ON SS. EINBETTA AND VORBETTA AND VILLBETTA, VIRGINS,
AT STRASBURG IN ALSACE.
Perhaps toward the end of the fourth century.
SYLLOGE.
Of the Writers from whom the knowledge of the Saints is drawn; of the relics and the cultus.
Einbetta, V., at Strasburg in Alsace (S.)
Vorbetta, V., at Strasburg in Alsace (S.)
Villbetta, V., at Strasburg in Alsace (S.)
BY J. P.
These three Virgins were unknown to absolutely all the older martyrologists, and the two latter even to the more recent. Einbetta alone, Einbetta, whose memory is today in the Fasti of the more recent writers, the writing of her name being somewhat changed, occurs today in various writers. In the Auctaria of Molanus to Usuard and in the German Martyrology, which is everywhere called Canisius's, the following announcement is found: In the territory of Strasburg, the holy Einbeth, virgin, of illustrious sanctity. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of the Saints, citing Molanus and Canisius, has it thus: In the territory of Strasburg, the holy Eimbetha, virgin. Lahier in the Menology of virgins, page 230: In Alsace, the holy Eimberta, virgin. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology: At Strasburg, St. Eimbetha, virgin. Saussay and Arturus after their manner add a somewhat more prolix eulogy: thus the former writes in the Gallican Martyrology: In Alsace, the deposition of the holy Eimbertha, virgin, who at Strasburg rendered pure services to Christ, and, having discharged the offices of perfect sanctity, sent forth her soul, adorned with the necklaces of merits, to the enjoyment of the nuptials of the Lamb. And the latter thus in the Gynæceum: In Alsace in the territory of Strasburg, the deposition of the holy Aimbertha, virgin of the same Order, who studied continually to please Christ her spouse no less by holy manners than by purity of mind and body.
[2] Indeed, when I consider the Strasburg documents and monuments presently to be brought forward, she was likely a companion I wonder why the martyrologists already recited, especially the author of the German Martyrology and Molanus, whom the others have followed, should have recorded St. Einbetta but passed over Vorbetta and Villbetta; when the reason was the same for each without any difference: so that I doubt exceedingly whether those authors had any knowledge of the aforesaid monuments and of the relics of the three Virgins preserved at Strasburg; nay, I suspect that Einbetta became known to them from her relics, which are now kept at Molsheim among the Carthusian fathers, as I shall show below at number 14, and which likely had a cultus before among the same Carthusians in the monastery which formerly stood near Strasburg. The very manner of announcement of the martyrologists increases the suspicion, since they record St. Einbetta in the territory of Strasburg, not in the city itself. This same general silence in the Fasti concerning SS. Vorbetta and Villbetta was doubtless the occasion why Hermann Crombach did not dare to assert absolutely that the Einbetta recorded today is the same as the Einbetta the companion of Vorbetta and Villbetta. For he, in the Work which he entitled Ursula vindicated, tome 2, book XI, chapter XI, treating of our three Virgins, has it thus: But among many martyrologists everywhere at the sixteenth day of September mention is made of the first of these or of another of the same name; of whom Canisius, Ferrarius and especially Molanus in the additions to Usuard, etc. — I gave the words in the preceding number.
[3] of SS. Vorbetta and Villbetta, according to the tradition But indeed, since nowhere occurs mention of another holy Virgin of Strasburg of that name, nor do the people of Strasburg themselves, whom we took care to consult about the one recorded today, seem to acknowledge any Einbetta but one, I for my part shall believe her plainly to be the same, until greater arguments for doubting be brought forward; nay, until these be brought forward I shall believe that Arturus must be corrected, who without any witness seems to have assigned Einbetta to the virgins of the Order of St. Benedict, when in the Gynæceum, after commemorating St. Edith, a virgin of the said Order, presently announcing St. Einbetta, he called her a virgin of the same Order. Without any witness, I say, for Molanus, Saussay, Ferrarius, and Canisius, whom alone he cites in his Notes, keep deep silence about the Order of St. Benedict, nor in any catalogues of the Saints of this Order which I have hitherto seen does Einbetta, or, as he himself writes, Aimbertha, appear. Certainly on this point the tradition of the people of Strasburg is also opposed to Arturus, who by unanimous consent judge that both Einbetta and Vorbetta and Villbetta were companions of St. Ursula, yet not martyrs.
