Gaudericus

ON ST. GAUDERICUS, GUALDERICUS, OR GALDERICUS, CONFESSOR, A FARMER OF OCCITANIA IN GAUL,

Before the 10th century, as it seems.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gualdericus, farmer, in Occitania. (S.)

§ I. On the name, the namesakes and the biographers of St. Gaudericus; a synopsis of his life.

The names of St. Gaudericus, and namesakes. St. Gaudericus, whose chief Latin names we have written at the front of this Commentary, is called in French by Claude Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology St. Galdry, but by Peyronet, doctor of theology of Toulouse, and, as an Occitan, a more suitable witness, in his Catalogue of the Saints, St. Goëry, and finally St. Goëric by Fr. Pierre Marie d'Auzers of the Society of Jesus, who, while he was formerly living in the college of Mauriac, sent the Mirepoix lessons on St. Gaudericus to our predecessors; but d'Expilly in his Geographical Dictionary, where he reviews the villages subject to Mirepoix, Cassini in the topographical maps of France, and the authors of the Universal Dictionary of France, printed at Paris in the year 1804, call him in the vernacular St. Gauderic: while the Catalans on the borders of Spain agree in calling him San-Galderique. As we noted at the beginning of the Commentary on St. Balderic, founder of Montfaucon, Weissbacher in the Legend of the Saints of the secular priesthood confused St. Balderic with St. Gaudericus, although not only are their country, offices and places of cult altogether different, but even the names themselves do not seem to have the same signification. For while Balderic, as we have said elsewhere, indicates a man remarkable for daring, Galderic, Gualderic, or Gauderic seems to denote a man conspicuous for power. For G and W are easily interchanged with each other in Frankish names, as we have in the words Willelmus and Guillelmus, Walbertus and Gualbertus, Walterus and Gualterus or Galterus, etc. Further, wald in names signifies power Wiarda, Deutsche Vornamen, etc., p. 42., and ric rich; so that Galdericus, Gualdericus or Waldericus is the same as one who abounds in power, or is conspicuous. There is scarcely need for me to note that from our St. Gaudericus are to be distinguished St. Gaugericus, bishop of Cambrai, whom Baronius in the Annals Vol. XI, at the year 615, § XII. calls Gaudericus, and of whom our forebears spoke at the 11th day of August; St. Godericus or Goericus, bishop of Metz, venerated on the 19th day of September; St. Godric, an English hermit, to whose veneration the 21st day of May is assigned; and St. Gericus, Guericus or Goericus, archbishop of Sens, whose birthday is kept on the 27th day of August. So much concerning the name and the namesakes.

[2] Five known to us Now if we turn our pen to the biographers, five in number have come our way: for in the first place I reckon that there can be counted among the biographical writings the lessons which were formerly used in the ecclesiastical Office of St. Gaudericus in the southern tract of Gaul; and in the second place comes Vicente Domenec, who inserted the Life of our Saint into the general History of the Saints of Catalonia p. 199 and following; for the sake of writing which History he is said in the library of the writers of the Order of Preachers Vol. II. p. 360. to have travelled through Catalonia four times, and to have undertaken that journey in order to search out whatever hidden instruments he could. He died at Gerona in the year 1606 in the odour of sanctity. What he wrote about St. Gaudericus was taken, as he himself says in Catalan or Spanish p. 199., from the Breviary of the diocese of Elne (Perpignan) and from an old MS. codex which is preserved in the monastery of Canigou; of which codex there will be talk a little below. Our third biographer is Reginald Poc, who in the year 1627 published a little work on two farmer Saints, Gaudericus and Isidore, under the title: Compendio de la vida, muerte, y milagros de los dos gloriosos labradores San Galderique de Canigon, y San Isidoro de Madrid repartido en dos libros por el Padre presentado F. Reginaldo Poc, natural de Planolas, de la Orden de Predicadores, doctor y cathedratico de theologia en la antiquissima universidad de Perpinan [Compendium of the life, death and miracles of the two glorious farmers San Galderique of Canigou and San Isidro of Madrid, divided into two books by the Father Presentee Fr. Reginald Poc, native of Planoles, of the Order of Preachers, doctor and professor of theology in the most ancient university of Perpignan]. At Perpignan, printed by Luis Roure, 1627. Outside the region of Perpignan that book seems rather rare, so that it is well advised to warn the reader in the library of the writers of the Order of Preachers Vol. II, p. 461. that that little work will be found in the royal library of Paris, where we too were obliged to use it, not finding it elsewhere. Tamayo in the Spanish Martyrology Vol. V, p. 553. praised this Life beyond measure when he wrote

that in it not only were the life and very many miracles of St. Gaudericus put together, but also the site, privileges and lordships of the monastery of Canigou, which had notable Relics of St. Gaudericus, were set out in it; but as regards these things, I have found no more in it than in the Marca Hispanica of Pierre de Marca, who (and Reginald omitted these) inserted authentic monuments in the appendix of his volume. For the rest, Poc used the same instruments as Domenec for following out the deeds of our blessed farmer.

[3] biographer, most The fourth biographer, and he anonymous, who is said to have drawn all his matter either from his own store or from the cited writers, became known to us from a letter of the celebrated Mr. Puiggari, given on the 22nd day of October of the year 1841 to the Rev. Mr. Labatut, canon of the cathedral church of Carcassonne, and transmitted to us through the care of the Rev. Fr. Tinseau, a most obliging patron of our studies. That Anonymous is said to have written his little work in French in the year 1705, and ten years after to have entrusted it to the presses of Perpignan. The Spanish martyrologist Tamayo, whom we named a little above, is our fifth biographer, since in his work at this day he has published certain Acts of St. Gaudericus, at the end of which he wrote these words: "These are the Acts which Vicente Domenec and Reginald Poc took from the Legendary of the monastery of Canigou in the Spanish idiom." But, as we saw a little above, Vicente himself testifies that he collected his narrative both from the Breviary of Elne and from an old MS. codex: whence what Tamayo means is not so clear. Nevertheless, since Tamayo has nothing that is out of keeping with the Mirepoix lessons and with the statements of Vicente and Reginald, there is less to fear for the truth of the matter than for the antiquity of the writing which is to be published by us below, as we are destitute of others.

[4] using the Canigou MS. codex, St. Gaudericus obtained. Nor can this antiquity of the codex be greatly venerable, unless miracles were successively added to it as God willed them to shine forth: for Domenec, who used it, sets out according to it a miracle which is to be referred to the year 1483: whence what this writer affirms about its antiquity, saying that it was written in ancient letters, is to be understood of scarcely one century; since it is established from the approbations that Domenec wrote these things before the year 1603. Not out of keeping with these are the words which occur in the very Acts published by Tamayo: "By these and other garlands of virtues the farmer was so pleasing to the Lord that while still living he came to receive the gift of miracles; the account of which either the holy man's modesty concealed or envious antiquity has obliterated, although two are still very earnestly preserved in the hearts of the inhabitants." I strongly doubt, however, whether Tamayo is to be heeded when he hints that only one MS. codex on St. Gaudericus existed. For Jerónimo Pujades, author of the universal Chronicle of Catalonia, written indeed at the beginning of the 17th century but published in the year 1831 at Barcelona, departs somewhat from Domenec in relating the translation of St. Gaudericus: which will be seen in § III of this Commentary. Be that as it may, we have taken pains, as far as lay in us, to obtain the Canigou codex. But here is the kind of answer the Rev. Fr. Tinseau brought back to us from the praised and celebrated Mr. Puiggari, who writes that he had been occupied in collecting the most complete possible information on Mount Canigou: "The Canigou MS. codex which Domenec mentions could by no means be found by me. For almost nothing remains of the archive of the monastery of St. Martin. I have in my keeping an index of the titles and charters which were kept in it in the year 1586, at which time this index was made by the apostolic visitor. I have likewise in my keeping another index made in the year 1787 by order of our supreme council; and in neither is mention made of this codex, although otherwise St. Gaudericus is mentioned two or three times in them." So he.

[5] Synopsis of the Life But so that the reader may have before his eyes already at the threshold of this Commentary the deeds of St. Gaudericus that are known, it has seemed good to bring forward here the lessons which were formerly recited at Mirepoix in the ecclesiastical Office on the 16th day of October; and they run thus: "Lesson IV. Gaudericus, born in the territory of Toulouse, of humble station but of pious parents, following his father's example, practised agriculture. As a youth he gave admirable examples of all the virtues: for, spurning youthful games and the allurements of the world, he gave to prayer all the time that was free from cultivating the land or from domestic tasks. Nothing was more continent than he, nothing more modest. Having taken up the management of the household, he ordered it according to the divine precepts, and by the examples of a most holy life shaped it in Christian manners. Merciful and beneficent towards the poor, he both received them at home and also supported them from his means.

[6] of St. Gaudericus Lesson V. He venerated the most holy Mother of God most religiously: in whose honour, as often as at the appointed times the bell was rung for her salutation, according to the custom established in the diocese of Toulouse long before it was received by the universal Church, so often, at once uncovering his head in whatever place he was, and bending his knees, he saluted the Mother of God. This kind of homage shown to the Virgin Mother God approved by a signal miracle. For when once in the evening the man of God, returning from his farm work, was crossing a stream almost adjoining the town in which he lived, it chanced that the bell from the tower of the church gave the signal for saluting the Virgin: Gaudericus, mindful of his pious practice, falls on his knees in the very midst of the waters. These, reverencing the holiness of the man, divided at once into two parts and left the place in which he had knelt dry.

[7] from the Mirepoix lessons. Lesson VI. By very many other miracles God left the holiness of His servant attested, by which the name of Gaudericus shone everywhere great and holy. This above all is celebrated, that while he was threshing his grain in summer time, having poured out prayers to God, who does the will of those who fear Him, he not only drove from his threshing-floor a storm that had suddenly arisen, but by a prodigy hitherto unheard of obtained this too, that while the whirlwind of hail that had been sent overthrew everything round about, and the rain, falling the more abundantly from the earth-born and thickened clouds, washed away all the neighbouring places, the sun meanwhile shone in a calm and serene sky upon the dry threshing-floor of Gaudericus. At length the holy man, full of virtues and merits, was called away to heavenly blessedness on the 17th day before the Kalends of November."

§ II. It is asked whether St. Gaudericus practised the devotion called the Angelus.

Did St. Gaudericus observe the devotion called the Angelus? As is clear from the lessons recited, among the deeds of St. Gaudericus one, his devotion towards the Most Blessed Virgin, or rather his religious custom of saluting her when the signal for it was given by the ringing of the bell (the Mirepoix lessons and other monuments will have it that this was the custom in the diocese of Toulouse long before it had prevailed in the universal Church), seems to call for examination. And indeed, to profess my opinion without circumlocution, I do not hesitate to adhere to the side of those who deny it, if there are any; both because it is not probable that St. Gaudericus in the 9th century used the Angelic Salutation which is here indicated; and because certainly at that time the custom of ringing a bell to indicate that the Mother of God was to be honoured was not in use. But so that the reader may better understand the things that pertain to this question, it will help to pursue that argument a little more at length. As regards, however, the former part of this examination, since it has already been treated by Mabillon [Acta SS. of the Order of St. Benedict, Saec. V, pref. §119.], and a few years later by the most learned Grancolas in his Historical Commentary on the Roman Breviary Book I, chap. XV, p. 73., then by Trombelli Vol. V, Dissert. IV, q. 2., as I understand from Gerbert discoursing on the Old Alemannic Liturgy, we shall reef our sails as far as the nature of the question will allow.

