Osmanna

ON ST. OSMANNA, VIRGIN,

WHO IS VENERATED IN THE ABBEY OF S. DENIS NEAR PARIS IN FRANCE,

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Osmanna Virgin, who is venerated in the abbey of S. Denis near Paris (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. Her memory in the Martyrologies, a proper Mass, the Acts which are to be published and whence.

[ ] Her memory in the sacred Calendars John Wilson inscribed in his English Martyrology, which he published, revised, in repeated printings in the year 1640, at this day S. Osmanna the virgin, whom in the earlier edition, in the eighth year of the same century, he had referred to the XXII of November. Take from the English into Latin the eulogy, which is a summary of her Life. On the same day in Gaul near the river Loire, the deposition of S. Osmanna the virgin, sprung of the royal blood of Ireland; whose parents, although they were pagans, yet she from a tender age was secretly imbued with the Christian faith. Being destined against her will in marriage to a noble man of that same kingdom, she left her country and her parents, and with only a single handmaid accompanying her, fled secretly into Gaul, where in a wood near the river Loire she led a very austere life, sustaining her hungry body with herbs and roots. It happened on a certain day that a boar, driven in that grove by hunters, ran to her hut as though imploring help: the hunters, keenly pursuing, attacked the beast with their hunting-spears with all their strength, but could inflict no wound. The Virgin, discovered by this chance, came under suspicion of magic, and, being brought to the bishop and found to believe in Christ, was baptized by him, and there was granted her a little field with a gardener to cultivate it: in which, after many years most holily spent, she was at length called away to her heavenly Spouse with the melody of angels inviting her.

[2] On the same day, but without the place, the Usuardine codex of the most serene queen of Sweden commemorates her, at this day, in our Sollerius among the supplements, where it is said: On the same day, of the most blessed Osmanna the virgin. The Paris Martyrology agrees, which in the last place of the same day has thus: On the same day, of saint Osmanna the virgin, whose relics are preserved in the basilica of S. Denis in France. Castellanus in the universal Martyrology, making her an English virgin, recounts her among the Saints of France in these words, but in French: On the same day (the IX of September) of S. Osmanna the English virgin, who is chiefly honored in a village of the same name in the province of Le Mans, and at Saint-Denis in France, where some of her relics are preserved in a reliquary raised behind the altar of a chapel dedicated to her name. The Hagenau codex, reported among the Usuardine supplements by Sollerius, agrees indeed as to the day of veneration, but announces her in Ireland, and, the laurel of virginity being passed over, makes her a queen. Take the words: In Ireland, of saint Osmanna the most Christian queen.

[3] at the 22nd of November, the 1st of April Ireland too Philip Ferrari keeps in his General Catalogue, but fixes the veneration to the XXII of November: In Ireland, of S. Osmanna the virgin, praising the English Martyrology, the older one namely; but from it he could indeed have learned the said day of veneration, but not the place: since in this edition, no less than in the more recent one, the Saint is announced in France. Thomas Dempster in the Menologium Scoticum, after his own fancy makes Osmanna the virgin a Scot, and likewise refers her to the XXII of November, which day the Catalogues of the Saints of Ireland too retain, by

Fr. Fitz-Simon, a presbyter of the Society, in which likewise the English Martyrology is praised. Arthur in the Sacrum Gynæceum mentions our holy Virgin twice; namely on the IX day of September, on which he affirms that her birthday is recalled, and on the 1st of April, on which he says that the elevation of her body is celebrated. In the former place he has this: At the royal monastery of Saint-Denis in the territory of Paris, the birthday of saint Osmanna the virgin, who, sprung of royal blood, was famous both for the merits of her life and for miracles. But in the latter thus: At the royal monastery of Saint-Denis in France, of the diocese of Paris, of the Benedictine Order, the Elevation of the body of S. Osmanna the virgin.

[4] the 20th of November, Various too is the announcement of André du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, on account of the various festivals. First of all at the Kalends of April he says: In the district of Paris, at the monastery of Saint-Denis, the Elevation of the body of saint Osmanna virgin and martyr, whose triumph is venerated on the IX day of September. But before I go on, let the reader observe that the laurel of Martyr is here wrongly ascribed to Osmanna; for both Saussay himself and all the rest nowhere make mention of the Virgin's martyrdom: wherefore I suspect that that word slipped in as he wrote; unless perhaps he judged that the Saint could be called a martyr on account of her bones scattered by the Calvinist heretics, as he seems to hint by the words which we shall recite at num. 18: but that appellation of martyr is far too inept. I go on to other things: on the IX day of September he again commemorates Osmanna, and indeed in the same monastery, but whether that feast is her birthday or another he does not explain: the first however appears more conformable to what has been said above. The eulogy, which likewise is a certain summary of her whole life, we shall partly recite at num. 10: but the rest, which pertains to the translation of the body and to the relics, at num. 18. Finally at the XX day of November, after the common closing clause of the reading of the Martyrology, he continues thus in smaller letters: Today there is venerated in Ireland saint Osmana the royal virgin, whose holy body rests with fitting honor in the royal monastery of blessed Denis. These things however he thought should be emended in the Supplement, in which, as the title has it, some already noted in the Martyrology are more accurately recounted, writing at the same day of November the following: Likewise in Britain (he means Armorican or Lesser Britain) the coming of S. Osmanna the virgin from Ireland, whose remains, radiant with the signs of divine power, were after the course of her angelic life on earth translated to the royal monastery of S. Denis.

