Godegrandus

ON ST. GODEGRANDUS, BISHOP OF SÉEZ AND MARTYR,

BISHOP OF SÉEZ AND MARTYR,

AT NONANT IN NORMANDY

About the year 770, as is reported.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Godegrandus or Chrodegandus, bishop of Séez, at Nonant in Normandy (St.)

BY J. S.

§ I. The most ancient cult of the saint, and

his relics: his memory in the more recent Fasti: a Life written by Herardus,

bishop of Tours; many things also about the saint in the Life of St. Opportuna his sister.

[ ] Although the memory of St. Godegrandus,

or Chrodogangus, as

the writer of the Life names him,

is not found in the more ancient Martyrologies, The cult of the saint most ancient, his relics kept in various places: as neither in the present-day Roman one,

yet of his ancient veneration there is no doubt,

since it is made known both from the Life and from the Breviary

of Séez, and from elsewhere. From the Life we have that his body

was translated with solemn rite by Hildebrand,

bishop of Séez, who flourished in the ninth century. In the same

century flourished also the writers of the Life of St. Godegrandus

and of the Life of St. Opportuna, both of whom everywhere adorn Godegrandus

with the title of saint or blessed.

But in the Breviary of Séez, which seems to have been printed

in the year 1582, an Office of nine lessons of

St. Godegrandus is prescribed to be recited on the III day

of September. The rest is from the common; but the proper Collect

is this: Almighty and everlasting God,

grant thy people to venerate the festivity of the present day with sincere

service, that they who frequent it with devout services in the yearly

celebration of thy holy martyr and bishop Godegrandus

may, by his intercessions, obtain the joys of the heavenly kingdom. Through

our Lord, etc. Besides, in Mabillon, in the

Benedictine Acts, cent. 3 part 2, page 239, from

the Office of St. Opportuna, sister of St. Godegrandus,

in which the relics of St. Opportuna are treated of, we

have these words: The other jaw (of St. Opportuna) is honored

at Isle-Adam, in the priory of St. Godegrandus

her brother. Insula Adami, commonly l'Isle-Adam,

is a little town on an island of the river Oise *,

situated between Beaumont and Pontoise: and it has

to the Parisian priory of St. Martin des Champs. That priory

indeed is everywhere named that of B. Mary

of Isle-Adam; but from the words adduced it is gathered

that the priory, or at least some chapel of it, was

also sacred to St. Godegrandus. That the body of the saint

is kept in the praised priory, but the head in

the priory of St. Martin des Champs, our Henschen has already observed,

tom. III of April, page 66.

The same was asserted by Baillet in the Life of St. Opportuna at

the XXII of April, adding that some relics also

of St. Godegrandus are kept at Paris in the convent of Val

de Grâce of the Benedictine Order. These things suffice

that we may acknowledge a lawful cult of the saint; yet I shall add

some things from the more recent Fasti.

[2] In the additions to Usuard in our Sollier

at the III of September, the memory of St. Godegrandus the martyr

recurs three times, his memory in the more recent Fasti: some announce two; namely in the edition

of Muneratus first in this manner: In the city of Séez, of St.

Godegrandus, bishop and martyr. But Greven

and Molanus, praised in the same place, mention not only one

but two Godegrandi, bishops of the same

city, the one a martyr, the other

of the holy Godegrandus, bishop and martyr,

and of St. Godegrandus, bishop of the same city and

confessor. Molanus has it thus: In the city of Séez,

of St. Godegrandus, bishop and martyr: whose

Passion is contained in the Life of St. Opportuna the virgin,

his sister. Likewise of St. Godegrandus, bishop of the same

city and confessor. Two are similarly

announced in the German Martyrology, which

was published under the name of Canisius. Ferrarius is added, in

his universal Catalogue, where on the same day he has it thus: In

Normandy, of St. Godegrandus, bishop of Séez and

martyr, and of another Godegrandus, bishop and confessor.

In his Annotations he praises Molanus for both:

and of the second, as he thinks, he adds these things: In

Demochares, Godegrannus is named the twelfth

bishop of that see, the successor of St. Adelinus.

[3] But Demochares erred when he put Godegrandus

after Adelinus, but without foundation: or Adelhelmus,

who is the author of the Life of St. Opportuna, in which he writes

about that very Godegrandus. Besides, neither does Demochares set down two

bishops of Séez of that name, nor does

any other catalogue of the same bishops

which I at any rate have seen. The Breviary of Séez likewise

assigns only one St. Godegrandus.

I do not know, therefore, whence Greven, whom others

have followed, imagined for himself two Godegrandi, bishops of Séez;

whether from the slight change of the name,

or because St. Godegrannus is mentioned in Demochares without

the title of martyr, and perhaps elsewhere. Whatever it be

that gave occasion to that doubling, I cannot doubt

that it lacks a suitable foundation: for the change

of the name plainly proves nothing, since it flowed from

the Life of St. Opportuna, in whose various copies

the name is somewhat altered. No more does

the omission of the title of martyr avail, since this title agrees with St.

Godegrandus not so clearly that it could not

easily be omitted. The order of the bishops

of Séez would prove more, if Godegrandus were rightly placed

after Adelinus or Adelhelmus, but

others have long since corrected that error of Demochares.

[4] More rightly the French martyrologists mentioned only one

Godegrandus, bishop of Séez.

Saussay at the III of September wove for him this

eulogy: a eulogy from Saussay; On this very day the birthday of St. Godegrandus, bishop

of Séez under the second Lyonnese province, and martyr,

who was the brother of the holy virgin Opportuna,

whom, clothed with the veil of virginity, he dedicated to Christ the spouse

of virgins: when he was presiding with every ornament of virtues

and of religion in the episcopal chair, in which he had succeeded

the blessed Lotharius by the suffrage of his merits,

being fired with a pious desire of visiting the thresholds of the blessed

Apostles, he committed the care of his bishopric to a certain Grodobertus,

who put forward a show of piety.

And so, having set out for Rome, while

he obtains his pious desires, having heard of the nefarious behavior of Grodobertus,

who had rushed into every crime,

the good shepherd, solicitous for the safety of the flock which that hireling

was plundering, presently returned to his see:

where, while he busies himself to strengthen what was weakened,

to heal the sick, to bind up the broken, to bring back

what had been cast off, and inveighs with good zeal against the crimes

of Grodobertus, he was assailed by an assassin

whom that lost betrayer had hired, not

far from the city of Séez, and was slain with a deadly

blade. But the Lord showed the death of his faithful servant

to be precious in his sight

by a great flashing of miracles, which followed

upon his funeral. This eulogy agrees well enough with the Acts:

yet it relates rather more about the saint after his return

to the city of Séez than the Acts have,

from which it is clear that he was slain before he had resumed the government

of his church. Nothing either is read in

either Life about a veil imposed on his sister Opportuna

by Godegrandus himself.

[5] certain moderns have omitted the title of martyr without just cause. The Parisian Martyrology, printed in the year 1727,

has it thus of the same saint: At Nonant

in Neustria (that is, Normandy), of St.

Chrodegangus, bishop of Séez, brother of the blessed Opportuna.

