ON BL. GERALD OF SALES, CONFESSOR, AT LES CHÂTELIERS IN THE DIOCESE OF POITIERS,
IN THE YEAR 1120.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Gerald of Sales, Confessor, at Les Châteliers in the diocese of Poitiers. (Bl.)
J. V. H.
§ Single. The ancient cult of the blessed man; the Life written by a monk of Les Châteliers; his age; the foundation of nine monasteries.
The certain cult of Blessed Gerald: Of Blessed Gerald of Sales no martyrologist, that I know of, has made mention: and hence I judge it came about that the memory of him, who died on 20 April 1120, was omitted by our predecessors, since his name occurs neither among the Passed Over nor among those Deferred to another day. We do not believe, however, that a place in the Acts of the Saints should be denied him, because the most evident signs of cult are present; namely the solemn translation of his body, reported at num. 33 of the Life to be edited below, and the elevation above the ground, the replacing of the head in a little gilded vessel, and finally a rib of the sacred body, preserved separately, which, as is had at num. 42, was carried on Sundays to the chapel of St. Gerald for the faithful peoples keeping vigil there. Moreover we place the Acts of Blessed Gerald at this day inasmuch as he was the master of Blessed Bertrand, whose memory also, as we showed above, is celebrated on this day by certain hagiologists, although not quite correctly. Nor should omissions of this kind be turned into a fault in our predecessors: for it is always a matter of Blessed persons whose cult was circumscribed within the narrowest bounds: to the knowledge of whom, therefore, they could not come unless they were specially advised: which our daily experience teaches us is very frequently neglected. And indeed the memory of Blessed Gerald would have passed us by, had not the disciple, by a happy connection, pointed out the master to us.
[2] the Life, written by an anonymous Cistercian; The Life of St. Gerald, to be edited below, we have rather lengthy and accurately written; if however you strike out some chronological blemishes and what it narrates about the monastery of Cadouin at num. 22, as if six years after its foundation it had already swerved from the regular norm. These σφαλματα, however, make the writer seem to be distant by almost two centuries from our Gerald: for it was about eighty years from its foundation that Cadouin turned aside from the right path, namely in the time of Innocent III, as is established from his Registers, book I, epistle 146, which was dated the sixth before the ides of May 1198 Migne, Patrol. tom. CCXIV, col. 128.. Since therefore the biographer erred so much in the matter of Cadouin, it becomes altogether likely that he wrote around the end of the 13th century, as Edm. Martène notes at the head of the Life Ampliss. coll. tom. VI, col. 990.. On the other hand, however, he describes so accurately what pertains to the house of ascetics of Les Châteliers that there can be no doubting that he had contemporary monuments before him and studiously examined them: whence there arises as if of its own accord the conjecture that the biographer was a monk of Les Châteliers: which Edmond Martène also approves by his vote Ibid. l. c., and which we too admit. If therefore you correct the blemishes born of a badly ordered chronotaxis, the whole narration proceeds correctly, and the deeds rest upon truth. For the rest, the biographer affects in his style words ending alike, which will readily strike the reader; and hence it frequently happens that he clothes his phrases in borrowed words: yet I shall bring here one instance, not selected, but snatched from the crowd, from num. 7:
Pallidus erat et macilentus, carnem spiritui subjiciebat,
Parcius, quam necesse esset, seminecis artubus indulgebat;
Corporis et mentis perpetua rutilavit virginitate,
Et mira se armavit asperitate;
Omnes sensus corporis sic erant mortificati
Ut in mortem vitiorum viderentur conjurati.
[He was pale and lean, he subjected the flesh to the spirit, more sparingly than was needful he indulged his half-dead limbs; he shone with perpetual virginity of body and mind, and armed himself with wondrous harshness; all the senses of his body were so mortified that they seemed sworn together to the death of the vices.]
[3] the blessed man is born in Périgord Gerald, whom the biographer everywhere calls Giraudus or Gyrandus, was born, he says, in the territory of Périgueux, in a village whose name is Salis. There are, however, two villages of this name in Périgord; which of the two is the birthplace of the blessed man no one could readily determine. The one is distant from the other, if you consult the Cassini maps, by almost 27 kilometres; one is situated in the district of Bergerac (arrondissement Bergerac), the other in that of Sarlat (arrond. de Sarlat). Since however the village near Bergerac lies much closer to the monastery of Saint-Avit, we judge this to be the birthplace of our blessed man. For the biographer says at num. 4 that the boy Giraud, offered to the Lord, took up the habit of a regular canon in the monastery of Saint-Avit. That monastery was not far from the village of Sales and the house of his parents. But five places of Saint-Avit in Périgord meet one who inspects even in passing the Cassini Atlas, namely S. Avitus Dominorum, S. Avit le Senieur; S. Avitus de Riperia, S. Avit Riviere; S. Avitus Leydensis, S. Avit de Leyde; S. Avitus Villariensis, S. Avit Villars; and S. Avitus de Gravemeyrus: but there can be no doubt that S. Avitus Dominorum is here in question; for at one time there existed there a college of canons, as is established from the Acts of St. Avitus the Hermit under 17 September Act. SS. tom. III Sept., pag. 360., and there was a long-lasting controversy whether it was of seculars or of regulars. At last in the year 1292 it was decided that it was a secular college Ibid. pag. 361.. It is established, however, from this Life of St. Gerald, that it was a college of regular canons, since our biographer openly says that the saint put on the habit of a regular canon in the monastery of Saint-Avit, which I judge took place after the middle of the 11th century. Moreover the village of Saint-Avit-Sénieur is distant four kilometres from the village of Sales near Bergerac: whence it becomes very likely that this village was St. Gerald's birthplace.
[4] around the year 1070; The time of his death, namely the year 1120, we know, but we do not know at what time Blessed Gerald came forth into the light: nor therefore how many years he lived. Yet it may be conjectured that he did not prolong his life up to old age: for he was a disciple of St. Robert of Arbrissel, who died in the year 1117 Ibid. tom. III Feb., pag. 593., who himself does not seem to have arrived at a decrepit age: since, as his last illness was threatening, as his contemporary biographer has it Ibid. pag. 612., he was going on to the peoples who eagerly desired his preaching, and who in their desire demanded it with many prayers: which kind of labour indicates a man still of robust health, and thus not broken by old age. On the other hand Blessed Gerald, who survived his master by only three years, is said in his Life, at nums. 3 and 4, to have been still a boy when he gave himself as a disciple to Blessed Robert. Roused, says our biographer, the boy Giraud, by the renown of so great a man, hastened to be found with him, that under so great a rod he might be instructed the sooner… And the old man, receiving the boy, with devotion and eagerness of spirit for some days made known the ways of the Lord to the little one: at last, the same Robert exhorting him, Blessed Gerald took up the habit of a regular canon in the monastery of Saint-Avit. From these things I conjecture that Blessed Robert died about seventy years old, Blessed Gerald about fifty: which conjecture being admitted, the chronotaxis proceeds conveniently. Robert indeed, born between the years of Christ 1040 and 1050 (the Literary History of France has the year 1047 Tom. X, pag. 153.), had enough strength in the year 1117 to be able to spend his labour on the apostolic ministry: and Blessed Gerald, brought forth into the light around the year 1070, could have spent some while under the mastership of Blessed Robert. If the words of boy and old man cited above are taken with moderation, which indicate rather the difference of the years of the two than the senile and boyish age of either one, all flows well.
[5] as a young man enrolled among the regular canons; Blessed Robert, not content to spend his life in the apostolic ministry, also associated companions in a share of the labour. It seemed good, says his biographer Baudri, bishop of Dol Act. SS. tom. III Febr., pag. 605., to him that he ought to gather many and give them to eat, lest perhaps they should fail on the way; for certain of them had come from afar. And those gathered were called Regulars, who strove to live regularly after the manner of the primitive Church. That swarm therefore, flying away from the enticement of the world, became a congregation of canons. The first effect of this plan was the foundation of St. Mary de Rota in Bosco near Craon (Craon dep. Mayenne), which to the end remained of the canons of St. Augustine. Afterwards, however, he set up Fontevraud (Fontevraud), so far at least as regards the women, under the Rule of St. Benedict H. Nicquet. Hist. de Fontevraud, pag. 242.. In like manner Blessed Gerald, himself also a regular canon, founded the monasteries he instituted under the Rule of St. Benedict, which then passed over to the Cistercian Observance. Blessed Gerald also closely followed his master Robert: for if the things in the Life to be given below, nums. 7 and 8, are compared with the austerity of Robert, which Baudri of Dol set out, it is easily seen that the disciple accurately displayed the image of his master. Baudri indeed depicts Blessed Robert Act. SS. tom. III Febr., pag. 605. as clothed in a hairshirt, knowing scarcely any couch but the ground, knowing nothing at all of wine, or of rich and fattening foods. All of which were to a hair common to Blessed Gerald; add to these his insistence in preaching, and you will find Blessed Robert expressed in our Blessed Gerald.
[6] nine monasteries, Like his master, Blessed Robert, so Blessed Gerald founded very many monasteries, to which those converted by him fled for refuge. The biographer of Blessed Gerald at num. 12: many, he says, converted to the Lord through his ministry, began to offer him possessions and estates for constructing monasteries, and he founded seven monasteries for men, two for women. And he named the first Cadouin, the second Grandselve, the third Dalon, the fourth Le Bournet, the fifth Les Alleuds; the sixth L'Absie of Gâtine, the seventh Les Châteliers… Two others he named Tusson and Bibio for the region * of nuns. The Chronicle of Saint-Maixent, commonly called that of Maillezais, and ending at the year of Christ 1134, and thus contemporary,
ascribes more foundations to Blessed Gerald: for it has thus Labbe, Nov. Biblioth. mss. tom. II. pag. 219.: In the year one thousand one hundred and twenty Giraud de Sala died… At the same time very many monasteries were begun of the institution of Giraud de Sala. In the territory of Toulouse there is one monastery in honour of St. Mary, which is called Major Silva, where the first abbot was Stephen. In the district of Agen there is another monastery, called Gundum , in honour of St. Mary, where the first abbot was Bernard. In the territory of the city of Périgueux there is another, which is called Cadunense in honour of Blessed Mary, where the first abbot was Helias. In the district of Angoulême another too, which is called Bornet, likewise dedicated, where the first abbot was William. There is another in the territory of the city of Poitiers, which is called Alodus , where the first abbot was Peter, and after him Giraud. In the territory of Saintes Fons Dulcis, and there is another, which is called Tenale , both abbots called William: Likewise another, which is called Absida , where Peter was first abbot. There is also another, which is named Castellarium, where the first abbot was Aimeric. In the forest of Gâtine there is another called at S. Benedict de Pino , where the first abbot was William. There is another in the forest, Bona Vallis by name. In the district of Limoges there is another, called Dalum , where Roger was first abbot. There is another monastery of Castrensis *, where the first abbot was William. There is another house of God in the district of Limoges, which is called Castalensis, where the prior Geoffrey was first. Also another house of God, called Corbasim, sacred to St. Mary and St. Nicholas, where the prior Bernard was first. Thus far the Chronicle of Maillezais.
