ON ST. DODO, ABBOT OF WASLERS IN THE DIOCESE OF CAMBRAI,
ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Dodo, abbot of Waslers in Belgium. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The principal sources from which the deeds of St. Dodo are to be gathered.
Since the names of pagi have neither a certain nor a single origin, [Fagne, where St. Dodo lived, was properly not a pagus, but a wooded region, lying partly in the diocese of Cambrai, partly in that of Liège.] but some have been named from cities, others from towns, others from castella, so others were named from the condition of the places, for instance from meadows or pastures, rivers, woods Wastelain, Description de la Gaule-Belgique, vol. I, p. VIII, edition of 1788. This variety of origins may be observed even in the former diocese of Cambrai alone. In that part which lies within the present borders of France and Belgium, there remains the name of Fagne; which was once a forest and partly still is, bordering on the Thiérache and the Ardennes forest, to which it seems to have belonged. But by the word pagus the same thing is not always designated: for to omit other significations, there is indicated by it sometimes a region, sometimes a jurisdiction. In the former sense Fagne has been called a pagus by some Ibid., vol. II, p. 413. For the four woods which are contained in its circuit, namely the Fagne of Trélon (Trelon), the Fagne of Sains (Sains), the Fagne of Chimay (Chimay) and the Fagne of Mariembourg (Mariembourg), were not enclosed within the bounds of the one diocese of Cambrai, which represents the civitas of the Nervii, but those of Chimay and Mariembourg belonged to the diocese of Liège, to which the Tungri long communicated their name. That of Trélon, therefore, at which we must stop, was situated in the deanery of Avesnes, in the archdeaconry of Valenciennes, or in the lesser pagus of Templutum, in the greater pagus of Famars: for that deanery seems to have agreed with the pagus of Templutum, and the archdeaconry with that of Famars. Hence Waslers is read sometimes to have stood in Fagne, sometimes in the pagus of Templutum, and the monastery adjacent on the north, where his relics are preserved, is still commonly called Moustier-en-Fagne [Cf. Duvivier, Mémoires sur l'importance et les limites du Pagus Hainoensis, in many places], unless (as is my opinion) the monastery of Waslers and the Monastery in Fagne are the same place. But of these things we shall speak more accurately below.
[2] [There and especially in the neighbouring parts there flourished in the seventh century several saints, some of whom St. Dodo knew.] In the seventh century there flourished in those or neighbouring parts several saints, whose name and fame have lasted to this age. Chief among these are St. Gaugeric, bishop of Cambrai, who died between the years 614 and 622, St. Foillan in the year 655, Sts. Walbert and Bertilia about the year 660, St. Aubert in the year 669, St. Etto in the year 670, St. Vincent Madelgar in the year 677, St. Humbert in the year 682, St. Aldegund in the year 685, St. Ghislain in the year 685, St. Waldetrude in the year 686, St. Landelin in the year 686, Sts. Vindician and Hidulf in the year 707, and St. Ursmar in the year 713. And among the latter, the heir of their virtues, grew up St. Dodo, who seems to have withdrawn to God about the middle of the eighth century.
[3] [The Life of St. Dodo seems to have been written about the middle of the tenth century by a monk of Lobbes.] The Life of him which still exists was not composed before the year 956, in which Fulbert, bishop of Cambrai, met his death, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe declares from Flodoard and Hugh of Flavigny Gallia Christiana nova, vol. III, col. 15. For at number 8 are read these words, which could only be said of a dead man: But he (Leutbert) eagerly reported to Bishop Fulbert, who in those days had been enlarged with the mitre of the prelacy of the church of Cambrai, and enriched with the honours of an excellent reputation. Nor was it composed much later, certainly not a whole century, as both this place and what follows about the fund-raising translation through the pagi of Porcien and Brabant are an indication. Which was also the opinion of Rivet Histoire littéraire de France, vol. VI, p. 557 and of Thys Acta SS. Belgii, vol. VI, p. 372. Yet it was written when there were already several archdeacons at Cambrai, (as appears from no. 7); but this plurality seems already to have existed in the times of Fulbert, that is between the years 935 and 956; since the diocese was already then divided into deaneries, as is established from no. 9 of the same Life of St. Dodo; and the deaneries were divided among the archdeacons. And indeed in the middle of the tenth century all the dioceses of the province of Reims seem to have been divided into several archdeaconries Cf. Duvivier, Mémoire etc., p. 43. The author's name is not added; but there seems no doubt that he was a monk of Lobbes. For first of all the library of Lobbes was as it were the source. The exemplar, namely, which guided Mabillon Acta SS. Ordinis S. Benedicti, Sæc. III, part I, p. 570, had been received from Lobbes. Two exemplars, once sent to our predecessors, had the same origin; on one of which it was inscribed that this Life was written by a certain monk of Lobbes, as it appears. A third exemplar, lacking the Prologue, had come to them from the monastery of Liessies; but no one will on that account make a monk of Liessies the author. Then in those three there is prefixed in the title that St. Dodo was a disciple of St. Ursmar, first abbot of the house of Lobbes; by which St. Dodo is as it were bound to the monastery of Lobbes. Thirdly about the middle of the tenth century the study of letters and especially of history began to flourish again at Lobbes Cf. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, pp. 239 and 240, edition of 1866. Fourthly and finally, which is the chief point, this Life agrees with the tradition of Lobbes about the origins of the monastery of Waslers; which origins in other documents are explained altogether otherwise, as we shall soon see. This Life was contracted by Molanus in the Natales of the saints of Belgium; Mabillon excerpted the chief passages and brought them into the former part of the third Benedictine Century; Thys edited it entire, but with the Prologue cut off, in volume VI of the Acts of the Saints of Belgium, following the exemplar of Liessies: we shall edit the same with the Prologue according to the three exemplars indicated above.
[4] [Folcuin agrees with it; but the biographer of St. Landelin, although he seems to be the same as the biographer of St. Dodo,] Folcuin, who in the year 965 was set over the monastery of Lobbes and carried the deeds of its abbots up to the year 980, also mentions St. Dodo. Receive his words In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. IV, p. 57: Therefore at the beginning of his government (St. Ursmar) consecrated the church (of Lobbes), which before that time was unconsecrated… And this dedication took place in the year which is 697 of the Lord's incarnation… He himself also built the monastery at Aulne and subjected it to Lobbes. He also built the monastery called Waslare, toward the forest of Thiérache *, in the borders of Fagne; and he set over it Dodo, a very holy man, as being taught by himself; who, having stayed there for some while, desired the hermit's life, and a little cell being built in the same forest of Fagne, with the permission and licence of the pious father, he lived in it a contemplative life; where afterwards, famous for many virtues, he departed to the Lord. His body was translated to the monastery called Waslare; where it now rests with due veneration. But with these must be reconciled the Life of St. Landelin, which to Rivet Hist. litt. de France, vol. IV, p. 71 seemed written
at the beginning of the eighth century, but in my judgment was composed at the end of the tenth century, perhaps by the same monk of Lobbes to whom we owe the Life of St. Dodo: for not only is the style the same, and the same Latinity in both, but, what is more, the same Prologue is prefixed to both Acta SS., vol. II of June, p. 1064: The kindness of our Saviour … I shall begin to narrate. The other Life, which our predecessors edited from a codex of the church of St. Saviour of Utrecht Ibid., p. 1067, is an abridgement of the former: for this is observed generally in most Lives received from the same library, that with the leaves of luxuriant style cut away they are epitomes of wordier ones.
[5] [he agrees with the writer of the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai about the origins of the monastery of Waslers.] But hear the former biographer of St. Landelin Ibid., p. 1065: When therefore St. Landelin had returned in peace from Rome, having received licence with a blessing from the blessed pontiff Aubert, he set out into the … place … which is called Laubacus: and there he built for himself and his disciples monastic dwellings… He built also another monastery in the pagus of the Sambre, by name Alneum, separated from Laubacus by three miles along the Sambre… A third monastery too he built in the pagus of Templutum, called Waslaus, eight miles apart from Lobbes, his first monastery; which, like those above, he caused to be consecrated in the name and holiness of the key-bearer of the King above, namely St. Peter. The dwellings of these two he enriched with great commerce: but Lobbes he honoured with royal gifts, and filled it with an unspeakable abundance of villas and servants. This Life was before the eyes of the cleric of the church of Cambrai who before the year 1041 wrote the first two books and part of the third of the Deeds of the pontiffs of Cambrai Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. VII, pp. 393 and 394. And in Book II, chapter XXXIII, he has handed down these things about the villa of Waslers (which is the title) Ibid., p. 463: At the villa of Waslers too blessed Landelin founded a monastery for a few brethren; over which he set St. Dodo, a man of good memory. He indeed, renowned in sacred morals, led a life of innocence, and there, having laid down the burden of frailty, he happily rests in peace. Whence it appears that in ancient times some things were handed down by some, others by others, these favouring the praise of St. Landelin, those of St. Ursmar. But we are not yet reviewing the matters themselves, but only the documents; and to these would have to be joined also the copies of three diplomas, attached to the Life of St. Landelin and the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai; were it not better to argue about them below.