This announcement, exact in other respects,

omits the title of martyr, although the author could not

have been ignorant that the saint is everywhere announced as

suppressed the same title of martyr, although

he mentions the saint's violent death by an assassin suborned

by Chrodobertus. Nevertheless it can easily

be shown that St. Godegrandus was rightly announced and honored as

death, and that death was inflicted upon him

because he wished to resume the government of his church, so as

to restore the fallen discipline and to relieve his wretchedly

oppressed subjects. That the saint wished to do this,

and that death was inflicted on him for that cause,

is clearly gathered from the Life of St. Opportuna. Nor can there be any

doubt that such an intention

and such a work is good and worthy of praise.

But he who for any good work referred to God

meets a violent death is by right deservedly

numbered among the martyrs, as I have shown in this volume,

page 591. Thus St. Thomas of Canterbury is called a martyr by

all, because on occasion of defending

ecclesiastical discipline the death inflicted by assassins

he endured. And so there is no reason why we should wish to deny him

the title of martyrdom, already attributed to St. Godegrandus

from the ninth century.

[6] Whence and how the Life of St. Godegrandus was obtained: Of the Life of St. Godegrandus, or Chrodogangus,

Mabillon first made mention in the Acts

of the Saints of his own Benedictine Order, cent. 3 part 2,

page 221, where he also designates its author as Herardus,

bishop of Tours. Mabillon was followed

by the learned Benedictine writers of the Histoire littéraire

de la France in the eulogy of Herardus, tom. 5, page

395. To these writers therefore I owe my knowledge of the Life:

for at the same time they assigned the place, namely

the abbey of St. Evroul, or of Ouche, in Normandy,

where it is kept in an ancient manuscript. Having received

this notice, I at once, through one of our

Fathers at Paris, had recourse to the abbey

of St. Evroul, that the Benedictine religious of the praised abbey

might deign to communicate to us the Life of St. Godegrandus.

And they with the greatest kindness and equal

speed had the desired Life copied out

from a codex of their library, marked No.

84, the Reverend Dom Filliaut, a religious of the same monastery, dictating it

and collating it with the same manuscript,

as he attested with his subscribed name on the X day

of July of this year 1745.

[7] The writer of the Life, as I have already insinuated, is Herardus,

bishop of Tours, the writer of the Life is Herardus, bishop of Tours: who held the bishopric

from the year 855 to the year 870, as

the authors of the Histoire littéraire just praised

write in his eulogy. Hence the time of the writing of the Life

can somehow be gathered: for it was composed while

he was already bishop, as is gathered from the little verses

which are read after the Life in the same codex in this

manner:

These gifts a dear friend sends to one dear.

Receive them gratefully, since they are auspicious for thy prayers,

Hildebrand, prithee, bishop; Herardus of Tours

asks that thou mayest thrive and be well perpetually unto the age.

This Hildebrand, to whom the Life was sent, is the bishop

of Séez, the second of this name in the Sainte-Marthes,

and already advanced to the chair before Herardus,

and afterward surviving him, so that from this

we cannot learn more nearly the time of the Life's writing.

This Hildebrand translated the body of St. Godegrandus,

and that translation could have afforded occasion

for the writing of the Life. Further, this was written in such

or things unascertained: for he relates very

few facts. Wherefore his assertions deserve

so much the greater credit, especially since

he was a bishop of great name, and probably

wrote before a century had elapsed from the death of the saint,

and lastly since he affirms nothing that can

be convicted of falsity.

[8] In the same ninth century, as it drew to its close,

the Life of St. Opportuna, many things about the saint also in the Life of St. Opportuna. sister of St. Godegrandus, was written by

Adelhelmus, bishop of Séez, and successor

of Hildebrand. Into this Life most of the deeds

of St. Godegrandus have been inserted, excepting however the translations

and the miracles. And so, since the writer of this Life

also deserves credit, and has narrated more things about the deeds

of St. Godegrandus, or at least has explained them more at length

than Herardus himself, so that

the one Life can from time to time illustrate the other, I shall insert the deeds

of the saint from the Life of St. Opportuna into this Commentary

in parts, in the order of time; but Godegrandus's

own Life I shall publish below, illustrated after the usual manner

with annotations.

§ II. On the time in which the saint flourished: his deeds related in order and examined.

[ ] The saint is probably believed to have flourished in the eighth century; Neither the Life of St. Godegrandus nor that of his sister

Opportuna supplies any foundation

firm enough on which we can lean to establish a chronology,

or to determine the time, nay

even the century, in which St. Godegrandus flourished.

But from both we can gather well enough that the saint

flourished before the ninth century, since in that century

flourished the writers of both Lives, who sufficiently

insinuate in various places that they were not contemporaries

of the saints of whom they treat. It is probable, nevertheless,

that St. Godegrandus lived and died

in the eighth century, as also his sister St. Opportuna:

and this one thing our Henschen ventured to assert

in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts

of St. Opportuna, tom. III of April, page 61, assigning

no closer time. But John Chenu,

Claude Robert, and the Sainte-Marthes in their

catalogues of the bishops of Séez put Godegrandus

as bishop after Lotharius. The first indeed

places the bishopric of Godegrandus about the year

765, and thus far the others agree. But Robert

adds of Lotharius: He is noted to have died on the XV

of June, 756. The Sainte-Marthes of the same: He is

read to have died on the XV day of June in the year 756.

[10] and various writers say he died about the year 770: How certain this epoch is, is quite hidden from me,

since no proof is adduced, and the praised

writers are liable to no rare errors. Cointe

nevertheless in his Annals at the year 756,

num. 22, follows it without scruple, and, this foundation being once

laid, commemorates the death of St. Godegrandus in the year

770, at num. 25, noting however that

writers do not agree about the year of his death.

Mabillon too noted at the Acts of St. Opportuna

about the year 770, and at the end notes the following:

No certain judgment can be passed about the year.

Chrodegangus her brother is said to have sat about

the year 765, whom Opportuna survived by one year only,

whose death we place

in the year 770. The author of the Parisian Martyrology

noted in the margin, for the year of death, about

765 or 770. All these things are

too uncertain for it to be agreeable to affirm anything, since

no reason offers itself to me by which I might confirm

the aforesaid epoch, or even refute it. Longueval

in the History of the Gallican Church, page 346

and following, narrated the deeds of St. Opportuna and of St. Godegrandus

at the year 751, and thus indicated that he too

had found nothing certain about the time. Equally uncertain

is the duration of his episcopate, because nothing is read of it,

except that the saint was on pilgrimage for seven years;

nor is it insinuated by any word how long he administered

the chair before his pilgrimage. Lastly,

of the number of years which he lived, we have

nothing ascertained either.

[11] the saint's native land and his illustrious birth: But of the saint's native land the Life seems to speak

at num. 4, where he is said to be a native of Séez. Now

Séez is an episcopal city in lower Normandy

under the archbishop of Rouen, called by the French

Séez. The Life ascribes to him a noble family,

but not a royal one. But the Life of St. Opportuna

at num. 2 has it thus of her parents: For her parents,

strong in nobility of family, and flourishing in the summit of royal

stock, the most renowned of the district of Exmes above all

the men who dwelt there, begot two luminaries

for the world, namely the blessed

Godegrandus , bishop of the church of Séez,*

which I, by the Lord's disposing, serve,

and our lady Opportuna.

