Chagnoald

ON ST. CHAGNOALD, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT LAON IN GAUL

Between the years DCXXXI and DCXXXVIII.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Chagnoald, bishop and confessor at Laon in Gaul (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The Saint's various announcement: whence his Acts are to be pieced together.

[ ] Among the holy bishops of the church of Laon in Belgica, on this day St. Chagnoald obtains cult, who by others is called Chainoald, The Saint's various memory Chanoald, and Agnoald. The classic Martyrologies nowhere, so far as I know, have mentioned him: but in the more recent ones his memory is frequent enough, yet not marked on the same day. An old manuscript Kalendar of the Saints of the Benedictine Order announces him at the day XXXI of January, and not without faults, which we shall correct below; meanwhile take the words: Of saint Chalnoald, from a monk of Luxeuil archbishop of Lyons, brother of the saints Pharao and Walbert. Our manuscript Florarium on the VIII day of February seems to designate the same man, when it announces thus: Of Eudoald, otherwise Oudoald, bishop of Lyons; the same man, I say, it seems to designate, as our Predecessors have already suspected in the Prætermissi at the day cited: for both is Chagnoald also wrongly made bishop of Lyons by others, and among the bishops of this church no St. Eudoald or Oudoald occurs, and the name of Chagnoald is read written variously by various writers. Gabriel Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology commemorates him twice, and first indeed on the XXIII of August, and then on this day, that is the VI of September: in both places he weaves a sufficiently lengthy eulogy, which we shall recite below: but why he announces him twice he does not declare; yet I suspect that he did this for no other cause than that he had found the first of the aforesaid days sacred to the Saint among his own Benedictines, and the other among the people of Laon.

[2] And that I should so think Mabillon persuades me, who in volume 1 of the Annals at the year 632, number 29, says concerning the Saint's cult among his own: in the sacred calendars. His death is venerated on the XXIII day of August in the Benedictine Martyrology; where he makes no mention of the VI of September, although in the Index of Saints which he prefixes to the 2nd Century he acknowledges both announcements in these words: He is venerated on the XXIII of August and the VI of September. Bucelin himself too persuades me, who at this day cites the ecclesiastical monuments and the proper Office of Laon, which he does not do at the XXIII of August. To yet another day, namely the IV of September, Castellan assigns the Saint's memory in the Universal Martyrology published in French, but likewise designating no particular festival: At Laon, St. Chagnoald, bishop of this city, brother of saint Fara. The Parisian Martyrology printed in the year 1727 agrees, which at the aforesaid day has thus: At Laon, of S. Chagnoald the bishop, brother of S. Fara the abbess, who subscribed to the council of Reims under Sonnatius. Finally to the same day Simon Mothier refers him in the Index of the Saints of Gaul, which he appended to the Roman Martyrology translated into French.

[3] Eulogies But others celebrate our holy Bishop on the VI of September. Among these André du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology adorns him with the following eulogy: At Laon Clavatum, of S. Chagnoald, bishop and glorious confessor; who, brother of the holy bishops Pharao and Walbert, and of saint Fara the abbess, and disciple of the blessed Columbanus and Eustasius in the community of Luxeuil, being already from boyhood eminent in divine works, when he shone with piety of mind and sanctity of life, was elected bishop of Laon after Richbert. In which divine office (which he undertook only with difficulty, being given up to hiding through a pious zeal for humility) he so bore himself that he propagated the heavenly kingdom of Christ both by examples of the Gospel life and by miracles divinely wrought. And so, when he had instructed his church with excellent monuments, adorned it with merits, and, conspicuous in age and virtue, had been present with many fathers of the Gallican church at the synod of Reims convoked for the vindicating of the sacred laws, at last, his pontificate and life happily consummated, he closed the eyes of the flesh in death, and went forth to heaven to live forever with Christ.

[4] faulty here and there. Gabriel Bucelin, who, as we have already warned, celebrates him on the XXIII of August with an honorable eulogy, follows the same man likewise at the present day with these encomiums: At Laon Clavatum in Gaul, of S. Chanoald, bishop and confessor. Chanoald, Chagnoald, or Cainald (to some also Rainald), most illustrious for his most noble contempt of the enticements of this world, had Hagneric, the most powerful count of Burgundy, as his father, and Leodegundis, of like nobility, as his mother. But despising the favors of earthly principality and of the king of the Gauls, he sought after the grace of the King of kings alone by solid poverty and humility, and, having professed as a monk in the most holy community of Luxeuil, contended in a most beautiful contest with his most holy brothers and sister german, Pharao, Walbert, and Fara, in the course and the pursuit of perfection, and with them deserved the prize of a most happy eternity. But being drawn forth, for the merits of his life, to the pontificate of Laon, and placed on a candlestick, he shone far and wonderfully with the rays of sanctity, and adorned his see with eternal merits, over which he presided most usefully for very many years, and about the year of Christ DCXL departed with a holy end. So he, citing the ecclesiastical monuments and the Proper of Laon, Flodoard, de Thou, Ménard, Chenu, Claude Robert, and Severtius, who thinks that our Saint presided over the church of Lyons, but wrongly, as we shall see below. Further, we shall discuss each of these eulogies in its place: meanwhile let us hear the other martyrologists.

