Condedus

ON ST. CONDEDUS, PRESBYTER AND HERMIT, AT FONTENELLE IN NORMANDY,

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

St. Condedus's Lives, age, dwelling, monastic profession, burial, translation.

Condedus, monk and confessor, at Fontenelle in Gaul. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

The memory of St. Condedus in the sacred calendars. In the auctaria of Usuard in Sollerius, the Brussels one and that of Greven, the deposition of St. Condedus in the monastery of Fontenelle is announced on this day; whose memory is also made by the universal martyrologists, Castellanus, Giry and Ferrarius; the Gallican, Du Saussay; and also the Benedictines, Ménard, Bucelin, Cherle, the one of Donauwörth and others; but he is omitted in the Martyrology of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, which is customarily appended to the Roman Martyrology. Of these, some call him Condelus, others Condedes, others Candidus: the genuine name is Condedus.

[2] Why we publish two Lives of him; Long ago Mabillon published the Life of St. Condedus Saec. II Bened. page 862 and following. from a manuscript codex of Fontenelle; which Ménard had already earlier, with the style changed, somewhat condensed Martyr. Bened. book I observ. page 355 and following.. Mabillon affirms that its antiquity is proved by the manner of reckoning from the years of the kings, not from the incarnation of Christ Saec. II Bened. page 862.; which opinion formerly pleased very many, chiefly because by the help of this Life the chronology of the Frankish kings seemed capable of being established. Yet it would be wrong to conceal that there are some obstacles in the way here: first, that at the end comes the translation of St. Condedus; which it is probable was made after the year 850, since no mention is made of it in the Chronicle of Fontenelle, which ends at that year and is chiefly occupied in relating matters of that kind. Second, that the arrangement of years, which was formerly praised in this writing, is not everywhere correct, as was shown long ago and as we ourselves shall show below. Third, that it is likely that this Life was put together from another more ancient one and from diplomas, and that the years were added from these: and indeed we have another Life, hitherto unpublished and found in a manuscript codex of the Holy Saviour at Utrecht, whose words here and there correspond to its words; so that this alone is the difference between the two, that the published one loves rhetorical flourishes, seems amplified in many places and augmented with some facts which perhaps the memory of men suggested, and finally that (as I have already said sufficiently) it is furnished with indications of dates. Fourth, that in annotations g and h to this Life there will be found shreds drawn from the Life of St. Hermeland; so that the interpolator makes himself manifest. Since, however, it will perhaps seem otherwise to others, namely that the clause about the translation was sewn on afterward, that the unpublished Life (which has a similar clause) was rather condensed from the other and stripped of the notation of years in order to be recited in choir, and that the Life of St. Hermeland is prior neither in right nor in time;

and since, besides, both are quite short, we shall give below the shorter from the said Utrecht manuscript codex, and the longer from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, collated with Mabillon's edition.

[3] what Henschenius thought of the author of the latter, Now while I thus hesitate, others long ago seemed to themselves to have found not only in what age the Life published by Mabillon (for about this alone, it seems, there has hitherto been writing) was composed, but by what writers. For since in the Life of St. Ansbert, first a monk of Fontenelle, then bishop of Rouen, these words are read Acta SS. vol. II of Feb. page 350, num. 17.: While the aforesaid Father Lantbert also held the government of the place, the blessed pontiff of Christ Erembert of the city of Toulouse, and the holy presbyter Condedus, also an anchorite, born in the island of Britain, assumed in the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle both the name and the habit of a monk worthy of God. For very many things concerning so great a Father, worthy of God and useful to the place, done by him and UNDER HIS GOVERNMENT, could be told, were we not hastening to other things, which we formerly committed more fully to memory in his deeds, to be made known to posterity: from this Henschenius deduced Acta SS. vol. II of Feb. page 345, num. 16. that the Life of St. Condedus was written by the biographer of St. Ansbert. But, unless I am mistaken, our excellent predecessor stumbled; since the biographer of St. Ansbert is speaking not of the Life of St. Condedus but of that of St. Lantbert, explaining why he discourses only briefly about him: which is sufficiently plain from what precedes, and much more from what follows: But by what order, for so he continues about St. Lantbert, he was substituted as pontiff in Lyon …, we shall narrate in a brief discourse. Besides, even if there were talk there of the Life of St. Condedus, it would not follow that it is to be attributed to Aigradus, the original biographer of St. Ansbert; on the contrary, since into his work (as Henschenius himself has shown most luminously, as is his custom Ibid. page 343, num. 6.) a certain interpolator, who certainly lived some time after the year 730 Cf. ibid. page 350, letter s., inserted some things, chiefly in chapter 3 where St. Condedus and other disciples of St. Lantbert are treated, it would be plain to ascribe those things to the same interpolator: wherefore it is somewhat surprising that a most prudent man without any hesitation attributed the foregoing words not to the interpolator but to Aigradus himself, and wrote in various places Ibid. page 345, num. 16; vol. II of April, page 215, num. 2 and 3. that Aigradus was the author of the Life of St. Condedus.

