ON BB. HEMELINA AND GOSWIN, LAY SISTER AND MONK, CISTERCIANS AT BOULANCOURT IN GAUL,
IN THE YEAR MCLXXVIII
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Hemelina, lay sister, Cistercian. (Bl.)
Goswin, monk, Cistercian. (Bl.)
BY R. D. B.
§ I. The monastery of Boulancourt. In its grange of Parta-Sicca Bl. Hemelina was a Cistercian lay sister. The destruction of the monastery and grange.
Boulancourt, formerly an abbey, now a field of the parish of Valentigny, The abbey of Boulancourt in the diocese of Troyes in the lesser district of Brienne *, is distant from Troyes about forty-five kilometres or ten leagues Dictionnaire universel de la France, volume I, page 408, Paris 1804.. Its name, long obscure, became celebrated in the XII century and following, but was variously expressed. In the letters indeed which both Constantine, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter on the Mount, and the canons living there gave, it is called Berlancort Gallia Christiana nova, volume XII, column 262.; in the letter sent in the year 1152 by Henry, bishop of Troyes, to St. Bernard, it is called Bullencuria Ibid. column 268.: which form also occurs in the Chronicle of Alberic, monk of Trois-Fontaines in the early XIII century In Leibniz, Accessiones historicæ, volume II, at the year 1195, page 406.. On the other hand in the Chronicle of Clairvaux, which was written at the end of the XII century, it is called now Burlancuria, now Berlencuria [Chronicon Clarævallense, Appendix to the works of St. Bernard, volume IV, column 1249 and following, Migne's edition.]: departing little from which way of writing Herbert, who flourished about the year 1178, wrote both Berlancurtis and Berlencurtis [Herbert, de Miraculis, book II, chapter 31, column 1342; book III, chapter 33, column 1378, Appendix to the works of St. Bernard.]. But Bl. Goswin, who died about the year 1203, calls the same place in the Life of Bl. Hemelina Vurlencuria, as his contemporary John of Salisbury in a letter to the abbot of Celle, from whom he ardently asks that he in his place give thanks for a benefit received to the abbot of Valencurt Letter 115, Bibliotheca Patrum Lugdunensis, volume XXIII, page 447.. Today, however, the writers on the affairs of Troyes, treading in the footsteps of Nicolas Des Guerrois and Nicolas Camuzat, who illumined the glories of that diocese in the XVII century, call the ancient Berlancort, in French Boulancourt, in Latin Bullencuria [Des Guerrois, La Saincteté chrétienne etc. de la ville et diocèse de Troyes, page 277 and following; Camuzat, Promptuarium sacrarum antiquitatum Tricassinæ diœceseos, Miscellanea, page 349 and following.].
[2] first took up the rule of St. Augustine, then the Cistercian. Further, we read in the said Des Guerrois, Camuzat and others that this monastery was founded in the year 1093, and was at first occupied by regular canons of St. Augustine: and that it held, besides several others, a neighbouring grange by name Parta-Sicca, in which some women led the life of canonesses. But when some years later the regular discipline there had suffered much damage, though without the spirit of Christ having been altogether exiled from the hearts of the canons of Boulancourt, these men, emulating holier institutes, above all from the time when they had heard with how great perfection life was lived in the monastery of Clairvaux under the leadership of St. Bernard, earnestly asked Henry, bishop of Troyes, of the house of the dukes of Carinthia, to give his labour to restoring the former severity among them. Kindly assenting to these wishes, Henry came to Boulancourt, and urged the canons to admit the statutes of the Cistercians, and to commit themselves and their property to Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux. Hence it came about that the canons of Boulancourt, leaving the Rule of St. Augustine, with the consent of the abbot of the monastery of St. Peter on the Mount, of the diocese of Metz, whose daughter the house of Boulancourt was, and Bl. Eugene III being informed and not contradicting, passed to the Cistercian discipline in the year 1149, although the diploma of Henry, bishop of Troyes, by which this is established, was not given until the year 1152 [Des Guerrois, La Saincteté chrétienne etc., page 289; Camuzat, Promptuarium etc., page 349 and following.].
[3] There in the grange St. Hemelina was a Cistercian lay nun. But since in the general chapter celebrated at Cîteaux in the year 1134 any kind of dealings of monks with women had been entirely prohibited Manrique, Cisterciensium Annalium, volume I, at the year 1134, page 273., St. Bernard and the other Cistercian fathers determined that, when the monastery of Boulancourt should be enrolled among the Cistercian monasteries, in a certain grange placed near the monastery, as the sisters who were there at that time died off, no woman should be received as a lay sister Acta SS. volume IV of August, page 473.. And thence it came about that St. Ascelina and her mother, who had been enrolled among the lay nuns in a certain grange of the monastery of Boulancourt, passed by leave of St. Bernard to the abbey of nuns of Poulangy Ibidem, place cited.. But nevertheless afterwards, says Gregory IX in a letter to be given below, at the prayers of certain powerful persons several lay sisters were received there. Their church, as will be clear from two diplomas to be recited below at numbers 19 and 20, was named the church of the lay sisters: and there about the year 1184 St. Ascelina was prioress under the oversight of the monks of Boulancourt. Here too came Bl. Hemelina. In that place, says her biographer, in which she remained, there is now held a grange of Valencuria, called Parta-Sicca. And from these words it is understood not only how, although Cistercians were forbidden all dealings with nuns of this order, yet monks or lay brothers were sometimes presented to Bl. Hemelina, as her biographer says; but it is also clear that she was a lay sister of the Cistercian Order. Nor is it to be wondered at that Bl. Hemelina was a lay sister of a monastery of men, since at that time, as Mittarelli shows [Annales Camaldulenses, volume I, appendix, page 411 and following; Acta SS. volume X of October, page 410.], not a few monasteries of men had their lay sisters, no less than convents of women had their lay brothers, even presbyters.