[6] [Several have spoken of St. Dodo; of whom are reviewed in this place only Van Loo, Herrera and especially Bontemps, who wrote the Life of St. Dodo in verse.] But besides these writings, which I shall call as it were the sources of the history of St. Dodo, it is pleasing to indicate some others, which are as it were streams. Nicholas Le Long [Hist. du diocèse de Laon et du pays entre la Meuse et l'Oise, l'Aisne et la Sambre, pp. 84 and 85], although not very diligently versed in his Acts, did not altogether omit him in the History of northern France. Hadrian Van Loo, following Molanus, inserted an abridgement of his Life in the Lives of the saints of the Belgians, written in Dutch De levens der Heylige van Nederland, vol. II, p. 334; likewise Herrera in the Lives of the saints of the order of St. Benedict, published in Spanish. But he, although Molanus alone guided him, narrates many things which are found nowhere else, for example that some care of nuns was imposed on St. Dodo, that he was a priest, and that he performed those offices as if he had lived in the eighteenth century: so many mockeries of fancy, by which younger monks might be taught the observance of the Rule and Constitutions: just as if this could not be done with the rights of truth unharmed. Several other menologists, historians and writers or editors of Lives of the saints who have communicated the deeds of St. Dodo with the public I shall review below. But I would not wish to omit one more distinguished than the others, although altogether unknown; the following title will disclose the book and the author: The holy tetrarchy of four holy heads of monasteries, Sts. Landelin, Ursmar, Erminus, Dodo, pontiffs and abbots of Lobbes, comprising their Lives or proven histories, by which both their sanctity and (among the other offices of piety) their fervent zeal and singular industry in propagating the faith and also in promoting the Catholic religion are made known. Now newly collected from trustworthy writers and from very ancient codices, partly manuscript, partly from very learned fragments of annals, and illustrated with heroic verse, by Brother Augustine Bontemps of Arras, Benedictine of the monastery of Lobbes. At Douai from the press of John Bogard, 1594. On what occasion he added the Life of St. Dodo to the three others the poet himself discloses in the miracle which we shall give at the end. Moreover Bontemps, who was also called by his own Agathochronus and Euchronus (for most monks of Lobbes then were remarkably lovers of the Muses), follows very closely the Life to be edited below, being stronger in verse than in prose. Judge from the Argument prefixed to the fourth Toparchy or metrical Life of St. Dodo:
Dodo, sprung of faithful parents, Is reborn afterward from the sacred font of the laver. Ursmar becomes to him sponsor and lustral parent, Doctor, father, receiver and teacher: He trains him in sacred things and in good morals. But when he had become a monk of Lobbes, He set him as father over the see of Waslers. Those he fed with his mouth, he also ruled strenuously. Spurner of the world, seeking the high deserts of Fagne, He piously builds a hut among the arbutus: Giving himself to prayers, he shines with miracles: Worn by heavy age, he asks for the stars, Freed from the tight chains of death. Meanwhile he flashes with many miracles. The churches of Fagne keep his sacred body. He is toparch, prelate and patron of the place.
Annotations* Thierache.
§ II. The native country of St. Dodo, his times, his discipleship with St. Ursmar and his headship of the monastery of Waslers.
[St. Dodo was born at the villa of Vallis, in the pagus of Lomme, that is in the tract to the east of the town of Chimay (Chimay), formerly in the county of Namur, now in the province of Hainaut;] Concerning the birth of St. Dodo his biographer has declared these things: This blessed man, he says, worthy of the proclamation of the good, was a native of the pagus of Laomacum, at the villa which is called Vallis, at the time when the prince Pippin was holding the sceptre. But concerning the pagus of Loamacum and the villa of Vallis there has been some controversy. Mabillon placed Annales Benedictini, at the year 697, Book XVIII, no. 54 this villa in Fagne; relying on which conjecture, John Baptist de Marne [Recherches sur l'ancien comté de Lomme, in Histoire du comté de Namur, part II, p. 608, Paquot edition] determined that it was to be understood as Vallis (le Vaux), situated between Chimay and Lompret (Lompre), not far from Fagne; on the contrary Thys Acta SS. Belgii, vol. VI, p. 373 contends that Vallis is, commonly les Vallees, Vallees, Valles, in the former diocese of Laon, about four leagues distant from Waslers, to the south. But first of all it is nowhere handed down by the ancients that the native country of St. Dodo was in Fagne. Then there is some difficulty in the name of the pagus. Molanus Natales SS. Belgii, p. 232 and Mabillon Sæculum Bened. III, part I, p. 570, who both certainly read the Acts of St. Dodo, wrote the former pagus Lomacensis, the latter pagus Loamacensis; but in the Liessies manuscript exemplar and in one of Lobbes pagus Laoniacensis is read; and finally in the other of Lobbes Laouiacensis appears. But there never existed anywhere a pagus Laoniacensis or Laouiacensis; and neither appellation could have been fashioned by the copyists from the corrupted word Laudunensis. It is certainly manifest that the pagus Laomacensis is indicated, the letter m having been changed into ni or ui by a very easy error. And indeed in the Life of St. Forannan edited by our predecessors Acta SS., vol. III of April, p. 811 there is printed: He was therefore in the pagus Loniacus, at the villa which is called Calvusmons, in place of in the pagus Lomacus; and, as was observed by the same Ibid., p. 812, in the published diploma of Lothar III one reads that the monastery of Waulsort was founded in the pagus Lunniensis, without doubt for pagus Lummensis or Lumensis. For Calvusmons, commonly Chaumont, a little village near Philippeville, and Waulsort lay in the county of Namur; by which county was nearly represented the pagus often called Lomacensis, but also Lomacinsis, Lomacus, Lamacensis, Lomensis, Lommensis, Laumensis and Lummensis [Cf. De Marne, work cited, part II, p. 596 and following; Duvivier, Mémoire etc., p. 26 and in many places; Vos, Lobbes, son abbaye et son chapitre, vol. I, p. 421]. Yet in the Polyptych of the middle of the ninth century some villas are said to be situated in the pagus Lommacensis or Sambriensis, others in the pagus Lomensis In Vos, place cited, and in Duvivier, Mémoire etc., pp. 318 and 319; but it could easily be shown that the words Lommacensis and Lommensis were used indiscriminately; that the pagus Lommacensis or Lommensis was a greater one, divided into lesser ones, to which sometimes the name of the greater was given indiscriminately; but these things are not for this place. Vallis in the pagus of Laomacum is not any valley whatever, but a villa, or rustic estate with the surrounding huts of slaves and coloni; and of only one such villa there survives in the bounds of that former pagus the name or memory, namely Vaux, distant three kilometres from Chimay, toward the summer sunrise, on the stream of the White Water *. There still stands there a distinguished estate with twenty houses, more or less, and a chapel of St. Peter Vander Maelen, Dictionnaire géographique du Hainaut, p. 491; whence it comes about that on the maps of Cassini is read not Vaux, but Saint-Pierre, and in the Polyptych of the former diocese of Liège De Ridder, Analectes p. s. à l'h. eccl. de la Belgique, vol. II, p. 447 the altar of Peter, belonging to the town of Chimay.
[8] [and indeed about the year 681: he seems to have died about the middle of the eighth century.] At what time St. Dodo was born seems in part to be determinable from the foregoing words. He saw the light, namely, at the time when the prince Pippin was holding the sceptre or was mayor of the palace. Since Pippin obtained this authority in the year 681 and lost it with his life in the year 714, St. Dodo must have been born within this time. But his birth can be gathered more closely from the age of St. Ursmar, who, on the testimony of Folcuin in the Deeds of the abbots of Lobbes In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. IV, p. 58, died in the year 713 of the Lord's incarnation,… Pippin holding the sceptre; at which time, since St. Dodo was established abbot of Waslers by St. Ursmar, he could not but be mature in years and morals; so that it is necessary to say that he was brought into the light not long after the year 681. That he died about the year 725
Châtelain wrote Martyrologe universel, at the 1st day of Oct.; about the year 730 the anonymous monk of Donauwörth Kirchen kalender der H. des O. des H. Benedictus, at 27 Oct.; Herrera Vidas de santos de la religion de S. Benito, vol. III, p. 155 in the year 800; a middle time, namely the year 750 or 760, Thys conjectured Acta SS. Belgii, vol. VI, p. 370: which conjecture V. V. Destombes approved Vies des saints des diocèses de Cambrai et d'Arras, vol. III, p. 118. That he died about the middle of the eighth century was suggested by V. V. Vos Lobbes etc., vol. I, p. 152, which we too have done at the head of this Commentary, following whatever likelihood there is.