Whether the saint was born of royal stock, or only of noble,

is not established, because of this diversity

of the two Lives. Besides, it attributes the saint's birth not to the city

of Séez, but to the district of Exmes, which is neighboring to it:

for Oximus, commonly Exmes, gave its name to the district

of Exmes, and that is commonly called l'Hiesmois;

sometimes also it is found named

the county of Exmes. Hence the Sainte-Marthes have it thus of the birth

of our saint: Whom the catalogues report to have been born

of a count of the district of Exmes. Now

indeed, even though it does not sufficiently appear which Life's authority

is to be preferred, I should nevertheless rather judge

that the saint was born of illustrious, and perhaps royal, parentage

in the district of Exmes, than at Séez; both

because Adelhelmus, the biographer of St. Opportuna,

without doubt had other Acts before his eyes, and would not have departed

from them without cause; and because those words,

a native of Séez, need not necessarily be understood

of his birthplace, but can also be understood

of his dwelling. So much of the saint's native land and parents;

but of his education, of his election to

the bishopric, and of his administration of it, the Life of St.

Opportuna supplies nothing.

[12] Of the pilgrimage of St. Godegrandus the praised

Life at num. 8 has the following: [when the bishop wished to undertake a pious and long pilgrimage, he commits his church to Chrodobertus,] It came to pass that his venerable

brother Godegrandus, bishop of the church of Séez,

for the love of the heavenly fatherland,

wished to go about, traversing them, to Rome, to the thresholds of the blessed apostles Peter

and Paul, and to the various places of the saints, for the sake

of prayer. And when he was deliberating thereupon with himself,

and wished to pass in such a work

the course of seven years, that by laboring,

by making pilgrimage, and by praying, he might obtain pardon of his offenses

and eternal joys; the administration of his church being arranged,

he began to invoke the mercy

of God, that he would deign to be his guardian

on the journey he had conceived. And so, having summoned

a certain man, a friend of the devil, full of all the guile of wickedness

(who was thought to be a friend of long standing,

and was joined to him by kinship, and was governor

of the district of Exmes, and was called Grodobertus

*), in the sight of all who were present, he commended

to him the defense of the whole place and of his bishopric,

speaking with him thus: O sweet friend

Grodobertus, I commit to thy faith and friendship

all the office of my church, and all

the resources and furniture of my substance, until,

the Lord willing, I shall be able to return; that by the Lord's

compassion, and by my prayer, and at the same time by thy defense,

the flock committed to me may be kept from the inroad

of hostile men. Then the lord Godegrandus, blessing

all the people, and exhorting them

to persist in the divine commandments, bidding farewell

also to the dissembler Grodobertus, bathed in tears,

began to make the journey of his long pilgrimage.

He thought Chrodobertus upright, without doubt, but

he was deceived, as is presently subjoined.

[13] After the departure of the lord Godegrandus, the aforesaid

Grodobertus was unwilling to be the defender of the place, [but he, in the saint's absence, harasses the church, and procures his own ordination as bishop:]

but rather its invader and plunderer of the people. For

after the manner of wolves he began not to defend the sheep

commended to him, but to tear them: he began to carry off their

substance, and suffered no one to live

in quiet. And so, setting aside all friendship,

and reckoning kinship as nothing; after he had

cruelly plundered all the goods of the church, against the decrees

of the ancient fathers and the institutes of all the canons,

while our lord Godegrandus was still

living and serving the Lord on pilgrimage,

he had himself ordained bishop of that same church

of Séez. But then, not having received a lawful benediction,

but filled with the divine malediction,

he acted not as a shepherd, but as a wicked hireling,

seeking only earthly gains, making little account of the salvation

of souls: for he served mammon more ardently

than the Lord. These things are more briefly touched upon below in

the Life at num. 6. It is probable

that Chrodobertus acted more moderately at first; but

that he afterward began to hope that Godegrandus would never

return; and even persuaded the people and clergy

that he was dead, so that thus he might be able to take up

the episcopal dignity: for that rumors of Godegrandus's death

had been scattered is gathered from the words of Chrodobertus

to be given presently.

[14] The return of the saint, in the coming of the seventh year

of his pilgrimage, Godegrandus, returned, tries to resume the government of his church: and with St. Opportuna praying much for him,

the same biographer afterward affirms to have taken place.

But the Life of St. Godegrandus places the return

when the seventh year was completed, and that space

agrees more rightly with the saint's purpose related above

by Adelhelmus himself, who probably was unwilling

to say anything else here by the words in the coming of the seventh

year than at the coming of the end of the seven years, or the term

of the pilgrimage. But how he bore himself

after his return he sets forth at num. 11 in these words:

Namely, when B. Godegrandus was returning, he learned by the report of many

of the tyranny of the wicked Grodobertus.

His excessive cupidity and cruelty being known therefore,

mindful of the Lord's precept, who says:

Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute

and calumniate you; he earnestly prayed the Lord

that, sparing the sins of Grodobertus, he would grant him

pardon: but afterward he gently admonished him through

messengers that he should call back his mind from that most wicked usurpation

and unheard-of crime. For he was unwilling

to go first to the church of Séez:

but, lest he should give place to the devil, he turned aside to

the already-named Monasteriolum, where his sister was diligently

serving the Lord. Since St. Godegrandus

admonished Chrodobertus that he should call back his mind from that most wicked

usurpation, it is clear that the saint wished to resume

the government of his church; and that for that

cause Chrodobertus contrived his death.

[15] but Chrodobertus, pretending that he wishes to give way, But when the messenger of the bishop worthy of God

had come to the already-named tyrant, he, pretending

to rejoice at his friend's return, fraudulently sent back

such messages to him: Thou shalt know, sweetest father,

that men coming from far countries

said that thou hadst departed from this light: but since

thou hast returned safe, all the power of the pontificate of thy see

being received back, use it happily for a long time:

for it is not fitting that two bishops should reside

in one bishopric. We pray therefore that, speaking together,

we may use our former friendships, as the order

of charity and mutual love requires. The messenger hastened

to announce the words of the impious Grodobertus to the ears

of the lord Godegrandus: but when the bishop

with his sister heard the fraudulent words,

B. Opportuna, filled with the spirit of prophecy, gave this

answer: Know, brother, that his words

are softer than oil, and the same are darts.

Of this admonition of St. Opportuna nothing is read in the Life

of Godegrandus.

[16] suborns an assassin to kill him, Of the slaying of St. Godegrandus the biographer of St. Opportuna

also treats more amply than Herardus had done.

For first he affirms that his coming death

was known to the saint and to his sister. Secondly

he makes the saint's slayer the treasurer of Chrodobertus.

But Herardus says of him that he was a young man of uncultivated

manners. The gifts promised to that wicked man Adelhelmus wondrously

magnifies, whose words I subjoin:

But when they (namely Godegrandus

and Opportuna) knew that the time of the calling

of B. Godegrandus was drawing near, and that God willed

to join him by the shedding of his blood to the number of the holy martyrs

and bishops; he began

to seize upon his journey as a pious shepherd, that he might

lay down his soul for the sheep commended to him

by the Lord. But the ravening wolf Grodobertus,

turning over with himself that if he should kill the shepherd,

he might afterward tear the little sheep in safety: began, after the manner

of the Pharisees and the Jews, who crucified the Lord,

to seek within himself how he might so kill

the holy bishop that he might seem to the people

free of his blood. Nor was the counsel of Judas

the betrayer wanting to him: because, like Judas, he was full

of the suggestion of diabolical persuasion. He had,

indeed, with him a malignant man, who had been

a spiritual son of B. Godegrandus, whom he had lifted from the wave

of sacred baptism: he carried his purses,

as Judas the Lord's: and that same wicked

man he enticed with riches and honors, that

if he should kill B. Godegrandus, he might obtain greater favor

than the rest who stood by him. And so, having received

gifts of gold and silver, of lands and horses,

he promised with an oath that he would kill B. Godegrandus.

