ON ST. GUIDO, CONFESSOR,
AT ANDERLECHT IN BRABANT NEAR BRUSSELS,
At the beginning of the eleventh century
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Guido, confessor, at Anderlecht near Brussels in Brabant (St.)
BY J. T.
§ I. The saint's memory in the martyrologies: his cultus: his Acts.
[ ] Our Belgium, among the very many saints whom it religiously embraces in its bosom and has borne for heaven, rejoices also in the sacred body of St. Guido, The saint's memory in the sacred calendars. who, born in the village which is called Anderlacum and by more recent writers Anderlecht, neighboring on Brussels, died there, rests there, and is venerated there. The Roman Martyrology announces him on the 12th of September in these words: At Anderlecht, of St. Guido the confessor. The Brussels codex in the supplements of Usuard in our Sollier mentions our saint twice, and once indeed on the 24th of June, saying: At Anderlecht, the elevation of St. Guido the confessor. Then on the 12th of September: At Anderlecht, a village of Brabant neighboring on us, the deposition of St. Guido the confessor, where the relics of his body are venerated; his Life also and many miracles are read. Molanus in the same supplements at the same day thus commemorates him: Among us (at Anderlecht near Brussels), the deposition of St. Guido the confessor; who, after a seven-year and laborious pilgrimage, chose this place for his rest, where the relics of his sacred body are frequented amid a multitude of miracles. There is added our Florarium, which also recounts certain miracles done at the saint's death — doubtless drawn from his manuscript Life — in the following words: At Anderlecht, a village of Brabant beside Brussels, the birthday of St. Guido the confessor, who, a laborious pilgrimage being accomplished, came at last to the place he had desired; where, not long surviving, on the first Sunday night before the dissolution of his body, in the sight of all who were present, he was surrounded with heavenly light, and a voice was heard saying: "Let my beloved come to receive the crown of eternal gladness." And presently the household, running up, learned that the servant of God had departed from the world. And they committed his body to the earth, where to this day many miracles are done, both for men and for beasts of burden. Similarly on the 12th of September Galesinius, the German Martyrology ascribed to Canisius, Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, and Miraeus in the Fasti Belgici report St. Guido, and adorn him with various eulogies; but chiefly they commend the saint for his signal mercy toward the poor and needy, and all designate Anderlecht as the place of his cultus.
[2] It is uncertain at what time his cultus began; but it is certainly ancient, The things which thus far we have brought forward from the praised writers leave us no doubt concerning the very ancient cultus of our saint. But at what time it began is not equally established. If we believe the biographers, his public cultus did not flourish immediately from his death, but the saint's body lay long buried in the cemetery, and was venerated with no such reverence as was fitting — and that indeed to such a degree that the animals which were led out to pasture trod down the sepulcher with their feet and lay upon his grave; until at last, God avenging this irreverence toward his saint with various punishments, the inhabitants of the village began to venerate the tomb and to invoke the saint. It is written indeed in the Life communicated to us from a manuscript of the College of the very reverend lords canons of Anderlecht that this happened in the forty-second year after his death; but on what authority he has this, or whence the biographer learned it, he does not indicate; nor is it read in the other copy of the same Life likewise transmitted to us by the most worthy and very reverend lord dean of the place. If, however, this rested on any foundation, and our saint left this toilsome life at the beginning of the eleventh century — as we shall show in the following § that he more probably died — it would have to be laid down that his cultus began about the middle of the same century.
[3] Whatever be the case in this matter, which is very uncertain, it cannot be doubted and he is venerated twice in the year. that the people of Anderlecht have from time immemorial acknowledged the sanctity of their Guido, and have most zealously venerated him, and still venerate him yearly, not only on the 12th of September, which they hold for the saint's day of death, but also on the 25th of June, on which they recall the elevation of his sacred body. This is clear both from the ancient Martyrology of Anderlecht, in which at the aforesaid day is read: On the same day, of St. Guido the confessor, who deigned to lodge among us, and from the answers to certain questions which the venerable chapter most kindly transmitted to us on the 2nd of August of the year 1750; from which we have further that a proper Office of the saint was recited until the year 1569, in which, the use of the Roman Office having been introduced in the church of Anderlecht, everything on both days began to be read from the common of a Confessor not a Pontiff in the first place — with this sole difference, that on the 25th day of June the words of the prayer are changed in this manner: O God, who … of blessed Guido… Mercifully grant that we, who keep the translation of his relics, may also etc.
[4] Raissius in his Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, p. 52, recounts a threefold signal miracle A threefold miracle which Raissius recounts, by which the divine goodness deigned to declare the sanctity of his servant against a certain slanderer; which, since the biographer keeps deep silence on these matters, I transfer hither from the praised Hierogazophylacium. From that time, says the author, at which I laid my first rudiments at Brussels, because I often betook myself to his (Guido's) tomb for the sake of venerating him, I turned my mind toward him with a particular affection of devotion. I shall therefore append, to his glory and greater honor, those things which neither Surius nor Molanus nor Gazaeus mentioned concerning him — nay, nor any of those, so far as I know, who have published Lives of the Saints. And that full credit may be given me, the things which I report are seen depicted in various colors on the walls, in the little chapel where his body is kept. For I desire to relate these things, both for the saint's honor, as I said before, and lest, blotted out by the age of time, they should perish. When our Guido, compelled by want, had attached himself to a certain villager to drive the plow, and secretly performed marvelous exercises of piety, the devil, seething with envy, stirred up a certain man who strove in every way to spread darkness over his sanctity; for daily, with the master's bread which was given him to eat, he carefully cherished his parents, the horses being left. It happened by chance in that place that the master, along with
with the informer, met to see the matter. He offers him the bread, and our Guido, placing it as was his custom in his wallet, hastens to supply it to his parents as secretly as he could. Behold, marvelous to tell! In Guido's absence, angels discharge the office of his plowing. Wholly astounded, the master perceives God's marvelous dispensation in Guido; and when Guido made haste, and beheld the master looking on from afar, he puts back a lump of earth into his bag, and, taking up the whip from the angels, works the soil as before. The master noting all this attentively, asks back the bread which he had given \ him to eat. Guido brings forth from his bag the mass of earth changed into pure bread. The master cried out and marveled, saying: "Far be it that such a servant of God should serve me, unworthy as I am, whom I am not worthy to serve." And as he said these things, he throws to the earth the staff by which he happened to be supporting his limbs, in the manner of one astonished; which forthwith appeared furnished and adorned with leaves before the eyes of all, and even now is seen by the eyes of all who behold it.*
[5] concerning which nothing is read in the saint's Life: Thus far Raissius, of whom, as has been said, the writers of his Life have nothing — which impelled me to inquire what the people of Anderlecht thought of it at this time. Receive therefore, reader, what they write concerning that miraculous tree in the answers already praised. There is a constant tradition, they say, and it is read in the Life of St. Guido, that (when this saint, being on a certain day in the field, fixed his dry staff in the earth in order to give himself more freely to prayer) the staff straightway began to grow green, and in the course of time grew into a very tall oak, and remained green for six hundred years. But when, after so many centuries had rolled round, it began to wither, and the falling branches were doing damage to the houses beneath (note: at this time there exists no trace of houses in that place) and it happened that poor people, rashly burning these branches, were suddenly seized with dysentery and miserably perished — as is clear from the royal diploma of the year 1636 — at length, the previous permission of the king and of the archbishop of Mechlin having been obtained, it was cut down in the year 1636, and in its place a little chapel with an image of the saint was set beside the road which leads from Anderlecht to Itterbeek, where the tree had been situated; and beside the chapel another oak was planted, sprung from the acorn of the former, which is now very tall, and is distinguished by the same name as the former, the oak of St. Guido.
[6] and therefore it appears uncertain, Truly strange is the silence of all writers concerning so great a matter, which avails very much to commend the sanctity of our saint. The biographer says indeed that very many miracles wrought through the saint are passed over by him out of desire for brevity; but I am with difficulty led to believe that he, if the aforesaid miracles had come to his knowledge, would have been going to pass these over. Wherefore, for Raissius to win himself fully certain credit, other testimonies might not unreasonably be required than those which he alleges — of paintings exhibiting the aforesaid miracles — especially since of their antiquity nothing at all is established. Moreover, who would not wonder at the diversity of the two accounts already exhibited of the same prodigy? If Raissius is to be believed, the thing happened when the staff was fixed in the earth out of astonishment at the preceding prodigies. But if it please one to adhere to the answer of the chapter of Anderlecht at the preceding number, the staff grew green when it was fixed in the earth by the saint that he might more freely give himself to prayer. Again: if we follow Raissius, it was not St. Guido's staff, but his master's, which, fixed in the earth, began to grow green and little by little grew into a very tall oak. For he has these words: And as he said these things (the master, as is gathered from what precedes) he throws his staff to the earth in the manner of one astonished; which forthwith appeared furnished with leaves before the eyes of all. But if we accept the tradition of the people of Anderlecht, it was St. Guido's staff which by divine power was seen to put forth leaves. This last, however, appears to me far more likely.