[9] In the sixth century indeed the Syrians used a certain Angelic Salutation, First of all it must be confessed that already in the 6th century an Angelic Salutation was in use among the Syrians, such as was translated from the Syriac idiom into Latin and published in both languages by Guy Le Fèvre de la Boderie: whence, carried over into the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum of Lyons Vol. XII, p. 736., it runs thus: "Peace to thee, Mary, full of grace: our Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit which is in thy womb, Jesus Christ. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us, I say, sinners. Amen." The version in Grancolas is a little different, who in the aforecited Commentary Book I, chap. XXV, p. 74. published it thus: "Peace to thee, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed the fruit which is in thy womb, Christ alone. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, I say, sinners. Amen." This formula is to be tied, as I have said, to at least the beginning of the 6th century, since Severus of Antioch shows it among various prayers (namely after the Lord's Prayer) which he subjoins to the Book on the rites of baptism and of the holy synaxis received among the Syrian Christians. And this Severus, on the authority of J. A. Fabricius Bibl. Graec., Vol. X, p. 614. Hamburg ed. 1807., ascended the see of Antioch in the year 513, and according to the opinion of Assemani Bibl. Orient., Vol. II, p. 321. died his last day in the year 539.

[10] as against Grancolas and Gerbert But Grancolas objects Book I, chap. XXV, p. 74.; and Gerbert agrees with him in Disquisition VIII on the several parts of the canonical Hours Chap. XI, p. 821.. Let Jean Grancolas be heard: "Nor does the little book on the rites of baptism bearing the name of Severus, patriarch of Alexandria, at the end of which this prayer is found, deserve any credit; for none among the patriarchs of Alexandria was called Severus; which is the reason why in certain manuscript codices it is ascribed to Severus of Antioch. But the ancients who mention the works of Severus of Antioch make no mention of the book on baptism." But, by Grancolas's good leave, who, I ask, would not judge unworthy of a most learned writer the first argument which he sets out, and which is a mere hypothesis? For it is worth no more than if he had said plainly: This book is not the offspring of the patriarch of Alexandria, therefore it was not published by the patriarch of Antioch either; for that clause, "which is the reason why in certain codices, etc.," is wholly gratuitous; indeed the variety of the inscriptions required one to reason thus: in certain MS. codices that book is ascribed to Severus of Alexandria, in others to Severus of Antioch; but Severus of Alexandria never existed; therefore it is to be ascribed to the patriarch of Antioch alone. The second proof, however, by which Grancolas props up his opinion, is merely negative; wherefore it is valid only in so far as it was fitting that the old writers should speak of this book. But there is nothing of the kind: for it is merely liturgical, and contains only the ceremonies and prayers which were used in baptism among certain heretical Syrians. And since Severus had written

little works in which he set out his errors much more clearly, it was natural that the orthodox should attack these and be silent about this book; which indeed is the more natural the more probable it is that these rites were not composed by Severus, but only somewhat altered in a very few points: whence nevertheless they were afterwards ascribed to him.

[11] it is proved from the work of Severus of Antioch: To which is added the most weighty testimony of J. A. Fabricius Bibl. Graec., Vol. X, p. 622., who does not in the least hesitate to number among the writings of Severus of Antioch the Book on the rites of baptism and of the holy synaxis received among the Syrian Christians, ascribed, as he says, to a former patriarch of Alexandria; "but," as he goes on, "in Guy's Syriac codex he is called only Mar Severus the patriarch. And wrongly," says Richard Simon on Gabriel of Philadelphia p. 290., "is that rite ascribed in the printed copies to Severus, patriarch of Alexandria. The MS. codex which I consulted bears the name of Severus, patriarch of Antioch, and differs in many respects from the printed one. It is preserved in the library of the celebrated Mr. Claude Hardy." So the learned Fabricius. See moreover Montfaucon Bibl. Bibliothec. MSS. p. 713., who likewise ascribes the rites of baptizing to Severus, patriarch of Antioch, on the faith of a Syriac codex. And in a note of the recent editors of Fabricius's Bibliotheca Bibl. Graec., p. 623., two other codices are mentioned, of which the one is called the Liturgy of Severus the heretic, the other the Liturgy of Severus of Antioch. For the rest, some passages in these rites savour of Eutyches; and it is well known besides that Severus was called by the heretical Syrians the mouth of all the doctors; whence, on account of this authority among his own, he could easily alter these rites somewhat and adorn them with his name.

[12] and the same was used in Spain before the 10th century. But that instance sought from Severus regards the East, not at all the West. In the West a certain form of the Angelic Salutation was first used by Gregory the Great, namely in the Offertory of the Mass of the 4th Sunday of Advent; but it comprises only the words of the Angel, and is rather an Antiphon than a Prayer; wherefore, as regards the use of the faithful, it is of very slight moment. Another testimony more favourable to the devotion of the Westerners is shown by the Life of St. Ildefonsus, bishop of Toledo, which, as Mabillon witnesses, Godescalc, a bishop of Aquitaine, brought from Spain in the ninth century, and which the monk Hermann found at Châlons at the beginning of the twelfth century, as is clear from the letter to Bartholomew of Laon [Compare Mabillon, Acta SS. of the Order of St. Benedict, Saec. II, p. 520 and Saec. V, in the preface §119; and the Gallia Christiana, Vol. IX col. 529.]. And that testimony runs thus: "The blessed bishop … saw the same our Lady sitting … in his chair… And at once the bishop, bending his knees, began to repeat to her that verse of the Angelic Salutation, saying it many times: 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.' And having finished the verse he kept repeating it again and again, until he came before her presence." Even if this narrative were false (which we neither affirm nor deny, since the difficulty is quite great in assigning the writer of the Life, which seems wrongly to be ascribed to Julian, the successor of St. Ildefonsus Acta SS. of the Order of St. Benedict, Saec. II, p. 515.), whatever, I say, may be the truth about the fact itself, it is nevertheless certain that in the ninth century the Angelic Salutation was known in Spain, since at this time these Acts were brought from there. Moreover this formula also exists in the Mozarabic Liturgy; but after "of thy womb" there is subjoined only: "because thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls." Whether this antiphon goes back to the times of St. Ildefonsus, let the Spanish liturgical writers see: I confess that I have inquired in vain for the means of establishing this last point.

[13] but not likewise in other places. Be that as it may, if it is now asked whether in the 10th century outside Spain the Angelic Salutation was used by the people, it is manifest that a subject entangled in the gravest doubts is being proposed; and it has already been treated by Mabillon, Grancolas, and Trombelli in the places cited above, who embraced the negative opinion: to whose proofs, which there is no leisure to review, we shall add this one thing, that no trace of that devotion is found among the Anglo-Saxon, Theotiscan, Belgian, Gothic, British, Icelandic, Alemannic, etc., catechetical monuments which Schilter inserted into his Thesaurus of Teutonic Antiquities; and that the Angelic Salutation which Ryckel published in the Life of St. Gertrude p. 57., and seems to attach to the old Anglo-Saxons and Belgians, is held by me to be of a more recent age, unless rather it was taken from a version of the Gospel than from a Euchologion. Wherefore it seems that it must be held with Mabillon that it was not in common use before the 11th century. For St. Peter Damian, who flourished in the 11th century, thought it worth relating that a certain priest was accustomed to recite it daily Opusc. XXXIII, chap. III.; although he himself composed a Rhythm on the Angelic Salutation, which is to be found in volume III of his Works, and at the end of the same century Odo of Sully, bishop of Paris, prescribed this prayer to the people. What was practised in the following years may be read in the aforepraised writers; who in the cited places also treat of the third part of the Angelic Salutation, added in certain places already at the end of the 14th century, not of the 15th, as Trombelli maintains against Mabillon. Although some things have come my way both in Breviaries and in councils and sacred writers which I see have not yet been noticed, they have nevertheless seemed fit to be passed over, since they add no new light to our question. From what has been said, however, it is clear enough that it is in no way probable that St. Gaudericus, a rude and simple farmer, used in the 9th century the words of the Angel and of St. Elizabeth to salute the Mother of God. But let the reader allow us to inquire a little more at length into the antiquity and fortunes of the prayer called the Angelus.

[14] The opinion of Mabillon is set out Of that laudable usage Mabillon speaks in these words [Acta SS. of the Order of St. Benedict, Saec. V, pref. §122.]: "That it (namely the Angelic Salutation) should be recited three times at the hour of curfew, at bedtime, John XXII established, granting indulgences. The synod of Sens in the year 1346 admitted this decree; for so it says in chap. XIII: 'Likewise by the authority of the said council we command that the ordinance made by Pope John XXII of holy memory concerning saying the Ave Maria three times at the time or hour of curfew be inviolably observed: in which ordinance a certain indulgence is granted,' etc. The synod adds thirty days by its own authority, and twenty days of the suffragans, for those who shall then have said the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria for the Church, the king and the royal family, and the state of the kingdom. Afterwards the same rite was introduced for the morning time and midday. In the synod of Lavaur of the year 1368 it is commanded to the rectors and curates of parishes, under pain of excommunication, in chap. CXXVII, that about sunrise they should cause one bell to be rung in the same manner in which it was wont to be rung at night: and then to those who in honour of the five wounds of Christ the Lord shall have said the Lord's Prayer five times, and the Angelic Salutation seven times, on bended knees, thirty days of the penances enjoined are relaxed. Afterwards, however, this number was reduced to three salutations.

[15] on the antiquity of the prayer which is called the Angelus: In the Statutes of François du Puy, prior of the Grande Chartreuse from the beginning of the 16th century, we read thus in chap. I: 'In all the houses of the Order which are under the dominion of the lord king of France, every day at the hour of noon, by apostolic ordinance, let the bell be rung for the Ave Maria, for the preservation of the peace of the said kingdom, in the same way in which it is rung at the hour of Compline: and let each person of the same houses say the Ave Maria three times, for which on each occasion they shall obtain three hundred days of indulgence by apostolic indult, being truly penitent and confessed.' From which it is understood that this custom began from Gaul about the beginning of the 16th century. Certainly in the history of our monastery of Paris, that is, of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, it is read in Jacques du Breul that Leo X granted to Guillaume Briçonnet, bishop of the cities of Meaux and Lodève, and abbot of the same monastery, for the spiritual benefit of both his dioceses and of the natives of the suburb of Saint-Germain and of those coming to it, that whoever at the ringing of the bell at dawn, midday and after sunset should recite the Angelic Salutation three times on bended knees should obtain one thousand five hundred days of indulgence on each occasion." This is the opinion of Mabillon.