[9] [St. Dodo is baptized by St. Ursmar; some years later he is admitted at Lobbes as a disciple;] But that in the Life of St. Dodo his parents, greatly rejoicing over his birth, are said to have gone to the holy abbot and pontiff Ursmar, bringing with them the little infant they had begotten, demanding with suppliant prayer that he should purify him with the wave of sacred baptism, and receive him with his sacred hands from the saving laver, and bring him up as his own son in the service of the Lord; and that the most holy man, piously and clemently assenting to their prayers, gladly carried out what the boy's parents were asking with most urgent prayer to be done, since in those days he … was staying in the monastery of Lobbes, which he took up to rule only in the year 689 Ibid., p. 56 or the following Thys in Acta SS. Belgii, vol. VI, p. 227 and following: this is not to be understood as if, at the time when St. Dodo was baptized, he had been brought to Lobbes at the same time; so that he either was brought up there from the cradle or was baptized only after his infant years. But these words are to be taken as if the most blessed boy had been washed in baptism shortly after his birth and offered to St. Ursmar, but only after some years handed over to him as a disciple and monk: as is read of St. Ursmar himself in his Life Acta SS., vol. II of April, p. 560: And so the boy, being born and grown up, his parents handed over to teachers of the holy scriptures to be instructed; or as is said much more plainly in the Life of St. Landelin Ibid., vol. II of June, p. 1064 and following: And when the little boy (Landelin) of good disposition began to grow in his first years, his parents took care to commend him to be instructed in letters to Blessed Aubert the pontiff, who had received him from the sacred font. Nor is St. Ursmar to be thought to have baptized St. Dodo after he had taken up the government of the monastery of Lobbes, but when in the parts of Gaul, namely in Fagne and Thiérache, he was converting many and building churches, which still survived when the anonymous writing was composed, first edited from a Lobbes manuscript by Du Chesne, and then repeated by our predecessors Ibid., vol. II of April, p. 562 and by Thys Acta SS. Belgii, vol. VI, p. 252: which labour the holy man performed before he travelled through Flanders after the apostolic manner and fixed his seat at Lobbes. Nor should it delay us that in the corrupt diploma of Pippin of Herstal In Waulde, La vie et les miracles de S. Ursmar etc., p. 338 it is declared that, grace going before, the most distinguished man Dodo was drawn to the orthodox faith by the preaching of the said man (Ursmar); for this document swarms with errors and lacks authority.
[10] [and being made a monk he is set over the monastery of Waslers; whose origins are referred by some to St. Ursmar, by others to St. Landelin.] It seems, therefore, that it should be determined that St. Dodo was born about the year 681 and immediately afterwards baptized by St. Ursmar and bound over to God, and that about the year 690 he came to Lobbes, to be instructed by the most holy man in the law of God and also in the monastic institutes. And the disciple advanced so much in sanctity that he was set by his master over the monastery of Waslers: at what year of his age is hidden. I said above that he was then mature in years and morals, so as to determine nothing, well knowing that some saints, for example St. Francis of Paola in the 19th year of his age Acta SS., vol. I of April, p. 199, took up the spiritual headship of others. Concerning the monastery of Waslers three things seem capable of being asked: who was its author; what monastic institutes were observed in it; where it was situated. In the Deeds of the abbots of Lobbes of Folcuin St. Ursmar is said to have built the monastery of Waslare, and in the Life of St. Dodo to have granted it to his aforesaid son Dodo. But St. Landelin in his Life is said to have built this same one, and in the Deeds of the pontiffs of Cambrai to have founded it. Moreover there survive three diplomas, which indeed are corrupt and partly at least feigned, but in which old traditions are without doubt contained; and in these too St. Landelin is declared to have been the principal author.
[11] Dagobert I founded this monastery in favour of St. Landelin, In the first, which is said to have been given in the year 640 by Dagobert I, son of Lothar, but which must either have preceded the year 638 or have come from Dagobert II, son of Sigibert, between the years 674 and 678, these things are read [Waulde, p. 313; Miraeus, Donationes Belgicæ, Book II, ch. 1, Opp. dipl., vol. I, p. 489; Bréquigny, Diplomata etc. primæ stirpis, pp. 154 and 155; Vos, Lobbes, vol. I, p. 412]: Wherefore I Dagobert, king of the Austrasians, for the soul of Lothar, the most pious king my father, who reigned forty-five years in France, led on by the persuasion and saving admonitions of the venerable man Autbert, bishop of Cambrai, grant and give to Landelin Maurosus, converted from a robber, my estate in Fagne, called Wallare, … that he may build a monastery there in honour of the holy apostles Peter and Paul and establish persons to serve the Lord God in perpetuity. The second diploma, which is no less corrupt or feigned, is said to have been given in the year 642, but in the thirteenth year of the reign of the lord Dagobert, the renowned king, by which the year of Christ 634 is designated. Waulde, Miraeus, Bréquigny and Vos have edited this second after the first; but we excerpt nothing from it, since it is only a confirmation of the former. The third is a diploma of Pippin of Herstal, given in the year 691 after the battle of Tertry (if any credit is to be given to it) and printed by the labour of the same [Waulde, p. 324; Miraeus, Suppl. ad Opp. dipl., vol. II, p. 1126; Bréquigny, p. 325; Vos, vol. I, p. 413]. In which diploma Pippin is related to have granted to the monastery of the most religious man and excellent preacher Ursmar the pontiff, which is at Lobbes, the wood of Forestella, and to have confirmed its goods: Whatever also, so one reads there, the man of God Landelin, who first laboured in the same place, acquired and subjected to that place, I assign wholly to the same monastery: namely the church of Aulne with all its appurtenances and possessions. Similarly the monastery of Wallare, with all its appurtenances, as the most pious King Dagobert at the prayers of Aubert of good memory, bishop of Cambrai, gave them, expressed under certain bounds, to the aforesaid Landelin, and assigned them to the monastery of Wallare for its foundation, that they may be the true and firm possession of that church of Lobbes.
[12] [and this same, handed over to St. Ursmar and the monastery of Lobbes, St. Dodo increased with his patrimony.] But Waulde has also brought forward a fourth diploma P. 338 and following; Vos, vol. I, p. 413, no less corrupt, in which that same Pippin is declared in the year 697 to have confirmed a donation made by St. Dodo. Yet, since St. Dodo is read in his Life, upheld by the protection of the King above and encouraged by the saving exhortation of blessed Ursmar, to have made over the whole inheritance of his possession to Blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, for the monastery which … is called Waslerus; which the aforesaid kindly Ursmar granted to his aforesaid son Dodo, hence we may learn how great a patrimony the blessed youth possessed and dedicated to God. I Pippin the Elder, are the words of the diploma, to the monastery of the most religious man and excellent preacher, the pontiff Ursmar, which is at Lobbes on the river Sambre, we give as an endowment of that church to be possessed in perpetuity the land and wood which is between the stream of Grunghart and the stream of Hergnaut, which flow down into the Sambre, which wood has been called Forestella from of old. But because, grace going before, the most distinguished man Dodo, drawn by the preaching of the said man to the orthodox faith, was both baptized and bound over to monastic disciplines and conversion, stirred by the counsel of our faithful Hydulf, duke of Lotharingia, he has given to the monastery of Lobbes, which is in honour of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, as a perpetual alms, his whole estate and patrimony, having been made a monk, namely the villas of Moustiers and Bavis with all entirety of lordship and all lands, villas, meadows, waters and courses of waters, ban and justice, male and female slaves, to be possessed as he justly possessed them, resigning them into our hand, and assigning them to the said church, enclosing them in certain bounds, fortified by our authority. And these are the places of the circuit of that estate: the bound of the water, beginning from the place which is called Ralhiers as far as below Moustiers, defining to the wood of St. Monegund; the bound of the woods, the whole wood which is called Eumont, as far as the water coming from Walhiers, with all the territory and pannage, and justice in all things, and from the water of Walliers the whole wood which is called Bruehl, and Fangias as far as Levoion, as far as Willenier, and another wood beside Wilhies from the hill which is called Gomont, and the Muddy Ford as far as the villa of Wilhies, and the wood situated on the border of Duchon.
[13] [How Sts. Landelin and Ursmar, though separated in time, were called the authors of the monasteries of Lobbes, Aulne and Waslers: there at the beginning the Benedictine Rule was not observed.] The rest can easily be reconciled with one another, if it is said that St. Landelin (as is clear from his Life), sprung from a noble and wealthy Frankish family, obtained from Dagobert I leave to spend his patrimony, which without doubt consisted of demesne goods, on the building of monasteries and churches; that he then began three monasteries, Lobbes, Aulne and Waslers; that in the year 689 or the following he handed them over to St. Ursmar; while he himself set out elsewhere and founded the house of Crespin; that St. Ursmar at first ruled those three; but afterwards destined two disciples to Aulne and Waslers, of whom one, St. Dodo, presided over Waslers. Since therefore St. Landelin began these convents and St. Ursmar completed them, both can be called founders and builders. To whichever the foundation of those three houses may be assigned, this seems certain, that in it from the beginning the Rule of St. Benedict was not admitted, but the institutes of St. Columban or laws collected from various writings of the holy fathers. Then
for the Rule of St. Benedict seems not yet to have been known in Belgium; but St. Remaclus and St. Eligius had propagated the customs and precepts of St. Columban. Add that St. Ursmar after the Irish or Hibernian manner was a bishop without title and see, like St. Remaclus and other abbots of Stavelot. Moreover St. Dodo, when he was already a monk, was still an owner of property; which was permitted by other Rules, by no means by the Rule of St. Benedict.