[7] yet it is shown not to be altogether rejected. These things I have judged should be exhibited to the reader in this place, because, although I judge them not altogether certain, because of the silence of the biographers and of others who have written of our saint's deeds, yet they ought not to be rejected as plainly false; for that the matter is not destitute of all probability can be judged even from this, that certainly a certain tree has for a long time been held in veneration by the people of Anderlecht and named with the name of St. Guido, which they did not dare to cut down without having first obtained the leave of the king and of the archbishop. There is added the penalty inflicted, as is believed, from heaven upon those who rashly burned its branches; the memory of the old tree preserved by a new tree from the acorn of the former; and the little chapel built in the same place — all which doubtless persuade that at least something of truth underlies the thing narrated.
[8] Further, that from the ancient tree, when cut down, various images of St. Guido were carved we learn from the often-praised answers of the chapter of Anderlecht. from the things which the people of Anderlecht hand down concerning that tree. Of them all, however, they say that the most conspicuous is that which lies above the saint's tomb in the nave of the church; to which this inscription has been added:
The dry staff planted by Guido's hands grew green six hundred years; now it is made an image.
To the inscription is added the year 1633, from which it is manifest that the aforesaid image was made in the same year in which the tree was cut down. But the tree is said to have grown green for six hundred years; and if this were certain, from it the year in which this miracle happened could easily and certainly be determined, and at the same time the time in which our saint flourished in the village of Anderlecht. But it is easy to judge that this verse, which was composed so long after the saint's death, was added to the image only from the tradition by which the tree was believed at that time to have grown green for six hundred years, or perhaps also from the time in which they judged St. Guido to have lived; whence it appears that, since writers vary concerning Guido's date, nothing certain can be concluded from it.
[9] It remains that we say a few things about the writers of our saint's Life, The writers of the Life, that the learned reader may be able to determine what credit the Life to be published by us deserves. I have three manuscript Lives communicated to us: two taken from a manuscript of the college of the canons of Anderlecht, the third from a manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, all written by an anonymous author. The two of the college of canons of Anderlecht agree in everything, except that the one has a prologue which could be prefixed to any saint's Life whatever, and the other lacks it. But the one drawn from the Rouge-Cloître manuscript, if you look to the substance of the deeds narrated, does not differ from the others; but the manner of narrating is such that you would not easily say which of the two had the Life written by the other before his eyes — yet you would confess it certain that one of the two followed the other's lucubration.
[10] But as concerns the date of the authors, none could have been contemporary with the saint, their date uncertain, but far from the saint's. or come near to his age; but by how great a time they were later than the saint I have been able to gather from no source. This one thing can safely be affirmed: that they are a hundred, perhaps even more, years distant from the times of St. Guido; for they recount the solemn elevation of his sacred bones, which we shall see in the following § was made a whole century after the saint's death. From which it is clear that for the Life to be published that credit cannot be claimed which would be due to it if it had been committed to writing by a contemporary author, or by one coming nearer to the saint's times. Yet I cannot doubt that they faithfully followed the things which they had received as left by others, and handed down in good faith to posterity what they had heard of him; for there is nothing to be read in the Life which you would rightly judge a fable, or which convicts the writer of bad faith. I shall publish in print that one which I received with the prologue from the Anderlecht manuscript, for no other reason than that it embraces the saint's deeds more briefly than the rest.
Notes\ dederat* (he had given)
§ II. The time of the saint's death: the translation of his body from the cemetery to the church: its solemn elevation.
[ ] [The time of the saint's death is to be drawn out from the Acts. Baillet's opinion,] What we are here about to say concerning the time of our saint's death, the translation of his body from the cemetery into the church, and its solemn elevation, can beget no more certain credit than the Acts themselves deserve; for everything must be drawn from them, since there are wanting more certain indications from elsewhere by which we might attain it. For the very many writers who have handed down things about St. Guido profess that they drew them from the same Acts; and nevertheless, notwithstanding this, they differ among themselves by a whole century concerning the time of his death. Baillet at the 12th of September, in the saint's Life, writes that he departed from this life in the year of Christ 1112; and because the Chronicle of Cambrai and of Arras testifies that Gerard II, who succeeded Lietbert, died in the year 1092, and the Gallia Christiana of Denis de Sainte-Marthe that Odo or Odoardus, bishops of the church of Cambrai, died in the year 1113, he asserts that by neither of those bishops could the bones of our saint have been translated or elevated — which nevertheless the author of the Life affirms of both. Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii writes both that the saint completed the toils of this world in the year 1112, and that, God manifesting his sanctity by frequent prodigies, he was elevated by Gerard, the successor of Lietbert, on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist; but it is strange that so evident a contradiction was not noticed by Molanus.
[12] with whom, from the Acts, Baronius and Surius agree; As to the year of the saint's death, Baronius agrees with Baillet in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 1112, speaking thus: In which same year (1112), on the 12th of September, St. Guido the confessor, illustrious in merits, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem undertaken a second time, departed from this life, as the Acts of his life given in writing testify. And Surius, saying: But the holy man died in the year of Christ 1112, on the fourth of the Ides of May, as the history of his Life has; although the Martyrology testifies that he departed on the twelfth day of September. What Life of the saint the most eminent Cardinal had before him I confess I do not know; but certainly the Life which Surius published, with the style altered, has all the same things which are read in the Lives taken from the manuscripts of the College of Anderlecht and of Rouge-Cloître; yet that the holy confessor flew to the heavens in the year 1112 is read neither in this nor in that, nor can it be deduced by any arguments from those from which nevertheless Surius and the rest who agree with him profess to have drawn it — but manifestly the contrary. For each copy of the Life transmitted from the Anderlecht manuscript to our predecessors testifies that the most holy bones of the glorious confessor were translated from the cemetery to the church by the order of Gerard II; and the same Surius notes in the margin from Molanus. From which it most evidently follows that our St. Guido died before the year 1092, in which Gerard II died. And even if this were supposed to have been handed down by the biographer through error, still the year 1112 as the saint's year of death could not be reconciled with the Acts: since in this same year 1112 the author of the Life hands down that the saint was solemnly elevated by Odardus, bishop of Cambrai; whence it would follow that the elevation was made in the same year in which he ceased to live — which, how much it is opposed to the praised Acts, although from them,
which we have said in §1 concerning the beginning of his cultus, it can be sufficiently gathered, yet I show further in a few words.
[13] First, the author of the Life signifies that not only at the time of the elevation, but also when the translation from the cemetery to the church was made — which certainly preceded the elevation — only the bones of the most holy body survived. but the Acts are shown to be repugnant to these things, Next, the things which he narrates to have preceded the elevation show most clearly that it happened long after the saint's death; for the sacred body, he says, which lay buried in the cemetery, was venerated with no such reverence as was fitting — nay, the memory of the saint had almost been brought into oblivion among the people of Anderlecht by length of time, when it began to grow famous by miracles; moved by which, clergy and people built a little chapel adjoining the walls of the church over the saint's tomb in honor of the Virgin Mother of God, to which, because of the fame of the miracles spread far and wide, the Christian people flowed together from every side. At length, the old church threatening ruin, out of the pious gifts of pilgrims offered as a token of a grateful mind and a memorial of the benefit, it was resolved to build a church more majestic than the former; and by the order of Gerard II the bones of St. Guido were committed to the earth in the middle of it, and at last, a long time after the new church was completed, were elevated by Odardus. These things, which we have drawn from his Acts, show doubtless, first, that the writers praised, when they will have it from the same narrative of the Life that St. Guido died in the year 1112, read by an error "death" for "elevation," or that through the carelessness of the copyists in the copy of the Life received the year of the death was noted instead of that of the elevation; next, that the saint's departure from this life, if we judge the biographer is to be believed, happened long before the year 1112.
[14] Aubert Miraeus had this clearly in view; for in his Chronicle of Belgian affairs at the year 1012 he speaks thus of St. Guido: [from which Miraeus and others draw out that he died nearly a whole century earlier,] St. Guido (who, like a second Nepotian, praised by St. Jerome, served the Mother of God for many years in the basilica of Laeken not far from Brussels, adorning it with flowers and branches) in this same year likewise passed to a better life, as I have gathered from the monuments of that place. Miraeus is followed by Sanderus in Laeken parthenia illustrata, p. 6, who also praises Raissius, in the supplement to Molanus, as asserting that it was certainly established for him that St. Guido died in the year mentioned; from what monument I do not know — from nothing else, I suppose, than the Acts. There is added Gramaye in the Belgian Antiquities, p. 10, col. 1, saying: Although Molanus, nay and Baronius, cast back the death of blessed Guido to the year 1112, nevertheless a manuscript codex and charters argue that the error is easily one of a century. The codex indeed casting back his elevation to the year 1012 (I suppose this to be a printer's error, and that 1112 should be read; for so the praised codex has, and Gramaye's context requires it) and to the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist; and the charters of donations agreeing. The charters of donations which Gramaye here praises I believed to be those of the church of Anderlecht; wherefore I consulted them, thinking that something certain for our saint's year of death was to be gathered from them; but in them I found neither mention of him, nor anything which persuades that his death should be fixed in the year 1012.