[4] celebrated at Strasburg, of the company of St. Ursula's virgins. This tradition of the people of Strasburg held me for some while in suspense and doubt, whether I should treat of the holy Virgins today, or rather, as our Elders have hitherto everywhere done, refer them to the twenty-first day of October, when the Acts of St. Ursula and her Companions will come to be examined professedly. I judged at last that it was more advisable to treat of them today, both because it was in any case necessary to indicate which is more probably the Einbetta recorded among the martyrologists, and because their deeds, as being not those of Martyrs, are less connected with the Ursuline History. Crombach in the Work commended above treats of our holy Virgins in various places, and expresses their names in different ways, likely according to the diversity of the monuments which he alleges. In tome 2, book 7, chapter 31, from German manuscripts received from Strasburg and rendered by himself into Latin, he produces a compendium, such as it is, of their deeds, which I subjoin here.
[5] For the greater consolation and help of St. Aurelia (who on the return journey from the city of Rome toward Cologne fell into a fever while sailing) St. Ursula left her three Virgins of the company, A compendium, such as it is, of their deeds Einbetta, Worbetta and Wilbetta: these, when St. Aurelia had piously died and been buried, consecrated their virginal modesty in the place where she had died, by a chaste, whole, and innocent life, serving God night and day. They were exiles from their fatherland, they lacked the consolation of parents and friends, and — what was to them the greatest grief and trouble — they were deprived of the fellowship and companionship of those Ursuline comrades whom in life they had held most dear: they were deprived of the palm of martyrdom, with which they knew their fellow virgins were already adorned. Meanwhile they alone remained in this most calamitous exile of the world and pilgrimage of mortal life, and awaited with great patience, in extreme poverty and solitude, the end of their departure from life which God had appointed for them: meanwhile they persevere steadfastly in the use of all the virtues and in continual exercise of them, up to the day appointed and decreed for them by God, on which they piously departed from this life, and were buried in the church of Strasburg which they call the Elder St. Peter's.
[6] Then, when many times had run by, and all memory of them seemed to have been erased from the minds of men, and the time of the finding of their bodies, it came about by divine providence that by chance
their tomb was opened: and behold, there appear all three Virgins laid side by side, whole, entire and uncorrupted, clothed in a virginal habit, and that too utterly uncorrupted: beside them was placed a title, in which the names of the holy Virgins were contained, and how they had come from the virginal company of St. Ursula to Strasburg with St. Aurelia when she was in a fever. Thus they were joined together again, but laid in a more becoming coffin, and laid away near a certain altar of the same church, where today also they rest in peace. Thus far he from the aforesaid manuscripts, adding nothing whence we might dig out, even by conjecture, the antiquity of the title found in the tomb; nay, not even indicating at what time the finding of the bodies took place. I suspect, however, that it took place in the fifteenth century, namely the same in which the body of St. Aurelia, mentioned once and again, was found. For the same Crombach in chapter 30 of the same book 7 recites a document embracing the history of that finding, which likely had no other author, and which has the following beginning: A few years ago, within our memory, it happened, about the year of the Lord 1460, etc.
[7] Further, since the author of the recited compendium of the deeds alleges no other monuments than the sepulchral title, it is examined. nay, since he in some sort intimates that he was not furnished with others — for he indicates that from it became known what were the names of the Virgins, whose memory seemed to have been erased from the minds of men, and how they were left by St. Ursula at Strasburg with the sick Aurelia — it may justly be doubted whether the remaining series of the events be older than that same fifteenth century, and not added by the author himself and piously devised according to the knowledge of the Ursuline History he had before. Indeed, although it contains nothing incredible, nothing so very marvellous, I should not for my part dare to attribute more authority to it than to an account not confirmed by sufficient testimonies.