[4] The lay sisters, whose office was the care of domestic matters, Now it must be cleared up what was the manner of life of Bl. Hemelina in the grange of Parta-Sicca. And indeed Lyndwood describes a grange in this way: Granges are so called from the grains that are stored there, and granges are houses or buildings where grains are stored, like barns: but also where there are stables for
horses, byres or stalls for oxen and other animals, folds for sheep, sties for pigs, and so of other things that pertain to husbandry, as are places for those serving in agriculture and rustic works. Du Cange, under Grangia. The Cistercians, on the rule of the discipline observed in other orders too, in order to provide for their sustenance, had decreed in the general chapter of the year 1134 that they could have granges to be kept by lay brothers. To this statute they subjoined the following: It is permitted to a monk, for whom by the rule the cloister ought to be his proper dwelling, to go to the granges as often as is needed, but not to dwell there; and a little lower down: Through lay brothers the tasks at the granges are to be carried out, and through hired men; which lay brothers, with the leave of the bishops, as necessary persons and our coadjutors, we receive under our care just as we do monks, and we hold them as brothers and sharers of our goods both spiritual and temporal, equally with the monks. The offices of the lay sisters, moreover, which did not differ much from the offices of the lay brothers, are recounted in law VII of the same general chapter, by which all company of monks and lay brothers with women is severely forbidden: Every occasion being removed, — these are the words of the chapter, — whether of increasing or preserving the rearing of stock, or of washing any things of the monastery, as is sometimes necessary, or finally of any need whatever, cohabitation with women is altogether forbidden to us and our lay brothers, and therefore they are permitted neither to lodge among the courts of the granges nor to enter the gate of the monastery Manrique, Annal. Cist., volume I, page 273..
[5] ceased, If the Cistercians of Boulancourt had religiously observed these laws according to the mind of St. Bernard, they would not have had so much to lament the falls of their members, and these fairly frequent, as Bl. Goswin hints, saying: And if ever vain or vicious monks or lay brothers, wishing or doing evil, were presented to her, she at once rebuked them and admonished them to be more cautious and not to give place to the devil. These troubles grew so greatly that the abbot and monks of Boulancourt, although they were to suffer from it no moderate loss of their temporal property, petitioned Gregory IX as suppliants, and obtained, that lay sisters should from then on be absent from the grange of Boulancourt. Nor did Gregory IX issue this decree unexpectedly: for, as we shall see below at number 18, Hugh of Rethel * and his wife Felicitas, confirming in the years 1210 and 1230 the annual donation of XX solidi made by Simon de Beaufort for a light in the nuns' church of Boulancourt, add: But if in the course of time it should happen that there are no nuns in the same place, the aforesaid alms shall nevertheless be rendered and transferred to the light of the greater church of Boulancourt. Now receive, reader, the letter of Gregory IX, written in the year 1224.
[6] by order of Gregory IX in the year 1224; To the abbot and convent of Boulancourt, of the Cistercian order. Your petition shown to us contained that, although it was expressly forbidden by Blessed Bernard and other fathers of the Cistercian order that in a certain grange of yours, placed near your monastery, as the sisters who were there at that time died off, any woman should be received as a lay sister, since by reason of the nearness a sinister suspicion could arise from it, nevertheless at length afterwards, at the prayers of certain powerful persons, several lay sisters were received there, to the grave scandal of very many. Since therefore it does not become you to make void the statutes of the fathers, we attentively admonish your discretion, commanding you through the Apostolic See that you take care to observe the aforesaid statute wholesomely. Given at the Lateran, on the VIII of the Ides of February, in the seventh year Manrique, Annal., volume IV, page 473.. Hence it came about that the monks of Boulancourt ceased to have lay sisters in the grange of Parta-Sicca, and thereafter faithfully observed the statutes of their fathers.
[7] the monastery of Boulancourt was destroyed at the end of the XVIII century. The monastery of Boulancourt, gaining incredible increases in the course of time, at one time numbered about two hundred monks: but afterwards affairs there little by little so declined that, as Edmond Martene relates at the beginning of the XVIII century, the monastery for some time could support only three monks, while in his age five monks were living in it with great parsimony Voyage littéraire, volume I, page 96.. Nor was its fortune more prosperous when, in the year 1744, Claude Guyton came to Boulancourt for the sake of inspection Mélanges de Guyton, Ms. Bibl. Impér. Bouhier, 52.: indeed in the year 1772 the surviving southern part of the church was levelled to the ground, so that nothing of it remained whole except the sanctuary Notes communicated by Mr. Lalore.. Finally on the 2nd day of May in the year 1791 the French government, laying an impious hand on the Catholic religion, sold by auction the whole monastery, except the abbot's house, together with the sanctuary, court and orchard, at the price of 19200 livres in paper money, to a certain merchant of Vassy *, by name Oudot Affiches, number 18, district de S. Dizier, archives de Chaumont..