[7] although the Chronicle of Maillezais indicates more, Although the testimony of the writer, as a contemporary, may seem preferable to the biographer of St. Gerald, writing almost two hundred years after, yet we judge that the latter should be taken into greater account, who beyond doubt had before him ancient documents, liable to no error. The writer of Maillezais indeed omitted the two girls' monasteries, Tusson and Bibio, and attributed to our Blessed one the foundation of monasteries that are to be ascribed to others. For to the biographer's catalogue the writer of Maillezais added the following foundations: of Fontdouce, Gondon, La Tenaille, St. Benedict de Pinu, Bonneval, Castrensis, and the priories of Castaliensis and Corbasinum. Moreover it is established by no certain argument that any of these monasteries had Blessed Gerald of Sales as its author. As regards first of all Fontdouce, Mabillon in his Annals, book LXXII, num. 17, says: The Chronicle of Maillezais attributes the origin of the monastery to St. Gerard of Sales, but the domestic monuments of the place to William de Concampo. On which matter he adduces in his Appendix, under § LXXXI, the diplomas of foundation Annal. tom. V, pag. 532 and 651.. Rightly therefore did the biographer strike that monastery out of his Catalogue. Of Gondon there is nothing for me to say, since, as Gallia Christiana writes Tom. II, col. 951., all its monuments have perished. However Angel Manriquez in the Cistercian Annals at the year 1123, chapter 4, num. 8, says without circumlocution that Gundum or Gondon was a daughter of Cadouin, and belonged to the line of Pontigny. In like manner Bonneval owes its origin to Cadouin, and with it was ascribed to the line of Pontigny Ibid. col. 1360., which the same Ang. Manriquez attests at the year 1120, chapter I, num. I.
[8] he founds in various dioceses: Moreover La Tenaille, which never passed over to the Cistercians, but always remained of the Order of St. Benedict, owes its origin to Fontdouce, as the monuments of Gallia Christiana teach us Ibid. col. 1121 and Instrum. col. 484.. The same may be said of the monastery of St. Benedict de Pinu, which Gallia Christiana calls St. Mary de Pinu Ibid. col. 1350.: for the author and first abbot of this monastery was William, who, as the charter of agreement has it Ibid. Instrum. col. 378., wishing to lead a more religious life, himself a canon, obtained from the canons of Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers a certain place which is called Ferraria, on this condition, that the monks should each year bring a pound of incense to be paid to Blessed Hilary and pour forth prayers for the deceased canons. From these things it is established quite clearly that the beginning of the monastery is owed to William, formerly a canon, afterwards a monk, without any mention being made of Blessed Gerald. The abbey of Castrensis in Périgord, if we give credit to Jean Dupuy, a Friar Minor, was founded already before the year 1081, when, namely, Blessed Gerald had become eleven years old. There remain two priories: Corbasim, a house sacred to St. Mary and St. Nicholas, of which I have found mention nowhere. Castalensis, on the other hand, in the diocese of Limoges, commonly Le Chalard Le Long. Bibl. hist. de Fr. tom. IV, num. 13422., a priory whose origin is likewise unknown to me. But granted that Blessed Gerald founded both places, it would not impair the credit of the biographer, since he is to be believed to have dealt with those monasteries which grew into regular monasteries: and priories are rather the rudiments of monasteries, which could easily be omitted by a writer.
[9] namely, the convents of Tusson and Bibio; It stands therefore that seven monasteries of men and two of women were founded by Blessed Gerald, as they are enumerated by his biographer: namely, as is had at num. 12 of the Life, Cadouin the first, Grandselve the second, Dalon the third, Le Bournet the fourth, Les Alleuds the fifth, L'Absie of Gâtine the sixth, Les Châteliers the seventh. To which must be added the two girls' monasteries, Tusson and Bibio. From these words there arises first of all the question whether the monasteries of men enumerated are here described in chronological order. It is certain indeed that Les Châteliers was the last foundation of Blessed Gerald, made, says the biographer at num. 23, in the year one thousand one hundred and nineteen: for that when Les Châteliers had already been set up, as is said in the same place, Blessed Gerald established the place of L'Absie as an abbey from a hermitage does not indicate that the foundation of L'Absie was later than that of Les Châteliers, since the holy man himself also cultivated the eremitical life, and so could also in the course of things erect hermitages which were then changed into monastic institutes. Then the controversy which we touched on in the Acts of St. Bertrand, num. 6, shows that a certain primacy over Grandselve fell to Cadouin. From which it is likely enough to me that, if you except Les Châteliers, the monasteries are recorded by the biographer in chronological order. I think, however, that the monasteries of women were instituted before those of men: and this seems certain enough for Tusson. For his brothers Grimoard and Fulk were still young, seeing that, as the biographer has it at num. 13, they were making their return home from the schools when their brother Gerald was already, as is said in the same place, commonly called of Tusson. Then a little above, num. 12, Tusson the mother and mistress of the Order, and Fontevraud the daughter of Tusson, which was observed for some time, until on account of a shortage of water the nuns of Tusson were compelled to change their domicile and enter the monastery of Fontevraud. From then on what the father had laid down was set aside; and the mother became the daughter, and the daughter the mother. We know, however, that Fontevraud was founded in the year 1100 or 1101, as the Chronicle of Maillezais or of Saint-Maixent affirms, writing D. Bouquet. Rec. des Hist. de Fr. tom. XII, pag. 404.: In the same year (1000), master Robert began to be recognized among us and began to build the place of Fontevraud *, and to gather together brothers and monks in several places, who live religiously under his discipline, and hold the Order, in his life and after his death, at Tucum etc. Whether Tucum is the same as Tusson I should not dare to say: but it is clear that the foundation of Tusson preceded that of Fontevraud, and that it lost the primacy only on account of the shortage of water: whence the beginnings of Tusson are to be referred to the 11th century. Tusson (le Tusson, Dep. de la Charente) in the diocese of Angoulême, continued under the Order of Fontevraud, in the archpresbyterate, says Mabillon, book LXXII of the Annals, §42, of Ruffec. Whence certain persons err in doubting to which of the two dioceses they should ascribe it, Saintes or Angoulême Compare Annuaire histor. de Fr. année 1838, pag. 83 and 215.. As regards Bibio, I have found mention of it nowhere, and so I think the convent has perished.
[10] of men Cadouin, And these are the foundations of St. Gerald: from which too it may be argued what was the circumscription of his apostolic labours: for all the monasteries, if you except Grandselve as belonging to the province of Toulouse, are contained within the provinces of Bourges and Bordeaux. Let us now come to the individual monasteries. The monastery of Cadouin, today of the diocese of Périgueux, our biographer cited above puts first before all the rest, and not undeservedly: inasmuch as, begun in the year 1113 according to the Chronicle of Maillezais D'Achery. Spicil. tom. III, pag. 475., in the year 1115 it had already been brought into the form of a monastery by our Gerald, as is taught us by an instrument dated on the festival day of Blessed Benedict, the fifth before the ides (11th) of July, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and fifteen D. Bouquet. Rec. des Hist. de Fr. tom. XII, pag. 405.; for in it Robert of Arbrissel grants and irrevocably assigns, on no terms, retaining only the love of charitable brotherhood, to lord Gerard of Sales, venerable master, his companion, among his intimates most dear, and to his sons, or rather fellow servants, both present and to succeed, the whole place, situated in the forest of Cadouin, … which Gerard himself with his fellow soldiers had acquired and, having acquired it, had built. Not so long after, Cadouin was joined to the Cistercian Order; as a daughter, namely, of Pontigny, whose abbot Hugh sent there his monk Henry, in the year, says Gallia Christiana Tom. II, col. 1538., 1116: but Angel Manrique in his Cistercian Annals, under the year 1120, chapter I, num. I, refers the Cistercian association to the year 1120. We judge that Gallia Christiana, being nearer to the historical sources, should be believed rather than the Cistercian Annals; especially since Ang. Manrique confesses in the same place that the founders, whom Gallia Christiana certainly records, are still unknown to him. For the rest, in computing the years of any monastic foundation, and in marking its beginning, there are manifold causes of varying opinions, indicated under 20 October in the Acts of Blessed Geoffrey and Serlo, to which the reader, if it please him, will go Act. SS. tom. VIII Octob., pag. 1020.. At Cadouin the Sacred Shroud of Christ was religiously preserved. The monastery brought in to its commendatory abbot five thousand French livres a year.
[11] Grandselve and Dalon, Of the second monastery founded by Blessed Gerald, Grandselve, there is no reason for us to treat further; since we have set out what we know in the Acts of St. Bertrand. The third monastery, then, is Dalon or Dalona, in the diocese of Limoges: and indeed its foundation began to be dealt with in the year 1114, when our Gerald received a wild place as a gift, as the book of the foundation of Dalon teaches Gall. Christ. tom. II, Instrum. col. 201.: but although the donation was solemnized in the said year, it does not seem immediately
to have been erected as a monastery; for, as is said in the same place, there intervened in the donation a certain monk of Tourtoirac, Constantine by name, claiming that the place of Dalon was situated in his appurtenance: and the bishop of Limoges, not bearing that his complaint should be passed over undiscussed, ordered that the neighbouring old men be brought forward, and that it be inquired of them before all, if they had seen or heard, whether any man had at any time inhabited that wilderness of theirs. The old men, on being asked, replied that that wilderness had in past times remained a solitude until now… Yet they reported that a certain peasant, Robert de Lage by name, had long ago cultivated a certain small portion of the wilderness, and had handed over a tithe to the aforesaid monk. And hence the complaint of the tithes, which the peasant Robert had to redeem at a price of thirty solidi and six nummi. All these things being at last settled, the donation was completed. It becomes quite manifest, therefore, that some time flowed by between the donation of the land and the erection of the monastery: wherefore even if the donation of Dalon had preceded all the other foundations of Blessed Gerald, it would in no way follow that Dalon was brought into the form of a regular monastery before the establishment of Cadouin and Grandselve. Dalon was enrolled in the Cistercian Order in the year 1120, says Ang. Manrique at this year, chapter 3, num. 7; it seems to have grown with many resources within a short time: for when the monks of Dalon had complained before Pope Alexander III, as is had in the Decretals, c. 9 de decimis (III, 30), that the Ursitensian monks were trying to carry off the tithes, the Pontiff replies that they should settle peaceably among themselves about the tithes. For, he says, when the Roman Church had given privileges concerning tithes to your Order, the abbeys of your Order were so rare that no scandal could by right arise from it: but now they have so increased and grown in possessions that many ecclesiastical men often bring forward complaint of you before us. This monastery, like many others handed over to commendatories, declined much, and brought in to its abbot 1500 livres a year.
[12] Le Bournet, The fourth foundation of St. Gerald was Le Bournet, formerly and now of the diocese of Angoulême: its beginning the Chronicle of Maillezais places at the year 1113: In the year, it says D. Bouquet. Rec. des Hist. de Fr. tom. XII, pag. 405., 1113, Giraud de Sala began two monasteries, Cadonium and Bornet. But from these words it can by no means be deduced that the monastery of Le Bournet was already established from the year 1113. For, as we showed above in treating of Cadouin, a foundation that has been begun does not at once attain the establishment of a regular monastery, since for Cadouin two years intervened from its beginnings to the completion of the work. Indeed, if we give credit to an instrument edited in Gallia Christiana Tom. II, col. 1051., the last hand was put to Le Bournet only in the year 1125. In the year of the Lord 1402, in the month of December, we William, bishop of Angoulême, saw, held, handled and read through the foundation of the monastery of Le Bournet, which lord Gerald, bishop of Angoulême, legate of the Holy Roman Church, founded in the year of the Lord 1125, Honorius the Second presiding in the City, and which was held in a certain Cartulary of the foundation of the aforesaid monastery. And in order that the monastery itself may be cherished and protected with more diligent care by the bishop of Angoulême, our beloved son Helias, first abbot of the same monastery, with the counsel of his brothers, yielded to me, Gerard, bishop of Angoulême, and to my successors as bishops, the fourth part of a pound of incense, to be rendered each year. William, who inspected the charter and held it as ratified, sixth of this name, held the see of Angoulême from the year 1391 to 1415 Gall. Christ. Tom. II, col. 1016.: and the bishop who is said to have founded it, Gerard or Giraldus de Blavia, second of this name, from the year 1101 to 1136 Ibid. col. 995.. In order, moreover, that this instrument may agree with the Chronicle of Maillezais, it must be said that Le Bournet, begun by Blessed Gerald in the year 1113, and under the same leader already developed by some brothers, at last in the year 1125 received its perfected form: and so the William who is called first abbot, as the Chronicle of Maillezais has it, above at num. 6, was a superior of a lower rank. For the rest, Manrique and Jongelinus nowhere treat of Le Bournet as belonging to the Cistercian Order, which however Gallia Christiana affirms Compare Mabillon. Annal. lib. LXXII, §63.. Le Bournet underwent the common calamity, handed over to commendatories, to whom it rendered four thousand livres annually.
