ON ST. AUSTRUDIS, VIRGIN AND ABBESS, AT LAON IN GAUL,
BEGINNING OF THE 8TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Austrudis, virgin and abbess, at Laon in Gaul. (S.)
BY J. V. H.
§ Single. The Saint's memory in the sacred calendars; Acts composed by a nearly contemporary biographer; the time of her birth and death.
St. Austrudis, from her mother St. Salaberga, widow and abbess, whose Acts
our men illustrated at the 22nd day of September
Act. SS., vol. VI of September, p. 516., received five children from a noble Frank,
Blandinus, who was surnamed Baso:
namely three daughters, Saretrudis, Ebana and
Austrudis, whose Life we publish: St. Salaberga next bore
two sons, Eustasius, who died in boyhood,
and Baldwin, deacon of Laon
and Martyr, who is venerated on the 8th day of January Ibid., vol. I of January, p. 502.. The most pious
mother had promised that she would consecrate to God
whatever children should come forth from a marriage hitherto barren:
and she paid the vow magnificently. For besides
our Austrudis, the remaining daughters Saretrudis and
Ebana persevered faithful in the resolve of virginity until death;
and Baldwin, as we have already said,
having suffered martyrdom, was formerly venerated in the church of Laon.
For by virtue of the Concordat of the year 1801 the diocese of Laon
is for the greatest part contained in the present episcopate of Soissons.
[2] born of St. Salaberga, We find our Saint's name written in various
ways. John Mabillon and those who followed him,
the Martyrologist of Paris and our men in the cited Commentary
on St. Salaberga, call the Virgin Anstrudis,
whom others commonly call Austrudis: and I judge that this
norm of writing the name is to be retained, both
because the number of those writing Austrudis is far greater,
with which agrees the vernacular name Sainte Ostrue,
and because in ancient manuscripts the letter-forms n and u are
with difficulty distinguished. For the rest, in whatever
way the Saint's name is pronounced, it retains almost the same meaning;
since Ans may be interpreted as nation, Os or Aus
as house or family, and trud as fidelity,
according to the ancient Teutonic tongue; whence
we shall call our Virgin faithful to her nation or family
Wiarda, Über deutsche Vor- und Geschlechtsnamen, p. 51 and 54.. And this very likeness of interpretation
may have contributed somewhat to the rise of the confusion in writing.
[3] she is celebrated in various Martyrologies, The name of St. Austrudis does not indeed occur in
the Roman Martyrology; but its legitimate cult cannot for that reason
be called into doubt: for the Saint's
memory is celebrated by various Additions to Usuard, which
may be seen in Sollerius, by the Paris Martyrology
of Cardinal de Noailles, the Gallican of Saussay, the Universal
of Le Chastelain, and various Benedictine ones. Moreover
her cult, which began shortly after her death, as the biographer
to be published below testifies at n. 25, still persists in
that part of the present diocese of Soissons which uses the rite
of Laon, as the liturgical directory
published for the year 1829 attests: for there, at the 17th day
of October, the festival of St. Austrudis, Virgin, is announced
under semidouble rite.
[4] Besides the twofold Life of St. Austrudis, antiquity has preserved
for us few monuments pertaining to our Saint.
and her Life was written by two biographers. The writer of the former biography, to be published below from
John Mabillon, the most learned Maurist judges to be nearly contemporary,
because, he says Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened., sæc. II, p. 975., in
recounting the miracles he notes the names and other (as they call them)
circumstances so diligently as though he had been present at them:
and because he says at num. 5 that it would be injurious to name the slayers of Baldwin,
Anstrudis's brother. To the judgment
of the most learned man I fully subscribe, and the more willingly
because all the miracles related by the Anonymous seem to have happened
in the time of Adalsindis, who succeeded St. Austrudis with no one
between. The other Life of our Saint
the praised Mabillon makes of less account, because, although
written in a more polished style, it belongs to the 12th century. It has,
however, certain things also illustrating the Saint's posthumous glory:
whence it too will be of use to us in illustrating these
Acts.
[5] Sprung from the nation of the Franks, St. Austrudis was born of her father St. Blandinus, who,
says the writer of the Life of St. Salaberga at the 22nd day of September
Act. SS., vol. VI of September, p. 522, n. 9., had received the surname Baso; that he was of the same
nation as St. Salaberga is indicated l. c., since
among the causes of the marriage being arranged is reckoned
this too, that he was sprung from the notable stock
of the Sicambri. For that St. Salaberga herself was a Frank by nation
the same biographer testifies, saying Ibid., n. 5.: The same
man of God (Eustasius, abbot of Luxeuil) began to inquire
whether that same illustrious man (Gundoinus, Salaberga's
father), sprung of Frankish birth, had
offspring. Now it is established that the Sicambri and the Franks
were merged into one and the same nation by the ancient
writers, as our men show in the Annotations
to the longer Life of St. Adelphus, abbot of Remiremont, at
the 11th day of September Vol. III of September, p. 820, note a..
[6] about the year, although others think otherwise, Our men have already treated of the year of St. Austrudis's birth,
which they set as the six hundred and forty-fifth
after the birth of Christ Vol. VI of September, p. 520, n. 22.. They held, that is,
that St. Salaberga met death shortly after St. Waldebert,
abbot of Luxeuil, who died in the year 665,
who in the contemporary Life of St. Salaberga is said to have
foretold her death a hundred days beforehand Ibid., p. 529, n. 28.: since,
moreover, it is established from the writer of the Life to be published below, n. 4, that
St. Austrudis succeeded her mother Salaberga at the age of
twenty, it was natural to conclude that the holy Virgin was born in the year of Christ 645.
But the matter, in the opinion of
John Mabillon, is placed in doubt; since
he thought that the vision happened while St. Waldebert was living:
whence, with no reason otherwise given for his assertion,
he set the year of St. Salaberga's death as the year
of Christ 655. Of the same opinion are Le Cointe in
the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks At the year of Christ 654, § XI., Calmet
in his History of Lorraine Vol. I, col. 453., Longueval in
the History of the Gallican Church Vol. V, p. 202, Paris edition 1826., the two Hagiographers
Adrien Baillet and Alban Butler, and D. Beaulleret,
who lately wrote a notice on St. Salaberga, otherwise truly
learned Annuaire du diocèse de Langres, year 1838, p. 10..
[7] [645] Nor would I shrink from submitting to the
authority of such great men, if they had confirmed their opinion by any document
or any reason: but, Le Cointe alone excepted,
the rest rest on bare assertion. Nay, Mabillon,
when in the eulogy of St. Waldebert he had said Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened., sæc. II, p. 504.:
The vision seems to have happened after the death of St. Waldebert;
at the end of the same volume P. 1093., as though by a printer's fault,
substituted which (vision) before the death of St. Waldebert,
etc. Le Cointe alone gives a reason for this chronology,
which, if it stood, would settle the whole controversy.
For he brings forward a fragment of the Life of St. Austrudis,
in which, on the testimony of d'Achery, these things are read Ann. Franc., year 654, § XI.:
Her mother having died, she (Austrudis) was elected abbess
in the twentieth year of her age, and, with the assent of Clovis
the Second, king of the Franks, and all the nobles of the region
acclaiming, she is installed by Peregrinus, bishop
of Laon, after the bestowal of the blessing. If the truth of the text were admitted, it would follow absolutely
that the death of St. Salaberga and the election of her daughter
Austrudis must be bound to the year 56 or 57 of the seventh century.