Annotations* Brienne, depart. de l'Aube
* de Rhetel.
* Vassy.
§ II. The memory of Bl. Hemelina in the Menologies. Her cult and tomb in the monastery of Boulancourt.
In several menologies the name of St. Hemelina is inscribed, In no ancient martyrology is the name of St. Hemelina read: nor do the Cistercians make memory of her in their liturgy: or even the clerics of Troyes, within whose borders she passed her life: it occurs however at the 27th day of October in the Cistercian Menology of Chrysostom Henriquez in these words: In Gaul, Blessed Hemelina, virgin, who, wholly burning with desire for heavenly things, in a very vast wilderness, bound by the Cistercian laws, led a most rigid life, and shining with many virtues and miraculous signs, by a death precious in the sight of the Lord departed from this life. Likewise in the Cistercian Calendar or Martyrology: The deposition of Bl. Hemelina, who by abstinence and an incredible rigour of life in a very vast wilderness was bright also with the spirit of prophecy. Next in the Gynecaeum of Arthur du Moustier: At Boulancourt in the territory of Troyes, of St. Hemelina, virgin, of the Cistercian order: who, wholly burning with desire for heavenly things, led a most rigid life, and shone with many merits and miraculous signs. With these agree du Saussay, but in smaller letters, in the Gallican Martyrology, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology, Sigismund Alberti in the Catalogue of saints, Blesseds and servants of God of the Cistercian Order, and Heredia in the work on the Lives of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict Vidas de santos etc. de la sagrada religion de S. Beneto, volume IV, page 152.. The leader of all is Henriquez.
[9] at whose tomb a lamp was formerly lit; And indeed shortly after Bl. Hemelina had departed from this life, Simon de Beaufort gave, as we have seen, XX solidi to be paid annually, that a lamp might burn day and night at her tomb in the church of Boulancourt. But although there is no doubt that a lamp or any other lights lit at the tomb of some person in a church signify public cult today (for Urban VIII, enumerating the unlawful indications of public cult, severely prohibits that this be done without recognition made by the ordinary and referred to and approved by the Apostolic See): it has not however been demonstrated that this rite had the same signification in the XIII century. For it seems altogether certain, from the lamps which are found hung at tombs in the cemeteries both at Rome and elsewhere, that in the first centuries of the Church lights were lit at the tombs of the dead without any signification of public cult. Further there exist testaments in which the testators order that lights be lit every year at their tombs. Moreover formerly here and there in the western parts of Europe very many cemeteries were not without light. What of the fact that in the office of the dead even now candles are lit around the bier? Wherefore, if Urban VIII by no means allowed lamps to be hung or lights to be lit at the tombs of the dead, the reason was not that at that time, as Baldelli with Bellarmine and Benedict XIV say De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, book II, chapter XI, number 17., this was held as a sign of public adoration or cult, but rather it was only a sign of particular and private gladness, since fire is usually lit to signify gladness, or as a sign of the glory which a not yet approved holy person is credibly believed to enjoy: the Roman pontiff prohibited this rather because it was to be feared that the faithful, deceived by the appearance, when they saw lights lit in churches before the tomb of one not canonized or beatified, might judge that this was done by public authority. Nevertheless I am not the man to say that before the decree of Urban VIII lights were by no means hung at the tomb of the blessed as a sign of public cult, or that Simon de Beaufort gave a testimony of veneration of this kind by private authority: my mind is rather that it cannot be proved from this that St. Hemelina was honoured with public cult at the end of the XII century.