[5] Different from all these is the day of veneration which Du Breul assigns from the Breviary of Saint-Denis in the Theatrum antiquitatum Parisiensium, book 4, pag. 1107, and the 25th of August: why we treat of her today. namely the XXV day of August, at which in our Work among the Prætermissi it is thus read from him: The body of S. Osmanna the virgin is in a certain chapel near the church of S. Denis: and in the Breviary of the same her Life is briefly described at the XXV day of August. Further, although monuments are lacking for fixing the birthday or day of death of our holy Virgin, of which the Life too does not speak, yet it appears to me more probable that it is celebrated on the IX of September; on which day namely the Martyrologies alleged by us generally conspire for some festival of Osmanna, and on which it is established that she is honored both in the abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris, from the History of that abbey written by Jacques Doublet, and also that she was wont to be venerated in his own time in a village of the district of Le Mans named after the Saint, as Fr. Louis Jobert of the Society of Jesus testified in a letter given to Papebroch in the year 1678; on which day finally, as we shall presently see, she has a proper Mass. These things induced me to determine that S. Osmanna should be treated of today, as my predecessors promised in the Prætermissi.

[6] Among the proper Masses of the holy patrons and tutelary Saints of France and Ireland, The Saint's proper Mass, published by order of Pope Clement XII and issued from the Paris presses in the year 1734, the Saint too has her own on the IX day of September, marked with the following title: On the feast of S. Osmanna virgin and daughter of the king of Ireland, and patroness of the abbatial and royal church of S. Denis O.S.B. near Paris. Introit: Me expectaverunt peccatores. The Reading of the Epistle of B. Paul the apostle to the Corinthians: Brethren, concerning virgins. The Gospel from the common of virgins: The kingdom of heaven shall be like to ten virgins. The Collects, in which the chief virtues of the holy Virgin are sweetly recorded, it pleases me to recount in full. The first Collect celebrates the Virgin's heroic faith in this manner: Almighty God, who in blessed Osmanna thy handmaid didst wonderfully make the light of faith shine forth out of darkness, and thou thyself didst shine in her heart from the cradle, that she might rather choose to be afflicted with thy people than to have the pleasure of temporal sin; grant, we beseech thee, that we, great in faith, may esteem the reproach of Christ the greatest riches. Through the same our Lord etc.

[7] published by order of Pope Clement XII. The second Collect, or Secret, sets forth her virginity in these words: O God, who didst purify by faith the heart of thy handmaid Osmanna, giving her the Holy Spirit, that, an unbelieving marriage being scorned, she might be presented a chaste virgin to one husband, betrothed to Christ; present us, purified by the same faith, filled with the same spirit, bound to thee alone and to thy Son by an everlasting covenant. Through the same our Lord etc. The Postcommunion finally proclaims her love of the cross: O God, whose handmaid the blessed virgin Osmanna, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith, after his example, for the joy set before her, endured the cross, despising the shame; grant [\] us, we beseech thee, so by her example to endure contradiction for Christ, that with him we too ourselves may deserve to reign in heaven. Through the same our Lord* etc. The remaining matters pertaining to her veneration we shall more fitly deal with in the following §, where we shall treat of the Saint's relics. Meanwhile I proceed to the Life.

[8] Of two Lives, of which the one is shorter, the other What often happens in the case of other Saints, namely that we know their illustrious deeds only obscurely and with uncertain or even fabulous circumstances, this occurs above all in the case of our Virgin; not that no Life of her exists, but that it was negligently written, nor is it of such a kind as to deserve sure credit. Castellanus, a canon of Paris, known to the lovers of hagiography by his universal Martyrology published in French, in a letter given at Paris in the year 1691 to my predecessors, transmitted a certain brief Life, which he had transcribed, as he says, from a Saint-Denis copy near Paris, written in Gothic letters, but mutilated in many places, which he therefore marked with little dots. Another transcript, sent in the year 1638 by Fr. Jean Darde of our Society, I have, which is noted as taken from a manuscript of Saint-Calais, or from the Anisola monastery of S. Carilefus in the diocese of Le Mans; and its beginning is: The most blessed virgin Osmanna, sprung of an illustrious royal stock. This, as it is much fuller than the former, so also appears more fabulous than it: and since the same phrases and words are frequently found in both Lives, and the same series of events, I scarcely doubt that the compiler of the later Life so used the earlier that he not only filled the gaps, but also amplified it after his own fancy, now from conjectures, now from things received elsewhere or from inventions.

[9] more prolix and published by Capgrave, The longer Life Capgrave published in the Legend of the Saints of England, fol. 246 verso, yet here and there with the style somewhat changed, and with the circumstances of events varied or cut short; and the same Jacques Doublet, a Benedictine of Saint-Denis, followed in the Temple of the Blessed, published in French. Neither of the aforementioned Mss. displays its author: but John Wilson in the English Martyrology, besides the Legend of the Saints, that is Capgrave, praises in the margin a manuscript Life by Robert Buckland; and hence perhaps Ferrari in his General Catalogue says among the Annotations: Rob. Buckland is reported to have written her Life. But of what age, region or faith he was, I do not know: unless perhaps he is Ralph Buckland, who in Pits, On the writers of England, is said to have flourished in the XVI century. Further, the eulogy in which Saussay at the IX day of September celebrates Osmanna differs somewhat from the praised Acts; whence there may be a suspicion that other sources lay before him; unless we prefer to say that he deliberately cut away what seemed more wonderful, and substituted other things in their place. However it be, it will not be beside the purpose to have recited Saussay's words, that the learned reader may observe what difference occurs in the circumstances.

