ON SS. LAUDOVEVA OR LAUDOVENA AND AMANDUS OF SENLIS: LAUDOVEVA OR LAUDOVENA, AND AMANDUS, BISHOP, AT SENLIS IN GAUL,
AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY
Laudoveva, venerated as a queen at Senlis in Gaul. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The cult of St. Laudoveva at Senlis. The showing of the relics for gain and splendid indulgences.
On the road by which one goes from Paris to Compiègne, about midway, lies Senlis, ten leagues from Paris, [St. Laudoveva, whose deeds lie hidden, was formerly venerated at Senlis in the sacred chapel of Saint-Frambaud;] as many from Beauvais, seven from Meaux. In the third century an episcopal see was erected there; which stood until the year 1801, comprised within the limits of the province of Reims; but by the concordat entered into between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon it was suppressed, the greater part of the territory being added to the diocese of Beauvais. There were formerly there very many ecclesiastical institutions; which the impious and seditious whirlwind of the end of the eighteenth century swept away. Among these an extraordinary place was held by the sacred chapel of Saint-Frambaud, which was a distinguished chapter, founded in the eleventh century by Adelaide, mother of King Robert Gallia christiana I, volume X, column 1472; the church still exists, but made into a barn or storehouse. Very many relics of saints were formerly preserved there, and their natal days kept; but after the titular patron the chief was nearly St. Laudoveva, whom Castellanus celebrates today in his Universal Martyrology, saying: At Senlis, St. Laudoveva, queen of the Armoricans, whose body is honored at Saint-Frambaud. Which words are nearly repeated by de Saint-Allais, and the venerable Pétin and Muller. Rightly. Tresvaux relates [Vies des saints de Bretagne par D. Lobineau, enlarged edition, volume I, page LVII] that her office was formerly recited in the whole diocese of Senlis, but removed from the Breviary of the year 1776. Having read these things, I was seized by the hope that lessons existed from which some information could be gathered about the deeds of the blessed woman. Wherefore the Reverend Fathers Toulemont and Daniel, diligent and learned men of our Society, spared no effort that I should not be disappointed of my expectation; and not content with their own inquiries, they called to their aid the venerable Richard, priest of Beauvais and doctor of sacred theology, who, since he is wholly occupied in investigating the Christian origins and historical traditions of the present diocese of Beauvais, could be useful to me above the rest. And to these I owe nearly all that is contained in this sylloge; but they found no proper office of St. Laudoveva. They examined however the manuscript Breviary of Senlis of the thirteenth century, in which the feast of St. Laudovena, queen, is announced with three lessons, and the Breviaries printed in the years 1521, 1689, and 1700; in all of which it is prescribed that the office be taken from the common, although at some time it was performed with much solemnity. For in the Necrology nine lessons are ordered to be recited, and in the Martyrology of Saint-Frambaud the festival was announced in these words: On the IV day before the Kalends of November, the natal day of Bl. Laudovena, queen, whose body rests in this church. But the Legendary or Lectionary of Senlis, which is today preserved among the manuscript codices of the Parisian library of Sainte-Geneviève, was useless, since it ends at the month of October.