[10] But it is proved from elsewhere that she was honoured with public cult But from elsewhere it is shown by excellent arguments that St. Hemelina was reckoned among the blessed or saints: of which the chief is that her remains were placed in one and the same tomb with the remains of BB. Ascelina and Goswin, and that an altar was erected above in their honour. For Henriquez writes: Her body (of Bl. Ascelina) together with the bodies of Bl. Goswin the monk and Bl. Hemelina the virgin lies in the church of Valencuria in one and the same tomb on the Gospel side, above which an altar has been erected in honour of the three saints, and the relics of this holy woman are venerated with a great gathering of people Lilia Cistercii, book II, Life of Blessed Ascelina, chapter 34, page 121.. With Henriquez agrees Claude Guyton, monk of Clairvaux, in the report of the visitation of the monastery of Boulancourt undertaken by him in the year 1744 (as we have said); who adds that the tomb of the three saints is the very altar mentioned by Henriquez, and that he saw the sacrifice of the Mass offered on it. This argument the monk Guyton corroborates not a little, describing the altar of the three saints, erected on the Gospel side under the arch of the lower vault. On his testimony, the upper part * was decorated with an image in which the circumcision of Christ the Lord was presented; in front it looked to the north and behind to the high altar; and the table of the altar in the front part was supported by little columns, joined among themselves by stone arches: and at each end were painted two monks, of whom one was an abbot. Then before the tomb itself a painting represented BB. Goswin, Ascelina and Hemelina, surrounded by rays and in white and black garments. There Goswin's monastic crown was shaved whole and round: Ascelina carried in her right hand a great palm, and in her left an open book; Hemelina indeed held in her right hand either a crown or a wheel. Behind the altar was painted Christ the Lord, extending his hands and standing above a globe with a cross placed on it: at whose right hand two angels were sounding a trumpet, and at his left an abbot was kneeling: and at the top these words were read: In this sarcophagus, under the consecrated altar, are stored
the bones of St. Gossvinus, St. Emelina and St. Ascelina, kinswoman of St. Bernard, f[irs]t abb[o]t of Clairvaux, MVXXXIIII *. Below this painted image, at the tomb itself, there was another of BB. Goswin, Ascelina and Hemelina, altogether like the former. Finally at the bottom on a wooden panel was represented down to the knees Bl. Goswin, lying, clad in a white cowl, with hands and sleeves interchanged; the hood slightly open, so that his face, around which was written: I am a worm, and no man, could hardly be discerned Mélanges de Guyton, in folio, Ms. Paris, Bibliothèque Impériale, Bouhier, 52.. So much from the manuscripts of Claude Guyton.
[11] long before the year 1534. But other writers have reported the inscription of the sarcophagus somewhat differently. For Nicolas Des Guerrois testifies that he read: In this sarcophagus under the consecrated altar are stored the bones of St. Gossuinus, St. Emelina, and St. Ascelina, kinswoman of Blessed Bernard, first abbot of Clairvaux De la Sainctete chretienne etc., page 326.. Nicolas Des Guerrois is supported by Edmond Martene, who adds in French after the last words: In the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-four. Yet our predecessor Cuper Acta SS. volume IV of August, page 651. supposed that this epigraph was cut before the year 1504, because he had read on the one hand in Nicolas Des Guerrois that it was inscribed by Nicolas de Hampigny, abbot of Boulancourt; on the other in the Sainte-Marthes Gallia Christiana nova, volume IV, page 200. and Camuzat that in the church of Boulancourt a cenotaph was erected with this epigram: Here lies Brother Nicolas de Champigny, humble abbot of Boulancourt, and first mitred, who died in the year of the Lord 1504, on the 5th day of the month of May. He was abbot for 36 years and 3 months. But that the Sainte-Marthes and Camuzat, and therefore our Cuper, fell into error is clear from the fact that they had written 1504 in place of 1554, as is to be seen in the writers of the most recent Gallia Christiana. Since therefore the cult of Bl. Hemelina in the year 1634, in which Urban VIII issued his last decrees, was older not only by a hundred years, but than all the memory of man, Blessed Hemelina even after the year 1634 was with full right called saint or blessed by Nicolas Des Guerrois, by Cornelius De Visch, by Courtalon-Delaistre, by Arthur du Moustier, by Henriquez, by Sigismund Alberti, by Heredia, by du Saussay and by the author of the Calendar of the Cistercian Order.
Annotations* retable
* MVcXXXIIII?
§ III. Bl. Goswin wrote the Life of Bl. Hemelina and other works. His death and cult in the monastery of Boulancourt.
St. Goswin, who wrote the Life of St. Hemelina and other works, An epitome of the Life of St. Hemelina, received from Clairvaux, was published by Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology. Nor is there room for doubt that Bl. Goswin is its author: for at the head was written: At Valencuria was buried at this time the virgin of Christ Hemelina, of whom the aforesaid Dom Goswin reported these things. He is supported by the anonymous and contemporary writer of the Chronicle of Clairvaux from the year 1147 to the year 1178, using nearly the same words: At Berlencuria, he says, was buried at this time the virgin of Christ Emelina, of whom the aforesaid Dom Goswin reported certain wonderful things [Appendix to the Works of St. Bernard, Chronicon Clarævallense, volume VIII, column 1249, Migne's edition.]. The same Bl. Goswin, as is also read there, wrote a certain book of Miracles, to Gerard, abbot of Eberbach, and in his prologue he says: “John, prior of Clairvaux, had a beautiful volume composed, in which miracles of various persons and visions were contained, described for the edification of readers Ibid. place cited..” That this little work was written after the year 1192 is inferred from the fact that, on the testimony of the writers of the Histoire littéraire de la France Histoire littéraire de la France, volume XV, page 616 etc., it contains the Life of the presbyter Everard, whose praises in the Chronicle of Clairvaux are these: In the year of the Lord 1192, … at Cologne at this time there died the reverend and most religious presbyter Everard: of whose life and death and of the passage of his soul through places after death, Dom Goswin himself, who saw these things in spirit, reported much Chronicon Clarævallense, column 1249.. Bl. Goswin is also the author of the Life of St. Ascelina, of which an abridgment, also received from Clairvaux, Henriquez made public. But to William Cuper, our predecessor, Henriquez seemed to have been deceived by a certain impostor, when he published that compendium of the Acts as a genuine composition of Goswin Acta SS. volume IV of August, page 652.: indeed Camuzat, Manrique and the writers of the Histoire littéraire de la France have adopted the same opinion. But although the Life of St. Ascelina is sprinkled with not a few absurdities, it is nevertheless manifest to me that it was written by Bl. Goswin: since the author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux reports from it two fragments, one longer, the other shorter, which are found whole in the printed Life; where it is affirmed that its writer was Goswin. To which is added the authority of Alberic, who at the year 1195 handed down the following In Leibniz, Accessiones historicæ, volume II, page 406.: At Boulancourt the virgin of Christ Ascelina, of whom we have made mention above, foreknew her death about one year before; she died on the sixth feria after Pentecost. These miracles she worked in her life and afterwards, as Dom Goswin writes. Where it is to be noted that the Life published by Henriquez and our Cuper also ends with these words: Her death about one year etc.