[8] Crombach, who made more of this same document, A slight difficulty about the place of burial thought that he had found one difficulty in it and presently dissolved it. A doubt, he says, could be raised, that that church of St. Peter the Elder was in the year of Christ 237 and following, when those Virgins were buried there; whereas the first bishop of the place is named St. Amandus, who was appointed by Dagobert, king of the Franks, in the year 640, as Francis Guillimann testifies in his book of the bishops of Strasburg. Then, about to dissolve the doubt, he has recourse to the same Guillimann and to Brower in the Annals of Trier, according to whom and to others the church of St. Peter the Elder is much older than the episcopate of St. Amandus, having been built, that is, by St. Maternus, the disciple of St. Peter; and thus he concludes: Those three Virgins could therefore have been buried by certain surviving Christians in the church of St. Peter.
[9] framed by Crombach is discussed. But let us grant for the moment that it was noted in express words in the sepulchral title that the Saints were buried first in the church of St. Peter the Elder; let us grant also that that title was set upon the tomb as soon as the holy Virgins were first buried — two things which are exceedingly uncertain, and which nevertheless had to be admitted as certain by Crombach, that he might frame some doubt about the epoch of the building of the church of St. Peter the Elder: not even so is the solution of the doubt approved by us. For as we declared in tome IV of September at the fourteenth day of the month, far more probable to us is the opinion of those who assert that St. Maternus was sent into the Gauls and Germanies after the middle of the third century, and accordingly in our view the church of St. Peter the Elder did not exist in the year 237, to which Crombach ties the martyrdom of the Ursuline company: if therefore our Virgins were buried in that church soon after their death, it must be said either that they survived their companions long after the martyrdom, nay, that they lived with St. Maternus and beheld the beginnings of that same church; or rather, that the aforesaid Ursuline martyrdom took place later than Crombach would have it, namely about the year 384, which is the opinion of many today, and which I have followed, until that matter shall have been more fully examined in the month of October, by noting above in the margin: Perhaps toward the end of the fourth century. I pass on to the cultus, much better attested than most of what has hitherto been discussed.
[10] A document of the year 1496, from which the cultus is proved. Crombach, who, as I noted above, sets on foot discourse about our holy Virgins in various places, produces a written testimony in the assigned tome 2 of his Work, book XI, chapter XI, than which we have none older for proving the cultus; namely a book published under the name of the Ursuline Sodality about the year 1496, in which, they are his own words, when the little-ship congregation of the eleven thousand virgins was being restored, a new treasure of pious works having been gathered, at the beginning of the little book published in print there (at Strasburg), mention is made of the three Companions of St. Aurelia, as chief Patronesses of the city of Strasburg and of the Ursuline congregation. To these he subjoins the following from the little book: Praise, honour and thanksgiving be sung to thee, O eternal, immense, almighty and most kindly God, the beginning and origin of good things and of every creature, from whom as from a living and perennial fount all good things flowed into the Humanity of Christ and into the most holy Mother of God the Virgin Mary, and afterwards so many good things into St. Ursula and her whole company: and besides into St. Aurelia and her companion virgins named Einbetta, Warbetta and Villbetta, all of whose bodies rest at Strasburg, partly in the church of St. Aurelia, partly in that of St. Peter the Elder. Upon which our Patronesses the almighty and eternal God conferred singular and very great benefits, exalting them mightily by the erection of this most illustrious and most useful sodality, which most learned and most prudent men, religious and ecclesiastical, from the most remote places, almost innumerable, have honoured by subscribing their names, etc.
[11] Besides what has already been recited, nothing remained which we might teach the reader about our Virgins. We wrote into Alsace to the very reverend father Dionysius Albrecht, In the church of St. Peter the Elder at Strasburg, prior of the monastery on Mount St. Odile, that if anything about St. Einbetta were ascertained by him, he would not think it burdensome to communicate it to us. That most courteous man answered our wishes, and bestowed the labour which he had before spontaneously promised us. He transmitted, on the second day of the month of October in the year 1752, a document transcribed and confirmed with the seal by the very reverend lord Louis Geiger, dean of the collegiate church of SS. Michael and Peter the Elder, from which we learned both other indications of an ancient cultus, and that the bodies themselves are even now honourably preserved there. The following title is prefixed to the document: Extract from the book of the statutes of the collegiate church of the holy Michael and Peter, commonly called the Elder, within Strasburg, in which is found written thus by the own hand of the most reverend lord Gabriel Haug, doctor of sacred theology, bishop of Tripoli, suffragan of Strasburg and dean of SS. Michael and the Elder St. Peter of Strasburg.
