the diocese of Châlons at least, Peter Testenoire, in the little book which he wrote on the Life and praises of St. Manechildis, printed in the French language at Paris in the year 1632, which is in our possession, gives as proved from the mandate of Archambald, bishop of Châlons, by which, after the translation of certain of her relics to the above-mentioned town of St. Manechildis had been made in the year 1379, he ordered that cult be paid every year to the same holy virgin, and indulgences of 40 days, afterwards increased by Richard, archbishop of Reims, and by the supreme pontiff himself, Clement VII,
granted to those devoutly visiting the church of the same town during the octave of her feast. The words of Testenoire which bear on this are of this kind.
[3] Her cult, ancient and present-day, and in the diocese of Bourges He (Archambald) by pontifical authority commanded that the feast of the same saint (Manechildis) should be solemnly celebrated every year with an octave, both by the clergy and by all the people of his diocese. And although at the time when Testenoire was writing the mandate of the praised prelate was no longer obeyed in most places of the same diocese, yet he asserts that it was then customarily observed both in the monastery of St. Urban and in the church of the town of St. Manechildis, in these words: And although in almost every place of the same diocese the mandate which the above-said bishop of Châlons had given about celebrating her feast has now been derogated from, it does not cease meanwhile to be still celebrated solemnly to this day in the church of St. Urban, and by name in ours, with an octave, during which her relics are exposed on the altar with lights burning, for the veneration of all, to honour her virtues, to procure her glory on earth, and to implore her intercession in heaven. We also have, as witness of her present-day cult in the same diocese, Godescard, volume IX of the Lives of the Saints, asserting that her Office is found in the New Breviary of Châlons; of what sort it is, I am not able to say, for want of the same breviary. Nor is the celebrity of her cult confined within the bounds of the diocese of Châlons only, since she has also been taken as patroness of the collegiate church in the town of Paludellum (in French Palluau), situated on the river Indre at the extremity of the diocese of Bourges towards the duchy of Touraine, which church is also called by her name the church of St. Manechildis, as may be seen in the Register of Benefices of the same diocese; and accordingly she is celebrated there as such.
[4] Furthermore, these following things we have found out about St. Manechildis from the Lives of her sisters, which have already been given in our work, Her Life is briefly touched on from the Legend of St. Pusinna printed at Louvain, from the praised Arthur, Rapine and Testenoire, and from her own Acts, of which more below: she, the youngest by birth among seven sisters born of noble parents in the district of Perthois, Sigmarus and Lutrudis, having been imbued with Christian doctrine together with them in her father's house under the discipline of the excellent priest Eugenius, together with them also afterwards received the sacred veil of virginity from St. Alpinus, bishop of Châlons; then until the death of her parents she lived holily in her father's house; and when they had been taken away by death, she withdrew to a place called Bienville, which fell to her from her paternal inheritance, in which place of her pilgrimage she remained until her death, met in the sacred state of virginity and at the summit of perfection, exercising herself in continual rigours of penance, and rarely going out in public, except to join in spiritual conversation with her sister St. Ama, who had the place of her retirement not far from her, or unless religion called her to church, or piety to the succour of her neighbours, especially the poor.
[5] and her age Concerning the century in which she lived, it would not be necessary to treat specially here, just as Pinius did not treat of it in the case of her two sisters Lutrudis and Ama, inasmuch as it was sufficiently determined from the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Alpinus, had not the praised Castellanus in the Universal French Martyrology, writing of her otherwise than of her holy sisters, and Godescard following him, in volume IX of the Lives of the Saints, assigned her, against the opinion of Pinius, to the seventh century: since, however, the time in which this holy virgin flourished must become known especially from the time of the episcopate of St. Alpinus, from whom, as we have just said, she received the veil of virginity, it is truly strange that the praised Castellanus and Godescard referred the episcopate of St. Alpinus to the middle of the fifth century; indeed, for our saint to be able to be referred to the seventh century, it is necessary that the episcopate of St. Alpinus be prolonged at least beyond the middle of the sixth century; whether this can be done we shall examine here.