[2] [when this chapel was seen to need rebuilding in the year 1177, there took place there, with the consent and presence of King Louis VII, a showing for gain of the relics of St. Laudoveva and other saints;] We have also more ancient testimonies of
the cult of St. Laudoveva. For when in the year 1177 the basilica of Saint-Frambaud was worn with age, Ebroin the dean, Hilduin the treasurer, Odo the cantor, and the other clerics, with the approval of King Louis VII, patron of the chapter of Saint-Frambaud, resolved to make a showing of their relics, by which they might draw men from every side and impel them to extend helping hands. This kind of gain, already practiced in the eleventh century, Guibert of Nogent sharply condemned [De pignoribus SS. book I, chapter 4, no. 1, and book III, chapter 5, no. 5, Works pages 337 and 358] and the Council of Trent Session XXV, on the Invocation of the Saints and the veneration of relics abolished, ordering that in the veneration of relics all base gain should be eliminated. But at that time the people of Senlis, pressed by want, were of another opinion; which was indeed held by a number of others Moretus, de Ritu ostensionis reliquiarum, page 83 and following. Summoned therefore by royal letter, the abbots of Chaalis, Ingelramnus, of Longpont, Hugh, and of Foigny, Ansellus, who had formerly been treasurer of Saint-Frambaud, were present on the appointed day, to be at hand at the opening of the reliquaries. There were present likewise Henry of Senlis and Simon of Meaux, bishops. In whose presence, when the reliquaries had been opened in the sacristy, holy relics were found, far more numerous and more worthy than the clerics of Saint-Frambaud had hoped, with the attestation of charters for each… It has seemed that the relics themselves ought to be expressed by name: namely the body of St. Frambaud, abbot and confessor; the body of Gerbaud, bishop and confessor; an arm of Bl. Ebrulf, abbot and confessor; the body of Bl. Laudovena, queen of the Franks; the body of Bl. Bertha; the body of Bl. Baumirus, abbot and confessor. When this news was brought to the king, he could not but rejoice; since he was borne by much piety toward St. Frambaud. For when Ansellus II, treasurer of Saint-Frambaud, went in the year 1169 to conversion in the monastery of Foigny, the treasury of Saint-Frambaud came into our hands, as patron, says Louis VII himself Gallia christ. volume X, column 1479; and on that occasion, he thus continues, we visited the church, and viewed the relics and the treasure: in which visit we learned that the church was not lighted in accordance with due reverence; wherefore for a lamp which should always burn before the relics he assigned 20 shillings, and sixty for candles and other lighting. Since therefore it was at his heart that so great a treasure should be preserved in a fitting church, he ordered the coming showing to be publicly announced, and resolved to come to it himself on the VII day before the Ides of May.
[3] on which occasion splendid indulgences were granted by two papal legates: So in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1177, on the day appointed, there were present with the lord king the bishops Lord Henry of Senlis and Lord Simon of Meaux, and with these, and with the great men and a copious people, the lord king followed, carrying the relics devoutly and with great reverence outside the city as far as a high place: where, by the ordering of divine providence, a sermon was given by Lord Peter, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Chrysogonus and legate of the apostolic see; who by the authority of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of the Holy Roman Church, and of the bishops who were present, granted to the assembled people and to all who should help the renewal of the church indulgence for transgressed vows, forgotten sins, and a seventh part of their penances. And afterwards too, add the clerics of Saint-Frambaud, William, archbishop of Reims, legate of the apostolic see, dealing more indulgently with us, remitted a fifth part of the penances. A kind of indulgence not unusual at that time: Pontius, archbishop of Arles, about the year 1000 granted a third part of penances once a year to pious helpers of the building of Montmajour, a monastery then being built; and a little afterwards Gaufred, archbishop of Narbonne, made the same indulgence to helpers of the church of Maguelone; and so about the year 1180 the Roman pontiff remitted a seventh part of penances once a year to those who, confessed and contrite, should come to the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Speyer Amort, de Indulgentiis, part I, section IX, pages 224 and 225. In this last grant alms are not enjoined; but in the earlier ones they are. Indulgences of an aliquot part of penance were not, therefore, unusual at that time; much less indulgences for gain. And although a great many Roman pontiffs and councils tried to impose a limit on these indulgences, this evil continually grew, until the Council of Trent abolished the alms-gatherers and provided that all might at last truly understand that the heavenly treasures of the church are exercised not for gain but for piety Session XXI, on reform, chapter 9; but the holy Pope Pius V abolished the stain from the root, abrogating in the year 1567 the indulgences for gain themselves In Amort, de Indulg. part II, section II, no. 29, page 44. But enough of these things.