[15] Nevertheless the praised writers are supported by the Chronicles of Brabant, written in our vernacular tongue from more ancient sources, with whom the Chronicles of Brabant agree. which in chapter 22 attest in express words that our saint flourished about the times of Gerberga, countess of Brussels. I subjoin the words rendered into Latin: About the times of Gerberga, countess of Brussels, daughter of duke Charles, there lived in Brabant the holy confessor Guido. These Chronicles, I say, favor the opinion of the praised writers; for if the saint flourished about these times, there is no doubt that he departed from among the living long before the year 1112. For the Chronicles of our Belgium, and of the church of Cambrai, hand down that Gerberga, daughter of duke Charles, presided over the people of Brussels and Louvain before the year 1002, in which she was excluded from her brother's inheritance, and did not long survive the year 1014 or 1015, in which her husband Lambert fell in battle against duke Godfrey.
[16] The same is confirmed from the saint's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I have a certain little dissertation of the most worthy lord Pieter van de Velden, formerly dean of the chapter of Anderlecht — a most learned man, on the testimony of the very reverend lord de Vaddere, canon of the same church — communicated to our predecessors in the year 1631, in which the dean already praised discourses on the time of the life and death of St. Guido. Besides not a few reasons by which he strives to persuade the reader that he exchanged this mortal life for the eternal one in the year 1012, he contends that this very thing can be proved from the pilgrimage to the thresholds of the Apostles and to the Holy Land undertaken by the saint about the end of his life, and tries to prove it at length. I subjoin his reasoning drawn into a summary. From the narrative of the saint's life, he says, it is gathered that so celebrated a pilgrimage was indeed rare and difficult on account of the fatigues of the journeys and the fears of the sea, but that no danger threatened from marauding enemies; whence he thinks it can be concluded that it was undertaken by the saint in a peaceful time, than which none can more fitly be assigned than the year 1004, if it be taken with a certain latitude. But on the contrary, if we say that the aforesaid pilgrimage was undertaken about the year 1104 — which must be said on the opinion of the opponents — neither would it have been rare, he says, since about this time the whole West seemed to be migrating into the East; and perhaps also it would have been dangerous, on account of the enemies then marauding. He adds: Why would the venerable Wonedulph, dean of Anderlecht, undertaking the same pilgrimage with companions and meeting St. Guido at Rome, have so anxiously and constantly asked him to return with him to unknown places? So he.
[17] from which it cannot be made certain; I will not deny that the argument now proposed is such that it can present some likelihood for the saint's death about the year 1012; but in my judgment it does not bring certainty. For nowhere do I find the pilgrimage undertaken by the saint celebrated among the biographers for its rarity; and that the difficulties which they testify he endured on the long journey would not have been much lighter, even if he had begun his journey about the year 1104, will be clear to one who considers the narrative of the life. But as concerns the venerable man Wonedulph, he could have been moved to ask St. Guido so earnestly to be the companion of his journey by his perception of the man's sanctity, his most delightful conversation, and his other excellent gifts. To these add the reason which the anonymous author brings forward in the Life to be published by us. Because, he says, the roads and the tongues of the nations to whom we hope to be coming are better known to you than to us.
[18] [although their opinion, if we must stand by the Acts, may not stray far from the truth,] Nevertheless I judge that the opinion of the praised writers does not stray far from the truth, for the reasons already given, if we are to cleave to the Acts; but what makes me less willing to admit it as to the determined year 1012 is, first, the verse added to the carved image of our saint and exhibited in §1, which, if we believe it, St. Guido was alive in the year of Christ 1033; for from the year 1633, if you take away six hundred, there will remain the year 1033, in which it must be said that the saint's staff fixed in the earth grew green. Next, the reasons alleged, although they most evidently show that the saint died long before the year 1112, nevertheless prove nothing for that determined year. Finally, the anonymous writer of the Life himself forbids it, who writes that he was taken from among the living on the first Sunday night; for it is certain that the twelfth of September, which is commonly laid down as the saint's day of death, fell in the year 1012 not on a Sunday, but on a Friday.
[19] I know that Greven in the supplements of Usuard in our Sollier announces the saint at the 12th of May, yet as to this determined year it is not to be admitted. and that Baillet in his Life, written in French, says: He died holily on the 12th of September in the year 1112. It is the opinion of those who wished to correct the narrative of his life, in which his death had been placed on the 12th of May; and if it is true that he died on a Sunday in the year 1112, it cannot be maintained that it was the twelfth of September, which in that year fell on a Thursday — whereas in that year the 12th of May was a Sunday. But that it is not true that the saint died in the year 1112 we have already shown; nor do I any more find the twelfth of May as his day of death in the narrative of the Life than the year 1112. Whence there is nothing that persuades us, against the Roman Martyrology and most writers, to fix the saint's death on the 12th of May. So much for the time of his death; now we proceed to the translation of his sacred body from the cemetery to the church, and its solemn elevation.
[20] When the walls of the old church, to which was joined the little chapel or oratory erected over the tomb of St. Guido, were threatening ruin, the clergy and people of Anderlecht, anxious about the sacred remains of St. Guido, sent their messengers to the bishop of Cambrai, to consult the prelate as to what he wished to be done with them — this we have already tasted from the Acts. The translation of the sacred body is confused with the elevation, He, as the author of the Life testifies, ordered the sacred body to be dug out of the ground and again committed to the earth in the middle of the church; which was carried into execution by clergy and people no less reverently than faithfully. Concerning the time at which this translation happened, various writers hand down various things. I pass over the opinion of Molanus; for how ill the things he writes cohere has been shown at no. 1. Miraeus confuses this translation with the elevation afterward made solemnly. Thus he writes in his Belgian Chronicle at the year 1012: God testifying the man's sanctity by frequent miracles, about the year 1085 Gerard II, bishop of Cambrai, raised his bones from the earth and placed them honorably in a shrine. For it is certain from the narrative of the life that the bones of St. Guido were by the order of Gerard II not placed honorably in a shrine, but carried from the cemetery to the church and there again committed to the earth.
[21] Jan Gooris, canon of the collegiate church of Anderlecht, in the Life which he wrote of our saint in Flemish, [which the author of the Flemish Life rightly distinguishes, but he errs in the time at which he writes that it happened;] rightly indeed distinguishes from his manuscript Lives the translation made by the order of Gerard II from the solemn one made by Odardus in the year 1112 on the feast sacred to the Nativity of St. John the Baptist; but he errs in writing that this happened in the year 1046 under Gerard, who died on the 11th of August 1092, at the same time at which the body of St. Gudula was carried from St. Gaugericus' to the church of St. Michael. For the Gerard who is read to have departed this life in the year 1092 is the second of this name, and we hold it undoubted from the Chronicles of the same church that he presided as bishop over the church of Cambrai not in the year 1046, but from the year 1078 to 1092. I judge that occasion for the error was given both by the manuscript Lives of the saint and by the vernacular Chronicles of Brabant which he praises; for, when he hands down that the often-mentioned translation was made by the Gerard who died in the year 1092, to Gerard, of Lietbert
the successor, by whose order all the Lives of our saint testify it was carried out, he seems to have looked; but when he asserts that it happened in the year 1046, he followed the Chronicles already praised, which write in chapter 27 that St. Guido was elevated by the same bishop and at the same time at which the aforesaid translation of St. Gudula happened; for that the sacred body of St. Gudula was about this time laid up with the highest honor by Gerard I, in the presence of count Lambert, in the church of St. Michael at Brussels, is clear from her Life illustrated among us at the 8th of January.
[22] which is shown. Since therefore from the Lives of the saint, both those taken from Rouge-Cloître and those from the Anderlecht manuscript codex, it is clear that the sacred remains were translated to the church by the order of Gerard II, successor of Lietbert in the bishopric of Arras and Cambrai, it is clear, if we are to stand by them, that that translation must be fixed in some year between 1078 and 1092, at which time that Gerard governed the aforesaid churches as bishop; but in which determined one of those years it happened can be gathered from no monument. For the biographer writes only that it was done under the praised prelate, long after the saint's death and after the oratory was built over his tomb; and how great a space of time these words embrace we cannot divine. Nevertheless, that the saint's bones — as he shone day by day with new miracles — were dug out of the earth by Odardus with a solemn festivity, and honorably enclosed in the shrine in which they are kept even today, and exposed to the veneration of the people on the feast consecrated to the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in the year 1112 (in which the very many writers already praised have by an error gathered from the same Acts that he met his day), all the Lives of our saint which have come into our hands testify.