[6] from the age of St. Alpinus No author up to now has placed St. Alpinus after Lupus in the Catalogue of the bishops of Châlons, just as it becomes certain from these things that he cannot be placed after him: both Lives of St. Alpinus, edited by Stilting in our work at the 7th day of September, attribute to him 47 years of episcopate, as many years as, according to the testimony of the praised Rapine, are attributed to him in all the monuments; that his episcopate was long is established from the first Life of St. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, which is held by all to be a work of the best note and of a contemporary author; next, before he was promoted to the episcopate of Châlons, he was a disciple of the same St. Lupus of Troyes, who held the see of Troyes from the year 426 or 427 until the year 479: let him have been already about 20 years old when he first came to the discipline of St. Lupus, which years the writer of his first Life attributes to him, and his other biographer even then calls him a most skilful youth; and let him have been under the discipline of St. Lupus only 15 years, although his praised Lives insinuate that he remained under his discipline for a longer time: for they assert that under his discipline he became most expert in the ecclesiastical canons and in divine law, and was appointed judge of ecclesiastical causes, or Official: he will accordingly have been born not later than the year 444: but Lupus of Châlons subscribed the synod of Clermont in the year 535: it would follow, therefore, if St. Alpinus had succeeded Lupus of Châlons, even supposing that the same Lupus died in the same year 535, that St. Alpinus was taken up to the see of Châlons in at least the 90th year of his age, and, the 47 years which he lived in the episcopate being added, rose to an age of 130 years and more, which is far from all likelihood; from these things, therefore, it is sufficiently manifest that St. Alpinus died already before the year 535, and so that our saint belongs not to the seventh century but to the sixth.
[7] is investigated, and fixed about Nay rather, that St. Alpinus was the immediate successor of Amandinus, who held the see of Châlons in the year 461, is proved from these things: the writer of the first Life of St. Lupus of Troyes, who is thought to have written not later than the middle of the sixth century. about the beginning of the sixth century, speaks of St. Alpinus as living, as the praised Stilting observes, and as having many years already in the episcopate: St. Alpinus also (he says), bishop of the city of Châlons, resplendent with the prerogative of long-continued health, how often he proved a purger of demons in many places, is not to be passed over in silence; from these words Tillemont inferred that St. Alpinus had been bishop a long time, and that already when the same biographer was writing these things; but St. Alpinus would not at that time, that is about the beginning of the sixth century, have spent so long a time in the episcopate unless he had immediately succeeded Amandinus, since the latter is read as subscribed to the council of Tours held in the year 461. And this is confirmed especially from the Council of Vannes, from which Stilting very probably gathered that St. Alpinus was already bishop in the year 465: let us hear the words of the praised Stilting here: St. Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, celebrated two councils, one in his own city of Tours in the year 461, which, with nine other bishops, Amandinus of Châlons subscribed; the other at Vannes in Armorican Brittany, whose year is uncertain, but that council is commonly fixed about the year 465: six bishops subscribed this council without expression of their episcopal cities, and hence it comes about that the episcopal sees of two or three are unknown. Among these bishops of unknown sees, however, is Albinus, subscribed in the third place; wherefore I strongly suspect that this is our Alpinus of Châlons, especially because his predecessor Amandinus was present at the council of Tours, and indeed alone from the province of Reims: for St. Perpetuus was the president of both councils. Add that among the bishops of Gaul no Albinus is found at that time except Alpinus of Châlons, whose name the praised Stilting does not doubt was originally Albinus and was twisted into Alpinus by the German dialect. From what has been said, therefore, it is sufficiently certain that St. Alpinus, even admitting the 47 years of his episcopate, died about the beginning of the sixth century and probably before the year 512, and so that St. Manechildis, who received the veil of virginity from the praised prelate, is to be referred not to the seventh century but at most to the middle of the sixth. The age of our saint now being determined, I proceed to her Acts.