[5] To this same day Ménard refers St. Chagnoald in the Martyrology of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, writing thus: Why he is treated of on this day. At Laon Clavatum in Gaul, of S. Canoald, bishop and confessor. Ménard was followed by Simon Peyronet in the Catalogue of the Saints, citing in his observations the Breviary of Laon, and the Life of the Saint contained in it. To these martyrologists are added Mabillon and Jacques Longueval, of whom the former in the Index of Saints to the 2nd Benedictine Century, the latter in the History of the Gallican Church published in French, volume 3, page 471, testify that the VI day of September is sacred to our Chagnoald. I scarcely doubt that all these treat of the festival which the Saint enjoys in his own diocese of Laon, and about which Le Cointe in volume 2 of the Annals of the Franks at the year 625, number 58, writes: The people of Laon venerate the feast-day of saint Chainoald bishop of Laon with a solemn Office: for both Bucelin and Peyronet at the VI of September cite the monuments and the Proper of that church, and Longueval in the Gallican Church doubtless meant to assign in preference to the rest that day on which the Saint is venerated in his own diocese: finally the sheet containing the proper Lessons, which Chifflet transmitted to us long ago, copied from the Breviary of Laon, is inscribed for the VI of September. Wherefore, since in our Work the treatment of him has hitherto been deferred, it has seemed good to perform it on this day.

[6] The Acts of St. Chagnoald none of the ancients committed professedly to writing, Whence his Acts are to be pieced together. or if anyone did commit them, they have not come down to us: yet there are some things sprinkled here and there in the Lives of other Saints which vindicate his memory from the oblivion of an ungrateful antiquity, and do not suffer it to be wholly unknown. The chief writer who mentions him is Jonas, monk of Bobbio in Italy, an author contemporary with the Saint or nearly so. He in the Lives of SS. Columbanus and Eustasius, whose disciple Chagnoald was, relates certain things which can opportunely be of use for piecing together the Saint's Acts in some fashion. Both Lives are extant in Mabillon, in the 2nd Benedictine Century, the latter also in our Work, volume III of March. Besides, Chagnoald's illustrious family, monastic life, the labor bestowed on governing the girls' monastery of Faremoutiers belonging to St. Fara, or Burgundofara, his sister, and finally the bishopric of Laon, are briefly mentioned by a certain anonymous writer in the Acts of St. Agilus, first abbot of Rebais, which in our volume VI of August, page 571, are shown to have been more probably written before the year 690. From these therefore, while others are lacking, we shall piece together such a compendium as we can of the Life of our holy Bishop: but the lessons which are recited about him in the Breviary of Laon we shall pass over, since they contain nothing beyond those things which we are about to hand down from more ancient monuments.

§ II. The Saint's illustrious birth, family, fatherland and paternal house, his monastic life at Luxeuil.

[ ] The Saint's parents. His brother and sister: Chagnoald, sprung of an illustrious family among the Franks, had as his father Chagneric or Agneric, counselor and familiar of Theodebert king of the Austrasians; as his mother Leudegundis, commended for Christian piety and wisdom. His brother Faro or Burgundofaro, having discharged the chief offices at court, having dismissed and veiled his own wife, was raised to the bishopric of Meaux, and after a life most holily spent was reckoned among the Saints. Nor did his sister, Fara by name, otherwise also called Burgundofara, flourish with lesser sanctity; who, consecrating her virginity to Christ, founded the convent of Faremoutiers in the district of Brie, and in it, presiding over sacred virgins, flew away to the heavens, being likewise inserted into the number of the Saints. Further, if we should wish to take a conjecture from the names of the said brother and sister, our holy Bishop seems to have been a Burgundian by race, or at least sprung from the stock of the Burgundians: for, as Mabillon notes in the preliminary observations to the Life of St. Burgundofara, 2nd Benedictine Century, page 438, from Fredegar's Chronicle, chapter 44, by Burgundofarones are designated the Burgundian nobles, or the farones of Burgundy, that is barones, just as in fact they

had called them in chapter 41. Similarly Paul the deacon in book 2 On the Deeds of the Lombards, chapter 9, expressly relates that the faras of the Lombards are generations or lines. So that Burgundofaro sounds a baron or noble of Burgundy. That he was of a most illustrious family will be plain both from what is to be said below, and is manifest from the Epitaph of his sister St. Fara, which Mabillon in the 2nd Benedictine Century, page 449, printed from a codex written, as he says, by hand in the time of Charles the Bald, in which these things are read:

Offspring of the kings of the Franks, the renowned virgin Fara Entrusted her holy remains to this tomb. A bright light of virtues she was, and a beacon of modesty, Fara, and a descendant of Burgundian blood.

From which it would follow that that holy woman, and consequently her brother german St. Chagnoald, drew their origin from the royal race of the Franks, and from illustrious Burgundian blood.

[8] He seems to have been born near Meaux But whatever the case may be in that matter, Chagnoald's father Chagneric dwelt near Meaux, the head of the province of Brie, in the villa of Pipimisium, and was devoted to the service of Theodebert king of Austrasia. So we learn from Jonas in the Lives of SS. Columbanus and Eustasius in Mabillon, 2nd Benedictine Century, where in the Life of the former, describing the journey of St. Columbanus when driven out of the kingdom of Theodoric, he has these things: Then he hastens to the town of Meaux: whither when he had come, there was a certain noble man, Hagneric (elsewhere he calls him Chagneric), a table-companion of Theodebert, a wise man and welcome in the king's counsels and fortified with nobility and wisdom. He received the man of God with wonderful joy, and promised that he would have care of him, as to how he should come to the court of Theodebert… The man of God therefore blessed his house, and his daughter, named Burgundofara, who was within her infant years, and, blessing her, vowed her to the Lord. The same author speaks more fully in the Acts of St. Eustasius at number 1, when, treating of that holy abbot's journey to king Clothaire, he writes thus: The way of the journey undertaken was therefore through the forest and the district of Brie: and they came to a certain villa of Chagneric, where he had formerly stayed for a while. The name of the villa is called Pipimisium, distant from the city of Meaux about two miles. There now Chagneric was dwelling with his wife named Leudegundis, a Christian woman and of sound mind, and they had with them their son Chagnoald, of whom we made mention above (in the Life of St. Columbanus). And so, having seen Eustasius, Chagneric received him with wonderful joy: and there was with her father and mother a daughter, Burgundofara by name, whom, as we said above (in the said Life), blessed Columbanus had consecrated to the Lord.