For Clovis II could not have ruled Austrasia, within which Laon
was enclosed, before the month of September 656; St. Sigebert the king,
namely, having died on the Kalends of February of this year Act. SS., vol. I of February, p. 206,
and Childebert, son of the mayor of the palace Grimoald,
who had aspired to that kingdom, having been ejected after seven months.
And Clovis himself departed this life in the same year on the 5th day of September,
or in the following year as it was drawing to its end L'art de vérif. les dates, vol. I, p. 546, Paris edition 1783.:
wherefore it is necessary to fix both St. Salaberga's death
and St. Austrudis's election within these limits.
[8] Le Cointe refuted, But, as I said beforehand, the cited fragment does not seem able
to stand: for close behind Clovis II
consenting follows Bishop Peregrinus,
bestowing the abbatial blessing. Now it is established
that Attola, bishop of Laon, whom Peregrinus succeeded as the third,
subscribed the privilege of St. Amandus
concerning the place of Barisis in the fifth year of the reign of King Childeric,
son of Clovis Mabill., Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened., sæc. II, p. 1094., that is, in the year of Christ 664.
Le Cointe indeed says that Attola should be restored in place of Peregrinus:
but that, in my judgment, is to twist a historical
monument to a preconceived opinion.
It would also be easy for me to restore Childeric in place of Clovis,
in which case I should without any trouble draw
the cited text into the opinion of my forebears;
for the intermediate bishop between Attola and Peregrinus,
Wlfadus or Vinfridus, of whom beyond the bare name
nothing is known, could have sat for a rather short time,
and by this reasoning one would arrive at the year 65
of the seventh century, in which our men establish that St. Salaberga
put off what was mortal. But that is guessing: wherefore I believe
that a faulty text, contradicting itself, can bring no firmness
to either opinion.
[9] the probable one is shown It remains therefore to inquire whether the time of death
can not somehow be defined from the vision of St. Waldebert.
Our men indeed place the vision after the death of the holy abbot.
And that, in my judgment, rightly. For a threefold
heavenly vision preceded the death of St. Salaberga: namely
of Magobert, a little boy, of St. Ansericus, bishop of Soissons,
and of St. Waldebert: and no one will deny
that the first two had already departed life when they appeared:
why then should we feign that the third, Waldebert, was
still living, when the biographer hints nothing of the kind?
To this point also it makes that St. Waldebert
insinuates plainly enough that he already enjoys heavenly glory;
for he admonishes Salaberga to prepare herself to receive
the prize, surely the immortal crown, because
he too desires to receive a prize from her victory,
which I interpret of the increase of glory that was to come to St. Waldebert
on account of the care expended on the Saint and her foundations.
I confess that such things are not such as to exclude all fear
of error: nevertheless they are probable,
and are not to be departed from until more certain things
are brought forward. Supposing, therefore, that St. Salaberga met her last day
in the year of Christ 665, since St. Austrudis, having become twenty
years old, succeeded her mother, it follows
that the year of our Saint's birth must be joined
with the common year 645.
[10] by our conjecture, My opinion is also confirmed by this, that
St. Salaberga does not seem to have married before Dagobert
I, his father Chlothar II having died, ruled alone over all
Francia and so over Burgundy also, which
happened in the year 628. Now the village of Mosa, in which she seems both to have been born
and to have founded a monastery, belonged to Burgundy
at that time Annuaire du diocèse de Langres, year 1838, p. 12 and 17.: how then would the author
of the Life of St. Salaberga put forward, in respect of her second marriage,
the anger of King Dagobert Vol. III of September, p. 522, n. 9., if the Saint had been entirely secure in Chlothar's
dominion? Rightly do we put forward the epoch of the marriage
to the year 628 or the following.
Which being admitted, certainly St. Austrudis, the third daughter, could not
have been born in the year 635 (as Mabillon and the rest would have it):
otherwise Salaberga, having borne a third child after six or seven years
of marriage, would ridiculously be called
Ibid., n. 10. a woman deprived of so many privileges, who, like
Anna and Elizabeth, hastened to the basilica of Blessed Remigius, pontiff,
that the grief of barrenness might be driven away. If on
the contrary the birth of St. Austrudis is put off to the year 645,
everything flows conveniently, and there is time enough
for it to be established about the barrenness, cured by the patronage of the holy Apostle
of the Remi and by the vow made.
[11] instructed in piety and letters St. Austrudis was liberally brought up by her holy parents;
for she is nourished, says the biographer at n. 1, by
her progenitors with great zeal of all diligence,
devoted to the Christian religion, learning also
letters in the days of tender infancy. And a little below:
She becomes also, through the divine clemency, by hearing
and reading, capable of memory, exercising herself also in
the mastery of doctrine; whence it is no wonder that the writer
adds: She is shown to the world to be full
of eloquence, but much more of wisdom. And indeed in that
seventh century the instruction of women in letters
was not neglected; to which those applied themselves especially
who professed the monastic life or were one day
to profess it. For besides the daily chant
of the divine office, the nuns had to give their time to manifold
reading both of Holy Scripture and of the holy Fathers:
whence no slight knowledge also of the Latin language,
already declining among the common people, was necessary Hist. litt. de France, vol. III, p. 444 and following..
So of St. Gertrude, abbess of Nivelles and a contemporary
of St. Austrudis, at the 17th of March, we read Vol. II of March, p. 595, n. 3 and 4.: Through her
messengers, men of good testimony, … she procured holy volumes
from the city of Rome, and from regions beyond the sea skilled
men to teach the songs of the divine law,
so that she might merit to have, by God's inspiration, what was to be meditated
by herself and her own… She stored up in her memory almost the whole
library of the divine law, and the obscure
mysteries of allegory, the Holy Spirit revealing them,
she openly disclosed to her hearers. A little later,
Chunihilt (the aunt of St. Lull) and her daughter Berathgit
are related to have been very learned in liberal knowledge, whence
they are related to have been sent off into Thuringia Vol. VII of October, p. 1083, n. 8.; surely, that
they might spend their labour on the instruction of women.
Many other examples could be brought forward, which would show
that the greatest care was formerly taken that the palaestra of letters
should be opened to women also. But let it
suffice to have hinted at this.
[12] at twelve she enters the monastery Her boyhood having been piously passed, St. Austrudis,
having reached twelve years, is sought in marriage by
a certain Landrannus, born, says the biographer at
perishable riches and transitory nuptials:
wherefore she joins herself to the choir of clerics singing psalms
in the church, having left in heart and mind the temporal
friendships of the world. And she follows the clerics, who,
carrying tapers and crosses in their hands, lead the Virgin
to the monastery over which Salaberga presided,
the holy mother of this holy girl. In the
twelfth year of her age, therefore, St. Austrudis began the course of the regular
life: for these things are so connected in the writer of the Life
that it was one and the same act for the holy Virgin
both to spurn the earthly spouse and to devote herself wholly
to the heavenly. Further, according to the chronology indicated above at n. 6 and
following, the entrance of St. Austrudis into the monastery must fall
in the year of Christ 657.