[4] what Mabillon and Sollerius thought. Mabillon took another road Saecul. II Bened. page 862., judging that the Life of St. Condedus published by him is not an unworthy offspring to be attributed to Jonas, monk of Fontenelle and the original biographer of St. Wulfram: which opinion Rivet praises perhaps more than is just Hist. litt. de France, vol. IV, page 56 and 57., since it is nothing but mere divination and tolerable only in so far as the obstacles which we proposed before may seem negligible. I would not conceal the opinion of our Sollerius, which I find noted on a manuscript slip, namely that the Life of St. Condedus was amplified at the end of the eighth century; nor will this seem to lack all foundation, if you observe from chapter 16 of the Chronicle of Fontenelle In d'Achery, Spicileg. vol. II, page 278, folio edition. that a school was instituted in that same monastery by Gervold, abbot of Fontenelle at the end of the eighth century, because he found almost all ignorant of letters; and that, on account of the reckoning and agreement of the times, some men seem to have come out of this school who augmented and interpolated the Lives of the Saints of Fontenelle; among whose number is the one who put forth the Lives of SS. Ansbert and Lantbert with additions inserted; likewise the one who amplified the Life of St. Wandregisil; and likewise the one who incautiously violated the Life of St. Wulfram, first written by Jonas, by the addition of very many things; that among them, however, is not to be reckoned Harduin, an excellent copyist, who at that time wrote out by his own toil a book of the Lives of the holy confessors of Christ Wandregisil, Ansbert and Wulfram Ibid. loc. cit.; for that Mabillon, writing otherwise Saec. III Bened. part 1, page 355 and 356., overlooked that the Life of St. Lantbert was not written by Harduin, nor accordingly the twin Life of St. Ansbert, since it is sufficiently plain from what has been said that both were put forth by one and the same man, who at the beginning of the eighth century augmented the Life of St. Ansbert; wherefore it is better to confess that it is unknown whether there were several or one who took upon themselves that burden of interpolating the Lives of the Saints of Fontenelle, and what their names were; and that from this, finally, it becomes probable that at that time too its additions were made to the second Life of St. Condedus. Which opinion would please more, were it not that it strikes against the first obstacle which I proposed at num. 2. For the rest, we most willingly leave all these things to the reader, passing on to more certain matters.

[5] [By the diploma of Theoderic III, by which the island of Belcinaca is given to St. Condedus,] We learn the age of St. Condedus above all from the diploma of Theoderic III, king of the Franks. It was first published in the Collection of the Writers of Frankish affairs by Dom Bouquet Recueil des hist. vol. IV, page 652. from the papers of Mabillon; who had copied it from the letters of Philip of Valois, renewing and confirming it in the year 1329 (since it had been worn away by age). Brequigny published the same from a most accurate copy of Fontenelle Documenta, Chartae, etc. part 1, page 266., teaching that the initial invocation of the diploma was indeed unusual in these times, but that the king himself in his letters warns that in some parts the parchment was worn and consumed; that from this one may argue that the copyists, in transcribing it, supplied the missing initial formula according to the custom of their own age Ibid. Prolegom. page XCII and XCIII.; that, besides, some suspicion about the genuineness of this diploma also arises from the mention of the ring, which, on the testimony of Mabillon De re diplom. book II, chap. 10., is rarely found in the undoubted diplomas of these kings Diplomata, Chartae, etc. page 266, note 1; but these things are not of such weight as to make the mind doubtful, especially since both Lives of St. Condedus support this royal charter. These things premised, we subjoin the precept of Theoderic according to Brequigny's copy, with Mabillon's discrepancies placed in the margin.

In the name of the Most High Lord, Theoderic, king of the Franks. Whatever, on account of the fear of the Lord and love of Him, we bestow out of royal abundance on the servants of Christ for the increase of divine worship, we trust to have God as rewarder, out of reverence for whom we do this. Let, therefore, the diligence of the faithful of Christ, present and future alike, know that we, divinely admonished, going down to an island situated in the river Seine, have granted and given to the man of God, the lord Condedus, destined thither by Him, that island which of old he reckoned Luta, but now named Belcinaca, with all things pertaining to it and the whole alluvion by which the divine goodness may will it to be increased. And since it is near the fisc of Arelaunum, extending in its length for three miles, and is bounded in breadth by fifteen hundred paces, we have likewise granted the contiguous fields and meadows on the eastern side and the woodlands, and on the north as far as the boundaries of Glaconissem : so that it may delight both him and his monks of the monastery of Fontenelle, for us and our offspring and for the peace and stability of the kingdom and the remedy of our souls, to offer to the Lord the sacrifice of our redemption and continually to implore the divine mercy. By this precept, therefore, we more specially decree and command that he himself, as has been said, have this as granted and conceded, so that also those his successors, the monks, may have, hold and possess it for perpetual times, or whatever they may wish to do therefrom, they may have free and most firm power in all things, Christ favouring. And that this authority or donation of ours, which we have granted by divine illumination with full and entire grace, may be held more firm and remain unshaken for perpetual times, we have commanded it to be signed with the subscription of our hand and the impression of our ring. King Theoderic subscribed. Given in the 1st year, which made the month * of October the 21st day, happily, at the palace of Arlaunum.