[23] [The opinion of certain persons suspecting our saint to be the same as another St. Guido is refuted,] Now there would be place for exhibiting to the reader the Life, as it was communicated to us, did I not gather, from what is read among the things passed over at the 9th of February in our work, that a certain suspicion was suggested to our predecessors, to be examined in this place: that our St. Guido is the same as a certain St. Wynandus, who in some recent codex, as is there said, written by hand, is announced in these words: In the city of Canusium, of the holy bishops Sabinus and Wynandus. It is subjoined: There is no Winandus in the Catalogue of the bishops of Canusium in Beatillus; nor do we at all make out who this is. Nor do I make it out; for neither do I find Winandus among the bishops of Canusium in Ughelli's Italia Sacra, and the Roman Martyrology, omitting Winandus, announces at the 9th of February at Canosa in Apulia only St. Sabinus, bishop and confessor. Whatever, however, may be the case in that matter — if some Winandus is to be inserted into the catalogue of the bishops of Canusium, which it is not the place here to investigate — it cannot be doubted that he is distinct from our saint, who, as is clear from the Life, was not a bishop. It is reported in the same "Things passed over" at the same day that the name Winandus is frequent in the tract of the Meuse and the Rhine, whom some will have to be Victor, others Venantius, on account of the Latin V, which the Germans turn into W; and a certain learned man in a letter given at Cologne to our predecessors testifies that he had seen a new Martyrology dedicated to Urban VIII, in which at the 9th of February these words are read: In Germany, the feast of St. Winandus; and he thinks he is the Wido who is venerated in the village of Anderlecht beside Brussels. As the foundation of the opinion he alleges that our saint, who in the Latin tongue is called Guido, is in the vernacular called Wyen, in which way also men are called Winandus by the Germans in their own tongue. But it appears manifest that this foundation is plainly insufficient for asserting that that St. Winandus who is commemorated on this day in Germany is the same as ours — unless one should wish all who are called by the same name to be the same persons. The most eminent Baronius at the year 1046 testifies that the body of St. Guido, abbot of Pomposa, was in this year carried to Speyer by the emperor Henry; and our Papebroch in his Itinerary to Rome writes that he saw at Speyer the collegiate church of St. Guido, in a certain chapel of which the Life of that saint is seen depicted in watercolors. Perhaps he is the one whose name is reported to be so famous in the tract of the Meuse and the Rhine. I subjoin the effigy of the saint — patron not only of the people of Anderlecht, but also in various places against the diseases of cattle and herds — as he is represented in the more ancient paintings, and his Life from the ancient Anderlecht codex, illustrated with my own annotations.
Holy Guido, pray for us.
THE LIFE
From an Anderlecht Manuscript, By an anonymous author.
Guido, confessor, at Anderlecht near Brussels in Brabant (St.)
BHL Number: 8870
By an anonymous author.
PROLOGUE.
He recounts the most abundant fruits which the Church of Christ daily bears. After our Lord and Redeemer transplanted the vine which he brought over out of Egypt beside the running of the Blood and water of his side, the true vine extended the shoots of his humanity from the sepulcher even to heaven; and, the Apostles being spread over the whole world in the ministry of the Gospel, the Christian Church has not ceased, nor does it yet cease, to flourish and daily to bear new fruits of his planting — not only in Israel, where Christ trod the winepress of his passion alone, and of the nations there was not a man with him, but also in Idumaea, where the shoe of his Incarnation was stretched out, and strangers were made his friends. Of this his vine, therefore, whose shadow has now covered the mountains of heaven, and its saplings the high cedars, which has stretched out its branches unto the sea and its shoots unto the river, almighty God has extended one chosen branch even to us — one which, still bearing fruit with so great a flowering, does not wither, so that it is not doubted to have been taken from that land of the true promise, whose cluster we read in the Old Testament to have been carried by two men upon a pole; who is held of such great merit with his planter, to whom he faithfully assigned either himself or all his fruits, that in the place of his presentation, to the glory and honor of almighty God, who daily works new things in his members, demons roar and are put to flight, blindness is enlightened, weakness and every disease is relieved according to the faith of the petitioner — so that he deservedly ought to be celebrated with the praise of human lips, whose praise was always Christ, and who therefore has passed over to the praises of the angels.
[2] He proposes the saint for imitation. But the sum of our praise is that we should imitate him whom we praise, and, for the edification of readers, should touch upon some of his deeds by writing, even briefly; namely, that we may be stirred up to do well by him whose life is an example of living well. Hence it is that blessed Job, amid the funerals of his sons and the losses of his estate, amid the worms and wounds of his flesh, says: Who will grant me that my words may be written? — not that amid so many sorrows some officious lie should delight the holy martyr, who always carefully took care \ that the oil of the sinner should not fatten his head, but that by his example he might instruct us with what wings the sluggishness of our infirmity ought to fly up to its Author. And that we may pass from the species to the genus, from the part to the whole, hence it is that from the beginning of the raw world even to the need of the present time there is still retained among us the living memory of so many holy Fathers, whom, to enlighten our bleared eyes, almighty God appointed as certain — so to speak — suns and stars in the heaven of this his Church, so that even if we were blind, we might yet borrow the light of our soul from their living lamp. To the likeness of these, therefore, we set before you Guido, praiseworthy to the hearts of the upright, a man imitable by the less perfect, who, as is gathered from his end, in which all praise is safely sung, lived so approvedly in the world that it is doubtful to none that his spirit may be \ in heaven, by whose merits we daily see help brought by God to a world in peril.
Notes\ understand curavit*
\ elsewhere, vivat*
CHAPTER I.
The saint's boyhood: his taking up the care of the church of Laeken: his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to the thresholds of the Apostles: his pious death.
The saint born of poor parents, The venerable Guido, predestined and chosen before worldly times, and granted by God to this world in these last days, was born and brought up in a village of Brabant a, in a rustic cottage and a poor house; who straightway in his earliest little age, as if he had already heard with a living voice from the Gospel, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, so adorned b with honorable manners those necessities which they think proper to this condition, that he reckoned want to be riches, and, so far as that age suffered, strove with all his strength to be of the little c flock of Christ.
[2] From boyhood he cherishes a zeal for prayer and for mercy toward the poor. Even then he stole from his parents' eyes certain hours in which either he might go to church to pray, or might minister to the sick whatever he could scrape together from his little means; nor would any day see him cheerful unless he had first either prayed or brought forth alms from his bosom. His father was amazed, the neighbors marveled, and already venerated something divine in him as an omen \*. And when he came to a man's strength, he began straightway to weary of his mother's house, and to wish to flee the eyes of men, witnesses of his works, and to despair altogether of perfection unless he should also renounce his own self.
[3] Meanwhile he was often present, when he could, at the gatherings and assemblies of holy men, His desire of perfection and love of the solitary life. and thought whatever he could learn concerning eternal life a great loss to himself unless he had striven to aspire to the doing of that very thing. Since with his whole heart he longed for the life of the Antonies and the Arseniuses — that is, the quiet of solitude — he grieved that he could find neither a desert near by, nor a solitary to whom he might hand himself over to be instructed. But because holy desires, although sometimes deferred, are yet by no means in the end frustrated of their hope, when he was daily going forward, and as a diligent watchman was searching out at least a place to dwell among strangers, he came to a little village by name Laeken d, where, when he heard of a church consecrated in the name of the holy Mother of God, he turned aside to pray. Being kept by the priest to pass the night, on the morrow he was asked to remain in the service of his church; for he noted in him a certain gravity of comely countenance, brevity of speech, gentleness, and an unceasing intention of heart toward the Lord.
[4] The holy man, receiving his petition with a willing mind as if it were a command of the Lord e, He takes up the wardenship of the church of Laeken, rejoiced as if he were then at last entering upon the way of God's commandments — and because he was now in a manner forsaking his own self and was to serve another's will. He rejoiced above all that he had come into a place friendly to his conscience, where he might be permitted to extend his vigils and prayer and fastings according to his own will. From that time blessed Guido, like another Samuel under his Eli in the house
of the Lord, faithfully served, and passed over none at all of his commandments, especially of those which he saw pertained to the service of God f. Small indeed are the things which we are about to tell, by comparison with greater ones; but in them you may understand that same mind, always ready to do well. For as we admire the same Craftsman, the Lord, not only in the heaven and the stars, the ocean and the lands, in lions and elephants, but also in lesser creatures — ants, locusts, bees, and flies, and the rest, whose bodies are better known than their names — and are amazed at his same skill in all, so the mind of holy men is equally careful about greater and lesser things. And while it is zealous for nothing among the rest, it gathers into itself excellently all virtues alike.