[16] St. Bonaventure spread this practice of devotion, Mabillon's associates agree with him, who in the enlarged edition of du Cange's Glossary write thus: "The institution of this, which began first at the ringing of the curfew, some credit to St. Bonaventure; others, which is more probable, to Pope John XXII." But that is by no means more probable, since, as Wadding witnesses in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1269, num. 4, St. Bonaventure treated of this matter in the general chapter of his Order celebrated at Assisi. Here are Wadding's words Vol. IV, p. 296.: "He added also that all the Friars should exhort privately, and teach publicly from the pulpits, all the faithful at the threefold ringing of the bell late in the evening to salute the same Virgin (Mother of God) three times with the angelic words; for he was of the opinion, with very many other Doctors, that at that hour she received from the Archangel Gabriel the divine message of conceiving the eternal Word: from which time this custom spread in holy Church, so that everywhere on earth it is held in the highest observance." I pass over the assertions of Beyerlinck, who in the Theatre of Human Life Vol. V, p. 230., at the article Cult of the B. V. Mary, relates that St. Bonaventure in a certain sermon before Pope Sixtus IV (who however sat a century later) demanded leave to promulgate this decree. But with the testimony of Wadding agrees the narrative of Octavian de Martinis; who, when in the year 1475 there was question of enrolling St. Bonaventure among the Saints, in his oration, published by our predecessors at the 14th of July Acta SS., Vol. II of July, p. 826., speaks thus: "The same most devout worshipper of the glorious Virgin Mother of Jesus also instituted that the friars should exhort the people to salute her at the signal of the bell which is given after Compline: because it is believed that she was saluted by the Angel at that hour." Which testimony surely snatches the palm from John XXI, called XXII, who only on the 3rd day before the Ides of October, in the third year of his pontificate, granted ten days of indulgences to those who in the evening on bended knees should recite the Ave Maria three times at the signal of the bell, according to the custom kept in the diocese of Saintes, as the decree proves which Raynaldus shows at the year 1318 Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Annals of Baronius at the year 1318, § LVIII., and in the year 1327 introduced the same custom at Rome, as Raynaldus made certain by again producing the instrument at this year Ibid. at the year 1327. § LIV..

[17] which either Gregory IX or Honorius III had long before approved, Nevertheless St. Bonaventure himself is rather to be called the propagator than the institutor of this most holy devotion. For concerning Gregory IX, who was Supreme Pontiff from the year 1227 to the year 1241, Ciaconius has published Hist. Pontif. Roman., Vol. II, col. 70. this assertion: "He also instituted the universal use and custom, which the Christian Church observes, of ringing the bells after sunset and praying to the Virgin Mother of God at their signal." Which Andrea Vittorelli confirms in the added notes Ibid., col. 73. in these words: "That Gregory IX established that the bells should be rung at the consecration of the most holy Eucharist and for the Angelic Salutation, Génébrard wrote, after the abbot of Ursperg, in book IV of his Chronography. Others ascribe this to Honorius III (who sat at Rome from 1216 to 1227)." Which citation is unfaithful: since in Génébrard's Chronicle Book IV, p. 641. Lyons ed. of the year 1609. Génébrard himself ascribes this statute to Gregory IX, adding however: "Others ascribe this statute to Honorius III, as the abbot of Ursperg," who is the same as Conrad of Lichtenau, who obtained the crozier of Ursperg, or Auersperg, from the year 1215 up to the year 1240. And from these things it is plainly evident that this devout practice is a whole century older than the most learned Benedictine associates had thought; indeed, since the Supreme Pontiffs are wont rather to confirm special exercises of piety by their unconquerable authority than to introduce them into use, who will deny that it could very easily have happened that already a little before Honorius III or Gregory IX this devotion flourished in some places?

[18] but not Urban II. Nevertheless I cannot side with certain more recent writers, such as Croiset Vol. III, p. 397. Lyons ed. 1804., Butler Vol. III, p. 303. Louvain ed. 1829., etc., who, where they treat of the feast of the Annunciation of the B. V. M., refer the origin of that pious practice to the council of Clermont of the year 1095. Arnold Wion went before them in the Lignum Vitae Part II, p. 565., and Ferry de Locre De Augusta Maria, book VII, chap. XVI., and perhaps others who escape me. Arnold, who is for me the leader of the file, relates that by the little bell which Urban II is painted carrying under his arm this institution is designated, since he himself in the Council of Clermont established that from the first day on which the Christian army should depart to recover the holy land, evening and morning, in all the churches of the Christian world, cathedral as well as abbatial, the Christian people of either sex should be roused to prayer by a threefold ringing of the bell. I wonder much that Wion added that this was known from the council of Clermont: for my part I turn over and over in vain the canons and the writers on this council which I am able to consult. In the Life of Pope Urban II indeed, composed by Ruinart and published in volume II of his posthumous Works, I find these words p. 228.: "Indeed some also cite St. Antoninus, who relates that this was established by the Pontiff in the council (of Clermont), that from the very day on which the army was to set out on the expedition, evening and morning in all cathedral churches and monasteries a signal should be given by a threefold ringing of the bell, by which the peoples might be stirred to pour out prayers for the happy success of the expedition. Which institution indeed could have furnished the occasion for the custom of ringing for the Angelic Salutation, which afterwards prevailed among all." But my lot is unhappy, unless that of those who err is unhappier: I find nothing in St. Antoninus that bears on the matter. This Saint relates indeed Chronicles, part II, tit. XVI, § XXIII, Vol. II, p. 593, Lyons ed., 1586., what likewise occurs in other writers ready to hand, that at the persuasion of this Pontiff the recitation of the hours or prayers of the B. V. M., commonly called the little Office or Course of Blessed Mary, was prescribed, which not long before had been introduced by St. Peter Damian into his hermitage; but beyond this, so far as I know, not a jot.

[19] [It is wrongly said that this practice first obtained among the people of Toulouse.] But what is to be thought of the assertion which we reported above from the Mirepoix Breviary, namely that this practice obtained in the diocese of Toulouse before it was known in other places? I confess that, in my investigation, nothing has come my way that would establish this opinion; indeed La Faille, who spent a great part of his life in searching out the monuments and archives of Toulouse, is very far from saying that this usage is very ancient in the district of Toulouse: for he speaks thus in the Annals of the city of Toulouse at the year 1472 p. 247.: "The prayer Ave Maria was instituted in this year. The Supreme Pontiff, at the king's urgent request, bestows three hundred days of indulgences on all the faithful of Christ who, when the bell shall be rung three times at midday, shall on bended knees recite the Ave Maria three times, praying for the help of God for the king and his kingdom. This Bull was followed by a royal edict, and both instruments were ratified in all the courts of the kingdom." So, in French, the praised annalist of Toulouse; with whom many French historiographers agree, such as Fr. Daniel Vol. VIII, p. 415. Ed. 1742., Mézeray in the Life of Charles VIII, etc. Yet they err when they assert that this kind of praying was first instituted in Gaul at this time, as we shall see below.

[20] The fortunes of this practice in Italy from the 13th century And these things would almost suffice for one to understand to how great suspicion that passage taken from the Mirepoix lessons is subject. But since we are engaged in the present argument, I trust that it will not be unwelcome to the reader for the whole question to be cleared up. Wherefore, to begin with Italy, we have already learned above at num. 17 that the evening ringings of the bell for reciting the Angelic Salutation were prescribed by Honorius III or Gregory IX at the beginning of the thirteenth century. That the people might admit this devotion, St. Bonaventure strove as much as he could in the year 1269. But when a grievous storm fell upon the Roman Church, and that pious custom gradually declined in Italy, and on the contrary passed into Gaul, John XXII at the beginning of the 14th century endeavoured to restore it in Italy, granting Indulgences to be published in the City. To establish these things, there is no need for me to cite Oldoinus in the Additions to Ciaconius, Marracci in the Marian Pontiffs, or others: it will suffice to have recalled to the reader's mind the decree of the council of Sens recited at num. 14, and the twofold mandate of John XXII, which I mentioned at num. 16 from Raynaldus. But these things concern only the evening ringing of the bells.

[21] up to the beginning of the 16th century; Now about the beginning of the year 1456, when a hairy comet, red, with a long tail, appeared for some days, and the astrologers (let such things be pardoned to the ignorance of those times), the astrologers, I say, were declaring that a huge plague, a dearth of provisions, and some great disaster would come, Callixtus III, to avert the wrath of God, decreed supplications of several days, so that if anything threatened men, He might turn it all upon the Turks, the enemies of the Christian name. He commanded moreover that, in order that God might be swayed by constant entreaty, a signal should be given with the bells at midday to all the faithful, that they might help with their prayers those who were fighting against the Turks. So Ciaconius Hist. Rom. Pont., Vol. II, col. 982.; and Andrea Vittorelli confirms the same Ibid., col. 985.. But this pious custom gradually became obsolete: wherefore Alexander VI, a little after he had been saved from an imminent danger to his life, did not institute, but renewed the established institution of Callixtus III, and ordered the bells to be rung at midday, the people being admonished that by the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or the Angelic Salutation the help of God should be implored against the Turks; and a beginning was then given to this ringing on the nineteenth day of August of the year 1500. So Oldoinus Ibid., Vol. III, col. 161. and Ciaconius Ibid., col. 155., with whom agrees an eyewitness, Johann Burchard, master of ceremonies, in his Diary of the Roman Curia under Pope Alexander VI, which I find edited by Eccard in the Corpus of the Historians of the Middle Age Vol. II, col. 2123.. Let that instance concerning Italy suffice.

[22] and in Gaul from the 14th century, If we now step over to Gaul, no more ancient example of this devotion occurs than that which at num. 16, following Raynaldus, we brought forward concerning the diocese of Saintes. A second example has been found by us in the version of the Rationale of the divine office of Guillaume Durand, which Johannes Golenus (Jehan Golein) from the year 1372 to 1374 had translated into the French idiom, and enlarged with some additions. Of this kind is an addition which the celebrated Mr. Paulin Paris inserted into the History of the French MSS. of the Royal Library of Paris Vol. II, p. 67 and following. I set out first in a few words the attached fable: namely, in Germany a certain knight, accustomed to despoiling merchants, never omitted before sleep to recite the Angelic Salutation on bended knees: which devotion was the reason why he was not, like the count of Mâcon, carried off alive into hell, as the devil himself declared, who was serving him in human form. But a Carmelite drove away the demon by the sign of the cross, a putrid body being left on the ground. The rest savours of true history and is to be rendered word for word into Latin: "The knight and his wife, on the counsel of the Carmelite friars, went to the lord Pope Clement, who was staying at Carpentras; they told him what had happened, renounced their goods for God, and devoutly embraced penance. Then the Pope ordered that after Compline the bell should be rung for the Ave Maria, and granted ten days of indulgences to all who should recite this prayer in memory of the miracle. Afterwards Pope John and others likewise granted indulgences, which at length rose to 70 days. The history of this matter was painted on a panel in the greatest church of Avignon, which is dedicated to Saint Mary of the Doms." And these things seem to be referred to about the year 1314; since Clement V in the last times of his life (although he did not die there, as is wrongly asserted by one of his biographers) lived at Carpentras. For, to pass over other testimonies, Ptolemy of Lucca writes Baluze, Lives of the Popes of Avignon, Vol. I, col. 53.: "In the same year (1314), on the Kalends of March, at Carpentras, WHERE THE CURIA THEN WAS, there appeared three natural suns in the East," rather a parhelion: but, as is manifest from the biographers, Clement V had arrived there not long before, nor did he live there long after, being taken from among the living about the middle of the month of April of the same year. The third testimony is sought from the Synodal Statutes of Tréguier of the year 1334: for statute LXVIII runs thus Morice, Mémoires de Bretagne, Vol. I, col. 1306.: "Likewise the lord bishop commands all the curates of the diocese of Tréguier, in virtue of obedience, that henceforth the bell be rung three times in their churches before curfew; and that there be between the two ringings the space of one Ave Maria, and he gives to all so saying ten

days of indulgence." The reason why I attach this synod to the year 1334 is statute LXVI compared with statute VII of another synod, which, equally with the other, is to be found in Hyacinthe Morice Ibid., col. 1371..

