ON ST. FLEDERICUS, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR,
AT VLIERZELE, A VILLAGE OF THE TERRITORY OF AALST IN FLANDERS.
A COLLECTION.
The place where the saint is venerated: his deeds in life: benefits and other things after his death.
Fledericus, priest and confessor, at Vlierzele, a village of the territory of Aalst in Flanders (St.)
BY J. S.
Vlierzele is a village of the county of Aalst in Imperial Flanders, The saint venerated in the territory of Aalst, a few miles distant from Aalst to the west, and in old charters is read as called Flitersela. The lordship of the village formerly belonged to the church of St. Bavo of Ghent, but now to the bishopric of that same city, although the village is otherwise of the diocese of Mechlin, as after Sanderus Cornelius van Gestel observes in the History of the archbishopric of Mechlin, tom. 2, p. 305, where of the saint he adds the following: Famous here is the memory and cultus of St. Fledericus for the hard of hearing; who, a Frank by nation and born of Christian parents, kept from his earliest age what he professed in baptism. He spent his youth in the study of letters and virtues; being taken into the order of priests, he undertook the pastoral office in this village; and, called like Aaron, he instilled piety and sacred doctrine into his subjects. And he is said, when celebrating the first fruits of his priesthood, to have obtained the silence of the frogs that were disturbing him. Similar things Sanderus has in Flanders Illustrated, tom. 2, under Aalst, p. 508.
[2] The memory of St. Fledericus some martyrologists of the later centuries have announced, he is announced in some more recent calendars. namely Molanus, Ferrari, and certain manuscript Calendars. But Ferrari in the General Catalogue somewhat changed the name, having thus: At Aalst in Belgium, of St. Fridericus the priest. Nor is the place of veneration here accurately assigned. But I do not know where in Molanus Ferrari could have read what he adds in his notes, that Fledericus is held in veneration not only at Aalst but also at Ghent and in the neighboring places. But this is true in the sense that men flow together to the saint's feast from those places also, not that the feast is celebrated there. Miraeus places St. Fledericus on the 14th of September with this eulogy: St. Fledericus the priest, a Frank by nation, discharged the office of pastor or parish priest at Vlierzele among the Flemings in the territory of Aalst, where he is venerated as patron. Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, where he writes of St. Fledericus the priest from information which, he says, Martin Baccius, pastor of Aalst, received with me at Vlierzele in the year seventy-six (above one thousand five hundred), announces his feast at the 13th of September in these words: In the territory of Aalst, at the place Vlierzele, the feast of St. Fledericus, priest and confessor. At the end of the eulogy he has thus: And the Mass is said from the common, and the Matin lessons are noted from Maximus, to the praise of the saint.
[3] A eulogy of his deeds, The eulogy which Molanus wove for St. Fledericus embraces only a few deeds, and those drawn, as it seems, from tradition; for he praises no ancient writings. The whole I transfer hither: In the territory of Aalst, at the place Vlierzele, the feast of St. Fledericus, priest and confessor. Who, a Frank by nation, born of Christian parents, kept from his earliest age what he professed in baptism. He spent his youth in the study of letters and virtues. Being taken into the order of priests, he undertook the pastoral office at Vlierzele, called like Aaron; where he instilled piety and sound doctrine into his subjects. And he is said, when celebrating the first fruits of his priesthood, to have obtained the silence of the frogs that were disturbing him. He began feast days on the preceding day from the twelfth hour. That this is observed by the Scots also from midday on Saturday, Hector Boece is witness. Among other virtues he greatly gave heed to making peace among those at variance. And when he had come to a good old age, famous for virtues and miracles, he gladly rendered to God his spirit, which he had exhausted with labors for his flock and for the church.
[4] But when pilgrims felt his various benefits — his benefits, an attempted translation of the relics, among whom were many hard of hearing — the court of Brussels sent commissioners who should examine the whole matter, and who purposed to carry the sacred relics away with them; but they could not open the lock of the bier because of a trembling that came upon them, which the pastor of the place presently opened without difficulty. Whence they feared to touch the relics further. And it happened, within the memory of some still living, when the relics were being placed from the old bier into a new one, that the pastor carried away with him the old linens, which, to stop the blood of John de Clerck, he could not turn into tinder; but, unharmed by fire, they stopped his blood when applied to the wound. These are nearly all the things which are kept in memory of him with the pastor of the place. It is commonly reported that he was born at Paris; but it is unknown whether he was a vicar-pastor of the monastery of Ghent, or a pastor before the place was conferred on St. Bavo — which it is established was done many years ago. For Otto II names the estate of Vlierzele among the possessions of the convent of Ghent. The latter opinion is to me more likely, because they know so few things about their patron. For the monks of Ghent are said at first to have performed the divine offices themselves at Vlierzele, Hauthem, and Baveghem, in a fixed number and as it were constituting a priory; but later to have received vicars. Wherefore the life of blessed Fledericus would be better known if he had been a vicar of the monks of St. Bavo.
[5] and of the saint's cultus, Molanus gives. He is painted as a priest, with chalice and host, on the altar, the bier, the banners, and the little images of pilgrims. And on his altar, not yet consecrated, Mass is wont to be celebrated of him at the request of pilgrims, upon a portable stone. For the rest, in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-five, Martin Cuperus, co-bishop of Robert de Croy, bishop of Cambrai, was solicited to consecrate the altar of St. Fledericus and to appoint him a feast day and a procession. And he, all expenses being met, by his own suffragan authority and that of his bishop, ordained that the bier should be carried round yearly on the Sunday after the birthday of the holy Peter and Paul; he consecrated the altar in honor of the holy Confessor on the day before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross; and instituted the same day yearly as a feast through the parish in memory of the patron, a Flemish diploma being given thereupon. Which, however, within three years is thought to have been lost in the plague-stricken house of the churchwarden, since, though diligently sought, it was nowhere found. Thus far Molanus, who leaves the saint's date very uncertain; nor do I find a suitable foundation by which I might tie his death to any century.