[5] For he was careful whether the altar shone, whether the ceiling panels were free of soot, [about whose brightness he is marvelously careful. His virtues and the austerity of his life.] whether the pavements were wiped, whether the sacristy was clean, whether the vessels were bright, and whether pious care was ordered in all the ceremonies. Wherever you might seek him, you would find him in church; with various flowers too and with branches of trees he clothed the chancel screens and the seats g of the saints, so that whatever pleased in the church, whether in arrangement or in appearance, might bear witness to his labor and zeal h. He would overcome envy with humility, never give place to any unseemly rumor, nor, against the Gospel precept, have two tunics [i]; and he would rather beg alms from door to door from a stranger master than send away without alms one who asked of him. He would also wear down his whole body with fastings, often pass the night in church, and — what is most difficult — please the eyes of all without harm to his soul. Never was there in his mouth laughter either childishly poured out or effeminately broken. The daily sins, and those without which our life is in no way led, he would wash away with so great a fountain of tears that you would think him guilty of the gravest crimes. When the boar k out of the wood and the singular wild beast saw such and so imperishable flowers of this branch of Christ, joining to himself his little foxes, he tried to eat it down and to destroy it; but the threefold hedge l of his fortification he could in no way either cut through or climb over; often attempting, often repulsed. And though by himself he now made no progress, yet he could not but envy, and unceasingly lay snares for him whom he could not strike.
[6] [At the persuasion of a certain merchant of Brussels, he sets his mind on trade, leaving the wardenship of the church;] Since therefore God's permission is always just, but the devil's will unjust, and no one is afflicted in vain by a just permission if he rightly resists an unjust will — as once through the doorkeeper he permitted the Apostle, so God permitted this his servant to be tempted through one of the devil's ministers m. For a certain merchant, coming from Brussels n, a neighboring stronghold, was received by him obligingly, as always. He, when he marveled at his liberality toward the poor and his kindness toward all, first found fault with the meanness of his garments; afterward, as if out of pious compassion, feared lest means should fail for giving alms; and then promised that he wished to give some counsel, so that pious almsgiving should never fail and his liberal right hand should always abound. By many roundabout ways it came at last to this, that he urged upon him buying and selling and trade. What should the soldier of Christ do? He was directing his will to what he did not know, and yet was unwilling to pass by him \ who urged upon him things rightly to be done. He consented at last, and, to the wonder of all, sets himself forth as a new merchant. Meanwhile a boat is made ready, funds are scraped together from every side, and on the appointed day they sail with the pull of the oars down the Senne o in full flood. But because it is written, I will take the wise in their own craftiness*, the Lord straightway took this crafty wisdom of his servant, and showed by an evident sign how much such trading displeased in his eyes. For in the middle of the river, with both banks full, the boat is set down on dry ground and threatens all with its peril. There is a shout and an uproar; and while all either drew with a rope or strove to push with oars, the work is spent in vain. St. Guido himself, as though trusting in his strength and stronger arm, when he girded himself for the help and fitted a pole [p] to raise up the ship, that wood so firmly stuck to his hands that it could in no way be wrenched away.
[7] but recalled by a divine chastisement, he returns to the church he had left. The holy man, seeing the miracle of this new thing, stood and clung fast, the more so because he could in no way throw away the wood clinging to his hand. But returning to himself, understanding himself now guilty, and repenting at last of his ignoble trade, he returns to the church he had left the day before, to bewail the guilt of his misdeeds before the blessed Mother of God, Mary; and he did not restrain his eyes from tears, nor his mouth from words of prayer, until he saw that the wood which had stuck to his hands had fallen to the ground; and weeping the more for joy, he rendered boundless thanks to the holy Trinity. Nor is it to be believed that this befell him as though trade, if it be carried on faithfully, were condemned before God; but there are certain callings [q] which can scarcely or not at all be practiced without sin — as we read that blessed Peter the apostle was a fisherman before his calling by the Lord, but Matthew a tax-gatherer; and both being chosen by the Lord, after his resurrection Peter, who had left ship and nets, returned to fishing, but Matthew did not sit again at the toll-booth: because, as blessed Gregory says, it is one thing to seek a living by fishing, another to increase money by the gain of the toll-booth; and the calling which before conversion could be without sin, to take this up again after conversion was not without fault. But because trade could rarely or never be practiced long by anyone without sin, and blessed Guido, at the instigation of the ancient enemy, had been persuaded by one of his ministers and had slipped into it, the Lord did not suffer him to be defiled by such a calling; but, that he might cease from it and seek again the quiet of his former life, he was admonished by the scourge of a pious correction. And he, as though he had perpetrated a most grievous crime and through it had lost all the labors of his former life, began to waste his body with fuller fastings and vigils \*, and to press on more ardently with prayers and tears.
[8] But after some time, the means for his journey being prepared as far as he could, [he sets out for the thresholds of the Apostles and the Holy Land. Returning, he meets Wonedulph and his companions at Rome] he set out to visit at Rome the thresholds of the holy Apostles, and then to see the holy places at Jerusalem; and for seven years he did not cease to traverse the churches of other saints set throughout almost the whole world. And by now his beard had grown long, his face and the rest of his body were wasted with hunger and the labor of journeys, and the hairs of his head had so grown that he could not at all be recognized by any who once knew him. Then, led by divine grace, he came again to Rome, where he found a venerable man by name Wonedulph, a dean in the district of Brabant [r], with other companions of his journey [s] wishing to go to Jerusalem; and though he kindly recognized them as men known to him of old, he was by no means recognized by them; and calling them by name, he greeted kindly first the lord Wonedulph, and then the rest. Whereupon all of them were turned to amazement and wonder, that to this man, whom they did not remember ever to have seen before, their faces and their names should be so well known; and they humbly inquired who he was, or whence, and whither he wished to go. Then he said: "Most beloved brethren, I am that sinner Guido, who in the district of Brabant, in the church consecrated in the name of the holy Mother of God Mary, in the village which is called Laeken, once dwelt; and for the love of the heavenly country I journeyed abroad and visited this very Rome and then Jerusalem, and from that day until now I have traversed the churches of the saints set in the farthest parts of the world, imploring their patronage."
[9] Hearing this, and now recognizing the man, well enough known of old by sight, by face, and by name, with whom he sets out again for Jerusalem. and remembering how he had always been eager to please God by pious deeds, they bowed to the earth and did him reverence [t], adding in a humble voice such words as these: "Since, most holy father," they said, "not fortune, but the grace of God alone — who ever cares for the salvation of the men on whom he has had mercy — has, as we believe, brought you hither, we beseech your kindness that, since you are still ready to journey and to suffer many things for God, you would deign to go with us to Jerusalem; because the roads and the tongues of the nations to whom we hope to be coming are better known to you than to us." Hearing this, the man of God, with a pious mind as he was, said: "Most loving brethren, I am ready not only to go with you to Jerusalem, but also, if it be necessary, to lay down my own life for you, according to the Savior's command." Refreshed by the sweetness of these words as by a honeycomb, and made exceedingly eager, they rush into the embraces of the holy man, kiss his head and hands, rendering praises with unwearied voice to God, who had provided them so faithful a guide of the way. What more? Having obtained the fellowship of this man, after many fatigues of journeys and countless fears upon the sea, they come at length to Jerusalem and to the other holy places; and when they had traversed these round about at their pleasure, they were returning to their country safe and unharmed, when, at God's call — who was unwilling that they, most devoted in his service, should be defiled any longer with the filth of a fleshly sojourn — first the lord Wonedulph, and then his fellow travelers, rendered their bodies to the earth and their holy souls to heaven; to whom blessed Guido, kept alive in this world, devoutly gave burial.
[10] [On the return Wonedulph dies. Certain miracles wrought in his life and after his death at his tomb.] But indeed the lord Wonedulph, being about to depart from this world, when he had been touched with a slight fever, summoned blessed Guido to him, and, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, declared that he was to be loosed from the flesh, saying: "Now, most loving father, with my mouth and with my whole heart I give thanks to almighty God, who ever fulfills the vows of those who hope in him, and who has fulfilled our vow even beyond what we hoped; and may he himself repay you in eternal life for the works of piety and mercy which you have shown toward us. He has also deigned to reveal to me, though his unworthy and lowest servant, that the time and hour is already at hand in which I must pay the debt of death, and must render to him the spirit which my Creator put in me. But know that you are to return into the district of Brabant, to the place where the Lord has appointed your bones to rest. Wherefore I beg that faith and kindness which you have from God, that you announce to my friends and to the others awaiting my return my death, which you shall see a little hence; and that, carrying with you this my golden ring, you show it to them as a sign of the truth; and although they be deprived of the sight of my body, yet let them never despair of the Lord's loving"
mercy." But when he had spoken these tidings to his faithful companion, and other words of holy exhortation, directing his eyes and hands to the heavens and commending himself wholly to the Lord, he gave up his blessed soul into the hands of the angels standing round; and with how great honor the loving Lord exalted it in the heavens he deigned to declare to men [u]. For at his tomb, while blessed Guido and many others looked on, three lame men received their walking and two blind men their lost sight; namely, that he who while living, and abounding in bowels of great compassion, had conferred countless benefits on the needy, should now have divine miracles done at his dead bones. Nor had the Lord only now at last begun to glorify him, but even while set in this body of frailty he conferred many benefits on the poor for the Lord's sake, which were in part restored to him in his lifetime, so that by this he might both be more loved by men and his own mind be more kindled in God's service. For the vessels which he had emptied in the giving out of alms, when he ordered them to be searched again thoroughly, and whatever might perchance have remained in them to be given for the love of God, were found filled with provisions. Nor do I think this should be passed over in silence, that when the servants of his house in the autumn season carried seed with them one day to sow the field, it happened by God's providence that they found the field itself overflowing with the richest crops. With how great love, therefore, must he be served who enriches his faithful in this world with such honor, and in the world to come exalts them with everlasting gladness!