[13] and in the eighth year after she is placed over it The venerable abbess, says our biographer
at n. 3, perceiving that the dissolution of her body was imminent,
wished to hand over the pastoral solicitude to her daughter Austrudis,
formerly consecrated to the Lord after the flight from her marriage.
By the counsel, therefore, of the pontiff of the Church of Laon
and of the nobles of the Franks who were over
this province, and with the assent and election and
acclamation of the sisters then dwelling in this place,
under royal licence, she is consecrated abbess by episcopal
blessing. And she was twenty years old
when she received the flock of Christ under her rule.
That Austrudis, twenty years of age, succeeded St. Salaberga at her death as abbess
may seem wonderful to one considering the canons of the Church
then in force. For from
St. Gregory the Great we have, book IV, epistle XI Vol. II of his Works, p. 692.:
We most vehemently forbid that young girls be made abbesses.
Let your fraternity therefore permit no bishop
to veil any but a virgin of sixty years, whose age and
manners shall have required this. It seems therefore
that it was openly acted against the sacred canons, when
a virgin of twenty was set over a monastery and consecrated
abbess.
[14] although a young girl, she is set over it; But first, it could have happened that, since
the foundation of the monastery of Laon was new, no other
nuns were found than such as were set within the years of youth.
Next, and this indeed is of the greatest weight in this matter,
St. Salaberga, with the consent of the sisters added, as is said,
could by her own right, by title of foundation,
institute an abbess: which is also found to have been done
by St. Radegund in the monastery of Poitiers, as
St. Gregory of Tours relates in his History
of the Franks, book IX, ch. 42 D. Bouquet, vol. II, p. 359.: Over which (monastery), says
St. Radegund, with the consent of the most blessed pontiffs both
of this city and the others, and also by the election
of our congregation, I have instituted as abbess my lady and sister
Agnes, whom from her earliest age I cherished and brought up in place of a daughter,
and I have committed myself after
God to obey her ordering according to the rule. For already at that time
the right of patronage had begun to swell, which was afterwards reduced
to a certain form by manifold canons. In the Fourth Council of Orléans,
celebrated in the year 541 Labbe, vol. V of the Councils, col. 382., it is forbidden by canon VII
to the lords of estates that they should introduce into their oratories, against
the wish of the bishop, … strange clerics,
unless perhaps those whom, being approved, the strictness
of the pontiff has ordered to serve there. It was therefore free
for the lords of estates to take for themselves a priest from the diocesan clergy.
Nay, the audacity of these lords was such
that it had to be checked in the same Council
by canon XXVI, in which it is provided under pain of interdict that the powerful
should not prevent clerics from performing the office of the church. In like
manner in the East at about the same time, namely
in the year 543, the emperor in Novel LVII, ch. 2, forbids
founders to thrust upon the bishop a priest to be ordained,
but they are to present him to be duly examined, so that, he says,
the holy things of God may not be profaned. By this reasoning it seems to me
that what might be censured as done against the canons in the election of St. Austrudis
has been dispelled.
[15] her brother St. Baldwin For a fairly long space of time the affairs of our Austrudis
and her monastery flowed prosperously, when the death
inflicted on her brother St. Baldwin by wicked men
troubled both the Saint herself and her nuns,
and perhaps brought them into danger. Now
Baldwin was the fifth-born child of St. Salaberga, and consequently
two or three years younger than St. Austrudis.
Dedicated to God from his tender years, he seems to have bound himself to the Church
of Laon, in which, to use the words of the Breviary
of Laon Of the year 1748, Autumn Part, p. 468., his name and excellent gifts at once
became known to Serulphus, prelate of Laon,
of distinguished holiness, who, Baldwin having been initiated into sacred Orders,
placed him among the clergy, and, having adorned him with the dignity
of archdeacon, took him into a share of his labours
Cf. Act. SS., vol. I of January, p. 503, n. 5.. Our biographer at num. 7 adds to this eulogy
that the same man procured useful things for the monastery of St. Austrudis;
nay, in my opinion, the words of the biographer at n. 8 hint that he was set over
the governing of it, narrating that
there was mourning and grief in the city of Laon for
many days, not only among those whose guardian and
pastor this man had been, but also among the citizens
of this city. These words I interpret of the care of the monastery
of Salaberga committed to the Saint's guardianship: and
hence it further follows that Baldwin was not archdeacon
of Laon: for the citizens of Laon would be ineptly distinguished
from those whose guardian and pastor he
had been, since titles of this kind befit an archdeacon,
who, as canon 1 on the office of the archdeacon says
(I. 23), is the vicar of the bishop in all things and has
the care of the clergy (both of those placed in the city and
of those who are known to dwell throughout the parishes), whether
concerning their conduct, or the honour and restoration
of churches, or the teaching of churchmen,
or zeal for other things. He, indeed, upon whom all these things
fall primarily after the bishop, would deservedly have had to be called
guardian and pastor to the citizens of Laon.
Whence I agree with John Mabillon,
who thinks that St. Baldwin was a Canon of the Church of Laon
Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened., sæc. II, p. 978, note a.. For the rest, all who are even slightly
tinged with canon law know that the present archdeaconry
is a mere dignity of the chapter of the cathedral church,
and that all jurisdiction has passed to the vicars general, removable
at the bishop's nod.
[16] Killed about the year 679, she buries him in her monastery. Our Bollandus at the 8th day of January Vol. I of January, p. 502.,
although he had assigned the time of St. Baldwin's passion broadly to the seventh century
in the margin, yet defines the year
more narrowly, saying: He may seem to have been killed in the times
of Ebroin Ibid., n. 4.. Now Ebroin occupied Laon
in the year 680, and was killed in the following year. But the martyrdom
of St. Baldwin preceded the calamity of Laon,
according to our biographer, who after
relating the killing adds at n. 10: Meanwhile the slayers
of so great a man, hateful to God, did not cease to inflict
injuries on the handmaid of God Austrudis… But it happened
by occasion and not by devotion that King Theodoric entered
the city of Laon in hostile fashion. And there was present
Ebroin with an army. It is plain, therefore, that Baldwin suffered before the occupation
of Laon. But
since we have him as guardian and pastor
of the monastery of Virgins, the discipline then in force also forbids
that St. Baldwin should have been killed long before those times,
since, born scarcely before the year 647,
he must have completed his thirtieth year before he could be applied to the government
of the monastery: let us add also two years,
that he might be able to prove his labour to the nuns,
and we reach the seventy-ninth year of the seventh century,
to which we can bind the Saint's passion with sufficient certainty.
Le Cointe puts off Baldwin's martyrdom to the year of Christ 687 Ann. Eccl. Franc., vol. IV, p. 185.,
but, as is established from what has been said, without
suitable testimony.
[47] She dies at the beginning of the 8th century. Nothing else, moreover, remains worthy of special comment
concerning St. Austrudis than the inquiry into
the time of her death. This investigation our forebears had put off to this
day in the Commentary
to the Life of St. Salaberga Vol. VI of September, p. 518, n. 11.; we therefore discharge the promise
once given. John Mabillon, both in the Acts of the Saints
of the Order of St. Benedict Sæc. II, p. 981, note a. and in the Annals Book XVII, § XXIV, vol. I, p. 521.,
fixes the death of St. Austrudis in the year of Christ 688, and
indeed, as he says in the Acts, as though he had gathered that epoch from
the course of the Life: St. Anstrudis, he says, about the year
DCXXCVIII departed to those above, as is gathered from the foregoing.