[8] [The brief Acts of the saint, though not of great value, we shall nevertheless give.] We have them, very brief, formerly transmitted by the Reverend Father Vignier, and excerpted from an old codex of the church of the town and castle of St. Manechildis; which, however, are not much to be commended either for antiquity or for weight. For that they are not more ancient than the 14th century, and so were committed to writing more than 8 centuries after the decease of the holy virgin, is clear from this, that they refer to the translation of certain relics, which they mark as having occurred in the year 1379, to the town which enjoys the name of the same saint: next, apart from a certain inept allusion to the saint's name, they contain nothing particular about her deeds, except the hereditary place to which she withdrew after the death of her parents; and they narrate the translations of her sacred remains in inverted order, and with the names also of the bishops of Châlons under whom the same were carried out inverted, as we shall observe more fully below: nor yet do they lack all authority, first indeed in the said translations, for they seem to have been composed not long after her relics were translated to the town of St. Manechildis; and then neither in other matters, because these receive strength from the Lives of her sisters which have already been given in our work; and accordingly, however small their value, I have judged that they should be subjoined to this Commentary. There also composed a little book on the Life and Praises of the same saint in the French language, about the year 1632, in which it was printed at Paris, Peter Testenoire, a citizen, a priest, as I gather from his knowledge of sacred letters, and perhaps also parish priest of the town of St. Manechildis, who testifies that he took what he wrote from an ancient Legend of the same holy virgin, and from certain old fragments and charters which were kept in various churches, and by name in the church of St. Urban; from which, however, he himself did not draw much, apart from the veil received from St. Alpinus, the place of her dwelling, her burial and the translations of her relics, of which I shall treat presently, that is not common to other holy virgins as well.
§ II. In what place the saint was buried: when and whither her sacred remains were translated thence: and whether the saint began to be venerated there only then, when a part of them was communicated to the Fanum of St. Manechildis.
The saint's body after death buried at Bienville. The praised Testenoire describes the place of our saint's dwelling in this manner: *The place destined for her dwelling was called Bienville, a village situated on the river Marne, which still retains the same name, and to this day belongs to the lady of Chastel. There is found
the same village, in the same manner in which it is here described, in the geographical maps of William de l'Isle, in the district of Perthois between the town of Saint-Dizier and Joinville; and Testenoire then places the place of her burial also in the same village: She assigned (he says) what she had received from her father to succour their (the poor's) necessities, and to build a house of God in the place in which, during her life, she had striven for His service; her body was buried in the same church. And this I judge to be especially in accord with the truth: for, as is established from the Lives of SS. Pusinna and Lutrudis, the same place which those saints made illustrious by their life and virtues was also for them both the place of death and of burial; while of her two other sisters, Hoyldis and Ama, as the place of dwelling, so also that of burial is unknown: wherefore it is altogether to be asserted that the same happened also to St. Manechildis as to her holy sisters, and that her body after her death was laid up in the same village, either in the church built there or in some oratory which she no doubt had there.
[10] Now the sacred remains of the holy virgin remained buried in the aforesaid village [from the same place of burial it was translated to the abbey of St. Urban about the year 866,] until they were translated partly to the church of the monastery of St. Urban in the district of Perthois near Joinville, partly to the castle of Conthe in the district of Fredunum; which is made manifest to have happened about three centuries after her decease from the praised Testenoire, and from the praised Acts, Arthur in the Gynaeceum of Virgins and Rapine, agreeing with him: it is pleasing here again to render the words of Testenoire in Latin: He (God) raised up a bishop of Châlons named Archanradus, who established three or four leagues from there (from Bienville) a congregation of religious of St. Benedict in a church dedicated to the divine honour under the name of St. Urban, which is seen still to this day near Joinville, though it retains no more than a shadow of its ancient beauty: the same excellent prelate ordered the body of our glorious patroness to be translated into the same church, with solemnity and the joy of all Christians, and to be placed beside the relics of the same glorious martyr. But since Archanradus, or Erchanravus, or also Archanraus, completed the abbey of St. Urban in the year 865 according to Mabillon, volume III of the Benedictine Annals, in whom is extant the charter given by Charles the Bald for its construction, and the authors of Gallia Christiana, and held the episcopate of Châlons only until the year 867, in which he died, it is necessary that the sacred body of the holy virgin was translated thither a short time after the same monastery was completed, namely about the year 866.