This therefore brought Grodobertus

great joy.

[17] On a certain day, therefore, when B. Godegrandus

wished to go to the monastery of Almenèches, who, finding the saint near Nonant, that with

the venerable Lanthildis, joined to him by kinship,

he might converse of divine discourses; while he was passing

by the estate of Nonant , the son*

of the devil Grodobertus saw him through the window of his dining-room.

Then, having called the godson of St. Godegrandus, he commanded

that he should hasten to the murder of the holy bishop,

if he wished to obtain the said gifts. And he, hastening of his own accord,

came to St. Godegrandus, and filled

with the cunning of the dread dragon, looking upon the holy man

with grim and cruel eyes, kept a deadly poison

under his asp-like tongue and in the cavern of his heart.

Seeing which, B. Godegrandus, and perceiving

his craft, said with serene countenance: What

is this, son? Why do pestilent thoughts trouble thy venomous

mind? Or art thou ignorant

that I am thy spiritual father Godegrandus?

Why dost thou delay? Let be done what the will

of the Lord permits. But he, savage and bold,

asked to be kissed by the bishop. Then the glorious

Godegrandus, lifting his eyes to heaven,

and knowing that the hour of his death was now at hand, prayed to

the Lord, and said: O Lord Jesus, most merciful Redeemer,

receive my spirit, which thou hast given;

and guard the flock which thou hast commended to me,

a sinner. Would that I might deserve to reign in heaven

with those for whom I do not hesitate to endure suffering

on earth. And when he heard that his prayer had been heard

from heaven, presently in simplicity of heart he most willingly gave

a kiss to his slayer.

[18] But he, his sword being drawn, struck the holy

bishop of God twice on the front of the head: kills him with the sword: the authors of the murder divinely punished. the scars

of the strokes upon whose venerable head, as though

healed by physicians, remain and appear among us to this day,

by the Lord's gift. Thus Godegrandus, our bishop beloved of God

and good shepherd,

ended his life on earth, and his spirit was joined

to the angelic companies in heaven on the third Nones of September:

who, because he was faithful in a little, now,

having entered into the joy of the Lord, is set

over many things. But he who killed him, in that same

place seized by a demon, neither obtained the gifts given him,

and, alas, O grief! swiftly descended

to hell. Grodobertus too, the author of the wretched

calamity, by the vengeance of the divine stroke shamefully,

and indeed shortly, ended his life: because he cannot

die well who has lived ill. Thus far

Adelhelmus, on whose account some things are

to be observed. First, the monastery to which the saint was going

is commonly called Almenèches: and our

edition has Alemannicas, but Mabillon's Alamanniscas,

as it is also called in the Life of St. Godegrandus

itself. Of it Mabillon in his annotations has

these things: Alamanniscæ, a convent of the territory of Séez,

exists to this day under the rule of our holy father Benedict, situated

by a brook flowing into the Orne, from which is not

far distant Nonantum (in our text Novantium),

a little town, in the vernacular Nonant. Since it is called

an estate, and Chrodobertus was there, it is probable

that Nonant was an estate of the bishop of Séez. Secondly,

what is said of the punishment of the slayer, and of the death

of Chrodobertus, Herardus wholly omitted, and

therefore it can appear less certain. Nevertheless

it is probable enough that Adelhelmus, since he was

bishop of Séez, had learned some things which had lain hidden

from Herardus of Tours. The same judgment

can be passed of the immobility of the body presently to be related,

which Herardus likewise passed over.

[19] The saint's body cannot be moved, until St. Opportuna Let us hear Adelhelmus on this matter at num.

13: But certain religious men and neighbors,

seeing these things, tried with psalms and tapers to raise the body

of St. Godegrandus, their own bishop, from the ground,

that according to ecclesiastical custom they might

commit it to burial. But it clung to the ground with so great

a weight that it could be moved by none of them.

Which being learned, St. Lanthildis, with a company

of nuns, bitterly mourning and weeping, began

to go thither. To whom the like happened: for

by no means could they lift the holy body from the ground.

The report therefore of so great a grief came to B. Opportuna,

namely that her brother, slain by the unjust

faction of Grodobertus, lay upon the ground,

and could be lifted thence by no one. And she, being in the church

with all the nuns subject to her, commended

her brother's soul to the Lord: and, the offices of the Masses

being celebrated by the priests, she offered to God

the sacrifices of a most sincere prayer.

For she had learned, by the Holy Spirit revealing it to her,

that her brother had already departed to heaven

with the palm of martyrdom. In that very divine revelation

also she had besought the Lord, that the body

of her brother should lie immovable on the ground so long

until she should pour out fitting prayers to the Lord

for his soul, and thereafter should carry it in her own arms

into the church to the place of the sepulcher.

[20] comes, and lifts it: he is buried in the church of Monasteriolum, Her aunt St. Lanthildis prayed that the body of St.

Godegrandus, bishop and martyr, might be raised from the ground:

her niece B. Opportuna prayed that her brother's body

might not be moved. In both there was holiness,

but in our lady Opportuna sisterly charity

burned. And so the assiduity of St. Opportuna's prayer

prevailed, that we may know that charity

excels all things. For it was fitting that B.

Opportuna, who was tormented with grief at her brother's death,

should be consoled by the Lord with the grace of a prayer

heard. Then the same author relates that St. Opportuna

came to the body of her slain brother, and describes the immense grief

of the holy virgin with greater

exaggeration than seemliness. Lastly, of

the burial he speaks thus at num. 15: B. Opportuna,

hearing these things, took her brother's body into her arms;

and him whom many and most strong men could not

lift from the ground, she alone began to carry without labor:

perhaps for some few paces, or a small

space; as appears from what follows: for otherwise

the thing is little credible. Therefore, as the author goes on,

the body of B. Godegrandus, with a multitude of the people,

with clerics of various orders, and with lamenting

virgins, with tapers and resounding psalms,

is led to the already-named Monasteriolum; and there,

with due honor, B. Opportuna acting, it is laid away

and buried. Where also through many courses

of years, by his merits, the divine clemency has wrought

many notable signs of virtues. The various translations

of the body which Herardus mentions we shall illustrate

in the annotations to the Life, so far as we shall be able.

l'Oyse*

Mab. Chrodegandum*

al. Chrodobertus*

al. Novantium*

LIFE

by Herardus, archbishop of Tours,

From the manuscript of the abbey of St. Evroul in Normandy.

Godegrandus or Chrodegandus, bishop of Séez, at Nonant in Normandy (St.)

BHL Number: 1782, 1784

By Herardus, archbishop.

PROLOGUE.

The author sets forth the diverse pursuits of men, Since the times of the world, gliding on in the course of the whole

globe, are agreed to be common not to one age only, not to one people,

not to one nation, but to the whole world:

diverse men, according to the quality of their talent

of virtue and of grace, have exalted the fleeting and mortal ages

with the marks of diverse deeds. Some,

accustomed to the frequenting of continual triumph, some to the renowned

victory of poems or of any arts whatsoever:

others have adorned the ages with the obsequies of noble pomp and with solemn

dirges, others have illustrated the histories of the ancients

with tragic fictions and with poetic

prophesyings as well. Whence, if so great labor

and so great zeal is applied to mortal and perishable things,

how great, thinkest thou, must be applied to immortal things

and to things remaining without end?