[13] Les Alleuds, There follows the fifth monastery founded by Blessed Gerald, which our biographer calls Alodia: of which name indeed there are two monasteries: namely one of Virgins in the diocese of Limoges; one of men, of which we are speaking, in that of Poitiers: both persevered to the end in the Benedictine Order. The Poitevin house of ascetics of Blessed Mary de Allodiis (Lez Alleux, Dep. des Deux-Sevres) was founded by Blessed Gerald, but at an uncertain time: I have nowhere found anything about the time of its foundation, beyond what we have reported above from the Chronicle of Maillezais. It had as abbot, however, after Peter and Giraud, Grimoard, the brother of our Blessed Gerald, who from being prior of Les Châteliers thereafter ruled this abbey, until in 1140 he was elected bishop of Poitiers. This election Louis VII held for some while in suspense: wherefore St. Bernard gave letter 342 to Joslen, bishop of Soissons, who kept close to the king's side, that he might excuse before the king the archbishop of Bordeaux, who with canonical freedom had consecrated the person elected by the equal peace and vote and voice of the people of Poitiers Migne, Patrol. tom. CLXXXII, col. 546.. The election of Grimoard was praised by Innocent II, who gave two letters, one to the clergy and people, the other to Grimoard himself, in which he exhorts him to strive to exercise himself laudably in those things that pertain to the episcopal office, to do the work of an evangelist, to fulfil his ministry: and to love his subjects with paternal affection; and with intent vigilance of mind to take care that the church committed to him by God may increase under his providence both spiritually and temporally: and also to labour with all diligence to recover the possessions and goods of the said bishopric which are known to have been dispersed or illicitly alienated Gall. Christ. tom. II, col. 1175.. This monastery too the commendam swallowed up: of which scarcely the rubble remained in the year 1726, in which the Benedictine Beaunier published his monastic book Recueil des archevêchés, tom. I, pag. 169.. Meanwhile there remained to the commendatory an annual income, according to the writer just praised, of 1200 livres, according to others 4000 Ibid. l. c. Migne, Dict. de géogr. eccles. tom. I, col. 701..
[14] The sixth foundation of our Blessed one is the monastery of L'Absie, which the biographer at num. 6 calls of Gâtine, L'Absie, the Chronicle of Maillezais places in the forest of Gâtine. There are, however, two districts of Gâtine or Wastinensis: one better known, under the city of Sens (commonly Le Gatinois) Guérard. Essai sur les divisions des Gaules, pag. 146., which lies between the cities of Orléans and Paris: but the other among the Pictones, omitted by the distinguished Guérard Ibid. pag. 153., which Hadrian de Valois records in the Notitia of the Gauls under the word Pictones Pag. 449.. In this lesser district under the greater Poitevin district is L'Absie: formerly of the diocese of La Rochelle, today of Poitiers. The beginning of the monastery is reported by its cartulary in these words Gall. Christ. tom. II, col. 1380.: In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1120, epact XVIII, concurrent IV, indiction XIII, the monastery of St. Mary of L'Absie was founded as the first abbey of the district of Poitou, according to the Rule of St. Benedict and the institute of the fathers, the most approved Cistercian monks, by the venerable master Giraud *, the grace of the Holy Spirit working with him in great glory, and with the authority of religious men, namely, the venerable William Gislebert and the abbot of Cadouin and the abbot of Le Bournet and many others, both religious and clerics, noble persons. And on one day, namely the eighth before the ides of April, the third day of the week before Palm Sunday, the first abbot and clerics together, sixteen in all, were consecrated in the monastic habit: which master Giraud, namely, after he had ordained as abbot over the brothers committed to him his disciple, the aforesaid very religious man, instructed in all good morals; as his custom was to establish abbeys free, handing over this place free to them, already in great part built with houses and things necessary for serving God in the best way, admonished them always to have the true king Christ as head over them; and with command he asked that they live in the power of the Holy Spirit according to the purpose above stated. The abbey of the Order of St. Benedict rendered to its commendatory 2000 livres.
[15] Les Châteliers. The seventh foundation of the blessed man Gerald, finally, was the monastery of Les Châteliers: which indeed seems to have been founded before L'Absie, although it is placed last, inasmuch as he closed his day in that place. For, as we showed in the preceding number from the cartulary, L'Absie took its beginning in the year 1120: but the monastery of Les Châteliers, according to the biographer at num. 23, around the feast of St. Bartholomew or 24 August in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and nineteen. The same is shown also by the rest of the narrative: for when Blessed Gerald was making for L'Absie, in order to establish an abbey from a hermitage, that is, to give a beginning to a regular monastery, Les Châteliers already had its regular form; since he promised the brothers that, once the work at L'Absie was completed, he would come to their monastery. Which indeed he performed when, having fallen ill at L'Absie and having been carried to Les Châteliers, ever sick in that place, he ended his life. Nor does it seem likely that the blessed man, labouring under his last illness, sweated over a new foundation. Although, moreover, we have L'Absie founded in the year 1120, Les Châteliers in the preceding year, 1119, and so no doubt seems to remain about the priority of the one or the other; nevertheless the biographer at num. 27 calls Les Châteliers the newest of his places, the poorest and, so far as the roofing goes, the meanest. Which words of the biographer, most knowledgeable about the affairs of Les Châteliers, I interpret thus, that although the foundation of Les Châteliers is earlier as to the change of the eremitical life to the monastic, nevertheless Blessed Gerald on dying left the regular premises themselves imperfect, to be completed after his death: which also the words poorest monastery of all indicate. It is confirmed also from num. 29, where it is said that in the days of Emeric or Aimeric the brothers were made monks and he himself the first abbot of the place. Up to the year 1121, in which Aimeric began, Les Châteliers had not yet received completion, although the rudiments of a regular monastery had been laid by Blessed Gerald. Les Châteliers (Les Chatelliers, dep. des Deux-Sevres, arrond. de Niort) still belongs to the diocese of Poitiers, and it was of the Cistercian Order, and of the line of Clairvaux, from the year 1128, as Ang. Manrique shows at the same year, chapter VI, num. 6. There accrued to the commendatory twelve thousand French livres. In the place of a colophon let it be permitted to add how widely the use of commendams extended: all told in France, apart from the mendicant Orders, there were 1644 endowed monasteries, of which those in commendam, and so to be distributed to seculars, were 1214 in number: on the other hand the monasteries of men under regular abbots were 114: the number of priories, likewise regular, is unknown Migne, Dict. de géogr. eccles. tom. I, col. 743..
Annotations* religionem?
* Gondon
* Cadouin
* Les Alleuds
* La Tenaille
* L'Asie
* S. Benoit du Pin
* Bonnevaux
* Dalon
* Chatres
* Ebraldi
* Giraudo
THE LIFE OF BL. GERALD OF SALES,
written by an anonymous author, a monk, as it seems, of Les Châteliers, around the end of the 13th century,
FROM THE MS. OF LES CHÂTELIERS,
In Edm. Martène, Amplissima Collectio, vol. VI.
Gerald of Sales, Confessor, at Les Châteliers in the diocese of Poitiers. (Bl.)
BHL Number: 3547
BY AN ANONYMOUS CISTERCIAN AUTHOR.
CHAPTER ONE.
The blessed man's birth; his study of letters; his regular canonry; his eremitical life; his preachings in the diocese of Poitiers.
Blessed Gerald, born of noble parents in the country of Périgueux, Our Giraud, then, sprang from the territory of Périgueux, in a village whose name is Salis, and this was the native land of so great a man a: there he was born and nurtured for much of his time, in the midst of a perverse nation, warlike and fierce. For the rest, of their native stiff-neckedness he drew no more of such a quality than the fishes of the sea from their mother salt. His father was called Fulk, his mother Adeardis: both renowned and wealthy, noble and famous according to the name of the great who are in the midst of this great and spacious sea; both knights by condition, Christians by profession, religious by devotion, concerning whom there remains a long discourse to be interpreted: but we have thought it to be reserved until its order in the telling. These illustrious parents, then, illustriously begot three illustrious offspring, for they were three illustrious lights, all destined for the wilderness, calling the first Giraud, the second Grimoard, the last Fulk. But holding off for a time from the last two brothers, Giraud was thus commended by someone in verses:
Giraud, of noble race, of body and of mind,
Shone in the Périgord land, an image of light in kind.
The gifted boy Giraud, therefore, of great hope and of praiseworthy disposition, was handed over by his parents to the study of letters to be instructed in the schools. For he was the firstborn among many brothers b, and was handed over before them to the liberal arts; and it was their greatest care, not long after, to follow their brother to the schools, each one according to the time of his birth. At home their most devout mother taught them to fear God and abstain from all sin: in the schools a sedulous master admonished them in discipline and knowledge, in all of which things they shone out above all their contemporaries in a short time, not so much by the erudition of the mistress tongue as by the unction of the Holy Spirit.
[2] at the urging of Blessed Robert of Arbrissel, The religious boy Giraud, therefore, discerning in his mind that the world is set in the evil one, seeing that the house is burning and the fire presses from behind, began according to a wisdom befitting so tender an age to turn over in his heart that singular and unique logic which does not fear the "therefore" of death: and after many circuits of thoughts accusing or defending, the sacred childhood of the illustrious boy resolved at last to seek the deserts or the wilderness: and he would have satisfied his desire if the tenderness of his age had not stood in the way. Yet his mind, ever intent with Martin either around churches or around abbeys, was meditating this while still of tender age, wonderfully prevented with the blessings of sweetness: which he afterwards devoutly discharged, as the outcome of the matter then proved. And he saw that it was good and acceptable before God: and he put his hand to the plough, so that, being fit for the kingdom of God, he might finally turn aside from the abyss of damnation.
[3] of the regular canons There was in those days a certain Robert d'Arbrissel, a man notable in his way of life, and venerable in the acceptance of all c: his religion was pure and undefiled before God and all the people, careful to keep himself from this wicked world. He therefore, caring little for fallen and transitory things, thirsted from the zeal of his heart for the salvation of souls alone, and going around through the villages and strongholds he drew virgins from their fathers' houses for Christ, enticing them to spiritual espousals, as he had read that Blessed Hilary had done with his own daughter. Among many spiritual works he had fervently established the place and the nuns of Fontevraud. He was fervent in spirit, and instructed in the way of the Lord, he spoke the things that are of Christ Jesus. And all who heard were astonished, and wondered at the words of grace that came forth from his lips. The boy Giraud, roused by the renown of so great a man, hastened to be found with him, that under so great a rod he might be instructed the sooner. In which deed he seems to have had the counsel of the kindly Spirit, saying through the mouth of Ecclesiasticus Eccli. XXXVII, 15 "Be continually with a holy man, whomsoever you shall know to have the fear of the Lord."