[9] What the place Pipimisium is, or by what name it is now called, in the villa of Pipimisium: is not sufficiently established. Adrien de Valois in the Notitia Galliarum thinks that it is the village today called Poinsy, which lies beside the river Marne, and is distant from Meaux two or three thousand paces. Mabillon in volume 1 of the Annals, page 304, discourses thus about the same place: Some think Pipimisium to be the village of Poinsy, situated above Meaux on the Marne, distant nearly one league from the city of Meaux, next to which village lies, with the river in between, the parish church of Trilport, dedicated to St. Peter. But the French translator of the Life of St. Fara, from ancient tradition, renders Pipimisium as Opigny, which place, now reduced to a simple rustic farm, belongs to the monastery of St. Fara. Not far from this is the church of St. Peter, in the place commonly called Bregy, with a priory subject to the abbey of Rebais: which perhaps is that of St. Peter to which St. Fara is said to have fled, that she might escape the violence of her father, who had determined to give her in marriage against her will. To the former place better agree both the French analogy of the name Pipimisium and the distance from the city. But Jonas, being a stranger, could easily have erred in assigning the exact distance of the place; and most of the farms neighboring the latter place belong to the church of Meaux, namely by the gift of St. Faro, the brother of blessed Fara. Perhaps Pipimisium was formerly called in the vernacular Au Pimy, which afterward was corruptly called Opigny. So Mabillon, who earlier, in the 2nd Benedictine Century at the Life of St. Eustasius, being ignorant of the place Opigny in Brie, had thought that the village called in the vernacular Changy, taking its name, as he supposed, from Chagneric, situated nearly two leagues above Meaux, was itself Pipimisium: but he himself abandoned this opinion in the Annals, as we have shown.

[10] Toussaint du Plessis in the History of the Church of Meaux, which place is uncertain to this day. published in French, volume 1, Note 13, thinks that Pipimisium was more probably where Champigny now is, a small village two leagues from Meaux, next to the abbey of Pont-aux-Dames (in French Du pont aux Dames), on the road which leads from this abbey to Crécy. He adds that Champigny can be rendered in Latin the field of Pipimisium. But Mabillon's opinion, which assigns Opigny, appears to him less probable, because that village, situated on the right of the Marne, was never comprehended within the province of Brie, contrary to what Jonas asserts about Pipimisium, when he says: The way of the journey undertaken was therefore through the forest and the district of Brie: and they came to a certain villa of Chagneric: .. the name of the villa is called Pipimisium. The matter, as is plain, is uncertain: nevertheless du Plessis' opinion pleases me more. And let it suffice to have observed these things about the Saint's birthplace, or at any rate his paternal home: about his illustrious family a few things remain to be said.

[11] St. Faro was the Saint's brother, St. Agilus his cousin: That St. Faro, bishop of Meaux, was the brother of Chagnoald is expressly related in his Life, whose author is believed to be Hildegar, whom Mabillon in the Observations prefixed to the said Life, 2nd Benedictine Century, page 607, asserts to have held the episcopal see of Meaux from about the year DCCCL to DCCCLXXIV. The same we have from the testament of St. Fara, in which she acknowledges Chagnulf (who seems to have been the same as Chagnoald), and Burgundofaro as her brothers german, and Agnetrudis as her sister: for that instrument is said to have been drawn up with the favor of her most sweet brothers german, Chagnulf, Burgundofaro and Agnetrada: see the said Annalist at the year 632, number 30. To the same family, besides, belongs St. Agilus, first abbot of Rebais; being indeed begotten of Agnoald, the uncle of our holy Bishop, as may be read in the Acts of the aforesaid Agilus in our volume VI of August, page 577, from which I excerpt the following: Agilus, entering upon the age of boyhood, is committed to Eustasius to be instructed in the sacred letters with other sons of noble men, who afterward became bishops of churches, namely Agnoald (that is, Chagnoald) and Waldebert, sons of Hagneric his uncle, who were renowned as regular masters of building and teaching for the monastery which their sister Fara built on the paternal soil between the Aubetin and the Morin in the place which is called Eboriacus, of whom the one was ordained bishop at Laon Clavatum, the other for the people of Meaux.