[12] Now the aforesaid bishop begins by enumerating the holy patrons of the said church, where their sacred remains are kept, and among these he places SS. Einbetta, Vorbetta and Villbetta, virgins; then he continues thus: Their bodies rest in our church of the Elder St. Peter of Strasburg, having been found and translated by me the undersigned in the year 1646, in the presence of the lords Florian Rieden, doctor of sacred Theology, lord official, and Francis Schlitzweck, canons, and also of the lord Christopher Han, parish priest at Holtzheim, and John Willius, notary of the episcopal court of Strasburg. Signed, Gabriel Haug, doctor of sacred Theology, bishop of Tripoli, suffragan of Strasburg, and dean of SS. Michael and the Elder St. Peter of Strasburg. The very reverend dean of today presently subjoins his own testimony, as follows. This extract has been faithfully transcribed word for word by me the undersigned from the book of the statutes. Given at Strasburg on the ninth day of August 1752.
(L. S.) L. Geiger, dean of the collegiate church of the holy Michael and Peter the Elder of Strasburg.
[13] Moreover the aforesaid lord Geiger notes besides formerly a chapel stood consecrated to them. that the same things are found word for word in the book of the Annals of the same collegiate church; and he adds that in another very ancient book he found that church described with its altars and chapels, which he recounts one by one in the words of that very book, whence for our purpose I transfer hither only the following words: The chapel of the holy Einbetta, Vorbetta and Vilbetta outside the choir. But, he says, Note well. The altars and chapels situate outside the choir and in the nave of the church no longer stand, because the choir is still in fact separated by a wall from the church, which the Lutherans alone use, and our office cannot be performed except in the choir. Finally, that we may know what place the sacred remains occupy today, he closes his document thus: But the bodies and relics of the above-named men and women, enclosed in an oaken chest, shut with a triple lock, rest in the middle of the high altar near the sepulchre of the altar: all which I saw with my eyes and held with my hands, when they were put back into the body of our altar, in the presence of the canons of our church. All which things, as they are written above, I hereby attest to be agreeable to the truth. Given at Strasburg the ninth of August 1752.
(L. S.) Louis Geiger, dean.
[14] Relics of the same in two other churches. For the rest, when above at number 12 the bishop of Tripoli testifies that the sacred bodies were found and translated by him in the year 1646, that this must be understood not of the first finding, but of some second one, or rather of an inspection and translation, may be gathered from what was said at number 6 and following. And when it is said that those bodies are kept in the church of St. Peter the Elder, that this ought not to be understood of the entire bodies is made manifest from the document cited at number 10, where the bodies of SS. Einbetta, Vorbetta and Villbetta are said to rest at Strasburg, partly in the church of St. Aurelia, partly in that of St. Peter the Elder. There comes in besides that at Molsheim also (it is a town situate not far from Strasburg) relics of St. Einbetta of the Company of St. Ursula are kept among the reverend Carthusian Fathers, as the reverend Father Albrecht asserts was indicated to him by one of the aforesaid fathers; but on what occasion they came thither, or with what cultus they are honoured there, he does not express. It is likely, however, that they were carried thither toward the end of the seventeenth century, when the Strasburg monastery of the Carthusians was overthrown by the Lutherans, and the monks placed their seat in the neighbouring district of Molsheim, as Miraeus relates in the Origins of the Carthusian monasteries, chapter 13, and Theodore Petreius in the Elucidation on chapter 25 of the Carthusian Chronicle composed by Peter Dorland. Finally I indicated my conjecture about these relics and about the memory of Einbetta alone in the Martyrologies at number 2.