Annotations* Eau Blanche.
§ III. The vicissitudes of the monastery of Waslers and of the relics and ecclesiastical cult of St. Dodo.
[As is established from the various names of the same monastery and from other indications, the monastery of Waslare, over which St. Dodo presided, was situated where Moustier-en-Fagne now is.] Something must also be inquired about the site of the monastery of Waslers. Someone, adduced by Miraeus Fasti Belgici, p. 637, said that it once stood at the second milestone from Valenciennes, where the village of Waler is now seen: a manifest error. In the Life of St. Dodo one reads: The monastery of St. Peter and the monastery which from the name of the river running beside it is called Waslerus; in Folcuin: The monastery called Waslare, toward the forest of Thiérache, in the borders of Fagne; in the Life of St. Landelin: The monastery in the pagus of Templutum, called Waslaus, eight miles apart from Lobbes; in the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai: In the villa of Waslers a monastery; in the corrupt diplomas of Dagobert and St. Autbert: A royal estate, called Wallare, that he may build a monastery there in honour of Sts. Peter and Paul; in the former diploma of Pippin: The monastery of Wallare; in the Polyptych of John, bishop of Cambrai, in which are contained the names of the villas which the monastery of Lobbes possessed in the 14th year of the reign of the Lord Lothar, king of the Franks, that is of Lotharingia, of Christ 868 In Vos, Lobbes, vol. I, p. 419: In Fagne a cell of the monastery; in a diploma of Odo, bishop of Cambrai, of the year 1112 Duvivier, Mémoire, p. 514: The monastery in Fagne; in a bull of Hadrian IV Ibid., vol. II, p. 458: The villa of the Monastery with its church; in bulls of Lucius III Ibid., p. 464 and Celestine III Ibid., p. 469: The monastery in Fagne. And that appellation of the Polyptych is to be most carefully considered. For it is established from it that already in the ninth century it began to come about that, the name of Waslers being omitted, it should be called the cell of the Monastery in Fagne, although it did not immediately cease to be called the Monastery of Waslare, as is clear from Folcuin and other documents. Wherefore I do not doubt that this monastery was placed from the beginning where Moustier-en-Fagne is still seen, and not where rises the parish of Wallers, Walle or Wallers-Saint-Hilaire. First of all the words cell of the Monastery in Fagne and Moustier-en-Fagne agree with each other; secondly Moustier-en-Fagne was until the end a priory or cell under the title of St. Peter, dependent on the monastery of Lobbes, and there exists no ancient memory that the priory was transferred there from the village of Waslers; moreover the patronage of the parish of Waslers under the title of St. Hilary was not in the hands of the people of Lobbes, but in those of the abbot of St. Foillan Pouillé de Cambrai du XIV siècle, in Leglay, Cameracum christianum, p. 501. Thirdly the body of St. Dodo was deposited in the Monastery of Waslers, or in the Monastery of St. Peter, namely in the oratory which was on the left, as one reads in the Life; and it is now preserved in Moutier-en-Fagne, without any testimony being found that it was carried from one church to the other; moreover down to these times the oratory of St. Peter on the left has survived; fourthly, although the church of Waslers is not far distant from the stream of Waslers *, yet this at that place is only a furrow of water; on the contrary lower down, where Moustier-en-Fagne rises, it is much wider. Fifthly and finally there adjoin each other on the left bank of the stream of Waslers the village of Moutier-en-Fagne and the very narrow parish of Waslers; so that, although Moutier-en-Fagne has long been reckoned part of the parish of Bavay Brasseur, Origines cœnobiorum Hannoniæ, p. 92, yet formerly it may easily have been one village; the monastery could therefore be said to be in the villa of Waslers and hence be called Waslare or Waslaus. Which matter can be better perceived from the following little topographical map.
[15] [In the neighbourhood St. Dodo built himself a little cell, in which he long lay buried. His relics in the ninth century were translated from there to the oratory of St. Peter, and from there in the tenth century to the side of the altar of St. Peter in the church.] Several have spoken of this monastery of Waslers, namely Miraeus Origines cœnobiorum Benedictorum, ch. 26, p. 29, Colvener Chronicum Cameracense et Atrebatense, p. 531, Waulde Vie de S. Ursmar etc., in many places, Philip Brasseur Origines omnium Hannoniæ cœnobiorum, p. 90 and following, Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gallia Christiana nova, vol. III, cols. 77 and 78, Hossart Histoire du Hainaut, vol. I, p. 62, Delewarde Histoire générale du Hainaut, vol. I, p. 49, Leglay Chronique de Baldéric, p. 505, Vos Lobbes etc., vol. I, in many places and others. All have the same persuasion, that the monastery of St. Dodo was placed in the present village of Waslers; that no further traces of it survive; that it was afterwards transferred to the place where Moustier-en-Fagne now rises; and other such things which have no authority. Let us gather better things from elsewhere, inserting the vicissitudes of the relics of St. Dodo. Before the year 638, as we saw in its place, St. Landelin received the estate or villa of Waslers from Dagobert I, to found a monastery there. Then about the year 689 this seat came with the begun monasteries of Lobbes and Aulne into the hands of St. Ursmar; at whose urging St. Dodo enriched it with estates and woods, and who set the same his disciple over that place. Yet he before his death withdrew from there, to obtain greater quiet; and he built a solitary cell for himself in the neighbourhood; where he died and long rested. Meanwhile Blessed Theodoric, bishop of Cambrai, as is read in the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. VII, p. 416, also in the year 844 dedicated the monastery in Vaslerum, at the request of Haribert, abbot of Lobbes. And Dodilo, who, three bishops intervening, occupied the same see from the year 887 until the beginning of the tenth century, having learned of the miracles of St. Dodo, resolved to remove the saint from the earth of that little cell, and to carry him with fitting honour to the monastery of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, situated not far off… These things being accomplished, with the Lord's help, for many courses of days afterwards the pledges of the holy man lay in the aforesaid oratory of Blessed Peter on the left in a mausoleum …, until a faithful man, Leutbert by name, overseer of the same place, was warned in a vision that he should act without delay, that they should be removed from the same little place or narrower mausoleum in which the holy members were lying, and placed in a more eminent and worthier place. The same vision was repeated three times, until Fulbert, who bore the mitre of Cambrai from the year 935 to the year 956, ordered Tresuguinus, dean of Avesnes, to do what had been commanded. He therefore, the body of the holy man being removed from the sarcophagus, which was placed, as we have said before, on the left side of the church, they raised it beside the altar of Peter, prince of the Apostles …, in which now resting he hears the prayers of those who come. And from this time, as Augustine Bontemps sang Sancta tetrarchia, p. 139,
And Dodo is the second patron of the place after Peter.
[16] [About the year 968 the priory is given to Rather, bishop of Verona; in the same place about the year 1140 the relics of St. Dodo are enclosed in another reliquary.] Some years later, namely about the year 968, this priory was given to Rather, the very celebrated bishop of Verona and Liège, whom some extol greatly, others wonderfully disparage, but who without controversy (as those times were) was most learned and who with full right inscribed one of his books with the title Phrenesis, applicable to most others. I would not wish to follow the fortunes of this man in this place, but only to recite a few words of Folcuin in the Deeds of the abbots of Lobbes In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. IV, p. 70: And the abbot, Folcuin himself, with the consent of the brethren had given to him (namely to Rather) the villas of Strata and Gosiniaci, and the little abbey of St. Ursmar, and another which they call the monastery of Waslare. From which words it is clear that they err who determine Brasseur, Origines cœnobiorum in Hannonia, p. 91 that the monastery of Weslare was overthrown by the Normans and from then on changed its place. Not even the name was then changed, but it was still called at the end of the century the monastery of Waslare, although the appellation cell of the Monastery in Fagne had long prevailed. But for a short time this cell or priory remained in the hands of Rather; it soon returned under the power of the abbots of Lobbes. Of whom Lambert I, who from the year 1139 bore the abbatial staff for ten years, himself while he still lived translated the body of blessed Dodo, disciple of St. Ursmar, from an old vessel into another a little more elegant, prepared by the industry of Brother John, who was then living [in] the monastery, certain of the neighbouring abbots being summoned, with the blessing of the bishop and a great multitude and devotion of the people. So the continuator of the deeds of the abbots of Lobbes In d'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 754, folio edition. There afterwards the body of St. Dodo was accustomed to be preserved; and his tomb, says Philip Brasseur Origines cœnobiorum etc., p. 92, is to be seen in some old chapel or little cell: that is, the relics, enclosed in a reliquary (in all likelihood the same which was prepared before the middle of the twelfth century by the industry of Brother John), were preserved in the church; but the tomb, which is also called in the Life a little place, mausoleum and sarcophagus, had remained in the chapel or little cell, called the oratory of St. Peter, and placed on the left, some paces from the church itself.