[12] whether St. Waldebert was his brother is uncertain. Almost the same things are read about St. Waldebert in the Life of St. Faro praised above: but these displease the learned, who acknowledge Waldebert as the successor of St. Eustasius in the abbacy of Luxeuil, but everywhere deny that the same man was the brother of SS. Chagnoald, Faro and Fara, or bishop of Meaux. Mabillon may be seen in the historical Eulogy of St. Waldebert, 2nd Benedictine Century, page 503 and following, and in our Acta, volume VI of August, page 578: yet a few things must here be observed. The Waldebert of whom the said author speaks is doubtless the same as he whom Jonas mentions in the Life of St. Eustasius: for each writer relates that he, together with Chagnoald, the brother of St. Fara, presided over the building and ordering of the convent of Faremoutiers, although Jonas does not add that Waldebert, whom he calls Walbert, was St. Fara's brother. Further, that Walbert, on the testimony of Jonas his contemporary, succeeded St. Eustasius in the governance of the community of Luxeuil, which he held from the year 625, in which Eustasius died, to 665, as we have it from Waldebert's Acts. And if that be so, I do not sufficiently perceive on what ground it can be said that the writer of the Life of St. Agilus erred when he made St. Waldebert the brother of SS. Chagnoald, Faro and Fara, and bishop of Meaux. I do not, I say, sufficiently perceive it, if those things are true which are related about the age and monastic profession of the said writer in the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Agilus, volume VI of August, page 571. For if that biographer wrote between the year 684 and 690, and, being already a monk, as is there asserted as probable, learned some things from St. Donatus in the monastery of Luxeuil, it follows that the said biographer lived under St. Waldebert in the aforesaid community: for Donatus is there said probably to have died only about the year 660; but Waldebert, after a governance of 40 years, departed from the living finally in the year 665. And if these things are true, it is hard to understand how he could have called St. Waldebert, once his own abbot, bishop of Meaux, if he really was not. Wherefore nothing seems to remain but that we should say either that Waldebert the abbot was raised to the see of Meaux after the Life of SS. Columbanus and Eustasius was written, or that Jonas, although he inscribed his little work to Waldebert the abbot, confused two Waldeberts, or at any rate that the Life of St. Agilus is not so ancient as it is claimed to be. But I proceed to other matters.

[13] That Chagnoald, while still a youth, was handed over together with other sons of noble men to St. Eustasius, the disciple of St. Columbanus, to be imbued with the sacred letters in the community of Luxeuil, He becomes the disciple and attendant of St. Columbanus: is attested by the biographer of St. Agilus, whose words we recited at number 11. About the time at which he first entered the monastery there is no certainty: but so far as it is permitted to gather from the Acts of St. Agilus, this happened about the year 690, or rather somewhat later. In the Life of St. Faro he is said to have been by St. Columbanus a boy devoted to God. His deeds under the discipline of SS. Columbanus and Eustasius lie hidden, for want of a biographer, wrapped in the darkness of oblivion, except for one or two which have been inserted into the Lives of those same abbots, and from which one may conjecture about his sanctity and the other virtues of which we are ignorant. Chagnoald was not only the disciple of St. Columbanus, but also his attendant, as Jonas more than once calls him. For, says Mabillon in volume 1 of the Annals at the year 610, number 51, it was the custom for one of the monks to attend the abbots. And it seems to have belonged to this office that he should always be present with his abbot, even when for solitude's sake he withdrew into the wilderness, as is manifest from the Life of St. Columbanus, and as we shall presently say. Of the same office the biographer of St. Faro thus makes mention: Chagnoald was there, who as a boy devoted to God had been the attendant of Columbanus, the man of God, in the office of clerkship. On occasion of this attendance the Saint was familiar with Columbanus and beyond the rest a beholder of his virtues. Hence Jonas, treating of these things, writes thus: Nor wonder why the beasts

and birds so obeyed the command of the man of God: for we learned it from the report of Chagnoald, bishop of Laon Clavatum, who was both his attendant and his disciple; who testified that he had often seen, when in the wilderness he walked about giving himself to fasting or to prayer, that he was often wont to summon wild creatures, beasts and birds, which came at once at his command, and which he stroked, caressing them with his hand, etc.

[14] Now Chagnoald was not the only one who discharged that office with Columbanus; when the latter was driven into exile, he remains at Luxeuil. for both a certain little boy named Domoalis is said in Jonas to have been in his service, and St. Eustasius himself is called the disciple and attendant of the holy man. For the rest, I have read nothing handed down to memory about his deeds in the community of Luxeuil. When Columbanus, by order of Theodoric king of Burgundy at the instigation of Brunhilda, set out into exile in the year 610, the Saint probably remained at Luxeuil, the royal ministers forbidding that anyone who was not a Scot or a Briton should follow his holy abbot. When, says Jonas, the monks of Luxeuil were unwilling with equanimity to be separated from the guardianship of their shepherd, the royal guards say that they would by no means permit others to follow him, except those whom the land of his birth had given, or who had followed him from the British field; that the rest, who were sprung from another soil, were to remain there by the royal commands: which indeed was so strictly observed that even after Columbanus' departure it was not permitted to set foot outside the monastery with impunity, until by the labor of St. Agilus, Theodoric and Brunhilda being appeased, they revoked that edict, on the testimony of the biographer of that same Agilus, in our volume VI of August, page 577.

§ III. He goes to St. Columbanus in exile: deeds near Bregenz: his return to Luxeuil: the care of Fara's monastery.