[13] he was a monk of Clairvaux and was inscribed among the saints. Nor is there any doubt that Bl. Goswin began the monastic life in the monastery of Clairvaux: and that afterwards he spent many years in the monastery of Cheminon * of the diocese of Châlons. The monastery of Cheminon, whose beginnings are to be referred to the rising XII century, was first inhabited by regular canons, who in the month of February of the year 1138, taking up the Cistercian rule, gave themselves to the monastery of Trois-Fontaines Gallia Christiana novissima, volume IX, column 965.. Now Alberic, monk of Trois-Fontaines, writes Ibid. page 432.: In the year 1203 … we have learned that Dom Goswin, first of Clairvaux and afterwards of Cheminon, lived until this year, who wrote Miracles and Visions, of which we have noted some above. Nor does the author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux dissent: The testimony, he says, of Dom Goswin, formerly monk of Clairvaux, who stayed long at Cheminon and rested at Burlencuria. And that this is the Goswin who, as Nicolas Des Guerrois, Henriquez and Claude Guyton report, was given burial in the same tomb with BB. Ascelina and Hemelina. This opinion is the more firmly to be held because Goswin, as the contemporary author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux and Alberic have handed down to posterity, was given burial at Burlencuria. Nor is it to be wondered at that Bl. Goswin was placed in the same tomb together with BB. Ascelina and Hemelina, being their biographer. His cult is manifest by the same arguments that were brought forward to establish the cult of Bl. Hemelina.
Annotations* Cheminon
§ IV. The errors of certain persons concerning the birth of Bl. Hemelina. She seems to have been the daughter of Hugh of Brecis. Her death and burial.
St. Hemelina was not the mother of St. Ascelina, Nicolas Des Guerrois La Saincteté chrétienne, page 327., whom Courtalon-Delaistre followed Topographie historique de la ville et du diocèse de Troyes, volume II, page 66., at one time suspected that Bl. Hemelina was the mother of St. Ascelina, since the monk Du Royer, prior of the monastery of Boulancourt, answered him when he inquired about the Life of Bl. Hemelina that it was held mixed with the Life of St. Ascelina in one and the same book. Assuredly in the Life of St. Ascelina many deeds of her mother are recounted. But I consider that one must depart from the opinion of the Benedictine monk Du Royer, since it seems to conflict with the abridgment of the Life of Bl. Hemelina, composed by the contemporary Bl. Goswin, which, although Chrysostom Henriquez had published it a little before, was nevertheless unknown to Nicolas Des Guerrois. There indeed it is nowhere hinted that Bl. Hemelina had any dealings with St. Ascelina, or was her mother: which however, if it had existed, as being very honourable, Bl. Goswin, who committed to writing the Life of both saints, would by no means have passed over in silence: the more so because in the Life of St. Ascelina he narrates more than once that her mother, her husband having died, with her five-year-old daughter said farewell to earthly pleasures, that both, under the leadership of their kinsman Bernard of Clairvaux, might tread daily more closely in the footsteps of Christ the Lord Acta SS. volume IV of August, page 653.. Besides, St. Hemelina is named virgin by Bl. Goswin, and virgin of Christ by the author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux Appendix to the works of St. Bernard, volume VIII, column 1249.: but from this no one will easily deduce that Bl. Hemelina is by no means to be called the mother of St. Ascelina: for, although in the XII century it no longer held that in ecclesiastical style the name of virgin should be given to women joined in matrimony and using it until death (as was the practice in remote times, even in the X century, as was shown in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of SS. Ursula and her companions Acta SS. volume IX of October, page 143. from the Martyrologies of Bede, Ado, Rabanus, Wandelbert and not a few other historical monuments), nevertheless in the age of Bl. Hemelina the name of virgin was given to those women who, though bound by the bonds of marriage, performed the function of virgins among virgins: in proof of which matter Chrysostom Henriquez Menologium Cisterciense, page 280; Acta SS. volume IV of August, page 832. brings forward the book of St. Bernard on the manner of living well; where the most holy abbot calls his sister Humbelina, once married, then a nun, a virgin.