[11] [except the head, which was translated at the same time to the castle of Standunum;] The praised Acts of the holy virgin here disagree with the praised Testenoire in the name of the bishop, whom they call Archambaud: But a congregation of monks having been made (they say) by Archambaud, bishop of Châlons, a church was built and gathered together in honour of St. Urban, whither the body of the holy virgin was translated with joy and solemn festivity, and placed with the pledges of the venerable martyr. But by an evident error, easy on account of the nearness of the names, they attribute to Archambald the construction of the church and monastery of St. Urban, and so the translation of our saint's relics to it, which, from the said charter of Charles the Bald, in which he professes that he was incited to found the aforesaid monastery at the exhortation of his beloved wife Hirmintrudis and at the entreaty of the venerable Erchanravus, bishop of the holy mother church of Châlons, is manifestly to have been carried out by Archanraus or Erchanravus. Testenoire then continues: And in order that the memory of her holy life might be preserved in different parts of the earth, her sacred head was translated to the castle of Conthe in the village of Fredunum, as it was then called. The praised Acts, nearly agreeing with these, have this: Without the head, which in the castle founded by her name in the district of Fraudunum is laid up and venerated with due honour. From these words of the Acts and also of Testenoire it is gathered that the head was translated at the same time as the rest of the body to the abbey of St. Urban, to the aforesaid castle, which by Testenoire is called Conthense, or the castle of Conthe, and in the Acts is insinuated to have been called the castle of St. Manechildis. Of this castle indeed, after long inquiry, I found no account except in the Notes subjoined by the Reverend Father Chifflet to the praised Acts, who noted that the aforesaid castle was at that time called Stadunum or Standunum, from which the surrounding district and archdeaconry is called Stadunensis, in the vernacular Estenois; and he warned that the author of the Acts himself, who corrupted it into Fraudunum (and so too Testenoire, who corrupted it into Fredunum) and made it different from the town and castle of St. Manechildis, is to be corrected.
[12] [in which abbey the greater part of the same is perhaps still preserved at this time:] Two testimonies have still to be adduced here which wonderfully confirm the aforesaid translation of her sacred body to the oft-mentioned abbey: one of Henschenius in the commentary on the translation of the relics of St. Urban in our work at the 25th of May, where he writes this: At the same time it was to be indicated that in the same abbey two other caskets are kept, of which one contains the greater part of the body of St. Manechildis, whose feast is kept on the 14th of October. The other of Baugier, volume II of the Historical Memoirs of Champagne, page 155, where after the description of the same abbey he says: There is seen in the church of the same abbey the casket of St. Manechildis, made only of painted boards, to which her body was brought after her death from the village of Bienville. Testenoire complains that the silver case in which that sacred body was originally enclosed was plundered by soldiers, the relics enclosed in it, however, being unharmed; and since it is not likely that the said remains were translated elsewhere after Baugier, an author of this century, it is permissible to believe that they are kept in the same abbey even today.