[10] Thus therefore he has: On the same day at the monastery of S. Denis near Paris, both differing from Saussay's eulogy, of S. Osmanna the virgin, who, an illustrious offspring of the kings of Ireland, enlightened with the light of faith almost from the cradle, bound herself to Christ by a vow of holy virginity. But, being conspicuous for the comeliness of her form, when she was to be given by her parents in marriage to a heathen prince, she secretly withdrew herself for the love of Christ, and, leaving her country and her wealth and despising an earthly kingdom, with her handmaid Anclitena she crossed over, committing herself to a ship, into Gallic Britain, which is called Armorica. Landing at Bidacium, which is the city of S. Brieuc between the rivers Trieux and Argenon, she went to the bishop, and discloses the counsels of her pure mind, that he might support her: by whom, being more fully taught the things that are Christ's, and cleansed with her attendant in the divine laver, laying aside her former name (for she was called Argariargua while she was among the gentiles), she received the name of Osmanna. Thereupon, shut up in a little cell, she served the Lord with so great an intent of pure spirit that she thought of nothing but the things that were pleasing to him. At length, when she had spent the flower of her age in all chastity, in fastings, prayers and holy meditations, desirous of eternity, she begged the divine Viaticum from the bishop: which being received, she so closed the pure eyes of her flesh in death that from the loan of the perishable light she sent forth her blessed spirit to the eternal splendors of the Saints. But with what glory she enjoys the presence of her all-powerful Spouse, she afterward testified by most illustrious signs. These things are further removed from every appearance of little fables than what is reported here and there in the cited manuscript Lives: yet on what authority they rest, or whence Saussay drew them, as I have given notice, is uncertain.

[11] For the rest, I shall publish the Ms. of Castellanus, because, although it is less entire, we give the shorter. yet it is purer and more remote from fables. Lest however the curious reader should miss anything, I shall exhibit the additions of the more prolix Life partly in the Annotations, partly, where they are more prolix, in an Appendix, that he may himself judge of them. He will doubtless observe that these are more suspect than the rest; nay he will reckon among fictions the last miracle, which is narrated at the end of the Life, about the queen of Spain — I know not which — and her son healed by the Saint. But what I judge about the Life to be published, receive in few words: this too is of an uncertain author and age, it has no reckoning of time, and contains nothing which smacks of the offspring of a contemporary or coeval author: nevertheless it also obtrudes nothing which can be convicted of manifest falsehood or error.

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§ II. The century in which the Saint flourished is unknown: it is likely that she died in Lesser Britain: the revelation made about her to S. Lutgard is explained: her veneration and relics in the monastery of S. Denis, and elsewhere.

Lutgard is explained: her veneration and relics in the monastery of S. Denis, and elsewhere.

In what century she flourished is uncertain: The chief fault of the biographer is that in the Life of our holy Anchoress he made no mention of time, and not only passed over the year in which she was born or died, and the final age at which she died, but also inserted nothing in his narrative from which one might at least, by some probable reasoning, guess the century in which she flourished: which method of writing indeed greatly lessens the antiquity and authority of the author, whoever he was. He makes the Saint's parents gentile petty kings of Ireland, and yet makes her imbued from childhood with the faith of Christ; which indeed somewhat savors of the V century, in which Ireland was led over to Christ by S. Patrick; but since even before that great apostle the light of faith had begun to be brought into that island, though not with so happy a progress, and since even after Patrick's times some gentile petty kings are read to have been in it, from this head too we can draw out nothing for fixing Osmanna's age. In these darknesses of antiquity we prefer to lay down nothing rather than to guess by groping; this one thing I observe, that in a certain charter which belongs to the end of the X or the beginning of the XI century, cited by Antoine Corvaisier in the History of the bishops of Le Mans, there is read subscribed, on his own testimony, Godfrey of S. Osmana, in French De sainte Osmane: perhaps he was the lord of the village distinguished with the Saint's name, of which the discussion will recur below.

[13] she is said to have landed in Britain and to have died there: That she landed in Lesser Britain or Armorica with her handmaid Acliten, while she was fleeing from Ireland for fear of marriage, all who have written of her have, relying, I think, on the manuscript Lives, in which the holy Anchoress is said to have dwelt in a hut built of leafy boughs in a wood beside the river Loire, fifteen miles remote from the intercourse of men: but in what determined place is unknown. Mention indeed is made in both Mss. of a certain episcopal city, by whose prelate the Saint is asserted to have been more fully taught about Christ and baptized, and which in Castellanus' copy to be published is named Brisis, in the more prolix one Briscis; but each name of the city is equally unknown to all the geographers whom I have diligently consulted. Doublet in the Temple of the Blessed believed it to be the town of S. Brieuc, to the French Saint Brieu, which is a city of Armorica where it faces the British Ocean, between Saint-Malo and Tréguier: and Saussay was of the same opinion, as is clear from num. 10. S. Brieuc, bishop of that place, flourished in the V or VI century, as is said at the 1st day of May, where he was treated of in our Work. But I fear that this opinion of Doublet and Saussay is a mere conjecture, founded on the resemblance of the name alone; wherefore we can here lay down nothing certain. Next, since that city, whatever it may have been, does not, from the series of events which are there narrated, seem to have been fifteen miles distant from the Saint's hut, and therefore the biographer is not sufficiently consistent with himself, I have not thought it worth the trouble to investigate more laboriously the perhaps fictitious name Brisis or Briscis.

[14] Further, this stay of Osmanna in Armorican Britain, the revelation made to S. Lutgard, which if it be taken of the last period of her whole life, her death and burial, suffers some difficulty from the Life of S. Lutgard, the Cistercian virgin, by Thomas of Cantimpré, contemporary with and familiar to Lutgard, published in Surius at the XVI day of June. For in it Osmanna seems to be said to have dwelt and to have been buried in Brie. The same Life is extant in our Work at the aforesaid day; but there she is called not Osmanna but Osanna. The words of Thomas of Cantimpré, whose style Surius somewhat altered, I transfer hither from our praised Acts, pag. 251, num. 34. A certain man, a presbyter by order, coming to the parts of Gaul at the monastery of Jouarre in Gaul, when he was praying by night in a certain crypt where the bodies of Saints rested, and unexpectedly opened the tomb of a certain holy woman, made of alabaster stone, and could not know her name and merit; he afterward asked the pious Lutgard that she would entreat the Lord for the revelation of her name.