[ ] Setting out somewhat later to St. Columbanus The royal edict, of which we have just spoken, being removed, St. Chagnoald set out to Columbanus, and discharged with him his accustomed attendance. He could have undertaken that journey together with St. Eustasius, who, although in the first fervor of the persecution he was forbidden to follow his abbot, and was violently torn from him, yet afterward was present with him as he was staying near Bregenz in Swabia, as Jonas is author in the often-praised Life. Further, Columbanus, hastening to Theodebert king of Austrasia, turned aside on the way to Chagneric the father of Chagnoald: by whom, being most kindly received, he vowed to God Burgundofara the Saint's sister. It is uncertain whether Chagnoald was already then present with him: yet this is probable, if, as I suspect, he had Eustasius as a companion of this journey. For Jonas, narrating the second coming of Eustasius to Chagneric, which happened some years later, writes thus: And they came to a certain villa of Chagneric, where he had formerly stayed for a while: by which words he seems to treat of this very stay of Columbanus, especially since he had said above that Chagneric took pains that he might have kept the man of God (Columbanus) with him as long as he could, and that his house might be ennobled by his teaching.

[16] he stays with him near Bregenz; Mabillon in volume 1 of the Annals at the year 610, number 49, treating of this stay of Columbanus with Chagneric, speaks exceedingly obscurely in these words: The man of God blessed both spouses (Chagneric and Leudegundis) with all their household; chiefly Burgundofara their daughter, then an infant, whom also he vowed to God, as he did Chagnoald their son, who afterward was made bishop of Laon Clavatum. Where, if that learned man means that Columbanus then first blessed our Saint and consecrated him to God, he is mistaken and contradicts himself; since he himself refers the beginnings of his religious life to the year 594. But perhaps he meant nothing else here than that he consecrated Burgundofara to God, as he had formerly consecrated St. Chagnoald. Hence Columbanus, and with him Chagnoald, if our conjecture does not deceive us, having gone to Theodebert king of Austrasia, and permission having been given to dwell in his kingdom wherever he wished, chose a place near Bregenz, a town of Swabia, and there stayed with his own, until, Theodebert being slain and his kingdom brought under the power of Theodoric in the year 612, he migrated into Italy.

[17] But while they were staying near the aforesaid Bregenz, where, oppressed with hunger along with the rest they experienced a notable miracle of divine providence toward his own, which Jonas, informed by Eustasius himself, who was then present, commended to posterity. That Chagnoald too was a partaker of this prodigy, the same biographer sufficiently clearly suggests, when presently he subjoins another wrought by him at that very time: wherefore it may be well to have inserted it in this Commentary. And so, while Columbanus was staying, says the said writer, with his own near the city of Bregenz, a time of harsh want came upon them. But although food was lacking, there remained an unstained and unshaken faith, which might obtain necessities from the Lord. And when their bodies were already worn with a three days' fast, they found so great an abundance of birds, as once the quail covered the camps of the Israelites; so that a multitude of birds filled the whole district of that place. The man of God understood that for the safety of himself and of his own these feasts were spread over the earth, and that they were not happening anywhere else at all, save in the place where he was staying.

[18] He bids his own first render thanks and praises to the Creator, he is fed by divine gift. and so take the feast of the birds: and it was a wonderful and astonishing miracle: the birds were taken, as the father's command urged, nor did they strive to depart in feathered flight. There remained therefore the manna of birds spread abroad for three days; but on the fourth day a certain bishop from the neighboring cities, admonished by divine inspiration, sent an abundance of grain to blessed Columbanus: but presently the Almighty, who had furnished winged foods to those suffering want, when the richness of corn arrived, commanded the phalanxes of birds to depart. For we learned this from the report of Eustasius, who at that time was held bound there among the rest under the obedience of the man of God, that there was no one in the band who related that he had before seen birds of such kinds: and so great a savor was in the food that it surpassed royal feasts. So Jonas: from which one may admire both the austere life of the Saint led under the discipline of Columbanus, and his admirable confidence in God's providence, and God's fatherly kindness. After these things the same biographer sets forth a notable specimen of obedience shown by St. Chagnoald, which I transfer hither in just so many words.

[19] And so at that very time, while he (Columbanus) was wearing out his body with fasting under a certain rock amid the vast wilderness, and took nothing else for food except the fruits of the countryside … He has a bear obedient to him: there came a bear, a beast accustomed to secret [] voracity, and began to lick up the necessary foods, and to pull down the fruits with its mouth. And when the hour of refreshment had come, he sends Chagnoald his attendant, to bring the accustomed measure of fruits. Who, when he had gone away, perceived the bear ranging through the inner thickets and brambles, and licking and plucking the fruits. He returns in haste, and informs the father: he commands that he should go, and leave a part of the thickets for the beast's food, and bids him reserve the other part for himself. And Chagnoald went away and fulfilled the commands, and divided with a rod the thickets and brambles which bore fruits, and drove [] his own part according to the command of the man of God, that the beast might eat, and reserves the other part for the uses of the man of God. Wonderful obedience in a beast! By no means did it dare to take food from the forbidden part, but sought its pasture only in the part of the thickets set apart and permitted to it, so long as the man of God stayed in that place.

[20] And he was still staying there, and with him Chagnoald, in the year of Christ 612, in which Theodebert king of Austrasia was cut down and captured by his brother Theodoric king of Burgundy near Tolbiac, and slain by the order of his grandmother Brunhilda. he is rebuked by Columbanus for indiscreet zeal. On the occasion of this battle Jonas again makes mention of our Saint, pursuing his narrative thus: At that time therefore the man of God was staying in the wilderness, content with the service only of his one attendant Chagnoald. At that hour then in which the battle was joined at Tolbiac, the man of God was sitting reading a book upon the trunk of a rotted oak: whom a sudden drowsiness overcame, and he saw what was being done between the two kings. And presently, being awakened, he calls his Attendant, and indicates the bloody battle of the kings, sighing that much human blood was being shed. To whom the Attendant said, with rash endeavor: My father, lend by thy prayers support to Theodebert, that he may vanquish our common enemy Theodoric. To this Columbanus: Foolish counsel and foreign to religion dost thou administer: for the Lord did not so will it, who bade us pray for our enemies: it is now in the judgment of the just Judge what he wills to be done about them. The Attendant therefore, inquiring afterward that day and hour of the time, found it to have been so as had been revealed to the man of God.