[23] as regards the threefold A little after, in the year 1346, the synod of Sens ratified the same custom, as we reported at num. 14 from Mabillon. Which Lobineau confirms in the History of Paris at this year Hist. de Paris, Vol. I. p. 600., where he sets out all the statutes of this synod. And in the year 1369 the synod of Béziers issued this not unlike decree Martène, Thesaurus Anecdot., Vol. IV, col. 660.: "Likewise, in like manner it is ordained that henceforth at the dawn of the day the bell be rung with three strokes with the clapper of the greater bell, and that each one hearing it, of whatever state he may be, say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria three times, and to each one so saying, by the authority of Almighty God and that attributed to us, we give and grant 20 days of indulgence in remission of his sins;" but nothing there about the evening prayer. Of this, however, treats Simon, bishop of Nantes, who occupied this see from the year 1366 to 1381 or 1382; among his statutes edited by Martène there comes the following in the fifth place Ibid., col. 962.: "Likewise we command that they cause the bells to be rung at the accustomed hour in their churches for the curfew, in French Couvrefeu curfew, and command their parishioners at such ringing to say on bended knees the word of the Salutation by the Angel to the glorious Mary: Ave Maria: and by this they gain ten days of indulgence." But in what way the synod of Lavaur in the year 1368 ordered a morning signal to be given, see num. 14 of this Commentary.

[24] time of day, I have already spoken above, following La Faille and others, of the law passed by Louis XI concerning the Angelic Salutation: but since many French historiographers speak variously about this law, some saying that a morning, a midday and an evening signal were then instituted, others a midday and an evening one, others only a midday one, I shall render the very words into Latin from the edition of the year 1518 of the Mer des Histoires, which I have nowhere found noted by bibliographers Mer des Histoires, Vol. IV, fol. verso 251.: "In the year 1472, on the first day of the month of May, a most solemn public supplication was celebrated in the church of Paris (namely the cathedral): on the same day Jean Brete of Tours, doctor of sacred theology, delivered a famous oration, in which among other things he declared that the king held the Holy Virgin Mary in singular confidence, and indeed that he besought and exhorted his good citizens of Paris that each should bend the knee at the midday signal, to be given by the great bell of the said church, and recite the Angelic Salutation for the peace of the kingdom." Nor does Gaguin Annal., book X, chap. IX, p. 261. disagree with this account. What indulgences the Supreme Pontiff then granted may be seen at num. 19, where I set out the faithful testimony of La Faille.

[25] up to the 16th century; And indeed, since it is evident from the aforecited that already in one diocese in the morning, in another in the evening, in a third at midday, the signal which we now call the Angelus was given, it could easily have happened that in certain dioceses these three signals were given, even before the end of the 15th century. Nevertheless Étienne Pasquier is not to be heeded, who in his Researches on France Recherches sur la France, book IV, p. 392. affirms that it is found in the interrogatory of Joan, the Maid of Orléans, that she, before the judges questioning her on this matter in the year 1430 or 1431, answered that the voice under whose guidance she asserted that she acted had made itself known to her three times on the day before, namely in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, when the bell invited to recite the Angelic Salutation. For my part I have found nothing of the kind in the little work of G. Görres on Joan of Arc, nothing in volume III of the Notices of the Royal Library, in which the whole process is reviewed; but in the larger History of Joan of Arc, comprised in five volumes (which is not now at my hand), I certainly remember having read the very words of Joan, taken from the processes preserved at Paris, by which it is clearly established that the Maid made mention of only one ringing of the bell. Nevertheless in the tract of Normandy the threefold ringing of the bell must be quite ancient, since at n. 5 of the chapter on the duty of the people Claude, bishop of Évreux, speaks thus in the synodal statutes of Évreux promulgated in the year 1576 Councils of the Province of Rouen, Vol. II, p. 392.: "Moreover, since the Annals of the French recount that in more difficult times our forefathers instituted that at the sound of the bell at sunrise, midday and sunset the people should be admonished, in whatever work they were, to pray individually to implore the help of God, we will that that custom, which through heresies and neglect of piety has been interrupted in many places, be renewed and retained: especially as the public calamity urges us to it." These from the Councils of the province of Rouen: in which work some other statutes are to be found concerning the present argument, belonging to the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, and from which it is clearly evident how great was the variety in this matter at various times and in various dioceses. What has been mentioned is enough, however, for one to see how much the things which Mabillon (see num. 15) collected on this business must be restricted to particular places. Let us now turn our pen to Germany.

[26] likewise in Germany from the 14th century up to more recent times. The first statute pertaining to Germany that is known to me on this matter was made in the year 1331 in the council of Breslau, and orders Hartzheim, Concil. Germ., Vol. IV, p. 317. that "in all the churches of the diocese continually in the evening about twilight, every day henceforth, the bell be rung three times on one side at short intervals, so that all and each of the faithful of Christ, at the sound of the bell, invoking on bended knees the grace of the mother of grace and saying the Ave Maria, may pray for the good state of the Church and the peace of our lands": to those doing which forty days of indulgences are granted. The second decree was passed in the synod of Eichstätt in the year 1354 and is altogether different from the former: for in it it is commanded Ibid., Vol. IV, p. 377. that "every day at Mass three times in all parish churches the sound of one bell be made, and then, as well by the Clergy as by the people, at least one Pater Noster and one Ave Maria be said with devotion on bended knees for the good state of the church of Eichstätt." In the year 1416 Wenceslaus, bishop of Breslau, renewed the indulgences formerly given, and ordered all the faithful to be invited morning and evening by the ringing of the bell to recite one Pater Noster and three Ave Marias Ibid., Vol. V, p. 160.. At Mainz too this prayer was made in the morning at sunrise and an indulgence of forty days was offered, as is clear from chapter II of the council of Mainz celebrated in the year 1423 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 209.; on which occasion Conrad, archbishop of Mainz, exhorted his suffragans to add similar indulgences to these of his. In the same year Theodoric, archbishop of Cologne, promulgated a wholly similar decree Ibid., Vol. V, p. 221. in a council held in his Metropolis. And in the year 1491 Henry III, prelate of Bamberg, under title LVIII of his synodal statutes Ibid., Vol. V, p. 631., passed a law by which, forty days of indulgences being offered, the faithful were invited to the threefold Angelic Salutation morning and evening. Half a century later, namely in the year 1549, Erasmus, bishop of Strasbourg, inserted into the synodal decrees in chap. XXI a statute Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 499. by which, morning and evening also, these prayers were commanded: Gloria tibi Domine; Ave Maria gratia, etc., with the prayer: Deus qui de Beatae Mariae Virginis utero, etc. And in the middle of the 16th century this usage of saluting the Mother of God morning and evening was already common in Germany, as is clear from the work on Mary the Virgin Mother of God Book III, chap. II, p. 245. Ed. 1577. of Fr. Canisius, who praises it as an old and common institution. In the synod of Brixen of the year 1603 this exercise of devotion is recommended to be performed three times a day Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 565.; likewise in the synod of Prague Ibid., p. 741. of the year 1605, where the present prayers are plainly proposed as from the ancient usage of the Church; and likewise in the synod of Constance Ibid., p. 909. of the year 1609. What was ordained in the following times in many other dioceses we pass over, since the usage was already in common force almost everywhere. In the spring of the year 1842 the king of Prussia permitted the bells to be rung again to indicate this devotion.

[27] A few things are noted about this practice in general, But lest this digression grow too far, we pass over the other regions, thinking it enough to have said in a few words in about what order this devotion to the Holy Mary rose to its present state in the principal parts of Europe. By way of a coping-stone only we add three little notes; of which the first is that without doubt the words which occur in the Life of our Holy Father Ignatius, written by Ribadeneira, and by which it is asserted that this Saint was the institutor of this pious practice in his native land, ought to be understood in the same way as those by which St. Bonaventure is related to have instituted the same practice; for in the year 1322 the chapter of Vich in Catalonia established that towards evening a bell should be rung, by which all should be stirred to recite on bended knees one Ave Maria for the health and peace of souls and bodies, and for the fertility and preservation of the fruits of the earth Villanueva, Viage, Vol. VI, p. 97.. The second is that on the 14th day of September of the year 1724 the indulgences which today any Christian may gain were granted by Pope Benedict XIII; and the third, finally, that in many places, especially in Germany, there has long existed an evening signal distinct from the rest, by which the faithful of Christ were stirred to pour out prayers for the refreshment of the souls in purgatory. And I had long since finished these things and the whole Commentary on St. Gaudericus when it came to mind that the Rev. Mr. Anton Binterim, with his customary accuracy and sagacity, in his principal work on the memorable things of the catholic Church Denkwürdigk. der katolish. Kirche, Vol. VII, part I, p. 129., had examined this rite of Marian devotion, having set before it a commentary on the Angelic Salutation. Nevertheless, since this dissertation of mine differs in some respects from the praised commentary, and that other is written in German, and therefore cannot easily be understood by all, I have thought that the reader would take it in good part if I did not suppress these inquiries, which owe nothing to the aforesaid work.

[28] and a conjecture is made about the miracle attributed to St. Gaudericus. Now, to return to the miracle attributed to St. Gaudericus, to deny the prodigy itself neither

do I dare, nor does it please me; but the aforesaid circumstances seem to me to have been twisted the wrong way. For I suppose that St. Gaudericus, in keeping with his due devotion to the Mother of God, had the custom of praying to her on bended knees whenever the bell was rung to call the people together into the church, and it was not permitted him to be free from his work. But his prayer does not seem to have been the Angelic Salutation, as not yet sufficiently established in use among the Latins; nor the prayer Salve Regina, which it is admitted appeared only in the tenth century, although there is some doubt about the author's name and condition Pérez Bayer, Biblioth. Hispan. Vetus, Vol. I, p. 517.. Concerning this opinion which I have set out, however, it may be noted that there is nothing in it out of keeping with usage, since very many good Christians even now, when the bells sound, turn their heart to God and to His mother. For the rest, it seems easy to admit that St. Gaudericus, next after God, honoured His most holy Mother with especial devotion; since his biographers relate that the Mother of God, to recompense the service of her servant already on earth, appeared to him as he was dying; refreshed by which vision St. Gaudericus was shown on a painted panel at Canigou.