[15] Assenting therefore to the man's prayers, she gave herself wholly to praying; hints that she died in France, and at once obtained what she asked. For the aforesaid holy woman, appearing to her, said: I am called Osanna (in Surius is read Osmanna) a virgin, daughter of the former king of Scotia, and, brought by a miracle of the Lord to the parts of Gaul, I lived holily, and, having died there and been solemnly buried, the inhabitants at length through the negligence of time forgot me. When therefore the pious Lutgard reported these things to the said Man, she added: I could wish that the Lord would show thee these same things in testimony of the truth. And he said: I am not worthy that such things should be shown me. To whom she said: Even if perhaps thou art less worthy, yet she is worthy whose praises should be worthily revealed. And without delay, the pious Lutgard praying to the Lord upon this, on that same night the Virgin appeared three times in sleep to the said man, and indicated that she was called Osanna (in Surius Osmanna). He who saw it bore witness, and we know that his testimony is true. Thus Thomas of Cantimpré; which if they are true, and if with Surius Osmanna is to be read, it will have to be said that our holy Anchoress passed at least the last days of her life near Jouarre, which is an abbey in the province of Brie, about four miles distant from the city of Meaux to the East, and was buried there. But S. Lutgard died in the year 1246, and therefore this revelation must have happened before this year or in this very one.

[16] I know indeed that to apparitions of this kind, which are sometimes the offspring of fancy, about her body sure credit must not at once be given: since however these are handed down by a contemporary writer most familiar with Lutgard, as he himself declares, who testifies that he received them from him who saw, that is, I think, from the presbyter himself to whom the Saint had thrice appeared, we cannot reject them without a solid foundation. But that with Surius Osmanna is to be read (which Henschen too did not reject in the said Acts) I altogether judge: for the agreement of both Lives, namely of Osmanna and of Lutgard, in the chief points of the matter persuades this; namely that that Virgin, sprung of royal birth, crossed over from Ireland into the Gauls for love of her heavenly Spouse, and there died after a most holy life. Nor does it matter that in her own Acts she is said to be sprung from Ireland, but by Thomas of Cantimpré from Scotia; since indeed in the first ten centuries of the Christian era, in one of which Osmanna must be said to have lived, present-day Ireland was wont to be called by the name of Scotia. We shall not therefore with sufficient probability here distinguish two holy Virgins, both born of the royal chambers of Ireland, both willing exiles in Gaul for Christ; especially since by an easy slip of the pen Osmanna could be deformed into Osanna. Add that the veneration of Osmanna flourished of old in the district of Le Mans, and in the monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris, and flourishes still; but Osanna the daughter of the king of Scotia is known to no martyrologist whom I have seen.

[17] is explained of her body translated. Further, in order that we may reconcile the said revelation with the biographer of S. Osmanna, it would have to be said that the Saint lived first in Lesser Britain, but then in Brie, and that in this latter, near Jouarre, she died and was buried: but this opinion, in which I have found no one until now, appears to me little probable; for neither does any sufficiently likely reason occur why we should believe that our Anchoress, having left Britain, withdrew into Brie. But to say that she did this for the sake of fleeing the honor with which she was regarded by the inhabitants, is to guess. I should prefer therefore, with Arthur in the Sacrum Gynæceum at this day and at the 1st of April, to interpret the words of the appearing Virgin of her sacred body translated to the men of Jouarre; for which translation the irruptions of the Normans into Britain in the IX and X century could have given cause, of which various may be read in the History of Britain by Guy Lobineau, who at the year 919 suspects that various bodies of Saints, which are still honored in various places of Gaul, were withdrawn from their impiety and translated elsewhere. This interpretation does indeed somewhat wrest the words of Thomas of Cantimpré: but since in that way he is easily reconciled with Osmanna's biographer and with the common opinion, which holds that Britain was made illustrious by her life and death, we seem to ourselves likely not to stray far from probability if we say that Thomas of Cantimpré, or those to whom she appeared, S. Lutgard or the presbyter, badly interpreted the Virgin's words, and supposed that she had spent the last years of her life there, and had died and been buried, where she had revealed that her body or some parts of it were then resting.

[18] Her body, or a great part of it, translated However these things may be, it is established that the same Virgin's body was afterward translated to the monastery of Saint-Denis in France near Paris, and that either from the monastery of Jouarre, as Arthur judged according to what has been said, or from Britain itself, as Saussay believed in the Gallican Martyrology at the present day, where the following are read: Her precious body, brought from Britain into inner Gaul under the Danish incursion, was laid up in the famous monastery of S. Denis, and, placed in a silver bier overlaid with gold by two bishops, of Aire and of Léon, with excellent adornment, lay open to the veneration of the faithful, until that sacred casket, in which the bones of Christ's Spouse rested with fitting honor, was stolen away by the Calvinist heretics: which bones, lest the palm of martyrdom should be lacking to the Heroine [\] crowned with the laurel of blessed virginity, after the tomb had been plundered by these impious men, were scattered and dispersed with such savagery that from that time they have wholly passed from the sight of men: but the glory of so great a heavenly one, increased thereby among the pious, consecrated to eternal veneration, shall flourish more illustriously.* Thus Saussay; whether all these things are true we shall presently examine: here I only observe that the laurel of martyrdom, from the said scattering of the sacred bones — if however it is true — is wrongly ascribed to Osmanna, both in this place and at the Kalends of April, as we saw at num. 4.