[4] and also a slip placed in the reliquary of St. Laudoveva, found afterwards. We do not produce the Senlis diploma itself, since it has been published by Labbe Bibliotheca nova mss. volume II, page 560, by the Maurists Gallia christ. volume X, column 1474, by Dom Bouquet Recueil des historiens, volume XIV, page 484, and by our predecessors in the Acts of St. Frambaud Acta SS. August volume III, page 301. But concerning the same matter we have another testimony, namely a slip placed in the reliquary at that time. This slip was afterwards found there, and was printed in the year 1618 in a report on the visitation of the relics of the church of Saint-Frambaud: and from this report it is learned that the body of St. Laudoveva was then placed in the fifth place at the Epistle horn; and this report is very rare. There, then, is read Proces-verbal de la visite des chasses de S. Frambourg, 1618: In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1170 (or rather 1177), on the [VII] day before the Ides of May, there was found in this reliquary the body of Bl. Laudoveva, and thorns and one rib of St. Eusebius, confessor; there being present the Christian Louis, our king; and Philip, his son; Simon, bishop of Meaux; and also other persons both ecclesiastical and secular; for the restoration of the church to be made; Hilduin being treasurer of Saint-Frambaud. As to my saying that the year 1177 should be written in place of 1170, the reason is manifest: for Peter, cardinal of the title of St. Chrysogonus, was not sent into Gaul before the year 1177 Cf. Baronius, Annales ecclesiastici, at the year 1177, no. 93, nor did Simon ascend the see of Meaux except between the years 1175 and 1177 Gallia christ. volume VIII, column 1617. There is added the authority of the other diploma, in which certainly the same royal visitation is treated. Moreover in the copy which the venerable Richard sent to me the year 1177 is read; and from this also we have taken the VII before the Ides, which was a Monday.
§. II. Whether the genuine name is Laudovena, Laudoveva, or Landovenna. Whether queen of the Armoricans or of the Franks. Whether wife of Eusebius, King of Vannes, converted by St. Melanius. Whether the relics were brought from Lesser Britain. A second translation. The fortunes of the relics from the year 1793.
[The name was not the Celtic Landovena or Landouenna, but the Frankish Laudoveva or Laudovena. She was a queen, that is, a daughter of the King of the Franks, but not queen of the Armoricans.] In the excerpt from Labbe's diploma, of which we reported portions a little above, the name is written Laudovena; which the typesetters in the Gallia christiana changed to Landoreva, and Charles François Afforty, formerly dean of Saint-Rieul, in his manuscript commentaries to Laudoveva. But in the thirteenth-century Breviary and in the Martyrology of Saint-Frambaud the venerable Richard found also Laudovena written; he not easily to be deceived by the form of letters, since it is well known to him that the holy woman has long been called and written Laudoveva, commonly Loueve, the dental letter d between two vowels being suppressed. As for the reading Laudoveva in the slip printed in the year 1618, there would be authority on the contrary side, if the accuracy now prevailing in copying old records had been customary at that time. More weight belongs to the present use of the form Laudoveva. For if now, and indeed for many centuries, she is called Laudoveva both by the people and in the liturgical books, how can it be that she was formerly called Laudovena? The forms of popular and liturgical names do not easily change, although examples, especially in the names of cities, are not lacking. On both sides, then, not bad reasons contend. The Armoricans have solved the difficulty in their own way [Deric, Hist. eccles. de Bretagne, volume I, page 283; Tresvaux, Vies des saints de la Bretagne Armorique, volume I, page LVII; Garaby, Vies des bienheureux et des saints de Bretagne, page 275], who, taking the first part of the name from the Gallia Christiana's Lando-reva, and the second, Laudo-vena, from Labbe's Bibliotheca