But nothing occurs in the preceding
by which this year might be confirmed. Le Cointe and others
place the death of our Saint in the year 707, but
likewise with no reason given for their opinion. One thing
we are able to draw out from our biographer, namely that St. Austrudis
lived under the pontificate of Madelgarius in the times
of Pippin of Herstal, who governed Austrasia from the year 680 to 714.
From this, moreover, it is certainly gathered
that St. Austrudis died after the year 681. But that the Saint
lived until the beginning of the eighth century the series
of the bishops of Laon persuades me. For Attola or
Atelanus occupied the see in the year 672, as I showed in
the Preliminary Commentary on St. Bercharius at the 16th day of October
Vol. VII of October, p. 997, n. 52 and following.: and Madelgarius, with whom the Saint had a controversy,
held the chair of Laon sixth or seventh from Atelanus
Gall. Christ., vol. IX, col. 512.: wherefore I judge it probable
that six bishops governed this church for at least
the space of thirty years, and consequently
that the death of St. Austrudis cannot be removed from the beginning of the eighth century,
without my being able, however, to point to a certain year:
wherefore at the head of this Commentary I have marked the time of death
as the beginning of the eighth century
[18] and her body is translated into the church of St. John the Baptist. The body of St. Austrudis was first laid in
the church of St. Mary the Deep, which was one of the seven
which St. Salaberga had built beside her monastery
for the use of the perpetual psalmody flourishing among the nuns.
The sacred remains rested there for many years,
until, together with the body of St. Salaberga, they were translated into the upper
church of St. John the Baptist, which likewise
was one of the seven; of which translation
there was formerly a double celebration, namely in honour
of St. Salaberga on the 11th day before the Kalends of March and of St. Austrudis
on the 16th day before the Kalends of July. In the said church the precious
pledges remained until the end of the century just
elapsed Ibid., col. 591., when, everything in France being turned upside down,
these relics too perished in the whirlwind. These things, namely,
the Rev. D. Lequeux, Vicar General
of the bishop of Soissons, writes to us in a letter dated the 4th day before the Kalends
of May 1846. And these are nearly all the things which we had to comment on concerning
St. Austrudis.
LIFE OF ST. AUSTRUDIS, VIRGIN, ABBESS OF LAON, BY A NEARLY CONTEMPORARY ANONYMOUS AUTHOR
From John Mabillon's Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict.
Austrudis, virgin and abbess, at Laon in Gaul. (S.)
BHL Number: 0556
Chapter I. The Saint's birth, pious upbringing and entrance into the monastery; she bitterly bewails her brother St. Baldwin, unjustly killed.
BY A NEARLY CONTEMPORARY ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
St. Austrudis, piously brought up, In the times of King Dagobert there was in this world
a noble man, Baso, who, born of noble parents
according to nature, made more noble in manners through
grace, by the counsel of the nobles of the Franks took as wife
Salaberga, the religious daughter of the generous and religious man Gunduinus.
She, after barrenness,
bore to her spouse, among a chosen band of children,
a daughter, who was called Austrudis a b. And she is nourished
by her progenitors with great zeal of all diligence,
devoted to the Christian religion, learning
also letters in the days of tender infancy. She passes beyond,
then, the years of girlhood, walking from virtue
to virtue, a Virgin newly born: and while she ceases to wail
in the cradle, she learns to sing praises to the Son of the Virgin.
She becomes also, through the divine clemency, by hearing
and reading, capable of memory, exercising herself also in
the mastery of doctrine: she appears distinguished by fleshly descent,
more distinguished by holiness of mind: precious in the beauty
of her face, more precious in heart: she is shown to the world
to be full of eloquence, but much more of wisdom;
beloved of God and men, she joined the anchor of her will
to the virtues. Moreover, she was filled with so great a grace
that maturity of manners was shown in her earliest
age.
[2] at twelve, having rejected an earthly spouse, Further, when she was in her twelfth year c, she is sought
by Landrannus, born of a noble lineage:
and the many riches of gold and gems
and garments which he had brought with him he handed into the hands of her parents, that
he might be able to receive the virgin Austrudis as his wife.
But it is proved that he gave his goods in vain for the spouse of God,
and promised greater things in vain. For
the Virgin of God refuses, spurning perishable riches and transitory
nuptials: nor does her mind now think of the marriage
bed, but of the Gospel. For, fortified by the wall of virginity,
she despised the spouse with the dowry of earthly wealth.
And so Landrannus is happily led astray in
the field of chastity, when he thinks he can become the spouse
of a Virgin already betrothed by Christ. The ring
of faith which the heavenly Spouse sent to the Virgin
the eye of the earthly husband had not seen. Why say more? At length
she is said to have spoken thus to the girls present with her, destined for her
service: Is this he whom you say is my
spouse? Believe my words;
never by the laws of nuptials shall a fleshly spouse be joined to me.
These things said, inflamed with the ardour of the heavenly
Spouse, she joins herself to the choir of clerics singing psalms in the church,
having left in heart and mind the temporal
friendships of the world.
[3] While she thus begins to serve as a soldier of God, the orders
of clerics rejoice: the clerics offering lighted
tapers and carrying crosses in their hands and praising the Lord
for so great a virtue, she enters the monastery, which they recognized
to be in the Virgin Austrudis. And so she follows
the singing clerics with great devotion as far as
the place in which stands the monastery over which
Salaberga presided, the holy mother of this holy girl, piously
ruling the band of nuns. And so, God ruling,
the Virgin was not overwhelmed in the quicksands of vices, she was not
deceived by the colours of precious gems,
which are the ambitions of worldly women.
Never did avarice reign in her, which overturns faith and
honesty and good arts in greedy
minds. Behold the prudent Virgin, amid the tempests
of the world, after the manner of a provident sailor avoiding the shipwrecks of the fleeting
age, wisely keeping for the Lord the dwelling-places of her
breast, is now venerated, since nothing is richer than the poverty
of Christ; for it is not a matter of ecclesiastical praise
to possess riches, but to despise them for Christ.
For the Virgin who despises the pomps
of the world has in her vessel an abundance of oil. Therefore,
dearest sisters, the lamps of this glorious Austrudis
are not extinguished, because she was far removed
(as you have heard) from worldly pomps d. Let it be sweeter,
then, for you to follow glory after victory with this Virgin
than without her to follow ignominy after
the ruin of the flesh.
[4] and she succeeds her mother St. Salaberga as abbess: Further, the venerable abbess Salaberga, perceiving
that the dissolution of her body was imminent e, the pastoral
solicitude to her daughter Austrudis, formerly consecrated to the Lord after
the flight from her marriage,
admonishing her to have the care of the sheepfold of Christ. With
the counsel, therefore, of the pontiff of this Church of Laon
and of the nobles of the Franks who were over this
province, and with the assent and election and acclamation
of the sisters then dwelling in this place, under
royal licence, she is consecrated abbess by episcopal
blessing. And she was twenty years old when
she took up the flock of Christ under her rule. Her whole thought
was in God, for neither by day nor by night
did she withdraw from the colloquies and commands of God. O Virgin
filled in all things with the grace of God! Whom He willed
to be beautiful in face, but more beautiful in faith, graceful
in body, strong in chastity, intent on fasts,
devoted to prayers, assiduous in vigils, constant
in sobriety, ecclesiastical in her manner of life;
bountiful in almsgiving, most joyful in the distribution of her
goods, most gentle in the community,
most mild in speech. She is proved to be humble
and kind to those subject to her, and a receiver of guests. Her doors
were thrown open to the needy and to pilgrims; for those thrust into prisons
or bound in chains she took personal * care.