[13] from it then a certain part of the same body More than 5 centuries having elapsed from the mentioned translation of the sacred remains of the holy virgin to the abbey of St. Urban, the most trustworthy Testenoire again testifies in this matter that certain parts of them, namely the principal bone of one arm and a whole rib, were carried to the town which from her name is called Fanum Sanctae Manechildis, writing thus of this translation: And many years after these things the noble knight John de Saulx, lord of Cernonnum (Cernacum, I believe, in the district of Dormois, in French Cernay-en-Dormois) and of Castrum Bussinum (in French Bussy-le-Château), distant two or three leagues from Châlons, … humbly besought the reverend and religious men, the abbot and convent of the said abbey of St. Urban, that they would grant some part of the same most worthy body, so that he might thence arrange an honourable reliquary; and, wishing to satisfy his humble petitions, they granted him, with the consent of their whole chapter, a great and noble part, namely the principal bone of the arm and a whole rib … which great treasures he took care should be fittingly enclosed in caskets of gilded silver … and considering on the other side that the parish church of the castle and town, which from their first institution rejoiced in the name of the same great saint, had not yet been enriched with even the least relic of her … he assigned for ever those venerable relics, enclosed as I said above, to the church of St. Manechildis.
[14] was carried to the town of St. Manechildis in the year 1379, Then, having enumerated many persons whose names he found in the charters of the said relics, who were present at that translation, he subjoins this: That precious treasure was brought here to us in the year of salvation 1379, the last of King Charles V, called the Wise, at which time the most reverend father in God Archambald held the episcopal see in the city of Châlons. The praised Acts of the holy virgin agree here with Testenoire, except that they again erroneously note the bishop Archanradus for Archambald or Archambaud: But of this most sacred body (they say), resting in the monastery of St. Urban, a certain portion, namely of one arm, and a rib was translated by the noble man John, lord of Cernonnum, knight, and conferred and assigned in perpetuity to the parish church of the town which is called by the name of this virgin, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine, King Charles reigning, and the venerable father lord Archanrandus presiding as bishop at Châlons. For besides the fact that, as I warned above, the author of these, narrating first the translation to the town of St. Manechildis and afterwards that to the monastery of St. Urban, inverts the order of the history, by an error easy on account of the nearness of the names he also inverts the names of the bishops Archanrandus or Archanraus and Archambaud or Archambald: for as it is certain that the construction of the abbey of St. Urban, and the translation of the body of St. Manechildis to it, is to be ascribed to Archanraus, so also it is certain that the translation of the aforesaid part of the same to the mentioned town is to be ascribed to Archambald, who in the year 1379, in which this translation is placed by the Acts themselves, held the episcopate of Châlons, as may be seen in the authors of Gallia Christiana.
[15] where for many centuries already Furthermore, although the mentioned town received the said relics of our saint only in the year 1379, yet for a long time before that same year it was designated by the name of the same saint, and she was honoured there with ecclesiastical cult: for Lawrence of Liège, the continuator of the history of the bishops of Verdun, writing before the middle of the twelfth century, already then lists two lords of the same town under the name of St. Manechildis: the one, to whom he was contemporary, Albert, lord of St. Manechildis; the other, to whom he was nearly contemporary, Manasses, count of Rethel and of St. Manechildis under Theoderic, the 40th bishop of Verdun, from the year 1045 until the year 1088, and so a lord in the eleventh century: whence it is clear that already in the twelfth and also the eleventh century the same town was commonly called St. Manechildis, and accordingly that already then for a long time, nay rather, if it is permissible to agree with Testenoire praised at no. 13, from its very first institution and foundation (which, however, is to be understood of the institution and foundation of the church of the same town, which Adrien de Valois not improbably supposes to have had anciently the name Auxuenna, from the Itinerary of Antoninus), it rejoiced in that name.