[19] At what time the sacred remains of the Virgin were carried thither, [to the monastery of S. Denis, more probably before the middle of the 12th century,] I have read handed down by no one: yet it appears to me more probable that at least some parts of them were already honored there before the middle of the XII century. For from the little book of Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis, on the dedication of the church which he himself had enlarged and magnificently adorned, we learn that in that church a chapel of S. Osmanna had already then been erected; whence it may be suspected that the sacred treasure of her body, or at least some portion of it, then rested in it; for neither does a more likely reason occur why we should believe it built or dedicated in honor of a foreign Anchoress. That little book is extant in Michel Félibien in the History of that same royal abbey, among the instruments, part 2, num. 4, and from it we have that that dedication was most solemnly performed

in the year 1144, on the second Sunday of June, namely the III of the Ides, which is the day of Barnabas the apostle; and that among the various altars consecrated by various bishops, one was that of S. Osmanna, whose consecration was committed to the lord Peter bishop of Senlis. Suger indeed in that whole little book makes no mention of Osmanna's body; but since at pag. CXCIII he says generally: On the Saturday next (that is, the day before the solemnity) taking the bodies of the Saints from their oratories, we placed them by custom in tents hung with palls at the exit of the choir, to be most becomingly laid up; which he testifies were on the very day of the dedication carried thither by bishops, counts and barons bearing them on their shoulders with a train of suppliants, among those bodies the relics of S. Osmanna could have been numbered. But that I should doubt whether the Virgin's whole little body, or only some part of it, was then with the men of Saint-Denis, is caused by what we produced from num. 14 out of the Life of S. Lutgard.

[20] Further, from the praised Félibien we learn that in the XIII century a new altar was again built in that same chapel: where an altar then stood for her, renewed in the 13th century: for among the inscriptions affixed to the walls of the chapels in the rear part of the choir, at pag. 535, num. 3, this is read at the chapel of S. Osmanna: In the year of grace MCCXLIII, on the seventh of the Ides of October, this altar was consecrated by the venerable father William bishop of Orléans, in honor of the most invincible holy Cross and of the glorious Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, in honor of saint Thomas the apostle, of Lucian the martyr and his companions, and of the holy martyrs Quintinus, Crispin and Crispinian, of the ten thousand martyrs, and of the holy confessors Sylvester the Pope, Remigius, Vedast and Amandus, and of the holy eleven thousand virgins, and of the holy virgins Osmanna, Genevieve, Cecilia, Lucy, Agnes, Agatha and of all the Saints of God. But although Osmanna is here mentioned only among the last, nevertheless that that chapel was dedicated to our Saint is established from what has been said; and therefore Félibien prefixed to the said instrument this title in French: Inscription of the chapel of saint Osmanna the virgin.

[21] In the same century, and not long after the aforesaid consecration of the altar, in the same century in a precious reliquary a precious casket was made, and in it the Virgin's sacred remains were more honorably enclosed, if what a certain old tablet cited by Jacques Doublet, book 1 of the History of the monastery of Saint-Denis, chap. 42, pag. 314, alleges is true. Take Doublet's words rendered from the French into Latin: In the aforesaid chapel (of S. Osmanna) there stands a tablet on which these things are written: In the year MCCXLVI, on the Kalends of April, on the most holy day of the Resurrection of our Lord, the venerable prelates of Aire, the bishop of Léon, and William abbot of S. Denis, laid the body of the holy and sacred virgin Osmanna, wrapped in a silken cloth, in a splendid casket of gilded silver adorned with precious jewels, given by Brother Theobald of Milly, a religious and treasurer of S. Denis, who was affected with a singular piety toward this Saint. From the same tablet Castellanus writes the like in the letter already praised above, adding that it can scarcely any longer be read, and that it is kept in the chapel of S. Osmanna behind her reliquary.

[22] the Virgin's sacred body was deposited, William, of whom mention is there made, is said in tom. 7 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 389 and following, to have been the third of that name, surnamed De Macouris or de Macorres; yet I find nothing there about this elevation. Theobald of Milly is perhaps he whom Félibien affirms to have been the great Prior of that same abbey in the year 1248. These things therefore stand rightly enough: but I do not know whether it came about from an original fault of the aforesaid tablet, or from the difficulty of the characters, that certain things occur in the words cited in Doublet which render that instrument not a little suspect. For first, in the year of Christ 1246 Easter did not fall on the Kalends of April, but on the VIII day of the same month. Secondly, it does not appear likely enough that two foreign prelates, namely of Aire and of Léon — of whom the first had his see at Aire, a city of Gascony proper, the other at Léon in Lesser Britain, both indeed far distant from Saint-Denis, neither of them then subject to the French — were present at the said elevation. The praised Castellanus likewise reads that this was done on the first day of April of the year 1246, but makes no mention of Easter: which of them followed the instrument more accurately, I do not know. He names however the same bishops; which Saussay also does, as is clear from num. 18, where, when he lays down that this elevation happened under the Danish incursion, he must altogether be corrected; since at that time no irruption of the kind afflicted the Bretons. Finally the style and phrases of the instrument by no means savor of the XIII century: wherefore we cannot admit it as authentic and wholly uncorrupted, as it stands in the praised Doublet.

[23] now it is kept in a wooden one, the former Not on that account however do we deny that the sacred body of Osmanna, or a portion of it, was in that year enclosed and honored in a precious casket, as has been said, by the pious munificence of Theobald of Milly under abbot William, until it was plundered in the XVI century by the impious Calvinists. Perhaps the revelation, of which we treated at num. 14 and following, made to S. Lutgard about these times, stirred up Theobald to have the said reliquary made. Further, Castellanus in the praised letter, given in the year 1691, has this to our purpose: Among the chapels of the rear part of the choir (in French du chevet) of the church of S. Denis there is one which is named S. Osmanna's, over whose door on the front is written: Stæ Osmannæ Virg., with a double N. The altar of this chapel, after the Italian manner, comes far forward toward the middle, so that behind it there is no little space, and in that space at the hinder part of the altar four columns are erected, supporting a platform on which the reliquary of S. Osmanna is placed. Then he brings forward the tablet of which we discoursed at num. 21, and adds: The Calvinists despoiled the aforesaid casket of all its silver and precious jewels: at this time it is merely of wood, painted with gold.