[17] [In troubled times the relics are placed at Trélon; which town, while they are present, is safe, and when they have been taken back, burns up in a fire.] Philip Brasseur hints that in times of war the relics of the most holy abbot were not left in that rural church. Augustine Bontemps agrees, narrating that in his times they were deposited in the neighbouring town of Trélon, in the house of the lord (which title is now in the hands of the Merodes); and that the town, while they were present, was safe; but when they had been taken back from there to the church of St. Peter, it burned up in a fire. But let the witness of popular religion himself be heard Sancta tetrarchia, fol. V, p. 144:
Why should I recall the rest? The applause and favours of the people? With whom there is such faith, piety, such great confidence, That they believe for certain, having proved it by fact, and declared by voice, And being taught by a long series of forefathers, That to no small towns, villages, houses, or places Could the troubles of flame or plague be brought, Where there was the sacred pledge of the body of Dodo. This Experience, teacher and mother of things, proves. This, lately done, the land of Trélon felt,
When in its bosom it cherished the pledges for the lord in his citadel Cf. Lebeau, Recueil de notices sur l'Ar. d'Avesnes, p. 115; Experiencing not the rage of the soldier, nor the embers of flame, Nor the wasting plague raging around the crossroads, Safe by the sacred body, seeing the least of dangers: Which, when the people sought back the sacred body, At the rising of the next light soon felt what was at hand. O mind too perverse, and ever trusting in its own Human strength, and untaught to trust in the saints! For at the first sun, the chest of the pledge being carried away, Which alone was its fortification, alone the asylum of the citadel, There suddenly follows a black colour from sulphurous fires, Wrapping earth and heaven in a great shadow, Reducing to ashes the great crops of the little town, and the citadel, And whatever fallow fields there were around, and the houses, Which with the sacred pledge present were unharmed. And this deed became known to all peoples too, And fathers tell it to their sons, and to the race of grandchildren. So clement was Dodo himself to his own coloni: That by his merits the Almighty would send no avenging arms, Nor set any wrathful thunderbolts in the sky (Though wicked crime itself should demand them); Where a devoted people should keep the pledges with faithful mind; With such great merits and deeds did Dodo flash!
[18] [The fortunes of the church, of the oratory of St. Peter, of the little cell of St. Dodo] In the condition of things which I indicated a little above according to Philip Brasseur, nothing was changed until the end of the eighteenth century. The buildings of the priory were then sold, yet they were not destroyed; and the church itself was restored in better times to divine worship. But since the inhabitants do not rise to three hundred, for some time the parish priest of Eppe-Sauvage performed the sacred rites there, now the parish priest of Bavay. The chapel, however, in which the relics of the most blessed abbot once rested, since it was falling to ruin, was demolished five years ago and rebuilt opposite the church; into which were brought the old altar and the very old reliquary. Another chapel once rose, situated not far from the monastery of St. Peter, on the very spot namely where St. Dodo was related to have passed the last years of his life. The purchaser of the priory ordered this to be demolished; wherefore in its place a cross was set in the ground. When this had been removed, forty metres from there, on the common field, a pious little cell was founded. Of which things the witness is the house of Merode, dwelling in the neighbourhood at Trélon, which is said to be considering the restoration of the monastery, Trappist monks being summoned: which plan certainly agrees with its ancestral piety.
[19] and of his relics until this day. But how the relics, nearly all of which are still possessed, escaped the hands of the impious in those turbulent times, I have asked in vain. Yet they escaped, and in the year 1856 they were visited and approved by the authority of the archbishop of Cambrai, as is established from the following little writing of the vicar general Philippe Vos, Lobbes etc., vol. II, p. 593: In the year of the Lord 1856, on the 20th of the month of July, we, vicar general of Cambrai, delegated by the archbishop Francis René Regnier, have recognised the relics of St. Dodo, deposited in the chapel of Moustiers, and have permitted the same to be publicly exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and have fortified the said relics with the seal of the aforesaid archbishopric, there being present the lords John Baptist Larsonneur, dean of Trélon, John Baptist Menet, parish priest of Baives and Moustiers, Simon Hannoteau, parish priest of Wallers, de Merode, count of Trélon, lord of this place of Moustiers, attesting this with us by their signature. There follow the subscriptions. VV. VV. Destombes Vies des saints des diocèses de Cambray et d'Arras, vol. III, p. 119 and Vos Lobbes etc., vol. II, p. 381 err, therefore, where they narrate that the relics of St. Dodo are preserved or that the cult flourishes in the present parish of Waslers, and not in the church of the Monastery in Fagne. Nor did the parish priest of Waslers, but the one of Baives and Moustiers, give some particle of bone to the parish church of Lobbes. For a rib, which was once preserved at Lobbes in the monastic church Raisse, Gazaphylacium Belgicum, p. 288, perished at the end of the eighteenth century with most other relics Vos, Lobbes etc., vol. II, p. 359. Of the popular cult very shortly.
Annotations* see below annotation f on ch. I of the Life.
§ IV. Of the day of the death and cult of St. Dodo. Of a certain singular custom of those suffering in the kidneys.
[Although from before the memory of men the people of Lobbes kept the feast of St. Dodo on the 29th day of October,] It is beyond controversy that the legitimate feast-day of St. Dodo, or day of ecclesiastical cult, is the 29th of November. Yet some clouds must be dissipated. Molanus in the edition of Usuard of the year 1568 published in the supplements at the 28th day of October: On the same day the deposition of Blessed Dodo, monk, disciple of St. Ursmar, bishop; and at the 29th day of October: Dodo, confessor, whose body rests at the Monastery in Fagne. But in the edition of the year 1573 at the 28th day of October: In Fagne, the deposition of Blessed Dodo, monk, disciple of St. Ursmar, bishop. At the following day in this later edition he gave nothing; but in the Indiculus of the saints which he subjoined to the same edition he handed down these things Indiculus sanctorum Belgii, fol. V, 24: He (St. Dodo) died on the day of Simon and Jude, apostles; but Lobbes transfers him to the following day, celebrating a lesser double feast; but afterwards it celebrated a greater double feast, as is clear from the calendar of Lobbes edited by Vos Lobbes etc., vol. I, p. 404. Nor had the people of Lobbes then only recently begun to keep the feast of St. Dodo on the 29th day of October; for nearly a century before Trithemius had written [On the illustrious men of the order of St. Benedict, Book III, ch. 268, Works, p. 105, Busaeus edition]: Of St. Dodo, abbot. Dodo, monk of Lobbes and afterwards abbot of the monastery of Waslers, a holy man and devoted to God, and a magnificent propagator of monastic discipline, is said to have been famous for great virtues. Whose feast is celebrated on the 4th of the kalends of November. Hence in a manuscript calendar of the saints of the order of our Holy Father Benedict, which Ferdinand de Valye, a Cistercian monk in the monastery of St. Saviour at Antwerp, completed in the year 1527, at the same 29th day of October one reads: St. Dodo, abbot of Waslers, previously a monk of Lobbes.
[21] [yet the holy abbot, who is said by some to have died on the 1st day of October, by others on the 28th of October, on the authority of Molanus is celebrated by nearly all at the 28th day;] Nor did Molanus ever withdraw from these sayings of his. For in the Natales of the saints of Belgium, which he published at Louvain in the year 1595 and which after his death came again into the light at Douai by the labour of Raisse, at the 28th day of October one reads: He died on the day of the holy apostles Simon and Jude, but he is transferred to the following day. And so in the Belgian Calendar which is prefixed to those Natales, the name of St. Dodo comes at the 28th day of October. Which things he did not write until after he had obtained the Life of St. Dodo. Yet in the three exemplars of the same Life which are in my hands and also in the one which was sent from Lobbes to Mabillon Cf. Acta SS. Ord. S. Benedicti, sæc. III, part I, p. 571, one reads: The venerable servant of Christ on the day of the kalends of October, or the 1st of October, gave back his soul to the stars of the skies. Nor did Bontemps read otherwise in the Lobbes codex, which guided him in composing his verses, as is clear from these lines of his Sancta tetrarchia, fol. v. 136:
Ripe in years, on the kalends of October He paid the dues of nature.
Wherefore Mabillon in the Benedictine Calendar, which he composed according to custom at the beginning of his third Century, and following his example Châtelain in the Universal Martyrology announced his feast-day at the 1st day of October; but afterwards Martyrologe universel, p. 1008 Châtelain ordered the same to be transferred to the 28th day of October, overcome in all likelihood by the authority of Molanus. And indeed so great was the prudence and sobriety of this man that it can scarcely be understood how he should have marked the deposition or death of St. Dodo at the 28th day of October and should have written that he died on that day, unless he had found these things in his books. And at Lobbes also it was at some time accepted that the death of St. Dodo should be marked at the 28th day of October, as is established from a manuscript Chronicle Vos, Lobbes etc., vol. I, p. 152; and in the manuscript book Peristephanon, in which our predecessors enclosed innumerable feast-days of the saints, collected from calendars, I see the feast of St. Dodo written at the same day according to a certain calendar of Liège; although in the breviaries of Liège of the end of the fifteenth century and of the following times I find nothing of the kind. However that may be, Molanus was followed by Walasser in the Canisian Martyrology (where also at the 29th day of October St. Dodo is reviewed), Wion in the Lignum Vitae, Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the saints, Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology, Willot in the Belgian Martyrology, d'Avroult in the Flowers of examples, Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Calendars, Bucelin, Herrera, Cherlius and Lechner in the Benedictine Menologies, De Ram in the Lives of the Saints of Butler and others; whose catalogue let Philip Brasseur close with this distich Panegyricus SS. Hanoniæ, p. 143:
While Simon and Jude are recalled with twofold honour, St. Dodo in Fagne left the earth.