[21] Columbanus seeking Italy, he returns to Luxeuil: When Columbanus departed into Italy about the year 613, Chagnoald returned to Luxeuil, where St. Eustasius then presided. His deeds under this holy abbot are wholly hidden from us: this one thing we know, that he undertook, together with St. Waldebert, the care of building the monastery over which his sister St. Fara or Burgundofara was to be set, at the bidding of Eustasius, and that by the same he was set over that new company of virgins, that he might teach them the rule of the religious life under the Rule of St. Columbanus. So the often-praised Jonas relates in the Life of Eustasius, from which I transfer the following things which pertain hither: And so the venerable Eustasius, as we said above (in the Life of Columbanus), being sent from Italy by blessed Columbanus with fatherly affection, while he governed with equal justice the bands of monks subject to him, it happened that for the common need he should go to king Clothaire, who at that time was dwelling in the uttermost bounds of Gaul by the Ocean sea. The way of the journey undertaken was therefore through the forest and the district of Brie, and they came to a certain villa of Chagneric… There now [] Chagneric was dwelling with his wife Leudegundis … and they had with them their son Chagnoald. But before I proceed, it must be observed that in the manuscript which our Henschen published in volume III of March, page 786, it is read quite otherwise in this manner: He had his (Chagneric's) son with him*: whence it would follow that the Saint was not staying with his parents when Eustasius came thither, but that he came to them together with his abbot from the community of Luxeuil. Now let us resume what we have begun.

[22] he undertakes the care of his sister's monastery: He then narrates that Burgundofara was healed by St. Eustasius, and that, after she had given specimens of heroic constancy, she at last, with the help of that same holy man, obtained from her father that, taking the veil, she should keep her virginity for Christ. Presently he continues thus about St. Eustasius, to our purpose: He also builds a monastery of virgins of Christ upon the paternal soil between the rivers Morin and Aubetin, and appoints Brethren who should have the care of building it, and decrees that Chagnoald, the girl's brother, and Walbert, who afterward succeeded him, should teach the Rule. How strenuously they carried this out may be gathered from the sanctity of the nuns who at once flourished in it, as may be seen in the Life of that same Burgundofara in Mabillon, 2nd Benedictine Century, from page 439. Further, this monastery formerly

of Brie and of Eboriacum, is now commonly called that of St. Fara (in French, Fare-Moutier), and strictly observes the Rule of St. Benedict, flourishing in name and in wealth, says Mabillon, who in volume 1 of the Annals, page 304 and following, relates these things at the year 614, because he thinks that Eustasius disposed all these when, having returned from Italy, he was on his way to bring Columbanus' answers to Clothaire, and was returning thence to Luxeuil. But this opinion appears to me less probable. For if Burgundofara was within her infant years when in the year 610 she was vowed to God by Columbanus, as Jonas asserts and Mabillon admits, she would scarcely have come out of infancy by four years when she began to found the aforesaid monastery, and was set as abbess over the other nuns. Then Jonas distinguishes clearly enough the present journey, of which we are treating, from that in which he carried Columbanus' letter to Clothaire; as is plain from his own words related at number 21, in which, no mention being made of Columbanus' epistle, it is said to have happened that, while he governed with equal justice the bands of monks subject to him, he should go to king Clothaire for the common need. For which reason the foundation of the aforesaid monastery would perhaps better be set some years later: but these things will be able to be discussed in the Acts of St. Burgundofara, which will come to be illustrated at the IV of December.

elsewhere, greedy*

read gave*

elsewhere, then*

§ IV. He is made bishop of Laon, is present at the synod of Reims; the time of his death; his burial.

[ ] He is made bishop of Laon, not of Lyons, And so, while Chagnoald was bestowing most useful labor upon establishing the convent of Eboriacum, he was raised to the see of Laon. Jacques Severt in the Historical Chronology of the Archbishops of Lyons, number 39, §§1, 2 and 3, contends that he sat not at Laon but at Lyons. He cites in favor of this opinion the Lives of SS. Columbanus and Eustasius, which he attributes not to Jonas alone, as he ought, but also to Bede, because forsooth they are reckoned by some among the latter's works. From these, I say, he recites two texts by which he tries to establish his opinion. The former is from the Life of Columbanus, in which it is thus read: We learned it from the report of Chagnoald, bishop of Lyons, who was his attendant and disciple. The other from the Acts of Eustasius has thus: Of the Brethren established under his governance several afterward became bishops of churches: Chagnoald of Lyons, etc. But in Mabillon's edition in both places he is expressly said to have been bishop of Laon Clavatum. The first we recited at number 13; I subjoin the latter: Many of them afterward became bishops of churches, Chagnoald of Laon Clavatum, etc.