§ III. On the translation of the Relics, the miracles and the cult of St. Gaudericus.

[29] This Saint, having died about the year 900, shines with miracles, Concerning the remaining deeds of St. Gaudericus, there is nothing that needs commentary or can be more closely determined. Only from the lessons published by Tamayo is it drawn out that he fell asleep in the Lord on the 16th day of October about the year of the Lord 900; and Claude Chastelain embraced the same opinion in his universal Martyrology. What followed the death of St. Gaudericus we shall endeavour to set out in such a way as to intermingle the entire Mirepoix lessons which are recited on the 15th day of July on the feast of the translation. Further, the fourth lesson begins thus: "When Gaudericus, renowned everywhere by the fame of his holiness, had rendered his spotless spirit to God, a multitude of men poured out from the neighbouring districts came together to his obsequies, to venerate his sacred body: and these having been honourably performed according to Christian custom, he was borne into a common grave dug in the cemetery of the church of the little town (or rather village, formerly called Viéville, as the celebrated Mr. Puiggari has written to us, and containing 42 hearths sixty years ago), which now from the Saint, once a native of it, is called Saint-Gauderic. But God, who always raises up the humble and glorifies those who glorify Him, did not long suffer the body of His servant to lie less honourably. For so many miracles came forth from his tomb that the faithful, stirred by them, having called together the priests of the neighbouring churches, drew out from the dark place the sacred relics, fragrant with a most sweet odour, which they placed with the highest veneration in the nearest church." Nothing on this matter is to be found in Domenec; but he says: "The devout people built a church, to be distinguished by his name, over his sepulchre, at which up to the present day God performs great miracles in honour of His servant."

[30] and is beatified perhaps in the council of Narbonne; And indeed I do not doubt that I must depart somewhat from these lessons, since I think it much more probable that St. Gaudericus was raised from the earth when his sacred Relics were carried to the provincial council of Narbonne. The reason for this opinion is both the deed of the priests, whose office it is not and never was to beatify venerable men, and that that council of Narbonne, certainly held before the year 1014 (for in this year the Relics of St. Gaudericus were translated to Canigou), must have been celebrated at almost the same time at which that beatification is supposed to have been done. I think, therefore, that St. Gaudericus was exhumed by the priests, and carried by them amid the rejoicing of the people to the synod of Narbonne; where, at once enrolled in the catalogue of the Blessed, he was held in great honour together with the other Saints whose bodies had been brought. In the sixth Mirepoix lesson that solemnity is set out thus: "The name of Gaudericus was spread far and wide by the following miracle: the archbishop of Narbonne had called together the suffragan bishops to a provincial council. And, as was the custom of that age, the bishops brought with them the illustrious Relics of the Saints which they had in their diocese: so that by their presence reverence for the sacred assembly might increase; and that such patrons might lend their suffrage for meriting the divine light amid the ecclesiastical business to be treated. The bishop of Toulouse was present at the council: who, moved by the holiness of Gaudericus celebrated by the mouths of all, had his venerable Relics brought there. The place in which the synod was assembled was situated on a dry and thirsty soil: and when a very great multitude of men had come together to it, they soon suffered from a lack of water. The bishops, noticing this, in order to provide a remedy for so great an evil, decided to flee to God and to employ the Saints as intercessors with Him. Wherefore they decree supplications, in which, together with the Relics of other Saints, the sacred remains of Gaudericus are carried forth in solemn procession. And while the most illustrious prelates with the venerable clergy were asking his help with set prayers, suddenly beneath the litter of the Relics of the holy Confessor a spring was seen to gush forth with abundant and perennial waters."

[31] which was held in a suburb of Narbonne Vicente Domenec relates the same prodigy, omitting however some circumstances of this celebration: but on the other hand he nearly indicates the place in which the synod was assembled. I render his words into Latin from the Spanish idiom: "Before the body of Saint Gaudericus had been carried into Spain (into Roussillon, which is now of Gaul) it happened that the archbishop of Narbonne ordered a synod to be held in the place which is called HUNDRED TREES, and to which very many holy bodies had been carried, among them the body of St. Gaudericus." Reginald Poc has similar things. Now it must be investigated what this council may be. For my part I confess that in determining it I am anxious whether I am retracing the footprints of truth or of error: here nevertheless is my conjecture, packed with its reasons. Among the instruments of the Church of Narbonne which are read in the Gallia Christiana there occurs Vol. VI, col. 14. the donation of Arnustus, archbishop of Narbonne, made in the year 911 to the church of St. Paul of Narbonne, which begins thus: "In the name of the Lord, I Arnustus, humble archbishop of the Holy Church of Narbonne, for the remedy of my soul and eternal retribution, give to the church of Saint Paul, Confessor of Christ, which church is situated or founded in the place whose name is ad Albolas, across the bridge near the city of Narbonne … I give and grant to the aforesaid church of Saint Paul in the district of Narbonne, within the boundary of the estate which is called Bicianum, all the allod which has come to me…"

[32] about the year 990. But the place which I have called in Latin Hundred Trees is called in Spanish in Domenec Cien Arboles; and since the added Cien could easily be omitted or added in usage, I am altogether inclined to affirm that the place ad Albolas is the same as that which Domenec calls Cien Arboles. Now no council of Narbonne occurs in which the names of the prelates and the marks of time are less repugnant to the present argument than the council celebrated about the year 990 Labbe, Conc. Vol. IX. col. 742., and at which the bishop of Toulouse was present, who was frequently absent from many others, as may be seen in the collections of old instruments. The place of this council is not marked; but since sacred synods were rather often held in the church of St. Paul of Narbonne, and the others at which the bishop of Toulouse was present in these times are tied to another place, what remains but that we select this holy assembly out of many? For the rest, if anyone uses the archive of Narbonne or other rarer monuments, let him divine better himself. My hope nevertheless is that I have trodden very close to the footprints of the truth.

[33] Sacrilegious robbers are punished through the intervention of St. Gaudericus. According to the chronological arrangement set out, there is to be inserted in this place a quite wonderful thing, which is related thus in the fifth Mirepoix lesson: "The cult and observance of the people towards Gaudericus grew daily; to which they were borne by the continual benefits received from God through his intercession, and such was the confidence of all in the holy Confessor that they thought themselves secure, and all their goods in safety, provided they were under his protection. Nor did their hope ever deceive them. A desperate man of the nobles of the Province sent soldiers into the church of Saint Gaudericus, so that with sacrilegious daring they might drag out by force whatever very many country people had laid up in it as in the most certain refuge of their goods. Laden with huge booty, the robbers had scarcely gone out of sight of the church when divine vengeance, avenging the wrong done to its Saint, pursues the sacrilegious men. For a sedition having been stirred up among them, all fell by mutual wounds: so that not even one remained who might prevent the despoiled country people from recovering what had been taken away. And soon the author of so great a crime, smitten with a shameful leprosy, vomited forth his sacrilegious soul amid horrible torments of the body." Domenec relates the same deed, with only a few things added: thus of the very powerful man who is spoken of here he says: "There was in the parts of Toulouse a prince, exceedingly wicked, and as noble in birth as he was vile in morals." Whether he was William, count of Toulouse, called Taillefer, I much doubt: for only one brother is ascribed to him or known; but in the present argument two occur, whom this prince, as Domenec has it, had sent with the robbers into the church of St. Gaudericus, and one of whom, wounded in the throat by the thrust of a lance in the aforesaid sedition, miserably expired. But since from this can be understood what we shall shortly attach concerning the theft of the Relics, the following must be noted, words of Domenec which I render into Latin: "These ministers of crime therefore went to the church of St. Gaudericus, not to pray but to steal, and, with no one resisting them, they destroyed houses and plundered whatever was to be found in them, and after they had laid waste the Saint's church at their pleasure, they began to return to their lord with the booty."

[34] Not from Mirepoix Now we must speak of the theft of the Relics themselves, which is mentioned in very many various writings, always with circumstances and almost incredible miracles. Here is what is related of it in the fourth Mirepoix lesson; which alone remained to be recited from this lectionary: "Whence (from the church of St. Gaudericus) they were translated to Mirepoix into the church of Saint Maurice, and laid in a stone sepulchre, which still exists. When thence a modest part, carried off by a pious theft, had been brought into the monastery of Saint Martin of Canigou of the diocese of Elne, from that time what remains of the sacred body is preserved in a safer place in the cathedral church of Mirepoix within a silver case." But we cannot approve these things; since in the year 1014, in which the Relics of St. Gaudericus had already been carried to Canigou, as will be clear below, the church of St. Maurice of Mirepoix seems not yet to have existed. For since this was a Benedictine priory up to the 14th century, in which Pope John XXII erected an episcopal see at Mirepoix, it would be altogether strange, if it had existed at the beginning of the 11th century, that no mention of it should be made in Mabillon's Annals and Acta Sanctorum of the Order of St. Benedict, which up to the 12th century

are carried down: further, in the indices of both these works there is not a word to be found about this monastery of Mirepoix. La Martinière, moreover, d'Expilly, Moréri, Vaissette in the geographical work on France, Beaunier in the Collection of the bishoprics and abbeys of France, the writers of the Gallia Christiana, etc., leave this doubt entirely intact. Until, therefore, the contrary is proved (which I judge can hardly be done, since from the Benedictine Historiographers of Occitania I understand that the monuments of Mirepoix of this age and of the preceding times have been lost), we shall admit as more probable that the Relics of St. Gaudericus, placed in a stone case or sepulchre, were translated to Mirepoix only after the year 1014.