mss., thence (so that the holy woman's name might be Celtic in appearance On Celtic names ending in en, see Zeuss, Grammatica celtica, pages 792 and 793) have concocted Landouena or Landouenna (as if lan were excellent, and wen or guen good). But in these things, as in many others, they seem to have pursued the love of country rather than of truth. For whether she is called Laudoveva or Laudovena, the name is Frankish, rare indeed, but altogether interpretable. For Laudoveva consists of two juxtaposed words [Acta SS. October, volume X, page 823, and volume XI, pages 656, 681, 715, 734, and 948], namely Laudo or Lauto (which name was borne by a holy bishop of Coutances), or Lauta (which name was borne by a tenant mentioned in the testament of St. Remigius), and veva, a word which appears also in the name Genoveva, and which is probably the same as the German Weib, the Saxon, Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Swedish Wief, Wyf, Wife, Vif, in Latin femina Cf. Adelung, Wörterbuch, under Weib; in which end the feminine names Abezwib, Adalwib and Adalwif, Gozwib and Gezwib, Hiltewib, Iuzwib, and Thietwib [Cf. Nom. fem. in Alam. Teutonica, in Goldast, Alamann. antiquit. volume II, part I, page 120 and following]. But if the genuine name was Laudovena, this also is Frankish in origin. For Vena seems to be the same as Wino, Wina, and in both genders Wini, friend, male and female; which in names is sometimes changed into Weno, Wena, or Weni, for example in Wenefrid for Winifrid Beyer, Urkundenbuch z. G. der mittelrhein. Territorien, volume I, page 762. From this head, then, St. Laudoveva or Laudovena is to be reckoned not British or Armorican, but Frankish in origin. But, as is read in Labbe's diploma, the clerics of Saint-Frambaud found in the reliquaries an attestation of charters for each of the pledges of the saints, that is, charters by which it was indicated of which saint each of the relics was; and so they knew that they had the body of Bl. Laudovena, queen of the Franks. It is certain, then, both from the name and
from the testimony, the most ancient of all, that St. Laudoveva or Laudovena was of Frankish race, and by no means Armorican.
[6] [The latter title was given to her because in her reliquary there were found relics of St. Eusebius, confessor, who was rashly held to be the same as Eusebius, King of Vannes,] But how then did it come about that not only the Armoricans, but others too, for example the most diligent Castellanus, said that she was queen of the Armoricans? The riddle does not seem insoluble. For since among the wives of the kings of the Franks (nearly all of whom are known, and of whom no saint at any rate is unknown) no Laudoveva comes, and few knew that the daughters of kings were formerly called queens Cf. Du Cange, Glossarium latinum, under Regina, they altogether denied that she was queen of the Franks. But why did they call her queen of the Armoricans? As is plain from the slip which I recited at no. 4, in the reliquary of St. Laudoveva, together with her body, they found thorns and one rib of St. Eusebius, confessor; which Eusebius they believed in the seventeenth century to be the same as the King of Vannes, of whom in the Life of St. Melanius, bishop of Rennes, the following are read Acta SS. January volume I, pages 331 and 332: This too I think should be placed among the chief works of miracles which the Lord wrought through his confessor St. Melanius, which is found faithfully to have been done concerning the King of Vannes, Eusebius, and his daughter, Aspasia by name. For the aforesaid king, coming at a certain time from the city of Vannes with his army, arrived at the parish called Cambliciacus, and there (why is uncertain to us), being perhaps angry, ordered the eyes of many men to be torn out and their hands to be torn off. But in the very night in which he did these things he began to be ill, and to be pressed by intolerable pains. Fearing to end his life there, he called in the physicians who had come with him, and admonished them to give him help in some way. But they, spending all their efforts in vain, could help him in nothing.