Assiduously, moreover, she bestowed mercy with clemency on orphans and widows,
wards and the wretched, offering food to the hungry, giving drink
to the thirsty, consoling the grieving, cheering
the sad, visiting the sick, soothing the angry,
recalling the discordant to peace, and lastly
burying the dead.
[5] her brother St. Baldwin, unjustly killed, Although the fame of her good works had acquired for this beloved of the Lord
a great name and honour among the kings
of France and the princes of the land, she imputed nothing
of the good to herself, but all to God; for she clung to Him
so much that her bearing, speech, countenance,
gait seemed to be a teaching of virtues.
But never in this world is the perfidy of the wicked lacking,
which proves the patience of the good. For always
the party of the bad is hostile to the party of the pious, from
the time that Cain broke his brother's throat with a hoe. While
the Blessed Virgin Austrudis was striving to spend all the days
of her life in the praises of God, the adversary of the human race secretly
fashions arrows of grief for her. For she had
a most dear brother, Baldwin by name:
against him, at the devil's goading, those conceive and
meditate deceits who seemed to be the friends and
faithful ones of this Virgin and of her brother. But rare is the faith
of men, of whom it is written: Dissemblers and
crafty men provoke the wrath of God Job 36:13.. Now Baldwin, most tenderly loved
by his sister, in the simplicity of his heart,
is deceitfully, with the plague of envy, summoned to a placitum
by the ministers of Satan in a certain vill of the province
of Laon: and he, taking with him only two
horsemen, went at once as the third, for the sake of the placitum, to
cruel enemies, the most wicked of all men whom the earth
sustains. But under a false colour of peace
he was soon deceived and pierced through with swords f. And so the impious, who seemed
to be friends, were revealed in the slaying of the just man:
whose names and stock we think it an injury
to tell g.
[6] she weeps bitterly, The slaying of her brother is announced to the ears of the sister: but she
amid bitter tears blessed the name of the Lord,
as did the simple Job at the loss of the number
of his sons. For the belief of the heart is reckoned unto justice,
and the confession of the mouth unto salvation: and knowing that the state
of the human condition is fragile, she said: Although
I am today desolate and bereft of my own brother,
yet I render to Thee, O God, manifold thanks, and
offer praise and honour to Thy majesty. I beseech Thee,
most loving Christ, that I may not feel the wrath of Thy
judgment, nor take away the face of Thy mercy from
the tears of my eyes: but grant me
strength, that I may patiently both bear and weep the untimely
bitterness of my troubled heart
which has suddenly befallen me because of the loss of my slain brother.
I praise and glorify and bless the name of Thy glory,
which is holy, because Thou hast taken back the brother whom Thou gavest
me. Alas for me (saying again), innocent brother,
why did I send you to the counsels of most cruel
men! Never would there have been that cause for
which I arranged for you to go, you who are harshly slain *, who were
the staff of my weakness. And since fraternal
love knows no measure, she added again tearfully:
Now let those who have brothers in the flesh be mindful of mercy,
sympathizing with my tears full of grief:
let them not despise one who weeps, but, as I
lament, let them be stirred to pity, while I most bitterly
bewail my brother, who alone remained to me,
whom today I have lost. Be merciful to me, O God,
be my guardian and my consoler.
[7] with her nuns. After the tearful lament, however, although
she had been embittered to the heart by suffering her brother's fate,
yet her countenance appeared reasonably manly
and gentle, because the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, who abode in her,
tempered her from weeping.
The community of nuns, then, seeing and
hearing the sad misfortune of their abbess, not without
tears lament both the grief of the sister and the martyrdom
of the slain brother. For, prostrate on the pavement of the church,
they show by sobs and sighs that they
grieve with their spiritual mother, and weep with her who weeps:
for it is written: If one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it Cor. 12:26.. The abbess, moved
by the very great groans of the sisters lying on the ground
and piously rolling on the pavement because of immoderate
sadness, approaches them, but supported
by the hands of others, for she could not walk freely,
worn out with weeping and grieving. And standing before
the altar, with hands raised, scarcely proclaiming silence,
checking the voices of those weeping, she says: Hear me, dearest
sisters and daughters; do not cry out in this fashion,
shouting so harshly over this misfortune: but
bring back to memory how sweetly and how
alike my brother loved you all, who
today has been unjustly slain. With the affection of true love
towards you he has acted hitherto, wishing you well and
procuring your benefit: I pray you, although I am
troubled by the loss of my brother, that you be mindful of his soul
in your prayers, that the soul, cruelly slain,
may possess the joys of paradise.
ANNOTATIONS.
of Laon in the twelfth year of her age, and we have held,
at n. 6 and following of the Preliminary Commentary, that she was born in the year of Christ 645, this flight from
the world belongs to the year 657 or the following.
of time after her death, which, moreover, is also shown by her command to Adalsindis, related below at n. 25,
concerning the adornment of her burial place.
The people of Laon venerate Baldwin as a holy Martyr on the 6th day before the Ides of January,
on which day in the Martyrology of Laon his feast is announced in this manner: At Laon, of St. Baldwin, Martyr and levite, who for the defence of ecclesiastical justice was innocently slain by the guilty. Although now this feast is put off to the 28th day of January (today to the 17th day of October according to the directory of the year 1827) because of the concurrence of the octave of the Epiphany. They are accustomed to invoke St. Baldwin
when plague threatens. The relics of St. Baldwin, placed upon the high altar in our church
of St. John the Baptist, are religiously preserved.
They think he was a canon of the cathedral church.
* personal?
* Obscure
Chapter II. Her brother having been slain, the Saint suffers many calamities from her adversaries, all of whom, however, with God's help, she overcomes.
St. Baldwin having been slain, whom Withdrawing after this with the sisters, and in the powerlessness
of her strength, she was consoled no longer in womanly but in manly fashion.
Nor had the holy Virgin made an end of lamenting, standing in a high place of the mount of Laon, when
suddenly she saw the bier in which was enclosed the body
of her brother. But since, as it is written, love
is never idle, it works great things, if it exists;
directing the gaze of her eyes upon the slain man, she says:
Now, now you return to me, dearest brother, yesterday alive,
today slain: yesterday I sent you away unharmed, today
I receive you back for burial. Brother, brother, most beloved
of my soul, why has life been snatched from you untimely and by those
by whom it least behoved! Although
your slayers have taken you from me, yet I think there is more
cause to rejoice than to grieve over your slaying: for
you have not lost the better life along with innocence,
but the stain, flight and exile and want and
perils of this world, and all these hardships
which press upon mortals, you have lost. Invited to the placitum,
you went as the third with two, and now you return with
many friends weeping for you; because you,
simple and innocent, trusted the fraudulence and deceitful friendship
of your enemies, therefore you have now
left me your only sister. And who, being present, would have
so iron a breast as not to have sympathized with so great a Virgin
over the slaying of her brother? But
no one can recount in detail how great the mourning
and how great the grief was in the city of Laon for many
days, not only among those whose guardian and
pastor this man had been, but also among the citizens
of this city. But the most blessed Virgin, understanding that all things which
are of the world are transitory, armed herself with the shield of patience:
for she had learned to be humble
in prosperity and secure in adversity, she who,
like choice myrrh, gave to Christ a sweetness
of odour.