[4] he takes up the habit; And the old man, receiving the boy with devotion and eagerness of spirit, for some days made known the ways of the Lord to the little one: who, as he grew up, and was tending toward the farther wilderness, the father, seeing such intense fervour in the young man, began to persuade him to a more relaxed religious life, and compelled him though resisting. The boy Giraud, therefore, offered to the Lord, took up on Robert's counsel the habit of a regular canon in the monastery of Saint-Avit d. That monastery was not far from the village of Sales and the house of his parents, and it pleased both that the much-loved talent be lent to the Lord. The more tenderly they loved an offspring of so great repute, the more they rejoiced in his conversion. Where are those who, carnally loving their sons, weep inexorably for those dead to the world, that they may live to Christ? "Do not weep for the dead, says Jeremiah Jerem. XXII, 10., nor mourn for him with weeping, bewail him who goes out from God, namely by sin, because he returns no more, he shall not see the land of his birth." The parents of Giraud, given over to the divine service, rejoiced, and did not waste away in weeping, like the others also who have no hope.
[5] and he lives in holiness, Giraud entered the monastery with the odour of virginity, his sincere breast filled with the spirit of meekness and the manifold flower of the virtues. He had a wonderful reverence and patience toward the canons, subjection and humility: beyond human measure and the bounds of childhood he lived in the congregation of the just, in due order toward himself, in fellowship toward his neighbour, in humility toward God; swift to hear and to do good, slow to anger and to evil, supremely modest and circumspect also in words; not gazing around on all sides, not wandering in curiosity through every visible thing: not placing shameless eyes on each person; not passing over an iota or tittle of the holy Rule of Augustine, not going against the divine commandments or those of the seniors, not at any time finding, as is usual, a subterfuge for eluding discipline: not vanishing away in thoughts, not wishing to be held in ostentation, nor in admiration. There was in the boy a gratuitous justice, through which he rendered to all what was owing, to God fear, to superiors honour, to equals love, to his own spirit fervour, modesty and comeliness, to his body whiteness and sorrow. Who ever saw or heard of a most simple dove, a most modest virtue, either looking about in astonishment, or laughing unrestrainedly, or guffawing abusively, or talking idly? With such radiance of virtues he was resplendent before God and the Angels, and among his companions ardently beloved. And they compelled him to ascend by degrees to the Orders as far as the diaconate: for from trepidation and humility of heart he ever shrank from the presbyterate, saying he did not wish to increase his guilt.
[6] made a deacon, in the wilderness Giraud, thus dwelling for a long time outside the form of the world, in the midst of a regular people, when he came to the age of manhood, thought to add stronger things to those that had been of the little one. He had many times in that interval of time visited Robert, his religious and famous master, and he had drunk from his most pure breast, the noble temple of the Holy Spirit, and had lived, as he had learned from him, after the example of his sacred preceptor. To him, then, by the counsel of the Holy Spirit, he returned, from whom he had gone out, both because he thirsted to hear him more freely, and because he wished to merit more abundantly by preaching to the peoples, and because as a cultivator of the wilderness he desired, turning aside from the broader paths, to live more narrowly: for holy rusticity benefits itself alone, but learned charity its neighbour and itself. He burned in the cloister, but did not shine for the endangered world, because he was not in a place for shining: he saw a great harvest, but a scarcity of labourers and an abundance of reward. He went forth, therefore, that he might claim for himself more copious merits: from a poor canon made a poorer hermit, and according to the good hand of God he began to enlarge with himself the worship of God and the people and place of religion. From then on his garments and food were changed, from then on he began to devote himself more solicitously and strictly to God and himself e.
[7] wonderfully austere in food First of all he was wholly in the hairshirt, wholly in the cross and martyrdom; he was restricted in food and drink, and in living and clothing, content with few and very small things. He was pale and lean, he subjected the flesh to the spirit, more sparingly than was needful he indulged his half-dead limbs, he shone with perpetual virginity of body and mind and armed himself with wondrous harshness: all the senses of his body were so mortified that they seemed sworn together to the death of the vices. All the days of his life, summer and winter, well and ill, he ate once and no more: languishing and in health he wore a hairshirt next to the flesh, he always broke his fast at sunset: with scanty bread and short water with a little vegetable he completed his meal; barley bread, the blacker the dearer to him, and the whiter the more contemptible. He scarcely touched salt and egg or a bit of cheese, scarcely at times a small fish. The delicacies of the gullet he refused with reproach, and at supper he watered his face with weeping: into his vegetable dishes he mixed cold water or a liquor of wine, so as to annul all taste. Quite often he sent his meals untouched to the needy, often while hungry he served the full; of the wine he was to drink at that hour he took away the colour, sweetness and taste by pouring in water. He always so weakened the strength of the wine because he held the drinking of it pure to be a monstrous crime. The contrary was sometimes urged upon him, but he was not persuaded; for he used to say: Adam was cast out of paradise by eating, and we must return by abstaining.
[8] and in clothing In the various seasons a hairshirt and cappa were his garments, a cappa coarse, rough and mean, implanted when new with harsh and shaggy hairs. Having food and wherewith to be covered, with these he was content. Allowing no relief to his body, he often gave a new garment to the poor when one had been bestowed on him by someone, because he would have blushed to be clothed in a new garment. Cleanness and meanness pleased him; poverty always, filth never; fleeing superfluity or the display of glory, he accepted only necessity or the bare sustenance of nature. Shall I say sustenance or detestation? If I say both, I shall not regret it; for I shall speak the truth. Of John the Baptist it is said that he came neither eating nor drinking, plainly nor clothing himself. But this man, cold and drenched, carrying fasting and naked limbs beyond human custom, thirsted for the banquets above and for eternal desires, and for the sweetness of the Angels. Let him live who wishes, in order to eat: Giraud ate in order to live. He counted as lost only the time he spent in taking food and drink: with wethers' skins against the insistence of the cold he covered his chilled body now and then, with furs never.
[9] he devotes himself to contemplation; And since he was utterly crucified to the world, he was wholly rapt, fixed above the stars,
sighing from the depth of his breast, turning over divine things in his mind. From compassion for the death of the Lord and for the sinful people, and also on account of the prolonging of his misery and the delay of the heavenly homeland, he wept daily with Mary Magdalene at the feet of Jesus. O how often, as he spent whole nights in vigil in prayer before you, good Lord Jesus, wholly estranged from himself and drawn in your net, and often penetrated the concert of the Angels, did you many times manifest the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom to him in contemplation, inspire visions and conceptions in him as he meditated, and open to him a more abundant sense in the understanding of the Scriptures, in the unlocking of figures, in the ladder and hand-leading of creatures? For whatever the exercise of studies and meditation in the law of the Lord is wont to bestow on others, this your Spirit suggested to him, and he was, according to what is written, taught of God, he learned under the mastership of oaks and beeches, because every creature cries out: God made me.
[10] and then to preaching under Peter, bishop of Poitiers. And so as Giraud flourished with the threefold keenness of knowledge innate, acquired and infused, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly rushed upon him, that by preaching he might bear the name of Jesus before every nation and people. He shone like a carbuncle, burned like a furnace, gleamed like a star, gave fragrance like nard, from a zeal of charity hot, sharp, mobile, fervid and boiling over; the spirit of his bowels constrained him, nor could he contain the word he had conceived. He spread abroad therefore, brilliantly and elegantly, the word of God through the whole region, and prudently let down his nets for a catch by various acts. He was made all things to all for the gain of souls, filling the country as he went, he did the work of an evangelist, nor was there anyone who could hide himself from his heat. He instructed the well-disposed, reproved the difficult, spared no one by coaxing and flattering, prayed for all, rendered to all what was owing, did not distinguish age, nor sex, nor fortune; nor condition, nor person: with the utmost effort and all diligence he spent his labour on how those who were not wise might be wise; and those who were not wise might be foolish; and those who had been foolish might come to their senses; he rejoiced with those who rejoiced etc.
[11] he gives most useful labour. The renown of Giraud was heard far and wide, and spread abroad with celebrated report in the hearing of bishops and prelates. First the lord Peter, bishop of Poitiers f, a man renowned in life and knowledge, gave him the right hand of unending charity, committing to him his place and his ordinary authority g. Very many bishops committed to him like authority, to give the law of life and discipline, and to sow the holy seed among the people of God. For they knew very well that he was fervent in spirit, not brooding on his talents, but eager for gains. And behold, more vehemently than usual he began with the hoe of his tongue to root out, to destroy, to ruin and to scatter, to build, to plant and to renew, making crooked things straight, and rough ways plain. He exulted like a giant to run through lands and villages, cities and strongholds, to prepare a perfect people for the Lord. He was angry at vices, nor did he soothe them; he was affected toward persons, whom he loved, he kindled the frozen, inflamed the lukewarm, pricked the wicked, goaded the slothful, sharpened the dull: free in reproving, he knew no fear. You would have called him a burning fire in consuming the thornbushes of the vices, an axe and adze in casting down the eyebrows of the proud. He explained the series and origin of sins, the prohibitions and commandments, that they might be taught what they ought to do, what to beware of. After this, in the manner of a good bird, he returned to his hiding-places and to his nest in the selfsame. Blessed are they who heard you and have been adorned in your friendship.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
He constructs various monasteries; he brings his parents and brothers to the monastic life; he is renowned for miracles.
He constructs various monasteries; Meanwhile many, converted to the Lord through his ministry, began to offer him possessions and estates for constructing monasteries, and he founded seven monasteries for men, two for women. And he named the first Cadouin, the second Grandselve, the third Dalon, the fourth Le Bournet, the fifth Les Alleuds, the sixth L'Absie of Gâtine, the seventh Les Châteliers: there he was buried and rests in the body, among those above in the soul; as it is said, he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had accomplished. Two others he named Tusson and Bibio for the religious life of nuns a. Into Tusson the most devoted father introduced and enclosed nuns, and with him his most sacred preceptor the lord Robert, whom we mentioned above: and he established Tusson to be the mother and head of the order: and Fontevraud the daughter of Tusson; which was observed for some time, until on account of a shortage of water the nuns of Tusson were compelled to change their domicile and enter the monastery of Fontevraud b. From then on what the father had laid down was set aside, and the mother became the daughter, and the daughter the mother. In Bibio, above the other places, the soul of the founder took pleasure, because that place was the poorest; he frequented the place more often, more repeatedly he celebrated festivals to God there. So many holy places were founded by his industry, of which some have already generated others, and merited to become mothers of daughters c. In all of which he established the mode of living in food and clothing to a nail according to the Rule of St. Benedict: nothing of the precepts to be lessened, nothing added on, nothing repeated, nothing omitted, nothing of what is forbidden to be turned to, neither compulsion above it, nor restraint below it. But let us now come to the history.
[13] he frees his brothers from danger; At one time Giraud's brothers on the mother's side, Grimoald and Fulk, were making their return home from the schools, and it was necessary to have passage across the river Charente d: and on the opposite side of the river stood a boat without boatman and rower. They waited a very long time for one to take the boat across, but with no one coming, they began to weep most bitterly. As they wept and lamented, there came to them a certain man, unknown by face, and having greeted them according to custom, he asked them whence they were: From the district of Périgord, they say, toward which we are also making our way, and we are brothers of the lord Giraud of Tusson, from whom we departed a little while ago. And as they said this, suddenly the boat was loosed from the harbour. Seeing which the two brothers were the more afraid, fearing lest because of the force of the water the boat should go down further, and they could not obtain it any more: but the goodness of God acted far otherwise; for the boat held a straight course through the middle of the channel and came quickly to them. When the unknown man saw this, astounded, he said: Truly, truly, as it appears, O boys, God almighty loves you: enter now the boat, and I will bring you to the bank. In very truth, as he promised, so did he carry the boys across through the great water. Going out from the boat they saw that man no more; but they went on their way rejoicing, whence also they sang psalms and arrived in safety at their people. This Giraud was accustomed to narrate in the hearing of many, because he had been present in the spirit in all these things, and had felt power go out from him. But it is now time for me to discharge what we promised concerning the parents and two brothers of Giraud.