Hence it is that Maro inserts in his poem that Aeneas,

after many perils and the shipwrecks of himself and his men,

exhorted his companions thus: Perhaps, he says,

one day it will delight us to remember even these things. But this sentence,

though once poetically feigned, brings

the true force of its meaning to diverse effects; for

things past are held so much the more pleasing in words,

by how much the graver things are reported in their deeds; and things to come

become desirable through weariness of things present; they are believed

assuredly to be better.

[2] Whence we too, placing the anchor of a sure hope in heaven,

and saying with the apostle Paul: and he says that he wishes to write the deeds of the Saints. Our

conversation is in heaven: no longer gaping

after earthly things do we mean to bestow our labor upon perishable matters:

but we speak spiritual things to the spiritual, and to the ears of the faithful,

namely, we take care to recall by our speech the deeds of the Saints,

brought down even to our own understanding.

And therefore we beg your reverence,

most blessed prelate, that, if anything in

these pages either the sloth of a torpid wit, or the error of a corrupted

style has introduced, you would appoint it to be corrected by the censure of your own

authority; and that the ignorance of a brotherly ^b affection may not bring

any prejudice upon the truth,

excuses in manifold ways.

ANNOTATA.

perhaps vili licet* (though mean)

perhaps ne*

CHAPTER I.

The deeds and martyrdom of the Saint.

[ ] God, the knowledge of whom is common even to the gentiles, All men, of whatsoever sect,

region, or manner of life they be, are so shaped by a natural good,

under the governance of the providence above, that they

recognize the rational part of the mind to be preferred before bodily

delights and their own pleasures: and, if

not in act, yet by the fairness of their judgment, they know that

that is to be set foremost which is the higher, that by which the whole body is governed and ruled.

Which mind, enlightened by reason herself as guide,

amid the ranks of the virtues,

although for the most part it be weighed down by vices,

nevertheless, looking upon the divine knowledge as upon the highest summit,

considers that nothing lies hidden from His eyes, but that He beholds

all things in their purity. For any man may proudly

despise God: yet he cannot be

utterly ignorant of Him ^a. Hence it is that

the blindness of the ancients, while it supposed that God was to be worshiped in many,

set up for itself many to be held in no discriminate order.

Hence indeed the philosophers, while with more wakeful

and more attentive study they inquire concerning God,

find one true God, and the sole author of all things,

to whom they trace back all things. Whence also

now the pagans, whom the truth made clear throughout the world convicts not of ignorance

but of a blinded pride, when they are examined concerning the worship

of many gods, do not confess that there are more gods than one,

but testify that under one great and pre-eminent God they revere the others as ministers

where reason fails, sure faith comes to the rescue: for unless

we shall have believed, we do not understand.

[4] [He makes the Church illustrious by the examples of the Saints: of these was Chrodogangus, sprung of noble stock,] This therefore true and one God, from whom are all things,

and out of whom are all things, and through whom are all things,

unto whom, as we have said above, out of diverse opinions

every sect, condition, and sex runs together,

has chosen the ignoble and contemptible things of the world, and confounds

the strong, that He may restore the weak: who in the fullness

of times willed His spotless bride the Church

not so much to be fortified with gold and gems and adorned with precious

collars, as to be made illustrious with holy

virtues. Who, as He endowed her by redeeming her with the shedding

of His own spotless blood, and likewise enriched her, so He ceases not

to irradiate her even to the end of the world

with the examples of the Saints and with their illustrious patronage,

the help of His divinity going before. Of whose most blessed

number was a certain man named Chrodogangus, sprung indeed

by descent of noble birth ^c; but nobler in

Christ he flourished by the holiness of his life. Who was indeed

Whence also the paradise which he sought

by his work he afterward received as a gift. He, from

the very cradle of nature and the first beginnings of the holy faith, shone with zeal

for the heavenly virtues *: but after the teachings of holy

letters, content to serve as a soldier by fastings, vigils,

and frequent exercises of virtue for the King of kings,

the Lord alone, he strove to go before many

in virtues.

[5] who, made bishop, shines with many virtues: But when for the grace of his sanctity he was loved by all,

and as a pre-eminent athlete was the more signally

venerated, he is demanded by all for the pontificate of the city of Séez.

Nor was there any delay: for he whom the grace above

had decreed worthy, obtains the summit of the pontificate

in the second order. And thereafter by daily

increases, and by the growth of his accustomed goodness,

he does not hesitate to mount to the higher things of virtue.

Therefore with the solicitude of the office he had undertaken he daily formed

the people by saving words, and everywhere to all

he stood by as a guide of the heavenly kingdom, alike by word and by example:

made with the most blessed Job an

eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame, a father also

of the poor, a consoler of widows, the solace of orphans,

the relief too of the needy: so that to all,

without exception of person, he took care with unfailing labor

to minister supports both present

and to come.

[6] At that same time, while he desires the better things and those

ever more pleasing to God, [undertaking a pilgrimage, he commits the church to a certain man; but that man contrives to have himself ordained bishop:] he resolves to visit at Rome the thresholds

of the most blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to entreat their

suffrages and to merit their benefits. For this reason he determined that the church

delivered to him, to be guarded, and the flock committed to him, to be nourished, should be

entrusted to a certain noble and most powerful man

of his own kindred, by name Chrodobertus.

And so he traversed very many places of the Saints through the course of seven years,

as is reported ^d. Meanwhile

this same Chrodobertus, seized with the greed of blindness,

while the holy Bishop was running his pilgrim course of a far-off exile,

first indeed cruelly plunders the goods of the church, committed

to him in purity of trust, and makes them over to his own

uses: and thereafter, by the faction of

certain men, he does not falter to ordain a bishop for that same see

against all right, while the Pastor was yet alive.

[7] When therefore the seventh year had rolled by, the Man of God,

the course of his labor being finished, the Saint on his return turns aside to a neighboring monastery, resolves, by the help of

the divine mercy, to return to his see. But meanwhile,

learning what had been done in so monstrous and savage a greed, he

put off going to the see, but withdrew, turning aside

to a certain monastery near that same city, called Monasteriolum,

where a reverend company of nuns was living,

trained in the saving teachings of the same holy Man:

yielding indeed to enmity;

yet not shunning the battle-line of martyrdom.

In which place also Opportuna, the sister of the holy Bishop,

presided over the other sisters, and went before them by the merit of her life

and the grace of her holiness. There the most blessed Man,

passing his nights in prayer, assiduous also in fastings and prayers,

had determined to be free for God alone, and to press on

in the heavenly warfare ^e.

[8] But when now the time was drawing near for his combats to be rewarded,

but while he is setting out to another neighboring monastery, the Man, exceedingly renowned under the title of holy confession ^f,

the usurper, blinded by the torches of a diabolical

greed, began craftily to plot the murder of the holy Man, and to seek out

by manifold devices how he might extinguish a lamp

of so great a brightness, set not under a bushel, but upon the candlestick of holy

Church. Meanwhile

the clergy together with the people bore with heavy sorrow the absence of so great

nor could they receive any help of consolation,

grieving for him, driven out by a wicked greed and yet still alive,

as though he had been utterly taken away. But lest the combats

of so great a Soldier, now long deserving, should any longer be delayed, the rage

kindled against the Servant of Christ straightway

attains the object of its wish. For when from nearby the blessed

Chrodogangus was purposing, for the grace of spiritual converse, to visit the monastery

of Alamanniscæ ^g, where Lanhidis ^h, of excellent life,

and presided over the nuns, the sisters of that place,

he is spied by the usurper

Chrodobertus through the window of a dining-hall, while he was making his way

past the estate of Nonnantum. For with sleepless

solicitude, by days and by nights, the traitor was contriving,

even as Judas too, the betrayer of the Lord's blood,

with lanterns and torches and arms, that the holy Man

might not by any device escape the contrivances of his guile and his snares.