[22] by a very few on the 27th day. Wherefore we speak of him on this day. By an error of one day du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and following him the Menologist of Donauwörth, reported the name of St. Dodo at the 27th day of October. Although therefore by the authority of Molanus alone the persuasion was introduced that St. Dodo died on the 28th day of October, yet since generally in martyrologies and other books of the kind his feast-day has been marked at the 28th day of October, although his festival was kept on the day immediately following; we have not wished to depart from the common way, especially since in the things passed over we or our predecessors have more than once promised that we would speak of him at the 28th day of October. Yet, if at any time his festival should be restored either in the diocese of Cambrai or in that of Tournai (for in the former lies the Monastery in Fagne, in the latter Lobbes), according to the old custom it will have to be fixed on the 29th day of October. And it would indeed be well worth the labour for the festival of St. Dodo to be restored, which now is nowhere kept; and that of the other patrons of Lobbes, most of whom are now altogether without ecclesiastical cult.
[23] [How it came about that the number of pilgrims to the relics of St. Dodo has greatly diminished. What is to be thought of the custom of the sick, applying their backs to the tomb,] Formerly on the 29th day of October a great number of pilgrims used to hasten to the Monastery in Fagne; which has greatly diminished, perhaps because the oratory of St. Peter lay so long neglected. For there was preserved a stone tomb, against which the sick loved to rub their backs; and when it was no longer permitted to do this, through the abolition of former customs the very piety which rested on them gradually declined and grew old. For since in popular religion this generally holds, that between the saints and things,
for the cause of which they are invoked, there should exist some bond of commonality, it often happens that this commonality is nothing other than some likeness of words. Thus I remember showing elsewhere that Sts. Clarus and Clara are invoked on account of clearness of the air, and St. Mummolin for the healing of boys who mumble (in Dutch Mommelen). Similarly, although between the name of St. Dodo, by which a father or grandfather seems to have been indicated by the old Germans Cf. Adelung, Wörterbuch, under Dod, and the back, in the vernacular dos, there is no agreement, except a certain consonance between Dodo and dos dos, yet from this it has come about that the patronage of St. Dodo has long been implored by the sick suffering in the back or kidneys. It belongs further to the genius of the Germanic nation that nothing is held done unless touch intervenes; to say nothing of things and men being touched also to signify love and confidence: but I have argued about these things more fully elsewhere Acta SS., vol. X of October, p. 855. And hence it has come about that the sick apply their backs to things which belonged to St. Dodo or are thought to have belonged to him: in which custom there is no more superstition than in touching the hem of the garment of Christ the Lord, or in applying the handkerchiefs of Paul, and in receiving the shadow of Peter.
[24] and at Lobbes to the sepulchral stone of Abbot Caulier. At the Monastery in Fagne, where nevertheless the veneration of St. Dodo, who is also held to be patron, and the custom of piously invoking him persevere among the inhabitants, that ancient usage has nearly ceased; but at Lobbes it still persists in the crypt of the parish church of St. Ursmar, at which there was formerly the cemetery of the monks and of the inhabitants. In that crypt, namely, there exists the sepulchral stone of William Caulier, most deserving abbot of Brogne and Lobbes in the sixteenth century, on which his image, in priestly or rather episcopal habit, with two pastoral staffs placed within his arms on account of his double benefice, is expressed with the admirable art of the sculptor. But the people have persuaded themselves that this inscription is of St. Dodo; whom they therefore love to invoke to avert diseases of the kidneys, applying their backs also to the stone. In this certainly they err; but they do not err in imploring the help of St. Dodo. No wonder, then, if God often, even in more recent times, hears the prayers of simple men, supported by the intervention of the most holy abbot of Waslers Vos, Lobbes, vol. II, p. 267. At Binche also, where most of the relics of the patrons of Lobbes were formerly preserved, the cult of St. Dodo flourishes.
LIFE OF ST. DODO, ABBOT OF WASLERS
according to two manuscript exemplars of Lobbes and a third of Liessies.
Dodo, abbot of Waslers in Belgium. (S.)
BHL Number: 2207
FROM MANUSCRIPTS
PROLOGUE.
[The Saints, who through the grace of God have come to glory, and among whom is St. Dodo, are to be praised.] Here begins the prologue to the Life of the excellent confessor of Christ St. Dodo, disciple of our most blessed father Ursmar, bishop and confessor. — The kindness of our Saviour is ever at hand, ready for the salvation of those whom he has predestined to grasp the future rewards of life. And, as he himself spiritually taught in the Gospel, he calls some in the morning, some at the third hour, some at the sixth and ninth, some also at the eleventh, to cultivate his vineyard; because to some in infancy, to some in youth and adolescence, to others also in old age he grants to take up the labour of spiritual sowing. Nor is it difficult for his hand to correct habits grown old in crime, who even those swallowed by the teeth of Leviathan has called back to life with the bracelet of his mercy, and to receive confidence in his goodness has taken into the heavenly court as princes those very ones whom he thus shook out of his teeth. For of these we know the prophets to be; of these especially consists that judging number of the apostles; of these stands the distinguished number of confessors and monks, wondrously adorned; of whose college it is established that he too is, of whose life I, poor in wit, not without great fear presume to speak somewhat. But God is able to open my mouth to make known the mighty works of his servant, who opened the mouth of an ass for the rebuke of a prophet. And so from those things which have been learned by me by the narration of truthful men, I shall begin to narrate some. — Here ends the prologue a.
ANNOTATION.
HERE BEGINS THE LIFE OF BLESSED DODO, CONFESSOR OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER ONE.
The boyhood of St. Dodo, his discipleship under St. Ursmar, the endowment of the monastery of Waslers, his headship of this house, his withdrawal into the nearest solitude, miracles, burial in his cell.
The affairs of the saints are to be committed to writing. The Creator of the heavens, then, and Lord of the angels, ruling the threefold fabric of things, sorrowing with pity for human errors, desiring to call us back that we might return by obedience, through the keeping of his commandments, to the happiness of paradise from which we fell by violating the divine precepts, sent the chief men of earth through the climes of the whole world; whose sound, reaching to the last ends of the earth, inwardly inflamed the hearts of those who were predestined to eternal life; so that some of them merited to become confessors of Christ; whom now mother Church rejoices to have as leaders and rulers. Although therefore the tongue of no mortal is able worthily to utter the deeds of the soldiers of so great a king, yet lest they should be wholly given over to oblivion, a few out of the many mighty deeds which they did while set in this world their successors have striven to embrace in some way with sagacious zeal: knowing most truly that human sayings and acts * are held more certainly than when entrusted to memory alone. The followers on foot, then, of the chief men of the world were the renowned martyrs and magnificent confessors; who, having spurned completely the desirable pomps of the world, in mind and act bound themselves over to the divine precepts. Of the conduct of whom, though little, yet for the profit of the hearers I shall say something, lest uncultivated speech should breed disgust in the hearers.
[3] [St. Dodo, born at Vallis near Chimay, is baptized by St. Ursmar, to whom he is handed over to be brought up.] This blessed man, then, worthy of the proclamation of the good, was a native of the pagus of Laomacum a, at the villa which is called Vallis, at the time when the prince Pippin, surnamed the Fat , was holding the sceptre b. Greatly rejoicing over his birth, his parents went to the holy abbot and pontiff Ursmar c, bringing with them the little infant they had begotten, demanding with suppliant prayer that he should purify him with the wave of sacred baptism, and receive him with his sacred hands from the saving laver, and bring him up as his own son in the service of the Lord d. To whose prayers the most holy man, as he was always most kindly in spirit , piously and clemently assenting, gladly carried out what the boy's parents were asking with most urgent prayer to be done. For in those days the praiseworthy Ursmar, in all things devoted to God, distinguished by the pontifical blessing, was staying in the monastery of Lobbes; in which he admonished day and night with continual preaching and saving admonitions a very great crowd of monks and no small body of the common people, that they should hasten with him to the heavenly homeland, desiring to say with the apostle: "Behold I and my children whom God has given me." For Blessed Ursmar was truly worthy, modest in morals, gracious in eloquence, and crowned with all honesty of morals, having right conduct with all men. Whatever he knew to be pleasing to God, he treated in mind, taught with his tongue, and practised in work. He never harmed anyone, he strove to profit all. He provided good things, not only before God, but also before all men. For he strove with all his strength to show himself an example of good acts in all things. What sort and how great he was, whoever desires to know can easily learn in the little book which has been published on his acts *.