[14] he draws his parents to the monastic life Fulk, then, the father of Giraud, now harsh now gentle according to the demands of the time, after he had lived among the people, by the counsel of his son bade farewell to the world. For when he was in his last moments, he took up the habit of Religion and after an increase of merits arrived still young at death, and resting with the Lord in a blessed end, as we believe, he died a youth e. His mother, widowed of so great a partner, was made a nun by the counsel of Giraud, she merited to change her habit, and as the mother confessed to her sons while she was still in this life, except for the sole father of her sons she remained altogether unknown to any man. The illustrious way of life of the two can be a mirror and exemplar of morals to all who consider it.
[15] as also his brothers, Grimoald Grimoald, having laid aside the habit of the world, made profession with a chaplain at Tusson f, and being transferred from there was made prior at Les Châteliers, and after the death of his brother was elected abbot of Les Alleuds; thence under compulsion he was taken up to the pontificate of the city of Poitiers g. O God almighty, what a grievous loss!
He did not live a year on that chair, what he did there I cannot say, because he was snatched away, lest malice should change his understanding, or because the world was not worthy of so great a man: had he lasted longer, he would have borne fruit more abundantly, and tamed the flesh more abundantly. Quite often he protested that he would rather be a leper than an abbot; an exile or martyr rather than a prelate. And when he was in his last moments, he saw thrice the king of heaven, once Mary, the Mother of Christ the Lord: for he had many times before seen her appearing, and heard her speaking. And he passed on the sixth before the kalends of August, being buried with the nuns of Fontevraud. At which burial, the Lord causing them to gather, there were present three archbishops, of Bordeaux, Rheims and Tours: three bishops, of Soissons, Meaux and Noyon: one legate, namely the lord Geoffrey, bishop of Chartres, and with innumerable peoples the count of Anjou.
[16] and Fulk: Fulk, the last of the sons, took up the eremitical habit at Boschaud h, and resting in a blessed end he arrived at the prize after the space of a long road run in good deeds; a man branching from so glorious a stock ought not to degenerate in anything, but to walk strongly in the way of his parents and brothers. He was buried in the chapter-house of Boschaud, where he was one of the first poor hermits of that place, and there he lay for some time. But after much time, in reverence for so great a sanctity, his body was more honourably translated into the church, and when it was raised, it was found whole and unharmed, and the flesh free of decay, nor were the garments worn, as if he had been buried the day before *; beholding which those attending were surrounded with stupor. There were those who cut for themselves something of those little cloths and patches, and piously kept them in their purses. And when, withdrawn to their lodging, they wished to take up those cuttings for relics, all the men found nothing of the relics in their purses; this has been done by the Lord and it is wonderful in our eyes. These were the glorious commendations of the parents and sons. Let us now return to the distinctions of Giraud.
[17] he persuades the nuns of Fontevraud to the tonsure: As Giraud, then, was preaching the kingdom of God and confirming the sayings of his brother, it happened as he turned aside to the nuns of Fontevraud for the sake of preaching, that, entering the chapter-house, he saw in those women a monster abominable to God and the Angels. For the twisting and bordering of their hair, in the manner of a harlot, displayed trappings and wallets behind, horns in front. Having inspected those horned rational beasts, he began first to attract them with blandishments; for he knew that the mind of man is noble, so that it is led rather than dragged: and he first approached the abbess alone, knowing that through her he would more easily claim the others, and that the members would not easily show dissent where they saw the prior consent of the head. Lady abbess, he says, I ask a small gift of you, I beg you not to refuse it. The abbess assented, to the same thing all the rest also assented. Soon exercising his tongue, which in such matters he had eloquent enough, he brought forward to them the apostolic form imposed on women: "Not with plaited hair, he said, or with bordering of gold and silver:" I Timoth. II, 9. I Petr. III, 3 and beginning from this scripture of the Apostle Peter; I wish, he said, that each of you give me on the spot all the hair of your head. How is that to be tolerated in a consecrated woman which the Apostle condemns in a secular matron? The Holy Spirit stirring them up and suggesting it through the mouth of Giraud, all are suddenly shorn; and for law thereafter it is laid down that no nun in future may let her hair grow i.
[18] as the fame of his holiness grows, After such great commendations of Giraud it pleases me to insert the testimonies of William, bishop of Poitiers k, and of the abbots dwelling in the wilderness. We touch, they say, in summary on the life of the most religious and most famous man Giraud, we do not set it out in sequence: we gird up an epistle, we do not weave a history. As a boy he entered a monastery, thence he moved to the wilderness: sublimely he lived in the monastery, more sublimely he lived in the wilderness; excellently he began the religious life, more excellently he ended it. He looked back not at the fleshpots of Egypt, not at the flames of Sodom, not at the breezes of silver, not at vanities and false follies. He set ascents in his heart, he went up from virtue to virtue, he arrived at the summit of the roof, he intoned the song of Degrees. His garment was a hairshirt, his drink water, his dinner vegetables, his life a cross and martyrdom: neither sick nor well did he go without the hairshirt, neither sick nor well did he eat except once; in all his deeds he gave the fragrance of Hilarion, he presented Antony, nay rather Christ lived in him. He burned wholly, and kindled others: now John in the wilderness, now Paul in public, he did and spoke; he had ascended upon a high mountain, whence he evangelized Sion; he inflamed many, he called many to the wilderness, he built many places, in which he ordained that the norm of Blessed Benedict be observed down to the least iota. What more? He loved Christ, he preached Christ, imitating Christ, he flew up to Christ. If however the gold has contracted any rust, or the pearl any imperfection, let it be purged by your good deeds, prayers and tears. If this is not necessary for him, but he has flown up to Christ, your prayer will return into your bosom.
[19] [he is renowned for miracles: the freeing of a disciple, the conversion of a shameless woman,] There was at Peril of the Sea l a certain disciple of Giraud, and falling into the sea he was being overwhelmed by the waves. At the crisis of his shipwreck he remembered that master, he called on the master. Soon, as he was crying out, there appeared to him a man of reverend habit, saying kindly: Him whom you have called upon, behold, I am here. And at once freed from the whirlpool of the tempest, he found himself on the shore. It was the unalterable custom of the man of God, evangelizing through the province, that in whatever village, he would agree with him who first invited him to lodging. One day he was about to enter the town of Saint-Maixent, to preach the word of life to that people, as to the other peoples too. But a foolish woman, inviting the saint that day to her house, it is uncertain, however, what she sought in the man, namely the bed or the purse, hoping she would receive something from him. Giraud, when he heard it, promised he would come. Lastly there came also other respectable persons, inviting the saint, but he refused them all, saying that he had already been forestalled by one woman: and when he learned from those who told him that she was loose and not of good name: Let be, he said, let be, it is possible for God that she should rather be converted through me than I perverted through her. The sermon being finished at midday, according to the arrangement Giraud came in under the roof of the difficult woman: after dinner and supper, the day being closed, there was a coming to bed. But the woman, caught by the snare of her eyes, having seen the elegance of the man, approached the couch, shamelessly saying to him: Give room, she says, and turn on your side, and take me to sleep with you. Is it so, says the saint? In truth, she said, I must sleep with you; for that is why I brought you into this place. And he said, withdraw a little and for a time, until I have prepared myself for this work. Now there was a kindled furnace in the house, and many burning coals in the place. The saint therefore spread the embers through the hall, and over them stretched out his own cloak, and so lay down in the midst of this place, and having called the shameless hostess, began thus: Now if you wish, rest here with me, and sleep with me until morning. Seeing this, the wicked harlot is confounded and pricked to the heart, she throws herself at the feet of the saint, she is changed and shorn, and she is brought to Fontevraud to be received m.
[20] the extinguishing of a fire: Many, whose hearts God had touched, were hosts of Giraud through the world, who while he was preaching offered him hospitality; while he was building, spent their aid. Among the others there was one to whom by the merits of Giraud such a gift of beneficence was granted. The town was burning, the embers were flying about: with the wind blowing, there was no hope by which any house in it might be saved. That good host, seeing that human counsel was lacking, begged earnestly that divine patronage be at hand: Giraud, he said, good guest, I commend my house to you, do not allow the flames to enter into it. Quicker than the word the flame took flight and went off and retreated, and the house remained whole and unharmed: but the flame was spread over the neighbouring houses, and raging it burned on the right and on the left; but the fire did not touch the host's house at all, neither saddened it, nor brought any harm upon it.
ANNOTATIONS.
of the year 742, canon 6 Labbe VI, Conc. col. 1535., by which on veiled nuns fallen into the crime of fornication, besides other penalties, the shaving of all the hairs of the head is imposed. But it is the custom, says St. Jerome, epistle CXLVII to Sabinianus Migne, Patrol. tom. XXII, col. 1199., in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, that both a virgin and a widow who have vowed themselves to God, and renouncing the world have trampled on all the delights of the world, should offer their hair to the mothers of the monasteries to be cut off. Yet lest the hair that is kept should smack of vanity or sloth, St. Augustine admonishes in epistle CCXI, otherwise CIX, to the nuns Ibid. tom. XXXIII, col. 961., that they should not have their hair bare on any side, nor should negligence scatter it outside, nor industry arrange it. For the rest, present-day monastic discipline forbids all hair to nuns. And the same was prescribed to be observed in the Rule of Fontevraud: for in § XVI it is said Ibid. tom. CLXII, col. 1079.: That they never allow their hair to grow, but three times in the year they shall shave it with a razor, or clip it with shears Note: tondeant all over right down to the skull Note: cutem. And so when Blessed Gerald was among the nuns of Fontevraud, either they had already swerved from the primitive Rule, which in the newness of things is not likely, or rather our Blessed one himself was the author of the establishing of the statute.
* hesterna
CHAPTER III.
After founding the monastery of Les Châteliers, the blessed man, gravely ill, is carried there; he dies in holiness in that place and is buried.
to St. Bernard of Clairvaux The Cistercian religious life was spreading in those days, and the monastery of Clairvaux was founded by the count of Champagne. There Blessed Bernard was ordained as first abbot, and most illustriously and singularly ruled the monastery of Clairvaux for thirty-nine years. For he shone out singularly in the holy Church of God, and after the Apostles, in talent and pen, in eloquence and efficacy, in discipline of life and doctrine of knowledge, in deed and word, in virtues of character and in the radiance of miracles, no one in the world was second to him. It was he through whom the doctrine of wisdom was made evident, herald of God, doctor of the faith, harpist of Mary. This is Bernard, whose face the whole world desired to see. His foremost care was the salvation of souls, the conversion of sinners, the foundation of abbeys, the spreading of religious. For this reason he went around sea and dry land, and nearly every nation, until he came to the province of Bordeaux and of Narbonne. On this occasion Bernard and Giraud saw one another and thereafter became one heart and one soul in Christ, by the glue of charity, and they could have been contemporaries for six or seven years a. For since Bernard became abbot in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and fourteen, and Giraud died in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and twenty, it is established that what we have said about the term of their contemporaneity is true.
[22] he is reported, but falsely, to have been an intimate: The one adhered no less to the other than iron to a magnet; the one saw and knew the other no less than the two Cherubim overshadowing the propitiatory one another. If you had seen Giraud leading the holy guest and bringing him into the nest of his monasteries, you would have said it was David come to life, leading the ark of the covenant of the Lord with jubilation. The illustrious men Bernard and Giraud, then, gathered into one, came together to Cadouin: for Giraud wished to incorporate the monastery into the Cistercian Order, according to the mastership of Bernard; but the men dwelling in that place, sons of Belial, enclosed in folds not of the Lord but of Epicurus, on account of the newness of the rite, the meanness of the habit and the harshness of the food, utterly abhorring the yoke of the Order, at that time sent the saint of God away empty and without honour, saying in their heart, even if not with their mouth: Bernard, depart from us, we do not desire the knowledge of your ways. And they added yet further to sin against the saint, by docking the tail of the rouncy on which he rode: for the dayspring from on high had not yet visited the people of Cadouin, as it did afterwards, when they were converted under Pontigny. As Bernard therefore was going out from those borders, and shaking off the dust of his feet in testimony against them, Giraud consoled him gently. Come, he said, let us withdraw from these citizens in the name of the Lord, and I will give you a better house, only be not moved. For they have not cast you off, but me. And he meant Grandselve. In truth as he said, so it was done. For the inhabitants of Grandselve received Bernard as an Angel of God, and in perpetual obedience subjected themselves to him. O God almighty! what great things your servant has done in those regions, what great things we have heard and known and our fathers etc. There the holy father, from about a sixth part of one host, as if each received a whole host, mercifully communicated the whole community of La Couronne; there he powerfully dried up a green leaf, there he prudently confuted one who mocked the thickness of his horse's neck. Giraud was present at all of them, he saw and heard, and was astounded at the power b. But now let us return with the pen to Poitou.