[16] Led perhaps by this reason, Baillet, with Godescard following him, wrongly asserted that the body of our saint was carried after her death to the aforesaid town, she had been venerated as patroness. or buried in it, and that from the celebrity of her cult flowing thence her name was given to it, writing this in volume III of the Lives of the Saints: After the death (of St. Manechildis) her body was carried to the church of the town of Auxuenna, … her cult there became so celebrated that the city lost its ancient name, and was no longer known except under that (name) of St. Manechildis, which it still bears to this day. But since it is established from what has been said that the mentioned town never had the body of the same saint, nor perhaps before the year 1379 certain parts of it, if he judged truly who
sought them from the monks of St. Urban and gave them to the same town, John, lord of Cernay, possessed them, I judge, with the praised de Valois, that the same town obtained her name from the fact that St. Manechildis was taken as its patroness and, as such, was venerated there for many centuries before her relics were brought thither; de Valois, in his Notitia Galliarum, at the word Auxuenna, has this: By the name of Auxuenna I think there is designated by Aethicus the town of Sancta Manechildis or Manegildis, commonly called S. Manehou or S. Menehoult from the patroness of the place: for it was quite natural that a holy virgin of Champagne, and of celebrated memory in Champagne, should be adopted as patroness of a city and church of Champagne, should be celebrated there as such, and thence should communicate her name to the same church and town, although no relics of hers then existed there; just as probably none exist in the collegiate church of the town of Palluau either, and yet this church has her as patroness, as I observed above at no. 3, and is called from her name the church of St. Manechildis.
ACTS
From an old manuscript codex of the town and castle of St. Manechildis.
Manegildis or Manechildis, virgin, in the diocese of Châlons. (S.)
BHL Number: 5207
The sacred remains of the holy virgin, who died in a solitary place, Manechildis was the youngest sister of St. Ama, virgin, begotten of her father Cygmarus a and her mother Lutrudis; she, shining especially with the nobility of the world, more renowned by divine nobility, after she had taken the resolution of holy life from the blessed bishop Alpinus, appeared among the daughters of men of an incomparable distinction of merits. Her father gave her her share among her sisters, and the cord of inheritance, where she might dwell, serving God faithfully under the habit of chastity; and the place was Bienville b (by an ancient name from its founder ), which, situated on the river Marne, flourishing and fortunate in many and diverse conveniences for our human life, merited from God this greatest and chief thing: that through the abiding and dwelling of the virgin it seemed to have the Lord as its inhabitant; for divine providence increased its felicities to such an extent that, while the glorious virgin dwelt there, God also dwelt there. This holy and glorious virgin, therefore, whom the Lord of all loved, is not without cause called Manechildis: MANECRUIN in Hebrew means the same as in Latin number or completion, and HILA designates exalted or exaltation. And this wise virgin, who fulfilled all the commandments of God, whom the Lord of all loved, whom the Lord, finding her watching, with lamp taken up and oil provided, led in with Himself to the wedding, having completed the most holy course of her life, numbered among the choirs of angels and virgins, has long rejoiced exalted c in heaven, and now by the memory of her holiness and by the presence of her relics remains to us a great exultation on earth.
[2] were honoured in three places, here named Thus, then, she is rightly called Manechildis or Manechilda, by whose soul heaven, and by whose body the earth, is adorned. Now of this most sacred body, resting in the monastery of St. Urban, a certain portion, namely of one arm, and a rib was translated by the noble man John, lord of Cernonnum, d knight, and conferred and assigned in perpetuity to the parish church of the town which is called by the name of this virgin, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine, e on the fourteenth day of the month of October, which is the birthday of the same virgin, the most illustrious Charles, king of the Franks, reigning, and the venerable father lord Archanrandus f presiding as bishop at Châlons. But a congregation of monks having been made by Archambaud, g bishop of Châlons, a church was built and gathered together in honour of St. Urban, whither the body of the holy virgin was translated with joy and solemn festivity, and placed with the pledges of the venerable martyr, without the head, which in the castle founded by her name in the district of Fraudunum, h is laid up and venerated with due honour. i And of this most worthy body the arm and rib were translated, as has been said, to the parish church which is adorned with the name of this virgin, to be honoured there for perpetual times. were honoured. By the providence of God, therefore, this venerable body is divided into three parts: for the head is venerated with reverence in the aforesaid castle; and that noble portion translated as aforesaid is most devoutly venerated and embraced in this church of St. Manechildis; and the whole remainder of that most sacred body is honourably preserved in the monastery itself of St. Urban.
ANNOTATIONS.
* These words enclosed in brackets seem to be superfluous.
accreverunt.*