ON ST. OELBERT, MARTYR, IN BRABANT,
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The death of St. Oelbert from Molanus; his cult today scarcely any among the people; yet he is rightly called a martyr.
Oelbert, martyr, in Brabant. (S.)
B. B.
The death of the holy Man, St. Oelbert, or Odelbert, is mentioned on this day by Castellanus, by Ferrari in the general Catalogue; likewise by du Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology, and indeed in two places: the one at the 21st day of October, the other, in the Supplement, at the following day. All borrowed their material from the Natales of the Saints of Belgium of Molanus, where, says Sollerius Usuard's Martyrology, 22 Oct., you will find the few things which survive from tradition concerning this Saint. Molanus writes Natales SS. Belgii, 22 Oct.: At Oisterhout (today written Oosterhout), the heavenly birthday of St. Oelbert, martyr. Now the said place is a populous village of the diocese of Antwerp, near Breda; whose inhabitants have received these things concerning their Patron from their forebears. Certain robbers, their robbery having been detected, were fleeing that way through a field where St. Oelbert, wearied from ploughing, had fallen asleep, and they set beside him, as he slept, their sword stained with blood. Those who were pursuing them came upon blessed Oelbert, and slew him as a robber. But the trunk of the body carried the severed head, by a notable miracle, to a chapel not far distant; and the very beasts which he had used in the plough are said to have carried, without a driver, the materials for the new construction of the greater church. And he rested for some time at Oisterhout, where he is the secondary patron of the church; but the Franks are said to have carried the body off with them to "Thoulose." But whether this place is Toulouse (a very well-known city in the south of Gaul, and very remote from there), and at what time he was renowned at Oisterhout, or was carried away from there, is unknown to all the inhabitants. On his heavenly birthday the office is made from the common of a martyr. More I could not learn from the pastor of his church, a learned and eloquent man (whose name is Daniel de Doirne), since he had withdrawn to Louvain on account of the persecution and fury of the heretics. I suspect that the history perished through the frequent incursions of barbarians and pirates. And these things thus Molanus, whom the rest afterward followed, by name the more recent editors of Butler Vies des Saints, 22 Oct. Louvain 1832.. More I have not found. The same Molanus adds Natales SS. Belgii. Ubi supra.: It seems that either he himself (St. Oelbert) or another martyr of his name rested at one time at Liège at St. Bartholomew's; namely because the anonymous author of the Chronicle of the people of Liège writes: It is said that St. Ulbert the martyr rests there. Which indeed is a mere conjecture.
[2] his cult, For the rest, Oosterhout is also today a populous village, numbering 6500 inhabitants Guibert, Diction. Géograph. Edition of 1850., and it belongs to the diocese of Breda, under the metropolis of Utrecht, erected by Pius IX in the year 1853 Kersten, Journal historique et littéraire, vol. XX, page 3 and following.. The cult of our holy Martyr is today scarcely known among the people there. No image or statue of him is seen; no altar or chapel named after him; nay, and no longer any relics, no devotion or invocation in necessities. Only the office is made, as formerly, from the common of a Martyr.
[3] his martyrdom. Finally, it would not be out of place to recall to mind that by common usage all those are called martyrs whom the church honours, who were formerly put to death by a bloody death, although for various causes; nor has anyone ordered this title or rite to be changed, however the schools may speak of the Aureole Papebroch, Responsio ad exhibitionem errorum, page 378.. To this may also be referred what Baronius notes on St. Elphege, bishop of Canterbury Baronius's Roman Martyrology, 19 April.: It once moved the mind of bishop Lanfranc why the English venerated St. Elphege and reckoned him a martyr, since he was slain not for the cause of confessing the faith or of bearing witness to the truth, but only because the barbarians had not found with him the gold which they demanded. Anxious about this matter, he consulted St. Anselm; who answered that he knew by firm reason that Elphege was a martyr, because he had fallen for justice. These things Eadmer in the Life of St. Anselm.