[23] after the foundation of Les Châteliers After those days Peter Duvar, one of the disciples of Giraud, came to the town of Saint-Maixent c in the days of the Lenten fast, and to certain more respectable persons, who were detaining him in charity, he related that the venerable bishop William had laid open and offered to the lord Giraud his master his whole diocese, for going about and building a place of religion where it should be suitable, and that he would gladly agree and spend his aid. And as various persons were proposing various places, and these and those, at last someone brought up Les Châteliers, as abounding in meadows and woods, waters and ditches and vast solitudes d. Brought to the place, the disciple came and saw and approved what he had heard, and returning to his master set out what he had seen. Roused by these words, Giraud came in the month of May to the town, made a sermon to the people, went out on the morrow to see Les Châteliers, and on that day he first in that land merited to receive the first gift, and so returned from where he had set out. Around the Nativity of the Baptist he assigned Peter Duvar with two other disciples to develop the place, and around the feast of St. Bartholomew, sending to them for their consolation the lord Giraud, a just and pious man, he ordained him as prior. All these things were done in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and nineteen e. One day when Giraud was passing by Les Châteliers, and was making for the place of L'Absie f, in order that there, as he had already done in many places, he might establish an abbey from a hermitage, he did not visit the brothers on that occasion, as he had been accustomed, and he sent word to the brothers not to take his passing ill, but to look more surely for his coming once the work at L'Absie was completed. For the clerics of L'Absie, like those of Les Châteliers, were also hermits, serving the Lord in purity of life. And so he arrived at L'Absie, and devoutly completed what he had desired concerning the brothers.
[24] gravely ill, Meanwhile the Lord, wishing to reward his novice who had so well served his time, and who was so filled with a multitude of virtues and works, and to gather the wheat sevenfold purged into the barns of heaven, willed to call him forth through the messenger of fever. Suddenly he began to be ill, and with him the brothers were ill: he lay down on his bed, and in turn all with him. Who would not be ill together with so great a father being ill? He himself, however, knew what God was going to do concerning him, the others did not know. The word had gone out among the brothers that the master would not die this time. They imagined things pleasing to themselves, and spoke out of the abundance of their heart: but the Lord had disposed otherwise. Giraud therefore, knowing the things which were to come upon him, and thinking back on what he had promised to the people of Les Châteliers, began of himself to treat of the promise among his disciples, whom he had called together for this purpose. All of them counselled with one voice that it was more suitable for him, whether he should live or die, to be at Les Châteliers than elsewhere.
[25] he is carried there; The son of truth therefore, unwilling to make void the word of his promise, caused to be summoned to him the lord of the land, who was then present, named Tirolius, and held out his prayers into his bosom; and he adjured him by the Lord not to leave him in the region of the men of Gâtine, but to transfer him to Les Châteliers, within the lordship of his concession, made before witnesses. Having received the charge, when morning came, with Matins not yet finished, Tirolius, having chosen bearers, brought Giraud out in a carrying litter, and joyfully brought him in to the disciples of Les Châteliers on Passion Sunday g. And on coming he was weighed down by such great infirmity that on Palm Sunday he could not go in the procession of the brothers, except when carried. Failing in body, in mind he was stronger and powerful. And when his weakness grew heavier and he was failing from dysentery, and in all things gave thanks to God, on Easter Day he had himself carried by his disciples into the oratory. There the confessor of Christ, confessing to God and long mourning, adored the sign of the cross, and strengthened his departure with the body and blood of the Lord; and being for the hour in ecstasy of mind and passing away to the Lord, he said to those around him in Latin: I see birds. As they did not understand, and asked what birds had been seen, good or bad: the true Israelite subjoined: The Lord Jesus Christ has come to visit me and with him Peter, bishop of Poitiers, and the lord Robert, my instructor. O incomparable man, who in the day of death was not forsaken by the Lord! A man in whom it has pleased God to dwell, and by himself to lead forth and lead in with the Angels into the kingdom.
[26] and having exhorted the brothers, Meanwhile Giraud, knowing that he was dying, solicitously asked the brothers who were present to remember him: he admonished them to take up the Rule of the kindly preceptor, Blessed Benedict, and through holy obedience added that they should hold to it. What more? He diligently set in order his places and brothers, and supplicating God for them, commended his friends and hosts: he commanded them not to bury him otherwise than the poor brothers, nor to permit anyone to keep vigil at his tomb; and so being carried he went back to bed. Meanwhile the brothers urged him, but did not persuade him, to taste something of egg or cheese to aid his infirmity, or especially out of reverence for the paschal solemnity. But he, as if indignant at his burdensome counsellors, said to them: Ah, ah, wretches, that you have presumed to counsel such things: and I command you not to eat any such thing. He remained therefore that day and the second alive in the midst
of his people, disputing and urging concerning the kingdom of God, as one who spoke with the tongues of men and of Angels. It would scarcely be possible to set out with what lamentations toward himself, with what exhortations toward the people, with what delights toward the Lord he came to the last end of life, or rather to its beginning, according to that saying of Solomon: "When a man has finished, then he begins." Now he ascended to the Lord with Moses, saying to him: "Holy Father, keep in your name those whom you have acquired by my ministry." Now he descended to his people with the Apostle, saying: In the discipline you have received persevere, brothers, for this is the way, and there is no other upon the earth. The brothers were singing, celebrating holy Easter: Giraud, even if he did not sing, nevertheless did not weep; for why should he weep who was being led to the solemnity of the true phase, that is, of the passing? But since the things concerning him have an end (for the testament of this world is, "you shall die the death") let us tell, or rather let us mourn, the precious death of so great a father: since music in mourning is an unseasonable tale.
[27] he dies in holiness: In the year of grace, then, one thousand one hundred and twenty, on the twelfth before the kalends of May, that is, the twentieth of April, the third day of the week after Easter, very early in the morning, Giraud, full of days and virtues, passed from this world among the hands of his disciples, and was gathered first of his own to his people, laying his hands on each of those who were present and greeting them, and amid the words of prayer he rendered up his last spirit to God. Soon through each of the days of that white week, there was one voice of lamenting disciples, one concourse of uncalled peoples, of men and women, rich and poor together as one, noble and ignoble, rushing in and desiring to commend themselves and their own to so great a father: whoever could see or touch such sanctity was blessed. There was present the lord William the Second, Adelenius by name, bishop of Poitiers h, weeping inconsolably and wailing and crying out from his inmost heart: Show me my lord, show me my lord: and so, gazing at him thus wrapped in mean woollen cloths: Take those away from here, he said, and clothe him according to the diaconate of his clerical state. And it was so done, and it came to pass on the octave of Easter that they buried the body of Giraud at Les Châteliers, the newest of his places, the poorest and, so far as the roofing goes, the meanest, but religious, in the oratory of Blessed Mary, on the left side of the altar.
[28] at his burial there appear three While Giraud was being buried by the ministers in the oratory, the people were outside awaiting the hour of the obsequies: and there appeared to them three crosses of wonderful beauty, hanging in the air above the oratory: which not all merited to see, but those to whom it was given. These remained as long as the obsequies lasted; and those who saw wondered, and were not sated with the sight. The middle one, larger and more excellent than the others, was ruddy; the two remaining ones after the likeness of a rainbow, one green, the other white. What among these things, brothers, do you notice? A great portent and a hidden mystery: there is signified something divine and foreign to the heart of worldly men: the excellent, if I am not mistaken, merit of the little servant, who merited to be adorned by the Lord with so great and so privileged a sign. For since crux is named from cruciatus, every love is a cross, when it desires that which it cannot attain. The three crosses, therefore, are the loves of God and of oneself and of neighbour. The purple one crucified him to the Lord through love of transitory harshness; the snowy one, to himself through the choice of virginity; but the sky-blue one to his neighbour through the edification of usefulness, instructing in what is to be believed and done. Whence Rabanus on Esther: By the greenness of faith and the whiteness of chastity the foundation of humility is built. Some refer the trio of the cross to sinners, with whom he had compassion on account of the offence against God, the fear of hell and the fear of heaven. Others to his own world, to which he was crucified, as regards riches, delights and honours. The rest to the Lord Christ, after whom he languished from the remembrance of the cross, from the enduring of misery and from the delay of glory.
[29] portentous crosses. Otherwise did the saint himself expound the mystery of the crosses. He appeared after his death to the bishop Grimoald, his brother, as he slept i. Of Giraud, then, appearing to him through a vision, he sought counsel concerning a certain matter which he was thinking of doing: but by terrifying him he forbade him to do it. After this the brother inquired of the brother, the living of the triumphant, saying: Master, is it truly to be believed that crosses were seen at your obsequies? He replied to him: Truly and without any doubting it is to be believed that certain persons saw them, to whom it was given, but not all: for the Lord showed with what great love I acknowledged the power of the holy Cross: and there appeared there three crosses of different colours, of which one was green, the second purple, the third white: the first indeed signified abstinence of the flesh, the second the martyrdom of the heart, the third the glory of eternal blessedness. And let these things said about the crosses suffice. The body being buried and the tomb sealed at Old Les Châteliers, he lay there for seventeen months and two weeks. For from then on, the brothers being transferred to the place where they now live, the most holy clod was transferred with the community in the year of grace one thousand one hundred and twenty-one, on the sixth before the kalends of October; the body of Giraud, incorrupt and whole, was carried from the first place, and laid away in a bitumened sarcophagus, where the abbey now is; the stone oratory however not yet being begun, nor any building of stone k. In this year, namely on the eleventh before the kalends of November, the prior Giraud departed, and Emeric of Périgueux succeeded him in the government l. In his days the brothers were made monks and he himself first abbot of this place. At last in the year of grace one thousand one hundred and twenty-nine, the brothers aiding and the whole neighbourhood exulting, a stone church was begun around the holy body, and it was completed in the thirty-seventh year, and in the year of grace one thousand one hundred and fifty-six it was dedicated by Chalo, bishop of Poitiers, Adrian being supreme prelate, Louis reigning in Gaul, the lord Emeric, first abbot, assisting, full of days, riches, glory, joy and honour. But now let us apply the pen to the things which were done and revealed through Giraud after his death.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
Various miracles wrought after the blessed man's death by his intercession.