[15] [nor was she the same as St. Humbelina, sister of St. Bernard, or Humbelina of Amiens;] There have also been those who have contended that Bl. Hemelina is the same as St. Humbelina, sister of St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, who, with her husband's consent, had withdrawn to Villetum or Jully, a convent of women, to redeem the faults of her youth by works of voluntary penitence [Manrique, Annales Cistercienses, volume I, at the year 1122, chapter V, page 140.]. But undeservedly: for St. Bernard gave the body of St. Humbelina burial at Jully, whereas the remains of Bl. Hemelina were buried at Boulancourt, namely in those very places which each saint had inhabited [Acta SS. of August, volume IV, page 174; Manrique, Annales etc., volume IV, at the year 1141, chapter IV, number 8, page 408.]. Nor should one agree with Arthur du Moustier Gynecæum, at 27 October, page 426., who judged that St. Hemelina of Boulancourt is that Humbelina, a native of Amiens, whom Louis Jacob mentions in the Bibliotheca of illustrious women Bibliotheca Carmelitana, volume II, column 279.. For the former, as will afterwards be explained, died about
the year 1178 Chronicon Clarævallense, place cited.: while the latter, who was the mother of Theobald, archbishop of Rouen, died about the year 1204 Chronicle of Alberic, page 426..
[16] but she is rather to be called the daughter of Hugh of Broyes and Beaufort. Although no ancient writer mentions the house of Bl. Hemelina, I suspect however that she was the daughter of Simon I, lord of Broyes and Beaufort . Certainly Simon de Broyes in the year 1110 took as wife Felicitas de Brienne *, daughter of Count Erard: and he departed from this life between the years 1144 and 1147 Gallia Christiana nova, volume XII, column 602, Instrumenta, column 267., after he had begotten of his wife Felicitas three children, namely Hugh, Simon and Hemelina. Of Hugh indeed and Simon mention is made in a good many historical monuments. Of Hemelina Theobald, count of Blois, treats in the year 1131; where he makes known both to those present and to those to come that the noble man Simon, lord of Broyes, with the praise and assent of his wife and his children, namely Hugh, Simon and Emelina, handed over and granted to God and Blessed Mary, and to the consecrated women whom he brought from Jully, the place of Vivifons and Andecia to be possessed freely and quietly under regular constitution for ever, etc. [Histoire généalogique de la maison de Broyes et de Chateauvillain, Proofs, page 12.]. The same occurs in the excerpts of the Cartulary of Andecy, which André Duchesne Ibid. page 13. and the writers of the new Gallia Christiana Gallia Christiana, volume XII, Instrumenta, column 264. have made public. Receive those excerpts.
[17] Which it seems can be gathered from the diplomas of Hugh, lord of Broyes, A letter of Simon, lord of Broyes, in which, with the praise of his dearest wife Felicitas and of his children, namely Hugh, Simon and Emelina, he hands over and grants to God and Blessed Mary and to the consecrated women whom he brought from Jully the place of Vivifons and Andecia to be possessed freely, etc. This was done in the year of the Lord's incarnation MCXXXI, in the reign of Louis, glorious king of the Franks. Another letter of the same Simon, of his wife Felicitas, and of their children, namely Hugh, Simon and Emelina, in which they confirm the same gift. Witnesses. Clarembaud of Broyes, and Peter his brother, Guy, lord of Dampierre, Philip of Plancy. In the year MCXXXVI, Geoffrey presiding as bishop of Châlons, in his fifth year. But after the death of the father Hugh, his elder son, took up the lordship of Broyes, which lay in the Lyonnaise IV in the district of Brie * Guérard, Polyptyque d'Irminon, volume I, page 97.: and Simon the lordship of Beaufort. Of Hemelina thereafter there is deep silence in the public instruments, unless perhaps she is our St. Hemelina, of whom Manasses, bishop of Troyes, speaks in a diploma of the year MCLXXV. Which diploma André Duchesne added in mutilated form at the end of the Genealogy of the family of Broyes, and it was inscribed entire in the XIII-century cartularies of Boulancourt, both the Latin (folio 1, article 14) and the French (folio 1, letter B). But the Ven. Mr. Lalore supposes that both cartularies have perished, the more so because, having most diligently searched the archives of Troyes, Chaumont, Dijon, Auxerre, Paris and Châlons, he could nowhere discover it. Happily however it came about that the Boulancourt cartulary, translated into the French idiom in the year 1780, passed into the hands of the Ven. Mr. Lalore. That we set before the eyes of the reader, as bearing on the life of Bl. Hemelina, advising that the words enclosed in brackets have been rendered by us into the Latin language from the more recent French cartulary.
[18] of Manasses, bishop of Troyes, I, Manasses, by the grace of God bishop of Troyes. We make known both to those present and to those to come that Simon de Beaufort gave as alms to God and Blessed Mary of Boulancourt XX solidi from his rents at Beaufort, to be paid annually at Beaufort in the house of the same Simon (on the feast of Blessed John the Baptist, for a light to be lit before the tomb of Sister Hemelina). Witnesses of this matter are Drogo the chaplain, James Esclancia, Milo his brother, Guy de Pogeis, Martin de Beaufort, in the year of the Word Incarnate MCLXXXV.