[4] He advances much in the sacred letters and in virtue; Strong indeed in many acts of good virtues, he handed over his godson, a youth of good disposition, namely the aforesaid Dodo, to the study of letters. He drank up the streams of the divine Scriptures the more quickly the more strictly he bound over his tender age to the Holy Spirit, knowing that it is written that there is no delay in learning where the Holy Spirit is present as teacher. Then, the years of infancy being completed, and growing to puberty in the age of boyhood, he poured himself wholly into the service of God. The strenuous boy strove with all his strength to become a perfect man , despising all earthly things, and greedily desiring heavenly: the riches which he could have in the world he laid up in heaven with mouth and hand. For he was overflowing in the bounty of alms, chaste in body, devout in mind, comely in face, temperate in conversation, serene in prudence, illustrious in dealings of holiness, truthful in speech, tenacious in the censure of justice, long-suffering in hope, distinguished in humility, filled with charity, to be loved for the gentleness of his kindness. It was just that he should be loved by all, whom such ornaments of signal justice had adorned. For heavenly wisdom so * inwardly decorated him that it was fitting that he should be inscribed in the court of the citizens above.
[5] he becomes monk, abbot and hermit; And when he grew strong daily in manifold ways in upright morals, he preferred to imitate the life of religious monks rather than to be deceived by the flatteries and empty favours of secular men, remembering that prophetic saying: "My people, they who call you blessed, they deceive you." Upheld therefore by the protection of the King above, and encouraged by the saving exhortation of blessed Ursmar, the aforesaid happy Dodo made over the whole inheritance of his possession to Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, for the monastery e which from the name of the river running beside it is called Waslerus, which the aforesaid kindly Ursmar granted to his aforesaid son Dodo f. But the sacred Dodo himself, justified by God in every work, avoiding the throng of men coming to him *, and choosing the solitary life rather than public conversation, had a little cell g built for himself not far from his monastery; in which, giving himself to fasts and prayers day and night, he tirelessly served the Lord, whom he was eager to please in heart and soul.
[6] he overcomes temptations and heals the sick; And when he remained in it for many days, for the love of God, withdrawn from human sight, wasting his little body with manifold fasting, Christ, who promised to his faithful, saying: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world, laid low by the power of his right hand the mad tumults of the vices rising against his young recruit, and drove all the deceits of the ancient enemy away from his soldier. Temptation of the flesh also being wholly removed from him, * there followed him at once a very great efficacy of miracles: for the blind and lame, supported by the aid of their friends and parents, were frequently brought to the cell of the holy man; who, Christ favouring and the blessed man interceding, having recovered the desired health, returned to their own dwellings without anyone's support. Some also bound with iron chains h as their own crimes demanded, when they had devoutly prostrated themselves at the threshold of his cell, by the supporting merits of the blessed man, freed from their iron chains, returned to their homes, filled with great joy.
[7] [at length, ripe in holiness and years, he dies on the 1st day of October and is buried in his cell.] But after the venerable servant of Christ
ripe in morals and in years, the burden of the flesh being laid down, had completed the course of the present life , on the day of the kalends of October i he gave back his soul to the bright stars of the skies, which now, joined to the angelic spirits, enjoys in the court of paradise the glory of everlasting life, and obtains the robe of eternal delight. In the cell k, finally, which he himself built for himself, and which he blessed by his dwelling, his most holy body lay lifeless for a long time, in which the clemency of the Almighty performed works of manifold mighty deeds; all of which, on account of their length, the stylus of their writer could not * embrace. But because through the carelessness of writers the deeds of the saints, which the Lord has deigned to perform on account of their merits, are wont to depart from memory, I have thought it fitting to insert in this page some, though very few out of many, of the miracles which, with the Lord's help, have been performed to the memory of the most blessed Dodo, because "to hide the secrets of a king, as the angel says to Tobias, is good, but to reveal and confess the works of God is very honourable."
ANNOTATIONS.
supply: committed to letters*.
c. C. ab.* Liessies.
illius* Liessies.
p. a. a.* Lobbes.
a. s.* Liessies.
ed. est.* Liessies.
t. v. v. p. f.* Liessies.
E. æ.* Liessies.
N. s. e. c.* Liessies.
confluentium* Liessies.
et* added Liessies.
p. v.* Lobbes.
illius* Liessies.
non potuit* Lobbes.
CHAPTER TWO.
Miracles; the elevation of the body; its carrying about through the pagi of Porcien and Brabant; the punishment of a thief; epilogue.
[Dodilo, bishop of Cambrai, hearing that miracles were taking place at the tomb of St. Dodo,] God, then, wonderful in his saints, wonderfully glorified his confessor Dodo by the miracles of his wonderful works; which we have neither been able wholly to embrace in writing, nor ought to suppress altogether in silence; because it is not right that the works of the servants of Christ should lie hidden beneath the shade of a bushel, as the reading of the Gospel declares: "Let them see, it says, your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." When therefore it pleased the Lord, the regulator of all things, to make known to men of what merit in heaven was he who was venerated by men in the world , report was spread about him, and it came from narrators to the ears of the excellent prelate Dodilo a, who at that time was fittingly ruling the chair of bishop of Cambrai, that in certain parts of his diocese a pearl, fit for the adornment of the King above, was lying hidden, namely the body of Dodo, confessor of Christ, whose celebrated name, with many miracles declaring it, had already become known among some who lived round about. Rejoicing greatly at this, the bishop gave manifold thanks to the Almighty; saying that he would be happy, in that in the days of his episcopate the Lord had revealed such a treasure.
[9] [he sends archdeacons and others to elevate his body: a woman is cured of chiragra.] Accordingly, counsel being taken with his archdeacons b and the other fellow officers of his see , he directed in haste to the cell in which he had learned by hearing that the members of St. Dodo were resting elders and wise priests, who should remove the saint from the earth of that little cell; and carry him with fitting honour to the monastery of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, situated not far off. And they, obeying the admonitions of the pious father without the hesitation of any delay, proceeded to that place, and what had seemed good to them they worthily and perfectly fulfilled. Water, then, pouring over the limbs of the most sacred body, they wrapped them in white and excellent linens, and honourably placed them in the aforesaid monastery, composing to the Lord odes with sweet-sounding voices. Indeed the miracle which the Lord performed in the same place out of veneration for his confessor is worthy to be imparted to the ears of good men. A certain woman, then, loosened of all the strength of her arms, so that neither with right hand nor left could she bring bread to her mouth, trusting in the power of the holy man, when with the water in which the holy members had been washed she poured over her arms, bound by the pain of chiragra *, at once, her long-desired health being recovered, she returned exulting to her own dwellings.
[10] [Leutbert is three times admonished by God that the body should be placed in a more honourable place;] These things being accomplished, then, with the Lord's help, for many courses of days afterwards the pledges of the holy man lay in the aforesaid oratory c of Blessed Peter on the left in a mausoleum, which still lies on the same soil , until a faithful man, Leutbert by name, overseer of the place, was warned in a vision that he should act without delay, that they should be removed from the same little place in which the holy members were lying, and placed in a more eminent and worthier place. When once and twice and thrice he had been struck by such a vision, and had neglected to report it to the priests of Christ, by whose office it was fitting that such a work should be carried out, a sharper admonition befell him, namely a very great fever of the body, so that he believed that he was being wholly taken from human affairs, and for his contempt led down to the places of punishment. Wherefore, the most violent pain of the body compelling him, he went in haste to tell Tresuguinus the dean d what had already been revealed to him in a third vision about the holy man. And he eagerly reported to Bishop Fulbert e *, who in those days had been enlarged with the mitre of the prelacy of the church of Cambrai, and enriched with the honours of an excellent reputation.
[11] [which commands Tresuguinus the dean carries out by the authority of Bishop Fulbert.] He, hearing these things, with a most joyful countenance says to Tresuguinus: "Go as quickly as possible to the aforesaid monastery; and, summoning the presbyters subject to your deanery f, fulfil faithfully and diligently with them the business enjoined on you." He went in haste, and what had been ordered him he worthily carried out. For, the body of the holy man being removed from the sarcophagus, which was placed, as we have said before, on the left side of the church, they raised it beside the altar of Peter, prince of the apostles, sweetly re-echoing with sounding praise; in which now resting he hears the prayers of those who come, and carries heavenward the prayers of those asking with faith before the tribunal of the eternal King, who is the judge aware of the good and the wicked living.