[9] Furthermore at that time certain of the disciples of the blessed Man,

seduced by the usurper, had attached themselves to him: among whom

also was one younger in years, the spiritual son of the blessed Man,

whom he had received from the waters of holy Baptism,

hastens to appoint to cut his throat, having first

promised that he would reward the same man with riches and

honors, with this cunning contrivance, as is believed,

that no suspicion of a wicked deed should arise in so great a Man from the presence

of his own peculiar son; and that he might destroy him unawares,

whom he would in no wise dare to attack publicly

for fear of the people, who cherished their Father with a special love.

He, going out from the sight of the tyrant,

approached the Bishop: and, as

the antiquity of the ancients records, he repeats the crime of Judas upon

so pre-eminent a member of the Savior with an infected mouth,

offering him the kiss of peace, but for a little while

hiding away the caverns of the poison of his flame-belching ⁱ mind.

On the contrary the holy Man, not unmindful of the divine

Passion, but, as a true worshiper of God

and a fit executor of the heavenly commandments, perceiving the savage

spirit of the youth, whose inward machinations had already befouled

the cheerfulness of his outward bearing,

and had rendered him frenzied; among other things is reported to have given

such an answer to the man who obeyed his orders ^k: Do, my son,

what you will: and accomplish that for which you were sent.

Nor does the wicked youth delay: straightway with a doubled

stroke of the sword he strikes the holy Man.

[10] the scars of the wounds long after uncorrupted: the burial of the Saint. In which place the wounds of the scars appear

even to this day uncorrupted, not unknown

to the sight of the faithful, as though they had lately been

healed by the most approved physicians ^l. In this order of profession, therefore,

the most blessed Man, despising earthly things, ever embracing

heavenly things, deserved to be crowned by the Lord with the trophy of a signal

martyrdom. But when the death of so great

and there was as much sorrow for the absent Pastor as there had been

joy for him present, by the zeal of the blessed Opportuna,

his aforesaid sister, he is carried to the aforesaid Monasteriolum

^m, and there the body of the Most Blessed

is laid away in a new tomb with fitting honor, and

is entombed beside the holy altar of that same church:

where through many spaces of time it is frequented in due order

by faithful peoples: and is honored with a sufficiently worthy

veneration, by the bounty of Jesus Christ

our Lord, to whom with God the Father and the Holy

Spirit is honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen ⁿ.

ANNOTATA.

does not exist, than that they are able to persuade themselves of it or to believe it. Cicero, book 2 *On

the Nature of the Gods: For it is inborn in all, and as it were graven upon the mind, that there are gods*; or rather that there is a God, as Cicero himself, together with the most excellent of the gentile philosophers, sufficiently acknowledged.

disapproves of this pilgrimage, saying that God probably willed that he should wash away with his own

blood the sin committed on that occasion. But both biographers, both bishops of great

name, both nearer in place and time, praised

the deed. Therefore little regard is to be paid to the censure of a private and

modern man, who would be tolerable if he had placed the deed among the examples

of the Saints which are rather to be admired than imitated. But greater reverence

is owed to the Saints,

whom God by miracles

has made illustrious, and by the veneration of the faithful, than that it should be lawful for us to imagine

in their pious deeds so great a fault that they must needs have expiated it with their blood.

the administration of his bishopric is sufficiently gathered from the Life of St.

Opportuna, cited in the Commentary num. 14. And indeed for no other cause was death

brought upon him by the guile of Chrodobertus, than that the latter might safely retain the see.

from the same source, num. 20 in the Commentary. But I find nothing more about this pious woman,

nor anything about her cult, even though in the same Life she is named a Saint.

of the monastery over which St. Opportuna presided, as is clearly said in num. 7.

It was distinct from that of Alamanniscæ, over which Lanthildis presided:

for the Saint was going from the one to the other when he was killed. Mabillon likewise observed

the distinction between the two in his preliminary observations to

the Acts of St. Opportuna, num. 4, where nevertheless he shows that the one was

near the other, just as neither could have been far distant from the city of Séez: for

Monasteriolum is called neighboring to that same city in both Acts. Monasteriolum was destroyed, says Mabillon, from the time of the Normans, so that scarcely any traces of it, indeed hardly even its site, can be discovered.

studio*

CHAPTER II.

The elevation of the incorrupt body: translations and miracles.

[ ] A few miracles out of many are narrated for the example of others: But since our advancing discourse has carried the departure

of the blessed Chrodogangus up to the trophy of the heavenly

life, it seems fitting to us to recall some of his

notable deeds ^a: and to lay open to the inquiry of those who come after

the things that have been handed down to our

understanding, though in less worthy

speech. Concerning him

very many things indeed are handed down to memory by the inhabitants of the place:

but we shall record a few out of many,

from which the pious faith of believers may be able without hesitation to give credence

to the rest, which the divine

power works through him continually, and which the littleness of our wit

either cannot reach or is slow to reach.

After the passing joys of a perishing age began

to wane, and to make known little by little, by their daily failings, their own ruin,

that place too began, where

the limbs of the blessed Man lay stored, to fall into obscurity through the continual

damage of neglectful carelessness,

and to be unwontedly less frequented by men.

[12] Bishop Hildebrandus elevates the body incorrupt: Meanwhile, when a man of excellent goodness and grace,

Hildebrandus, bishop of the aforesaid church of Séez,

had learned from very many the fame of his most blessed Predecessor,

and had found the tomb of so great a Father rashly

abandoned, and the place divinely committed to himself

less duly tended than was right; inflamed with the zeal of righteousness,

he appoints the foremost priests of the mother Church

together with the clergy, and also the whole

body of the psalm-singers, for the raising of the holy Man's body;

and he invites the people subject to him to go forth to meet ^b so great a Pastor

with the homage of a humble devotion;

carrying it through, as is plain, by counsel from above and likewise

by help from above, that the holy Bishop should be laid in a more fitting

and more famous place. Meanwhile the priests

with the clergy and a countless people, obeying the pontifical commands,

find the body of the blessed Man incorrupt, without any loosening

of the limbs, and,

as though from a recent burial, that which had already passed so many

spaces of years in the sepulcher, wondrous to tell!

remained still undissolved ^c.

[13] and when the Normans burst in unexpectedly, by divine providence While these things were being done, however, the most cruel

madness of the pagans, namely the most dreadful slaughter of the Northmen ^d,

was pressing hard upon that region with fire, and with

countless butchery of every condition and sex, lamentable to tell.