[35] The Relics of St. Gaudericus are carried to Canigou, Let the oft-mentioned Domenec now be heard further; again we turn into the Latin idiom what he has in Spanish: "In the year of the Lord 1014 Guifred, count of Cerdanya, son of the Lord Oliba Cabreta, count of Besalú, having built the monastery of Canigou, of the Order of Saint Benedict, and adorned it with immense riches, sent out two men to seek out sacred Relics, so that by them, if they should happen to find any anywhere, the new church might be honoured." With these the short Chronicle of Canigou agrees in most points, which in the Miscellanea of Baluze Vol. I, p. 190. Mansi ed. runs thus: "In the year of the Lord one thousand and one, era 1039, in the 6th year of King Robert, in the 14th indiction, Count Guifred began to build the monastery of Saint Martin of Canigou. In the year of the Lord 1014 Selva, a monk of Saint Michael of Cuxa, was elected as first abbot. In the same year the Relics of Saint Gaudericus, Confessor, were brought from the borders of Toulouse." The rest, which pertains rather to the monastery than to St. Gaudericus, we pass over, noting however that in the Marca Hispanica there are very many instruments of the best mark which pertain both to Guifred, who afterwards became a monk, and to the beginnings of the monastery. Jerónimo Pujades, moreover Vol. VII, p. 360. Chron. Univers. del Principado de Cataluña., wove a whole commentary on these beginnings; and Gregorio de Argaiz did the same Perla de Cataluña, p. 362.. Mount Canigou itself, which they will have so called from the whiteness of its continual snow, was described by Manuel Marcillo Crisis de Cataluña, p. 26.. The said Jerónimo Pujades also wrote a whole chapter on the theft of the Relics of St. Gaudericus, for the perpetration of which he relates that not two but several men were employed; whom I should believe, he himself writes, and I agree with him, to have been monks of the monastery of Saint Martin of Canigou, attended by certain laymen of more respectable station. For at this time it was called into doubt whether it was lawful to steal sacred Relics; and very many, especially those who desired the bodies of Saints, affirmed that such a theft was a pious work. For the rest, it is well known that this was very often done in this age. Compare Jerónimo Pujades Chron. Univ. de Cataluña, Vol. VII, p. 371. on the theft of the bodies of SS. Eulalia and Julitta, translated to Elne, and Benedict XIV On the Canonization of the Saints, book IV, part II, chap. XXV. treating of this whole argument and bringing forward many instances.

[36] [but they were carried off from the village of Saint-Gauderic, where they were badly kept;] Domenec then continues thus: "The said envoys, according to their Lord's mandate, came to Toulouse (understand the territory of Toulouse, in which matter Pujades errs continually), and inspecting churches here and there, they diligently sought out the place where they might find sacred bodies, and the opportunity of seizing them. And when they had noticed that the church in which the body of St. Gaudericus lay was the easiest of all for perpetrating a theft, since its walls had been destroyed to the foundations (certainly on account of the havoc which we reported at num. 33), the doors were not bolted, and the absence of all guard laid open free access, they exulted with immense joy that a happy occasion was at hand for obtaining so great a treasure; and in the deepest silence of the night they went to the place where the remains of the holy Confessor rested. Then God worked a great prodigy: for when they tried to take the Saint's body out of the sepulchre, they could by no means move the sepulchre, nor break anything from it. A great miracle, by which God showed with how great honour He wills His servants to be held by men! They, astonished and not knowing what to do, began to invoke the goodness of God, and made a vow to Saint Gaudericus in these words: Glorious Saint Gaudericus, if through thee it be allowed us to carry off thy holy body, we promise thee that we will bear thee to a place in which thou shalt be greatly honoured. These prayers having been made, they returned to the sepulchre, which they opened easily; and taking up the sacred bones with all the reverence they could, they placed them in cases which they had prepared for the purpose, and rejoicing in so great a treasure they set out on the road to their own region." Pujades relates the same miracle in almost the same words, who in what follows, taken from Domenec, is somewhat discordant.

[37] a part, however, remains; "They directed their journey, then, towards Spain, and coming at length to a place where there was a great forest they rested a little; but meanwhile, without their noticing, the wind carried away a small particle of the sacred body." Pujades relates that they did notice it, but could not hold back the bone snatched away because of the violence of the wind or rather whirlwind. But here many things are incredible; for, to say nothing of other things, it is certain that the monks of Canigou did not steal the greater part. For Simon Peyronnet speaks thus of the Relics of St. Gaudericus in his Catalogue of the Saints p. 300.: Recueil des archevêchés, etc., Vol. II, 870. "His sacred relics are kept in a chapel of the cathedral church of St. Maurice of Mirepoix; his sacred head, however, with certain Relics of the same Saint, is seen in the abbey church of St. Martin of Canigou in the bishopric of Elne"; and Beaunier Ibid., p. 54. also speaks grandly of the Relics of St. Gaudericus at Mirepoix, since he says that in the cathedral church nothing else notable occurs except the sepulchre and Relics of St. Gaudericus the shepherd, and certain silver vessels and tapestries. Domenec, however, goes on in his narrative in these words: "It is believed that this was done by a law of divine Providence, so that the first possessors of the Relics might not be wholly deprived of them, although on account of their negligence they had deservedly lost them": for which opinion he will find few supporters among Theologians.

[38] on the journey a paralysed girl is healed and a thief punished. But he continues thus: "Now the priest of the church from which they had carried off the Relics (Pujades calls him the treasurer or custodian of the body of St. Gaudericus) learned by revelation in what way the sacred relics had been taken away, and where a particle of them had remained. Wherefore he hastened to the place where this particle of the sacred body lay, and carried it back with much veneration to his church, in which it pleased God to bestow many benefits on those imploring the Saint's intercession. Those who were carrying the sacred body came at length, having finished the journey swiftly, to Conflent, a land of Catalonia, and entered the place which is there called Vinça; and there a woman received them kindly into her house, set food and drink before them, and then anxiously asked them the cause of their journey. And they, since for joy they were not masters of themselves, because they were free of all danger, told what had been done, and commended the sacred Relics to her. Wherefore the woman shut them up in a chest; but while the emissaries were lying in their beds, a girl paralysed from the hour of her birth, who lived in this house, crept along the ground about midnight to the place where the sacred remains had been laid away, and watching before them she besought God that it might please Him that right health be given her through the intercession of St. Gaudericus. The prayer being finished, the sinews, which had long been contracted, began to stretch out, and the girl remained sound, giving immense thanks to God and to Saint Gaudericus. But when the mistress learned this, she was astonished, and as secretly as she could she boldly took away a particle of the Relics, and kept it for herself, the bearers not knowing. But the vengeance of God did not neglect such great rashness. For from the pyx in which she had hidden that particle there came forth so great a flame that it burned whatever she had of the greatest price and held of the greatest value; nor did the divine vengeance cease until shortly after the thief herself and her sons (some of them, which is most baneful, by sudden death) had met their last day." And this is the reason, says Pujades, why the church which is at Vinça now has a rib of St. Gaudericus.

[39] At length the sacred pledge is received in the monastery of Canigou; "Meanwhile," Domenec continues, "the bearers of the sacred body were going on with swift feet to the monastery; and when the abbot learned of their arrival, he rejoiced greatly, and sent out certain monks to carry the sacred treasure reverently in their hands, until it should be worthily received by them and by the rest. And when they were at hand, a column of monks went out in supplication, with crosses, lighted tapers, and due array, amid psalms and hymns; and with this pomp and an immense concourse of people the sacred pledges were laid down at the side of the altar of Saint Martin of Canigou. And there almighty God, through the intercession of His servant, wrought great miracles, bestowing sight on the blind, hearing on the deaf, walking on the lame, speech on the dumb, and restoring strength to the sick, who ran there from the most remote parts, moved by great hope of receiving them." But lest anyone should reckon this solemnity greater than it really was, it will help to bring forward from Beaunier a few things about this monastery, which is about six hundred metres distant from the mountain itself properly called Canigou (so the geographical maps of Cassini show it): "This abbey is situated in Conflent; it is surrounded on all sides by the Pyrenean mountains, lies by the stream Tec, and is near the abbey of St. Michael of Cuxa. One must creep for a whole hour up a high mountain, through a grim solitude, before one comes to the cloisters. The place in which the abbey was founded is so small that there is not room even for a garden. All the regular places and the church are very narrow." So Beaunier Ibid., p. 54.. I find an almost similar description in the letter of Mr. Puiggari (see nums. 3 and 4 of this Commentary).

[40] by whose help in the year 1015 rain is obtained, and the healing of ears. Domenec then subjoins certain heavenly benefits from the Canigou MS. codex: "A whole year," he says, "had not yet passed since the sacred pledge was kept in Spain, when so great a drought prevailed that the earth, its moisture failing, was bare of grasses and flowers, the rivers scarcely flowed, and the fruits of the fields were held to be lost. Set in such straits, the people came to the monastery and asked that the body of the Blessed one be carried to a certain place, to which columns of supplicants might come from every side for the sake of imploring rain. The monks consenting, the sacred pledge was carried to the appointed place, and other bodies of Saints were brought there. Nevertheless it was decided that the Relics of Saint Gaudericus should be carried into the church of St. Peter of Prades, that they might be the more secure there. But not even half

the journey had the bearers completed when it seemed to them that because of the excessive weight they could not go further. All being astonished at this, they set down the bier at the command of the venerable abbot, and giving themselves at once to prayer they awaited the success of their prayers. But they had scarcely prayed when there came a poor little man heaving wretched sighs and falling to the ground before the Saint; and while he was pouring out prayers, all saw blood bursting from his ears; but when he rose much more cheerful, they heard him saying that by the mercy of God and the intercession of Saint Gaudericus he had been made safe from a pain of the ears by which he had long been tormented; so that St. Gaudericus seemed to have made himself immovable in order to work that miracle. Moreover, immediately they were able very easily and with much joy to carry his sacred relics to the aforesaid church; whence they carried them on the day of the Lord's Ascension into the monastery of St. Michael of Cuxa, where they were received with much honour. Lastly they were brought back to Canigou, some religious men of the aforesaid monastery accompanying them and much people following. And so indeed it pleased God, through the intercession of His servant, to bestow abundant rain."

[41] [After it had been kept for some time in the church of St. Peter, and when it was now being brought back to Canigou, several miracles occur.] But it must be that before it was carried into the monastery of St. Michael it lay for a long time in the church of St. Peter, or that at another time it was carried there again, or into another church which also rejoices in St. Peter as patron; for in volume II of the History of Occitania, among the proofs, there occurs a charter by which Pons William and his daughter Aladaiz about the year 1107 give "to the Lord God and to St. John the Baptist of the monastery of Vallis-Sigerii and to Peter the abbot … all the things which they were claiming … in all the territory or in the parish of St. Peter, where the body of Saint Godericus is said to lie…" Domenec, however, continues his narrative with words of this kind: "At another time, when they were also suffering from drought, very many urgently asked that the body of Saint Gaudericus be carried to a mountain far distant from the monastery: and thither on the appointed day there ran together from the surrounding places innumerable men and women, proceeding in the manner of supplicants, bearing the Relics of their churches, and singing together the praises of God. And it happened, when one night a similar procession was being made with the Saint's body through deserts and rough places, that a wind arose so violent that it extinguished the lights and candles: but by God's will a light fell from heaven, which lit all the tapers. When they had come to the appointed place and had spent many days there asking God for water, a man of humble station rose up and assailed the supplications with many insults. But at once so violent a wind blew that it dashed the insolent man to the ground with much harm: which no one doubted to ascribe to divine vengeance. But the wretch, led by repentance, and labouring to expiate his sin, asked pardon of St. Gaudericus: and it pleased God that he should recover right health through the merits of His servant, and that the earth should abundantly receive the desired rain.