[24] Saussay in the words recited at num. 18, and Doublet in the History of the abbey of S. Denis, pag. 314, plundered by the Calvinists: likewise assert that the aforesaid reliquary was plundered by the Calvinist saint-fighters. This seems to have been done in the year 1567, at which Félibien, now so often praised, at pag. 398 writes this in French about the disaster inflicted at Saint-Denis by those impious men: Many ornaments of the church (of the monastery of S. Denis) were plundered, and the caskets of the Saints despoiled of the gold and jewels with which they were covered. Witnesses of this impiety and loss are to this day the wooden reliquaries, of which the same Félibien at pag. 531 speaks thus: Over each of the altars (which are seen in the chapels of the rear part of the choir) is placed a casket with relics enclosed of the chief Saints, patrons of each chapel. Those caskets, which today are only of painted or gilded wood, if you except one of bronze painted in encaustic, were most of them formerly of gold or of silver adorned with many precious stones.

[25] Of this despoiling of the reliquary therefore there is sufficient agreement among the writers: yet not all the Saint's relics perished then, but I do not know whence Saussay, reported at num. 18, drew that the Virgin's sacred bones, after the tomb had been plundered by these impious men, were scattered and dispersed with such savagery that from that time they have wholly passed from the sight of men. I do not know, I say, whence he learned this: for nearly all the rest who have written about our Saint, or about the sacred treasures of the church of Saint-Denis after the disaster inflicted by the Calvinists, expressly make mention of that Anchoress' relics, exposed there in her own chapel to the veneration of the faithful in their own time; nor have I found any besides Saussay who denies it. It pleases me to produce some testimonies. Doublet, a monk of Saint-Denis, in the History of that same abbey, published in the year 1625, book 1, chap. 42, speaks thus: The ninth chapel … is dedicated to S. Osmanna the virgin, sprung of the royal blood of the kings of Ireland, … whose feast is celebrated yearly in the church of S. Denis on the IX of September: her glorious body rests in the aforesaid chapel in a wooden casket, painted and gilded. The author of a French pamphlet published in the year 1700, whose title is A list or account both of the bodies of the Saints and of the tombs of the kings etc. which are seen, besides the treasure, in the church of S. Denis, likewise expressly reckons among the sacred bodies that of S. Osmanna, a virgin of the royal blood of Ireland. Finally Félibien in the often-mentioned History, which appeared in the year 1706, at pag. 532, describing the rear part of the choir, says no more doubtfully: The next chapel is honored with the relics of S. Osmanna, and enjoys her name.

[26] I should believe therefore that Saussay formed a conjecture from the usual impiety of the Calvinists, as Saussay wrongly believed. by which venerable pledges of this kind have often perished elsewhere. I would not indeed deny that the sacred bones of Osmanna were scattered from their casket by their fury; for that is likely: but that this was so done that they could not afterward be recognized and gathered up, is not probable to me on account of the testimonies adduced above. Perhaps their preservation is partly owed to Louis of Bourbon, prince of Condé, who, although he showed himself the leader of the Calvinists, yet loved that abbey in which he had been brought up, and therefore, hastening thither, restrained the impious from raging further against sacred things; nay he even ordered some of those sacrilegious men to be punished, on Félibien's testimony at the year 1567. I cannot therefore in this part agree with Saussay, whom the writers cited so expressly contradict, and against whom the very wooden casket, which is seen today in the Saint's chapel, argues; for far be it from us to believe that the Religious of Saint-Denis, with whom there is so great an abundance of sacred relics, would expose an empty casket for Osmanna's remains, or would have substituted fictitious ones in place of those lost.

[27] Her veneration elsewhere. From what has been said we have that the chief veneration of S. Osmanna is rendered in the famous monastery of S. Denis; I add one place and another in which her memory is likewise celebrated. In the praised Félibien at the year 1405 the following are read in French, which I subjoin in Latin: From the letter of William archbishop of Sens given on the XVIII of July of the year MCDV, we learn that William the abbot (who according to the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, tom. 7, col. 402, was Philip I de Villette) and the Religious of S. Denis then gave to the parish church of Ferricy in Gâtinais a part of the relics of S. Osmanna; and that the inhabitants of that village, when they received that gift, bound themselves to have two Masses performed yearly in perpetuity in their church for the Religious of S. Denis. The first, of the Holy Spirit, was to be celebrated on the day after S. Denis'; the other, for the dead, on the day after the feast of S. Osmanna: and this was ratified and confirmed by the diocesan archbishop. Thus he. Of another place besides, in which the Saint is venerated, Louis Jobert, a priest of the Society of Jesus, informed us in a letter given at Paris in the year 1678,

in which he writes that she is venerated yearly on the IX of September in the village called S. Osmanna's, seven miles distant from Le Mans. Perhaps the lord of this village was he who at the end of the X or the beginning of the XI century is read subscribed to a certain instrument as Godfrey of S. Osmanna, as we said at num. 12 from Corvaisier.

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LIFE

by an anonymous author

From a Ms. of the abbey of S. Denis near Paris, collated with the more prolix one of Saint-Calais, and with Capgrave's edition.

Osmanna Virgin, who is venerated in the abbey of S. Denis near Paris (S.)

BHL Number: 6357 ^a

By an Anonymous writer.

Destined to marriage by her gentile parents, Osmanna, sprung of royal stock ^b, believed with silent heart from childhood in the commandments of the Lord, and, tried as it were like chosen gold, when her parents (since they were gentiles) compelled her not to believe in the Christians, withstood them reprovingly. For she said: Why, my mad nation, do you compel me, a worshipper of God, to bow my head to your mute idols, which can neither harm nor help, and bid me practice profane laws ^c? And when they saw that she would not … be separated ^d from the way of truth, in their sadness they pretended that they were betrothing her to a certain young man of that region which is called Ireland: which they did that she might give herself to joy and might hold the worshippers of Christ in hatred ^e.