[11] [St. Guido seeks his native land again, where a little after, surrounded with heavenly light, he holily dies,] The venerable Guido, considering the injunctions of the man of the Lord, did not put them off, but, as he had promised him, began to return to his country. But before he came to the place divinely foreseen for him, he endured many tribulations, namely hunger, thirst, and the want of cold; for he had firmly settled it in his heart that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come, which is revealed in the faithful of the Lord, and that none save he who strove lawfully was crowned \* in the heavens. At length, with the utmost labor and almost spent with a flux of blood, he came to the village of Anderlecht, where, being received in the lodging of a certain poor man, he disclosed many things about the outcome of his journey, saying that the lord Wonedulph had rendered his blessed soul to heaven, and he told what great miracles had happened on the day of his burial. And when word came to the man discharging the office of the deanery, without delay he came to the house with certain clerics; and after he had diligently inquired into everything and had recognized the golden ring of blessed Wonedulph, giving thanks to God with tears, he led that man of God, blessed Guido, away with him to his lodging, and with all diligence cared for him until the day of his death. But the Lord, being unwilling that he should be wearied longer by the miseries of this world, on the first Sunday night before the dissolution of his body, in the sight of all who were present, a light sent from heaven descended upon the servant of God in the likeness of a dove, by whose splendor the whole house was lighted up. And when it lingered a little while about him, a voice was heard which said: "Let our beloved come to receive the crown of eternal gladness, for he has kept the faith." Presently those who were in the house, running up, found that the servant of God had departed from the world, as though made ready by angelic hands [x]. And the canons of that place, carrying his sacred body to the church, committed it to the earth, where to this day very many miracles are done through him, by the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor unto the ages of ages. Amen.
NOTES.
i. Luke 9.
p. A contus is a long pole which has iron at its head, and which sailors use for pushing ships forward.
q. What follows, which the anonymous writer again drew from Gregory, is omitted in the Rouge-Cloître manuscript.
r. By name Anderlecht.
s. Whom, or how many, companions of his journey the venerable Wonedulph had, I have been able to find nowhere.
t. They venerated him. These things, unless they were devised by the author himself, certainly proceeded from the exceptional humility of the venerable Wonedulph.
u. A eulogy of this venerable dean, drawn from the Life of our saint almost as it is read here, Raissius gives in the supplement to Molanus' Natales Sanctorum Belgii at the 12th of September, and adorns him with the title of Saint. That this Wonedulph was adorned with signal virtue and conspicuous for miracles is abundantly clear from the things which are here narrated of him; but of his cultus I find nothing. I do not know either on what foundation he fixes his birthday at the twelfth of September, since the History expresses neither his birth, nor the day of his death, nor the place of his burial.
x. Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, and Raissius in the Hierogazophylacium, and other authors write that our saint, being seized by the bubonic plague, met his day. In the History of the life it is read that he failed from a flux of blood. This seems certain: that the saint did not long survive his return to his native land, and departed from among the living from some disease contracted from the labors of his long journey.
\ vidit*
\ omnes*
\ cogebatur*
\ quæ*
\ impellere*
\ cœpit*
\ non*
CHAPTER II.
Irreverence toward the saint divinely punished: his cultus begun on the occasion of miracles.
[ ] Irreverence toward the saint is divinely punished. After much time therefore a, while the body of the blessed man lay buried in such a place, the reverence due to him was shown by no one, since not only those who came from elsewhere but also the inhabitants of the place frequently went across the middle of the sepulcher. But the animals too, going to pasture or returning thence, lay upon the saint's tomb, some of which were vexed by a demon until they breathed out their spirit. A certain horse of a certain lord of the village, very delicately reared, when it was being led on a certain day to water, trod with its hind foot on the holy man's tomb as it was being led back; which, straightway beset with madness, its head being dashed against a wall, ended its life hard. On which account the lord of the village himself, by name Onulf, ordered two of his rustics to close a hedge about the sepulcher of the blessed man, whereby that most reverend place might be defended from certain passers-by. But, at the working of the envy of the demon, who never ceases from harassing men and, so far as he prevails, does not cease to harm, those jesters, stirred up to laughter at the demon's instigation, said to one another in jest: "Come, let us shut in this old man, so long dead and reduced to ashes, lest perhaps he escape even from us" — as though they were afterward to have some advantage from it. And when they had brought forth these words of mockery with wicked mouth, at that same moment, the strength of their bodies failing little by little, and as though they had already spent the whole day on a vain work, they returned home complaining. And so one of them at midnight gave up his soul with great torments; but the other, tearing himself much as though out of his mind, and confessing to those who came the insults which he had spoken against holy Guido, made an end of living the following day. The destruction therefore of these two became, a little while after, the cause of health to many, not only those set near but also those far off, who had long been wearied with various afflictions. For hearing by flying rumor what had befallen the two men for their unbelief, with devout mind and suppliant voice they ask that the patronage of holy Guido may be present to them — that, as those who laughed at him had incurred the bitterness of death, so these, presuming upon him, might by the aid of his merits be freed from the infirmity by which they were held. And so some, admonished in sleep, some brought by the hands of friends, some in carriages, brought lights to the sepulcher of holy Guido; and there, not long lying prostrate in humble prayers, they obtained the desired soundness, and so returned glad to their own homes.
[13] Then, according to the time and the place, the religious men of that place built a basilica over the saint's tomb in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary, [A chapel is erected over the saint's tomb in honor of the Mother of God. A lame man his walking,] until, with the help of divine grace, either they themselves or their posterity should build a house worthy of him. Meanwhile the son of a certain man of the neighboring village which is called Aper b had been lame in both feet for five years, whom his father, placing him in a carriage, brought to the sepulcher of blessed Guido. Straightway, leaving him there, he himself prostrates himself for prayer in the middle of the church; and watering the ground where he lay with tears poured out from the inmost affection of his heart, he prayed the divine clemency that, for the glorifying of his name and the praising of the merit of his saint, he would deign to bring help also to this his sick one. Weeping, therefore, he broke out into such prayers, when suddenly, without his knowing it, and while he was lifting his heart and eyes to heaven, by the marvelous power of God and the intervening intercession of holy Guido, the boy's feet were restored to their former use. And he, going out of the oratory unknown to his father, began to play with his fellows in the courtyard, and, as though he had never suffered any weakness, to walk everywhere with upright and firm step. At length the father, bathed in tears, rising from prayer, to the place where his son
he had placed him, returned to look what he might be doing; and not knowing what mercy he had already received from God, he greatly wondered whither he had gone. Going out at once, he found him whole, playing with the others standing about; and taking him and telling to many who came up what had befallen him, he led him back into the oratory in which he had received his health, rendering many thanksgivings to God. Then, returning with great exultation, he calls together his friends and neighbors, and shows to all how great a joy he had received from God, at the intercession of blessed Guido, in the healing of his son. Congratulating him therefore, they each prepare gifts according to their means, and on the following Sunday come laden to his sepulcher, singing praises with a loud voice for the benefits bestowed by God through his merits.
[14] a blind and crippled man obtains the light of his eyes and health. Besides, in that same village of Anderlecht there dwelt a certain priest \*, whose son, stricken with a dimness of the eyes and wholly crippled by a long-standing weakness, lay for three years in his little bed as though half alive. His parents, seeing the miracles which were being done through blessed Guido, placed him with lights at the sepulcher of the blessed man, suppliantly imploring the mercy of God. "Behold," they say, "most loving saint of God, since men set far and wide rejoice in the gift of your benefits, let us also, who are your neighbors and servants, in like manner experience your patronage in our son; that by how much we are nearer to you in dwelling, by so much we may be more devoted to you than others for the gift bestowed." Then, by the mercy of God — who, when he wills, grants to petitioners the things desired — through the intervention of his servant, that boy received the light of his eyes and his walking, and quickly recovered from all the rest of the sickness by which he was held. The parents therefore run up glad, and rejoice that their son, who for three years could go nowhere save carried in the hands of others, now walks with upright and firm step and has received the light of his eyes; and without delay they hand him over to the study of sacred letters, devoting him to the divine service.