[6] St. Condedus, then, obtained the island of Belcinaca on October 21 of the 1st year of King Theoderic; the age of St. Condedus also becomes clear which others have sufficiently shown to agree with the year of Christ 673 [Ibid. page 267, note 3; page 278, note 1; Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, page 546 and 547; Gebhardus, Reges Meroving. page 159.]: and so, unless Theoderic took the royal name before he was acknowledged and proclaimed king by the Franks, the opinion of Louis Dufour de Longuerue Annal. reg. Franc. in Dom Bouquet, vol. III, page 691. is overthrown by this diploma, who states that Theoderic III was not publicly elected and confirmed king of the Franks before the end of the month of October of the year 675. Certainly, since Childeric, his brother, was killed at the beginning of autumn, but before September 12, some days then passed before Theoderic, having left the cloisters of St. Denis, gained the approval of his men; but two whole months do not seem to have been necessary. There remains also another difficulty, namely that Theoderic asks St. Condedus and the monks of Fontenelle to pray for himself and HIS OFFSPRING: but what offspring could Theoderic have had in the year 673, since, born in the year 655, he was tonsured at St. Denis in 670 and returned to the world only in the month of September 673? Especially as his elder son Clovis III (also called Clothar), when he succeeded his father in the year 691, is called a little child by the Annalist of Metz and the Continuator of Fredegar Cf. Gebhardus, Reges Merov. page 165.. To which, after I have turned over all the diplomas of Theoderic, I have nothing else to answer than that this is perhaps an addition, especially since it is omitted in the second Life; or that Theoderic spoke of offspring which he hoped would at some time be given him by God, or that it was inserted by the notary, unwilling to change the style of the formularies: besides, in the diploma In Brequigny, Diplomata, Chartae, etc. page 181. of Clovis II, while still four years old, for the monastery of St. Maur-des-Fossés, you have mention of a wife or offspring; which words indeed Le Cointe judged should be removed Ann. eccles. Franc. vol. III, page 83.; but following Mabillon the writers of the New Treatise on diplomatics consider this censure too severe Nouv. Traité de diplom. vol. IV, page 580.: and not without reason.

[7] and his monastic profession at Fontenelle. From the same diploma we learn, moreover, that St. Condedus was not indeed (as Brequigny wrongly has it Diplomata, Chartae, etc. page 266.) abbot of Fontenelle, but a monk; for these words clearly indicate it: So that both him and his monks of the monastery of Fontenelle, etc. Which

that passage which we cited above at num. 3 from the Life of St. Ansbert had already suggested, namely: Erembert … and the holy presbyter Condedus … in the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle assumed both the name and the habit of a monk worthy of God. Yet these things must be reconciled with both Lives of St. Condedus; from which it appears that St. Condedus spent only a few days at Fontenelle; within which he joined himself to the community of Fontenelle and subjected himself to the authority of St. Lantbert: whence also it is said there that with the permission of the said father he sought a place suitable for himself. From the same source it is confirmed, as is also sufficiently intimated in both Lives, that Theoderic was divinely admonished to enrich St. Condedus with benefits; and that he therefore granted him the island of Belcinaca with the neighbouring meadows and woodland on both banks of the Seine.

[8] Description and fortunes of that island. On the size of this island the diploma and the second Life agree, as also on other circumstances. Now Belcinaca lies a little below Calidumbeccum (Caudebec) near the village of Villequier. After the course of many years had been completed following the death of the holy man, the same island is said in the second Life to have been worn away and collapsed by the flux of the sea; the cause of which seems to be that another course had been set for the waves, when the port of St. Wulfram was built on the right bank of the Seine below Caudebec and a stone embankment set against the river Cf. Du Plessis, Descript. de la Normandie, vol. I, page, 86 and 88.. The island having been destroyed or covered by the waters, the meadows which lay on the left bank of the Seine also began little by little to be flooded and worn away, which, having once been given to St. Condedus, had afterward come into the hands of laymen. But these, in order to look after their own interests, procured that the embankment be pulled down and the castle of Mailleraie be built from the rubble; and since by this means the course of the waves was changed again, the island of Belcinaca, through the heaping up of mud and sand, once more lifted its head in the year 1641; which those laymen claimed for themselves in place of their meadows, once worn away. The monks of Fontenelle opposed them from the year 1658; but in vain; so that in the year 1690 they lost the case altogether Ibid. page 86; cf. Brequigny, diplomata, page 266.. Afterward, however, perhaps because the banks of the river were again troubled by new structures, the island was again destroyed, so that in the year 1740 no trace of it was any longer seen [Cf. Du Plessis, page 86; cf. Gallia Christ. vol. XI, col. 121 and 162; and Brequigny, Diplomata, etc. vol. I. page 265, note 2.]. Whether it emerged again afterward I am uncertain: certainly in Cassini's maps it is accurately drawn, with the name l'Ile de Bersignac added.