[2] But the God-worshipping Virgin, hearing this, left her parents and her country, and, with her handmaid named Aclitenis ^f accompanying her, fleeing into Britain, she dwells in a wood: discovered by a hunter came into Britain ^h. And coming into a wood situated beside the river Loire ⁱ, when in a place remote by fifteen miles ^k from the habitation of men they had made little dwellings of leaves and boughs to live in, and frequented dry places, there was nothing on which they might feed [\*] but the roots of grasses and the leaves of trees ^l… On a certain day, when a certain hunter ^m, pursuing a boar with dogs, had come to the dwelling of blessed Osmanna, and, finding the boar lying there at her feet, had greeted the Virgin, she nevertheless would not answer his greeting: but sighing with tears and lifting her eyes to heaven, she gave three times a sign of grief. And when he wished to kill the boar, but could pierce its hide neither with hunting-spear nor with any edge of sword, he presently returned to the city which is called Brisis ⁿ, and related what he had seen ^o.

[3] Then the bishop of the city, in order to test the outcome of the matter, she is baptized by the bishop; she enlightens a blind man, went thither with the clergy and the people [p], and, seeing the Virgin having no covering of the body but camels' hair [q], and her flesh wounded by the roughness of her little bed (whose composition was of thorns), addressing her, said: I believe, O Virgin, that thou art obedient to the Baptism of faith, and believest in the prophets who worship Christ. And she at once answered that nothing in the world … [was] better to her [r]. When therefore, a vessel being filled with water, all the throngs drew near to it, that she might be made a catechumen [s], a certain man who for three years past had been deprived of the light of his eyes called her and touched her; and, when he had been touched, at once he received his sight. Which all who were present seeing rejoiced, saying that she was truly a handmaid of God and a virgin [t]…

[4] While the daughter of a certain very rich man, named Androchildis, she expels a little bone sticking in a girl's throat: she dies holily. was eating meat, it happened that, a certain bone filling her mouth and twisting her throat, she lost her speech. But her parents [u], hearing that the Lord was working many miracles through B. Osmanna (for she restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and speech also to the mute), when they came to the Virgin, as soon as she, a prayer having been poured out to God, felt and touched the girl's limbs, the bone, which had long lain in her throat, came out bloody [x]. Shining therefore with these and many other miracles, she at length happily passed to the Lord [y], to whom is honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. With the sign of the Lord's Cross and holy water going before, the said Ms. has; namely because, as is there reported, she was believed to be a sorceress.

q. Whence had the holy Anchoress procured this camels' hair? Or had she carried it with her when she fled from her father's court? In the often-mentioned copies, in which, as we saw at lit. l, it is narrated that the Saint made herself a garment out of rushes and boughs, nothing is recorded about a covering of camels' hair, nothing either about the thorny little bed which presently follows.

r. Here again a gap occurs: the Anisola one has thus: Which as soon as she heard, she said that nothing better remained in the world. Then the bishop, rejoicing at her answer, thus addresses her again, saying: O Osmana, temple of God, thou shalt be a friend to God and to the angels and archangels, and to all who love God, receiving the laver of regeneration. The same things Capgrave has: but conversations of this kind are to be ascribed almost entirely to the conjectures of the writers: besides, she was not yet called Osmanna, whatever the things be that are subjoined.

s. In Capgrave, the things which are here narrated about the vessel filled with water and the concourse of the people being omitted, it is read: And when the holy Virgin was being made a catechumen, a certain blind man received the light of his eyes: in which sense catechumenari is also read in Du Cange's Glossary; otherwise it also signifies to be instructed in the precepts and mysteries of the Christian faith.

t. Here again the dots denote that the Saint-Denis Ms. could not be read by Castellanus: wherefore take the following from the Anisola one: Then the bishop baptized her, calling her Osmana, whereas before she was called by the gentile name Agariarga. The rest we reject to the Appendix.

u. In the Anisola one is added: By a certain presbyter, Archilia by name: besides, it adds some circumstances, which we shall give in the Appendix.

x. Capgrave reports this whole benefit briefly thus: To a certain mute woman she restored speech; and he adds: And to various infirmities she applied a remedy by her merits. For the rest, in our Ms. nothing is here noted as further lacking which could not be read in the Saint-Denis one: the Anisola one however and Capgrave subjoin another miracle, which appears to me by no means likely: we shall give it however presently in the Appendix.

y. On the fifth of the Ides of September is added in Capgrave.

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APPENDIX.

Osmanna Virgin, who is venerated in the abbey of S. Denis near Paris (S.)

BHL Number: 6356

BY C. S.

[ ] The husbandman to whose care the Saint had been delivered, Since the often-praised Anisola Ms. and Capgrave's edition report some things which are not read in ours, and which would too much enlarge the Annotations, already prolix enough, it has seemed good to exhibit them here from the former. After num. 3 it presently proceeds thus: Then the bishop baptized her, calling her Osmana, whereas before she was called by the gentile name Agariarga. And the bishop delivered to her [\*]

a certain husbandman, who should build her a garden and an orchard, from which the blessed Virgin might have wherewith to feed. But he delivered to her [\] also another man, a mason, that he might build her a church in which she might pray. And when the husbandman was preparing the field and the garden for the Virgin as well as he could, the devil, seeing the kindly man given to a good work, tried to prepare snares for him for the tempting of his Mistress.*

[6] deluded and blinded by the demon, For on a certain day, when the husbandman himself was rising very early in the morning and preparing to till the field, the malignant one met him [\] and said to him: Man, what dost thou seek, or whom dost thou serve, or what profit dost thou obtain from thy Mistress? If thou wilt obey me, gold and silver and all the delights of this world shall be prepared for thee. To whom the husbandman said: If I knew these things to be true, I would obey and believe thee. When this had been said, the tempter, coming near, kissed the husbandman, begging that each should give faith to the other, and counselling him [\] that by frequently offering insults to his Mistress he should provoke her to anger. When therefore they had parted, kissing one another and saying that on the following day beside the fountain which is called Lachis they would see one another and would speak together again; as soon as the husbandman returned home, being troubled by the malignant spirit, he began to lose his sight. And when he could not see the sacred Virgin, shining like the morning star, moving about the house, he began to cry out and to say: Mistress, to whom I was delivered to be kept, I have been deluded by a wicked man, and I confess that I have grievously sinned before thy sight.