[9] she lays him to rest with honour, Nor is it a wonder, dearest sisters, if so great
a man was slain by the members of the devil, as you have heard;
since you know that this Martyr is a a member
of Him who, by the zeal of the Pharisees, was crucified for the salvation of the world.
For always from of old envy persecutes
the virtues: and so it comes about that God, who is
the fount of loving-kindness, mercifully receives those whom this world
unmercifully buffets; for those things always please God
which displease the world. For the affliction which
is temporal in this world is the material of the elect
for the rewards of heavenly glory; since the tranquillity of this
world is the tempest of souls. Therefore
not without cause does the Apostle forbid us to be saddened
over the dying, and leave sadness only to
those who have not the hope of rising again. For the failings
of bodies are called in the sacred Scriptures not death, but sleep and
slumber: because
the substance of human bodiliness is not taken away, but
through the glory of the resurrection it will be refashioned into everlasting eternities
by Him who by His death scattered
death. From this it is gathered that he dies happily
who is slain for Christ, to live. This man reigns secure
with Christ, because he was snatched away lest malice
should change his mind, etc.
[10] the enemies of St. Austrudis accuse her Meanwhile the slayers of so great a man, hateful to God,
did not cease to inflict injuries on the handmaid of God Austrudis,
using against her their evil guile and depraved
ingenuity. For, making little of the blood of the just man
shed by them, filled with the fury of malice, they
go to Ebroin, the man of the palace, who in those times
was powerful under King Theodoric in wealth and in royal
counsels b. Accusing, therefore, the Virgin's innocence
in the ears of the prince, they turn his power
to wrath by their false testimonies, persuading him
to rise up against her, so that he might take away from the consecrated abbess
the power of ruling souls and drive her
from the monastery. But, as it is written,
Evil communications corrupt good manners, the heart of the earthly
prince was kindled with wrath against the meekness
of the Virgin. 1 Cor. 15:33.
[11] before Ebroin, But it happened by occasion and not by devotion that King
Theodoric entered the city of Laon in hostile fashion.
And there was present Ebroin with an army, mindful of the Virgin
accused before him, desiring to serve Theodoric
and not God: who, coming to the monastery of maidens,
did not act with the desire of good will, but,
like a ravening wolf, tried to scatter the sheep of Christ,
intending to assign the spiritual mother of the nuns to exile.
And when in his fury he had looked upon the virginal
countenance of the abbess, he began most harshly
to rebuke her. But the illustrious handmaid of God, meek
and humble of heart, answered with few and most gentle words,
showing patiently that she did not fear
the threats and the rash rebuke of the proud tyrant.
[12] who is deterred from his design by a heavenly sign; While Ebroin speaks evil and promises that he will
do worse, a certain man of good desire,
Acglibert, went to certain sisters of mature
age and good life, saying to them: Handmaids of God,
act manfully and be strengthened in the Lord: and all
together and with one mind, crying out as with one mouth,
entreat the majesty of the Lord, that today
no one may be able to separate you from your spiritual mother.
Then the cohort of holy nuns,
with repeated prayers, besought that almighty God
would snatch their abbess from the hand and power
of her adversaries. And when the attendants and companions of Ebroin
who were with him heard the voices of the nuns singing psalms,
terrified with exceeding terror, looking
upward, they saw from the little tower of the church
a ball of fire going out up to heaven. And they, struck
with fear, very swiftly announced this sign to Ebroin.
And he, hearing these things, was gravely afraid, and at once
changed his ferocity into the greatest
gentleness: and soon, rolled at the feet of the spiritual mother,
he begged pardon with devout mind, promising
that for all the remaining time of his life he would venerate the handmaid of God
with fitting honour, and he promises that he will keep faith
and friendship with the monastery and with the handmaids
of God: and so he returned to the palace a friend
of Religion, who had been an enemy of the Virgin beloved of God.
[13] Charivæus is divinely punished Some days after, then, a certain man named
Charivæus, at the instigation of the devil, began to contend insolently
against the handmaid of God Austrudis, so much
that, with sword drawn, he strove to kill her; and,
thus full of evil will, he entered the church of St. Mary
ever Virgin, pursuing the Virgin.
But the Virgin of the Lord, standing undaunted beside the horn
of the altar, with hands outspread, confidently
besought the Lord. The impious persecutor, seeing her
so confidently despising his threats, did not presume to approach
nearer to the altar. But coming to himself,
fearing the divine judgment, prostrate on the ground
he humbly begged pardon. At once the handmaid of the Lord,
when she saw him asking indulgence and pardon,
moved with mercy over him, forgave him
every injury done to her, mindful of the sentence
of the Lord saying: Forgive and it shall be forgiven you c.
But after a few days the aforesaid Charivæus, ending
his life, was buried in the very place in which he had quarrelled
against the handmaid of God, the most blessed one herself
permitting it, who, according to the Apostle, not rendering
evil for evil, with great diligence prepared for him
a place of burial.
[14] Then after two years a certain young man, named
Ebrohard, and Ebrohard by sudden death; entering the castle of Laon in hostile fashion
with his attendants in the hours of night, set fire to the greatest
part of this city, desiring to shed
the blood of his neighbour Gislehard. He, when he understood
that Ebrohard was there and that the city was burning,
did not think he could live for the space of a single hour:
for as quickly as he could, he fled, and so
escaped the hands of his enemies. But Ebrohard, long
seeking the fugitive and not finding him in his hiding,
moved with wrath, went with fury of mind
to the lady Austrudis, and began to rebuke her harshly
for having been his adversary, in that she had favoured
the party of those who had despised his lordship.
And commanding with great savagery, he said: Bring
me all the keys of this monastery. At once the Virgin of Christ,
to soothe his madness, ordered them to be brought.
But according to the nod of the supreme Judge, the keys having been received,
at the first dawn of the next day, before the door of the monastery,
the presumptuous man received a cruel death according to his deserts.
And the handmaid of God, seeing these things,
received back the keys of the monastery, and diligently committed the wretched little body
to burial, obeying this command of the Lord
also, in which it is said: Be ye merciful
as your Father also is merciful; and again:
Do good to them that hate you. Luke 6:36, Matt. 5:44.
[15] Madelgarius, a bishop unjust to the Saint, is checked: In the times of Pippin the prince [d], Madelgarius,
who then seemed to be pontiff of the city of Laon
e, deceived by vain cupidity, wished to usurp for himself the monastery
of Blessed Austrudis. The handmaid of God,
in no way acquiescing in the prelate's will, prudently
opposed him, so that there arose between them a great
altercation. But the Virgin of the Lord, not being able to bear the frequency
of the contention, through Wlfold her kinsman
wisely made known the bishop's cupidity to Pippin.