[9] Other chronological notes which occur in the Life of St. Condedus are examined. In this island, then, from the year 673, St. Condedus led a most holy life, teaching his disciples ascesis and sometimes going out, after the custom of the Britons, to preach the doctrine of Christ. Meanwhile, in the third year of the aforesaid king, which was the ninth year of Abbot Lambert, by the terms of a testament he handed over to the dominion of the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, to be possessed by perpetual right, what he had received either from Theoderic or from the nobleman Schiward. Of this notation of time Henschenius, attempting to arrange the chronology of the first abbots of Fontenelle in the commentary on St. Ansbert Acta SS. vol. II of Feb. page 345, num. 16., and entirely correcting it in the commentary on St. Lantbert Ibid. vol. II of April, page 215., has already said something, and thought in this latter work that the characters of the number IX were inverted and that XI should be written. But not rightly. For in the diplomas the years of Theoderic run from the beginning of the month of September Cf. Brequigny. Diplomata, etc. page 278., and so the 3rd year from the autumn of the year 675. Now Lantbert succeeded St. Wandregisil, who, as our Boschius has shown with fresh care Acta SS. vol. V of July, page 260., departed to heaven on July 22 of the year 667; and consequently his ninth year ran from the end of July of the year 675. St. Condedus confirmed this donation by a new diploma in the 7th year of King Theoderic, St. Ansbert governing the monastery of Fontenelle in his 2nd year, Waratto, Mayor of the Palace, being present. But Pagi long ago noticed that these things cannot stand together Critice Baronii at the year 681, num. 25.. For St. Lantbert, according to the title of the fragment of his Life, first inserted in the third Benedictine century Part II, page 322. and then in our Acts Vol. II of April, page 216, num. 6., was made prelate of the church of Lyon after having been, following the most kindly Wandregisil, ruler of the monastery of Fontenelle for thirteen years and eight months, and accordingly until almost the end of the month of April of the year 681; wherefore the second year of St. Ansbert, his successor, ran from about the month of May of the year 682, when King Theoderic was in his ninth year and in the month of September began his tenth: one or the other, then, must be read, by no means the seventh, which had certainly run out before St. Ansbert took up the reins of the monastery. Nor was Waratto Mayor of the Palace in the seventh year of Theoderic, or from the month of September of the year 779 to the same month of the following year, but from the springtime of the year 681 Cf. Dufour de Longuerue, Annal. Franc. in Bouquet, vol. III, page 694., when Theoderic's ninth year was slipping by and St. Ansbert's first was beginning. Let us hold, then, that this second diploma of St. Condedus was drawn up in the 2nd year of St. Ansbert, the 9th or 10th of Theoderic, after the beginning of May of the year 682. About three years after, or in the year 685, Mabillon marks the death of St. Condedus Saec. II Bened. page 862, Annal. Bened. book XVII, num. 44, vol. I, page 531.. A tolerable conjecture.

[10] [The body of St. Condedus, carried at an uncertain time from the island of Belcinaca to Fontenelle,] St. Condedus was first buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, which he himself had built on the island of Belcinaca. His sacred bones lay there for a long time, through long times, or through the courses of many years, as is read in both Lives and in the epitaph. Mabillon judged Annal. Bened. vol. I, page 531. that these are equivalent to some years; nor would I deny that some, nay ten, years are sometimes called a long time in matters of this kind; but by the same expressions several centuries are more often understood. What then? From the closing clause of both Lives we have it that the body of St. Condedus remained at Belcinaca until that island was worn away and collapsed by the flux of the sea: and so, if we listened to the Gallia christiana, the remains of St. Condedus would have been preserved at Belcinaca at least until the times of Blessed Gradulf, who in the year 1031, after the martyrdom of St. Gerard, received the crozier of Fontenelle Annal. Bened. book LVI, num. 97, vol. IV, page 340.; since that island had not then yet been worn away and collapsed by the flux of the sea, but had been restored to the monks of Fontenelle by Robert, duke of the Normans, who at the same time granted four churches in England out of love for Guncard his chaplain, who had become a monk at St. Wandregisil's: about which matter I have read a diploma in the old Monasticon Anglicanum vol. III, page 974 Cf. Gallia Christ. vol. XI, col. 177.. But there is no doubt that here again a deception is practised: for in the new Monasticon Anglicanum, in which the whole of the old one has been inserted, the diploma alluded to was also entered; but not a whit is found in it Cf. Monast. Angl. nov. vol. VI, page 1108. about the island of Belcinaca, situated in the river Seine, where St. Condedus, arriving from parts beyond the sea, led the eremitical life. Besides, it is established from elsewhere that the body of St. Condedus was no longer there.