[15] Hearing is restored to the deaf by the saint's patronage. A certain soldier too had lost his hearing, so much so that if anyone standing near, for the sake of a test, called him by name with a loud voice or hurled insults at him, he could hear no more than a stone. But to him it was shown in sleep on a certain night, as though a certain old man stood by him saying in his ear that he should bring a light to the sepulcher of holy Guido, and should stay there until he fell asleep. And he, awakened from sleep, going over that vision with diligent mind, committed it to a tenacious memory, and humbly besought the Lord that he would bring what he had seen to effect. And scarcely was the sky yet whitening when, leaving his bed, on the following night he brought a light, as he had been admonished, to the sepulcher of the aforesaid saint, and there, lying prostrate in humble prayers, awaited the divine mercy. But about the middle of the night, being set in prayer, he is overcome by a sweet slumber, and much blood began to flow from his ears. Waking therefore and understanding what had befallen him, lest perhaps the pavement of the oratory should be stained with blood, he went outside, and clearly heard a certain ash tree c standing there stirring in the wind, and the cocks, heralds of the near daylight, crowing; and not being ignorant that the joys of the soundness he had long desired had been restored to him, he rendered boundless thanks to almighty God. And when morning came, all being gathered in the church for the divine offices, after the celebration of Mass the aforesaid man sprang forward before all, and, silence being made, showed them how he had that very night received from God, through the venerable merits of his saint, the hearing which he had lost for three years. All therefore rejoice in the patronage of so great a saint, they lift up their voices to the stars, praising the Lord who makes his saints wonderful among men on earth. And while they were doing these things, a certain youth, who in like manner had wholly lost his hearing for a long time, came up, and in the sight of all is prostrated on the ground before the saint's sepulcher. And scarcely had the space of one hour passed when that same youth, going out of the oratory, reported to all who were present that he had received his hearing, and they, hearing it, announced it to others. Again the inhabitants of the place are gathered in the church, the gladness of all increased, since that youth was not one coming from elsewhere or unknown, but born and reared among them, and it was well enough known to all that he had wholly lost his hearing for a long time, and now through the merits of that patron had obtained soundness; and therefore the name of the Lord was the more magnified by them.
[16] Meanwhile a certain merchant of a village by name Lenneka d had a son comely enough, sight to the blind. but stricken with the darkness of blindness. He therefore, hearing of the mighty works which the loving Lord was working through his saint, brought that boy to his tomb, a crowd of friends accompanying, and resolved to stay there the very night on which he had come. Then the blackness of night had departed, and with the return of day all things were growing white, when the boy said to his father: "Now, most beloved father, rejoice with your friends, that you have not undertaken the labors of our journey in vain; since by the most blessed merits of this saint, at whose tomb we abide, I clearly behold the light of day, which I lacked so long a time, and you, most loving father." Hearing this, his father calls together his friends and the companions of his journey, and shows him to them, his blindness driven away and himself enlightened. Then they opened \* their mouths in praise of God and of his saint, in the way that seemed to them best and most devout. The inhabitants of that place too, when they learned what had befallen the boy, lifted their voices to heaven, praising the name of the wonderful Lord. While these things were being done, a certain old man, whose eyes had grown dim from some infirmity of the head, so much so that, beholding men walking with the faintest light of his eyes, he thought them nothing else than trees — this old man, I say, led by divine providence, entered at the same hour into the oratory of holy Guido, those standing by giving place to him. And after he had learned, from certain persons telling him, what had befallen the aforesaid boy, he prostrates himself on the ground for prayer, imploring that the same grace be granted to him, now as it were a decrepit old man and destitute of all comforts. After about one hour, rising from prayer, he received from the Lord sight so clear that no boy of seven years or of any age whatever could see more clearly than he. And that he might not prove ungrateful for the benefit received, as long as he lived and had strength of body, in the season of summer and of winter, on the solemnities of the saints and on Sundays, by night and by day he frequented the oratory in which he had received his health, to hear Mass and the other divine offices there. And the aforesaid country folk of the village of Lenneka, who had seen in this old man, and in the boy whom they had brought, the manifest signs of the Lord, returned glad to their own homes, spreading far and wide the venerable and most holy merits of Guido.
NOTES.
\ elsewhere, more correctly, an old man*
\* they opened
CHAPTER III.
The translation of the body from the cemetery to the church: miracles done at the translation: the solemn elevation.
[ ] The old church threatening ruin, But after no long time, the walls of the church to which the oratory of holy Guido was joined partly falling from long age, partly threatening ruin, the inhabitants of the place and the clerics came together into one, and resolved to build another church longer and broader than the former; since not only neighbors but also those set far and wide, beset with various weaknesses and having obtained soundness at the tomb of this saint, each according to his ability frequented that place with their benefactions. Whence it seemed to all nothing better than that what the devout people brought to the sacred altar should be laid out for nothing else than the rebuilding of the church, where such joyful signs were frequently done by the Lord. And so it pleased all that this should be done; but since the oratory of holy Guido, joined to the church, had to be pulled down, it remained uncertain to all what should be done with his most sacred bones — whether they were for the present to be translated thence, or to be left in that place. And while they wavered in this doubt, they send an embassy to the lord Gerard, bishop of Cambrai, who had succeeded the lord Lietbert, bishop of blessed memory, asking that he would counsel them what needed to be done, so that what they could not do or know of themselves might be accomplished by his leave and prudent counsel.
[18] [By the order of Gerard II the saint's bones are carried from the cemetery to the church. Benefits obtained by various persons.] The bishop therefore, understanding the people's goodwill toward the Lord, and having taken counsel with prudent men, sent them back this word: that the bones of the most blessed Guido, dug out of the ground where they rested, they should entomb with great reverence in the middle of the church, until, a monastery being built, those most sacred bones should be translated to the place where it should be divinely appointed. The clerics therefore and the people, having received their bishop's command, celebrated a three days' fast, and so, coming to the tomb of the aforesaid saint, dug his bones out of the ground, washing them with great trembling in a spring, which they caused to be preserved, and entombed them in the middle of the church in a coffer becomingly prepared. From the neighboring hamlets, indeed, a great crowd had flowed together to this translation, among whom were present some vexed with fevers, some with various weaknesses, who on that very day, tasting of the water with which the most sacred bones had been washed, straightway, every infirmity being put to flight, received the joy of soundness. Wherefore those who were present spent almost the whole day in singing praises to God; and departing thence, wherever they came they announced to all the benefits of the Lord which they had deserved to receive or to see.
[19] A blind woman obtains sight by the saint's patronage. Whence it came about that to the ears of a certain woman of the village of Brachina a, who was deprived of the light of her eyes, these deeds were carried by the report spread abroad on every side; and she called upon blessed Guido with all the striving of her heart, that he would deign to bring help to her also. Meanwhile, turning to her husband, she beat upon his ears with diligent entreaties that he should lead her to the tomb of this saint; since, by the intervening of his most blessed merits, she hoped that the darkness of so continual a night would be put to flight from her face. Indeed her husband, thirsting for her soundness no less than she, the necessaries for their journey being prepared, they began to make their way to the village of Anderlecht. And when they had come into the middle of a neighboring wood, the man withdrew to cut a rod which he might carry in his hand, his wife being left under a tree with a certain boy, the companion of their journey. But the woman, in her husband's absence, laying her head in her lap, bathed her face with tears, imploring with a tearful and suppliant voice that the patronage of holy Guido be present to her. Then, when she had lifted her head to heaven, she straightway understood that all blindness had been put to flight from her eyes; and to her returning
husband, who wished to take her hand to lead her, she said: "Now, most beloved spouse, I do not need your guidance; since by the venerable merits of holy Guido I now clearly behold you, and these trees standing round, and the clearness of the sky." But he, no less glad than she at her enlightening, said: "Do you wish now to return home, and — since God has granted us this grace — to come somewhat more becomingly, with little gifts, to that saint's oratory?" To whom she said: "Let us now fulfill our journey as we had appointed; since God, in whose dominion the heavens and all things are set, approves hearts devoted to him rather than gifts; and when he shall have granted it, we shall return to that saint's oratory as becomingly and as soon as we shall be able." These things being said, they came to the village of Anderlecht; and after prayers devoutly poured out before the saint's tomb, the woman told the inhabitants of the place how she had received her sight on the road. And they, hearing these things, rendered praises for them to God, who so marvelously glorifies his saints among men on earth.