And Pippin, receiving the embassy of the most holy Virgin
with honour, at once most devoutly
sent his son Grimald to Laon, ordering with all diligence that henceforth
Bishop Madelgarius should bring no disturbance
to the Virgin beloved of God f. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at
if she was so quickly snatched by the Lord from her tribulations,
who, leaving in this world her own wills
and the cares of the flesh, was filled with the sole desire of seeing
the Lord.
[16] St. Austrudis's manner of life. For, except on solemn days, that is,
the Nativity of the Lord and the holy day of Easter and the
Lord's days, on all other days without exception she took no food or
drink unless she had first sung to the Lord the psalter in order,
with hymns and spiritual canticles.
Her meal was customarily at the ninth hour or in the evening
hours. How much she exercised herself in the hours of night
with vigils and psalmodies would be long to recount.
She chose for herself the last place behind the door
of the church: and there a very small chair had been set,
sitting upon which, the course of each of the hours
being completed, she rested a little: the rest of the bedding
of her little bed she had long since given up. Rising daily
at the hour of daybreak, she would at once go round the churches,
inviting the aid of the sisters to help her.
Then she would visit the cells of the sick with all the care of loving-kindness:
and so she subjected herself with all zeal to all the commands
of the Lord, so that at no hours
and at no moments did she appear estranged from divine works.
ANNOTATIONS.
who lays down his life on account of a supernatural act of virtue
was shown in the Preliminary Commentary on St. Bercharius at the 16th day of October Vol. VII of October, p. 1001, n. 67 and following.. Whence St. Baldwin, who had gone to the placitum to protect the
rights of the monastery of his sister St. Austrudis, is hinted to have fallen in defending justice.
b. These
words, in my opinion, show that the slaying of Blessed Baldwin preceded
the occupation of the city of Laon, which at length took place, under the leadership of Ebroin,
mayor of the palace of Theodoric III, king of Neustria and Burgundy, in the year 680:
and this is the principal reason why I bound the passion of St. Baldwin to about the year
679 at n. 16 of the Preliminary Commentary.
d. He
was Pippin, called of Herstal, grandson of Pippin of Landen through Ansegisel and
Begga, father of Charles Martel; who, Dagobert, king of Austrasia, and
Wlfoald, mayor of the palace, having died, together with Duke Martin occupied the kingdom of Austrasia,
to which Lugdunum Clavatum belonged. These things from Mabillon.
sat as bishop of Laon sixth or seventh from Atelanus; according as
we place Omatarius, to whom the contemporary Life of St. Salaberga was inscribed, before or
after him.
And afterwards the pontiffs of Laon had no power in it, except
only (while nuns were there) the blessing of the abbesses,
and of the abbots, nevertheless, after the ejection of the nuns.
Chapter III. Miracles in life and after death.
St. Austrudis, while still living, to a blind woman sight, This is not to be omitted, since through her
the Lord deigned to work His first miracle.
For a certain woman from among her handmaids had lost the light
of her eyes: to whom the most choice Virgin appeared
in a vision, saying: How do you fare, sister? She answered:
Well, Lady; but I pray that you may have mercy on me,
will come back here to do you good. And at once she withdrew.
When, therefore, the Lord's day came, at about the sixth hour, the
aforesaid sister Chramnegundis asked to be led by the hand
to Blessed Austrudis, and she met her on the threshold
and said: I beseech you, Lady, to place your hand upon
my eyes. But she began firmly to refuse,
and judged herself unworthy. Then the blind woman more and
more cried out, saying: Truly I will not depart from you
before you touch me and restore my light to me.
Hearing these things, the Virgin of God began to weep: and
saying nothing, only lifting her eyes to heaven,
she placed her right hand upon her eyes and at once
restored the former light of the eyes.
[18] to those lying gravely ill she restores health: At another time also a certain handmaid of God,
Adalsinda by name a, worn out by pain of the head, could for a long time
no longer be raised at all by herself. To her
the Virgin Austrudis came for the sake of visiting, and placed her hand
on her head with the sign of the Holy Cross, and
at once all pain vanished from her. On another day also
the lady Austrudis, through the Lord, raised from the sleep of death a handmaid
of God named Scholastica. Thus
she was nevertheless thought dead, because neither through her mouth
nor through her nostrils did she give out any breath. All
these and many other things the Lord deigned to work by the hands of His handmaid
while she lived.
[19] after her death, When the day of the departure of her soul was approaching,
she called to her the throng of the sisters, and
swiftly indicated to them the day of her death, and gave pardon
to all, and asked that they likewise pardon her.
For two days before she passed to the Lord,
whom she loved with her whole mind, an immense brightness
shone around that house in which the Virgin of Christ was resting
with wearied body, and from that brightness something like a radiant star,
resting on her breast, entered into her mouth:
and it came to pass that in the same hour in which that holy
soul went forth from the body, something like a dove of snowy
whiteness, having gone forth from her mouth, while all who stood by
saw it, flew away to those above.
[20] made illustrious by a wondrous vision, And when her body, laid out according to custom,
was being buried, all weeping most bitterly before the doors,
behold, two birds radiant with unspeakable splendour,
flying out from the secret places above, sat upon
the house of that roof, until the holy body was handled with all
diligence. And when the sacred body
had been brought on a bier into the basilica of St. John,
a certain sister, having a wound under her armpit, approached
the bier, and placed the hand of the Saint herself upon
that wound with the highest reverence: and
at once she was made whole, as if the bruise of the wound had not
been there.
[21] she heals a paralysed woman, frees a man in bonds; After this a certain woman consecrated to God lay
paralysed: who, weighed down by sleep, saw in her dreams the handmaid
of God Austrudis standing before her little bed,
throwing over her the fur garment [b] which the holy Virgin used
to wear: and at once, awakened from
sleep, she arose, and with all her limbs
recovered, she walked unharmed in the sight of all the sisters.
A certain guilty man was being led bound
to death, who, since he had no hope of escaping,
said: Woe to me, wretch, woe to me! Lady
Austrudis, lo, once while living you freed me; now
I go to death, and now you are dead, you can no longer
help me. At this word at once
that rope was broken from his hands, and that
guilty man, with no one pursuing, the gates being open, found
a place of escape and with most swift course hastened to the sepulchre
of the holy Virgin. At the same time also
a certain sister, having lost the light of her
eyes, lay down upon the sepulchre of the holy Virgin,
to pray: who, weighed down with sleep, waking at that very
moment, clearly received the light she had lost.
Then a girl named Helena, blind and dumb,
led between the hands of the sisters to the sepulchre of the Saint herself,
in one night received, by her help, the light of her eyes and the speech
of her tongue, so that she suffered thence no distress, as it were,
as before.
[22] a nun possessed by a demon Let us recall this also to memory,
that a certain sister, named Oda, daughter of Gautsuinus,
formerly a duke, was from infancy grievously vexed
by a demon; and having received the habit of a nun
with that same infirmity, as a nun in that very monastery
of Laon she suffered that vexation for fifteen
years. But on the first day of the week, as the dawn of day
was beginning, there came to her as it were the voice of St. Austrudis,
asking her to arm herself strongly with the sign of the Lord's Cross
and to rise from her bed with the utmost haste,
and to go to the sepulchre of the holy
Virgin, and bite of the stone itself in the Trinity.