[11] in the year 1027 it is placed in one coffin with the body of St. Erembert: For when, in the time of Abbot St. Gerard, the body of St. Wulfram was uncovered and the translation was made in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand and twenty-seven, on the kalends of June, Henry, king of the Franks, holding the kingdom seized against the will of his mother, and Richard the Third disposing the principality of Normandy with lawful moderation [Saec. III Bened. part I, page 370 and Annal. Bened. book LVI, num. 14, vol. IV, page 309.], Robert, archbishop of Rouen, having replaced the bones of St. Wulfram in a prepared little shrine, nonetheless fittingly placed the bodies of the holy confessors Herembert, pontiff of Toulouse, and the hermit Condedus together in one coffin, and those of the blessed Martyrs Maximus and Venerandus in another; all of which was done in the church of Blessed Mary of Caillouville, into which they had been carried the day before from the church of St. Peter; then the body of St. Wulfram was conducted with solemn pomp into the basilica of St. Wandregisil; and I should believe those of the other four saints also; and this translation was thereafter celebrated every year not on the 7th of the kalends of June, but on the kalends themselves, or June 1 [Cf. Acta SS. vol. III of March, page 150, note g; and Saecul. II Bened. page 865, note d.]. We note this because Mabillon wrote in the Annals the 7th of the kalends, against the Acts published by Henschenius Acta SS. vol. III, page 149, note e., the better ones given by Mabillon himself Saec. III Bened. part I, page 370., and the second appendix of the Chronicle of Fontenelle d'Achery's Spicileg. vol. II, page 288.. But when the basilica of St. Peter was properly restored and dedicated to God under the patronage of the same saint and of all the Apostles and also of St. Wandregisil (whose name it afterward retained), on the 2nd of the ides of September of the year 1033 Cf. ibid. page 289; and Du Plessis, Descript. de la Normandie, vol. I, page 78., the bodies of the five saints must have been brought back into it: certainly of St. Erembert, whose bones had been placed in the same coffin as those of St. Condedus, the following words are read in the Life written after that translation (for before, the remains of St. Erembert lay in the church of St. Paul) Acta SS. vol. III of May. page 390.: But the body of the aforesaid holy pontiff Erembert, translated from the church of St. Paul the apostle, now rests in the church of St. Peter in the oratory of St. Martin the pontiff; in the same oratory, namely; next to which the body of St. Condedus had before been laid in a tomb, placed, as the second Life has it, in the church of the Apostle St. Peter next to the oratory of St. Martin on the southern side, and an epitaph of this kind written over his tomb, etc.

[12] [from this and from elsewhere it is established that he was never carried to Ghent.] And from these things we deduce, first, that the closing clause of the second Life of St. Condedus is also older than the year 1027, since it was written before his bones had been placed, out of the tomb and the beautiful turf in which the sacred throng had buried them, in one coffin with the remains

of St. Erembert; next, that it seems erroneous (as is narrated elsewhere [Cf. Raissius, Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, page 116, and Acta SS. vol. I of June, page 642. note k.]) that the body of St. Condedus was carried at the time of the Norman disasters to Ghent in Flanders, namely when, after many windings, the bodies of St. Wandregisil and other saints were brought there in the year 944; and indeed there is no mention of the sacred pledges of St. Condedus in the Translation of St. Wandregisil Acta SS. vol. V of July, page 291 and following.; none in Henschenius's Commentary on the translation of St. Winwaloe Ibid. vol. I of March, page 247 and following.; none in his writing on the relics of St. Wulfram Ibid. vol. III of March, page 161 and following., in which several inventories of the relics of Ghent or Blandin come forward; and none, finally, in the Blandin Chronicles Annal. Abbat. S. Petri Blandinienses, cf. page 8, 130, 170, etc., which the Rev. Mr. Vande Putte published in the year 1842, and in which the bodies of saints that were carried to Ghent are often recounted: in these, I say, there is nowhere a word about St. Condedus. But how it arose that afterward they believed the body of St. Condedus to be preserved at Blandin, I leave to be settled by those who may care to turn over the same question about the body of St. Wulfram.

* anquititas M.

* sui M.

* Glacomissae M.

* et ille et M.

* mense M.

LIFE OF ST. CONDEDUS, PRESBYTER AND HERMIT

From the Utrecht manuscript of the Holy Saviour.