And already, the clergy and people not knowing it, it was scarcely

were preparing to celebrate Masses in the offices of the blessed Man,

and were resolving with unanimous vow also to perform the solemn

sacrifices; the bread and wine that

befitted so great a mystery are declared to be lacking. Which indeed

is known to have come about not without the providence of the divine mercy:

but in order that the clergy and people might be snatched from the swords of the barbarians

by the prayers of the holy Man ^e. For while they were still lingering

on the threshold of the aforesaid basilica, the savage nearness of the barbarians

is announced: and when the faithful peoples had gone out, at once

that place is occupied by a barbarian troop, plundered,

and destroyed, and nothing useful or desirable is found there for their voracity,

the clemency of heaven granting them nothing ^f; but as they were empty of faith,

so they withdrew also fasting from any spoil:

[14] [he is delivered with all, carrying the body to the city, the candles too not being put out by the wind:] Meanwhile the clergy, exulting in the divine praises,

not yielding ^g to the barbarian fury, not quailing

at the most savage terror, fenced about by the divine protection,

advances steadfastly to the city: the ferocity of the Northmen,

as though forgetful and unmindful,

does not pursue them in rage, but goes forward by a backward course along the way by which

it had come: and those whom by their marching and their sound

it was easy both to know and to follow, by the merits of the holy Man,

as though deaf and unwitting, they were able to harm not one of them. But what happened

in the carrying of the blessed Man it has seemed

fitting to relate. Before the bier of the same Martyr two lights

were being borne, kindled, by acolytes: but

so great and so violent a force of the winds was present * then,

that even the sturdier bodies of the men were made to sway *,

and (as a stormy whirlwind behaves in winter)

they were shaken though of solid step. But by a wondrous kind of power,

unheard of by very many, while one of the winds

licked round about this way and that, like the fire about the bush of Sinai [h],

and bent aside the flames of the lights, it not only did not extinguish them,

but did not suffer them to sustain even the least

loss of strength. It is reported

also that certain persons, by the touch of that same bier, regained the aid

of strength they had lost.

[15] the second and third translation: At that same time, since the clergy were fleeing this way and that from the savagery

of the barbarians, and the place stood unprepared for the merits of so great a Man,

he is reverently conveyed to a certain

place, and there [i] (but not

for many days) it is made known to the peoples, by evident signs, of what

merit he was. When therefore a few days had rolled by,

the most blessed Bishop is carried from the cell of Saint

Senericus [k] as far as Paniciariæ ^l, namely on the third

of the Nones of April.

[16] Now something wonderful happened on the solemn day

of the vigils of Easter. a sweet and mighty sound is heard: For in the silence

of the dead of night, when all had given their bodies to rest,

and grace, its melodies lifted on high, was heard

by very many: and while a multitude of the faithful coming up

kept watch before the doors, and the priests

of that place too stood astonished at the sweetness of the inestimable

chant, and were pondering these things with wonder

among themselves: it seemed, and by certain persons it was

thus put forth: The holy confessor Launomarus [m], they say, lately dug up

from the place of his sepulcher through fear of the barbarians, has been carried by the brethren

to these parts. But now, lest on so solemn

a day he should lack his own tomb, and lest the holy and faithful

congregation should feel that the longed-for suffrages of that precious man

are wanting to it, the same Blessed one attends it with praises of this kind

upon his returning ⁿ. But those who in that place, namely in the new

dwelling ^o, were held by the offices

of the blessed Confessor, wondered with no unlike amazement;

supposing that a harmony of this sort was being made by the praises

of those who had come up to meet the blessed martyr

Chrodogangus. So great, then,

and so mighty a sound was there, unheard of in our, in our ages,

sweet and clear-ringing, though not to be taken in by the senses of the hearers,

that it filled the woods, the fields alike

and the villages, for six miles round about, and suffused the whole

darkness of that holy night, even to the dawn

of the holy Resurrection, with a most delightful exultation of voices. And these things we do not

recall in vain, but that it may be plain to all how great things

were done through the holy Martyr to the glory of Almighty God.

[17] Nor do we pass over that which we have learned by the report

of the faithful to have been done in the same place many days before. a robber punished by a death divinely inflicted: Before

the fame of the blessed Martyr, and his coming also

to the aforesaid place, was noised abroad among

the peoples; robbers came thither, who are accustomed

to refresh their own wretched carcasses at the cost of others;

and while they themselves feast upon their plunder, being made the devil's

prey they shall be fed upon by eternal fires, and

shall be devoured by avenging flames. These at once began to plunder the goods which

they had found with their wonted greedy gulf of rapacity.

But one of them, who was more eager than the rest for the doing of this

crime, straightway tormented by the devil at the judgment of the vengeance above,

received the sentence of present and everlasting

death.

[18] It is worth while also to insert this, that

many, moved by the fame of the blessed Martyr, health restored to many on the road to the Saint's sepulcher: before

they came to the cell and the place of the sepulcher, some

at home, some on the road and at the outlets of the ways,

deserved to receive the joys of the soundness they longed for:

laying aside their pallets and their conveyances also, and renouncing their

crutches [p], with free step and freer mind

they rendered praise and thanks at the place of the sepulcher. For

we have known many of them blinded of their natural sight,

and we have learned of not a few deaf and dumb, of lame

also and paralytic, and likewise of persons vexed by

demons, whom, as we said above, the grace of the heavenly mercy,

by the merits of Chrodogangus the martyr, loosed from their prison

bonds; and it healed the sicknesses of their infirmities

and mercifully restored them, all sorrow being taken away, to the joys of the health they longed for. Of whom it pleases

to relate one memorable case, lest a too lengthy discourse

should burden the minds of the hearers.

[19] A certain girl of twelve years, carried in the arms of the faithful,

begs the help of so great a Martyr: she was held

fastened by the soles of her feet to the edges of her buttocks, a paralytic woman healed, and in the upper parts of her body

bound fast by her limbs to her breast and her cartilage, and moreover

loosened in the ligaments of all her members. And when for some time

she awaited the aids of the blessed Martyr,

little by little and by the increase of time, the knots of a most dreadful paralysis being loosed,

by divine power she recovered the strength and the use of her whole

body. And she who had been bent double by a long-lasting

disease and could not look upward,

having regained the wholeness of her strength, giving thanks to God even to the end

of her life, was most devoted to the offices of the holy Man.

had lost the light of his eyes: who, lying before

the doors of that place, while many, as is the custom,

were coming together, and singing praises to God according to their vow,

[who] confessed that they saw the most brilliant lights of the stars,

when, as we have said, the service of all sight was denied to him

for a long time, when he had begged to be led

within the church of the blessed Martyr; straightway,

all blindness laid aside, a white film hanging there for a little while as a testimony of the heavenly Godhead,

as though he were being cured by a medicinal cautery,

he received the comforts of all his sight: and there, of the art of the stage.

giving his labor to the scene-making craft [r], and receiving the wage of his toils,

he sufficiently contrived to pass out his days. *

[21] Meanwhile a certain region lying not far off

was harassed by an unbelievable disease: for the force of the fires had so

burned away the inward parts of the marrow that from the very tips

of the toes up to the knees, in some as far as

the private parts, it covered them, and rendered the whole surface of the skin

blacker than soot. It became commonly reported that the sickness

of this pestilence had destroyed very many of both sexes.

At this season, while the acts of the most blessed Man

were becoming known to the peoples, many coming to him,

corrupted by the plague of this wretched calamity,

deserved to receive the medicine of the heavenly grace;

so that from the place of the infected sore nothing

thereafter advanced upward, but little by little, as their

members came to life again, the longed-for health returned: and thus

many of them return sound to their own homes, some to places

well known to them.