[7] [whom, guilty of monstrous cruelty, St. Melanius converted, and whose daughter he freed from a demon.] After three days from when he began to be ill, his daughter, Aspasia by name, was seized by a demon, and began to roll on the ground foaming. And when he was in anguish from this double sickness, namely his own and that of his dearest daughter, by which he was nonetheless the more sharply tormented, he searched by shrewd inquiry whence or from what man he could hope for the desired remedy. And hearing the fame of Bl. Melanius, namely how he loved the Lord, and how the Lord made him who loved him famous to the world by mighty works, he sent to him and suppliantly begged him to deign to come to him for charity's sake. This being obtained, he had him brought to him with the highest honor; and in the same parish in which he himself was lying, in the place called Primavilla, he ordered lodging to be prepared for him. Bl. Melanius, coming from his monastery, which he had built with his own hands in the estate called Placio in honor of God, came with a few monks to the bed of the aforesaid sick man. When the most cruel man beheld him, pierced to the bottom of his heart, he confessed his crimes, and suppliantly recounted how this bodily infirmity had befallen him and his daughter Aspasia. He added also that he should deign to pray for them both. The man of the Lord most kindly accepting this, having first given him a fitting penance for the crimes committed, said to him: "This infirmity, brother, is not unto death for you, but that you may be saved through it and may recognize the Lord who created you." Then he anointed him with blessed oil three times, with threefold invocation of the divinity; and, at once rising up well, he gave thanks to God, who through his servant St. Melanius had granted him health. After this St. Melanius went to the place where the girl was being vexed by the demon… He said to it: Go out of her, bloody beast… At this word the girl was at once made well… After this, when Bl. Melanius, wishing to withdraw from there, was asking for leave to go, the girl herself went to her father and begged him that, in recompense for the salvation of both, namely of herself and of him, if not more, he would at least give Cambliciacus itself to Bl. Melanius. King Eusebius, the father of the same girl, hearing this, most willingly assenting to her word, gave him the whole parish named above by his ring, for the support of his monks. These monks of St. Melanius preserved these lands up to the disturbances of the end of the eighteenth century. Having received the aforesaid, then, the blessed man, blessing them, went on from there to the see of his bishopric, namely to the city of Rennes.
[8] [But this Eusebius, otherwise unknown, seems never to have been venerated. There were in Gaul other confessors named Eusebius, whose relics may have been joined with the body of St. Laudoveva.] The Celtic name of this Eusebius (which either in sound somewhat approached Eusebius, or in meaning was worth nearly the same as the Latin Pius) lies hidden; nor is anything else known of him. Nevertheless Deric states [Hist. ecclés. de Bretagne, volume I, page 282 and following; Garaby, Vies des saints etc. pages 182, 183, 275, and 276] that he departed this life in the year 490; that his daughter Aspasia married Hoel I; that after his death she too lived so holily that she merited to be numbered among the dwellers in heaven; that her body was buried in the choir of the parish of Lancoet or Langoat, where she is honored under the name of sainte Copaie; although she was also called Alma-Pompeja and Pompeja. These are so many dreams, resting on no testimony of antiquity. However that may be, since from this passage of the Life of St. Melanius a certain Eusebius had become known, certainly guilty of a most grievous crime, but a penitent (yet by no means venerated with ecclesiastical office by the monks of St. Melanius, to whom he had left such great goods [Cf. the Old calendar of St. Melanius, in Lobineau, Vies des saints de Bretagne, at the end, page 4]), it seemed that he was that unknown St. Eusebius, confessor, whose relics had been discovered at Saint-Frambaud; and since these were found in the same case as the body of St. Laudoveva, it seemed that he was the husband and she the wife, laid in the same bier in memory of their marriage; and since finally he was king of the Armoricans of Vannes, it was necessary that St. Laudoveva should be proclaimed queen of the Armoricans, and that the bodies of both should be said to have been transferred to Senlis for fear of the Northmen. Nor are these arguments mine, but this whole series of hypotheses is to be seen in Deric Deric and Garaby, in the places cited. But in Gaul there were a number of saints named Eusebius, confessors (for example St. Eusebius, bishop of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, venerated on the 23rd of March; St. Eusebius, priest of Auxerre, inscribed in the Hieronymian calendars at the 3rd of May; St. Eusebius of Vence; or some other whose deeds have perished), some relics of whom could easily have been transferred to Senlis; so that it is not necessary to summon from Lesser Britain a Eusebius who, by no reasoning, is established ever to have been honored in the church.