Condedus, monk and confessor, at Fontenelle in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 1908

[St. Condedus, a British hermit, then a monk at the Fountain of St. Walaric and for a little while at Fontenelle,] In the time of Theoderic, son of Clovis, king of the Franks, the holy presbyter and anchorite Condedus, born in the island of Britain in the Ocean, whose name had formerly been Albion, kindled with the ardour of a stricter life, left the aforesaid island and came into the parts of Gaul. And first, after he had crossed the expanse of the Ocean, in this place which is called the Fountain of Walaric ^a, stripped of the world and full of God, he led a solitary life; afterward, hearing the fame of the holy abbot Lambert and the brethren of the monastery of Fontenelle, he visited them; and having held converse and received spiritual consolation, and with the permission ^b of the said father to seek a place suitable for himself, he went on board a ship and sailed to an island by name Belcinaca ^c, near the fisc of Arelanum ^d, which was surrounded on all sides by the river Seine. Going out of the ship and surveying it, he prayed that a place might be granted him for the divine service. And on the following night the aforesaid King Theoderic ^e, who at that very time was engaged in hunting in the forest of Arelanum, was admonished to receive with the highest honour the servant of God dwelling on the aforesaid island, and that he was to be the teacher of many peoples, and that nothing was to be denied him, whatever he should ask. Made certain by this vision, the king immediately came to the same island and received the same servant of God with the highest honour; handing over to him in perpetuity the aforesaid island with royal privileges.

[2] on the island, given by King Theoderic, he builds two churches, preaches, On this island St. Condedus built a church in honour of the holy Mother of God Mary, and another in honour of the apostles Peter and Paul; in which he also set up a memorial of Blessed Walaric ^f. There the saint bound himself fast by macerating himself, and cherished with sweet speech the crowds flocking to him, bringing forth from the treasure of his heart things new and old.

[3] he is miraculously helped against a fox and in raising a little boat; While the holy man was staying there, then, a fox, a crafty beast and a pursuer of birds, swiftly snatching away the cock, the herald of the day, of the man of God, returned to its den. And when it strove with every effort to enter it, it nevertheless remained immovable before the mouth of the cave; and not long after, as though remembering its crime, it carried the bird in its mouth unwillingly and, while they were watching, brought it back to the same place from which it had taken it. At another time also, while a boat was being built on the same island for the convenience of the man of God, it happened that there was a lack of men to raise it up for building. The man of the Lord, with divine help, raised it alone as quickly as if it were being lifted by the strength of many men.

[4] he dies and is buried first on the island, then at Fontenelle. Leading, then, on the said island a most holy and contemplative life, and persisting unceasingly in good works, after his sojourn in the world had been long prolonged, he passed to eternal life on the 12th of the kalends of November; and was buried in the church of the Apostles which he himself had built. Through his merits many benefits were granted to those who asked. But after a long time the body of St. Condedus was translated into the monastery of Fontenelle and placed in the church of Blessed Peter the apostle ^h.

ANNOTATIONS.

LIFE OF ST. CONDEDUS, PRESBYTER AND HERMIT,

From the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître collated with Mabillon's edition.

Condedus, monk and confessor, at Fontenelle in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 1907

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

St. Condedus, a British hermit, first at St. Walaric's, The holy father Wandregisil, then, having been translated ^a to the heavenly kingdoms after the manifold labours of the world, and the venerable abbot Lambert ^b having been substituted in the place of government of the monastery of Fontenelle, at the same time the holy presbyter and anchorite Condedus, a Briton by race, born in the island of Britain in the Ocean, which had formerly had the name Albion, kindled with the ardour of a stricter life and stirred by the love of pilgrimage, and incited by the conversation of the saints, having left the aforesaid island, namely his own homeland, for love of the heavenly homeland, came into the parts of Gaul: and first, after he had crossed the expanse of the Ocean, in the place which is called the Fountain of Walaric, for some years, stripped of the world and full of God, he drank daily in solitary conversation the sweetest fruits of contemplation.

[2] then coming to Fontenelle, he is divinely made manifest, But learning, as fame flew abroad, that the congregation of the holy father Lambert of the monastery of Fontenelle shone no less than the others in the beauty of religion, he resolved in his soul to unite himself to their fellowship. Then, having left that place, he went onto the sea, and, driven on a prosperous course with divine guidance accompanying him, without delay he put in at the mouth of the river Seine, and, sailing with the current, came to Arelaunum, a royal estate; and there, having lowered the sails, he settled in the harbour of the same estate. And when he had turned aside to a certain religious matron ^c for the sake of lodging, the others on the same estate living in bestial fashion and not receiving him, after he had granted his body its necessities and, having sung the divine praises, had given his limbs to rest together with some of his disciples in the little house assigned to him, the aforesaid faithful woman, breaking off the torpor of sleep in the dead stillness of the night and opening the window of her chamber, suddenly beholds above the roof under which the soldier of Christ was resting a fiery beacon of wonderful size, climbing loftily to the heights of heaven. For it is plain of whose spirit * this man was full, namely of Him who in the place of the desert went before the people as they journeyed for 40 years in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