[7] she heals by her prayers. And she said to him: Since I was committed to thee to be kept, how can he be kept by another who is not able to keep himself? And he answered: O venerable Virgin, I am frantic and without sense, nor do the powers of my soul seem to remain with me, a trembling of the body seizing all my limbs. Hearing this, the pious virgin Osmanna had pity upon the husbandman, and said to him: Renounce the most evil dragon, going about the world and seeking whom he may devour; that the Lord Jesus Christ may have mercy on thee. And he answered: Most kindly and chaste Virgin, by thy merits and prayers I believe that I shall be delivered from the enemy. Then she, prostrate on the ground on bare knees, poured out tears and manifold sighs to the Lord for his salvation, that he would restore to him the sense which he had lost by the deceit and fraud of the devil, and would mercifully recall him to the way of truth. And when the prayer was finished, at once the husbandman received the sense which he had lost, and so performed the work which he had before begun more willingly than usual. Things most like these, but sometimes in other words, are read in Capgrave: but everyone sees that these are fictions or savor of a fable. I for my part shall not easily allow myself to be persuaded that the care of a virgin anchoress was committed to a man, a husbandman, and that he dwelt with her or at least was wont to frequent her hut.

[8] The little bone sticking in the girl's throat In the same Anisola Ms. the benefit conferred on the girl, which we recited at num. 4 from the Saint-Denis one, is described in this manner: When therefore the Lord was working these and like things through the blessed virgin Osmana, it happened that the daughter of a certain very rich man dwelling beside the river Loire, named Adrochildis, while she was eating meat, lost her speech, a certain bone filling her mouth and twisting her throat. But her parents, hearing from a certain presbyter, Archilia by name, that the Lord was working many miracles through that Virgin (for she restored sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the mute), horses and carriages and the other necessaries being prepared, they hastened to visit the little dwelling of the kindly Virgin. And when they set out on the journey, the aforesaid daughter, who had lost her speech, began a little to say: O Osmana! And when a journey of one day was completed, she began to say three times: O, o, o, Osmana.

[9] But after she came before her sight, as soon as the most pious Virgin, she takes away by her touch: a church built for her. a prayer being poured out to the Lord, felt and touched her limbs, at once at her touch the bone, which had long lain in the girl's throat, came out all bloody. And so the girl's parents, seeing their daughter delivered from her suffering through blessed Osmana, glorified God, saying: Thou art truly called a handmaid of God and a virgin chosen by the Lord, who workest so many miracles. And so, asking a blessing from the Virgin, they departed with unspeakable joy, and, saying that they had never seen such a Mistress, related to all the people they met all that they had seen concerning her. And when this miracle had been spread abroad everywhere, there came together thither a multitude of people journeying from afar, offering also very many gifts to the Virgin of Christ. But as she rejected the money and all their gifts, they all took counsel to hire many workmen and to build there a very lofty church in her honor. Doublet in the supplement to the Temple of the Blessed likewise mentions the gifts offered and the temple built, but does not say that it was founded in honor of Osmanna, which is ridiculously asserted in the Anisola Ms. Archilia too he calls not a presbyter, but the father of the healed girl, whose name he does not state. For the rest, I scarcely doubt that this whole narrative is only a certain inept paraphrase of what we recounted at num. 4, which came forth from the interpolator's fancy and conjectures.

[10] Finally another miracle both the praised Ms. and Capgrave's edition subjoin to the one just mentioned, The queen of Spain and her son which I transfer hither from the former: At the same conjunction of time there was a certain son of the king of Spain, named Clocovius, who, a youth of good disposition and great comeliness, bestowed what was needful upon the poor, and loved Christ from childhood and all the worshippers of Christ. Which his mother Aphronisia, who was a pagan, seeing, said to him: If thou shalt worship Christ any longer, before tomorrow thou shalt die the death. Hearing this, moved by anger he returned a curse for a curse to his mother, and for this straightway lost his speech together with his sight. But his mother, for grief of her son, than whom [\] nothing in the world was dearer to her, was so struck down in mind that she turned to madness. And while all were grieving at the sorrows of both, behold a certain priest journeying from afar, named Remigius, who, coming from the parts in which the blessed Osmana was living, said to them: If you would do what I should teach, it would profit you and them.*

[11] wonderfully healed by the Saint. Hearing this, those who were present led the said presbyter before the king, and told him what he had related to them. And he said to him: If thou canst confer health upon my wife and my son, I will make thee bishop of my land, or at any rate partner of half my kingdom. To whom the priest: If thou wilt go with thy wife and thy son to the holy virgin Osmana, by her mediation you shall both rejoice in your former health. Which also was done: for when the king with his wife and son and a great retinue hastened to the Virgin's place, and greeted her as she was engaged in prayer, she likewise greeted them and said: What do you seek? And when they had said that they sought nothing else than the health of those whom she saw tormented, and that they had come from afar to ask her about this, straightway at that word health was restored both to the queen and to her son. Shining therefore with these and other miracles, the most blessed virgin Osmana at length happily passed to Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen. This Clocovius is called in Capgrave Eclotomus, but by Doublet in French Clotone: but howsoever it may please to call him, let him believe these things who will; I reckon them among fables.

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