[9] The other bodies preserved at Saint-Frambaud were never in Armorica. Nor is it read that in the times of the Northmen any relics were carried away from Lesser Britain to Senlis, with which the remains of SS. Laudoveva and Eusebius might have been associated. The other bodies or relics of saints that rested at Saint-Frambaud came there from elsewhere: that of St. Frambaud from the territory of Le Mans; of St. Gerbaud or Gerebald from the diocese of Bayeux; of St. Ebrulf from the territory of Beauvais or rather from the diocese of Lisieux; of St. Bertha from the diocese of Reims or rather from the territory of Hesdin; and finally of St. Baumirus or Baudomirus from the Perche in Normandy. Whence it is manifest that it was not Bretons, but priests and monks of the province of Rouen and dwellers near Hesdin who fled with the pledges of their saints to Senlis, or to another city, from which these relics were afterwards carried to Senlis; so that, if the relics of St. Laudoveva, queen of the Franks, and of St. Eusebius, confessor, were brought there at the same time, they must be reckoned to have been deposited earlier in those same parts, and by no means in Lesser Britain. In truth, as is read in the history of the translation of the body of St. Magloire, at the time when Richard, duke of Normandy, was devastating Armorica, a number of bodies of saints were carried partly from this province, partly from the territory of Bayeux, to Paris, where they were reverently received by Hugh Capet; which, when peace was restored, were not all returned to their former owners, but part were kept at Paris, and part imparted to other churches Acta SS. October volume X, page 791 and following. Wherefore some will have it Cf. Baillet, Vie des saints, volume VI, page 62, edition of 1739 that among these were the relics afterwards transferred to Senlis; and that this translation was made when at the beginning of the eleventh century Adelaide, widow of Hugh Capet, founded the chapter of Saint-Frambaud. I could easily believe that it was then for the first time that a number of bones of saints arrived at Senlis; but nothing suggests that they came together with the remains of St. Magloire from Lesser Britain. For in the history of that translation no body is listed that was ever honored at Saint-Frambaud; so that the relics of this church seem to have come into the power of Adelaide on another occasion, if they were in fact given by her to the chapel of Saint-Frambaud. I have nothing by which to define these things more accurately: which absence of documents is found in many other pledges, transferred here and there in the wretched storm of the Northmen. It lies wholly hidden, then, where St. Laudoveva lived or where she ended her life. For as to two learned men from Picardy having said in a calendar of their homeland, which they had inserted in the Yearbook of the year 1852, that the holy woman died at Senlis, this is a mere conjecture, resting on this one foundation, that her relics rested in that town.
[10] [At an unknown time another translation was made at Senlis, thereafter celebrated every year.] As the venerable Richard has written to me, another translation of the relics of St. Laudoveva was also made: but at a time as yet unknown. The writers of Senlis, he says, point out that at that time a great deal of earth was found in the reliquary, together with the bones of the holy woman and the slip adduced above. The memory of this translation was renewed every year on the Sunday before the feast of St. John. "On which feast the venerable canons of the cathedral church," says Jaulnay Annales de l'Eglise de Senlis, page 422, "and of the collegiate church of Saint-Rieul, vested in copes, go in processional order to the church of Saint-Frambaud, to be present at the solemn Mass and to make the festival more renowned." And since this translation is said to have been made at an unknown time (although the slip found in the reliquary of St. Laudoveva is the same which I recited at no. 4, and which I said was published in the year 1618 in the report on the visitation of the relics), care must be taken that this visitation is not confused with that translation.