[24] Nay more, even if in both places the word Clavatum were absent, not on that account should the metropolis be understood by Lugdunum, as Severt wrongly will have it. both because Laon is often called by the name of Lugdunum among the ancients, as may be seen in Adrien de Valois' Notitia Galliarum; and because, on the testimony of Flodoard, at the same time in which St. Chagnoald presided over the church of Laon, Theodoric presided over that of Lyons. For in book 1 of the History of the Church of Reims, chapter 5, reckoning the bishops who were present at the synod of Reims under Sonnatius about the year 625, he says thus: Where also S. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, is found to have been present, with Theodoric of Lyons… Chainoald of Laon Clavatum, etc. Ménard may be seen in the Observations on the Benedictine Martyrology, book 2, at the day VI of September, where he solidly refutes Severt's opinion. More rightly therefore do the writers of the Gallia Christiana, volume 4, column 39, deny our holy Bishop a place among the bishops of Lyons, and warn that he must be placed among those of Laon: as the brothers Sainte-Marthe have already done in their own Gallia Christiana, where the Saint is reckoned the VI bishop of Laon.

[25] The beginning of his episcopate is inquired into, About the time at which he obtained the episcopal see I have nothing ascertained. The said Sainte-Marthes say only that he was living in the year 623, and succeeded Robert I, of whom they knew nothing but the name. Le Cointe in volume 2 of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, page 709, thinks that he could have entered upon the bishopric in the year 619: the same is the opinion of Claude Robert in the Gallia Christiana, page 337, where he reckons the Saint the V bishop of Laon. There are added the Writers of Gallic Affairs, who in volume 3, page 504, note these things: Chanoald is believed to have entered upon the bishopric of Laon in the year DCXIX: but none of them proves his assertion in this part. Nevertheless this opinion seems not to be far from the truth, although nothing stands in the way of the beginning of the episcopate being deferred by some years, or perhaps even placed earlier. For the first mention of him as bishop occurs at the synod of Reims, at which, on Flodoard's testimony, he was present, as we showed in the preceding number. Now this synod was celebrated about the year 625, as may be seen in Le Cointe in the Annals, Pagi in the Critica, Labbe, and others.

[26] and the time of the Saint's death. The Saint's deeds in his pontificate are wholly hidden: but about the year of his death we have more certainty. He was still living in the year of Christ 631, in the month of November of which, on the XXII day, he subscribed to a charter of cession made by St. Eligius in favor of the monastery of Solignac, over which St. Remaclus then presided. It is extant in Mabillon among the Additions to the 2nd Benedictine Century, page 1091 and following, and is noted as made on the tenth day before the Kalends of December, in the tenth year of the reign of our lord Dagobert the king; which year falls in the year of Christ 631. And the subscription of our holy Bishop has thus: I, Chanoald, bishop, being asked by Eligius, have subscribed this little charter of his cession. That he departed from the living in the year next after the charter was signed, Le Cointe gathers from the epistle of Paul bishop of Verdun to St. Desiderius, bishop of Cahors, in which the death of St. Chagnoald and the manner of his death is announced. Thou hast it entire in Duchesne, History of the Franks, volume 1, page 885, from which I excerpt the things which pertain hither: We make known concerning the king's condition, that he lately goes through Verdun to Reims, and there awaits the Lord's Nativity. But thence he comes to Laon, and thence into the Meuse country, and afterward goes along the bank of the Rhine. Know ye that Chainoald the bishop, being stricken, has likewise fulfilled the debt of fate.

[27] Le Cointe's opinion referring it to the year 632 But from that journey of the king which is there described, the said Le Cointe infers that that epistle was drawn up about the end of the year 632: for that in it there is treatment of the journey of Dagobert, who it is certain in the XI year of his reign, which falls in 632 and the year immediately following, set out into Austrasia to establish his son St. Sigebert as king at Metz. Let us hear Le Cointe. These things, he says, were written at the close of this year (632), when the feast of the Lord's Nativity was drawing near, since indeed Chainoald reached this year, who subscribed to the foundation of the monastery of Solignac on the X Kalends of December, in the X year of the reign of Dagobert, as was observed in the previous year; and he passed to God on the eighth of the Ides of September, on which day he is venerated by his diocesans. So Le Cointe, with whom also certain other learned men agree, to whose opinion I would gladly subscribe, if it were as certain as they think that there is treatment there of that journey of Dagobert in which in the XI year of his reign he gave his son Sigebert as king to the Austrasians. But this cannot be hammered out of that whole epistle, since no mention is made in it of Dagobert, none of Sigebert, nor does it contain anything else which would designate the aforesaid journey in preference to any other. I cannot deny that Dagobert came into Austrasia about that time, since Fredegar expressly relates it in his Chronicle in these words: Dagobert in the XI year of his reign, coming to the city of Metz … exalted his son Sigebert into the kingdom in Austrasia: but whence will Le Cointe prove that this is that very journey of which Paul speaks? Certainly the latter does not lead him to Metz, but leads him away from that city. And why could he not have spoken of some journey of St. Sigebert, now king, who with the Mayor of his palace could have visited some cities, that he might confirm in fidelity by his presence the Austrasians, who had long desired a king of their own? Certainly the said epistle contains nothing contrary to this suspicion.