[3] he is received by the abbot St. Lambert, The holy man came also to the monastery of Fontenelle, and after prayers to the Lord, and brotherly greetings and spiritual conversations, when all humanity, as the monastic norm dictates ^d, had been shown to the holy man with all his companions, whom the abbot St. Lambert had received as angels, and he was staying some days in the aforesaid monastery and enjoying the sweet conversations of such great fathers, at length blessed Condedus, opening the desire of his heart, said: that it did not seem enough to him to toil alone in the holiness of religion, if he did not also profit others by preaching and by shining with the light of example. Then, by the counsel of the aforesaid father Lambert, he deliberated how to search out humbly a place suited to his devotion and religion. Then, with the blessing and permission of the aforesaid father, having returned to the river Seine and gone on board a ship, he sailed to an island by name Belcinnaca, near the fisc of Arelaunum, which was surrounded on all sides by the river Seine. Having gone out of the ship, he went round it surveying it, and most attentively admired the pleasantness and seclusion of the place, praying the all-powerful Lord that He would deign in His clemency to grant that place to His servant.

[4] he obtains the island of Belcinnaca from King Theoderic III; And on the following night the glorious King Theoderic, namely the son of King Clovis and Queen Balthild, who at that very time was engaged in the exercise of autumn hunting in the forest of Arelaunum, had been admonished in a vision by divine revelation to receive with the highest honour the servant of the Lord dwelling on the aforesaid island, and that he was to be the teacher of many peoples, and that nothing was to be denied him, whatever he should ask of him. The aforesaid king, made certain by this vision, immediately came to the same island and received the same servant of the Lord with joy and the highest honour: and when he recognized in him fervour of faith, devotion of religion and fullness of wisdom, according to his holy petition he handed over to him the aforesaid island of Belcinnaca to be possessed in perpetuity by a privilege of his authority, under perpetual protection and defence ^e: so that both he and his successors, namely the monks dwelling in the same place, might be disturbed by no one's attack or disquiet: so that, the incursion of evil men being removed, they might freely implore the goodness of the Lord for himself and for the peace of his whole kingdom. The aforesaid king also bestowed on the same servant of the Lord, in the same privilege, on the Eastern or Northern side, the fields contiguous to the same island and pleasant meadows with a very dense woodland, in which herds of boars and stags dwell most abundantly at all seasons, because it is known to be thickly set with fruit-bearing trees, which unfailingly furnish suitable and fertile food without lack to animals of this * kind. For it is a most fitting place for rearing animals of every kind, although it is proved most useful in many other advantages as well: which place antiquity judged should be called Lutum, because in winter, or the wintry season, from the flooding of the river Seine certain marshy and swampy places are found in it ^f. For it is three miles in length, while in breadth it is bounded by fifteen hundred paces.

[5] this island is described: The aforesaid island of Belcinnaca also, which, as was said above, is surrounded on all sides in a circle by the river Seine, retains within itself so much quiet and silence that every longing for the wilderness seems to be wholly taken away from those desiring the anchoretic life. And such an abundance of fish flows from the sea and the Seine plentifully at the appointed times that to fishermen searching the depths of other rivers, unless they have learned it by sight, it seems incredible to hear ^g. The sea-wave does not neglect to visit it, surrounding it on all sides, three times in the revolution of a day and night at the time of the spring tide and the flood, and it is driven with such an impetus of its force that, beyond this island toward the Eastern side, going back up through the waters of the Seine for sixty miles ^h, it reaches as far as the place called Pistae ⁱ: whereas the watery way from the sea to this island is reckoned at almost thirty miles . And thus this flux, which comes forth from the navel or Charybdis of the sea, twice a day swallows the waves and again vomits them forth: as is proved to happen with exceeding swiftness along all the shores of the Seine as the waves come and go. These are filled with such sudden inundations that whoever happens to be found a little way in from the shore can scarcely escape. For the river seems to flow back upward with a most swift course, and to rise up into the height like the tallest trees with a very great roaring, and through spaces of many miles the water of the river seems to be turned to bitterness. These things have been said about the flux and the site of the place and the inundation of the river *.

[6] he founds two churches there Now let us return, by the Lord's bounty, to the man's works. For the holy man, having entered the aforesaid island with the authority of the royal gift, built in it a basilica in honour of Saint Mary ever virgin: and another also in the name of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, in which he also set up a memorial of the holy confessor Walaric. O how happy and blessed the island of Belcinnaca, once the nurse of beasts, now also the most secluded resting place of the servants of Christ! For here the holy man, kindled with the fervour of holy conversation, bound himself fast by macerating himself with a stricter zeal of mind, and cherished with sweet speech * the crowds flocking to him, bringing forth from the treasure of his heart things new and old.