[19] of Hugh of Rethel This donation of Simon his son-in-law Hugh of Rethel and his daughter Felicitas confirmed and renewed by a new diploma, in the year 1130. Since André Duchesne and Jongelin have published this instrument only in mutilated form, it is pleasant to insert it in our Acts entire, as the Ven. Mr. Lalore copied it from the autograph, preserved in the archive of the department of the Haute-Marne (dep. de la Haute-Marne), since it will be of much service in establishing the family of Bl. Hemelina. I, Hugh, count of Rethel, and my wife Felicitas make known both to those to come and to those present who shall look on this page that whereas our father of good memory Simon, formerly lord of Beaufort, providing for the salvation of his soul, had given for the light of one lamp to the church of Boulancourt in perpetual alms XX sol., from the rents of Otinnes, to be received every year on the Nativity of St. John; we afterwards, desiring to receive a share in this alms, diligently approved it and at the petition of the aforesaid church granted and arranged at the estate of Ottines that he receive the aforesaid XX sol. in the usual manner on the aforesaid feast and render them to the chaplain who serves in our chapel of Beaufort, and that the same chaplain render them to the sacristan of the aforenamed church. We too, most certainly knowing and firmly believing that he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, in that whatever each has sown in this fragile and swiftly passing life, these things also he will reap, whether good or evil, at the time of retribution, we that we may deserve to be rescued from the darkness of Gehenna and to be illumined with the splendour of eternal light, have given to the nuns of Boulancourt XX solidi by title of alms for making the light of one lamp in their chapel, with him who judges just things and wishes no one to perish, but wishes all to be saved, if they turn to him, humbly asking that these alms may come to the quickening of our souls and of those of all our predecessors, we have assigned XX sol., to be received every year from our rents of Otinnes on the Nativity of the Lord, which the bailiff of the same estate shall render to our chaplain of Beaufort, and the same chaplain shall render them to the sacristan of Boulancourt, who shall provide for the aforesaid chapel of the nuns in making the light of the lamp. But if in the course of time it should happen that there are no nuns in the same place, the aforesaid alms shall nevertheless be rendered and transferred to the light of the high altar of the church of Boulancourt. That this may be ratified and remain unshaken for ever, we have strengthened the present page, which is to present the aforesaid testimonies, by the appending of our seals. Done in the year of grace MCC and tenth Archives de la Haute-Marne, series H, 1st bundle, 2nd part..
[20] and of his wife Felicitas, Both donations, and others made by herself, her husband and her father, were confirmed in the year 1230 by Felicitas, daughter of Simon of Beaufort. This diploma, which André Duchesne published in mutilated form Histoire généalogique de la maison de Broyes, etc., page 22., renewed entire and recognized on the 22nd day of February of the year 1377 by Jean Valentigny, keeper of the seals, is preserved in the archive of the department of the Haute-Marne Archives de la Haute-Marne, series H, 1st bundle, 2nd part.: and from it, at my request, the Ven. Mr. Lalore excerpted these passages: I, Felicitas, lady of Beaufort, called countess of Rethel, make known to all who shall look on the present letter that I, for the love… which I have toward the church of Boulancourt, and toward the brothers serving there God and Blessed Mary, and who shall serve for ever, wishing … to free them from the false claims and harassments of my heirs, have had brought before me their muniments and charters, in which were contained the donations and concessions made to them by my predecessors, and by Simon of good memory, lord of Beaufort, my father, and by the illustrious man Hugh, count of Rethel, my husband, and by me myself, and I have had them diligently set forth by my clerics in Roman words… Then she praises, approves and confirms all these donations, each and every one, and coming to the two lights to be perpetually lit, she says: Likewise XX solidi, which my father gave to the said church, from the rents of Otignes, for the light of one lamp, to be paid annually on the feast of Blessed John the Baptist by the bailiff of Otignes to the chaplain of Beaufort, who shall render them to the said church; likewise XX sol. on the Nativity of the Lord, from the same rents, to be paid in like manner annually for the light of one lamp, which the same church is bound to provide in the church of the lay sisters. And if it should happen that the lay sisters are absent, the said alms shall be transferred to the light of the high altar at Boulancourt… Likewise MCCXXX, on the morrow of the octave of Blessed Martin.
[21] and from various circumstances. This Hemelina, I say, daughter of Simon of Broyes and Beaufort, seems to have been she whose Acts we are at present illustrating; which opinion is the more pleasing because the name of Hemelina was familiar to the house of Broyes and Beaufort: for the mother of Simon I of Broyes and Beaufort, no less than the daughter of Hugh of Broyes, were called Hemelina Du Chesne, Histoire généalogique de la maison de Broyes, pages 11, 17 and 18.. Besides, counts and nobles, as Bl. Goswin says, staying in her neighbourhood, among whom was Simon de Beaufort, not rarely came to converse with Bl. Hemelina: whence it is easily inferred that Bl. Hemelina took her origin from a noble stock. Add that the family of Broyes and Beaufort, before and after the happy passing of Bl. Hemelina, was very munificent toward the monastery of Boulancourt: further, at the expense of Simon of Beaufort, in whose dominion were the monastery of Boulancourt and the grange of Parta Sicca, a lamp burned day and night before the tomb of Sister Hemelina: where the name of sister perhaps indicates that she was Simon's sister by blood, although in the XI century lay nuns were called sisters Du Cange, Glossarium latinitatis, under Soror.. All of which, above all if considered together, seem to have not a little weight in urging that Bl. Hemelina was the sister of Simon de Beaufort, and therefore daughter of Simon, lord of Broyes and Beaufort. From this brief disputation it might perhaps be inferred that not a few noble men (since through Simon I, lord of Broyes, they draw their origin from the families of Broyes, Chateauvillain, Arc en Baroye, Beaufort, Trie-le-Bardoul and Charmentre, etc.) are kin to St. Hemelina [Don Anselme, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, volume II, page 339.].