[28] Besides, that the Saint's death must be set at least one or two years later, is indeed probable, the testament of St. Burgundofara, compared with the day on which the Saint is said to have died, probably persuades. Toussaint du Plessis in volume 2 of the History of the Church of Meaux recites it in the first place among the instruments from the archives of the monastery of Eboriacum, or of St. Fara; and the said Le Cointe reviews the same at the year 632, number 23, yet with some difference. And it thus begins: In the fifth year of the reign of the lord Dagobert, the most glorious king, on the seventh day before the Kalends of November. It was therefore drawn up on the XXVI day of October of the year 632, in which the V year of Dagobert's reign in Neustria had already begun. The same seems afterward to have been revised, since at the end there is added: I made it and ordered it to be made, since I have often wished to review [] my testament, and to have gone over it point by point, supported by a joint stipulation. Done in the community of Eboriacum, on the seventh day of the Ides of October; but in what year is not added. Further, in that instrument the aforesaid holy woman speaks of Chagnulf her brother german as of one still living: for she has thus in du Plessis: Therefore I give, with the favor of my most sweet brothers german, Chagnulf, Burgundofaro and Agnetrada, my portion of the villa named Luvra, etc. Le Cointe reads: Therefore I give, with the favor of my most sweet brothers german, a hundred pounds to Chagnulf, Burgundofaro and Agnetrada, my portion, etc. Therefore on the XXVI day of October in the year 632 there was living a certain Chagnulf, brother german of Burgundofara: and that this man is the same as St. Chagnoald Mabillon thinks in volume 1 of the Annals at the year 614, number 10, and to me it is plainly probable, since it is established that the latter was the holy woman's brother, but not so of any other Chagnulf; and since otherwise she would have made no mention of Chagnoald, where nevertheless occasion for making it was not lacking, when she was speaking of the division of the paternal inheritance. On the contrary, she mentions the same Chagnulf again in these words: I wish to give the vineyards, … which I am seen to have received in exchange from my brother german Chagnulf.*

[29] Now, to come to the point, if these things are so, Le Cointe's opinion does not stand, who determines that the Saint passed to God on the VI of September of the year 632, but not certain. on the XXVI day of October of which year, forsooth, he is known to have been still among the living from the said testament of his sister german. Much less can Mabillon's suspicion be reconciled with the aforesaid, who thinks that his death fell in the month of August, writing thus in volume 1 of the Annals at the year 632, number 29: In the same month (August, as he had premised) and perhaps in the same year, Chagnoald bishop of Laon, being stricken, fulfilled the debt of fate. Yet this difficulty, I think, dawned upon Mabillon, who therefore seems both in this place and at number 30 to have spoken doubtfully about the year of death. In the latter place he says these things about Chagnulf, whom before he had unhesitatingly called Chagnoald himself: If Chagnulf is the same as Chagnoald, whom to have been her (Burgundofara's) brother german

is beyond doubt from Jonas; Chagnoald was still among the living when Burgundofara made her testament, that is on the XXVI of October of the year 632; and accordingly he could not have died in the August of that year. These are the things which hinder me from subscribing to Le Cointe's opinion as certain; yet I do not deny that it is probable, both because the epistle of St. Paul of Verdun can not inconveniently be understood of Dagobert's journey through Austrasia a little before he established Sigebert as king, and the Saint's day of death be wrongly noted in the Martyrologies; and also because that opinion cannot stray far from the truth, so far as it is permitted to gather from other sources.

[30] It cannot be deferred beyond the year 637. For Attola, or Attila, as Flodoard calls him in book 2, chapter 6 of the Church of Reims, was according to all the successor of St. Chagnoald. And he, on the testimony of the Sainte-Marthes, in the Gallia Christiana enlarged, volume 3, column 6, was present at the ordination of St. Autbert bishop of Cambrai, which Le Cointe refers to the year 633, and Henschen and Papebroch, in the Annotations on the Life of St. Lundelinus the abbot, page 1066 of volume 2 of June, to the year 637, and which certainly happened before 638, the year of Dagobert's death, since he is related in the Life of St. Autbert, which Surius printed at the day XIII of December, and which will come to be discussed at the aforesaid day in our Work, to have been familiar with St. Autbert when he was already bishop, and munificent toward him. And if this consecration of St. Autbert is to be tied to the year 633, as Le Cointe will have it, without doubt the death of our Saint must be assigned to the year 632; but if it is to be deferred to 637, nothing hinders this too from being deferred by some years. For which reason, since it is not pleasing to sell uncertain things as certain, I have preferred to place the Saint's death between the year of Christ 632 and 638. But what Trithemius says in book 3 On Illustrious Men, chapter 69, that our Saint flourished in the year of the Lord DCXL, is altogether improbable, as is clear from what has been said.

[31] The Saint's last illness, burial, relics. As regards the kind of his last illness, we have seen above that he died stricken: which word, since it signifies cut down or struck, Mabillon and others everywhere judge that he was carried off by apoplexy: and not improbably; yet since that word extends more widely, I do not see why it could not have been used for any other sudden death. The often-praised du Plessis in book 1, number 37, writes that he was buried in the monastery of St. Vincent not far from his episcopal city. That monastery stands, say the Sainte-Marthes in the Gallia Christiana, volume 4, page 944, in the suburbs of Laon, about one milestone distant from Laon, and is of the Order of St. Benedict; they add that it was anciently the mausoleum of the bishops of that see, as is plain from the diploma of Roricius or Rorico, bishop of Laon, who in the year 961 restored that abbey to the monks: in which diploma he says that he was induced to restore it chiefly because not only of the bishops of this see, but also of the canons … the burial place was there. Further, in the same monastery the Saint's body seems to have remained, since the said du Plessis, citing in the margin the archive of the convent of St. Fara, asserts that the nuns of this house in the year 1623, on the XII day of the month of November, obtained thence some relics of our Saint.

Le Cointe, to review over*