[11] The sad fate of the relics of Senlis at the end of the eighteenth century; But in the year 1793 the annual commemoration of this solemnity ceased, when namely at Senlis,
as in the rest of Gaul, impiety raged freely, the good being thunderstruck and motionless with stupor. What happened then and afterwards in the wretched town the venerable Richard has explained to me in these few words: While at Beauvais, he says, and elsewhere, the relics of the holy patrons were burned in the middle of the marketplace amid popular songs, at Senlis, a peaceful town, the impious decrees of the tyrants found no favor, nor was that sacrilege perpetrated in insane assault. Yet the bodies of the saints, in which the sacred buildings abounded, were carried from the churches of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint-Rieul, Saint-Maurice, and Saint-Frambaud into the cemetery and laid in a wide pit beside the wall. The part of the wall near which the sacred treasure lay hidden was marked with a furtive sign of the cross, and the gravedigger was ordered by the magistrate not to disturb this earth. Shortly afterwards a column was set up, with a cross added, and this inscription written:
THIS PLACE IS SACRED.
IN THE YEAR MDCCXCIII
THE SACRED BONES OF THE SAINTS,
WHICH FORMERLY WERE EXPOSED IN THE VARIOUS CHURCHES OF THIS CITY
FOR THE VENERATION OF THE FAITHFUL,
IN CALAMITOUS TIMES
WERE BURIED HERE INTERMINGLED
AND REST HERE.
[12] their uncovering in the year 1854 and solemn honoring in the year 1866. In the year 1854, when, with the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, new proper offices began to be used in the diocese of Beauvais, among them a number in honor of the saints of Senlis, it seemed that the time had at last arrived when (as had long been urgently demanded) the most holy pledges should be raised from the earth. By mandate of the Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Beauvais, therefore, the venerable Decaye, parish priest of Senlis, collected most certain testimonies that the site of the relics had always been notorious, and had never been disturbed; and then on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of October of that year, with other priests and church councilors standing by, he most diligently uncovered the sacred bones, together with fragments of silken coverings and of orphrey and other things with which they had formerly been wrapped, and also with the capsula * of St. Frambaud. But neither the relics of St. Laudoveva nor those of the other saints could be told apart, because the slips had been destroyed. They were all enclosed in five sealed reliquaries, and placed with honor in the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Finally, on the 10th of August of the year 1866, a solemnity was celebrated with magnificent apparatus, by which both the old sacrilege might be repaired and a stone altar might be inaugurated in the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which, as in a sepulchre, the most holy remains of so many saints were laid away. This event was partly mentioned in the ecclesiastical Office at the 7th of February in these words: The sacred bodies of these, when the persecution of the eighteenth century was raging, were buried indiscriminately in the cemetery of Senlis, and after sixty years were brought back with honor to the formerly cathedral church. The name of St. Laudoveva has been omitted in the new calendar of Beauvais; although she was one of the patrons of Senlis, in public necessities her bier was carried through the streets, and the canons of Saint-Frambaud kept her festival twice every year.
Annotations* Chasuble
§ III. Memorial of St. Amandus, bishop of Senlis, omitted at the 26th of October.
[On the 26th of October, formerly celebrated by the festival of St. Amandus of Maastricht, a number of other holy bishops named Amandus were venerated, among them the one of Senlis.] The reader will be able to see at the 26th of October, when the natal day of SS. Amandus and Vedast is inscribed in countless calendars and martyrologies, how much I labored in illustrating and distinguishing St. Amandus, bishop of Strasbourg, and St. Amandus of Worms, whose body is preserved at Salzburg, venerated on that same day, not because this day was their original natal day, but because, that having been given over to oblivion (according to the common but deceptive custom by which less illustrious saints, or those whose day of death is unknown, are frequently celebrated on the feast days of saints of the same name whose fame is far greater), it seemed that their feast should be established on the solemnity of St. Amandus of Maastricht. But the bishops of Strasbourg and Worms were not alone in this condition; it is shared (as the venerable Richard has pointed out to me) by St. Amandus, bishop of Senlis; of whom it has seemed good to add a few things on the present occasion. In the Necrology of Blessed Mary, then, and in the Calendar of Saint-Rieul he is announced at that day in these words Gallia christ. volume X, column 1384: On the VII day before the Kalends of November, of Amandus, bishop and confessor; and that it may appear that the bishop of Maastricht is not meant, in an old martyrology of Saint-Rieul, as the same venerable Richard has written to me, these words occur: On the VII day before the Kalends of November, at Senlis, the deposition of St. Amandus, bishop of this city, whose body rests in our church. To which the same venerable man adds this: His feast, which was omitted in the Breviary of the year 1776, is inscribed in all the old breviaries of Senlis; and it was kept much more splendidly in the collegiate church of Saint-Rieul, where his body was preserved near the high altar. In the new Proper Offices of Beauvais memory is made of "St. Amandus, who, following Bl. Audobert in the episcopate, is narrated to have terrified the barbarians by carrying the body of St. Regulus onto the walls."