[20] By now that former church, tottering with long age, had long been pulled down, [Another blind man is enlightened; but forgetful of the benefit received, he is again struck with blindness:] and, a multitude of workmen being gathered, another minster was being built; and, as usually happens at the beginning of undertakings, all laboring eagerly for joy, the work went on hotly enough. But behold, a man who dwelt beyond the river which is called the Dender b, bereft of the light of his eyes, by name Tancradus \*, came with a boy who guided his steps to the saint's sepulcher, and there, having stayed scarcely one day, received his former sight. But it befell him after the manner of certain men in service, who before benefits are conferred appear most obliging in the presence of their lords, more from hope of a gift than from the heart; but after, being magnified with benefits and honors, they obtain what they desired, they prove less fervent and as it were languid in their service; whence, being called to account, they are by the judgment of their peers deprived of the benefits they had received. For this man, while still blind, prayed blessed Guido with importunate cries that he would by his prayers be his patron with the Lord; but now, endowed with the sight of his eyes, he did not, as others before him, render thanks to God; for, unmindful of the benefit divinely conferred on him, he returned home without the blessing of the clerics and without asking leave of the aforesaid saint; and a short time having passed, he is again invaded by the darkness of blindness.
[21] Then for his soundness he visits the basilicas of many saints, repenting, he recovers his sight a second time. and when these showed him no mercy, at last he came to himself, and, because the punishment of blindness had befallen him a second time, he declared himself unworthy to live. At length he prepares what was necessary for the journey and for his coming stay; with his wife he returns to the sepulcher of holy Guido, and, pouring out tears with his whole heart, asks that the gift which he had lost through his own negligence be restored to him. Again by the saint's intervention he is heard by the Lord, and, blindness being put to flight from his eyes, he received his sight; and staying in that same village a long time, as long as he had strength of body he worked with the other craftsmen at the building of the minster.
[22] [The water with which the saint's bones had been washed increases a soldier's fevers,] The most blessed apostle Paul, caught up even to the third heaven, a hearer of the secrets of the most high God, recorded that to search out the power of the divine words and the depth of his judgments was beyond human measure, saying: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! And the Psalmist: Come and see the works of God, terrible in his counsels over the sons of men. For understanding that some are mercifully called by the Lord with no preceding merits, and that the divine help is present to them most swiftly in their necessities, but that some, their own faults requiring it, are by God's hidden judgment driven back from his mercy, he called him terrible in his counsels over the sons of men. Jesus himself too, most kind, as the sacred Gospel testifies, did not grant to the man whom he had cleansed of a legion of demons, and who wished to follow him, but commanded him to return home; while to another, found on the way and wishing first to return that he might give burial to his father, now dead, he commanded that he should follow him most swiftly. But why we have set these things forth, let us disclose in a few words. In the village which is called Wambeek c, a certain soldier labored with the force of fevers, so much so that he now expected his last day to be at hand. To him indeed many physicians had given very many things to drink or to eat, that he might be healed, but by none of them could any remedy be furnished him. His friends brought him some of the water with which the most sacred bones of blessed Guido had been washed, that at least by this he might obtain soundness; and the more he drank of it, the more sharply was he vexed with fevers, so much so that when certain persons put it to his mouth for him to drink, he pushed it away with his hand and cried out with a loud voice that they should carry this pestilent draught far from him d. But why this, which had granted soundness to many others, did not profit him, we leave to the judgment of God alone, who, as he spoke with his own mouth to his most faithful Moses, has mercy on whom he has had mercy — as will also be clear in what follows.
[23] it heals a woman with dropsy: But in that same village there remained a certain woman whose belly had swollen with the disease of dropsy, who asked that some of the health-bringing water brought to the soldier be given to her. And when she drank it, sent over to her, straightway, as though some cloth were being torn by hands, so her belly sounded within, and much water flowing from her by the way of nature, within a few days she recovered. Seeing this, her friends and fellow dwellers each prepare gifts as they were able, and, having this woman with them, come with hymn-singing voices lifted to heaven to the sepulcher of holy Guido, and told the men of the place both of the infirmity of the soldier, who by the divine judgment did not deserve to be healed, and how the woman had been freed from the aforesaid sickness by a draught of the water.
[24] it frees another from the pains of the stone. Besides, a certain woman living in that same village of Anderlecht suffered from the stone, and had spent almost all her substance on physicians, that by their art and skill she might be freed from such an infirmity. And when she had spent nearly all she had, and no remedy had profited her, her disease had grown so far that she could go nowhere unless led by the hands of others. At length, her friends advising, she drank of the aforesaid water, and scarcely had the space of one hour passed when the stone came out of her. And taking it up in her hand and running with free step to the minster, she showed it to all who were present, that they might recognize what pain she had continually endured while she had this within her before, but now, freed from so great an evil, with how deserved a joy she exulted. Nor did she rejoice only in her own soundness, but also in that of her son, who, long vexed incurably with fevers, drank of that same water which his mother had drunk, without her knowing it, and straightway all fever with its chill and heat fled away from him.
[25] Besides, a certain noble matron of a castle by name Erpe e, A dying son is restored to health. whose name was Ermentrude, was at that time staying at Anderlecht; whose son, still seven years old, the disease growing strong, lying half alive for three days, had come to such a pass that now nothing seemed to be in him but the very faintest breath. And when all were intent on the things necessary for a funeral, his mother, who always had the mighty works and merits of blessed Guido in her mouth, and most attentively commended herself and all that was hers to him, having no small hope of recovering her son, caused him to be carried to the sepulcher of this saint of whom we speak — all whose limbs hung with slack sinews, so that he was thought altogether dead. After about one hour, being carried back home, he opened his eyes, and, all weeping for joy, took food, and within two days recovered wholly from the infirmity by which he was held. And his mother, filled with boundless joy both at this mighty work of holy Guido and at her son's restored health, calling her servants to her, said: "Behold, if any of the physicians, or any of men, had rendered to us my son — who two days ago was dying — sound, as he is now seen, should I not henceforth promise myself his handmaid and offer half my goods? But since we now behold him sound, and since we had much to promise or to give to a mortal man, it is fitting that to this most loving saint and our patron we should lay out something of ours, to the honor of God and the salvation of our souls; and that my son himself, as long as he shall live, shall faithfully pay him a head-tax every year, as a servant to his lord." Saying these things, she handed over a golden brooch at his sepulcher, in witness of the mighty work and for an everlasting memorial of herself; and thenceforth in all her necessity she invoked him as her defender and protector.
[26] Paralysis had rendered the hands of two young girls living in the aforesaid village of Erpe useless for every task, A paralysis is cured, a vow being made. who had visited the basilicas of many saints that they might obtain health. And when they profited nothing — not because health could not be restored to them by the merits of the saints, but because their cure was still deferred for the glorifying of the merits of holy Guido — they were advised by their neighbors to vow to that saint that, if by his intercession their hands were restored to them, whatever they should gain by the first labor of their hands they would faithfully bring to his tomb. Then their health followed upon the vow; and a few days having passed, all pain and infirmity departed from their hands, and, as they had vowed, whatever they could gain by their daily work they brought to the tomb of blessed Guido.
[27] And so at a certain time, when two captives were lying in the very courtyard of the church, where the venerable body rested, Two captives are freed from their chains. shut up in a certain chest which was bound about with strong ropes, in the silence of a certain night, telling one another of the mighty works of holy Guido, they began to call upon his name; and straightway, by the power of God, the ropes being burst and the fetters broken, going out of the chest, they enter the church as quickly as possible, rendering boundless thanks to God and to holy Guido.
[28] [The solemn elevation of the sacred bones: a man crippled in the feet is given walking.] But when much time had passed, while the body of the blessed man was to be glorified with the honor of an elevation, a great crowd of the faithful flowed together from the neighboring regions, among whom a certain sick man, brought in a carriage, who could neither walk nor even for a long time stand upon his feet, is laid down by his friends before the venerable sepulcher; and he, on the following day, while the relics of the sacred body, being elevated, were carried out of the church for the devotion of the people, recovered wholly, so that he rejoicing carried back the bier with the others to the church.
[29] The author commends the saint's patronage. Let these things suffice for declaring his merits to those who hear, lest perhaps they beget weariness, whereby everyone reading or hearing them may recognize how great
glory the Lord has heaped upon him, whom he has glorified among men on earth with such frequent and praiseworthy signs; to whose patronage and intercession whoever shall commend himself, hesitating in nothing in faith, shall be freed from every peril. And may the most blessed Guido himself not cease to beseech the Lord for the stability of holy Church, and for the state of the Roman empire, and for all the Christian people, that, helped by divine grace, after the course of this life we may be able to come to the heavenly country; by the bounty of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The elevation of holy Guido was made on the Nativity of holy John the Baptist by Odardus the bishop f in the year one thousand one hundred and twelve of the Lord's Incarnation g, the epact being the ninth, in the first concurrent, a leap year.
NOTES.
\ elsewhere, Tancardus, Tancredus*