[12] [The body is carried about by collectors through the pagus of Porcien: a nerveless woman is healed.] Meanwhile we have thought it fitting to insert in this little work that miracle which the clemency of the Almighty arranged to be done on account of the merits of his soldier Dodo. For when the aforesaid Leutbert was striving with all the strength of his mind to rebuild the ruined parts of the monastery, and funds were lacking to complete it, taking with him clerics of the same monastery and some laymen g, the pledges of the holy man placed on a carrying-litter, going through the villas adjacent to the monastery, that those dwelling in them might contribute some little solace for restoring the aforesaid monastery of St. Peter h, they came into the pagus of Porcien i, where they rested for a little while, in the villa which is called Oteia [k], on account of the hard journeys of the road which they had endured carrying the most sacred members of the aforesaid confessor. Rising from there, when they were already taking up the journey begun, a certain nerveless woman began to cry out after them with loud voices: "I beseech you , men who carry the precious relics of the saint, that you deign lovingly to wait a little for me, a poor wretch, seeking the aid of health." Having compassion, then, on the voice of the asking woman, they at once halted, desiring to know for what cause she was crying after them so tearfully. And when she had been carried rather than led between the hands of her relatives, having kissed
the cloth of the bier, in which lay the limbs of the blessed man, she at once recovered her long-desired health, and rejoicing with the others and placing the bier on her own shoulders, she took up the journey, praising the Lord with hymn-singing voices.
[13] [The thief of the relics is compelled to remain immovable, until he restores them. Epilogue.] We believe, then, that this was done by the merits of the confessor of Christ Dodo, that the woman should return home rejoicing on her own feet, who had been carried by the hands of others to the relics of the saint, wretchedly weeping. We strive further to attach another miracle performed to this small miracle, because the bounty of the Creator breathes mercifully equally in the least as in the great, nor does he delay to turn the ear of kindness in small things, as he hears the prayers of those praying in the greatest. For at the same time, when the matter required that the clerics of the aforesaid monastery should carry the light burden, namely the body of the often-mentioned confessor of Christ blessed Dodo, through the pagus of Brabant l, and they turned aside to the villa which is called Tongras m, to give their weary limbs a little rest, there at once came men and women, bringing them what was necessary for food. Among whom came a certain man, by name Winigisus, steward of that villa, placid in face and words, but as afterwards appeared, malevolent in mind. He, when he saw all going out of the tent here and there and no one present, infected with the poison of cupidity, stealthily seized one of the caskets, outwardly adorned and decorated with gold and silver, but within filled with the most sacred pledges, and wished, weighed down with such a burden, to return to his house. And when he had striven with a slight movement to go where he wished, suddenly, divine force compelling, he so stood on the ground as if the soles of his feet had been rooted fast in the earth . Finding, then, that he was bound by the divine will, and remained immovable, he came not of his own accord, but compelled, begging pardon for the crime which he had committed, bathed in tears. And those guardians of the holy relics who were present there, seeing the man greatly confounded over his guilt * and mourning, took back the casket which he had attempted to carry off, and permitted him to go back free to his house. For manifold are the miracles which the divine power performed to show the glory of its veteran soldier; but let the studious hearers be satisfied with the few out of many which we have touched on, believing in their heart that the divine power raised him heavenward to eternal joys, whose suffrages of merits may obtain for all who venerate his solemnities a share in his rewards, by the help of the clemency of him to whom belongs dominion and glory without end. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
In the three manuscript exemplars one reads: At the villa which is called Otcia. Mabillon found the same in his. Bontemps Sancta tetrarchia, p. 140 saw Otria, as is clear from these verses:
Behold, when, compelled to turn their weary steps toward Porcien, At the villa which is called Otria, on account of The steep mountains and the hard road, in the silent night, They commit their weary limbs to sleep-bringing rest.
But neither Otcia nor Otria comes among the villas which in the ninth century the people of Lobbes possessed in the pagus of Porcien In Vos, Lobbes etc., vol. I, p. 226, nor in the Polyptychs of the diocese of Reims Varin, Archives administ. de Reims, vol. II, part II, p. 1046 and following; unless it be Aire or Saint-Remi-d'Aire, a chapel of ease of the parish of Blanzy (Blanzy) [Ibid., p. 1065; and in the manuscript Polyptych of Reims of the Bollandian Museum, p. 36].
terris*, Liessies.
multimodis* Lobbes.
se. su.* Lobbes.
perfundentes* Liessies.
cyragricho* Liessies.
contrita* Liessies.
Loco* Liessies.
ageret ab* Lobbes.
F. e.* Liessies.
visum* Liessies.
fideliter* Lobbes.
deferri* Liessies.
et m.* Liessies.
edisserere* Lobbes.
vos ab.* Lobbes.
et* Liessies.
ab.* Liessies.
vocatur* Lobbes.
ab.* Liessies.
ab.* Lobbes.
o. c. ab.* Liessies.
t. fu. si* Liessies.
esse* Liessies.
d. r. s.* Liessies.
APPENDIX
By Augustine Bontemps, monk of Lobbes.
Dodo, abbot of Waslers in Belgium. (S.)
aFROM MANUSCRIPTS
The author records a singular benefit,I myself, unworthy dweller once of the said cell, (For that sacred place is subject to the see of Lobbes And it is a priory famous in title and in name,) Often imploring his aid, have felt his solaces, And have seen with present light the effects that followed. To whom shall I refer them as received? To whom but Christ most high, Breathing upon prayers poured out in the name of the saints? Of which, that I may be grateful, a mindful judge of what is fair, I will refer one here, and like a finishing touch to the Life, I will join it to the prodigies told. For it is right to speak, And he is upright who bowing adores the head in the members. The ungrateful man blocks the fountain of kindness; and stands in the way Lest it flow into the mind, or the welcome wave bubble up; Whence, mindful of merit, perhaps not burdensome to the reader, I shall compose in this song, recalling the gift bestowed. A torrid and trembling fever lately seized me, Gnawing my limbs, a quartan on fixed days, Tearing my loins, kidneys, sides, bones, arms, Enervating nature, leaping on the senses, and Attacking the strength of the body, enemy of rest, Allowing neither to indulge in sleep, nor to use the laws Of nature, gradually gnawing all the bowels, And everywhere feeding on all the members of the body. What of this, that it had penetrated the vital airs of the mind, Had hurt it, and had filled the mind with black smoke, So that I could scarcely speak well or ever remember What I had suffered, the months having long since slipped by. By chance the pious memory of Dodo came upon my mind; And thinking that by the holy aid of the patron I could Be kept safe, and be restored to my former life, I poured out prayers for suffrage at the sacred altars of Dodo. Scarcely had the ardour of my mind opened my lips, When with trembling body I felt my limbs revive. A little after, the resolve stands constant in my mind to adorn with songs, And to write with sounding quills the Life And deeds of so holy a Father, though ignorant of the art.
which, feverish in the priory or Monastery in Fagne, he had received from God by the prayers of St. Dodo.2 Now the sad black day of my languors had dawned, When I go through the Life of the saint, turning ancient Volumes, venerating the script, and embracing with my mind The hidden sense: I arrange it to the rule of law, And the norm of verse, forgetful of fever and of pains: Love conquers disease, drives out fearful dangers. And the fatal day, meditating pious verses, I pass; Greatly amazed that my limbs are unharmed, driven by no pains, I watch the course of the sun. Behold when, its circuit made, it hid its head in the waves, Bringing the shades of night, the fever withdraws with the sun. O happy I (I cry out), now that the daylight is done. For on the usual day I have now felt no gripings: A happy auspice, I pray a happy outcome may be at hand. But my limbs are shaken with doubtful fear (Although I was already blessed with a happy lot) And I hold suspect the shadows, leaders of errors, companions of pains, And the turns of Phoebus and his Sister: Fearing all things safe, I dread lest the wandering fever May know how to turn the light into shadowy night. Between hope and fear I compose my limbs to rest; Trembling I await the dawn and the following light.
Behold, Phoebe, rival of her brother, brings placid sleep: Which great pain had taken from me for some months past, Compelling me to spend sleepless nights: And behold another day dawned safe upon my eyes; And no traces of pains remain in my limbs; At no time after, in no month labouring, I find my members suddenly restored in an unharmed body, And the former strength of firm nature. Who but one bereft of mind could deny to me that this gift Of Dodo was given by prayer, and granted by favour? For physicians all hold one constant opinion, That a quartan fever by no herbs can be healed, Nor can it be remitted by any merely Human means: that it is dissolved by the power of those above, And vanishes by the will of God at a fixed time, All admit with unanimous consent and voice. Let the fool murmur, let this madman rage, and the senseless Heretic, who in his folly spurns the sacred ashes; And let us pour out highest thanks to God in the name of the saints, We who ask to be written in the roll of those in heaven: and let us refer to the Father of light Every gift received, the saints mediating, from high Heaven, believing that whatever gifts are brought down: And let us venerate the citizens of heaven and cherish their bones, And remember that they were the temples of the living God. Let us praise our fathers, and the holy tetrarchs: Who though they divided themselves into four seats b; That they might fill the wide world with the divine seed, Now dwell as one in the citadel of the starry ether, Ready to bring present help to all. Therefore, Father Dodo, endowing me with the gift of health, Beg for me a sound mind with an unharmed body; And you, mindful of us, grant that no forgetting of the most high God may seize us: but sound in mind and body, When the end of the present age shall have come to us.