[22] a paralytic restored to his vigor, While these and like things were being done, a certain man

called Rampo, not unknown in that same region,

destitute of the strength of his kidneys and loins and of

all the members that are below, and

as it were undone by the pain of a dreadful paralysis, faithfully

imploring the help of the Martyr, in a short time felt

the supports of his lost well-being restored to him. Therefore,

as a testimony of righteous works, it has seemed fitting

that the names of certain of the faithful be inserted here,

that the mind of the pious might be the more certain in all things, and

doubtful in none.

[23] a grievous pain of the head taken away, A certain man of Le Mans [s], of good repute,

and of no ignoble life, Isambardus, was harassed

with an affliction of the whole head, so that for two years he was kept sleepless

by nights and by days. And when

he prayed frequently that he might be healed by the intervening merits

of the blessed Martyr, the pain of his head being removed,

and every function restored to him, he hastens with exultation to Rome,

to the thresholds of the blessed apostles

Peter and Paul, to render praise

and thanks to God.

[24] very many others healed: things lost recovered when the Saint was invoked, Finally, that which it is not only lengthy

but also held to be difficult to enumerate, it has seemed good

to commit briefly to memory: while countless

peoples were being battered by the weaknesses of divers fevers and of various

sicknesses also, and were tormented likewise

by most dreadful torments: when the benefits of the blessed Man

were implored, they were freed from their own weaknesses;

so that, along with the rushes, and the grasses, and the ashes of the whole

pavement [t], they were emptied of the bonds of all fevers and pains;

and they received back the healing of the limbs which

they had lost. And no less

shall I relate this marvel also: that certain persons weeping over the loss

of goods lost by theft, by fraud, or by

whatever carelessness, and lamenting the amount of them,

while they seek the merits of the aforesaid Martyr,

both recover what they had lost, and return with rejoicing to their own

roofs.

[25] Of which let one memorable case come first,

which may lend credence to the others not unlike it. as is shown by one example: From

the upper parts there had come a certain poor man of a province unknown

to us, who anxiously sighed for three oxen and one cow, which

had left at home a calf still sucking, taken from him

by theft. He with tears

begged in such prayer as he could that help be given him:

and he made a vow of this kind, that if he should recover

what he had lost, he would devote to the service of the Martyr

the calf kept at home. But no offering is mean before God

in which there is a faithful and simple intention. Nor

does He ask what, or how much, but out of how much that which is given

to Him is bestowed. Whence also the offering of this Man,

and the prayer that went before it, the effect that followed

declares not to have been unwelcome. For not far

from the church of the blessed Martyr that man, returning,

met a certain man unknown to him:

Of what calling [], said he, are you, good man, or*

whence do you now come? And the poor man, groaning, and supposing

himself to be mocked, answered with a sad countenance: By no means,

said he, does an equal sorrow hold me and you.

And the other said: Perhaps you have lost something:

for if it is a matter of oxen, behold, said he, there they are,

grazing in I know not whose shady woodlands: which,

because I found them without a herdsman, I believed to have been stolen. Then

he, recalling to memory the power of the Martyr,

seeks out the place pointed out to him, and first finds the cow

frisking. And when he threatened her, at a swift run

she leads her master to the places where the beasts were grazing:

and he, having recognized and recovered

all that was of his own right, no one making resistance [*],

returns on his way rejoicing.

[26] For the rest, lest a too rude discourse should be able

to bring weariness upon the minds of the hearers, sight given to a woman blind from birth. we now purpose to make an end

of the countless powers of so great a Man, one being still added.

A certain girl blind from

birth had passed her thirtieth year:

who with heavy grief bewailed the light of the present Life

denied to her. She, imprinting her steps by the hand of her guide after the wonted manner

of blindness [u], approaches the place of the most blessed

Martyr. But after no many words of prayer, receiving back

the functions of the eyes withdrawn from her for so very long, she was made

mistress of her prayers. But these things,

which the divine power deigns to work by the prayers of the holy

Bishop to the honor and glory of His own name,

are indeed to be wondered at and to be marveled at

by the faithful, nay rather to be proclaimed and extolled

through eternal ages, so that we, whose merits we cannot

share, being safe under their patronage and fortified

by their intercession, may deserve to be their companions

even in the fellowship of the lowest rank, by the bounty of our Lord

Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory forever and

ever. Amen. [x]

ANNOTATA.

h He means

the bush which Moses saw burning at mount Horeb or Sinai, and yet not consumed,

indicating that the candles in the same way, notwithstanding the violence of the winds,

burned continually, and indeed without any diminution of the flame. But

the phrase is faulty, some of the following words having perhaps been omitted or corrupted.

It can, however, be restored thus: While one of the winds .. bent aside the flames of the lights, it not only did not extinguish them, but &c.

i Here

R. D. Filliaut, who collated this with the Ms., believed that something was lacking in the Ms., and noted it in the margin of the transcript. Nevertheless the phrase holds together well enough, even though nothing be lacking, provided the words sed non per plures dies be separated

by the due punctuation. Here the second translation is touched upon in a few words,

by which the body was carried to the cell of saint Serenicus, as

is gathered from the words immediately following. The writer suggests that certain miracles were done in that place,

but not for many days, because the body remained there only a few days.

k Of

St. Serenicus or Cerenicus, deacon and father of many monks, we treated

in vol. 2 of May from p. 160, and there in the Commentary num. 3, and in the Life

num. 12 is narrated the building of the monastery which is here called the Cell of saint Cenericus. In the same place afterward a castle was built, and was called the castle of S. Serenicus, and with the vulgar name somewhat altered, S. Céneri. It is situated

on a lofty rock by the river Sarthe, where it is increased by the Sarthule, that is, some

miles below Alençon and on the extreme border of Normandy at the

confines of the province of Le Mans.

without doubt for fear of the same Normans, by which the Saint's body was carried from the Cell of saint

Serenicus to Paniciariæ. But it is not clear to me what place

is designated by the word Paniciarias, nor did Mabillon explain it, although he

praised the text in the Preliminary Observations to the Acts of St. Opportuna num.

3, where also he seems to confound this translation with the preceding one.

m Of

St. Launomarus, priest and abbot, whose body is said to have been buried

in the Vale of St. Martin, an abbey of the suburb of Chartres no longer

existing, we treated among us on the 19th day of January.

p This word

is written so ambiguously that it cannot be read. But it seems to indicate a certain kind

of conveyance, or an instrument by which the step is steadied.

q Ebroicæ, or Ebroicum (Évreux), is

an episcopal city in

Normandy under the archbishop of Rouen. By the name of the province of Évreux

I judge that the territory or diocese of Évreux is designated.

r So indeed the word stands in the transcript, but faultily, I think. There is the

trade of tent-making, or of weaving the hangings of tents, which St.

Paul practiced. This perhaps the author wished to indicate. The matter is of small moment.

s Perhaps it should be read Cenomanensis, from the city of Le Mans, commonly so called, which is the capital of the neighboring province.

t The phrase

again is obscure. But I judge the sense to be, that the sick were as easily

freed from their ills as a house or a pavement can be cleansed of rushes, grasses,

ashes, and other filth.

u That is, after the wonted manner of the blind.

x There is subjoined in the Ms.: Here end the miracles of saint Chrodogangus, martyr.

tanta … valida*

nutarent*

sategit*

perhaps regionis*

resistente*