[14] Nothing else is known of him. The Maurists, or rather their leader John Deslyons, formerly dean and theologian of Senlis, object that in another Calendar of Saint-Rieul there is read Ibid. in the place cited: On the VII day before the Kalends of November, of the holy bishops Vedast and Amandus; which Amandus must certainly be the apostle of Belgium, not the bishop of Senlis. But this argument is of no great moment, since a similar error at one time prevailed at Strasbourg, Worms, and Salzburg Cf. Acta SS. October volume XI, pages 829, 917, and 918, the more easily because the deeds of St. Amandus of Senlis lie hidden. This error, as at Strasbourg, Worms, and Salzburg it is corrected both by testimonies of antiquity and by the presence of the bodies, so also at Senlis it is removed by the same arguments. Le Cointe Annales eccles. Francorum, at the year 695, no. 24; and at the year 729, no. 5, following Jaulnay, established that St. Amandus sat at Senlis from the year 695 to the year 729; but in this place, as also elsewhere, Le Cointe doubts of Jaulnay's reliability. And indeed the Maurists Gallia christ. volume X, column 1379 have passed this judgment on Jaulnay: He thought himself to be writing the annals of his bishops, and in such a manner that whoever might read it would surely judge that it could not have happened but that he had at hand at least their names, homeland, period, years in the see and of their rule, and the time of the life and death of each. For he lists all these things so exactly that it seems incredible that he should not have read and verified them somewhere before he wrote. And yet it is more than certain that almost everything he narrates is false and invented. And they go on to declare how severely those annals were received as soon as they came to light. Suppose that in these things (as happens) men were harsher than was just; this at least is certain, that nothing about the ancient affairs of Senlis can be accepted from Jaulnay, unless it is demonstrated by some other testimony. Wherefore it seems altogether to be admitted that the people of Senlis had their own bishop Amandus, known from the Martyrology of Saint-Rieul; but at what time he lived or in what order he sat can only be guessed, not defined. For as to the statement of some that, since his name is absent from the older catalogues of Senlis, he was a regionary bishop or one without title, who died at Senlis, this by no means satisfies. For that reason, being solitary, is of no moment; since the catalogues of almost all churches, even the Roman, have gaps. Moreover the authority of the martyrology of Saint-Rieul stands in the way. It remains for me to point out that the relics of the most holy man have had the same fate as those of St. Laudoveva.
[15] [Of the other holy bishops of Senlis omitted, there will be discussion at the 6th or 7th of November.] It has seemed good to repair that omission, which was as it were my own fault. But, since most of the holy bishops of Senlis were formerly not known outside this town, and did not appear in the old Gallia christiana with the title of saint, it came about from this that they were also omitted in our work. But this gap can be filled to some extent at the 6th or 7th of November, where St. Agmarus is to be spoken of. Nor is there any doubt but that from the venerable Richard's book on the sacred origins of the present diocese of Beauvais, shortly to come before the public, much light will shine in the midst of the darkness by which the ecclesiastical antiquities of Senlis have hitherto been surrounded and (if it is permitted to say so) overwhelmed.