[22] St. Hemelina dies about the year 1178 and is buried at Boulancourt. It remains that we add a little on the death and burial of Bl. Hemelina. She had already departed from the living in the year 1185: for in that year Manasses, bishop of Troyes, testifies that Simon, lord of Beaufort,
gave XX solidi to be paid annually from his rents for a light to be lit before the tomb of Sister Hemelina: but we have a far more luminous testimony, namely of the contemporary author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux, who at the year 1178 handed down the following Chronicon Clarævallense, column 1249.: At Berlencuria was buried at this time the virgin of Christ Emelina, of whom the aforesaid Dom Goswin reported certain wonderful things. In what year of her age the most holy virgin exchanged earthly life for heavenly has been passed over by the ancient writers. But since it is very probable, not to say certain, that Bl. Hemelina took her origin from Hugh, lord of Broyes, and Felicitas de Brienne, who entered into marriage in the year 1110, I consider that she was born about the year 1115, and therefore departed from life at the age of about 63 years, about the year of Christ 1178. On the place of her burial the author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux is supported by Bl. Goswin: She was buried, he says, in the church of Vurlencuria, and at her tomb a lamp burns lit day and night. But since at Boulancourt in the XII century, as we have seen (numbers 2 and 3), there were two churches, one of the monks, the other of the lay sisters, there would be room for disputing in which church the bones of Bl. Hemelina were laid, were it not clear from the recited monuments that Bl. Hemelina was entombed in the church of the monks of Boulancourt. This church was afterwards entirely overthrown: for in the lost Martyrology of Boulancourt there was read: In the year of the Lord MCCXXX, in the month of August, on the fourth feria, on the feast day of St. Augustine the bishop, the foundations were laid of the new church of St. Mary of Boulancourt… On the third of the Kalends of November, the dedication of our church. These words are taken from the proem of the French cartulary of Boulancourt, where there is set before them: It is read in our martyrology, which is of the XIII century. In this new church, in the same tomb, at an uncertain time, were laid the bodies of BB. Hemelina, Ascelina and Goswin, and they were held in great veneration until the end of the XVIII century: but when at that time the monastery was being sold at auction by the enemies of religion, they seem to have been hidden, that they might be kept safe from every injury: but today it is not known where they lie concealed. So the Ven. Mr. Lalore wrote back to me, professor of dogmatic Theology in the major seminary of Troyes, whose exceptional kindness I cannot sufficiently praise. Now there follows the abridgment of the Life of Bl. Hemelina.
Annotations* Broyes.
* Beaufort.
* Brienne.
* La Brie.
ABRIDGMENT OF THE LIFE OF BL. HEMELINA
Cistercian Lay Sister
by Bl. Goswin, monk of Clairvaux, from the Cistercian Menology of Henriquez.
Hemelina, lay sister, Cistercian. (Bl.)
Goswin, monk, Cistercian. (Bl.)
BHL Number: 3802
BY BL. GOSWIN.
St. Hemelina, following a very harsh and most pious kind of life, We have seen a certain virgin of wonderful abstinence, whose life was hard and strait, and her conduct holy. For three days in the week, tasting nothing of food or drink, she remained fasting. In Lent and the Advent of the Lord she tasted no bread. She wore haircloth on her bare body, and she protected her feet neither with boots nor with shoes a, in the time of summer or winter b. She was clad in a single tunic c, and over it she was clothed in a cloak of simple and mean cloth. She was girt with iron fastened around her body with very firm nails; so that the flesh growing over covered all the iron. She prayed and spun unceasingly d, and while spinning she ruminated on the psalms e. Her soul hated the whispering of detractors: for she was of great name and repute in the province in which she stayed; whence gifts of food and drink were frequently sent to her; of which she took nothing to taste.
[2] [she commands the birds and is conspicuous for a prophetic spirit. Her burial at Boulancourt.] There was an adjoining wood, whence she was often troubled by ravens and crows, hearing their voices and cawing; she ordered them to go away, and to let her serve God in quiet. Obeying her they went off. By the spirit of prophecy, if ever monks or lay brothers f, vain and vicious, wishing or doing evil, were presented to her, she at once rebuked them and admonished them to be more cautious and not to give place to the devil. Counts also and nobles, staying in her neighbourhood, when they were about to set out to wars or on some expedition, consulting her whether it was expedient for them to go, she foretold to them what outcome they would have. Whence to Lord Simon de Beaufort g, a noble man, as he was about to go on a certain expedition, she foretold that he would lose there one of his dearest members, namely an eye. In that place, in which she remained, there is now held a grange h of Vurlencuria, called Parta-Sicca i. She was buried in the church of Vurlencuria k, and at her tomb a lamp burns lit day and night.