[42] [A blind and paralysed boy is healed, and in the year 1384 the plague of Perpignan is quieted.] An inhabitant of a village near Canigou, named Villalonga, had a son blind and paralysed in all his limbs: he made his way, then, with the poor little one to St. Gaudericus, beseeching him not to be reluctant to obtain sound strength for his son; and it pleased God in fact to free the boy from paralysis; not however from blindness, which he lost only a little after. In the year of the Lord 1384 a huge pestilence fell upon the city of Perpignan, upon the territory of Roussillon and of Conflent, upon Cerdanya and many other parts; and it wrought such slaughter there that in Perpignan alone, within the space which separates the month of November from the month of March, eight thousand, men as well as women, died. Wherefore, when they had come together as best they could and were treating of the means by which they might appease the wrath of God, they decided to beseech the abbot of Canigou not to refuse to send them the Relics of St. Gaudericus, since they had firm hope that Christ the Lord, through the intercession of this Saint, would restrain His hand from so horrible a scourge. The venerable abbot consenting, out of his piety and the necessity of the times, the monks of Canigou brought the holy body, which showed itself so wonderful that it had scarcely entered Perpignan when the pestilence vanished. For it worked many prodigies there, healing the sick and helping all who devoutly invoked Saint Gaudericus; which men everywhere who implored the Saint's intercession experienced. The calamity of Perpignan having been put to flight, the abbot of Canigou returned with his monks to seek the sacred relics, which were carried back to the monastery, an infinite multitude of people accompanying them, gathered from all the places through which the sacred burden passed." From this time perhaps St. Gaudericus became patron of Perpignan, as will be seen below.

[43] In the year 1483 rain is obtained, But let us continue with Domenec: "And in the year 1483, when the territory of Roussillon and of Conflent suffered from such a drought that by divine vengeance almost all the rivers were exhausted, the inhabitants ran in tears to the most reverend abbot, and besought him that they might be allowed to carry the holy Relics to the church of Holy Mary of Domanova. The abbot granting their wishes, the sacred pledge was carried there, to which the aforesaid inhabitants made their way in the manner of supplicants, attended by an immense multitude of people running together, and by other columns of supplicants coming for the same cause: and in very truth, God having mercy and His holy servant interceding, they obtained abundant water for the fruits of the earth, and for themselves safety from an impending pestilence.

[44] and the plague is driven from the town of Vinça. And then indeed, when the divine office was being celebrated because of the arrival of the sacred Relics, two consuls of the town of Vinça, which was afflicted with plague, and forty men from the same place whom the plague had infected, besought the monks that on their return they should carry the holy body around the town, since they were confident that the sick would recover their health if they placed themselves on the walls, from where they could see the Relics passing. When therefore they were returning with a great accompaniment of people, the wishes of the people of Vinça were satisfied. Wherefore, when they came to the town, all the people went out to receive the holy relics, and, for the devotion which they cherished towards the Saint, mingled with the bearers and the escort. But the monks who were carrying the sacred burden, noticing that they were already walking mingled with the plague-stricken, and that no greater danger could threaten them, formed the plan of proceeding through the streets of the town suffering from the plague, from which they were confident they would be immune through the intercession of the Mother of God and of St. Gaudericus. They went forward then in a long file through the streets of the town, without stopping anywhere or entering a church or other building. Meanwhile the sick came to the doors and windows, imploring for themselves with prayers and tears the intercession of St. Gaudericus. And it pleased God that within a few days the plague was exiled from the town, and the sick were healed. On the 16th day of October the feast of this Saint is celebrated, who may be our intercessor with God in our necessities. Amen." What followed Domenec let us now set out in a few words.

[45] Translations of the Relics of St. Gaudericus, Following the words of this writer, we said at num. 27 in what place in the monastery of Canigou the Relics of St. Gaudericus were placed: consonant with what has been said is what Pujades writes; he adds only these things, which had not yet been done in the time of Domenec: "Thence (from the side of the high altar) in our days they were translated into the chapel which is at the same time the chapter-house of the monastery and is situated in the cloister; and there they are held in the greatest honour, and shine with daily miracles." Pujades was writing these things at the beginning of the 17th century. But the Relics of our Saint did not remain continuously unmoved there. For, as Reginald Poc sets out at length, whenever the scourge of drought lay upon the territory of Roussillon, the consuls deliberated with the twelve men of St. Gaudericus (that was their name) whether two or three syndics, attended by some priests, should be sent to the monastery of Canigou, to request of the abbot and monks that it might be allowed to carry the Relics of St. Gaudericus into the territory of Roussillon. And if this was granted, they were carried forth in the manner of a procession, the inhabitants of many parishes following. In the chapter (unless I am mistaken) of Perpignan they were laid down; in the morning they were shown, placed on the lowest step of the high altar; sermons were made to stir men to detest sins, the cause of evils; ranks of supplicants went to various churches, and when at length rain had been obtained, thanks were given to the Deity with the solemn canticle Te Deum.

[46] and the devotion of the people of Perpignan towards him in time of drought: Reginald Poc himself in the year 1626 was a great part of this solemnity; and he subjoined to his work on the Life of St. Gaudericus his sermon; from which it may be understood that there were present at these celebrations not only the canons and secular priests of the city, but also religious men from the ten monasteries of Perpignan, and nuns from four convents. Whence it is clear how great this festival or procession was. Reginald adds what God then bestowed through the intercession of St. Gaudericus: namely He granted a three-day rain, so that in this year in the territory of Roussillon and in Cerdanya there was a great abundance of crops. Since it was the custom that the people of Perpignan, after receiving the benefit, should offer certain gifts to the monastery of Canigou in honour of St. Gaudericus, in the year 1626 there was given a splendid wooden chest covered with silk cloth. Reginald had often been invited there: and indeed, since from his words some other circumstances of the cult may be learned, I do not refuse to render his statements into Latin; they are these: "Twelve years ago the most faithful city of Perpignan first deigned to hear me, and I am conscious that there are few years in which I have not gone there; and indeed in a certain year, when the distinguished knight Gaudericus Pages was discharging the office of consul, I was invited there twice, once towards the end of October when the sowing was to be done, once in the month of May when the wheat is coming into ear and ripening." Reginald adds that he therefore went there almost every year, in a word whenever some necessity demanded it, and that the people always asked for divine help with such faith that they almost believed it was already raining. I do not think, however, that the Relics of St. Gaudericus were carried to Perpignan every year.

[47] the various ceremonies then Another rite, however, was formerly used, which in the times of Reginald had gone out of use; and it was of this kind: when the land was parched with drought, the people of Perpignan sent to the monastery of Canigou four or six of the chief men of the city, among whom was numbered a canon of the collegiate church of St. John. They offered some gift to St. Gaudericus and for three continuous days they held a procession in honour of St. Gaudericus, going to a hill two stone's throws distant to the left of the monastery, and called the hill of St. Gaudericus. When they had come there, the supplicants halted: at once the earth was blessed, the air was exorcised, and other offices of devotion by which rain might be obtained were performed. But on the last day, unless it was raining or had already rained, they plunged the head of St. Gaudericus in the waters, and about a quarter of an hour before

they plunged it, smoke was raised to warn the inhabitants of Castell, Vernet, Cornellà and Vilafranca; and Reginald reckoned that all the villages of the territory of Conflent and of Roussillon were then warned. Which warnings, says this writer, were like the signals by which an invasion of the Moors by sea is indicated. And the aim of that signification tended to this, that all the inhabitants might know that the end of the last procession was at hand. While they were plunging the head of St. Gaudericus, having begun a prayer, they besought God that as they themselves were wetting this Saint's head with the waves, so it might please Him also by His mercy to sprinkle with rain the earth so arid and dusty: and if this availed nothing, it was asked that the reliquary casket be carried to Perpignan. Which last hope was recalled among the monks of Canigou as having once almost failed: for the sacred pledge had remained a long time laid up at Perpignan without the desired rain falling: wherefore, when the monks of Canigou were now bringing back their Relics and had come to the hill of Terranera, one of them, a simple man and without malice, began to pray to the holy patron in ardent, indeed harsh, words: since God's converse is with the simple, his prayers were heard and the rain fell. Reginald, writing these things in the year 1627, rightly adds that it was already then forbidden that in such circumstances the sacred relics should be plunged in the waters: for I find in the Authentic Decrees of the Congregation of Rites, printed in the year 1808 Vol. I, decree CDXVII., that at the request of Barbastro the S. R. C. decided on Saturday the 19th of January 1619: "That it is by no means lawful, under the pretext of any custom, or rather abuse, to immerse in water or to wet the wood of the Holy Cross and the Relics of the Saints in order to obtain rain from God in time of drought."

[48] The popular cult of St. Gaudericus, who also averts rain, still continues. To close at last these commentaries on the miracles of St. Gaudericus, I subjoin a miracle of another kind, which Reginald, in this place my constant guide, put on record: namely, the invocation of St. Gaudericus not only procures seasonable rain, but averts the same when unseasonable. For there was the following old tradition among the monks of Canigou: two monks of this monastery had set out to look after the business of their brethren. But in the middle of the journey so great a downpour fell that, unless it ceased, they could not go forward; and yet the prognostics were very bad. Then they began to ask St. Gaudericus to obtain for them the grace which he himself, while living, had enjoyed, when he was threshing his grain and the rain falling on every side spared his threshing-floor. The holy patron granted their wishes: at once the clouds vanished and the monks were able to finish their journey. Although the monastery of Canigou was abandoned by the monks in the year 1787, as the celebrated Mr. Puiggari has written to us, and given over to the winds and rain to be ruined, and although the gravest disturbances of the state afterwards occurred, St. Gaudericus is still invoked to avert excessive rain and drought. This again I gather from the letter of the celebrated Mr. Puiggari: "When the monastery of St. Martin of Canigou was suppressed and secularized, the Relics of St. Gaudericus were translated into the cathedral church of Perpignan, and placed in a chapel already dedicated to him, and in which they are venerated in a special manner, above all when rain either fails or is excessive."

[49] Places in which Relics of St. Gaudericus are kept. As regards the remaining places, besides Perpignan and Mirepoix, where Relics of St. Gaudericus are kept, there are to be named Toulouse, the village of Saint-Gauderic, Barcelona and perhaps Paris: these from the oft-cited letter of the celebrated Mr. Puiggari; who adds: "It is certain at least that the abbot of Canigou, Don Melchior Soter d'Armendaris, went to Louis XIII, king of France, who in the year 1642 was besieging Perpignan and had pitched camp at Fanum S. Erterii (perhaps Aetherii), a priory and village dependent on the monastery of Canigou, and that a bone of St. Gaudericus, called the RADIUS, was offered by him to the king." I judge that this bone is the same as the Relics which Chastelain writes in his universal Martyrology were kept in the Paris monastery of Val-de-Grâce. For this monastery, now changed into a military hospital, was formerly reformed through the efforts of Louis XIII. I pay no heed to the abbey of St. Gaudericus which the praised martyrologist asserts was situated in the archdiocese of Albi, since the Gallia Christiana and Beaunier are silent about it, and I am persuaded that the abbey Gandericum of St. Stephen of the order of St. Benedict, which Beaunier mentions, deceived Chastelain.