[7] he bequeaths these and other goods to the monks of Fontenelle; The aforesaid island also, which he had obtained by the king's bounty, with all the things pertaining to it, and also some small possessions which a certain very rich and noble man, Schiward, had conferred on him as a perpetual gift, in the third year of the aforesaid king, which was the ninth year of Abbot Lambert, he handed over by the terms of a testament to the dominion of the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, to be possessed by perpetual right. The names of these possessions are these: Campelli, which the aforesaid Schiward and other wealthy men had conferred on him. Likewise another small possession by name Geldulfiacae: in like manner also a manse in the place called Aolciacum on the river Sedanna, with a mill. This gift had been made on the tenth day of the month of October, which is the 6th of the Ides of October ^k. Likewise, in the 7th year of King Theoderic , he gave another instrument of gift concerning the monastery of the aforesaid island and the things pertaining there, which was executed in the monastery of Fontenelle in the seventh year of King Theoderic, Saint Ansbert governing the monastery of Fontenelle in his second year; since the man of the Lord Lambert had already taken up the prelacy of the church of Lyon, as is established in his deeds, where it is most fully written. The illustrious Waratto, mayor of the royal palace, was also present in the monastery of Fontenelle when the gift of these things was drawn up by the aforesaid holy man; who also consented and confirmed it with the signs of his hand: and some other noblemen, whose names are contained to this day in the aforesaid gift. Brandulf the presbyter had written out the instrument of this testament. There were present besides Conomailus *, Zacheus and John, disciples of the aforesaid holy man Condedus, who had also formerly come with him from parts beyond the sea. O happy land, which the presence of the soldier Condedus made illustrious! He mortified his members daily, he had presented himself as a living victim to God, he fulfilled the divine precepts in every way: he also built worthy temples to God.

[8] a fox restores a theft; Now while the holy man was staying in the same place, a fox, a crafty beast and a pursuer of birds, full of windings, stealthily snatching away the bird of the man of God, namely the herald of the day, which is also called by the Gauls gallus, was swiftly returning to its den. And when it strove with every effort to enter it, it nevertheless remained immovable before the mouth of the cave. And not long after, as though remembering its crime, it carried the bird in its mouth unwillingly and, very many looking on , brought it back to the same place from which it had taken it. O illustrious merits of this priest! which shine both in words and in miracles, whom even dumb beasts obey.

[9] the miracle of the boat; At another time also, while a boat was being built on the same island for the convenience of the man of God, it happened that there was a lack of men to raise it up for building. The man of the Lord, helped by divine aid, raised it alone as quickly as though it were being lifted by the assistance of many men, man by man . Behold, He who once made a psalmist out of a shepherd of sheep, at length renders the exile Condedus an excellent champion; He who chose for a prophet the herdsman and goatherd Amos, plucking figs *, afterward kindled Condedus as a shining lamp in the catholic church. Daniel once by the merit of his life overcame the rage of lions in the den, and Condedus, choosing the anchoretic life, laudably overcomes the machinations of the ancient enemy. Elijah is caught up into heaven in a fiery chariot, and Condedus, having manfully finished the contest, supported by the hosts of angels, is set in heaven.

[10] first burial; On the same island, then, leading the contemplative life and persisting without failing in good works, after his sojourn in the world had been long prolonged he passed to the rest of eternal felicity on the 12th day of the kalends of November: and he was venerably buried in the church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, which he himself had built long before, in which many benefits were wrought through his prayers ; and there the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was praised by all, to whom with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit is power and honour , dominion and glory through all ages of ages. Amen.

[11] second burial. But after the courses of many years had been completed following the death of the holy man, the same island having been worn away and collapsed by the flux of the sea, the body of the holy man was translated thence by the brethren of the holy monastery of Fontenelle, and placed in the church of the holy Apostle Peter next to the oratory of Saint Martin on the southern side; and an epitaph of this kind was written over his tomb:

There was once in Gaul one most worthy in merits, Whose sacred limbs lie buried here: Condedus by name, shining with the flower of virtues, For which he now flourishes, excellent, in the heavens. Who, while Theoderic held the sceptre of the Franks, Left, a stranger, the lands of the Britons, And came to the parts of the Gauls, a light of the worshippers of Christ. The island of the Seine which is called Belcinnaca Fed him through many courses of years, and hence buries him. Whose hallowed ashes, after long times, A hallowed throng bore with excellent worship, Burying them in the beautiful turf of Fontenelle. Now there he heaps with gifts those who ask.

ANNOTATIONS.

held, the Rule of St. Benedict was observed at Fontenelle. But lest you say that the controversy is settled by this passage on St. Condedus, it stands in the way that what is commanded in chapter 61 of the same rule, How monks who are pilgrims are to be received, is not observed here; and much less what is in chapter 58 on the discipline of receiving brethren.

* M. Lantberto

* M. Britannica.

* regium is lacking in M.

* M. post

* M. pharam igneam.

* M. scandere

* M. sp. v. i.

* M. hujuscemodi.

* M. omits in gyro.

* M. aestimetur.

* M. fluctus

* M. versus sursum.

* M. sint

* M. alloquio

* M. re. The.

* M. Beato

* M. Cinolaibus

* R V. expectantibus.

* M. adds fulgent

* M. fultus

* M. virium

* M. sycamina

* M. ejus in oratione

* M. adds nomen

* M. mu. an.

* M. adds est