He admonishes the hermit Bernard about his office; A certain fisherman, Evrard by name, lived with Bernard, first hermit and inhabitant of Plumbum a, and sought his food and clothing by hand, skill, boat and net. It entered his mind as he slept in the night hours that he had left the wet nets outside unspread. He leapt up from his bed at that hour, without delay spread the hanging nets, looked around at the moon and stars, the pole and the upper air, shining serene and clear, with neither dog nor cock nor any din resounding; but with the waves gently lapping the shores, the tranquil sea applauding. And as he gazes in a vision of the night, behold, a procession whiter than snow of innumerable old men and young appears to Evrard, walking upon the waters of the sea, as if making toward the parts of St. Michael. After the first others emerge and after the others new ones ever gush forth, nor was so great or such a flock seen elsewhere. These having passed, a man of venerable white hair and habit, wholly as it were divine and undying, withdrawn from them and walking through the sea with dry footstep, standing by Evrard, having greeted him, says: Is Bernard well, the long-time inhabitant of the place? He is well, he says. Has he risen for Matins? Not yet, he says. Go, he said, and tell him on our part: A little leaven corrupts the whole mass; likewise, the transgressor of one has been made guilty of all. You perform and have performed the services of the dead less than fully, and unless you restore them with much interest, you will lose the many good things gathered in all time; what you have defrauded, quickly restore, for Atropos is already trying to break the thread of your death. Having heard these things, Evrard said: Who are you, lord? I am, he said, Giraud of Tusson. He spoke, and forthwith followed his companions with dry foot. At length the canonical hour being rung and proclaimed, Brother Bernard hears and acknowledges what Evrard announces on behalf of the master: with tears he files away and corrects his faults, and what he had done less of, he restored,
neither lukewarm nor slow, and ending his life in the torment of illness: he did not live long, as the saint had foretold.
[31] for an abbot, weary of governing, he obtains death from God: The neighbouring abbots of that region were accustomed to come together annually in honour of Giraud for the feast of his holy deposition. Among the others there was once present a man venerable and in all things praiseworthy, the lord John de Calencio, first abbot of Boschaud, who had taken up that government as if he were being led to the death of martyrdom b. He had come to the feast of so great a patron, but he was also taking care to bid farewell inflexibly to the government imposed on him, nor would he in this acquiesce in anyone's persuasion. When the things that belonged to the festival day were finished, he pressed to be released: but the father abbot, altogether disagreeing, persisted that he should return to Boschaud. The son wished absolutely to remain, the father wished strenuously that the son should go back. As a friendly contest was being tied in this manner between the two, Giraud is appealed to as arbiter: he undoes the knot of perplexity. For the abbot of Boschaud, approaching the tomb of the saint, fixed his heart above in the upper air, and full of faith, with devout breast, with tears poured out, said to the common father: Holy Giraud, at whose tomb I stand, grant that I may be unable to return to the community of Boschaud; but you who can obtain all things from the Lord, make me remain with you in every event. Quicker than the word he is seized by an unknown fever; he gives thanks to God with devout mind; he pays his vows to his patron Giraud. Soon he is laid low on a bed, and to those standing by it seems a joke; but he promises that he will not return to his own, but will die on the third day. The brothers ask how he is certain: he replied, because he has unalterably experienced the patronage of Giraud in such matters. What more? He is confessed, anointed, given communion, fraternal reconciliation is asked, on the third day he dies, and he is buried, the first of the abbots, in the chapter-house of Les Châteliers. As the brothers heard, so they saw, both by night and by day alike. But now, leaving aside what antiquity has written, we must come to our own times.
[32] Giraud therefore lay also in that stone church on the left of the altar under a marble slab, enclosed in a stone sarcophagus, a new church is erected at Les Châteliers, strongly sealed and bitumened, for one hundred and twenty-eight years, until the times of the most illustrious, most conspicuous in religion and most prudent man, the lord abbot Thomas c. He, in the year of grace one thousand two hundred and forty-eight, on the Purification of Blessed Mary, took up the government of the abbey, and set his heart to cleave to the Lord and to Giraud his servant: on account of which the Lord set his heart upon him, and blessed the crown of his years in temporal and in spiritual things, as he blessed the house of the Egyptian on account of Joseph. And abbot Thomas thought, according to the good hand of God with him, of increasing divine worship in two ways, namely by enlarging the people and place of the church of Les Châteliers, and by raising the body of Giraud on high from the earth for the edification of men. For it seemed hard and intolerable to the abbot that the bones of so great a man, whom the Lord had set on high with princes, with the princes of his people, should be pressed down in the common lowliness of the earthly bowels of filth and dust. And as he conceived, so also he carried it out, also concerning the church.
[33] and the body of the blessed man is again transferred: In the year of the Lord, therefore, one thousand two hundred and forty-nine, and the twentieth of his government d, in Paschal time, abbot Thomas, joining to himself the more intimate brothers, dug deep as far as the sepulchre: and he rejoiced greatly when he had found, although with difficulty, the desired treasure: and he kept the bones wrapped, as was fitting, in silken cloths, and clean, honourably, until he had fashioned a reliquary for the body, a vessel for the head: which was also done. For he placed the head in a little gilded vessel, and the body in a marble feretory fashioned in the manner of a chest and raised e high upon six stone columns, in the same place where he had lain before beneath the pavement. And a great miracle took place on that day. For when the precious body had been placed and the lid had been raised by cords in order to be lowered more correctly, all the little ropes except one suddenly broke, and the hands of those attending, as if without weight or hurt, set the stone lid of so great a mass in its due place. The craftsman wondered that the hands and shoulders of so few had sustained such a mass in the air, nor injured it even in the slightest, nor harmed it.
[34] his revilers are punished. We have heard of another deed also worthy of report. When the aforesaid tomb of the saint had been initiated to be made, abbot Thomas came, and daily pressed the work more vehemently, asking that it be completed fittingly, skilfully and quickly. And his companion, the architect of the work, Colin de Saliso by name, was doing the same. There was there one of Colin's colleagues, a son of Belial, that is, without the yoke, who was indignant at so many admonitions out of disgust, and did not fear to foam out insults in wicked words against the saint, and not with impunity nor to his wisdom: For I know not what Giraud, he said, whom you wish to make holy against God's will, we must hurry more than usual. When he was vomiting forth these and like blasphemies against the holy man, his companion rebuked him to be quiet, otherwise he would pour out his brains. That very night Colin was sleeping in his chamber, and St. Giraud appeared to him, saying at once: Never meddle in the vengeance of my injuries, because God is able to punish my rivals, as often as I wish, with heavy chastisement. Having said this, Giraud disappeared, and a lethal infirmity soon seized the blasphemer; who did not recover from it, but paid for the sin of blasphemy with a horrible death. The like happened to someone at Parthenay f, when he reviled the saint of God with an evil-speaking mouth. For certain people of Parthenay used to go according to custom on Saturdays to the Vigils of Blessed Giraud: and this wretch, stationed on the road, heaped injuries on the pilgrims, and blasphemies on Giraud: not with impunity: on that very night the blasphemer is seized by a very acute fever, death is expected to follow immediately; no hour of the night is quiet or secure. When morning came, a priest is summoned, the viaticum is asked for, confession is permitted; the confessor exhorts according to custom, the one confessing at last remembers the blasphemy of yesterday *. What more? He begs pardon with tears, promises to amend himself; and that if he should look upon him with a clement eye, he would be his pilgrim and servant for ever, to visit the saint with a rope on his neck, as if he had deserved hanging. A wondrous thing: he who a little before, according to inferior causes, was going down to destruction, now through the power of Giraud experiences the antidote of assurance. Within a few days he came to the saint's sepulchre, a rope on his neck, according to the vow of his promise; and he who a little before had shamelessly dogmatized that the merits of Giraud scarcely sufficed for himself alone, and availed for no other, henceforth powerfully announces the friend of Christ to all.
[35] He appears to a monk of Les Châteliers: There was a Brother William Desjuvre, a monk of Les Châteliers and master of the hospice of the poor, a senior of good life and praiseworthy testimony. One day, while the others were sleeping, as he was going to the church, he met an unknown monk of reverend countenance and habit, and the unknown man said to the man of the house: "Benedicite," and as he did not respond, "Dominus;" because he was neither abbot nor prior of the community g, the unknown man said at once: "Do not be afraid to speak, but you will greet the abbot on my behalf and thus intimate to him: Do what you can, and for the rest leave the care of the abbey to me: for I keep watch for you before God, I who protect the place and people under my asylum." Having heard this, the known said to the unknown: Who then are you? And he: Who I am you do not know now, but you shall know afterwards. Going out he followed him, until he saw him, having entered the church, go into the mausoleum of Giraud: and then he knew that he had seen Blessed Giraud, who had said these and those things to him.
[36] many are healed at his sepulchre; Meanwhile, as these things were being done concerning Giraud, through the labour of abbot Thomas the former church was daily increased in length, breadth and height: and the whole conceived work of renovation was completed; and a more venerable place of repose was set for Giraud behind the high altar behind the ciborium, crosswise. There, therefore, from the sides of the north Giraud was transferred behind the altar in a straight line toward the east, who also remains there until the present day. In the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and seventy-seven, on the second of St. Agnes [h], the renovated church around Giraud was completed and duly dedicated by Simon i, archbishop of Bordeaux; in which, through the merits of Giraud, the fevered are cooled, the blind are enlightened, the lame are made firm, the deaf are opened, the dumb speak, the possessed are calmed, the gouty are relieved, the frantic and epileptic are brought back, blasphemers are made kind, the swollen are dried up, paralytics are strengthened, the dying are preserved, the spiritually dead are raised up. It pleases me now to insert a few things out of many, some things out of all. In the parish of Marchais k a certain man was lame in one foot, nor could he walk except upon a staff, which they commonly call a potentia l. This man had in the same neighbourhood another man, who had taken in marriage the niece of a certain abbot of Les Châteliers. The latter, compassionate for the sufferings of his neighbour, one day amid familiar conversation said to him: There is a certain saint, Giraud by name, buried at Les Châteliers, and if you seek him out by devoutly visiting him, you will be saved from your trouble: and I set myself as pledge and hostage to you, that when sought he will not be wanting with his patronage. What more? He who learns must believe, as the philosopher says in the Elenchi. The man believed the word which his colleague had spoken, and sent forth a vow. On the morrow, setting out on the way, the lame man and the hostage both arrived at the place, visited the saint's tomb, the sick man recovered completely, and he left there the prop of his potentia as a document of testimony, although he had borne his trouble for two years.
[37] shattered by a fall, they escape unharmed; At another time the need of mending the roof set Peter, surnamed Abrenuntio, above the pinnacle of the shoemakers' shop; who, by a chance happening, suddenly fell whole down a monstrous precipice, and his head struck against the earth so strongly that it forced a very great stone, on which he fell, more than half a foot to go under the bowels of the earth. The father of Peter himself, who happened to be present, groaned and said: St. Giraud, to you I commend my son: St. Giraud, to you, etc. Wonderful to hear, but true in deed, or in word or in outcome. The craftsman so shattered is laid on a bed, carried to the hospice, experiences the kindness of Giraud: sound and unharmed within a few days he returns to complete the work he had begun. This has been done by the Lord, etc. The like happened to John, surnamed Margnae, a carpenter stationed on the summit of the bell-tower. For when several woodworkers were setting the smaller bell in its seat, this one man, incautiously placed, fell away from the midst of all to the depths, and his fall stopped before the high altar at the very bottom of the pavement. As he plunged headlong, he invoked the Virgin Mary and Giraud, the servant of God: and all the others likewise crying out and having compassion on him. In the breaking of so great a fall there did not remain on the top of the one falling
flesh or hair, skin or locks: you would have said it was the head of a flayed beast, nor was anything but death expected that very day. What more? Beyond the opinion of those standing by and the vain hope of very many, the man on that occasion escaped the death of the flesh through the prayers and merit of Blessed Giraud: in the sight of those wondering there stood the man whom the fall had laid low; there lived the man whom the fracture had slain. I myself saw the man afterwards, for whom after the tearing off the physicians had replaced the hide with the hair, and I could not perceive in it any trace of the past injury.
