ON ST. BELINA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR,
AT LANGRES IN CHAMPAGNE.
CommentaryBelina, virgin, martyr, at Langres in Champagne (S.)
J. P.
The district or territory of Langres in Champagne, a province of Gaul everywhere well known, was the arena, and perhaps also the native soil, of this famous Heroine — one truly worthy that, for the greater commendation and lustre of her chastity and virginal modesty, her deeds and virtues should have been more diligently transmitted by writers to the knowledge of posterity. Castellan announces her on the VIII day of September in his Universal Martyrology, in these words translated from French into Latin: Near Langres, of St. Belina, virgin, who is venerated as a martyr at Maure, not far from Troyes, where her head is preserved. Saussay in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, on the same day, mentions her thus: At Langres, the passion of St. Belina, virgin and martyr. Arthur likewise in the Gynæceum: In the district of Langres, the passion of St. Belina, virgin and martyr. Besides these, the author last praised gives in his Annotations a somewhat fuller eulogy of our Saint; but since he cites Nicolas Camuzat, On the Origins of Troyes, and Angelus Manrique in the Cistercian Annals, I have preferred to transfer that very passage here from the Annalist just praised. He therefore, at the year of Christ 1153, chapter 17, treating of the beginnings of an abbey of his own Order, whose name is Mora, or the monastery de Moris (which Castellan above calls Maure), in French Mores, inserts these words, num. 5, bearing on our matter: Among other things which are said to give lustre to Mores, I find the head of a virgin, and a martyr for the guarding of her virginity, the blessed Belina, concerning whom Nicolas Camuzat, describing Mores, has this: “In this monastery of Mores there is religiously preserved the head of St. Belina, virgin, which is said to have been cut off from her by the Lord of Lendreville (which is a village about a thousand paces distant from Mores), because the Virgin was unwilling to suffer violation from this impure man, surnamed de Dracey, her modesty having often been assailed in vain.” What is here said of her sacred head is confirmed also in the Gallia Christiana lately reprinted, tome 4, where it treats of the abbeys of the diocese of Langres: In this monastery (Mores), say the authors, the head of St. Belina, virgin and martyr, is religiously preserved. Further, from what has been said thus far, we understand clearly enough the holy Virgin's martyrdom and its cause; but neither from these nor from other authors has it been possible to gather anything further — for instance, concerning her family, her parents, the century in which she lived, the year and day on which she suffered, and the like. Nevertheless I judged that her memory should be inserted today among the Acts of the other Saints, because the martyrologists praised above announce her on the VIII day of September, because all of them unhesitatingly mark her with the title of Saint, and because most of them assert that her head is honored at Mores.