[50] [The ecclesiastical cult of St. Gaudericus in the dioceses of Mirepoix, Saint-Papoul, Alet,] And from these things which we have so far indicated concerning the cult, it is manifest enough with how great veneration St. Gaudericus was held in the southern part of Gaul. Whence it is not surprising that he formerly enjoyed a twofold feast in the diocese of Mirepoix, as is established both from the lessons which we inserted in §§ I and III, and from these words of Simon Peyronet Catalogue of the Saints, at the word Gaudericus.: "His birthday is celebrated in the bishopric of Mirepoix under the rite of a double of the second class with an octave, on the day given above (the 16th of October); and that of the translation on the 15th day of July, also with double rite, as is clear from the lessons or legends wont to be sung on the feast of Saint Gaudericus and of the translation of his Relics, in the cathedral church of Mirepoix and the whole diocese, which were published in the year 1658 by the authority of Louis Hercule de Lévis de Ventadour, bishop of Mirepoix." After the lessons to be recited on the 15th day of July, I find this Prayer in our copy: "O God, the exaltation of the humble, who hast made Blessed Gaudericus, Confessor, equal to the merits of Thy Saints: grant us, we beseech Thee, by his intercession, that amid the prosperities of this world we may be humble, and amid adversities may ever be constant in Thy service. Through, etc." St. Gaudericus is still venerated at Mirepoix with a solemn rite of the second order with an octave, and a certain proper prose is recited at Mass, as we gather from the liturgical Calendar of the diocese of Carcassonne, in which Mirepoix is now comprised. But in the former dioceses of Saint-Papoul and Alet, which, no less than that of Mirepoix, have been partly merged with that of Carcassonne, his feast is not so celebrated, since in both it lacks an octave and is kept with simple rite; and indeed in that of Saint-Papoul only a commemoration is made of him, with the third lesson about him recited however at Matins, because on the 16th day of October the feast of the Holy Maidens is kept there.

[51] Perpignan, Concerning the old ecclesiastical cult of St. Gaudericus at Elne, or Perpignan (for the see of Elne was long ago transferred to Perpignan), we gather the following from the oft-praised letter of the celebrated Mr. Puiggari: "I have sought in vain the old Breviary of our diocese (of Elne or Perpignan), which Domenec wrote had been used by him; and indeed I fear that hereafter too my investigations will come to nothing. Since the year 1575 the clergy of Perpignan recite on the feast day of St. Gaudericus the Office from the Common of Confessors not pontiffs. Apart from a Catalan canticle composed by Reginald Poc and still used by the people (this we have read in Reginald's book, and have not thought it worth while to copy it out), no proper hymn exists. Worth noting perhaps is the prose of the Mass of St. Gaudericus, as it is read in the old Missal of Elne, printed in the year 1511 at Barcelona by Johann Rosenbach, a German, and now very well preserved in the greater seminary of Perpignan;" (which Mass of St. Gaudericus, inserted in the old Missal of Elne, Reginald Poc also mentions.) Here is the first strophe, at the Offertory:

Celebrate today's Feast with great joy, In honour of Gaudericus, With festive proclamation. The throng of angels rejoices In the palace of heaven, And on earth let the assembly Of the clergy be glad.

The other, at the Communion, runs in these words:

Hail, sun of justice, And star of brightness, Dew of mercy, Father of kindness: Lead us to the king of glory With the blessed.

I do not know whether at the time when this Mass was in use there had already been erected in the church of St. James at Perpignan, where there was also a gilded statue, the confraternity of Saint Gaudericus, which Reginald Poc affirms existed in his age. Be that as it may, to it surely belonged the twelve men of St. Gaudericus whom we mentioned at n. 45, and it was without doubt the charge of its members to arrange the public procession which, as Reginald again witnesses, was made every year at Perpignan in honour of St. Gaudericus. As regards the present times, the Office of Saint Gaudericus is celebrated in the diocese of Perpignan, although he is held as patron, under the rite of a greater double from the Common of Confessors not pontiffs, the Credo being omitted unless truly notable Relics are present: this from the liturgical Calendar of the year 1827. Whence it is clear that not even the Prayer of St. Gaudericus is any longer in use which Reginald subjoined to his book, and which has this form: "O God, who didst give Blessed Gaudericus, Thy confessor, as protector against pestilence and the barrenness of the earth, grant that by his merits and intercession we may be freed from the stain of sin on earth and enjoy the abundance of Thy glory in heaven. Through, etc."

[52] and Toulouse. The announcement in private Martyrologies. In the Missal of Toulouse of the year 1774 and in the Breviary of the same diocese of the year 1777 the feast of St. Gaudericus appears on the 17th day of October, since on the day before St. Bertrand is celebrated. The Mass from the Common of the Just is appointed, apart from the proper Prayers, in the first of which a seasonable rain is asked of God; the other two are taken from the renewed Missal of Reims. At Matins, however, only one proper lesson is recited, collected from Domenec and Poc. Concerning the ecclesiastical cult at Canigou we have learned this one thing from Poc, that his name was added to the sacred litanies: more may be suspected, as of a patron. Of the Martyrologies there is scarcely anything for us to say; since, so far from our finding his name in any fasti which properly pertain to the ecclesiastical Office, his name is absent from all the Auctaria of Bede, Ado, Florus, Usuard, and from the Martyrologies of Évreux, Auxerre and Paris. We find it only in the general Catalogue of Ferrari, in the Anamneses or Spanish Martyrology of Tamayo, in the Gallican Martyrology of du Saussay, who wrongly calls our Saint a Spaniard, and in the Universal Martyrology of Claude Chastelain, whose announcement the celebrated Mr. de St-Alais took for his own profit; the words of Chastelain, in place of all, we render into Latin thus: "Of St. Gaudericus (St Galdry), who in Occitania is invoked to avert excessive rain, and died his last day about the year 900." Since, as we said at num. 4, the Canigou codex from which the deeds ascribed to St. Gaudericus are known is no longer found, it remains for us to have printed the Life of St. Gaudericus collected by Tamayo. For the rest, from the added annotations the reader will easily recognize how little credit was due to the Canigou MS. itself, from which Domenec, Poc and Tamayo borrowed their statements.

ACTS OF ST. GAUDERICUS, FARMER AND CONFESSOR,

Written by Tamayo from Domenec, Poc and other writers.

Gualdericus, farmer, in Occitania. (S.)

[1] [St. Gaudericus, humble in birth, tills the fields and is devout towards God and his neighbour.] Galdericus, or Gaudericus, was a Gaul by origin, sprung from the province of the people of Toulouse ^b, and begotten of parents bound to agriculture and other humble, though necessary, occupations, yet Christian. Whom God so heaped with virtues from the beginning of his infancy that afterwards he surpassed all the most perfect men of his age. For ^c, patient and eager, like another Job, he overcame all the hardships of the world and whatever adversities. The force of charity grew so great in the man of God that very often he lamented the labours and straits of his neighbour more strongly than those very persons who were afflicted by them. Daily he heard the most holy sacrifice of the Mass with devout ardours of heart, and, if time permitted, he prayed more at length in the church on bended knees. Hastening thence to the cultivation of the fields, always silent and humble, whatever burdens of devotion he could take up he discharged by mental prayer while the labour pressed. He was never accustomed to put his hand to the plough on feast days, but, assisting at the divine offices in the church, when they were finished he withdrew to his own house, and there spent the time giving himself to prayer. The revels and companionships of young men, and other works which he had known to confound and stain the conscience utterly, he altogether and carefully avoided. He strove to render to each his own in divine as well as human things, and therefore he paid to God the things that were God's, and to his neighbour the things that were his neighbour's, lest he should seem greedily to covet the goods of others. Distributing part of his substance among widows, orphans and the poor, he looked for treasures in heaven ^d.

[2] He teaches his brothers holiness; he marvellously averts rain; He so formed the manners of his two brothers that each of them also passed over to the most perfect rule of life, and their memory too was in benediction. By these and other garlands of virtues the farmer was so pleasing to the Lord that while still living he came to receive the gift of miracles: the account of which either the holy man's modesty concealed or envious antiquity obliterated; although two are still very earnestly preserved on the tablets of the hearts of the inhabitants. This one above all was celebrated: for when the holy farmer commanded his servant to lay out the wheat seed on the threshing-floor for threshing, and he fulfilled the holy man's command, it came about, for the greater glory of God and to signify the holiness of Galdericus, that the clear air was suddenly filled with black and dense clouds, and began violently to shake out a mighty storm. Then the holy farmer on bended knees prayed to the Lord to save the harvest: scarcely had the entreaty leapt from his mouth when the clouds, scattered round about the threshing-floor, thereafter let fall scarcely a drop of rain upon it, while the grain of others was utterly ruined by the storm ^e.

[3] Praying to St. Mary he is not wetted by the waters, and at length dies piously. The second miracle was this: for when St. Galdericus had been accustomed, when the signal of the bell was given in the church for saying the Angelic prayer ^f, in whatever place he was found, to bend his knees and there to say, as was the custom, the salutation of the B. V. Mary, with love of whom he most devoutly languished; it happened that the sacristan of his church, in contempt and mockery of the holy man, once gave a signal of this kind at a time when the man of God was crossing barefoot the surface of a stream ^g running down to the town. Hearing which signal, the holy farmer bent his knees without fear of the water. But God, who had recognized the holy man's devotion, at once held back the waves of the surface, and exposed dry sand in the midst of the stream, on which Galdericus might kneel and fulfil his custom of prayer, as he did and devoutly continued. From the belfry the mocking sacristan was watching the outcome; but having seen the miracle, at once coming down from the tower and proclaiming the miracle with loud cries, he threw himself at the holy man's feet and begged pardon, making known to all who were present what had happened. At length, when the holy farmer had come to extreme old age, renowned for holiness, laden with virtues and celebrated for the glory of miracles, he foreknew by the mercy of God the impending hour and day of his death, and thereupon, assailed * by the heaviness of sickness, having received the Holy Sacraments of the Church, the Virgin Mother with the child Jesus in her arms, and an Angel of God with a diadem of lilies, appeared to him ^h. He fell asleep in the Lord on the 16th day of October, about the year of the Lord 900.

[4] His Relics are carried to Canigou, where he becomes illustrious by miracles. His body, buried in the same place, lay hidden for some time, until by God's will it was raised up ⁱ on account of the frequency of miracles; at whose sarcophagus God afterwards imparted many benefits to the sick. But in the year of the Lord 1014, when Gaufred, count of Cerdanya, son of Oliba, count of Besalú, had built the monastery of St. Martin ^k of Canigou near Perpignan in the mountains of Roussillon, and had enriched it with great possessions, and commended it to Benedictine monks, so that it might shine with Relics of the Saints he sent his servants into the Gauls to bring them out, who marvellously, with his own permission, gathered up the body of St. Galdericus, and brought it to the said monastery, where, received with very many miracles shown, and honourably placed there, it rests with innumerable frequency of signs, and is venerated with wonderful devotion by the surrounding towns: by the gift of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

* read insultato