She, thus admonished twice, did not dare to rise:
for she was greatly afraid. But the third * time
the voice itself rebuked her, saying: Why do you hesitate,
girl? Rise quickly, do not fear nor be dismayed,
but go to my sepulchre, and I will be
with you: and bite of the stone three times, and you will be well.
She, rising quickly, came with most rapid course to
her sepulchre: and behold, all the doors of the church,
which at those hours were wont to be most firmly locked with keys,
were thrown open. And coming she prostrated
herself, and bit of the stone itself three times, as had
been commanded her: and at once, held by a most sweet sleep,
and the voice of St. Austrudis being heard, which had
also spoken to her before, it said to her: Rise now,
daughter, for you are now cured of the infirmity which you have
suffered from infancy until now. And she,
made whole, walked with great joy among the other virgins
with confidence.
[23] one suffering an issue of blood, one with dropsy, One of the sisters suffered a most grievous issue of blood:
who saw in her dreams
a certain nun charging her that she should by no means take any other
medicine, except that she should drink, in warm wine, powder scraped
from the sepulchre of the holy Virgin.
Waking, she fulfilled the command, and in
that very moment was made whole of the issue of blood.
Then the girl whom we said above was raised to life by Blessed Austrudis,
seized by a demon, was tormented;
and having taken hold of her, they placed her upon the tomb
of the holy Virgin: who, weighed down by sleep, was cleansed
of the demon, and, her limbs made firm, she
went back. Likewise another girl with dropsy, all her
limbs failing, came on the very day on which, according to
custom, they venerated with the highest honour the anniversary day of her deposition,
and in the sight of all she prostrated herself upon the very sepulchre of the holy Virgin
and fell asleep. And the girl, having awakened,
who had scarcely been brought there by two women,
all her limbs recovered, walked by herself to
her home unharmed.
[24] likewise she cures a paralysed woman; A certain sick woman, Sigrada by name,
lay paralysed for eight years, so that she could not even lift her hand
to her mouth. And she saw
in her dreams St. Austrudis in shining garment, holding in her hand
a phial, in the likeness of crystal, full of most clear
oil, and from it she began to anoint, in the manner
of a cross, her arms and hands and her whole
body. Awakened from that vision,
she had herself carried into the basilica of St. John the Baptist and
set down beside the chair where St. Austrudis was wont to give herself
to frequent prayer: and at once, all
health recovered, as if she had felt no pain upon herself
before * …
[25] On the first day of the week a certain nun,
while she was praying, she admonishes that an altar be raised to her; overcome by sleep, saw St. Austrudis
in the Basilica of Blessed John the Baptist opposite the place of her chair.
She said to her: Sister, go to
the handmaid of God Adalsinda the abbess, and tell her that
in this place where you see me standing she should quickly have a couch [c]
built, and that there whatever sisters wish should come
to gain prayers. At this word the sister
herself, waking, went where she had been ordered, and
narrated to the aforesaid mother of the household what she had heard and
seen. When she had heard it, she understood that couch
to mean an altar. And she, obeying the words, had an altar
consecrated in the same place: where whoever shall faithfully
ask in the name of Jesus shall obtain what he has
requested.
[26] other miracles, For another sister suffered an issue of blood for four
years: who, coming into this sacred
place, praying for her infirmity, was suddenly healed.
Then one of the sisters, gravely wounded,
so that she could not be cured even by physicians,
was afflicted. When she ordered herself to be carried to that chair of St. Austrudis,
there she was healed through her power,
as if she had had no wound of swelling in her body.
Then a girl brought up from infancy in this holy monastery,
named Petronilla, being vehemently
sick, was so wasted that she scarcely gave a tearful breath,
so destitute in her other limbs that she could not even
open her eyes. Her nurse, weeping most bitterly
for her as dead, carried her to the resting-place of St. Austrudis
and laid her there, most devoutly stretched out.
Which done, the merits of Blessed Austrudis the
Virgin pleading for her, the aforesaid girl at once opened her eyes
and began to speak, and her limbs being restored she was healed.
[27] especially four possessed women. Lately indeed it happened that a certain woman
of noble lineage, together with her daughter and two maids,
was most grievously harassed by demons: who, having given up
their possessions, with full devotion bound themselves to the Lord
and in that same monastery received the habit of the holy
nuns. But, as is the custom,
first of all they segregated them far off at the top of the monastery,
and at once the demons began to vex them most cruelly
and savagely, so that almost none
of the sisters dared approach them, so much
that they would set down the allotted food from afar and
flee. But while, by the nod and merits of St. Austrudis,
after the most celebrated day of the Nativity of the Lord, about midnight,
the aforesaid matron with her daughter and maids,
struck with exceeding fear, going with utmost speed from the place where they were,
came to the basilica of St. Mary ever
Virgin, where the holy Relics are seen to rest
[d], and falling down before the sepulchre,
they lay there for two days. But on the third night, at the crowing
of the cocks, the light of that lamp which
hung over the sepulchre of the Saints was extinguished, and after the space of one
hour it was lit: and so up to three times
it was extinguished and again received light. And when it was lit
the third time, the whole church shone as with the brilliance of a most clear
light. Which the aforesaid woman seeing with her companions,
and terrified with exceeding fear, they fell asleep,
and heard the sound of their own limbs,
and thereupon, struck with fear, they cried out
with a loud voice, fearing to end their life in that same hour.
But when the brightness of day shone, they stood upon their
feet. For thus, the Lord favouring, through the intercession
of St. Austrudis, the aforesaid matron with
her daughter and two maids appeared freed from the vexation of demons
and purified, so that thereafter
they had no vexation from demons until the day
of their death.
[28] Epilogue. Many other miracles indeed, which do not occur to me now,
the Lord, who is always wonderful
in His Saints, has shown through His holy and blessed handmaid
the Virgin Austrudis, and they are granted
daily at her sepulchre by the benefit of her prayers
to all who faithfully ask, through our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, who with
the eternal Father * and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for
ever and ever, amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
made of skins, which monks also used: as Peter
the Venerable, in his letter to St. Bernard, book I, ep. 28 Biblioth. Cluniac., col. 664, and notes, col. 115., amply
shows that the use of fur garments (certainly not precious ones) was nowhere forbidden to monks by St. Benedict.
Nor did the Rule of St. Columbanus forbid a garment of this kind, the Rule according to which the monastery of Laon
was ordered by SS. Eustasius and Waldebert.
c. Lectum couch
here Adalsinda herself interpreted as an altar. It signifies, indeed, sometimes
du Cange, under Lectus. We know that St. Austrudis obtained a tomb in the church of St. Mary the Deep: wherefore in the basilica of St. John nothing else could be erected than an altar.
At the end of the Life of St. Austrudis, polished by an anonymous author
of the 12th century, it is read: The place is shown
in the church of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, in which that most holy
body, buried, rested for many
years: until, translated thence, it was laid up together with the bones
of Blessed Salaberga, her mother, in the upper
church of Blessed John the Baptist, etc. On the back part
of the altar in which the holy Relics were laid up, there were read
these verses, inscribed in ancient times Gall. Christ., vol. IX, col. 591.:
Here, venerable ones, you lie beneath the weighty vault, Salaberga,
Eustasius, Austrudis, Baso, Goardus, Bodo.
All of whom the townspeople of Laon hold and venerate among the
heavenly ones.
* time?
* supply: departed unharmed.
* add: and the Son.