[38] the blessed man's bed preserved from fire, At Old Les Châteliers too, in the stone chapel in which Giraud first lay, frequent miracles are done by divine power. Nocturnal lights are seen at times to radiate * and flash there, so that the garden shines from it and the settlement of the adjacent place; a lamp also is sometimes seen lit there without human ministry. There is there a wooden bed with straw and linens, on which, as they say, Giraud expired, which God preserved unharmed in the midst of the flames without burning by the merits of his servant. For when a sudden misfortune was destroying that whole chapel by a vehement conflagration, to such a degree that the flame consumed even the roof and panelled ceiling, the bed and the altar with its ornaments escaped, so that they had not even the smell of fire. For God conferred such great power on his servant over the four elements that no creature brought trouble upon his things against his will: but fire in this conflagration, air in the sign of the threefold cross, water in the brothers' voyage, earth in the double fall, offered itself to his will in all things. Nor indeed did heaven or the fifth essence withdraw itself from his ministry, when, as he was about to die, he beheld the birds of heaven and such birds. Two little infants also, dead as it appeared to those around, he raised up before the face of those carrying them: so that the threefold fabric of things, of the heavenly, the earthly and those below, might merit to serve him: and for fuller credit of what has been said, the two shifts of the children hang there to this day.
[39] the insane At Conivada in Archesium m, there was a woman quite demented and frantic, so much so that she would throw herself into ponds and rivers. She had drawn in in lucid intervals some memory, however slight, of Giraud, and had known the abbey as if from the cradle. One day, the impulse of her spirit leading the crazed woman, it entered her mind to enter the abbey from the side of the wall contiguous to the river, and having seen herself approach the wall; since that could be done only through the midst of the pond, she threw herself headlong into the river up to the neck. Men saw the wretch, busily doing some work nearby, and sending out a long pole, at last pulled her out in pity: and to those asking what she was seeking, she answered that through the broken place of the wall she desired to go to St. Giraud. And holding out to her the right hand of mercy, leading her to the chapel of St. Giraud, they set her alone inside: and they themselves watched and looked on from outside for the end of the matter. But she, seeing the pallet on which the holy Levite had died, laid hands on it, and threw out the straw with all its appurtenances: and by I know not what hidden prodigy there were found under the holy bed of the saint a twisting serpent and a toad: and when these had been thrown out and the bed remade by the woman, from that day and thereafter she was made perfectly and wholly sound of mind. The like happened to a certain knight, Peter d'Ambierre by name, who had incurred insanity and alienation of mind from the vehemence of love for one woman. His sister, having compassion on him, suddenly threw him onto a bed and had him bound. But after two months, the yoke broken and the bonds burst, he fled as far as Mirebeau n, and there he drove away flies from the bakers' shops by waving a fan around. From there through the turns of his lucid intervals he took in, following pilgrimages, the visits of various shrines. At length bringing his horse to Les Châteliers, and brandishing a lance, having on the iron a felt cap, he was asking where the knights' guest-house was, and he dashed against the doors and the walls of the gates through the middle of the monastery. After supper he began to rage more vehemently from the wine, entering Compline and mocking those chanting to the Lord with wicked cries. That same night he was held and bound by his people: he fell silent, except that, ploughing the walls with a quinipulus o, he rushed through the guest-house. When morning came, somewhat calmed, he humbly sought the prayers of the brothers and the relics of the saints; with head bared, with feet and legs bare, he reverently approached the sanctuary of the relics, fell to kissing them, and to this day has been perfectly recovered. But abbot Thomas came, fearing lest, stirred by things he had seen, he might relapse into madness, and ordered a wagon to bring him that night to the nearest grange. On the morrow, returning to their own place, they gave thanks to the abbot, that their lord now had by the merits of Giraud bidden farewell to his infirmity.
[40] restored to their minds, There was in those parts a wretched woman, mother of many sons, one of whom had incurred a long-lasting madness, in the manner of lunatics. Through all the famous memorials of the saints the mother had led her son around for his health; until through Our Lady of Celles, through St. Theobald, she had at last come to Saint-Maixent [p]. And when the son remained without sense as before, the mother swore that she would not lead him around any further. A poor little woman who was present heard this, and she had known the miracles of Giraud that deserved to be proclaimed; who, approaching nearer: Do not, she said, speak so, and set out for St. Giraud, near here, and for certain you will experience the power of the saint. Behold, he stands on your road, and I will bring you in as far as his forest. So it was said, so it was done. And when the mother with her son had approached the forest, the patient began to be tormented with a more atrocious fury, and the bonds by which he was held being loosed by chance, wandering through the byways, at last tired and in his right mind he sat down on the road under a tree. After this, the mother arriving at the place more slowly with one of her sons saw her son quiet and thinking within himself, she saw and rejoiced greatly: How, she said, is it with you, son, and what has been done with you? And the son to his mother: A certain saint, Giraud by name, has healed me perfectly, follow me, and I will lead you directly to his church. What more? The son going before and the mother following, they come to the church; they are turned aside from the way neither to the right nor to the left: thanksgivings are given, and so rejoicing they return to their homeland.
[41] an epileptic family; There is a famous family line at Chavigny [q], from which each branching person is accustomed to visit the saint of God with gifts once a year. At a certain time we see the young men and virgins of that stock, old with younger, come annually with offerings, and under the whisper of a gentle breeze we have understood from certain persons that if they did not appear in the sight of Giraud once in the year, they would suffer the falling sickness in its seasons every month, or rather perish by horrible torments. Giraud, formerly courier of abbot Thomas, had a wife and little ones, one of whom, swollen over the whole face by wind or poison, was thought suddenly to have lost his eyes. The child's mother, not knowing what she should do about him, thought to direct her eyes for what remained to him: human counsel failed, and with her whole heart she turned to the divine. Having conceived a hope of health, she brought him back to the abbey healed by the help of St. Giraud: for as the boy was sprinkled and given to drink of the water of sacred ablution, soon all the pain of the swelling was driven away.
[42] a man with fever A rib of Giraud, set apart in a little vessel, is honourably preserved; which on Sundays is carried to the chapel of St. Giraud for the faithful peoples keeping vigil there. One day, having been carried and carried back and laid down incautiously, it was stolen by a certain guest monk, who, as is presumed, was thirsting to shake his foot from the threshold of the religious life [r]. Soon there was one sentence of the greater excommunications, one care of the sons searching through the furnishings, one confusion of the robbers hiding themselves. For in so great a crime the robber principally had the patronage of accomplices, as the outcome of the matter proved through earnest quarrels. And when they had understood that a search was to be made individually and through each person, the robber, seeing that no hiding-place of his industry prevailed, hid the rib in the choir on top of the frame of the stalls. There after many circuits, with the exultation of the whole house the rib was found, and restored to its place. There were those who said that the robber wished many times to carry the rib outside the monastery, but with the power of Giraud standing in the way, he was unable. Two men, brothers from Saint-Maixent, having gone out for the sake of hunting, came to the forest of Blessed Giraud, one of whom was burning with the ardour of a daily fever. He had for a long time been a pilgrim of the saint and offered him a gift of four coins. Entering the chapel, therefore, at that hour, he offered four deniers for redemption, and a fifth out of devotion. Having done this, he went out at once as if sad and wonderfully thoughtful. A monk who happened to be present noticed this, and asked of him what had happened to him: and when he learned that he was fevered, and expecting the hour of the attack, he said to him: Sleep, he said, a little on the saint's pallet and rest there; and I promise you that you will rise from there in perfect health. He compelled him strongly to do what he was urging with forceful entreaties: and after sleep the fever left him according to the word of him who promised. Blessed, he said, be St. Giraud by the Son of Mary, and blessed the hour in which I complied with your prudence; for I was never so well as I am today. Having said this, with his brother, praising and rejoicing, he returned home.
[43] and an epileptic A certain young priest, from the direction of Chavigny, came once to the abbey, to visit the memorial of Blessed Giraud. For he was wretchedly epileptic or subject to falling, as he disclosed tearfully to one of ours. Brought into the monastery, therefore, and pricked in heart from excessive weariness of life, he drew from the midst of those standing around the venerable man, the lord William, formerly abbot of Boschaud [s], to a secret conversation and confessed to him all his spirit in order, and did not deny the origin of his trouble, and its horror and magnitude: he asserted also that death was dearer to him than to lead so bitter a life: and he added: I have heard that your saint is piously accustomed to give his patronage to the miseries of epileptics; show me, I beg, something of his revered relics. And the monk, Truly, he said, patients of this kind are accustomed to kiss these relics and to keep nocturnal vigils in the old chapel, and so to return in health to their own homes. The man believed the word which the monk said, and resolved in his mind to carry out effectively what he had heard. He reverently kissed the relics, because fasting, and offered a gift of devotion: on the following night he kept vigil with tears; when morning came, he devoutly adored the rib; and returning no more, he went back in health to his homeland. He omitted of all the observances he had heard neither word nor syllable, iota nor tittle; for which reason he felt the hand of Giraud through the good hand of God as his helper.
[44] a man burned, restored to their former health. The lord William Figace, a religious man, meek and God-fearing, had once gone out from Clairvaux for the sake of visiting the religious houses of Poitou,
having in his company another monk, William Breton by name. On the road by which they were walking, at night a fire not extinguished through the carelessness of the servants consumed all the material near it, and burned the foot of William as he slept. The bitterness of the pain increased daily for him as he journeyed, who judges that a natural thing must not be resented by one suffering it. There were those who said that the foot was set alight by the sacred fire [t], on account of the foul gloom of its horror, and the condition of anguish, which seemed to grow immeasurably. So at last he came to Les Châteliers: where he was faithfully taught of the shining virtues and glorious prodigies of Giraud. And having conceived hope, on the morrow he visited the saint's mausoleum. From then on he recovered perfectly, as in the days of old, entering with his people, walking and leaping and praising God. Blessed be the Lord, who has not deserted the place and people of Les Châteliers, but has entrusted to us so great and such a citizen of the Saints and member of his household. The Queen of Sheba drew wisdom from Solomon: Elisha from Elijah, and the Jews from the Romans power: Esther from Ahasuerus clemency: Timothy from Paul holiness: Barzillai the Gileadite from David mercy: the Angels from Christ gladness: but for us let the most sweet and most illustrious presence of Giraud become all these things, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with whom he lives and reigns as God in the unity of the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
h. That is, 28 January.
p. Our Lady of Celles (Notre-Dame de la Celle), a monastery in the diocese of Poitiers. Of St. Maxentius we have treated elsewhere. But there is greater difficulty about St. Theobald. This hermit of Vicenza in Italy was venerated in various places in France: but if we consult topographical lexicons, his cult was contained in northern and eastern France; as moreover his Acts, illustrated under 30 June, show Act. SS. tom. V Jun., pag. 589.. There is in the present diocese of Langres, in the district of Chaumont (Chaumont), a parish named St-Thiebault, formerly a priory of the Order of St. Benedict; and since the mother is said to have led her son around through all the famous memorials for his health, it may be that she went on pilgrimage even to the diocese of Langres.
q. Chavigniacum, although there are various places of this name which are called in French Chavigny, we think however that here Chavenay is indicated, a place in the diocese of Poitiers, in the district of Loudun (Loudun).
r. The carrying off of sacred relics was not infrequent in the Middle Ages, an example of which we have in the monks who are said to have secretly carried away the bodies of SS. Benedict and Scholastica and transferred them to France Compare Reynaud. Hagiol. Lugdun. pag. 543.. Hence an apostate monk, meditating flight, could hope that he would enter into the favour of those with whom he deposited the relics.
s. On Boschaud or Bosco-Cavo we have treated above in Annotation h of chapter II.
t. The sacred fire, called also divine and of St. Antony, raged through France in the 11th and 12th centuries. Glaber describes the disease; I take him from Théophile Raynaud Ibid. pag. 368., in these words: A certain deadly burning consumed many, both of the magnates and of the middle and lowest of the people, but certain others, with parts of their limbs cut off, it reserved as an example to those to come.
* hesternæ
* radiare?